A little bit of green

I don't usually work with green, but Karen has inspired me to try and use it a little more. I do believe it's her favouritist colour in the whole wide world!

Liz has challenged us to make this gorgeous Dahlia (instructions here) and use it on a card. It's a gorgeous flower, and so easy to make! I've been loving these gorgeous Daisy Bucket papers.



This is a card for Liz's monochromatic challenge from WCMD last weekend. A little late, but I really wanted to give this a go, as I've never tried monochromatic before. Loved the result, but I tell you, it was a HUGE challenge not to add any other colours! Using the Daisy Bucket papers again, as well as labels 8, and a few new Christmas stamps I acquired the other day - Stampendous and Stamp It, I think?

Colouring with distress inks

Check out this gorgeous tutorial on colouring with distress inksl! How easy does that look! Still love my H2Os though! Will be using a mixture of pencils, H2Os and distress inks from now on though! Love the softness of them all!

A few cards and a roast!

I've been having some fun playing with my new stamps and nesties. I've been trying out the gorgeous twinkling H2Os and distress inks... obviously still need lots of practice, but I'm loving playing :)

I made these 3 cards for Kylie's birthday card challenge over at ScrapBoutique.

This first one I used the gorgeous new Kaiser Pennyroyal papers. They are so rich and regal! I've added a couple of prima roses inked with pink distress ink. They look gorgeous in real life.


I tried out this cool technique with the cuttlebug and nesties, where you leave parts of the image outside of the nestability frame. I got the idea from Katarina. I really do love the effect, although it is quite a bit of work to cut it out neatly, and takes some time and patience!


I'm really loving the colours that I used on this image. I used a combination of twinkling H2Os and watercolour pencils for the shading. Karen gave me these gorgeous basic grey 6x6 papers, and the colours worked really well with the image. I also used distress inks, inkadinkadoo stamps and a fiskars lace border punch.


And finally, this is the Thursday (aka Sunday) Roast over at ScrapBoutique. I had such a great time following Manon's instructions, and I really love how it's turned out! I also made a flower (top right) using Liz's flower technique!

Creative juices...

For some weird reason (most likely alcohol-induced) I began scrapping and card making like a woman possessed at the retreat. Although I didn't end up doing that much, I turned out a few layouts and cards that I was happy with.

I took this photo of Al just after a race at the State Titles in Gympie the weekend before last. I was actually testing out the aperture priority settings on my camera! They must have worked, cause everyone loves this photo of him, even Al himself!! I just hope I did it justice... this one was completely alcohol induced :)



This is Al, his 2 brothers and their Mum on Mother's Day this year. Loved this photo, but Al's hair is looking pretty weird... even he said so!! Al's on the far right.


This was my first create for the retreat. I tried mod podging the butterflies from a napkin, but I didn't peel the white layer off underneath, so it showed through a bit. I was still pretty happy with the end result though. Love this pic of Aiden and I on the steps of the cubby. He's such a cuddle pie!! Oh, and there's another one of Leone's famous lollipop flowers! Love them!! Thanks for showing me how to make them, Leone!


Here are the cards I made (sorry about the bad pics, I took them after dark :( )

I coloured the gorgeous Whiff of Joy stamp using Simonne's distress inks, and I just adored using them. I never even thought to use them before. Love the soft effect though! I added just a couple of those cute little roses (distressed them, and curled the stems), and they were the perfect addition. The heart card is from a PageMap sketch.


This pic is pretty dark, but these are really bright papers, and look much better in real life. These are the cards I created using some of the other PageMaps sketches. I also made a lollipop flower (thanks to Leone's instructions), and I used Simonne's gorgeous lace Martha Stewart punch!! Love it!


using up some 7gypsies scraps... a gorgeous StampinUp flourish & Martha Stewart lace punch, both courtesy of Simonne (both now on my MUST HAVE list), the gorgeous Prima roses that we ordered through Scrap Pile, and a quote stamp from Helen. Thanks girls for all your little additions to these cards!


and here's one I made just before I left for the retreat... I used copics to colour my new Whiff of Joy stamp that I won in Elisabeth Bell's blog candy! OMG those stamps are gorgeous!!!!! I used a mod podged napkin on transparency (thanks to KarenB), and some kindy glitz on the wings and clouds.

Just Magnolia challenge

I've really been enjoying my colouring lately, AND I received these 2 gorgeous stamps in the mail today!!! Yippeeee!!! My first Magnolia's! So, I decided to enter a challenge on the Just Magnolia blog. It's also my entry for the Belles 'n Whistles Guest Design Team member call. So, wish me luck!



It's focus was paper piecing, and I've cut out 2 of the little butterflies in the background and pasted them on, as well as Tilda, holding a flower. I used my twinkling H20s again, but on canvas paper this time, which proved kind of difficult, but I love the end result - nice and textured. I left her arms and plaits unstuck, so they add dimension. I think she's kinda cute :)

Chasing butterflies and more...

I love this stamp too (uhm... okay, I love all of them), but this would have to be my very favourite. I've put this one into the swap at Scrap Pile, so hope you gals enjoy colouring it as much as I did.

I made this card for my sister-in-law, Hailey! A very Happy Birthday for yesterday!!!


I also just whipped up this cute little card for a friend of ours, who has just had an adorable little boy, Matthew.

I've fallen in love with...

my new stamps! Yep, I'm hooked on the super cute Sugar Nellie stamps!!

Mel challenged me to make a card using one of the stamped images before the end of the weekend. So here it is...

although I have a feeling you will be seeing a few more of these in the upcoming weeks ;)

Thanks sweetie, and your little Tilda card is just gorgeous!

I'm just waiting for my order of COPIC markers to arrive now, and then I'll really be crusing!! I just used some old ZIG photo markers I had lying around to colour little Daisy, but they started pilling the paper. I also tried using watercolour pencils, but it just took too way long for me - for those of you who don't know me well, I'm not exactly patient!

I also got to play with these gorgeous 7gypsies papers that I've been ogling for a LONG time, and finished Karen's challenge over at Scrap Pile. A little late, but glad I got it finished, as I really adore Karen's work, and didn't want to miss this opportunity to tap into her style!

The photo is Mum and I on Mother's Day at the Bell Tower Restaurant in Booie. It's gorgeous up there, and we had such a fantastic day! So glad we made the effort to travel home to see her, even if it was only for the day :) I think Mum really enjoyed herself too :)

and here's a close up of the cute little homemade transparency retro flower that Mel made for me while she was here in April. She stamped an autumn leaves stamp onto some scrap transparency and punched little retro flowers. Nice and easy and a really cheap embellie :)

It might be a little late to win the blog candy, but just check out that gorgeous colouring on Debbie's "Passion for Crafts" blog. Thanks for the link Ros!!! OMG how cute are those stamps :) I'll definitely be heading back soon!