Enchantasy

two cards ♥

2009-10-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

My friend Nat asked me to make two cards for one of her friends 30th birthdays.

Here is the first one – I think I totally went overboard on these cards. I do hope their recipient will love them. Click on the pics to see them full size.

I made the butterfly by stamping it on Whisper White card with Chocolate Chip Craft ink and them embossed it with clear EP. I then stamped the butterfly with Sahara Sand ink onto vellum. I hit that gently with my heat gun so that I wouldn’t have to wait forever for the ink to dry on the vellum. Then I carefully cut out both butterflies and layers the chocolate one on top of the vellum one. I added little Kaisercraft pearls as the body of the butterfly.

The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip craft ink and embossed with clear.

I’ve done lots of sponging on the edges.

The lovely Beate inspired me to decorate the inside of the card.

INGREDIENTS:
Stamps: Simple Friendship, Oval All, Linen background, Rough Texture jumbo wheel
Inks: Sahara Sand, Only Orange, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip craft, Versamark
Card: Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Sahara Sand, Vellum, Haiku dp
Accessories: Tangerine Tango ribbon, Large Oval punch, Scallop Oval punch, Wide Oval punch, Scallop Edge punch, Top Note die,
Non SU: Cuttlebug Hippie Chick alphabet dies, Kaisercraft pearls

Here’s card 2. It’s a gatefold card. There’s a great tutorial for this on Splitcoast Stampers by Beate. Once again, she inspired me to make the inside of the card just as special as the outside. I really love this card and it was hard to give it away!

The flower is done in layers, popped up with dimensionals.

I love how the little hinge keeps it nicely shut. Lots of sponging going on in this card too.

INGREDIENTS:
Stamps: One of a Kind, Embrace Life
Inks: Sahara Sand, Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Summer Sun, Versamark
Card: Sahara Sand, Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Ginger Blossom dp
Accessories: Copper EP, Antique Brass Hodgepodge, Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain, Corner rounder punch
Non SU: Cuttlebug Hippie Chick alphabet dies, Marco’s Quartz cardstock, Circle Nestabilities dies, Scallop Circle Nestabilities dies

I would really like to thank my beautiful friends Kathy and Dee for keeping me company on webcam while I made these two cards.

welcome to the world, Matilda

2009-10-09T00:22:00.000-07:00

My dear cousin, Donna, had her beautiful baby girl on Wednesday, 7th October. Her name is Matilda Serenity Rose. 6pounds, 2 ounces. She is such a tiny, perfect, beautiful little girl.

Congratulations to Donna, Ray and her family.

I have been busy crocheting a little soft toy for Matilda. I’m not quite finished yet, still have to make the little arms and legs to go on it. But here it is without arms and legs…

Say hello to sleepy sheepy

~Here is the pattern~ for anyone interested in making their own sleepy sheepy.

Without arms and legs, my sheepy is 15cm tall (that’s 6 inches for those of you that are metrically challenged).

I think I will also make a little pink flower to attach to just about sheepy’s ear.

for my sister’s birthday

2009-10-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

These are the things I made for my sister’s birthday for this month.

Her baby is due in early January so I crocheted a ‘gumnut baby’ hat for him. If you don’t know what a gumnut baby is, you can go ~here~ and ~here~ and have a look for yourself

I crocheted the little hat using a bamboo/cotton yarn that I bought from Lincraft, called ‘Bamboozle’. I believe it’s a Lincraft brand yarn. It’s lovely and soft, and most importantly, it’s organic. I thought she might appreciate that over an acrylic yarn. I got the pattern from ~here~. I made it bigger than a newborn hat because my nephew to be wont be needing it until winter (which starts in June down under). I hope I didn’t make it too big! It’s so hard to tell what size it should be since my ‘baby’ is now 12 years old.

I made special packaging for the little hat. Brett, my other half, told me it wasn’t finished and needed a very expensive price ticket on it!

Gumnut Baby Hat Packaging Ingredients:
Card: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Afternoon Tea dp
Other: Top Note die,
Non SU: Hippie Chick Cuttlebug alphabet dies

I also made her a notebook cleverly disguised as a birthday card because my sister specifically said ‘no gifts’! The ‘bookmark is made with the yarn I used to make the little gumnut hat.

Notebook Ingredients:
Stamps: Build-a-Roo, Oval All
Card: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Parisian Breeze specialty dp
Ink: Black Stazon, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Baja Breeze
Other: River Rock double stitched ribbon, yarn, Wide Oval punch, Scallop Oval punch, Large Oval punch
Non SU: Quartz shimmer card stock (Marco’s), Labels 1 Nestabilities dies

And finally I needed wrapping paper to wrap it all up in, but of course, there’s no wrapping paper in our house so I got a bit creative and decorated a brown paper bag.

Paper Bag Ingredients:
Card: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Close to Cocoa dp
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Other: Heart to Heart punch, brown paper bag
Non SU: Hippie Chick Cuttlebug alphabet dies, Petite Scallop Circle Nestabilities dies, Circle Nestabilities dies, Prima flowers, random brad, random blue blings

Sydney’s dust storm

2009-10-04T00:58:00.000-07:00

These are the photos I took of the dust storm that engulfed eastern Australia on the 23rd of September 09. These were taken by me at around 7.30am. My poor son thought we must be in the middle of a bushfire. I haven’t edited any of these photos, this is exactly what came off my camera!

It was so eerie and very impressive. Everything was glowing orange, from the sky to the grass. But apart from it being a bit dusty there really weren’t any other effects for me.

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sharing

2009-09-15T18:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes sharing is wonderful… just not when my delightful family shares their flu with me… grrr! Although this is nowhere near as bad as when my son kindly shared his chickenpox with me!

So, instead, I shall share a couple of things I’ve made over the past couple of weeks.

First up is the baby shower card I made for my beautiful cousin, Donna. Her little one is due in October. As you can see, I am still smitten with Stampin’ Up!’s Raspberry Tart patterned paper. It’s divine.

INGREDIENTS
Stamp: ‘She’s Expecting’ by studioG
Ink: Black StazOn, So Saffron, Summer Sun, Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Baja Breeze
Card: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Close to Cocoa DP, Raspberry Tart DP
Other: Ticket Corner punch, Black Brads, Certainly Celery grosgrain, wide and narrow

Moving on to a father’s day card

I simply adore these bees! And they seemed to be appropriate for this card since I forgot to make it early enough to get to where it was going in the post before Father’s Day… So it was bee-lated!

INGREDIENTS
Stamp: Bee Trio by Stampendous, ****
Ink: Black StazOn, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie
Card: Chocolate Chip, Quartz shimmery card (Marcos), a retired SU! pattern paper that I forget the name of!
Other: Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Labels 1 Nestibilities, large corner rounder punch (retired)

Yesterday my neighbours daughter made me a sweet letter with a lovely drawing in it. It made my day. So I made her a little bitty notebook as a thankyou.

INGREDIENTS
Card: Purely Pomegranite, Close to Cocoa dp, Patterns Pack II dp, Quartz shimmery (Marcos)
Other: Taupe grosgrain, Light Pink gingham ribbon, Hippie Chic Cuttlebug alphabet dies

owlie birthday card

2009-08-28T01:09:00.001-07:00

First up, Happy Birthday Bruce!

This is the card I’ve made for Bruce’s birthday. I adore these little owlies.

I stamped them on shimmery card so it’s shiny! Yes, I shiny things!

Thanks to my lovely friend, Kathy, for giving me the idea to pop the brads in the corners like that.

Ingredients:

Stamps: Owl Together Now
Inks: Black Stazon, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, Old Olive
Card: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Shimmery Quartz (Marco’s), Parisian Breeze specialty DSP
Other: Wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, Vintage brads, Ticket corner punch, Petite scallop circle and plain circle Nestibilities, aquapainter, a ton of dimensionals

more foil embossing

2009-08-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

I’m just playing with more of this embossed foil stuff. This time I die cut my foil glued on card with my Nesties Label 1 dies and then ran it through my Cuttlebug again using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. Pretty! I also punched the scallop oval out of my foil glued on card.

Thank you Kathy for helping me out on this one :) We make a great team.

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Oval All, Embrace Life, Lots of Dots jumbo wheel
Ink: Versamark, Cameo Coral, Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand
Card: Basic Black, Sahara Sand, Ginger Blossom dp
Other: Black EP, Ice rhinestone brads, Large Oval punch, Scallop oval punch, Petite scallop circle nesties, Labels 1 nesties, Swiss Dots cb embossing folder

Embossing with foil

2009-08-03T00:02:00.000-07:00

Kathy has a wonderful card on her blog that she made with embossing on foil. A couple of Christmas’s ago I tried embossing with foil in my Cuttlebug embossing folders and the results were really so-so and when I stuck my shiny embossed foil on my card, the texture got squashed. When I saw Kathy’s card I decided to give it another go but this time I’m doing it differently!

1. I cut a random piece of card into the size I wanted to use on my card and I cut a piece of kitchen al-foil so it was a little bigger than the card stock.

2. I covered one side of the card with glue and smoothed it onto the foil. I made sure I glued it onto the ‘dull’ side of the foil.

3. Put a line of glue around the edge of the card.

4. Fold over all the overhanging foil. This gives a nice edge. Don’t forget to do ‘hospital’ corners so there’s no ugly little bits hanging over the edges.

5. Now you’re ready to tuck it into an embossing folder. Make sure the nice foil side is directly against the ‘inny’ side of the embossing folder.

6. Ahh, shiny! Now I have a beautiful silvery embossed image and because it’s stuck on a piece of card, I can’t squash the texture!

And here’s the card I ended up making with my pretty shiny embossed foil. Yup, another ‘wow’ technique rose. Can’t help myself!

and a nice close up of the rose… Why, oh why wont the colours come out right??

Card ingredient list:~

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, So Many Sayings
Card: Basic Black, Ginger Blossoms dp, Shimmery card
Ink: Versamark, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Summer Sun
Accessories: Wide vanilla grosgrain, black gingham, silver brads, Silver EP, Black EP, dimensionals, aquapainter, word window punch,

I did silver embossing on the silver brads, because they were the wrong colour silver!

And I have a complete mental blank about the name of the Cuttlebug embossing folder… was that textile texture? Can’t remember…

Thank you again Kathy for the inspiration.

I missed a card

2009-07-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

I guess that happens when you don’t blog for a while!

This is a swap card that I made. It had to be ‘unconventional’ so I did an unconventional card opening. I made it a pocket card with an insert. I did try to use unconventional colours…. but had so much trouble finding a combo that I liked…

I did versamark resist on glossy white card and then brayered Baja Breeze over it. I was very pleased with how it turned out.

For the little flower I clear embossed onto glossy white card and then watercoloured it with Cameo Coral and a touch of Baja Breeze on the edges. There’s a silver brad in the middle.

The first pic is my mock up I made trying to get the design and colours right. I ended up only doing one flower because they took soooooo long to cut out! It did look a bit fussy with three on it!

Card: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Whisper White, Glossy White
Ink: Baja Breeze, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Punches: Tab, Corner Rounder, Scallop Edge, Word Window
Stamps: Embrace Life, Totally Tabs
Other: Silver brad, Choc Chip grosgrain

a post for Kathy

2009-07-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the post I promised you, Kathy.

These are my most recent cards I have made…

The teddy bear card was for my son’s birthday in June. It’s a matchbook card. I used lots of punches and my scallop circle nesties. The colours are Not Quite Navy, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Sage Shadow and Pumpkin Pie. The dp is an old SU one, but I forget what it is, and the letters are Cuttlebug Babyface die. I got the teddy bear face idea from Kathy and I improvised his body.

The tall rose card I sent to Kathy. Kathy sent me some gorgeous shimmery card (Stardream Quartz from Marco’s Paper) so that I could do the reinker wow technique that everyone has been doing. I used Rose Red, Regal Rose and Summer Sun reinkers on the rose from Fifth Ave Floral. The dp is Raspberry Tart and the Kindred Spirits stamp comes from “So Many Sayings”. The ribbon across it is Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon. The base card is Red Riding Hood.

The long rose card I made for a lovely Aussie SU demo, Veronica. Same wow technique, which I just love. Raspberry Tart dp again, and wide Regal Rose ribbon. I hope she likes it.

And finally, there is the Build-a-roo card I made last night while chatting to Kathy on messenger. It’s an example of me just playing around… I wanted to see what watercolouring on the lovely shimmery card would turn out like. It came out beautifully and this is the card that evolved. There’s that Raspberry Tart paper again! And the Kiwi Kiss ribbon. I also used a stamp from “Oval All’ stamp set and Labels One nesties. Punches – Scallop Oval, Small and Large Ovals. And a bit of paper piercing thrown in for good measure. Couldn’t find my small corner rounder punch (is that any surprise??) but I think the old larger corner punch works well with the Labels One nesties.

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A new card

2009-05-04T06:08:00.001-07:00

Ooh, I’ve been a naughty blogger. I have made a few things that I can’t blog yet because they are currently in transit to their recipients and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Right now, the wonderful Yahoo group I am a member of is holding an ‘Unconvention’. For those of you who aren’t Stampin’ Up! demonstrators, every year Stampin’ Up! holds a big Convention which is the most amazing experience. Our lovely Yahoo group for Aussie SU! demo’s decided to hold an Unconvention for those of us not lucky enough to be able to go to the real thing.

Unconvention is a virtual thing. We all meet up in a chat room and Lisa, the wonderful co-ordinator has been setting us daily card and scrapbooking challenges and projects.

The picture above is for the first challenge I did (still working on the rest of them). The challenge was to pick a project from the SU! catalogue and to use the same layout, but change the stamp sets and colours used. The card I picked is in the photo on the right.

On to the card details:

Stamps: Embrace Life
Card: Cameo Coral textured card, Whisper White, Afternoon Tea dp
Ink: Night of Navy, Versamark
Other: White Gel Pen, White EP, Cocoa thin grosgrain ribbon, Word Window Punch, Scallop edge punch, Ice round rhinestone brad

amused

2009-03-22T00:06:00.000-07:00

Youtube never fails to amuse me! I know, I know, small things and all that…

Anyways, while we were cleaning up around my craft area this afternoon, we were listening to mp3’s and Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’ began playing. I remembered this really funny clip I saw a looooong time ago with a guy doing funny miming to her song. This is that clip…

Of course I had to go find it on Youtube… but in doing so I found something even funnier!

Had both me and Brett chortling away.

Now, all celebrities should have such a good sense of humour!

Okay, now that I’ve shared that very useful information, I shall go back to trying to organise the chaotic corner that is my craft space. Maybe then I can get creating again. It’s been a mess for too long and it just turns me off trying to be creative.

Wish me luck!

cute overload

2009-03-15T15:52:00.001-07:00

I can’t help myself, checking out CuteOverload is like my daily happy pill. And I’m addicted!!

Check out this funny little clip…

I WANT one!!!!!!!!!

oooh new schtuff

2009-03-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

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okie dokie, I’m testing out Windows Live Writer to do my blog posting… lots of cool things you can do with this little program… Like the nifty photo gallery above ^^^

    and cute bullet lists
    and emoticons
    and fancy smancy symbols © ½ «
    and nifty Wikipedia links
    and pics that look like polaroids…

what fun!!!

sneak peak...

2009-03-13T23:55:00.001-07:00

This is a little sneak peak of Mr Wiggly, the crochet critter I have just finished making for my dad for his birthday that's coming up soon.

Maybe it was Mr Wiggly that threw the evil yarn needle onto the rug on the lounge room floor so that it could become embedded in my toe... Baaaad Mr Wiggly!

Anyhoo, Mr Wiggly is my own design and luckily for me, he worked out very cute. I think I did very well for my first go at making something without a pattern :)

more wildlife pics

2009-03-13T23:37:00.000-07:00

Well, here's something nice for me to blog about on a day where things keep going wrong! It's one thing after the next today... then I stepped on a yarn needle and it went half way through my big toe... OWEEEE! And it was the 'eye' end of the needle with yarn in it... of course! How that wicked needle got on the floor, I have no idea, because I had them on the coffee table all together with my crochet hooks. Bad, bad needle!

Here's a couple of shots from my back veranda. The fellow that owns the back paddocks sometimes has his llamas and miniature ponies in there. (Okay, so I know they are actually called alpacas, but I like the way the word 'llama' sounds so I shall call them llamas because, honestly, it makes me happy.) And here they all were this afternoon. So out comes my camera so I can click away. I'm lucky I have a digital camera with a 7x optical zoom so that I can actually see the critters in the far paddock. Imagine the shots I could take if I had a bigger optical zoom... mmm...

young mr kooka

2009-03-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

just some more wildlife shots taken today after the rain. isn't he so handsome?

blue for you

2009-03-09T04:31:00.000-07:00

Another little card making day today. I'm still feeling really crappy, so didn't get up to much today.

We were going to make a much fancier card but I just wasn't up to it. Still, I managed to come up with this one on the fly. I call it 'blue for you'...

The photo I tried to take of it during the day today was blurry!!! Go figure. Have to blame that on having the shakes! My exucse and I am sticking to it. The only photo that wasn't blurry was my 'creative' shot above. So you will have to make do with this next photo taken at night.

Mr Peacock was at my back door all day today. Something had him upset and he was honking a fair bit. You know, those birds are loud! Here's a shot of Mr Peacock having a bit of a stretch on our back lawn. His new tail is starting to grow in. I wonder how long it will take him to grow it fully...

crochet critters magnifique

2009-03-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

hmmm... obviously I am on a crochet fad at the moment. I'm getting a lot of satisfaction from making these cute amigurumi. It's fun to be able to start and finish a project in one day.

First one done is this cute little ducky. He's about 4 inches high. If you are interested, the free pattern can be downloaded HERE. Free registration is required. I used the yarn my friend Maria gave to me.

Next up are these adorable little kitties. Free pattern is found HERE. These little guys are sooo small ~ 2.5 inches tall. Their tails and ears were quite fiddly for my big clumsy fingers! But they really are so fast and easy to make. And cute!! Ruby Red Slippers kitty now belongs to my mother. I made the grey Bijou kitty a little pink scarf. And no laughing at my (lack of) embroidery 'skills'... Try though I might, I could never get the hang of embroidery... I'm super neat at cross stitch, but embroidery... *sigh*

Mr Kooka and other random photos

2009-03-05T04:04:00.001-08:00

Oh dear, Patches the stray kitty is most definitely pregnant. She looks like she's carrying an army of kitties in her belly... *sigh* honestly I don't know what to do about her. I have already taken her to the RSPCA once because she was practically living at my backdoor and getting thinner and thinner and thinner. Her owners collected her from RSPCA and apparently she had been lost for a long time. Her first night after being collected, she was back on my door step. She's still here several nights a week. But this time she's not getting thinner and thinner, she's getting bigger and bigger... What do I do? I'm not feeding her, and she obviously hasn't starved to death... But poor kitty is probably only 7 or 8 months old at the most. Dilemma...

An interesting photo I took of a bug. I thought it was a pretty cool photo, so I will share it here. No idea what sort of bug it is. Brett tells me it's a kissing bug... no way on this planet that thing is going to kiss me....... bleah!!!!!!!!!!!!

And finally, Mr Kooka paid me a visit this afternoon. Isn't he glorious?

Mel's froggy note book

2009-02-28T03:05:00.000-08:00

Here is another froggy note book I made for my dear friend, Mel, for her birthday…

Mel's froggy book

Mel's froggy book from another angle

Stuff Used:
Stamps: Unfrogettable
Ink: Black Stazon, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Card: Au Chocolate DP, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Bashful Blue
Punches: Designer Label, 1 1/4 Circle, Word Window, small Corner Rounder
Other Stuff: Rose Red marker, Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Aquapainter, Bashful Blue thin grosgrain, Cream thin grosgrain, River Rock stitched ribbon, random blue blings

gumnut baby crochet hat

2009-02-28T02:36:00.000-08:00

I found this cute crochet baby hat pattern and immediate saw a possibility. The original design is for a ‘candy corn’, but the shape suggested something entirely different to me. Being the Aussie that I am, I immediately thought of May Gibbs Gumnut Babies…

May Gibbs - Gumnut Babies

Aren’t they just the cutest? I grew up with several of May Gibbs books, like Snugglepop and Cuddlepie. Loved those books.
And what could be more perfect than making a gumnut baby crochet hat?
Thank you very much to Tiffany of PeanutzMom’s Patterns for providing this cute little pattern free to anyone who wants to make it.

gumnut baby hat

the two baby hats I crocheted kindly modeled by note in a pocket teddy and random teddy

this bird is utterly insane

2009-02-24T06:26:00.001-08:00

I dare you to watch right to the end! The bird just keeps going and going and going... Must be some kind of relative to the Durocell bunny?

Bird Shakes His Tailfeather @ Yahoo! Video

card making at my place

2009-02-23T02:58:00.000-08:00

Today my lovely friends, Janise and Maria, came to visit and make cards and things.
We had lots of fun and pizza. Here are the things that we made…

First up is a card that I totally CASE’d from the Splitcoast Stampers gallery.

Stuff used:
Stamps: One of a Kind
Card: Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun
Other: Boho Blossom punch, 1 1/4 Square Punch

Next up is a cute little froggy card I made for Janise. She needed a card to give to her grandson… As you can see, I was quite taken with the coloured square theme from the previous card, and I continued on with that theme for this froggy card.

Stuff used
Stamps: Unfrogettable
Card: Basic Black, Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Old Olive, Black Stazon, Silver Encore
Other: 1 3/8 Square Punch, 1 1/4 Square Punch, Silver Embossing Powder, Aquapainter

And finally, here is the paper tolle/3D card that Janise made. It was very pretty and effective. I haven’t done any paper tolle before… I don’t have the patience to do all that fiddly cutting out.

more crochet madness

2009-02-22T22:43:00.000-08:00

I am the crochet champion! Whoo hoo!

Have been trying to make a little baby hat for a pregnant friend and do you think I can work out the pattern of what I wanted to make? argh! I need someone who has lots of crochet experience to come and sit with me and show me what the patterns mean when they are being a bit obscure! I'm just a newbie and have only made a small handful of things. Trying to read some of those patterns confused me no end.

So, off I go to scour the interwebs for some super dooper easy baby hat patterns that are still cute and that have instructions I can actually follow (not an easy task!). And I came across this adorable Cherries on Top newborn crochet hat/cap. <-- click on that link to check it out. If you want to make this little hat yourself, that website has the pattern.

I had some lovely soft dusty green yarn (sage shadow) so I attempted to make this cute little cherries on top hat. (you know you have a Stampin' Up! addiction when you name all colours with Stampin' Up! ink colour names!!). I decided not to make the cherries on top because I don't have any red yarn and I don't have any money to buy more yarn *sobs*

Not to worry because the little hat turned out soooooooooo cute anyways! Mr Teddy is shown below modelling the finished cap with the rim rolled up. Mr Teddy thinks the little cap is very cute and stylish.

If my pregnant friend has a baby girlie, then I think I shall crochet some little soft pink and cream flowers to sew on the front of the cap. (that would be Cameo Coral and Very Vanilla flowers... addiction confirmed).

Please enjoy these photos of my firstest ever crocheted baby hat. Am pleased as punch that I managed to decipher this pattern. I am the crochet champion!!!

creative cuteness amuses me no end

2009-02-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

I love YouTube... ranks right up there with Dr Google.

Here's a YouTube clip I'd like to share... had me rolling over in laughter! How do these ad people come up with this stuff?

MP3 player crochet sock

2009-02-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to crochet something for a friend but realised I wasn't reading the pattern correctly so I gave that little project up and decided to make something super easy instead.

I got my Brett an MP3 player for Christmas and have been meaning to make a little felt packet for him to keep it in. My sewing machine is sort of buried (ahem... clean up time) so I never got around to sewing it up.

So, instead, last night I crocheted a little blue socky for him to keep his MP3 player all safe and sound.

I think it was 12 or 14 chains I started off with and then just single crochet in rows until it was long enough to make a nice sock. Then I just darned up the sides (the stitching is on the outside but you really can't tell at all. I wasn't sure how I should fasten it at the tip. Of course, I couldn't find my press studs (any surprises there... they are probably in the same spot as my sewing machine) so I got some ribbon and threaded it through. That works just fine.

You can see in the photos that Brett hasn't peeled off the protective plastic from the front of his MP3 player (which is a FunTwist if you wanted to know). Argh... I just want to peeeeeeeel that rotten bit of plastic off!!

Wonder what else I can crochet little socks for? *scurrying around the house to find more things to make socks for* hehe Hey, I think I will crochet some soap socks... I'm so sad

I made stuff

2009-02-06T02:08:00.000-08:00

Well, lookee that, I actually made something! I know, I should have warned you so that you wouldn't fall off your chair. Oops!

It's a notebook that I covered and decorated. Love these little notebooks, they make special little gifts.

I used my Unfrogettable stamp set and watercoloured it with Garden Green and Ruby Red and a touch of Sahara Sand for mr froggy's shadow.

The circle and scallop circles were done with my classic scallop circle Nestabilities. I love those dies. Each scallop circle is popped up with dimensionals. The card colours for them are Garden Green, Really Rust and Chocolate Chip.

The Garden Green '09' was die cut using Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet. That's the only alphabet die set I have. I wish I had more but they cost too much! *sigh*

I forget the name of the designer paper, except that it's a retired SU paper. The ribbon is wide vanilla grosgrain and thin choc chip grosgrain. I glued the paper on using Mod Podge. That stuff is awesome!

If you have any questions, ask away :)

My creative process for this little project started off with asking my son to pick a sheet of designer paper. From there, I decided to use a froggy on it because of the green element in the paper.

ohh, now I think I will go back to bed. I've got some annoying bug... ear ache, headache and sore throat. I'm such a sook!

Am not looking forward to the weekend which is supposed to hit 40C (110F). I think I will spend the whole weekend, at home, with the air con cranking on full. Sounds like a plan!

patches and the peacock part 2

2009-02-06T02:06:00.000-08:00

Here's the photo I promised of the kitty and the peacock sitting quite happily side by side. The are about 1 metre apart (that's about 3 feet for those of you who are metrically challenged).

patches and the peacock

2009-02-03T19:11:00.000-08:00

Something I really love about living where we do is all of the wonderful wildlife that we see.

When you go out the back door, there's always some critter or other out there to make me smile and feel grateful for living here.

The neighbourhood peafowl wander around freely. Mr peacock recently dropped most of his glorious tail on our back lawn. He likes to sit outside our back door. Sometimes I will feed him some puffed rice or puffed wheat. He loves that, but he doesn't seem to mind whether or not we feed him. He is so beautiful and makes me feel happy and just a bit special that he visits us so much.

Right now I have two guests at our back door. Mr peacock is one of them. The other is Patches the stray kitty I rescued. Since she was picked up by her owners from the RSPCA, she has spent most of her nights, and lately most of her days, at our back door. I refuse to feed the poor little thing, even though she tugs very hard at my heartstrings.

I took a photo so you can see how close the peacock and the kitty are to each other. Mr peacock isn't bothered by the kitty at all! You wouldn't wonder why if you saw the evil spurs on Mr peacock's legs. Owee. Take heed, miss kitty, do NOT mess with Mr peacock.

In the photo, you can see Mr peacock happily eating puffed rice. Little miss kitty has noticed me and is crying at me either for food or affection - she seems starved of both. *sigh*

I just looked up from my computer as I am typing this, and there is Patches happily still plonked at the back door. *sigh*

then I stood up and saw that the peacock is actually sitting down peacefully about 1 metre away from the cat... animals can be so strange sometimes! I took a photo of that too but the battery in my camera just died... so you'll have to wait until it recharges to see the last photo!

mini cookbook review

2009-02-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, this post is probably a bit left of field for me. Feel free just to skip reading it. I just really felt like expressing all this gluten-free stuff. Hopefully I'll have some new craft creations on here as soon as I re-organise some sanity back into my craft corner!
<-- that's me tearing my hair out coz I'm so messy

Not long ago I started to go gluten-free in the hopes that it might clear up or help with what I suspect to be IBS. My diet is starting to feel extremely restricted now with trying to be sugar free and now gluten-free. This whole process of learning what does and doesn't contain gluten... It's very confusing. I have to say that I'm extremely startled by all the foods that have wheat and/or gluten in them. Food manufacturers seem to put it in everything. Which makes me wonder if it's because a. it's a very cheap filler, b. wheat/gluten is actually addictive and manufacturers know you'll keep eating their stuff if they use it, or c. both. That's why they use so much sugar. Sugar really IS addictive.

Suffice to say I am craving bread... Real bread, not that gluten-free stuff they try to pass off as bread. White bread, grainy bread, brown bread... mmmm.... garlic bread. *sigh* Normally I eat very little bread but I guess it's because I'm not allowed to have it and the gluten-free substitute tastes like powdered sand in my mouth!!!

<-- that's me - I wanna eat real bread!!!

Not long ago I bought a new cookbook to try and assist me with going gluten-free.

So far, we have tried two recipes out of it and they have both been wonderful, so I just wanted to share this cookbook with anyone who is interested.

Gluten-free Cooking, by Sue Shepherd ( Penguin/Viking)

It's an Aussie cookbook written by a dietitian who specialises in food intolerances because she, herself has gluten intolerance. She has written this book using recipes she herself uses all the time. The whole book is well presented with lots of beautiful photos (I just can't bring myself to buy a cookbook which doesn't have photos ~ I have to know what I'm trying to cook is supposed to look like!). Gluten-free Cooking has information about various food intolerances. There's a good section on various flours and ingredients to be used in place of ones that contain gluten and plenty of tips on gluten-free baking. Sue provides lots of easy and quick meal ideas as well as many delicious looking recipes.

If the two recipes I've made so far are anything to go by, then I shall happily look forward to trying many of the other recipes in this book. Maaaayyyybe even the breads... I did say 'maybe'...

Crab & Chilli Omelette ~ page 21
This is what we just ate for brunch today. Sorry, I ate it too fast to take a photo! hehe. It turned out *exactly* the same as the photo ~ very good sign of a good cookbook, methinks. Or perhaps just a sign of what an excellent chef I am, even with our awful stove!! Yup, that must be it.
OMG, it was divine. Super easy to prepare and cook and tastes awesome. Definitely one to make again, many times over. Will be very easy to substitute different ingredients in place of the crab meat to make different flavoured omelettes. My suggestions for my future reference - chicken & coriander, mushroom & bacon.
<-- that's the chicken that laid the eggs - honest it is!
Rice Paper Rolls ~ page 54
Rice paper rolls are basically mini spring rolls which are not deep fried. One again, eaten too fast to take a photo. And I think it's probably breach of copyright if I put the book photos on here? No idea but better not to take the risk.
I didn't have all the ingredients so I improvised a fair bit with these little guys. Basically, what I did was use little green prawns, some left over BBQ chicken, shredded pak choy, shredded carrot, snow peas, coriander, finely grated garlic and wheat free soy sauce and made a bit of a stir fry to cook it all through. Then wrapped some of this stir fry up in rice paper along with vermicelli noodles. We made 14 rice paper rolls. Yummy. Instead of making the dipping sauce like the recipe, we just used Maggi Sweet Chilli sauce (which is gluten-free). Even my son agreed, we have to have these again. Maybe next time I could add some bean sprouts and make them a bit smaller. This is another recipe that allows lots of leeway to use different ingredients.
<-- this book gets my official stamp of approval which is very special and important! hehehe

Okay, all finished on my gluten-free rant now.

my little sister got married

2009-01-27T07:36:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, my sister got married. It was a very beautiful wedding. I thought I would share some photos of my beautiful sister and her lovely new husband.

Isn't she simply beautiful? She could be a catalogue bride in one of those swishy wedding mags.

They had a string quartet playing at the Botanical Gardens where they were married. Just divine. I couldn't help myself and cried the whole way through. It was all so beautiful.

Their wedding cake was made by a friend of hers, Jo. Jo did the most spectacular job making the cake. Can you believe that she isn't a professional or even in the cake business? Jo, I hope I got your last name right on the credit on the photo. If Jo didn't live so far away I would have to commission her to make our cake if Brett and I ever get around to getting married!!

gift for my sister

2009-01-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

I can finally put this up on my blog now that I have given it to my sister.

I found these scrapbooking frames at Spotlight a long time ago (haven't seen any more there since ~ wish they'd get more in because they are a wonderful idea). The come plain so I painted it with chocolate brown acrylic paint and sealed it with matt Mod Podge. I think the DP is by Basic Grey... but I bought it so long ago, I can't remember! The matt for the photo is Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip. I distressed the outer edge of the Choc Chip. I put lots of lovely Prima flowers on with SU! rhinestone brads and some smaller flowers have silver brads. The bling on the frame is KaiserCraft rhinestones... I think their colour is grass green.

The beautiful photo of my sister and her new hubby was taken at her birthday lunch just over a year ago. I photoshopped it to make it look more like a studio shot, added their names on photoshop. Then applied a really cool filter to make it look a bit like a painting. You probably can't see that part in the photos.

I was really happy with how it turned out. I did it to match the smaller frame I made for my sister which I gave her at the birthday this new photo was taken. The bigger one fits 11*8.5" and the smaller one fits 6*6". The second photo is of both the bigger and smaller frames so you can see that they are matching.

Hope you enjoy :)

OMG, it's a card!

2009-01-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, finally a photo I something new I have made. These are the thank you cards I made for my sister to send out after her wedding.

The colours are Choc Chip, Naturals Ivory and Burgundy.

Hope she likes them :)

just had to post this pic

2009-01-08T05:12:00.001-08:00

Oh my kitty is a funny girlie. She lurves the packing paper that comes in the Stampin' Up! parcels. Anyways, here I am, up in the middle of the night, chittering away to my wonderful Florida friend on Messenger, and I hear crunching paper. There's my silly kitty trying to eat the packing paper, so I grabbed my camera!

Here is Bijou with a mouthful of packing paper. Num num num
(giggle ~ if you have no idea what I am on about, go visit CuteOverload. It's really just silly kitteh talk)

bird watching

2009-01-08T00:45:00.001-08:00

Earlier this evening I glimpsed a green bird eating at Edyn's tomatoes so I ran inside and got my camera.
Here he is...

It's a Green Catbird. They are supposed to be pretty shy.

I also got a photo of another bird. I can't work out what it is, but I thought I'd post it here.

Last week our resident neighbourhood peacock dropped all his gorgeous tail feathers. He dropped several of them in our yard. Of course I collected them and now have them in a peacock blue raku vase that I made some years ago. Apparently it is normal for peacocks to drop their entire long tail feathers in an afternoon - I had to check because I was worried about him. He has been to visit our garden many times since and I can only look forward to when he grows his new and more magnificent tail.

update on 'Patches' the kitty

2009-01-07T05:23:00.000-08:00

Quick update on Patches the little lost kitty. Via the microchip, Patches registered owners were found and contacted. Apparently Patches had been given to new owners and they have now been contacted. Indeed, Patches did go missing from her new owners some time ago. So, as of this evening, little kitty is still waiting at the vets for her owners to come and take her home. I'll update again when she is safe and sound at her proper home.

just because

2009-01-06T20:28:00.001-08:00

Here's a photo of my son, just because I think he's gorgeous. I know I will get in trouble, but that's okay, I'm allowed to be a proud mum. My mum took this photo. Actually, me and Brett were also in the photo, but I photoshopped us out... LOL!

mmmmm..... Vanilla Latte!

2009-01-06T20:13:00.001-08:00

Over the next few weeks we are going to be doing a massive 'spring clean' of our house. For those of you that know me (too) well, you'll know that I am a bit of a hoarder... How can I throw things out if I can think of some possible use for them... *sigh* Unfortunately, my Brett is just as bad as me and between us, we have accumulated an impossible amount of useless junk. So, while Brett is on holidays from work, we are going to go through all of it and be ruthless and get rid of as much as possible.

Something else I have been meaning to do is repaint our bedroom. When we bought our house, it was already painted this dreadful olivey-grey kind of colour. I don't like it.

So, a couple of years ago I bought some lovely paint, but still haven't gotten around to painting our room yet. Our 'spring clean' will be the perfect time to do this. The two colours I have got are Dulux Plum Temptation for the 'feature' wall, and Dulux Natural Embrace for the other three walls. Hopefully it will give it a warm, inviting kind of feeling. The Natural Embrace colour makes me think of a yummy cup of vanilla latte ~ my favourite.

Far be it from me to leave things plain. It's really about time I popped some of my painting on the walls... So this morning, I took a photo of our bedroom and I played around a bit in Photoshop to see what the new colours would look like. And then I started adding 'faux decals' to the wall using some free photoshop brushes I downloaded from who knows where.

The picture below is the one I like the best. When I finally do paint my room, I will be able to use the left over Plum Temptation paint to do something to the effect of the mock up below. I think it will look great if I do it right.

That's the door to our walk through wardrobe & ensuite.

Now, if only I wasn't stranded without a car... I really feel a craving for vanilla latte...

Hopefully I've found Patches home

2009-01-06T04:28:00.001-08:00

For a while now a little stray kitty has been visiting our home at night time. She's a teeny little thing and she was soooooo thin and starving you could see her bones.

I am such a softy for strays... well, for animals in general. I have been trying to find little 'Patches' owners without any luck. No luck calling the local vet or the RSPCA. They all said the same thing, bring the kitty in to them. So that is what I did. As luck would have it, this sweet little kitty is microchipped and they are now trying to locate her owners. Poor little thing is only about 6 months old according to the vet. She is very very sweet and affectionate so I hope they find her owners and she will be safe and sound back home very soon.

My sister's wedding invitations

2009-01-05T02:29:00.000-08:00

Long time, no talk! I know, I know.

Just wanted to share the wedding invitations I made for my sister. I blurred out most of the text and addresses for my sister's privacy. :)
The colours I used are Naturals Ivory, Chocolate Chip and Bravo Burgundy.

This is how the invites unfold. The ribbon goes all the way through the card and makes a great spot to tuck in all the inserts I made.

This is the envelopes for the invitations. I used my my cuttlebug to emboss 'Textile Texture' down the side. Australia Post does customised postage stamps so I got some done with a photo of my sister and her fiance.

These are the four inserts I made for each invitation. Gift Registry, RSVP, Accommodation, Maps.

This is how the accommodation insert folds out.

And the Map insert is double sided.

Ourimbah Public School Band

2008-08-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

Please excuse my crappy camera skills and the poor audio quality. I took this video on my mobile phone. I neeeeeeed a video camera!!!!!

This is the Ourimbah Public School Band playing the Star Wars theme at today's School Fete.

In all they played 12 songs today. This one probably has the better sound quality of the lot. I was really disappointed at how terrible the sound came out. Waltzing Matilda came out sort of okay, so let me know if you would like me to post that video too.

Live, the Ourimbah School Band sound just awesome and this little video doesn't do it justice. I am really proud of all they have accomplished with enormous thanks to Mr Paul and Mrs Borrow-Jones.

I just wanted to be able to share this clip with family and friends who couldn't be there to see it live.

My son is playing clarinet. Bet you can't work out which one he is!

another video

2008-08-08T02:24:00.001-07:00

I keep forgetting to post this one.

It's a super sped up watercolour. If you go to this > > > LINK < < < you can chose to watch the video in higher quality, otherwise, just enjoy the video posted below :)

I still need to finish the watercolour but will do a video of it too when I finally finish it.

It's a portrait of Harry the cat who sadly passed away last year.

Haven't been doing the best lately which is why I haven't been posting. Just seems like one disaster after another.

scrapbook page

2008-06-25T03:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a 6 x6 scrapbook page I made for my cousins workshop. That's my boy's school photo for this year.

Card colours: not quite navy, green galore, apricot appeal
Stamps: priceless, so swirly jumbo wheel
Inks: whisper white, not quite navy
Other: stampin' pastels, apple green grosgrain, green staples

Froggy Cards

2008-06-25T03:43:00.001-07:00

Hey there, back again. A friend asked me to make a stack of froggy cards and here's the result. Everything used is Stampin' Up! except for the patterned paper on the orange pocket cards. There's 12 cards in total, two of each colour combo.

You have to excuse my terrible photography, have the shakes something terrible, another reason I haven't been creating anything. It's so difficult when I can't keep my hands steady.

perfect plum, soft sky, real red

only orange, taken with teal

barely banana, perfect plum, certainly celery

certainly celery, regal rose, apricot appeal

pink passion, tempting turquoise

ballet blue, rose red

a new video for you

2008-05-17T02:07:00.001-07:00

So I finally have a new video for you. I got myself nice and organised this time and cut everything to size and planned what I was going to do before I started recording.

I have to apologise for the the very wobbly camera. I am afraid I kept bumping my very technical "webcam on a ruler" set up.

I have come up with a new name for my videos which is 'Anatomy of a Card'. What do you think?

I don't know what was up with youtube today but when it processed my video it has come out really poor quality and everything is fuzzy. So, sorry for that too. Hope you enjoy it anyways.

Mother's day card

2008-05-08T04:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the mother's day card I made. I used my yummy scallop nesties which I love to pieces. I just wish I had ALL the shapes! Oh well, wait till I win lotto...

I used Creamy Caramel and Old Olive card and some more of that "Well Worn" Field of Daisies paper. You can't see too well in this photo but I used Crystal Effects on the daisy stamp, and on the daisies on the paper.

mother's day notebooks

2008-05-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

Here are the mother's day notebooks I have been working on. I got these notebooks from the newsagents. They are perfect for decorating because they have a natural/kraft finish. I used Mod Podge to glue down the patterned paper to the books.

This first one uses One of a Kind stamp set, embossed with copper, jumbo brad and red jewel brad. The ribbons are Basic Grey and I the paper is Cosmo Cricket? I'm hopeless today and can't remember who made these beautiful papers and can't be bothered digging through the mess pile to find out who made them! LOL
This next one uses one of the images from Oh, So Lovely. I think the paper is by Cosmo Cricket. I don't remember! But I love it.
You might not be able to tell from the photo, but I built the flowers up in layers. I stuck down microbeads where the "stamen" part is.
Now this one is a Stampin' Up! designer paper :) The butterfly has a little rhinestone on it and wire antennae. I also have put stick on pearls for some more dimension.
And last but not least, here's a cute birdie one. Once again, can't remember who did the daisy paper, except that it's from a "Well Worn" collection.
Hope you've enjoyed these notebooks :)

Being silly

2008-05-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know, I'm a bit of a makeup junkie. I went through my make up yesterday, culling all the old stuff that's past it's use by. While I was going through everything, I tested the eye and lip pencils on my hand and ended up with this...
Make up is fun!

windows ~ the video

2008-04-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

silly me forgot to embed the video in my last post...

so here it is in all it's grandness...

windows

2008-04-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

first up a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone's get well wishes. I'm in desperate need of all of them and I appreciated every one of your cards and comments :)

wow, I've finally made another video. As this weeks' copycatcard challenge is to make a card with a window in it, I based my new video on that technique.

The card I make in the little video is shown below

this next card is my submission for copycatcards window week...

and this final card I was requested to make by a friend who needed an engagement card. I have to say my creativity is quite stiffled ATM and i completely CASE'd this card from SCS.

Back from the brink

2008-04-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

A big hello and warm thank you to all of you who have left me get better messages and cards while I've been gone.

Yes, I am finally home after 6 very long weeks in hospital. Literally, I am back from the brink. I still have a very very long way to go before I am better.

You might remember AGES ago I said I'd been invited to submit an item for publication. Here's the photo I took before I posted them off. The magazine - Australian Paper Crafts, only used the tin (without the 'flower'). Still, it is very nice to be published.

POSTAL DETAILS

2008-03-12T02:08:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Tracy's still in Hospital, and we're all sending her our love.

For those who asked, her postal address is

PO BOX 3255

TUGGERAH
NSW 2259
AUSTRALIA

HUGE HUGS for everyone who is sending my sister get well wishes.

Tracy's Sister - Julie

Message From Tracy

2008-03-05T01:20:00.000-08:00

Hi,

It's Tracy's sister Julie here as Tracy is in Hospital and she won't be back a while, but we're not sure exactly how long yet.

If you want to leave a message I can pass them to her for you.

grrr....

2008-02-23T02:18:00.000-08:00

Well, that was an awfully long AWOL, wasn't it? Turns out it was just my power board that had blown and not my precioussssss... *ahem* and not my computer at all. So, I feel really silly for getting so upset, but it's in a good way because I have my puter back. Once again I am a happy camper and can stop sulking and get back to creating. But not tonight. I am taking this crappy ultra bad headache to bed.

Hugs to everyone
~ Tracy

will be AWOL for some time

2008-02-21T17:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Last night my computer at home decided to go and blow itself up. I am thinking it's possibly the power supply in it, but don't really know.

Our financial situation being what it is, with me not being able to work very much, we wont be able to afford to get it fixed for some time. So really, I have no idea when I'll be back up and running again.

You might say, big deal, it's just a computer or it's just the internet access. That's fair enough. The hardest part lies in having my 'lifeline' cut off. Being cut off from my overseas friends and online support groups will be very difficult over the coming weeks. I am already very distressed about that.

If you want to drop me a line, I will be able to quickly check my emails once or twice a week up at work.

I'd better sign off now and get my sorry self back to doing my work.

a new video - finally

2008-02-17T16:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time getting this video to work. I've finally done it!

Here's the final product, hope you enjoy it.

the 3 'B's' ~ a copycatcard challenge

2008-02-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I meant to post this photos last night... or some ridiculous hour this morning really. I was thinking I'd be really clever and post the video and these card photos at the same time... Anyways, it got so late/early and I got so frustrated with my computer not behaving the way it should so I switched it off and went to bed.

I am very almost done the video editing however. All I need to do is work out if I either 1) put music to the video, or 2) do a voice over on it.

I have given up on the video of the little owlie book. It's really really hard to turn hours into just a few minutes. Anyways, this card here took me less than 40 minutes. I have managed to squoosh it down to 7! This one should be more interesting for everyone as I have deliberately incorporated a few different techniques in it.

Getting back to the big reason for this post! This week's copycatcard challenge is to use the three B's ~ Blues, Browns & Buttons. So that is exactly what I have done - turquoise, navy, chocolate and sahara sand, with the obligatory sparklies added!

Okay, am going to curl back up on my bed now. I have woken up with an almighty headache and just generally feeling really off. Honestly, I don't need to come down with anything else right now!!!! GO AWAY ICKIES.

RECIPE
STAMPS: Scribble This (Doodle This), Dots & Daisies b/g (retired)
INK: Cool Caribbean, Not Quite Navy Craft, Silver Encore
CARD: Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, White Tissue Paper
CUTTLEBUG: Classic Scallop Circles nestibilities, Circles nestibilities
OTHER: Chocolate Tafetta, Paper piercer & mat, glue stick, Heat & Stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Junkits Metalz Buttonz, dimensionals, navy craft wire
TECHNIQUES USED: Faux Silk / Paper Piercing / Heat & Stick Glitter

Australian Papercrafts Issue 74 on sale now

2008-02-15T23:01:00.000-08:00

Hello again peoples in blog-land. Well, I have been waiting for what seems like an ETERNITY for Issue 74 of Australian Paper Crafts to come up on their website. Why?? Because I have a submission that is supposed to be in it. I've never been published before.

If you look at the cover you'll see a big blue spot with "HOW TO USE 1 stamp, 4 ways". Well, that's the article that is supposed to have my submission in it. Aus Paper Crafts invited me to participate and sent me a stamp. I made two creations and posted them off. So I have to wait til the end of the month to have this magazine in my hot little hands to see which (if any) of my submissions they used. So, right now I feel excited and a little bit sick. Now that I've announced this, I really hope they used one of my creations in there! eeeeeeee

Anyhoo, if you are so inclined, go HERE and order your own copy. Just don't buy them all because I can order one until later this month because we have no money :( *pout*

nearly forgot

2008-02-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

I nearly forgot to put this on my blog. I made this background on photoshop from scratch. I made it for my partially finished video I am editting on the Valentine bookee thingo.

I wanted to share it here because you might like to use it for your computer desktop, seeing that it's "Love Month" :D

<3 <3><3

Hope you likes it!

My Valentine

2008-02-15T22:28:00.000-08:00

Here are the photos of the Valentine's day booklet I made for my Brett. Of course, after I took the photos I wrote on the pages in white gel pen :)

I did video the whole lot of me making it, but I am having so much trouble with my computer trying to video edit it. It keeps freezing for minutes at a time and just plain driving me crazy (not that I wasn't already, but that's beside the point).

Anyhoo, if anyone out there is interested to see me making this little chipboard book, please leave me a comment and I will keep working on the video editing. I have already turned half an hour into two minutes :) I think I might just need some encouragement to keep going on it.

RECIPE
STAMPS: So Many Sayings, Punch Pals, Rough Edges mini alpha
INK: White Craft, Choc Chip Craft, Choc Chip
CARD: Choc Chip, BoBunny Smitten (shimmer), BoBunny Smitten Stripes (shimmer), Sassafrass Lass Serendipity "Owl Pals", Brushed Copper
PUNCHES: Word Window, Scallop Circle, small circle, 1 3/8 circle
OTHER: Chipboard Coasters, hinged loose leaf rings, Clear EP, Copper EP, Basic Grey Wholy Cow rubons, Crop-a-dile & eyelets, SU chipboard heart cutout, Pearls by Kaisercraft, rhinestone 'B' by Crafty Bitz, Primas, Rhinestone brad
RIBBON: Basic Grey - Infuse, Cream grosgrain, Choc tafetta, Pretty In Pink tafetta, Seaside ribbon originals

Well, I really think that is the whole lot of 'ingredients', but I could have forgotten some since my memory is rather tragic.

Valentine's wishes for you

2008-02-13T20:02:00.000-08:00

Sending everyone out there a Happy Valentines' day hug.

Isn't this little thingo I made cute? You can go waste some time and make one of your own HERE. I was chuffed that there was a little koala to add to it to give it some Aussie flavour :)

I have a splitting headache tonight and I'm just trying to be patient and wait for the good old Nurofen plus to kick in. I need to get it under control so I can finish my little Valentine's day creation for my fiance, Brett, for tomorrow :) And if I can tidy off my desk enough before I start making it, I might record it on my webcam, then you can all see a super sped up version of the mental way I create things. I really have no idea how I'm going to make it, all I know is that I've got some chipboard coasters and some beautiful BoBunny shimmer paper and I want to make some kind of special card with them... stay tuned :)

Well, enough rambling... off to soak my head for a bit.

Friendship Blooms in Blues

2008-02-09T17:22:00.000-08:00

Here's my take on the new copycatcards challenge. This week it's monochrome.

I have a very dear friend's birthday coming up in a couple of weeks and this is the perfect time to make something special for her.

On this card I limited my colours to Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, and Bashful Blue. And you can see I have managed to fit allllll my favourite elements on it :) Cuttlebug, Scallops, Ribbon, Bling, and my new favourite thing - using my shiny new Crop-a-dile. I love that thing, makes me just want to punch holes in anything I can get my hands on.

I based my card design loosely on this weeks' Splitcoast sketch challenge SC162. If you follow that link, you can see that I did make a good effort, but ended up switching it up a bit to suit myself ;)

When I am working using a sketch, sometimes I will make a mockup on my computer of how I think I'd like my card to turn out. I found that really helped me today to do this monochrome challenge. But, as is my creative right to change my mind, my finished card is different from my initial idea.

I was initially going to have three stripes of ribbon on my card in Navy, Bluebird, and Bashful Blue, but once I was working on my actual card, it just looked waaaaay too much so I ditched that idea. And I went for the much more fun idea of putting three silver eyelets in the end of the Bashful Blue card and tying bits of ribbon through them. I likes it, and that also meant I could use my Crop-a-dile.

I used my Spellbinders Nesties to die cut the scallop circle and the plain circle. I paper pierced around the plain circle, and on the scallop circle I have applied little bitty clear rhinestones.

The really fun bit I did on my card was bring on the bling with my Dazzling Diamond glitter and my Heat & Stick powder. I stamped the flower and the sentiment with Not Quite Navy craft ink (because I don't have Night of Navy in craft) and I hit it with heat and stick powder and then glitter. It's all sooooooooo schparkly! I love it :) I just can't make it show up well in the photos I took, so you will have to believe me when I say the flower and words are very glittery.
QUICK TIPS: always use your embossing buddy on the cardstock before you do anything with embossing powder / heat and stick powder, etc. It stops excess powder/glitter from going where you didn't want it.

QUICK TIPS: When using Heat & Stick powder, apply as you would with embossing powder, but when you hit it with the heat gun, you want to make sure you JUST melt it (that way it stays sticky). Then pop your glitter on, tip off the excess and hit it with the heat gun again to set the glitter.

QUICK TIPS: Once I've heat set the glitter in place with the heat and stick powder, I have a paintbrush that I use to brush off any excess glitter (that Dazzling Diamonds just sticks to everything!). Voila, gorgeous glitter image!
RECIPE
STAMPS: Friendship Blooms
CARD: Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue
INK: Not Quite Navy - craft
OTHER: Crop-a-dile & silver eyelets, Heat & Stick, Dazzling Diamonds, Ice Rhinestone brad, Clear adhesive backed rhinestones, Grosgrain Ribbon - Bashful Blue, Bluebird, Navy, Pin
CUTTLEBUG: D'vine Swirls embossing folder, Nestabilities - Classic Scallop Circles, Plain Circles
PUNCHES: Small corner rounder

4 always...

2008-02-05T23:45:00.000-08:00

I didn't seem to be able to take a good photo of this card... that's what happens when you're taking photos in the middle of the night without a decent photo-taking set up!

Anyways, when this week's copycatcard turned out to be a number challenge, "4 always" was the first thing that popped in to my head so I ran with it. I was thinking maybe it would be a nice Valentine's day card for my sweetheart, but I think I will use it now to let him know how I'm feeling.

I played around with different things for this card... taking a leaf from a brilliant artist and stamper, Mel and I experimented to see what would happen!

I cuttlebugged the '4' in the circle (that's from the Babyface alpha dies) from confetti cream, then I inked up the whole bit with a Cameo Coral craft ink spot. Next I covered it in clear EP and melted that with my heat gun. It has this cool motley colour under a glossy smooth surface. I did the same thing to the photo corner up the top right corner.

The "Always" comes from last year's SAB Happy Harmony set. I used a Chocolate Chip marker to ink up just the "Always" part of the stamp and exclude the "Happiness" word. Gotta love those Stampin' Up! markers.

The photo corner in the bottom left corner is raised up on dimensionals and those sweet ivory pearls are adhesive backed and they are by Kaiser. I absolutely love their bling and pearls and they have wonderful off-the-page things ready to alter.

Oh, and I think I've got my knot-tying mojo back, I was rather chuffed with this knot, got it going right the first time!

RECIPE
Stamps: Happy Harmony, So Swirly jumbo wheel
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral (craft)
Card: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Confetti Cream
Punches: Photo Corner, Scallop Circle, Circle 1 3/8, Circle 1 1/4
Other: Vanilla wide grosgrain, Chocolate Tafetta, clear EP, Pin
Cuttlebug: Babyface alphabet dies

a card at last!

2008-02-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

It's about time I uploaded a card to my blog... But I've only made this one thing since the last time I put my creations up. I was trying and trying to do a 'dahlia fold' because that was the SplitcoastStampers challenge this week... For the life of me, I couldn't get it to look any good! So I found a different fold that wasn't quite so tricky for me to get right. This one is called a 'petal fold' but I still managed to muff it up enough so the pieces didn't all match up. But you wouldn't have known that was a mistake until I just told you! LOL

The layout is a Splitcoast weekly sketch challenge.

What you can't see is that I used the slot punch (under the flower and on the edge of the ruby red layer) to make a hole so I could thread the ribbon through. I can't quite believe that I got a good knot on the first go!

I realise I haven't been doing proper recipes so I will do one for this card!

Stamps: So Many Sayings

Paper: Naturals Ivory, Ruby Red, Cosmo Cricket DP

Ink: Ruby Red

Punches: Word Window, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8 Circle, slot punch

Other: Vanilla wide grosgrain, red rhinestone brad

Cuttlebug: Stylized Flowers embossing folder

copycatcard - the long and tall of it

2008-01-29T00:21:00.000-08:00

Hallo again :) It's been five minutes since my last post and I still don't know how to add smilie pics in here... so I will just have to use :) until somebody out there enlightens me!

The copycatcard challenge this week is to do a DL size card, so here's my effort. I call it my Chocolate Frog card... *insert silly giggling here* To make the scallop part I ran chocolate brown thick felt through my Cuttlebug with one of my beloved Nestabilities scallop circle dies. My little frog is stamped on a circle of shimmery white card, and watercoloured with Garden Green (now there's a colour I don't use enough of!). The big panel on the top is Brushed Copper metallic card. I love that stuff, it's just that bit decadent :D I embossed "you're unfrogettable" in copper EP so it looks like it is really part of the copper card. The ribbon is wide chocolate grosgrain. I was actually quite chuffed with the neat knot I tied! I know, small things amuse small minds :p

Here's a different view so you can see the yummy chocolate felt. I've been a bit creative with shooting my cards :)

And I forgot to put last weeks copycatcard up on my blog. Last week was tearing. I am amused that I inadvertently did a tall card which is this weeks theme! There's not a skeric (is that even a proper word?) of stamping on this card, I'm afraid. It's all just torn card with a bling brad in the middle of the flower. The stem on the flower is really REALLY bothering me. Does it work for you? I just can't look at this card anymore!

Well, that's enough from me tonight... oops, it's tomorrow already! How did that happen? I'm off to crawl under my rock again where I am safe from any nasty panic attacks. There's plenty of room under here for friendly faces so feel welcome to join me.

another hair pic

2008-01-28T23:57:00.000-08:00

I washed my hair today... ummm... that's not an everyday event! I wash it once a week, just because it can be a bit of a chore and we are still under water restrictions. It doesn't take that long to wash, but I like to make sure all the shampoo is rinsed out completely. I don't go through that much shampoo, but I do go through a tonne and a half of conditioner. I am going to give a big plug to Pantene ~ I have found that it is the only shampoo and conditioner that leaves my hair easily combable after I wash it. I'm not affilliated with Pantene in any way, I just love the way it leaves my hair. I know there will be people out there that say Pantene is bad and that it coats your hair with silicone... but if it leaves my hair soft and silky and so easy to manage, then I will continue to use it. My hair is dead anyway! LOL

I had my wonderful other half, Brett, take this photo tonight before I braided it. I usually have it braided as it tends to get in the way a fair bit when it's out. I really didn't think it was that long, but there you go. I do get a few inches cut off the ends every year or two. It's been well over a year since the last cut I think. The ends are still fairly neat so I probably wont get a trim until a bit before our wedding in October. I don't think I will wear a veil... as you can see, I have grown one already!

Anyhow, this is what 110cm worth of hair looks like! If I tilt my head right back, then my hair reaches past my knees! hehe

Does anyone know how to put those cute smilies pics in a blog post? I have no idea but I love using smilies and I miss not being able to use them here.

This weeks creations...

2008-01-26T18:21:00.000-08:00

Finally on to some creations that I've done this week.

I covered this little sketchbook for my son, Edyn. Yes, I know, I am one of those awful awful mothers who gave their childs' name weird spelling. Back to the book. I ran brown felt through my cuttlebug. It doesn't seem to like die cutting felt very much. I can usually get a reasonable result with the very thin felt. Anyway, it took a few goes to get the letters I wanted cut properly. They were fiddly little critter to stick down. I used Crystal Effect to get them to stay where I wanted them! The dragon is a stamp by Inkadinkadoo (stamp 4223.P). I stamped it on shimmery gold card, and my son coloured it with markers. I (being the crazy person I am) cut out the dragon with my trusty craft knife. The dragon is layered on Choc Chip and shimmer gold circles cut using my Nestabilities dies. Edyn loves his book.
This one is another altered book, this time a journal with an elastic strap. I stuck everything down with Mod Podge. Was going a bit Mod Podge crazy there! On the photo corner in the top left corner, I stuck some KaiserCraft adhesive backed pearls in pale blue. The letters are a Cuttlebug die - Babyface. I went a bit crazy with the ribbons down the spiral binding! I used some of the ribbons from SU Flirty ribbon originals, and also some SU grograin (Pretty in Pink, white, turquoise) and pink gingham ribbon. I set an eyelet in the Taken with Teal flower using my beautiful new Crop-a-dile. I looooooooooooove my Crop-a-dile (thank you Dee)! The back is also covered with the same SU paper.

And one last project which turned out NOTHING like I had originally intended! I had cut out a big scallop circle with thin red felt and was going to use it as the feature... As you will notice, there's no big red scallop circle on this card! In the end it didn't fit! LOL There is, however, three small red felt flowers, all fitted with Crop-a-diled eyelets. And the word "happy" is done with 'Thickers'... I guess they are called that because they are 'thick stickers'?? who knows! I also used Bloom Dots embossing folder and wide celery grosgrain.
Here's an 'artistic' shot of my card!
Now I shall go and crawl back under my rock.

Time for a haircut?

2008-01-26T18:01:00.000-08:00

The answer to that question would be given by most people who know me as a resounding NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I measured how long my hair is now... Would you believe it is 110cm long from the crown of my head to the end of my hair?? That's 3.6 feet for those of you who are metrically challenged. You know, I don't really think of it as being that long. Over a metre of hair does sound long, doesn't it?! When it's all out it reaches just a whisker past the bottom of my bottom. Some time in the distant past, my hair used to be a dark golden blonde. I have no idea how it happened but somehow it's become a rather nondescript brown colour.

I was browsing on youtube.com last weekend and came across some videos with tutorials for people with ridiculously long hair. So, here's a couple of photos taken last night of me attempting two new hairdos. The first photo I took myself without a flash... ummm... that's why I only have half my head in the photo!! LOL.
After I took that first photo, I cut a couple of inches off the chopstick because it looked silly poking out so long. Then I did a braided chinese bun. I got my son to take a photo of it, this time it's using the flash on the camera. Made my hair look a funny colour. Maybe next time we'll take the photos outside in the day time.

And finally, here's one sketch of a possible wedding dress... White was so boring, so I coloured it red. I like red. Now, no criticisms of my *ahem* romantically flowy hair or the fact that there's no face... okay, I did do a face on it, but managed to smudge it so I cut it out with my trusty craft knife. Also, you don't need to make any comments on the fact that I made myself delightfully slim... I can dream!!! What else is there if we don't have dreams?

As for getting better, it seems like I am only going backwards. The big black hole is becoming all consuming no matter how hard I try.

RIP Heath Ledger

2008-01-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

one word - why?

Faux Silk

2008-01-11T03:19:00.000-08:00

This weeks SplitcoastStampers technique is "Faux Silk". I thought I'd have a go at it because it looked like fun. And it is a lot of fun :)

I CASE'd a gorgeous card that my friend, Dee, made. I had to improvise with the colours and stamps because I don't have the same as she does. Anyhoo, I came up with something that I was very pleased with.

The faux silk look is sooooooooooo easy and quite effective. The tutorial on Splitcoast by Beate is wonderful and so easy to follow. For my card, I stamped the retired Dots & Daisies background onto white tissue paper with Mellow Moss ink. I scrunched up the tissue paper and then smoothed it back out just like the tutorial says to. I applied Mod Podge to a piece of Mellow Moss card and then carefully smoothed the tissue paper over it. I folded the tissue paper of the edges of the piece of card and glued them down.

For the flower stamp (from the retired Happy Harmony set) I used markers in Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Mellow Moss, & Old Olive to colour in the stamp, then I stamped it on whisper white card. I just love how these markers work and I'm so glad I have them all.

Thank you Dee for the inspiration that helped me make this card :) Don't forget to click on the card photo to see a bigger picture and the detail of the faux silk background :)

On a difficult note, I am still struggling with this illness and all the tablets I now have to take. For now, I guess, it's just a matter of taking baby steps. It's frustrating that I feel I'm getting worse and not better. One thing that helps keep me moving forward is being creative. I love the feeling of being in my own little creative world where nothing bad can touch me :) makes it all worthwhile.

hugs, Tracy

Copycatcards is up and running for 2008!!!

2008-01-09T16:35:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! and a great big hello to all the new visitors I've been having coming to lookee at my little videos! I can't get over how many hits my little blog has had over the past week ~ I'm just astounded!

The really good news is that copycatcard challenges are now back up and running again for 2008. For this card I triple challenged myself.

CHALLENGE #1
This weeks copycat challenge is to incorporate something 'country' into your card... so I've got a sheepie. That's pretty country I say!

CHALLENGE #2 - CS157
It's been a long time since I gave one of Splitcoast's card sketch challenges a whirl so I thought that now would be as good a time as any. The most recent challenge I found was CS157.

CHALLENGE #3 - CC147
Another Splitcoast challenge, this time a colour challenge to use Certainly Celery, Real Red and Taken With Teal colours in your card.

This is a different way of creating for me... Normally I just have a kind of 'flow' happening where I choose a stamp that appeals and everything happens from there ~ I just do whatever comes to mind. This time I had the card all worked out before I started it. I think I like my 'flow' method of creating better. It's more organic and far less rigid. Anyhoo, I am happy with the result even though I desperately want to add more and do more to it, I am resisting the temptation and leaving it as it is!

You know what, I didn't use any bling or scallops or ribbon on this card!! That's probably what is missing!! LOL

I did a video of me creating this card. I don't think it's anywhere as good as my last two videos. I think I need to organise myself better next time.

Recipe:
STAMPS: Farm Fever
CARD: Whisper White, Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Real Red, Taken With Teal
INK: Black Stazon
OTHER: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Photo Corner punch, Gold Brads, Basic Black marker, craft knife, pin
CUTTLEBUG: D'vine Swirls embossing folder

Bee Colourful

2008-01-06T00:28:00.000-08:00

I seem to be ever so slightly hooked on making little videos at the moment. Here's yet another one with a watercolouring with ink demonstration. The little bee card I made yesterday for the lovely Sam was so cute that a made another one today for a friend's birthday. I thought I'd do a little video of how I watercolour him as a couple of friends have said they wish they could colour that way.

I love working with inks. It was the first 'painting' medium I ever truly felt comfortable with. I used to have such a terrible time trying to making proper watercolours look right, but with ink, it just works. I have no idea if what I just said makes any sense at all! Anyway, I will say that I am much more confident with colour and brushes now than I have ever been.

I just want to note that what I'm about to type out about watercolouring is by no means the be all and end all. It's just a few little observations I have made that help me. I am sure I am going to leave sooo much out, but feel free to pop any questions you have into the comments and I will answer them for you.

Some Hints and Tips for watercolouring stamped images using ink pads...

I always use Stazon ink to stamp the outline image. That way the outline stays crisp and doesn't bleed when you watercolour over it.
I love using my Fine Aquash brush by Pentel. I found mine at Eckersleys (an art & crafts store) for $6. If you don't have one of these, watercolour brushes and a little jar of water work just as well.
Stampin' Up! inks are just wonderful to work with, but you can use any WATER BASED ink pad to watercolour with. With the Stampin' Up! ink pads, you just squeeze them while they are shut to transfer some ink into the lid. With other ink pads, press some ink onto (for example) a plastic chinese container lid and work from there.
Keep some tissues or paper towel next to you so you can wipe off excess ink and clean your Aquash brush. That's what I am doing in my video when the brush exits the screen.
When I am watercolouring like this I ALWAYS use good quality watercolour paper/card. Stampin' Up!'s watercolour card is wonderful to work with and the inks blend beautifully on it. Otherwise I will use 300gsm Arches watercolour paper which is 100% cotton and just gorgeous to work with. Trust me, once you start playing around with watercolouring, you will really notice the difference between the crappy paper and the goooooooooood paper!! Anyways, the good stuff takes a heap of water and doesn't buckle up. And it blends beautifully.
You'll see in my little video that I start off with a paler colour - and the diluted version on it - and then use either more ink, or a darker colour to add shape and dimension.
I always let an area I have finished dry before moving on to the area next to it. This is so that the new wet colour will not bleed into the area next to it. I've messed up quite a few things by being too impatient and colouring more before the first bit was dry!
Use the clean damp brush to blend lighter and darker areas while the area is still damp.
Use the clean damp brush to 'lift' off excess colour and make 'paler' areas.

So, hopefully that all made sense!

Don't expect these videos so often because next week I am attempting to get back to work part time. I am trying to put some new coping mechanisms in place so fingers crossed that works for me.

One last thing, I have saved this video as much higher quality than the last two so hopefully you can see the detail a bit better. Let me know if there's any issues with it being too slow to load on your computer, etc :)

One MORE last thing, the stamp I used was Bee Daisy by Stampendous and the music in my video is "Birdhouse in your Soul" by They Might Be Giants. I forgot to put those credits on my video :( oopsies.

hugs, Tracy.

trying to contain hysterical laughter

2008-01-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

okie dokie.... before I continue on with trying to surpress my insane giggle fit, I want to quickly share a cute little card I made for a special someone. Sam sent me the most gorgeous Christmas card and I truly thought I'd posted one to her to but I mustn't have and I am feeling just awful about it. So tonight, after finally getting my naughty computer to behave and finish my Choc Box video, I made this little card for Sam. It will go in the post on Monday morning and hopefully get to her quick smart. I hope you like him Sam!

Recipe:
Stamps - Bee Daisy (Stampendous), So Many Sayings (SU)
Card - Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Rose Red, Summer Sun, Watercolour card
Ink - Black Stazon, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Cool Caribbean, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Not Quite Navy, Gold Encore
Other - Apple Green Grosgrain, Clear EP, Word Window Punch, Aquapainter
Cuttlebugging - D'vine Swirls and Textile Texture embossing folders (Provocraft)- Classic Scallop Circles and Circles Nestabilties dies (Spellbinders)

Now on to why I have been having an insane laughing fit - check out how much my blog is worth!

My blog is worth $9,597.18.
How much is your blog worth?

What on earth does that mean? Well, I have simply no idea. Nobody ever gave me any money for my blog! hehehahahehahe Hey, I could do a nice kitchen reno with that amount of moolah! .... where's the Pay Me option? Hey is that US dollars? They are worth more than Aussie dollars... tee hee

I also owe some lovely patient people some cards from my pre-Christmas card thing. I haven't forgotten. I need to get some addresses from you and I'll get some special cards out to you over the next week.

And Kylie, if you are reading, I will have your scallop die cuts in the post this week too :) Sorry for being so slow.

Au Chocolat Box Video

2008-01-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

Here’s my new video instalment. It’s me making a cute little box inspired by a project I found on Laurie Schmidlin’s blog ages and ages ago. You might remember I made another little box like this one. Anyways, these are the little boxes I was making for Christmas to put the Choc Hazelnut truffles and Coconut Ice I made in. I only managed to make about four of them in time for Christmas, so everyone else had to have their treats without the pretty box. I swear, I had good intentions!!

I really really hope you all enjoy this little video as it has given me no end of grief! It took me about half an hour to set up and video with my little webcam. Silly Windows Movie Maker kept crashing on me…. ARGHARGHARGH! I couldn’t keep count of how many times I had to hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to close it down and then reboot and start over again. I have now spent several days trying to get it going all right!

You’d laugh if you saw how I’ve got my webcam set up! I’ve taped a 40cm ruler to the front of my desk so my little webcam can perch on top of it so you can see what I’m doing ‘round the right way’. I keep bumping it and it wobbles all over the place!

You can see my poor naked fingernails in this video – post acrylic nail removal. They are sad and short and just be thankful that you can’t see how tragic they really look!

Anyhow, enough whinging about Movie Maker and my silly fingernail vanity! I am putting a picture file with the measurements for this cutie box in it at the end of this post. Please note that I converted the measurements into metric when I first made this box. I am sure there’s imperial measurements on Laurie’s blog… Here’s the link to her tutorial too for all of you who are metric-challenged!!! Hehe

On to minor wedding news – my Brett has told me that I have to learn how to WALTZ!!!! Good grief. Here I am, thinking of having a completely non-traditional wedding and he wants to throw in a waltz? I don’t have two left feet, I believe I have seventy four left feet, that is how uncoordinated I am when it comes to dancing!!

And in other news, our little family got Playstation II for Christmas and a couple of Singstar games (someone had fun playing the neighbours Singstar at the street Christmas party). You just HAVE to laugh that I have got high rank of Singstar in not one, but THREE different songs. You have to laugh because I am completely tone deaf and NEVER sing in front of anyone because of how awful I am! Hehehe… In case you are curious, those three songs are Poison – Every Rose has it’s Thorn, Alice Cooper – Poison, and REM – Everybody Hurts. The good news is that I am less tone deaf than the two other people in our home so I get all the highest scores… hehehe…

As for my health… I am battling on and will not let it beat me. I’d like to quote a favourite scene from a favourite show of mine – Farscape. I loved that show but Channel 9 stuffed it around so much and then canned it  sulk.

Ká Dargo “Am I going to die?”
Aeryn Sun “Yes…(dramatic pause)… but not today.”

Anyhoo, all suggestions for my videos are very very welcome :)

Once again a big thank you to Kristina Werner for inspiring me to even make little videos on my card making :)

Tomorrow I will share some of the absolutely gorgeous Christmas Cards I have received :)

Click on the next picture to get the full size instructions!

trying my hand at video editing

2008-01-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Thank you so much for all your wishes for me to get better. There's no improvement yet and I'm just trying to make it through each day however I can. You wouldn't believe how much a person can sleep and still feel so tired!

Enough of that, today I worked out I have a video editing program on my computer - Windows Movie Maker - so I thought I'd have a little go at making a video. I did mean to work on this well before Christmas, but better late than never.

This foray into video editing was inspired by one of my favourite blogs - Kristina Werner. If you haven't been to visit her blog and check out her amazing card making videos, then you really should have a look.

Anyhow, go kind on my first video. I'm not sure yet how to get it to be a bit better quality, but I thought I was clever working out how to speed nine minutes of video into under 2 minutes!

Oh yeah, you get to see my Christmassy candy apple red fingernails in this video. I'll probably never do red fingernails again (althought, never say never). This last week I went and got fake nail remover soak from the chemist and soaked those suckers off. I can say that I will NEVER get acrylic nails again. They've done so much damage to my real fingernails. Not to worry, it's all a learning experience.

AWOL for a little while

2007-12-17T23:14:00.000-08:00

Have to say sorry for not being around much. As much as I don't want to admit it, I am deeply unwell. I am working with my doctor to find some kind of solution but at the moment, everything is just so difficult. This time of year is not a good time to be sick. I have been doing lots and lots of sleeping and it's been very difficult to be excited or motivated about Christmas this year. I managed to get the majority of my Christmas cards posted yesterday. If I have missed anyone, I am very truly sorry.

On a brighter note, my wonderful fiance and I have set a wedding date for next October. If anyone has any ideas on how to do an absolute minimal budget wedding, I'd love to hear them.

Figgy Christmas Cards

2007-12-06T23:49:00.000-08:00

Hey! I had a lot of fun on Tuesday. My Favourite Florida Friend, Kathy gave me a live tutorial on how to do a One Sheet Wonder. I positioned my webcam so it was directed at my desk (and not at me - EWWWW) so Kathy would be able to see what I was doing, then we chittered chattered via our mics on our puters and Kathy walked me through how to chop up the designer paper to make up 10 cards from one sheet.

I've attached a few of them so you can see what we were up to! I'll just pop a little comment under each of them to let you know anything specific about each one :)
The colours for this little guy are Real Red, Always Artichoke and Figgy Pudding! That's Chocolate taffeta ribbon, and the penguin (from Punch Pals) is stamped on shimmery card and watercoloured. The snowflakes on the scallops and also the sentiment are embossed with white EP. This was the first one I finished and I think he's very cute!
Here's my Mr Snowman. I used my gorgeous Nestabilities dies to create the Always Artichoke scalloped circle and the vellum circle. I ran them through my cuttlebug a second time with a tan embossing mat to get the embossing on them both. Mr Snowman, the tree and the presents are all stamped on shimmery card and watercoloured. The red watercolouring is Cranberry Crisp which coordinates beautifully with the reds in the Figgy Pudding paper. Yum. The tree trunk and Mr Snowman's arms are both craft wire. Mr Snowman and the big present are popped up too. And there's lots of red blings decorating the tree. I love him.

This one was easy peasy to make. I don't know why it took me so long! The white swirl is a Basic Grey rub-on, and there's a little sparkly rhinestone at the centre of the swirlie.

Yum yum, I just ADORE Figgy Pudding papers! The black branch thingo on this card is one of the Basic Grey rub-ons. It matches the Figgy Pudding paper on the left of the card. Hardly surprising because Basic Grey makes Figgy Pudding too! LOLOLOL

Cuttlebugging!!!!!!!! And some big red blings on either side of the sentiment!

I am really excited about going up to Scrapsidaisy on Saturday to teach two of the classes at their card making day. I will let everyone know how it went when I get back home on Sunday.

One small reason for being a bit upset this week is that early in the week, the peacocks lost every last one of their babies. It happened during the night on the day I posted the photos on here. Maybe it was a fox that got them, I don't know, but for all that night and the next few days, the mothers were calling and grieving for their babies. It was the most heart wrenching call.

Okay, sleepy time for me. Don't forget to go to my *** 100th post *** and put a comment on there :)

100th Post Christmas RAK alert

2007-12-05T02:55:00.000-08:00

**** DON'T FORGET TO POP YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ON YOUR COMMENTS SO I CAN CONTACT YOU TO GET YOUR SNAIL MAIL SO I CAN SEND A CARD TO YOU!!! ****

Can you believe this is my 100th post on my bitty blog here? Well, I can't believe I am still blogging away! A HUGE thank you to all my wonderful friends out there in blog-land who are so encouraging to keep me blogging!

This thank you RAK goes out to all the sweet people who come visit me here. To EVERYONE who adds a comment to this post, I would like to send you a Christmas card RAK made by me. I know, that might not be a huge incentive! But happy mail is ALWAYS better than bills!

Pop a comment on here to let me know what makes you feel special. I have been feeling so low lately, and I think I'd really love to hear about all those things that make you guys feel good about yourselves.

Then just send me an email to enchantasy@exemail.com.au with the subject TRACY'S XMAS RAK and pop your snail mail in the message and I will send you some happy mail.

To make sure I can get your Christmas RAK to you in time, get your comment and you email to me by WEDNESDAY - DECEMBER THE 12TH.

{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}

Tomorrow I will add photos of some of the cards you might get! I've been a busy bee creating with the help of my very special friend, Kathy.

A Menagerie

2007-11-27T22:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I crawled out of bed (I am NOT a morning person) and went to the kitchen and looked outside and was welcomed by the sight of Mamma Peahen and her three baby chickies. This is the photo I managed to get. Mamma Peahen was so funny and proud. She honked at me loudly, as if to say "Look what I did!" and let me watch her fluffy little babies for a little while before she herded them off through the back fence.

This afternoon, we we got home home, there were two Mamma Peahens in our back yard and SIX little chickies!! Both Mamma Peahens paraded their little treasures for us to see. I threw them some seed and the Mamma's gobbled it up. I managed to get lots of photos of them. This one is the best one I think. The little babies are so cute and funny and fluffy. If you click on the first photo, you can see the little chickies have long necks and distinctive feather patterns to help keep them camouflaged. I really love this time of year, Spring down here in Australia. Last year I don't think any of the baby chickies survived. I am hoping that they have a better success rate this year. It is really lovely to watch the babies grow up and change into gorgeously coloured peafowl.

My kitty cat has been in a crazy mood lately. I busted her yesterday being completely mental. She managed to get up into the shelves in our walk in wardrobe and knocked down a plastic bag full of odd clothes. Miss Bijou then proceeded to tuck herself into it like a sleeping bag and this is how I found her. She was most indignant when she was sprung being a mental kitty. Sometimes she will get up into one of Brett's shelves in the walk-in and knock all his balls of socks off the shelf so that she has a nice space to sleep there.

And finally, here is the story of Mr Owlie. I work part-time in the home office of friends who live on acreage. This morning, not long after I got up there, my friend comes in with a tawny frogmouth owl in his hands. He found it caught on a barbed wire fence and he had cut it off the fence and brought it back to the house so that we could remove the piece of barbed wire from his wing. So I held Mr Owlie, while my friend removed the barb wire as carefully as he could. At that point, we didn't realise Mr Owlie had stabbed himself with a barb. When we worked that out, we carefully popped Mr Owlie into the bottom of a cage and contacted a friendly vet, who will rehabilitate him so he can be released back up on the property. Mr Owlie seemed to know that we didn't want to hurt him. He didn't struggle, he just seemed intent on pretending he was a tree branch. That's how they camouflage themselves. You can see Mr Owlie in the next photo, he slitted his eyes open so he could see what I was up to but he remained very still. We had opened the cage to remove the water bowl so we could transport him safely to the vet. Hopefully I will have updates on lovely Mr Owlie as he recovers. Mr Owlie has very very soft feathers.

Quicko edit to say that my kitty cat, Bijou, is an inside cat only. Actually, she is petrified of the outside world. She isn't responsible for the untimely demise of last years batch of peafowl babies! She's innocent I tell you!!!

BRAK'd!

2007-11-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

I have just received a beautiful belated birthday RAK (Random Act of Kindness) from Jimmi Mayo (AKA jpmayo on SCS). Isn't it gorgeous? It's got the works on it, bling, ribbon, beautiful patterned paper, Cuttlebug embossing, and teabag folding. I love the colours too, makes me think of Autumn.

Thank you so much Jimmi for making me feel special!

Christmas with a star on top

2007-11-22T03:31:00.000-08:00

This is my copycatcard for this weeks challenge which is to make a Christmas card using red and green and a star.

I adhered Dashing paper to a chipboard star, then coated it with Crystal Effects and covered it with clear microbeads. It looks really cool in real life. I used one of my new Cuttlebug embossing folders on the Mellow Moss piece of card. I wasn't sure if I'd really like the French Script embossing folder, but it really does look wonderful and I'm glad that I bought it. The colours in this photo are a bit deceptive... It really doesn't look that orange! Honest!

CARD: Real Red, Whisper White, Mellow Moss, Dashing DP
ACCESSORIES: Crystal Effects, Clear Microbeads, Red Gingham
CUTTLEBUG: French Script embossing folder
PUNCHES: 1 3/8 Square, 1 1/4 Square

Kindred Spirits

2007-11-21T03:54:00.000-08:00

Super quick post tonight. It's getting very late and I'm being harassed to get my sorry self to bed!! LOL I have to share these creations with you first!

My first thing to share is that my gorgeous friend, Dee, sent me lots and lots of treasures yesterday. Did I feel special? Oh, I felt ultra spoilt! I am sooooo excited to have such pretty goodies to play with. Miss Dee, you are a very naughty girlie!!

Dee also shared a link to a tutorial for making little 3D puffy flowers...

Of course I had to try making them right away, and I had to play with some of my new goodies too. Here is the result ----> I will say that Miss Kathy and Miss Dee are the inspiration behind my 'kindred spirits' card. I treasure our friendship very deeply and you both mean the world to me.

Now I really need to hurry myself up.

I am in the process of trying to come up with a wonderful card for this latest copycatcards challenge. The challenge is to make a red and green Christmas card with *stars* on it.... So far I have covered some little chipboard stars with pretty red and green paper and coated them with Crystal Effects and then clear microbeads. Did I made a mess with the microbeads??? Little suckers are everywhere now! LOL So I will share a quick photo of the pretty stars here --->

So everyone get their creativity out and head on over to copycatcards and take part in this fun challenge!

Okay, okay! Bed time for me!
mwah!

Just some silly blogthings!!

2007-11-20T00:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, this post is just for fun...

You Are a Cranberry and Popcorn Strung Tree

Christmas is all about showcasing your creative talents.
From cookies to nicely wrapped presents, your unique creations impress everyone.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

#######

You Are Prancer

You are the perfect reindeer, with perfect hooves and perfect flying form.

Why You're Naughty: Because you're Santa's pet, and you won't let anyone show you up.

Why You're Nice: You have the softest fur and the sweetest carrot breath.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Jingle Bells...

2007-11-17T17:19:00.001-08:00

Okay, it's been a week since my last post, and I have to say, I'm very surprised that the usual suspects haven't been told off for not posting! Anyways, I will blame the nasty cold/flu that my son gave me!! I still have the tail end of it and today I am feeling so dizzy and wonky. Maybe I have some fluid in my ears... Who knows. Luckily I don't have to go anywhere so I will just take a peaceful day at home.

Anyways, that's probably the reason it's taken me so long to make this next card. I got this gorgeous BossKut die from Ebay in the post this week. It cuts four sizes of daisy type flowers and it's so sweet. I just really wanted to see how other brand dies work in my cuttlebug and I was really happy to see that this one worked beautifully.

If you click on the next photo, this is my evolution of the card! hehe I originally thought I would use my precious sheet of Figgy Pudding paper... but in the end it didn't work out that way! The swirls on the real red card were done by running it through my Cuttlebug with D'vine Swirls embossing folder, then gently rubbing my gold Encore ink pad over it. The gold ink mostly just gets on the raised up parts of the card and looks very pretty and very Christmassy.

STAMPS: Riviting
INK: Gold Encore
CARD: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Real Red, Brushed Gold, Cosmo Cricket DP
ACCESSORIES: Chocolate Tafetta, Clear EP, rhinestone brads
CUTTLEBUG: D'vine Swirls, BossKut Build a Flower
PUNCHES: 1 3/8 Circle, 1 1/4 Circle

The next two photos are of cards I did at my class on Tuesday. I probably should have called in sick because I was feeling so ill and it was very difficult to get everything prepared for the class, but I soldiered on dosed up on flu tablets.

Tag, I'm it!!

2007-11-11T22:25:00.001-08:00

The lovely Michelle over at Princess Matilda Loves To Stamp has tagged me :) So here I go with it!

1. If you could have 100.00 worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments, which would you choose?
Too easy! That would be embellishments! Specially lots of sparkly ones... and Prima flowers.... and brads and ribbons.... *sigh*

2. If you had to choose between using only stamps or ribbons, which would you choose?
Stamps of course! How silly!!! hehe You know, you can make "faux ribbons" with stamps!

3. If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts but could only do one for a whole year…which would you do?
Can you guess what I'm going to answer? Yup, you got it - Cards!

4. Would you rather own a scrap booking store or have your own scrapping room at home...
I want my own room!!! At least that way I could close the door on my chaotic mess instead of have it spread out over the lounge room and dining room! Oh deary me!

5. What is your CURRENT card making or scrapping style?
Do I have a style? LOL If you really want to pin me down to a specific style, I really don't know what you'd call it. Hmmm.... Tracy-style!

At the moment I love using sparkly things... and my shiny new Cuttlebug! And lots of layers and ribon and punches... yeah, Tracy-style!

Here are the rules…………..Please answer the questions on your blog and tag 5 more people to answer the same questions……….make sure you list on your blog who you are tagging….Thanks!!

Okay, I'm not going to name anyone specifically because sometimes people don't like being tagged! I'm going to say, if anyone out there in blogland feels like taking up this tagging, go for it! And please let me know because I love to read your answers :)

I've got a new wheelie chair

2007-11-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

I've got a new wheelie chair... and a nasty stuffy up cold :( But I love me new wheelie chair! It's a lovely black leather 'manager's' chair and it's oh-so-comfy! Perfect for being creative. My new wheelie chair was my birthday present for my sweethearts parents over in Perth :) Thank you sooooooooo incredibly much Judy & Bruce!

I'm just in the middle of preparing for my card making class for Abscrapped at Toukley tomorrow. I'm going to take my Cuttlebug along with me. I ran some heavy duty kitchen aluminium foil through it with the Spots & Dots folder. It came out looking very cool! This little photo is sort of a sneak peak of one of the cards in progress for tomorrow :)

Cross your fingers for me that this nasty stuffy-up head cold I have is gone tomorrow when I wake up!!! *sniff*

It's my party...

2007-11-11T13:19:00.000-08:00

Well, that marks me another year older. Joy, oh joy! LOL I was told to say I'm still 25, but I'll be happy with still 29!! Not that I'm much over that, but anyways!! hehehe

I was very much spoilt and probably would have been more spoilt but I have come down with Edyn's nasty cold/flu and am feeling a bit rotten! How typical! LOL

Here is the gorgeous amethyst dragonfly pendant that my wonderful friend, Nat, gave me for my birthday. Isn't she a sweetheart?

A huge thank you to all my gorgeous friends & family that made me feel so special this Sunday!

And next up is my sample for this week's copycatcards challenge which is to use circles in your card. Lots of circular things going on here! Circle Cuttlebug embossing, circle colluzzling, circle scallop punch, flower stamps in circles.... oh, and circle rhinestones and pearls! hehe
STAMPS: Priceless, Linen background
INK: Certainly Celery
CARD: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery
ACCESSORIES: Paper piercer, white gel pen, Prima daisies, tiny rhinestones, Kaiser Pearls
CUTTLEBUG: Spots & Dots, Tiny Bubbles
PUNCHES: Scallop Circle

Another Bee!

2007-11-09T19:54:00.001-08:00

Here's another Stampendous Bee card using "Bee Daisy". I stamped him on both sides of my lovely new Cosmo Cricket Hey Sugar paper and paper pieced him together onto watercolour paper. What you won't be able to see from the photo is that he is built up in several layers. The ribbon is from Basic Grey Infuse range. For the swirlie bit, I embossed it with D'vine Swirls on my Cuttlebug using Not Quite Navy card, then I took my gold ink pad and rubbed it gently over the top. Because the Cuttlebug folders do such lovely deep embossing, only the top bits get ink on them. You will have to believe me that it looks very much prettier in real life! I edged all the layers with gold ink too.

STAMPS: Bee Daisy (Stampendous)
INK: Black Stazon, Gold Encore, Sahara Sand, Cameo Coral, Rose Red
CARD: Rose Red, Not Quite Navy, watercolour card, Cosmo Cricket - Hey Sugar - Heartstrings
ACCESSORIES: Basic Grey Infuse Ribbon, Rhinestone brads, aquapainters, Cuttlebug - D'vine Swirls, White gel pen
PUNCHES: Small Corner Rounder

Kathy is the bees knees!

2007-11-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

Okay! I'm sorry for the silly pun that you will all get in a minute or two of reading this post!

I got another birthday present parcel in my mailbox yesterday! This was from my gorgeous friend, Kathy. Lots of lovely stamped images to colour (including cutie bugs in jars, dorky birds and Thomas Kinkade), a beautiful Mr Giraffe card and a gorgeous stamp that she just knew I was yearning for! It's "Bee Trio" by Stampendous. Ohhh, those bees are such cuties. And naughty Kathy sent me all this on top of the parcel she sent me not long ago containing the D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder. My Kathy is spoiling me!
Also in the post yesterday I received my Scrapsidaisy order with the beautiful new Cosmo Cricket Hey Sugar papers and also some Basic Grey Figgy Pudding papers. I'm in paper heaven right about now. I had to start creating. The little bees were just begging to be stamped and coloured. So I stamped them with Stazon on watercolour card and coloured them with inks and aquapainters. I think they are just darling. After I'd coloured them I realised that they would look lovely on some of that Hey Sugar paper... the rest just flowed from there. I'm really happy with the result.

This card turned out perfectly for the current copycatcards 'wings' challenge. You've still got a couple of days to enter a wings card for the prize so head on over there and get creating! The Recipe!!
STAMPS: Bee Trio (Stampendous)
INK: Black Stazon, Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, Not Quite Navy, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Gold Encore
CARD: Tempting Turquoise, Not Quite Navy, watercolour card, Cosmo Cricket - Hey Sugar - Heartstrings
ACCESSORIES: Turquoise grosgrain, Clear EP, aquapainters
PUNCHES: Small Corner Rounder, Word Window

~* Scrapsidaisy *~

2007-11-06T02:43:00.000-08:00

Leisa, from Scrapsidaisy invited me to come up and teach a class at their card making day on the 3rd of November.

I had the most wonderful time up at Scrapsidaisy on the weekend. It was wonderful to meet Leisa and Julieann and to be able to put faces to familiar names. Everyone was just so friendly and welcoming and I felt very much at home there.

Now, let me tell you, the Scrapsidaisy store is just gorgeous! It's an absolute treasure trove. If I had the money, I could have spent a fortune in there!! All those beautiful stamps and papers and embellishments. Oh so gorgeous! It was very dangerous for me to be in that yummy shop!!!!

Here is a photo of some of the wonderful ladies who joined in my class.
This next photo is of the card I taught in my class. It's a Criss Cross Card and I used the wonderful Boho Blossoms stamp sets from My Favorite Things. I love this stamp set.
And this is another sample Criss Cross card I made with the lovely papers Leisa sent me.
I was soooooooooo lucky to be able to pick up my prize I won for making the Scrapsidaisy banner. I now have my very own Cuttlebug, and I am soooooo excited! I have already played with it so much that I have completely warped one of the plates! hehe!

Anyways, I want to say an enormous THANK YOU to Leisa and Julieann of Scrapsidaisy for inviting me up to teach a class at their card making day. I had a truly wonderful time. And I must have done okay with the class I taught because they have invited me back to do more classes on the 8th of December! Ooooh, I can't hardly wait. I am going to start designing on the weekend for the classes!!!

Ooooh!!! Presents from Miss Dee

2007-11-06T02:07:00.001-08:00

Lookee what was in my mail box today!! It's an early birthday present from my sweet friend Dee :) How gorgeous is this?? She's made all these gorgeous goodies with Le Jardin designer paper and it's all just GORGEOUS!! What you can't see is that there's lots of lovely Dove choc caramels in the sweet tin Dee has altered for me! Mmmmmm, they are very yummy! Click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see the adorable A Muse penguin stamp! It is the cutest! I had to use it right away. I have to get Dee to tell me how she made the pen with the tiny microbeads - it's beautiful. The card Dee made for me with the Le Jardin paper is just beautiful! I love how she made the flower on it with circle punchies. And the pearls are so sweet. Oh Miss Dee, I love it all. You have very much spoilt me and made me feel very very special.

Here's the cutie card I just made with my sweet new penguin stamp! You will see I have been getting good use of my shiny new Cuttlebug... More about that on my next post.
And just while I am on the track of making cards, I am currently making a batch of cards to give to my dear friend Rosie. She is doing some fundraising for orphans and I wanted to help somehow. I will make plenty more penguin cards for her too. The next photo is the first few cards I have made for Rosie.

A glorious weekend away

2007-11-05T03:48:00.000-08:00

I have been very excited and nervous this past week, preparing for my class that I had been invited to do up at Scrapsidaisy on the NSW mid-north coast at Wingham (it's kind of near Taree).

Very dear friends, Rosie and Hoagy, were so kind to invite us up to stay with them at Nabiac for the weekend. Nabiac is about 30 minutes drive from Wingham. I am not able to say thank you enough to both Rosie and Hoagy for all they have done for us over the weekend. They have spoilt us very much and made us feel so at home. Nothing was too much trouble. They even drove down here so we could follow them back up to their home as we have never been there before (It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive away).

My son, Edyn, and I went up to Nabiac. When we got there, it was late and dark and we couldn't see anything much. When we woke up early on Saturday morning, we woke to the most breathtaking view. My photography skills are very much lacking and my photos do not do justice to the view from our bedroom window.

Make sure you click on all the photos to see a bigger version. It was a cloudy, rainy weekend, and the skies were very dramatic. My photos just don't capture that beauty :(
This next photo is from Sunday morning. I woke up a bit earlier on Sunday, and there was mists/clouds rolling off the hills. So very, very beautiful. I could imagine having an art studio up there. I was very much inspired to paint and draw and create.
I have never felt so at peace as I did up there. I sat for a long time, absorbing the view.

This next photo is of one of the wallabies that came hopping by. A bit further on, we saw another wallaby and it's little baby joey hopping around, exploring and looking for food. The zoom on my camera wasn't strong enough to capture them. But they sure were cute!
Rosie and Hoagy have a horse named Danny Boy. Here's a photo of Danny Boy saying hello to my Edyn.
On Sunday morning we went down to Foster and Edyn swam for hours in the big rock pool at the beach. Doesn't the sky look so vast and dramatic in this next photo?? We were lucky that it didn't rain until after we'd left the beach! I want to say that I had a most wonderful day on Saturday visiting with Leisa and Julieann from Scrapsidaisy. I felt like we were old friends :) I am going to write a nice big post about my day with Scrapsidaisy tomorrow because it is getting very very late now and I have work tomorrow. If I try and do it now, I just won't do justice to the gorgeous day I had. And I have so many more photos that I want to share! See what happens when I go away for a few days?!

hugs,
Tracy

PS. This next photo is of the lighthouse my lovely friend Kathy climbed on the weekend. It is Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse in Florida. I can't believe she climbed up all those stairs all the way to the top! Whoo hoooo! She did awesome! I think I would have collapsed before I got halfway. But I would have to blame tendonitis in the foot I fell on when I fell down some stairs the other week.

A Flower for Dave

2007-10-29T04:40:00.000-07:00

You may have read not long ago on my blog about Dave Abbott, our Australian General Manager for Stampin' Up! Michelle has done something very very touching and asked us Aussie demonstrators to make a flower for Dave and send it on to her. She is arranging them as a glorious paper flower bouquet and she will take it to Dave's wife to let her know how highly we regard Dave and that he will be very much missed. This is my contribution to the bouquet. I will take it to Michelle tomorrow.

Origami Lily

2007-10-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

Made with the Spring Showers designer paper :) He's perty!

Edited to add the link to the origami lily instructions!!
I'd never made an origami flower before... making the flower for Dave (see next post) brought on a desire to make a 3D paper flower. I made this one first and then realised I was supposed to be making a flatish stamped flower! I'm so silly sometimes...
I tell you what, I am having trouble doing things with my new nails... I wonder how long they take to get used to?

Another Criss Cross Card

2007-10-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

I was in need of a little therapy last night and ended up making this cute little criss-cross card. It's only little and measure 10.5x9.5cm (or approximately 4" x 3.75" for those readers who are metrically challenged!).

Isn't the designer paper just divine? It's Fancy Pants Botanicals in Daisy and Tulip.

LOL Have to laugh at myself. Trying to tie a nice bow with my new fingernails... now that was not an easy feat!!

6 x 6 Criss Cross Card

2007-10-27T01:45:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge for copycatcards is to make a card with buttons on it. So here's my entry complete with buttons, prima flowers and Urban Lily paper :)

Happy Birthday to my Brett ~ and lots of news

2007-10-24T04:06:00.000-07:00

Today is my beloved Brett's birthday so I made a special card for him :) using some gorgeous Cosmo Cricket paper and the new Cuttlebug embossing folder that my sweetheart friend, Kathy , sent to me. I made the flower using the small and large oval punches. Lots of punches, rubbons and sponging going on in this card.

My gorgeous friend Kathy sent me a wonderful parcel that I got in my mailbox yesterday. She is such a sweetie! Kathy sent us a lovely book to read, and a cute little mini booklet template. I just adore the sunbathing girls in hats on the card she sent me. So cheery and summery. But the absolute icing was the Cuttlebug embossing folder she surprised me with! It's the D'vine Swirl folder. Kathy sent it for an early birthday present ~ and I love it. You know, photos of the texture just don't do it justice. As I don't have my own Cuttlebug - yet - I begged my friend Michelle to let me come over and try it out with her Cuttlebug!! I am such a pest ~ I am sure Michelle is going to stop answering her phone soon!!!

Edyn and I used the little mini booklet template that Kathy sent me to make a little booklet for Edyn to decorate for Brett's birthday. If you click on the photo below you can see the little acrostic poem that Edyn wrote for Brett. It's really very sweet. Edyn looks up to Brett so much and when they are not bickering and butting heads (not in a bad way, but they do it to bug me!), they have a really wonderful father/son relationship.

And finally I took the plunge and got my nails done. I hate my real fingernails. They are all deformed looking. So I have finally done something about it! Look at my new nails in the next photo! They are perty and STRAIGHT! and no longer deformed looking. But, oh boy! they feel so weird! I'm not even used to having nail polish on... hehe... I've never had nice nail before. Hopefully I don't manage to wreck them before going up to Scrapsidaisy next weekend! I'm notorious for messing up my nails.

A Sad Time

2007-10-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

I just want to take a moment to say a very sad goodbye to Dave Abbott, the Australian General Manager of Stampin' Up! who passed away last week. I was really taken back by the news. Aussie Dave (as he was affectionately named by the US Stampin' Up! peoples) was just about the same age as me (early 30's) and even though I knew he had been battling serious illness for quite some time, I never imagined it was quite that serious.

I first met Aussie Dave at the first Stampin' Up! information night in Sydney in March 06. He is a really genuine fellow and made us all feel comfortable and important. We could all see and feel how much he enjoyed working with Stampin' Up! I know that all of the demonstrators who had met or spoken with him are just devasted by this loss. I feel so much for his wife and young family.

Dave will be very sadly missed. He was a treasure and I am glad I had the pleasure of knowing him, however briefly it was.

Workshop Joy

2007-10-21T04:43:00.000-07:00

This week has been a bit up and down. On Thursday I decided to try flying down some stairs. Not a clever thing to do because the crash landing at the bottom was NOT pleasant. At least it was only down the last few stairs!!! Anyways, I twisted up my left foot - OUCHIES. It is starting to get better now but it's still a little swollen and I have some interesting "Perfect Plum" coloured bruises.

One of my sweetheart friends had a workshop for me yesterday to help me try and get out of 'pending' status. My wonderful fiance drove me over there because I have a manual car and with one foot out of action, I didn't have enough feet to drive my car! hehe... I can't say thank you enough to my friend for having the workshop for me. My problem is that I'm completely un-pushy and can't seem to get any one to have a workshop for me! So my wonderful friend took matters into her own hands and organised it all :) I hope everyone who came had a lovely time, because I certainly did!

Here's the little hostess gift that I made for my friend filled with yummy choccies.

And here's the make and take we all had lots of fun making :)

MINI TAKE OUT BOX RECIPE
STAMPS: Looks Like Spring
INK: Barely Banana, Bashful Blue
CARD: Whisper White, Barely Banana, Spring Showers dp
ACCESSORIES: Chocolate Grosgrain, Buttons, Coluzzle chinese takeout template
PUNCHES: Spring Bouquet

WONDERFUL CARD RECIPE
STAMPS: Scribble (Doodle) Jumbo wheel, Warm Words
INK: Basic Brown, Close to Cocoa, Brocade Blue
CARD: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue
ACCESSORIES: Bluebird Grosgrain

Enchantasy

two cards ♥

welcome to the world, Matilda

for my sister’s birthday

Sydney’s dust storm

sharing

owlie birthday card

more foil embossing

Embossing with foil

I missed a card

a post for Kathy

A new card

amused

cute overload

oooh new schtuff

sneak peak...

more wildlife pics

young mr kooka

blue for you

crochet critters magnifique

Mr Kooka and other random photos

Mel's froggy note book

gumnut baby crochet hat

this bird is utterly insane

card making at my place

more crochet madness

creative cuteness amuses me no end

MP3 player crochet sock

I made stuff

patches and the peacock part 2

patches and the peacock

mini cookbook review

my little sister got married

gift for my sister

OMG, it's a card!

just had to post this pic

bird watching

update on 'Patches' the kitty

just because

mmmmm..... Vanilla Latte!

Hopefully I've found Patches home

My sister's wedding invitations

Ourimbah Public School Band

another video

scrapbook page

Froggy Cards

a new video for you

Mother's day card

mother's day notebooks

Being silly

windows ~ the video

windows

Back from the brink

POSTAL DETAILS

Message From Tracy

grrr....

will be AWOL for some time

a new video - finally

the 3 'B's' ~ a copycatcard challenge

Australian Papercrafts Issue 74 on sale now

nearly forgot

My Valentine

Valentine's wishes for you

Friendship Blooms in Blues

4 always...

a card at last!

copycatcard - the long and tall of it

another hair pic

This weeks creations...

Time for a haircut?

RIP Heath Ledger

Faux Silk

Copycatcards is up and running for 2008!!!

Bee Colourful

trying to contain hysterical laughter

Au Chocolat Box Video

trying my hand at video editing

AWOL for a little while

Figgy Christmas Cards

**** 100th Post Christmas RAK alert ****

100th Post Christmas RAK alert