Another lot of Critters!!!

As promised in yesterday's post I have another crittery card for you. These little monsters from the 'Make a Monster' set are just too cute. I love how you can change their faces and expressions.

My lovely friend's little boy turns 3 next week and Elliot and I have been invited to his party. I decided to be super organised and make his card well before time. I'm entering this card into this week's Just Add Ink challenge as well.

Here it is:

 

Project Recipe

Stamp Sets:   Make A Monster; Party This Way

Ink:                 Real Red; Pacific Point; Black StazOn

Paper/Card:   Pacific Point; Pear Pizzazz; Whisper White; Real Red; Celebrations DSP; Watercolour Paper

Accessories: Real Red Polka-Dot Grosgrain; Word Window Punch; Big Deal Alphabet Dies; Big Shot; Crystal Effects

I'd love to know what you think of my crittery little cards.

Love,

  

 

Little Monstery Critters- Just Add Ink 46

Sooooo......yet again it's been a very long time between blog posts.

I have been missing in lots and lots of inky, stampy action!!!

I'm hoping to make up for all my missed time by showing you some of the things I have been up to over the last couple of months- not all at once of course but hopefully a little each day for the next while.

So lets get started............

One of the loveliest things about having a little more time to myself- now that my Christmas classes are finished and I don't have any workshops for a little while- is that I get to spend some time making just for me and playing with some challenges. And of course one of my favourite challenge sites is Just-Add-Ink. I've REALLY missed being able to play along these past weeks.


This week the girls have set a fun challenge........Just Add Critters.

I hope that monsters are critters because my card features this cute little monster from the Make A Monster stamp set. I decided to make a girly card using this cutie and my until-now-unopened pack of Sweet and Sour DSP. I loosely based my card on this gorgeous creation by one of my most favourite stampers, Teneale Williams. 


Here is my creation:

Project Recipe
Stamps Sets:   Make A Monster; Party Hearty; Party This Way; Crazy for Cupcakes
Ink:                   Pumpkin Pie; Rose Red; Black StazOn
Card/Paper:     Very Vanilla; Pumpkin Pie; Rose Red; Sweet & Sour DSP; Watercolour Paper
Accessories:   Circle Scissors; Word Window Punch; Pumpkin Pie Satin Ribbon; Designer Buttons (Subtles)


I hope you like this little card of mine- let me know what you think. I'll be back tomorrow with another crittery card for you- I promise.

Love, 

My Little Boy Turns Two!!!!

Last week my gorgeous little boy turned two!!!! I'm sure it was only yesterday that he was this big:

 

It's unbelievable how quickly those two years have flown by and hard to imagine how life was before he arrived in this world. He brings me more joy than I could ever have imagined and truly is the light of my life.

So to celebrate Elliot's 2nd birthday we had a party in the park for his closest little friends. It was so much fun!!! I made the invites and party bags for his very cute party guests. Elliot has been absolutely in love with dogs for quite a while now and likes to be a dog at least once or twice a day- so I decided that little dog invitations would be perfect. I got the template for these adorable little dogs from a swap I received at the Perth Regionals from Pat Carr (who makes amazing punch art creations). The colour scheme came from the really cute Celebrations DSP. To make the invites that more snazzy the little dog's nose and the number 2 were made shiny with Crystal Effects. 

Each of the little kiddy winks who came to Elliot's party got a party bag to take home. Again I used the gorgeous Celebrations DSP for the colour scheme and to add some extra colour and cuteness to the bags. Each bag had a different band of the paper and was individualised with a shiny, Crystal Effect'd first initial of their name. I did take photos of all the bags together before the party but somehow they disappeared from my camera (BOO HOO!!!) so I only have these bags from two little people who couldn't make it (both with "M" names as it turns out).

 

   

To go inside the goody bags I made these super cute crayon boxes. I got the idea from Lisa Jansen's  gorgeous colouring card swap that she made for Convention this year. They turned out so fantastic- I love them- so worth the effort!!! The bags also had some stickers, a cute little Postman Pat badge (that Mum got in England as a charity fundraiser) and a little cellophane bag wrapped in ribbon with yummy chocolate buttons inside. Really lovely!

We had such a fun and special day...........here is a photo of the birthday boy himself with his doggy birthday cakes made by his very clever Nanny.

 

Happy Birthday my darling boy xxx

Thanks for popping by for a look. See you soon with some more creations.

Hip-Hippo-Thankyou!!! JAI Challenge 37

Happy Sunday............


I have to tell you I have completely and totally fallen in love with creating again!!! I don't know what happened there for a while but I just felt that I was creating because I HAD to (for orders, stamp club, etc) not because I WANTED to. But something amazing happened for no reason at all and I am back doing what I love most because I truly want to. It's fantastic!!!


The joy that comes with loving stamping again is that ideas just bounce into my head without really having to think about them. And that is exactly what happened with this card for this week's Just Add Ink  challenge. The girls have set a colour challenge this week and when I first looked at them I thought "Whoa!!!" but that quickly turned into "Wow Fun Colours!!!". Here they are:

This is actually the first time EVER that I have used Always Artichoke and I would never have thought of putting it with the other colours. This is the fun (and just a little bit cute!) card I came up with using these fun colours:

Project Redipe

Stamp Sets:     Pun Fun; Short and Sweet

Inks:               Rose Red; Pumpkin Pie; Old Olive; Always Artichoke; StazOn Black

Card/Paper:    Rose Red; Always Artichoke; Pumpkin Pie; Old Olive; Watercolour Paper

Accessories:    Circle Scissors Plus; Big Shot; Polka Dot Embossing Folder; Trio Flower Punch (retired); Word Window Punch; Scallop Oval Punch (for the cute little tab around the sentiment); Designer Buttons (Brights); Adhesive Pearls; Rose Red Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon; Aqua Painter

Now this little hippo with her balloon is meant for a birthday card of course but I happened to need a thank you card so I changed her cute little balloon into a cute little button flower. I don't actually own the Scallop Circle Die for the Big Shot so I traced my Rose Red Scallop from a Carousel Note (retired) in my stash- not bad hey?!?!? I've been practicing, what I like to call, my Teneale Williams' bows and I think they are starting to look quite snazzy- what do you think????

Well that's enough from me for now. My parents arrive home from England today- Yippee- Elliot and I are both so excited to have them back. I'm also in the middle of making some goodies for the little guy's 2nd birthday party on Wednesday. I promise to come back and share them soon.

Have a lovely day.

Inkspirations Guest Designer- That's Me!!!

What a wonderful surprise it was last Friday when my card was announced the winner of the Inkspirations challenge.........very exciting!!! And what made it more exciting was the opportunity to be the Guest Designer for this week's challenge.
Makeesha has set this colour challenge for this week:

I have to admit I really struggled for a while with these colours. The bold navy and red are two colours that I would not normally think of putting together. Then I couldn't get the idea of flowers out of my head.......no matter how hard I tried. So here is my flowery card using the challenge colours:

Project Recipe

Stamp Sets:   Vintage Vogue; Flower Fancy; Curly Cute

Inks:             Not Quite Navy; Kiwi Kiss (retired); Riding Hood Red

Card/Paper:  Not Quite Navy; Very Vanilla; Kiwi Kiss (retired); Bella Bleu DSP (retired); Watercolour Paper

Accessories:  Circle Scissors Plus; Scallop Oval Punch; Corner Rounder Punch; Stampin Pastels; Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon (retired)

I'm actually really, really happy with how it has turned out. To get the muted effect of the Not Quite Navy flourishes on the circle I firstly slightly dampened some watercolour paper  and then stamped off the image twice before stamping on the circle. The scallop around the edge of the circle is created using the scallop oval punch. The little tab for the sentiment is made using the scallop oval punch and cutting off the top and bottom, an idea I got from Lisa Jansen. I was so excited to get the chance to use the truly gorgeous (and now retired) Kiwi Kiss and Very Vanilla satin ribbon again.


Thank you Makeesha for choosing my card as the winner and for the opportunity to guest design this week. Have loved every second xxx


Will be back later to show you Elliot's super cute 2nd birthday party invites that I have been working on this week.

Monkeying Around for JAI 36

Wowee I'm running late with my entry to Just Add Ink's challenge this week. Here is the sketch for this week's challenge:

You know when you have one of those weeks where you look at a sketch over and over but you come up with nothing- well that was what happened to me this week. Until today when this little idea popped into my head.............

Project Recipe

Stamp Set:     Fox and Friends; Crazy for Cupcakes

Inks:              Regal Rose; Baja Breeze; So Saffron; Pear Pizzazz; Pretty In Pink; Chocolate Chip

Card/Paper:   Pink Pirouette; So Saffron; Whisper White; Pear Pizzazz; Baja Breeze

Accessories:  Big Shot & Alphabet Dies; 1 3/8" Circle Punch; Circle Scissors Plus (to cut So Saffron circle); Regal Rose 5/8' Grosgrain ribbon; Baja Breeze button; Crystal Effects

This card honestly took me FOREVER!!! I stamped those little monkeys on a range of different cardstock and in a range of different coloured inks until I finally settled on these colourful little monkeys. What do you think of this little colour combo??? They are the colours from the new Nursery Suite designer series papers. I think they are cute, cute, cute.

Ok time to post my card before I miss the deadline.

Come back Friday to see my super special surprise.........My chance to be this week's Inkspirations Guest Designer. Soooo exciting.

 

A Few Things To Send On Holiday

As promised I'm back again to show some of the things I have been busy doing over the couple of months that I have been missing in action.......

At the moment my parents are over in England visiting my youngest brother and his partner who are living over there. I am missing them but also feeling very proud of how well I am coping all on my own. Elliot and I are actually having a really great time, just the two of us. Anyway....before Mum left she asked if I could make a couple of birthday cards and one of my baby frames for her to take with her to gift while she is over there.

The first one is for my cousin's daughter, Amy, who will be turning 11. I had been wanting to give one of these lollipop cards a go ever since seeing THIS card by the fabulous Sarah-Jane Kale. I was planning to make the lollipop just the same as SJ did but after stamping out the swirly image from Trendy Trees I realised I don't have the one inch punch. Poo!!! So instead I punched out the 1&3/8" circle and ran it through the big shot using the polka dot embossing folder and then sponged Whisper White ink on top- WhaLaa!!! My own lollipop.

Project Recipe

Stamps Sets:      Party This Way

Ink:                     Regal Rose; Whisper White

Card/Paper:     Pink Pirouette; Regal Rose; Whisper White; Sweet Always DSP (retired)

Accessories:      13/8" Circle Punch; Big Shot & Polka Dot Embossing Folder; Scallop Oval Punch; Oval Punch; Paper Piercing Tool; Pretty in Pink Grosgrain Ribbon; 

The next card is for my brother's partner, Scott, who celebrated his 22nd birthday with Mum and Dad over there. Happy Birthday Scott- miss you xxx. I case'd a card from the front page of the new Idea Book and Catalogue for this one. After putting the piece of card with all the bits of DSPs lined up through the Big Shot it left this really cute frame which I then put inside the card (but forgot to take a photo of).

Project Recipe

Stamp Set:       Perfect Punches

Ink:                   Chocolate Chip

Card/Paper:   Crumb Cake; Baja Breeze; Sweet Slumber DSP (retired); Chocolate Chip DSP (retired); Parisian Breeze DSP (retired); Baja Breeze DSP (retired); Big Shot & Top Note Die; Designer Button; Linen Thread; Baja Breeze 5/8" Double-stitched ribbon

Last but not least is one of my baby frames that I made for Mum's best friend's brand new grandson, Thomas. The proud new parents and Nanny and Grandad all live in England at the moment so this special frame was bubble-wrapped and suitcase packed for its long flight. Little Thomas's nursery is apparently decorated in egg-shell blue and cream hence the beautiful colour combo I chose of Baja Breeze; Very Vanilla and Soft Suede. Too cute!!!!

Project Recipe

Stamp Set:        Fox and Friends

Ink:                    Basic Grey; Baja Breeze; Soft Suede; Crumb Cake

Card/Paper:    Baja Breeze; Soft Suede; Baja Breeze DSP (retired)

Accessories:     Scallop Oval Punch; Oval Punch; Various ribbons & buttons; Rub-ons

Wow that was a mammoth post wasn't it??? Hope you like what I had to show today. More to come.