Thank you, Maz!

The post was especially exciting today. I received two boxes and a packet. The boxes were much anticipated - one contained an order from Stampin' Up! and I now have a cowboy stamp to make a surprise birthday card with for this Saturday. The next box was full of things I ordered from Gina K! I will be making some special little tins with what was in that box soon. And the packet was such a wonderful RAK from Maz, who taught me how to scrap those pages of DH and DS a few posts back! I just had to share it with you :)

Thank you so much for being so kind and generous, Maz! And talented too!!!!

A cute bookmark

So glad you enjoyed the Wombat Day story from yesterday! It's a bit of a giggle - I had never heard of it myself till yesterday, and I've lived here for decades :-D

I have been making some bookmarks-cum-calendars for people lately and thought I'd show you one.Chrissie showed me how to do this and even emailed me the calendar template - thank you, Chrissie! You are wonderful!

This bookmark is for a friend who won a stamp set from me over at Scrapchat this month. I just used a Stampin' Up! set from the new Spring Mini catalogue here, called 'A Beautiful Thing'. It makes this type of thing easy as all I had to do was use Versamark and black Stazon on any coloured cardstock to make pretty two-step stamped images. I enhanced a little with a green gel pen and a corner rounder, and a hand written message. The only other things I needed were the slit punch, the Crop-a-dile hole punch and some ric rak.

Of course, you can dress these up pretty much any way you would like to.

Oh - I am feeling lots better now, thank you to everyone who was concerned. I hope that's the end of the winter woes for me now.

Have a good evening, all!

Wombat Day

It's been awhile since i mentioned anything uniquely Australian, and I thought today would be a perfect day to do that.

I know some of you out there like Wombats. Imagine my surprise when I found out Australia has a day set aside especially for celebrating all things wombat! No, you haven't missed it yet. It's on October 22nd. Or maybe not since the graphic from the site actually has 2007 on it, but what's to stop us celebrating it this year on Oct 22nd anyway, I ask you?

You can read more about it here.

PS I'm thinking about decorating a card tin - will let you know if it actually happens in the near future :)

Gate Fold Belated Birthday

I felt like crafting today and enjoyed making this Gate-fold card as a belated birthday offering for my DD. I'm glad she knows I love her whether she receives her cards on time or not! We did speak on the phone on her actual birthday (yesterday) so I can't be that bad.

This card is also being submitted to Tan at Scrap N Craft With T as Project 2 of my Guest Design Team commitment. Most of the materials used were purchased or given to me from Tan's online shop - thank you, Tan! I had never tried shrinky dinks before. They are a lot of fun to use.

If you would like to see how I made this card, go to my PaperCraftCentral site to this page.

Materials List:

Royal blue cardstock - I made the base card with it

Basic GreyMortifica - Ochre Pattern

'Carte Postale' stamp set from Stampin' Up!

Shrinky Dinks almond

Blue & orange brads

Ribbon

Serendipity Elevation sticker (I coloured it a deeper blue)

Versacolor inks in cocoa and black

Black Stazon

Gold gel pen, black fine tipped felt pen

Gold cord

Black raffia
Stampin' Up! Rubons - A Perfect Day

Creative Memories Vellum
Corner punch from Creative Memories

Computer printed message inside

The Wylde Women Award

Thank you to Chriss for this amazingpiece of ART. It is a gorgeous award which I am not sure I deserve lately! You made my day when I saw that you had nominated me, Chriss. Pop on over to The Artist Trading Club especially if you like phenomenal ATCs. There is always plenty of inspiration there!

To pass on The Wylde Women Award, the rules are:-

1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it’s up to you! Make sure you link to their site on your post.

2. Link back to Tammy's blog (the originator of the Award).The purpose of the Award is to send love and acknowledgement to women who brighten your day, teach you new things, and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

So here goes (and in no particular order)…..

Lee You ALWAYS inspire me, with your wonderful creations, your funny and uplifting comments, and your willingness to share! You are so generous and I love to visit your blog, Lee.

Andrea You are always trying new things and growing all the time! Your generosity also touches me.

Suzanne What an amazing woman you are, talented in so many fields, and willing to share step-by-step instructions for your creations! I know no one whose quilts are so utterly gorgeous as yours.

Melanie Your creativity and humour never fail to inspire! What a wonderful designer you are and how well you build up suspense to surprise us all with newly minted stamps!! I love how versatile your stamps are Mel.

Nicola What a wonderful blog to visit for card making ideas and designs and for inspiration from all over the world! Thank you also for your sharing nature.

Chrissie You make some awesome cards and have such a lovely attitude to life! You're an inspiration to me, Chrissie, and to many others.

Pearl Your colours and designs are amazing! I love to see what you have made and am in awe of your talent! And you are a lovely person as well!!

Tanyah What a prolific crafter you are and what amazing pages you create. Your energy and enthusiasm shows through in all that you do!

Amanda
What a clever person you are and how wonderful are your new ventures - handmade bags! Your scrapping style is also one I thoroughly enjoy and I always see something new on your blog.

Gypsyangel Your amazing generosity and ideas for making the world a better place to be shine through in all of your actions, Gypsy. I am so grateful to have found Scrapchat The inspiration there is dazzling and it's all because of you!

Scrapchat Auction Site

Want to join a site that lets you buy and sell your papercraft items for free?

Scrapchat Craft Exchange auction site has been developed by a friend of mine specifically for scrapbookers, cardmakers and other crafts. The auction site doesn't have any fees to buy or to sell products. You are able to sell, swap or exchange all of your excess stash.

I'm a member there and I just bought three papers and am bidding on a stamp set! I'll have to think about putting some of my stash up for sale...what on Earth would I part with? Lol!

Anyway, do consider it if you are interested. It's a real advantage not having to pay for advertising especially when you may only have small amounts of something for sale :-)

The Winner Is....

Thank you for the people who had a look at my developing website PapercraftCentral.com

I have taken in board the feedback I received. It is very valuable to have it!

Now for the person who I found the most helpful? Cos there was blog candy involved in this, y'know. It IS.....

LEE!!!

Lee, you are such an inspiration to me and I love your blog. Thank you for the trouble you took to give me thoughtful feedback. I hope it shows in the page on embossing now and that I also took it on board for the new page on Masking!

Start watching the postman soon, Lee. I have just the thing for you as blog candy! Oh and that is our dog, Trixie, who is helping me to congratulate you :wink:

Engagement!

Thank you for your well-wishes, dear friends. I am feeling a little less ill today. The problem is, I can’t just have ONE health complaint – I have to have THREE AT ONCE. I have bronchitis, asthma and sinusitis right now so am not a very happy camper! All of it will go away eventually though which is the good thing. Roll on summer.

In spite of feeling icky, I have been slowly working on a very special project for Tan at Scrap N Craft With T. Tan has kindly provided me with some of her yummy products to create something as a Guest Design Team member for her this month! I am making two items for Tan to display on the front page of her shop this month. This is Project No 1.

I could think of no better way to announce the wonderful news of my DD’s engagement!

To make this card, I used an acetate base and then printed the same photo out twice to use on the front and back of the card. The rubons are Foil, Glitter and Flock ‘Flowers and Swirls’ plus Kaisercraft ‘Inspiration’ from Tan’s shop, and most of the ribbons, brads, ric rak and flowers can also be obtained from Tan. I strengthened the card by adhering layers of cardstock inside the card and making a little accordion folded stand out of some more. It was fun to try out the foil, glitter and flock items especially and I will be using them some more! I also used the lettering ON the photos (under the acrylic) and also ON TOP OF the acrylic. You get some nice little shadows that way.

I was happy with the result and it’s now on its way to my DD and her fiancé. (I’m glad you liked it too, Tan!)

If you want a great variety of papercraft items and fantastic service, do have a look at Tan’s shop! !

Hi

Just a little note to let you know I haven't fallen off the edge of the world. I am a little under the weather and haven't had any energy for crafting or reading or, well, MOVING too much! Lol! I will get better and be back here crafting again soon.

Take care, everyone.

Gina K Release party!!

Come on over to this page on Splitcoaststampers and join in the Gina K release party! It's on RIGHT NOW!



There are some gorgeous new stamp sets, one of which is helping to raise funds for cancer research.



Oh and I won Lee's lovely blog candy! I get to choose $30.00 of merchandise from Gina K's store! Thank you so much, Lee! You truly made my day!!

Would you like to know what type of fruit you are?

At Lee and Suzanne's blogs, they found a way to find out what type of fruit their personalities resemble. And here's a chance for you to find out this fascinating information for your very own self! Just go to this address and take the quiz!

I did. Here are my results:

You Are a Strawberry

You are friendly, outgoing, and well liked by many people. You are popular, but there's nothing you ordinary or average about you. You a very interesting person, and you have many facets to your personality. Sometimes you feel very conflicted. Your different sides of your personality pull at you. You are a very sensual and passionate person. You are fiery... you can't help it. In general, you keep your passionate side under wraps. You are only wild in private.

"What Type of Fruit Are You?"

Scrapchat class

Scrapchat held a great class tonight and I tried out some quite different techniques (different for me!) The designer showed us some wonderful pages she had completed and gave step-by-step instructions for how to complete our own pages, using different supplies, colours, events etc that we had chosen ourselves in the previous week. I was really pleased with how mine turned out! Of course, they were pages of two of my favourite fellas and my darling grandbaby, and I am sure that made a difference!

One thing I had not tried before was the use of paint, and I had never used paper flowers in my layouts, or buttons, chipboard or ribbons. (Well, I had used ribbons before but not very often).

Anyway, here they are for you to see. What do you think?

I will probably not make too many 'lumpy bumpy' pages in the future as I want to preserve and protect my photos in albums, and I don't think the 'extras' I used tonight will be archival quality, but it will be nice to display these for awhile. I can always reprint and rescrap the photos safely!

And I will :-)

A new card

I was playing with my Carte Postal stamp set and some embossing powder and made this card today. That is such a nice set! I enjoy using the images in it quite a lot. I embossed the central square only. Can you tell from the photo?

I used all Stampin' Up! products to make this card.

Thank you for your comment on my site, Lee. I have taken your suggestions on board and am in the process of adding a few more pictures. It is really helpful to have your feedback!

Everyone else, do remember to comment before July 31st for a chance at the blog candy!

Embossing page and some Blog Candy to win!

Well, I spent a day getting some items ready to be photographed so I could build the rest of the embossing page on PaperCraftCentral.com and it's done! Here's the card I used to illustrate some of the embossing techniques I talked about on the site. I used a Stampin' Up! set called Carte Postale - I really like this set - and gold embossing powder.

If you have some time to have a look at the page and give me some feedback on how it reads and looks, I would be really happy about that :-)

You can find the new page by going here.

What I am trying to do is provide people with a basic idea of how to make things using certain techniques. I know you lovely ladies are all experienced papercrafters and will know instantly what I am trying to show.

Thank you in advance for helping me out with this! I would like feedback in the beginning stages especially so I can get the 'tone' of the site right, iykwim.

Oh yes - The person who gives makes the most helpful comment by the end of July will be in line for a little blog candy!!

'How to'

Hi there everyone! I am sorry I haven't been as regular at posting here as I should. I am getting more organised every day and yesterday I actually had a desk to craft on! Lol!

I have managed to spend a bit more time on my developing website. It isn't much yet but I am concentrating on putting together some very basic tutorials about how to make things, techniques etc. I have some pictures to put up there soon and then will ask you for some feedback.

Watch this space! a chance at some Blog candy could happen shortly!

Have a great day :-)

A Real Bug and a Noisy Miner for you

I'm glad some people enjoyed the little beetle on my card two posts ago. Yesterday in the Park I had a chance to capture a real bug on film for you. It is such a pretty thing. Pity it stinks so much when you touch it, according to two ladies I was with. I didn't try to prove it by touching it to see if it would stink! It seems to be a variety of Harlequin Bug but I am willing to be corrected if wrong.

And the Noisy Miner (also known as a Mickey Bord or a Soldier Bird) was quite cooperative about hanging around over our heads as we lunched. He was just looking for a moment when we turned our heads away from the food so he could swoop in and pick up a few crumbs. I was going to get a picture of a Scared Ibis too but they weren't as cooperative about posing yesterday, though they were terribly interested in our lunch as well.

I'm on a Design Team! (Well, as a Guest!)

I was so chuffed to be asked to create two projects for Scrap N Craft as a guest DT member!

I'll have to put my thinking cap on. I just ordered some of Tan's lovely craft supplies to work with and will post what I do here eventually. The projects don't need to go on display till August so I will have some time to consider....

How nice to be asked though!

Thank You!

Today a lady I know from Scrapchat is coming by and driving me alllll the way to the South Coast to meet other Scrapchat women and have a BBQ. I wanted to thank her for her kindness so totally CASEd (copied and stole everything!) from a card Amy sent me awhile back. I used the Garden Whimsy and Occasional Greeting stamps, Not Quite Navy and Black Stazon ink, and the papers are from the Soft Subtles range, all from Stampin' Up!. It's the first time I have used my new SU! Scallop Punch too - I like it! And the circle punches were from Creative Memories.

Winter

Today at Scrapchat we were challenged thus:

Your task is to use a photo with a distinct season feel. for example, a photo of you in a bikini at the beach may obviously mean 'summer' ; a photo of you with jumpers/jackets/beanies gloves etc is quite likely to be a WINTER photo yes? lol.

Your title needs to be the season appropriate to your photo. Also I'd like to see something different with regard to colours. if it's a winter LO - go easy on the blue...summer - let the yellow go ! lol ... kwim? I do not mean you can't use it at all....just try not to let the 'obvious' colours take over.....



So I had to find a 'seasonal' pic, and remembered one I had been meaning to do something with. It was taken an eon ago in another world. I just loved that parka (coat) that made me look like a fuzzy teddy. A sign of things to come! LoL!

And here I thought I would be scrapping a page for Abbey as my first scrapped page in our new home.

That will happen soon now that I've found all my gear! He he he!

Edited: Pine Point is now a ghost town. It was a mining town in NWT, Canada in the 1960s and into the 1970s and when we were there, it had about 500 people in it. I actually found Pine Point on Google Earth once by searching diligently. It is located 12 miles south of the Great Slave Lake, 60 miles east of Hay River. You can still see the basements of houses that were concreted over by the mining company when the houses were moved and the town was closed.

An Award!

Jaqi has kindly nominated me for an award! Thank you, Jaqi.

I would like to pass this award on to:

Suzanne cos she's so creative and diverse with her crafts
Lee cos she is an amazing crafter and encourager
Andrea cos she tries new things and keeps on getting better!
Chrissy cos she is so inspiring
Chrissie cos she is so talented with her cards

Congratulations!

She's Asleep

My daughter-in-law kindly let me have a picture of Abbey while she was asleep. Shhh!

Grandchild

After some delay, I finally have a picture of us holding our first grandchild to show you. After looking at the shots I realised there were none of her face. She slept throughout this momentous encounter with her new grandparents, but did we care? Nope. Not a bit. It might have frightened her to see how tired we looked anyway - we had been on the road for three days after all! (Boy, does it show!!)

It was wonderful just to finally 'meet' her.

I'm baaaack!

Hi all - have just this evening been able to reconnect to the Internet and am amazed at the number of emails (540!!!!) I have! (a lot of them were spam of course). I need to spend some time on the legitimate ones but will be back here again before too long with some pictures. I am still not quite set up to craft yet but every day I get closer to finding everything and organising it. We moved in to our new house a week ago and I still have a few dozen boxes to unpack. My study looks like the box room as I have been working on getting the kitchen, bedrooms, pets, laundry, books and bathrooms all sorted out. Today DH and I went to one of the new job sites we have to inspect and make quotes on the work we will do for them. Work starts on Monday (shock!) so I really want the house to be functional before then, so I can get soem craft time in at least!

I've missed being here!

Will be around to visit you all as soon as I have tamed the emails!

A Quick Hello!

Just had a chance to access a computer and the Internet at a friend's place so am taking this opportunity to say we are still in the throes of moving to our new place. We are temporarily without a home, therefore are also without land line phone and Internet! The trip down in the Ute was fine - all the animal and human travellers survived well. We took three days to get here. All of our furniture is currently stored at our son's house till we can access our new house on Thursday. After that, I am trusting things will start to return to 'normal'.

Am having papercraft withdrawals - another friend gave me some papercraft magazines just before I left and i am studying them as often as possible! Maybe I'll have some new techniques to show you soon.

Thanks for calling in and leaving comments. It means a lot - am looking forward to visiting everyone's blogs again VERY soon!!

And YES! I have seen my granddaughter, and she is the most gorgeous baby on the planet, I am sure!!

I'll be baaaaaack!!

Moving News

Thought I'd share a cross stitch of my mother's with you. She created this by making a pattern out of a photograph of my daughter. Isn't her work amazing?

We had a letter (via snail mail) today saying out tenant is moving out next Wednesday, so we can move in to our new house early! We also had a phone call saying the new owners of the house we currently occupy want to move in on Friday, which is the day we are moving out!! Yikes! This changes how we are packing and the speed at which we are getting things done. Most of the rooms are packed up. I am not sure how we shall get things cleaned before the others start moving in though. We can only do what we can do.

I am hoping this means we won't have to double handle our gear now. We can maybe move straight into our house instead of having the stuff unloaded at our son's place first (we thought we couldn't have our house till the end of July).

On the papercraft front, I received a lovely RAK (Random Act of Kindness) early birthday card from a lady I have never met in Ireland. I wish the card hadn't been packed before I scanned it. I hope to find it again once I get settled down south.

Circle Journal #3

At Scrapchat we're still passing around those Circle Journals we started at the beginning of the year. I completed my pages tonight. This one's instructions were to complete a double page layout of someone who inspired you. Well, I chose one of my Grandmothers. I was only allowed to talk about one person, or I would have included BOTH grandmothers. This picture went a little better with the paper colours I had on hand though, since a lot of my stash is now packed...Oh and we were to also do a tag about ourselves which tucks inside the paper bag pages. I don't know if you can tell from the bad photo but the background paper has old postcards and letters all over it. It reminded me of how much my grandmother liked to travel.

Most of the entries in this Circle Journal so far have been of female relatives (one lady admires the Surf Lifesavers though, and that's easy to understand - they do such a great job).

It's kind of scary and awe inspiring at the same time to think that I have a chance to be inspiring for my own little granddaughter. What a responsibility!

Amazing skies

Australia has been whipped by high winds in the last week and it has produced some spectacular cloud formations over us. What passion nature can display! I don;t think my camera, as good as it is, captures the true impression of the sky this day, but it did a pretty good job all things considered.

The packing continues at our house, even in windy and rainy conditions. Col has now packed out food up. I'm hanging on to my craft materials (in a reduced state) by the skin of my teeth. The camera is an easy thing to justify keeping UNpacked. We might see something interesting on our two day trip south!!

Inchies Swap

I did it! I packed AND I completed some images for a Scrapchat swap! You just never know when you can sneak in and work on some papercrafts around here! Col is watching the footy so I snuck in to cut and paste - he he he.

We're swapping 18 "inchies". They are called that because they are literally 1" square, (or as close to that as I could get them), and I was required to do three lots of six. I chose to find some inspirational women and make them the subject of my inchies. Here I have featured (from left to right) Florence May Austral who was a singer (1892 - 1968), Elizabeth Riddell who was a journalist and poet (1910 - 1998) and Georgiana Huntly who was an artist and diarist (1804 - 1890). The photo doesn't show the colours or the pen work well. If you click on the image you might get a better view.

I am planning to get another swap done - the Circle Journal one - and maybe do a little 2"x2" square as a surprise to add to the inchie swap (the lady organising it is putting together a 2"x2" tiled collage of people from Scrapchat).

All this and packing and sorting and throwing away and giving away and farewelling and trying to get meals in a depleted kitchen (Col packed most of my cooking utensils and appliances today - guess it will be takeaway for next week! Lol!) Oh and washing curtains and furniture covers and pillows and so on as well! Joy!

An update

I'm still here! Just distracted by all the life events happening around me at the moment. I probably need to take a break from blogging now till after the move, but we shall see. We are packing and cleaning and tying up loose ends, and will move out next Friday (not tomorrow - the following week). We'll be on the road a couple of days then settling in to our temporary digs for about a month, before moving in to our permanent 'new' home.

I'll be back. I plan to find time to papercraft once we are in our temporary place. Take care meantime.

Abbey's birth card

We wanted to send a little gift to our new grandchild today so it was time to make her her first card! I enjoyed doing this though I had to make the face three times. Simpler is better - I was trying to be too detailed!!

I used Stampin' Up! card stock from the Soft Subtles range. I punched out the flowers and circles, hand cut and shaded the arm, cut the blanket from a circle template, embellished with silver and black and pink, and added lace, buttons, oh and the background is SU!s' Canvas stamp in Versamark.

It's going to be great to get to see her in real life - only about 13 days to go!!!

How big are your termites?

I always wanted to get a picture of one of the enormous termite mounds we have here in Far North Queensland, and I finally got one. Colin is standing next to it to show the size. These things are everywhere in the bush up here, and termites come to town too.

We have to guard our houses against being eaten in the dark!

Seriously, these things do eat wood, and we do have to keep watch fro little clay tunnels running up the walls, but most people manage to avoid their houses being infested :-)

I would have put up a photo of Abbey fro you today but still don't have one on the computer.

It will come! I promise!

We Have a Baby!!

Well, it's official. I am a Grandma! Praise the Lord!

About ten minutes ago our son called us, and Abbey Emily was born at 11.02pm, about 40 minutes ago!! She weighed 8lbs and and has lots of lovely dark hair. New Mum and baby and New Dad all doing well, and we New Grandparents are rejoicing!

The adventures of Dottie

If you haven't seen Dottie's adventures with Jaqi yet (Dottie is from Chriss's The Artist's Trading Club - Swap till you Drop) I do suggest you visit Jaqi's blog! She has gone to a lot of trouble to tell the story of Dottie's visit there for a week!

I posted a picture of Dottie so you will recognise her. She doesn't always dress this way. Her wardrobe is extensive - lots of crafters have provided her with outfits from all over the world. She visits Chriss' friends for a week at a time, and she certainly got up to a lot with Jaqi. The week isn't even over yet and she has had to be rescued twice by men in uniform. But don't let me spoil the fun - have a look for yourself!

Try something new!

Leonardo da Vinci was a pretty interesting person. He was always trying something new, just like we papercrafters do. I found this quote from an e-zine I subscribe to this morning:

"What is it that makes Leonardo such a genius? I believe it’s not just that he was so prolific and talented in so many areas, but that he was constantly trying new things. He constantly propelled himself to get way outside of his main areas of expertise to try something new. He wasn’t afraid to be “bad” at something, because he knew that the only failure was not trying". Marney from Artella

So try something new today with me! You don't have to aspire to being a genius! I made a collage of my dear husband's (working hard) feet as my attempt! He's on a ladder, by the way (not suspended in the air), working at something on the edge of the roof.

Artella has a challenge or two you might like to consider as well :-) Here are the details of their most recent dare:

Introducing Artella's The DaVinci Dare! Spread your wings and try something new! Here's how The DaVinci Dare works:

a. Go browse in The Artella Land Store and specifically look for things that will challenge you to try something new. If you need suggestions, you can visit the interactive DaVinci Dare Worksheet, which we created to help inspire you to make the most of Artella's DaVinci Dare!

b. Make your selection. Again, aim to pick items that will truly challenge you to try something new...that’s your part of the DaVinci Dare pact! (Hint: if you're slightly nervous when adding the item to your cart, then that's a good sign that you're on the right track to your new Renaissance!)

c. Our part of the DaVinci Dare pact is to reward you with our most generous instant savings ever on the Artella eProducts that you've selected. To find out how much you will save on the downloadable Artella eProducts in your purchase, simply go to this page to enter the amount of your total purchase in the Magical DaVinci Decoder. The DaVinci Decoder will tell you the amount of your savings on eProducts, and the coupon code to use when you check out.

d. If you like, you can add more to your shopping cart and re-visit the DaVinci Decoder again, to see how the Decoder will reward you for challenging yourself...DaVinci style! When you are ready to complete your order, simply enter the coupon code from the DaVinci Decoder. The appropriate amount will be deducted from the eProducts you've purchased.

This offer expires on June 15, 2008, at midnight EST. Remember, the most important part of the DaVinci Dare i s to have fun! Stretch yourself in new ways and enjoy the DaVinci Dare rewards for doing so!

NOTE : Now, you don't have to buy anything from Artella's store to try something new. Choose something in your own environment that challenges you and take a picture of it to show what your inspiration is.


Have a great June day!

Alpha Negatives turn Positive

Thanks for the positive feedback about my scrapbook page from yesterday! It's on its way now to the lady who is making the album up.

Do you have chipboard letters? Have you used them and are you left with the surrounding chipboard shapes, like these in the picture? Can't bear to throw them away? Why not turn the negatives into positives?

I'm in a swap right now where we are doing just that. Last night I completed three of the six letters I owe the swap. Here's some 'before' and 'after' examples (I'm going to turn the 'befores' into 'afters' sometime today, I hope. These needed to be in the mail last week!) There are endless possibilities with these little projects and they don't take long to do. Get your imagination going and let me know if you do complete some alpha negatives!

No baby news yet. We're still all awaiting.

Scrapchat's 1st Birthday Album Surprise

Scrapchat is an almost 1 year old paper craft forum! We are celebrating a year of chatting by making an album from all members who want to contribute as a surprise for the founder. The forum is pink so the album theme is predominantly pink. I made a postcard for her as she loves them. It was fun to make and required some thinking!

I made the postcard to slide out of the pocket on the lower right hand side. Hopefully the page protector on the album will allow that kind of thing (someone else is compliling the album - the members are just supplying that lovely person with a layout each).

I have given you a cloesup of both sides of the post card. You will recognise the butterfly I think :-)


Shhh - don't tell Gypsy that this is here until about the 21st of June! That's when she should receive the surprise.

A picture or two...

With our move looming so large, I'm crafting away here but haven't got anything quite finished to show you all. There are several swaps and commitments I made to various people and I so want to get them finished before we move so there will be some paper craft things to post soon. I do have some pictures I've been taking for a photo challenge that I would like to share with you in the absence of a finished card or scrapbook layout.

One of the photo challenges was to depict 'Music'. Well, in my case that had to involve my flute. I have played the flute for most of my life. It is my faithful friend and it means music to me - solitary or in company - doesn't matter. When words can't express what I feel, often the flute music can. The velvety material and the swirly pattern on it reminds me of music, as does the texture and light playing on the material.

And I must tell you I am pretty excited - there will be more music and celebrating around here very soon - our daughter-in-law's baby is due any day! There's no sign of her baby yet but it is time. This first baby in a new generation is going to make Colin and I grandparents, my sisters and brothers great aunts and uncles, my other 'children' aunts and uncles, my mother a great grandmother, my own aunts and uncles great-greats (though not for the first time for them). I'll have to do a whole lot of adjusting to all these new titles....

Moving Day is confirmed

Well, I have a lot to get done in the next two weeks. I have lots of swaps I need to get finished, and a few significant events to make cards for - our youngest DS got engaged and our oldest DS is going to be a father any day now.

I have to get everything done as we are indeed moving. The house inspection went well today and our buyers want our house. Moving Day is 20th June - EEK.

The Butterfly of a few days ago...

...is called a Yoma Sabina. It is the one you can purchase for release at weddings. The picture is here.

I just had to share that with you!

Scrapchat June Card Challenge

I had some time to make some cards this afternoon so I followed Gypsyangel's sketch for June from Scrapchat. I've put the sketch up for you to see.

Recipe: I used designer paper from Crate Paper, brads from Paisley and Petals, Stampin'Up! cardstock and foam letters from Big W. I did the 'Thanks' letters with felt and gel pens. I also used the Fresh Fillers stamp set from Stampin' Up! for the background, stamped with Versamark.

Tagged

Suzanne has a game going on her Blog that involves telling six UNimportant facts about yourself. If you would like to play along I have just tagged you!

Please let me know if you list 6 things about yourself so I can come visit. Here are the simple rules to follow. The last of which I just broke.

1) Link back to the person who tagged you: here's the link
2)Post these rules on your blog
3)Share six (6) unimportant things about yourself
4) Tag six (6) people at the end of the entry

Here's my six UNimportant facts:

1. I usually cut my nails while seated at my computer. There's a handy craft bin here after all, and I also have a pair of nailcutters handy! LoL!
2. I love chocolate but as I get older, I am liking GOOD chocolate better than ANY chocolate. It is simply more satisfying to have, say, Lindt chocolates instead of pseudo chocolate that you get in cheap Easter eggs, for example.
3. Last night I toasted marshmallows in our fireplace. They were too small for the fork to have a really good grip on them, so they were only half melted. I still ate them.
4. Suzanne talked about furniture in her six random facts. I have hardly any new furniture either. Almost all of it was bought or acquired in the late 1970's.
5. When I am thinking, I often jiggle my right foot.
6. I am dreading going through my two old filing cabinets prior to moving.

And there you have it! Hope these UNimportant facts gave you a giggle or two!

June Birthday

You aren't going to believe this - I MADE A CARD!! The card making drought may be broken! OK OK - I admit it - it was a gf's birthday today so I simply had to make something for her. She loves handmade cards and I really wanted to be sure she had something nice.

Recipe: I used all Stampin' Up materials for this one - the stamp set is Blooming with Happiness. I used sponge daubers to make the background on glossy white cardstock and to colour the cake. Where I wanted bling I used Crystal Effects over watercolour crayons/the daubing. A little pink gingham ribbon finished it off. The cardstock is Pale Plum and Certainly Celery and the inks are black Stazon, Lavender Lace, Pixie Pink, and Certainly Celery.

One more picture

I realised I had not shown you a true idea of scale in the caves after reading Lee's comment about only going into VERY LARGE caves - Lol! So I thought you may be able to stand just one more picture of the caves. I excluded it before because the camera had to hold its aperture open for a long time and the people moved, so they are blurry. It does show the scale of the caves in some places. There are very narrow bits as well - I just didn't stop to take a pic as there were people behind me wanting to get through without being stopped in a crouching position!

All the best with your blog candy, Chriss, Diane and Lee. I hope you get LOTS of visitors!

The Chillagoe Caves

OK I have a couple more pics to share with you about the caves. This time I chose shots taken at the entrance and underground. I did seem to do best with photos where there was an occasional daylight hole, but one shot was taken in utter darkness, and the camera coped! See if you can tell which picture it was.

Blog candy!

Want some rgeat new ideas and a chance to win some yummy blog candy?

Visit Diane and Lee and post some answers to their questions! These two wonderful women are very inspiring paper crafters. You'll be glad you stopped by.

Speaking of inspiring. Lee has honoured me with an award for being a Kreativ Blogger! The feeling is mutual. Lee. Thank you.

I would like to share this award with all of you who visit my blog and share your wonderful creations with everyone so freely. Thank you, all of you. You make this cyber space a wonderful place and I appreciate you very much.

Royal Arch Bluffs

Here is what the outside of some of the Chillagoe caves looks like. These are the Royal Arch cave bluffs. They are made mostly of basalt and there's about 1.5kms (.93206 miles) of cave under them. The peaks are weathered by the wind and rain into sharp, knife-like ridges.

When the place was not a national park (about 35 years ago) I actually climbed on top of these things in ordinary sneakers. They don't let you do that sort of thing now without proper training and permission. Still people get injured up there. One young Uni student fell and cut herself so badly recently that they had to helicopter her out of there. It took four hours to organise her rescue.

Wherever you see a tree on top of the bluffs usually means there's a daylight hole in the caves. That's the only place enough soil might form to support a tree. I remember climbing up the roots of a tree from inside a cave to get to the top and walk on the knife ridges. There was a beautiful little cave up there, full of glistening stalactites and stalagmites. We didn't touch anything in it. It was so fragile.

I'll show you some of what's inside the caves tomorrow :-)

Balancing Rock

Just to give you an idea of the size of the place, here is a picture of me next to Balancing Rock. We had to climb a bit of a hill to get to it. This is when I discovered I am nowhere near as fit as I used to be. Drat.

Another time I will show you some Aboriginal rock paintings we saw. I'm concentrating on the caves and bluffs for now.

On the way to Chillagoe

The trip we took a couple of days ago is still creating images in my mind. I tool lots of photos but only a few are really worth sharing. I need to do a lot more study of my camera before I really understand how it works!

This is some of the rock that was a typical sight on the way to Chillagoe, home of the most amazing limestone caves and holder of many of my youthful memories. See how twisted and layered the rock it is? There are lots of signs of major geological upheaval around Chillagoe. The rocks seem to have been folded, twisted, then forced upwards when huge underground domes of lava pushed their way up to the surface - some domes were 50kms (31.06855 miles) across. The wind and rain has weathered what is left of such fingers as this.

Chillago Caves

Hi all - will have some pics for you tomorrow. We spent part of this weekend at Chillago limestone caves. They are definitely something worth blogging about.

I sure do feel the need to make a card or try a new technique or scrap a page or SOMETHING!! Will do that soon and promise there will be something to see in the next few days!