Crazy Cat Birthday

It's my day to share at Die Cut Divas today.  Our theme this month is Animals.....

I've used stamps and dies from Tim Holtz together with a sentiment from Catherine Pooler Designs and the speech bubble die cut is from Penny Black.  I did some selected die cutting to make the speech bubble longer to cover the sentiment. The background is a Tim Holtz embossing folder.

Entering into the challenge at Naughty or Nice this month - Feature a Creature,

This one is heading it's way to Australia for my son-in-law's birthday.    I forgot to take it with me when I say over the weekend. 


Here are a couple of photos of our few days away.

We had a fun day at Australia Zoo, spend a lot of time at the beach and generally had a great time with our grandson, daughter, son-in-law, my Mum and Dad and my son and his girlfriend.  As you can see our little man is growing up quickly and is a real water baby.

Thanks for stopping by

Happy Birthday to my Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday.  I made him a card using some of the Lovely Notes Collection from StampNation.  As he lives in Australia I made this a while ago to send over to him. 

My background is clear embossed on Grey card using the Lovely Lattice.  The bottom half of the grey was stamped with the polka dots stamp.  I used a Chalkboard technique to make the tag - stamped with the Fill in the blanks birthday stamps.  I used a white Prisma pencil to doodle around the edge.   Entering this into the challenge at Seize The Birthday.

I spoke with my Dad today.  I miss not being able to see him as often as I would like.

And my little man has headed off with his parents to LA for the rest of their holiday.  Weather much warmer for them as Thursday was the coldest day we've had all year.  It was only 6degrees C at midday!   I'll leave you with a photo of my two children with baby Archer and my son's dog Butch.

Have a blessed weekend

Scramble and splatters....

It's been a busy week for me.  Starting with a cough and sore rib over the weekend that led to a visit to the doctor on Monday, a chest xray and blood test ending with a visit to the North Shore Hospital on Monday night with IV antibiotics for Pneumonia.  Overnight stay led to a wait the next day for a CT scan to check for clots (I've had a pulmonary embolism in the past) and finally at 6pm Tuesday the all clear and got to go home.

We had overseas visitors arrive later that night.   It was my daughter's in-laws.  A lovely couple who stayed with us till Saturday afternoon.  Very early Saturday morning we picked up our daughter, her hubby and baby Archer for a 5 day visit.   So you can see it's been full on.

This morning, baby was sleeping,Mummy and Daddy having a sleep in and hubby out for a walk, so snuck into craft room to join in Kim's Scramble over on the HA Flickr group.  She set a real challenge - a card with matching tag and decorated envelope.  All in 90 mins.

I had DC182 sitting on my desk and a bright blue card base.  I took some Bristol paper and stamped the butterflies.  I used Zig Markers in bright blue and green to colour the butterflies.  I used the matching die to cut three of the butterflies.  The die doesn't cut all the way through, so you can lift the wings.  Added a sentiment from the set as well.   The tag was cut from some Bristol with a CAS-ual Friday die.  I used the smaller of the two butterflies and did a similar design, which I replicated on the blue envelope.  Entering this into the All Kinds of Everything at Moving With the Times Challenge

And here is my little man who came to see me just as I was finishing..

And yes at 10.30am Nana is still in her PJ's!  We'd had a nice sleep in and breakfast and I hadn't got dressed before scrambling!

We had a lovely lunch with our son coming over with some of his friends to meet the little dude. The weather held off  and we got to eat outside.  Hubby barbecued sausages and chicken wings.

Later this afternoon, I was catching up on some blogs and I saw that Virginia's new challenge was underway over on Virginia's View.  It's "Spray, Mist and Splatter". I was very inspired by Virginia's samples... so CASE'd it.

 

I started by using some Lindy's Gang Spray in Green and pink onto some creamy card before stamping the flower from Altenew Beautiful Day and the leaves from the set.  I used some purple and green inks to stamp.  I like the design Virginia used so did something similar with some washi tape.  The background has drops of the pink spray and mist of white Decor spray(which is very  and splatters made with watered down Hickory Smoke distress ink.  The sentiment is from the Beautiful day set as well. 

And here's another pic of Archer

Full of smiles this morning.  He has a second tooth cutting through but you wouldn't know it.  He is such a good boy

Looking forward to another day off with them tomorrow then back to work for a couple of days and then spending Thursday with them before they fly out to LA on Thursday night for their holiday. 

thanks for stopping by today.

Playing with Alcohol.....

Inks that is!  When I was meeting with my friends to stamp I took along my Alcohol inks and made a few backgrounds.  Some purples and greens.   On one of them I stamped an Peony from Altenew.  I die cut it with the matching die

I also stamped and die cut the leaves with some green Alcohol inks and made them up into a card

I used some of the pink woodgrain paper layered onto some purple card and then onto the white card base.  I used a sentiment from Kaisercraft (which I picked up on sale for $1.80) and stamped with Hero Arts Metallic Ombre ink. It is very intense in real life.

I thought I'd share a quick pic of little Archer.  He's 4 months old now.  And in 12 days I will get to give him big hugs.  I can hardly wait!

He's such a happy smiley baby (or at least in all the photos I get!)

Thanks for visiting today.  Please leave me a comment, I would appreciate it.

Another Glittery Christmas in July card

It's my day at Die Cut Divas again and I'm doing a Glittery Christmas card.  Our sponsors this month are

I used a Bugaboo Christmas image together with a Spellbinders die as well as a Simon Says Stamp circle die and a Pretty Pink Posh scallop

I used some glittery washi to add my touch of glitter.  I used a sketch that was part of Bugaboo's Christmas in July week early in the month.

thanks for stopping by.  July is almost finished - and it's only another 5 weeks till my little dude comes to visit his Nana and Pop.

 Here he is with this Daddy on his first trip to park.

 

Altenew Homework

Over at Altenew Academy, Marika Rahtu, has a fabulous class called "Beautiful Details".  Marika does the MOST AMAZING stamping and colouring.  She really is an artist..   Me not so much.  You really have to be patient to do her techniques.   I'm not patient!!!!

Day 1 Marika used some solid stamps to make her own flowers
Here is her card:

 Marika used a solid stamp from Painted Roses set which I don't have.  I do have Golden Garden which has some sketchy flowers.  I used one of the flowers and stamped it in Altenew blue ink doing first, second and even third generation stamping.  I used a pen to make sketchy lines

I smudged the stickles dots and creased it a little bit when I added the 3D tape.  I used black washi tape along the bottom.    The sentiment is from Kaisercraft.

I am not feeling confident that I can do the beautiful shading Marika does but if I get some time over the weekend, I am going to give it a try.

I'm going to finish off tonight with a photo of my little grandson.  He's 9 weeks old now and growing quickly.  With the internet, I am happy to say I get a photo or little video just about every day.

 Today was the first time he held onto his toy and of course the first place it went was into his mouth!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Photo Page

It's my day at Die Cut Diva's and I'm trying something a bit different for me - I've made a Photo page

Our Sponsor this month is Kaisercraft and I got to work with a fabulous stamp and Die Set called Smile.

I'm no Scrapbooker, I get intimidated by a 12x12 page, so I've made a 8x8 page that I intend to frame.

I stamped and die cut the camera. the arrow and the word Smile from the set and after trimming and layering the photo, used the other sentiment - "amazing Memories".   This is the photo taken when hubby and I first meet our Grandson, Archer, at the airport when he was 3 weeks old.

Here he is at 7 weeks

Growing like a little Sprout!  (that was his nickname in vitro)   I miss him heaps but it's only a couple more months till he and his Mummy and Daddy come to visit!

Thanks for stopping by.

Playing with stamps, die cuts and some vellum

Over the last couple of days I have been playing... just for me... not for any design teams and just for a few challenges.

First card is a fun one I did with a new Art Impressions stamp I got at the Perth craft show...

I stamped the turtle stack onto some watercolour card and used my some Tombow and Distress markers to watercolour them.  Art Impressions are awesome as their packaging has the image coloured showing shading which gives a great idea on how to make them look dimensional.   I used the sentiment from the set, and also a sentiment from a little Simon Says Stamp set.   I used some retro PP for my background and layered it with some brown card and added to a cream card base.

My second card is for the Vellum challenge at A Blog Named Hero.  

 

this is a 3.5" x 5.5" card.  It was made as I had the scrap of PP left from another project.  I die cut a vellum circle and embossed the Hero Arts sentiment onto it.  I had the Hero Arts little bunny already cut and coloured, so it came together really quickly.  I die cut some red hearts with the Simon Says Stamp mini hearts die.   This is heading it's way to Archie, to let him know Nana and Pop miss him.  

If you are in need of any Hero Arts products you can head over to A2Z Scrapbooking Esty store and 

you can use my code Dawn15 at check out to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more (before tax  and shipping) 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Baby Pram card

I'm back from Perth and already missing my little man..... just look at today's photos

Isn't that the cutest ever.

 Squirming around... in his big boy clothes!

Here is the card I made for them. 

I die cut the cute baby pram (Couture Creations) from some blue card and did embossing as well.  I trimmed some darker teal card for the top of the pram.  Added some sentiments I had in my stash. The stars are a die cut as well.  The grass is washi tape.  

I  am now looking forward to spending some time playing with all the goodies I got while over in Perth.  Managed to meet with Kim and go to the Quilt and Craft Fair and had a bit of a spend up. 

Enjoy your week... hope my American friends are enjoying their Memorial Day celebrations.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there.... special wishes to my own Mum - she lives over in Australia so I miss spending time with her.  And to my daughter, Emma, who is celebrating her first Mother's Day as mum to little Archer.

29.04.16

Mother's Day 08.05.16

Less than a week now till I get to give this little man a big hug.   I can't wait.  

Hope all of you have had a great weekend. 

Flowers in my Garden

It's the 1st so a new challenge over at Die Cut Divas.  We have a photo challenge for you

 Photo Credit Carol Gunn

Our sponsor is A Day for Daisies

I chose to use Flowers in My Garden

 Isn't she adorable.  I loved the results I got with this one.  I cut the Kasiercraft die with some pale green textured card.  I trimmed the focal panel to fit inside the die cut.  I used Copics to colour and distress inks for he background.  I pulled out some flowers and added the heart button to the middle with a little twine tie.   My background paper is from a Couture Creations pack.   As I've added a Flower to my card I am entering into the latest Challenge at "Crafting When We Can"
Also entering into the Simon Says Stamp Wed challenge (Anything Goes)

And here are some photos from my garden today.

A beautiful day for May 1st.  Hubby even managed to go for a swim (too cold for me) It did cloud up a bit in the late afternoon.  

And to finish here's a little photo of Archer taken at a professional baby shot yesterday

Talk about being relaxed

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great day.