My Favourite thing..............

The Stampman are hosting a blog hop over the next few days and Jill asked what our favourite project was for this year. This was quite a difficult one for me because it's the year I discovered Promarkers - which I love and wouldn't want to be without now, so lots of my cards are coloured in with Promarkers. Having said that my favourite project was a scrapbook page using a favourite photo of my son Jake playing in the sea. That picture really sums up alot of things about us coming to Australia, the fab weather, the wonderful beaches, the boys being able to spent more time outdoors, the sense of freedom Australia has and best of all, I feel like I'm on holiday all of the time!!! We've been here 16months now and there's no sign of it wearing off yet! This page also features acetate and alcohol inks and use of the Craft Robo, it's one I really remember enjoying doing.

This is my first blog hop and I've really enjoyed spending the evening sipping red wine and eating chocolate (well it is Christmas!) and catching up with some familiar blogs and discovering some new ones too. Cheers Jo x

A late post.

Here's a quick card I made this afternoon. Obviously an image from Mo's Digital Pencil with the same technique as yesterdays cards, simply mounted on to bazzill card stock that has been stamped with Kaisercraft Flourish stamps. Very simple but quite effective I thought.

We have just returned from our middle son (Jakes) graduation from Primary School. He made a speech in front of his entire year group (okay only 18 kids but parents as well) and he "thanked his parents for bringing him to Australia for a better life", I was so surprised he had never said he was going to say that and it brought a tear to my eye. It makes me feel really good to know that we made the right decision to move here and that it is appreciated deep down. I'm going to bed now feeling all warm and fuzzy! Night x

Here's his 'official graduation photo'.

I'm Back.........

I'm back...... for now anyway. Well there seems to be tumbleweed rollling through this blog, I can't believe it's been 2 months since I last blogged. I've had my mom visiting me from the UK for 6 weeks and she kept making me take her out and forced me to eat cheesecake and muffins most days (hello mom)!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've got the 'outlaws' here now until the middle of January so I'm managing to find a bit of time here and there (when I need a break!) to craft.

I've made lots of copies of this card for new friends I have made in the last year. The idea came from a combination of blogs I've looked at recently. The first one is Mel Stampz, she has some great ideas and fantastic tutorials and the second one is A Consuming Passion, Sue recently made an easel card so I thought I'd give one and go and loved how easy they are.

The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil, coloured in with Promarkers and mounted on card stock stamped with Kaisercraft Flourishes.

I've have also decided to step down from Tuesday Taggers for the time being. I've got the children on holiday for 7 weeks now and once they are back at school in February I am planning on getting involved in more local craft workshops in a bid to make some crafty friends. I'm sure Tuesday Taggers will continue to go from strength to strength, they are all amazingly talented girls and I wish them all well.

That's all for now. Have a good day everyone. x

Tuesday Taggers

Tuesday Taggers time again. This week Teri on the design team has given us all one of her gorgeous images - a lovely little harvest mouse - for us to use how ever we see fit. She is also very kindly going to be giving this weeks winner 3 of her digital images of their choosing. Hope all that makes sense.

I decided to cut my little mouse out and colour him in in promarkers. Then I stamped a poppy image from, the stamp is a Funstamps one called Scarlet Poppy, and coloured that in with promarkers and mounted the mouse on top. The flowers are from Kaisercraft and the black card stock is from my stash.

Pop across to Tuesday Taggers and have a look at what the other DT members have come up with this week. Cheers. Jo x

Mo's new challenge blog

Well, you've probably noticed that I love Mo Mannings digital images so I'm thrilled that she has started a new challenge blog. The link is here. The theme for this week is to use the colour 'perple' and any of Mo's images. Here is my entry.

Birthday Card

Hi,

Had a bit of time today to make a quick birthday card for my middle son, Jake. He'll be 12 on Thursday, where does the time go, it doesn't seem 5 minutes since he was toddling around in a nappy and not answering back!!

Anyway I thought this digital image was quite appropriate for him as he is always on wheels of some sort, be it his bike, rollerblades, ripstick or in this case a skateboard - its not too surprising that he is up to his elbow in plaster at the moment as he fell over rollerblading on the first day of the school holidays!

The digital image is from Mo's Digital Pencil, coloured with promarkers and scraps of paper from stash that were from Kaisercraft, as was the rub-on.


Hope he like it!

Tuesday Taggers

Tuesday Taggers time again. I have missed a week or two what with renovating the garden and the boys being on school holiday, I haven't even been in my craft room for two weeks until yesterday. So, the theme for Tuesday Taggers this week is 'Shades of Autumn', which is entirely appropriate in the northern hemisphere, not quite so here in Oz though, I'm looking at a cloudless blue sky, blossom on the trees and sunshine from dawn till dusk (well, today anyway!). Still, I think I remembered autumn well enough to come up with this card.


The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil - I love this image, it reminds me my youngest son a few years ago in the leaves at Cliffe Castle in Keighley. It's coloured in with Pro markers and mounted on scraps of bazzill card stock, the ribbon is from my stash. Have a great day.

Tuesday Taggers

Tuesday Taggers time again. This week the theme is 'Die Cuts and Punches', I've made a card using a large die cut snowflake from Craftwork Cards and punched some smaller snowflakes out with a punch. All mounted on left over bits of card. The snowflakes are all covered in fine glitter but it doesn't show up too well in the photograph.

Hi,

Time for Tuesday Taggers again. This weeks theme is 'buttons and bows', in whatever form you like, so I have made another card. The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil coloured with promarkers. The background paper is from Trimcraft the Smirk range and the buttons and ribbon and flowers are from my stash. Go and check out what the other design team members have come up with this week at Tuesday Taggers.

A few cards.........

Spent a very nice day making a few cards. All the images are from Mo's Digital pencil, they are such lovely drawings, I'm thoroughly enjoying 'colouring in'. The cardstock and paper is Bazzill and Kaisercraft, the flowers are from my stash and of course coloured with promarkers.

Chance to win.............

How would you like to win a $250 shopping spree at the Scrapping Cottage? That's right - the winner will get to choose $250 worth of products at The Scrapping Cottage!

Heres the link, take a look.

Tuesday Taggers.

Tuesday Taggers time again. This weeks theme is to fill a bottle or jar and decorate it as a gift. Now, if I'm honest, I have cheated this week, I have made a Journalling Jar and notebook for my Mom. The jar is filled with slips of paper with questions on for her to answer and write down in the note book. There are questions like 'describe your wedding dress', 'whats the best thing that has happened to you', 'how/where did you meet Dad' etc., etc. The idea is that as some point I will get the notebook back and be able to scrapbook photos and memories of my Mom and know some of the things that we very often don't ever get round to talking about with our loved ones. The cheat is that I actually made this the year before last for Mothers Day for her and the reason I haven't done anything new is because my fingers are so flamin' sore from cutting trees down and laying slabs at the weekend that I'm not managing to do any crafting at the moment - didn't think that through very well did I!

If I remember rightly the paper is from 'Deja View', ribbon and flowers from stash and the lovely little jar was from Ikea.

Made this card last Friday for no other reason than that I love the digital image from Digital Pencil, it is called 'End of Summer' and I coloured it in with promarkers of course. The background paper and flowers are both from Kaisercraft. I've decided not to put a sentiment on it until I'm ready to use it.

Tuesday Taggers....

This weeks theme for Tuesday Taggers is 'Retro'. I think it's fair to say that we all struggled with this one, me included. I had planned to set aside a day to do this challenge as I wanted to do a scrapbook page but as it turned out I had a nasty case of 'gastro' and so I hadn't left enough time to do what I had originally planned, nevermind.

The background paper is from K & Co called Girl Scout. The images from my childhood were downloaded from the internet and hopefully you can just about make out '1970' in vellum. The flowers are from Kaisercraft. The photo of me was taken in 1973 when I was 5.

Pop across to Tuesday Taggers and have a look at what the rest of the design team came up with this week.

Just a quick post. Made this card today for a friend of Lewis's for his birthday on Sunday.

The spaceman is a digital download from Mo's Digital Pencil, coloured in with promarkers of course. It is decoupaged as well but it doesn't show up too well in the picture. The letters and numbers are just random chipboard bits that I had left over - thank goodness he's got a friend with a short name! Hope he likes it.

Tuesday Taggers Week 13

This weeks theme from Tuesday Taggers is 'The Birds and the Bees', chosen by Janet, I think, who also happens to be celebrating her birthday today - Happy Birthday Janet x.

My offering this week is a tag, stamped with a little bird from the Francoise Read range of stamps called 'Robins', it is actually decoupaged as well, but I don't think that it shows up too well in the photo. It is all coloured in with promarkers. The 'just because' stamp is from Studio G and the tiny little flowers were in my stash but I have no recollection of buying them actually I don't remember ever seeing them before - maybe the stash fairy left them. Pop across to the Tuesday Taggers blog and have a look at the design teams fantastic offering this week.

Tuesday Taggers Week 12

Flowers.

This week Tuesday Taggers theme is 'flowers'. I decided to make a card this week for a friends birthday. I have used a digital image from Lily-Boos Boutique and coloured it with promarkers - I've got the whole set now and love 'em. The paper is left over scraps from My Minds Eye - Grow and Bloom Range, some bazzill card stock and ribbon from stash. The fancy edge is done using a Martha Stewart punch, the flowers are also from stash and coloured with pro markers to match card stock. There are several new designers on the Tuesday Taggers Team this week so pop across and have alook at a whole range of very different ideas and styles.

Here is a card I made for a friend in the UK, a few weeks ago. Her birthday was last Friday so I hope she received it okay and that it is 'safe' for me to post the picture now.

It is another Tri-fold card using Inkadinkado and gel a tins stamps. I hope she liked it!

Week 11 Tuesday Taggers

Week 11 already, the weeks sure do fly by. This weeks brief from Tuesday Taggers is to make a 'wall hanging'.

I really enjoyed doing this and got the chance to use a Kaisercraft wall hanging kit that I have had for a few months now. I chose my own papers and went with the new Kaisercraft range called 'Offshore', I love these papers because they are so bright and sea-sidey and go perfectly with the photos that I took a few weeks ago of the boys on the beach in Torquay, doesn't look much like winter does it?!

So I painted the edges of the bits of board with blue paint and then put paper over them and neatened the edges. Mounted the photos on to orange Bazzill and stuck them in position, did a little bit of stamping with an Autumn Leaves Swirly stamp, added some embellishments from my stash and some orange flowers and fastened the whole lot together with ribbon. The rub on quotes say "cherish the time spent together" and You never know when you're making a memory".

I'm on a roll...........

Wow I'm on a roll this week. Yesterday I made this lovely little desk clock. The blank pieces are from Kaisercraft as is the paper (Sublime range), the brads and rub-ons. The flowers are from my stash. I really enjoyed doing this and am keeping this one for myself but might do some more for pressies, they might turn out slightly better now I know what I'm doing. The photograph in the frame isn't the best but it is of me and James on Alcatraz with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background during my 40th birthday trip to San Francisco - it's the only picture we got of the two of us together the whole time we were there!

The card is for my God-Parents Diamond wedding anniversary. It is a Tri-fold card (can't remember where I had the instructions from though!). The card and paper is from DCWV, the Far East Range and the stamps are from Inkadinkado, Garden Delight and little 'diamonds' from stash. Imagine being married for 60 years - nevermind diamonds, they both deserve a medal!!