The Daintree and Cape Tribulation

Spent a craft free day - a drawback only because I do have a card to make - but the day was a glorious one and I loved every minute of it. DH and I drove to the Daintree River and to Cape Tribulation and just enjoyed the beauty of the country and each other's company. It was a wonderful break for us both. We are tired in a good way this cold evening (it's not down to freezing yet but early this morning we had the first frost of the winter) and will soon away to sleep, but I wanted to show you a picture of the beach in late afternoon - just gorgeous - and a view from the top of the range on the way back to Mossman. We are so blessed to live in this beautiful land.

Warmest Wishes

Amy came all the way up here from Cairns yesterday (96kms!!) to do a demo for me and some friends, and we had a wonderful time! There were seven of us counting Amy and I. Amy, you are so clever and well-organised and just plain fun to be around! I was so pleased to be stamping with other people who love to stamp!!

That's Amy on the left and me on the right, a pic of all the cards made at the workshop and a closeup of the one I made. I included a picture of the little tin Amy brought and decorated before our eyes - she had pre-packed it with the little stamps. It wound up being my special gift for holding the workshop! What a clever idea.

It was a fun day - my first day with fellow stampers in 'real life'. Thanks to all of you on the Internet, many of whom read this Blog, I have learned heaps. It was a great treat to be stamping with 'live' people - like speed learning!

Little Extra - Black with One Other Colour

This weeks little extra from DCM is to use Black and ONE other colour only. We, the design team decided to be really nice to you all and allow shades of that one colour to make it really easy for you (and us...he..he...! (see aren't we nice to you ?)

So here is my entry fro the Little Extra challenge. In real life, all the colours are shades of green!

If you are reading this, c'mon over to DCM and try out the dares fro yourself! It's fun!

Sunshine

Have gone back to work after five days off with the flu and asthma, and today the sun decided to shine. I really wanted to be out basking in it, and I was chained to my desk! :-( I did manage to go outside for a couple of minutes to make a mobile phone call, which was better than nothing :-)

I won't have as much time to stamp and create again till the June holidays, but the ideas are coming a little faster lately so maybe I can squeeze a couple in.

It's late so I am off to dreamland for awhile.

Welcome Baby!

A forum friend has just become a grandmother for the first time! I just had to make a card, of course :-)

I used die cut imagesfrom Andrea (thank you, Andrea!) sheer ribbon with suede words, pink brads & ribbon with little loopy bits, silver eyelets, scallop scissors and I drew the hearts and silver & pink bits. (I used pink and silver gel pens of course!)

How's the weather where you are?

So much of Australia is in drought, yet where I am we are having unusual days of rain. I've put two pictures here to show you the difference between two days ago and today (today it was rainier).
Oh - before anyone gets mad at me because we're getting rain, they do ship lots of water to drier parts of the country from up here!

Pages for my Mother

I had some time to go through stacks of old photos and found some I really wanted to put together as special pages for my Mother. She is one amazing lady and her children and grandchildren all think she is wonderful. Here's how they turned out.

Reminiscing...

Over at DCM, the dare this week is all about reminiscing: "I would like you to make a card using some thing that you would normally find in an office environment. Such as... staples, paperclips, paper fasteners, file folders, library cards, hole punches, lined paper etc you get the drift."

I started with some mauve paper, then stamped it with the 'fax' and 'paid' stamps. I signed them with black pen, then 'distressed' the paper with Jumbo Java brown ink in the shape of that pad. I cut around the edges with 'Postal' deckle edged scissors and inked around the edges. I took an SU! metal edged tag and wrote 'Just a Note' on it, then clipped it to the paper with the pink fastener. I used a sponge dauber in pink ink for the bg of the base card and mounted the Note on top with a bit of room to spare to accommodate the clip.

'A Sketch In Time'

This week's Little Extra challenge from DCM gives you a sketch to play with. Remember you can bend it, twist it, shrink it or stretch it - you can even turn it upside down if you like. You don't even have to use flowers if you don't want to (shock, horror!)
Just have fun, and don't forget to let us know you've made a card and where we can see it.

I had lots of cards to make and this seemed to be an excellent layout to choose to work from, so here are my cards for this week. The star card is one I made AFTER I had a look at everyone's wonderful creations - makes the other two look a bit 'pedestrian' - lol!

Iris fold fan cards

I found out how to make iris fold fan cards today. They are easy to make and are so effective! See what you think:

80th Birthday cards

I had my first (?) order for cards - my DS and DM both asked me to make 80th birthday cards for DS's FIL! (Does family count when we're talking orders??) Well, I played around with some graphics and a photo of the honoured Octogenarian, and came up with two different cards. The card with the plaque on it is A4 size so all the guests at the party can sign it. Inside the blue one it says 'Have a whale of a time' and I put a little picture of a smiling whale there too.

Shane's WIsh

If you've read the story of Shane's wish (see the story on the right) you'll know he is trying to break the record for the most birthday cards ever received by anyone. His 8th birthday is on May 30th. He's a sick little boy and the cards are making him feel more hopeful, so here is one I will send to him this week:

Wings!

The DCM challenge for this week is........WINGS!

You can pick any subject, any colour but the card has to incorporate WINGS of some sort-so you can do - butterflies, angels, fairies, insects,birds........anything basically if it has wings!

I decided to try this challenge while making my dear Mother's birthday card - and yes, the 76 trombones have a special personal interest for us!

Thanks for the challenge this week, ladies. It's a lot of fun to join in. Anyone reading this who has not tried a DCM challenge, why not have a go?

This week's little extra...

Over at DCM, this is the mid-week challenge:

"What we'd like you to do this time is to confine your colour choices to the three primary colours; Red, Yellow & Blue. You can use just one, two or all three and we'll let you have a bit of white or black just to make it nice and easy".

I decided to do a woven card with only the colours 'allowed' and no black or white - I was able to use some of your pretty flowers, Pearl, and the inks I recently purchased form Susie! Now I just hope Laraine doesn't see it before her birthday this Sunday - shhh!

ARRRGGGHH! I've been TAGGED!!

I've been tagged by a lovely lady named Andrea ('Frog') (Andrea's Card Creations)!! This is my first tag so here goes. You have to write seven facts/habits about yourself then tag another seven people.

1. I have played the flute since I was 13 years old and am still playing each week at my church. I LOOOVE to play Godly music and worship Him.
2. I LOOVE my husband and my children - really and truly!
3. I have realised that you have to pass on your skills to others, lest they be lost. None of us lives forever, so I am teaching some sweet young things how to play the flute and fife.
4. I have realised that my priorities have changed since I got older. People and relationships matter more than anything else I 'do' in my life.
5. I started stamping and scrapping last year and LOOOVE stamping and scrapping! (Surprise, surprise!)
6. I need to lose weight but will settle for not gaining any.
7. I LOOOOVE chocolate!

OK - now it's my turn to tag. I choose.... Iralamija, Wendy, Dolly, Kel, Leo, Rhi, and Suzanne!

Have fun, everyone!

Home Sweet Home

So, on to this week's Little Extra (from DCM) and another in our series of Boy Scout cards - you know - as in the scouting slogan "Be Prepared"! This time it's cards with a New Home theme.

Easy, eh? And, how nice are we? Helping you to get organised and always have the right card ready when you need it instead of scrabbling around to make one in a hurry!

Well, it just so happened that I had a need for such a card this week. I made the following with a 'cupboard door' fold on the front. Behind the door there is an old family recipe for Russion Tea Cakes - something to bake in the new home!

I used an orange card stamped with teal ink only for the frames, punched light orange card for the bg 'house' shape & doorknobs, and doodled the rest with copper gel pen. The scan didn't really do it justice - it is nicer in real life.

'Warming' card

I made a card for a friend who is going to Canada for 5 weeks and thinks she will be cold! I'm going to tell 'her to whip this card out and look at it whenever she feels chilly. He he!

I gold embossed the sun image on separate cardstock, then dug out my alphabet stamps and shadowed them (double-stamped using 2 colours of brown ink) in the bg, did the same with the sun stamp, Xyroned some ribbon , added the eyelets sponged the edges of the card with Brilliance Pearlescent Crimson ink and a lighter colour of plain red ink, then speckled the bg some more with a copper gel pen. I also sponged the edges of the eyelet card with a light brown ink.

Round the World card

For this card I decided to use some of Pearl's pretty flowers from Singapore, a background recently received from Amy who lives in Cairns, who cuttlebugged a design for me, some SU! ribbon and tag from Carla in Canada, so this is really a RAK from around the world! Thank you so much, everybody for making it possible for me to make a birthday card for a workmate tomorrow! My work friend doesn't read my blog to my knowledge, so I should be safe in posting this!

Generous Pearl!

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Just had to share my lovely prize received from Pearl in Singapore this week! She sent me a beautiful Easter card and lots of flowers and goodies to play with - thank you, Pearl! I used one of the flowers on the scrapped card below too - I couldn't wait to use SOMEthing! Thank you so much, Pearl - you are a real sweetie and you made my week! :-D

Birthday Scrap Card

Tonight I made a card for a friend using some scrap booking techniques - a photo, a mat, some eyelets and a flower and ribbon, and a sticker sentiment. Once I found the photo I wanted, it was a really quick card to do.

S'more

Today I completed another three cards for birthdays. They are for people of various ages and interests. It's nice ot be able to give them out to people and see the looks on their faces when they open them up! Well, it's nicer sometimes than others! Lol!

See what you think.

Last one for tonight (Yawn!)

I finished one more card - this one is for my friend who is about to undergo some cancer treatments. I am glad she has a strong faith in the Lord. Pearl, I found a card on your Blog that inspired me - thank you for the idea of the three ribbons and buttons (I used brads as you can see) and an image on top of them. The colours are nicer in real life, I think.

Got a few cards done tonight

This weekend marks the birthdays of four friends - have been able to complete two cards but the others are still in the wings. I also need to do a fare-thee-well card for a friend with cancer who is off to the other end of the country for some treatments. That all happened suddenly...you just never know what turns your life will take, do you?

The first card is for a friend's daughter who is turning 15 and is rather sweet, and the second is for her son who is turning 17 (he likes to dress formally with a tie and a fob watch!!) They weren't twins or I could have made them matching cards for the DCM challenge this week!

This time last year....

Today marks 12 months since category 5 Cyclone Larry ripped through Far North Qld. It's raining today again, but the comparison with this time last year is remarkable. Here are two shots of similar views, one from last year and one from today. See if you can spot the differences!!

A get well wish

I put this little card together in minutes today as I had to get it into my bag and out of the house in a hurry! It's for a young friend who has the mumps - for the second time. She is not too well, poor poppet. I hope it cheers her up. Thank goodness for having a few stamped images around, all ready to be coloured & mounted :-) Thank you, Carla, for encouraging me to do that!!

And it just so happens that the DCM's 'little extra' challenge this week is to make a get Well Card! What a coincidence!

Austrian Birthday

Well, I finally got to make a card!! A friend 's mother is visiting from Austria. We cannot converse as I do not speak her language, but she is turning 80 today. I made her a card with an Austrian greeting on it, thus joining in on an ancient dare from DCM that a card be made with a foreign greeting on it. I also worked in the more recent dare that I make something with 20 different things on it. Count the flowers. There are 20 and they are all punched out of different papers! It was fun to make and I do hope she likes it. I also hope I found the right Austrian words for 'Happy Birthday' and am not telling her something different!

Pages from my album

It's been awhile since I posted becasue things have been so hectic at work, I haven't had a chance to do much crafting. Also, y computer has been in the repair shop for over a eek! Oh well! I did manage to spend some time with my friend Vanessa and put together these pages of DH and I. It's the first time I have done any couple pages of us - usually one or the other of us is behind the camera, not standing in front of someone else's! I know - I should have taken the plastic page protectors off before I took this picture, and I will next time. Sorry for the glarey bit.

I will have to do a tour of Blogs and leave some comments for all of you who read this. I have not forgotten you - and I miss you!

Birthday card

I have been unable to craft much since I went back to work, but there are a few birthdays this month and i am going to need to find time to make some cards, thank goodness! I made this one for a friend tonight. I used some SU! stamps - the trees are from a 1997 stamp and the sentiment from a 2002 stamp. I stamped in black and embossed with gold. The background was done with watercolour pencils.

50th Birthday

I have a friend who is turning 50 very soon, and she is still mad about horses. Hence the theme and the lack of 'girly' embellishments! She is a no nonsense type of person and would think I had gone mad if I gave her ribbons and flowers :-) I had to hold myself back, mind you! I thought the blowsy black sponging sort of made the image look like a fresh brand or something that was burnt into the 'wood' of the card - what do you think?

This is an aperture card. I took the image from Clip Art and used stickers fro all of the lettering. The image is slightly raised behind the aperture as it is stuck to the body of the card with a cutout of the window behind it to pad it slightly. The horse bit is cut slightly larger than the aperture and is sponged round with brown and black on the inside.

And the winner is.....

Thank you everyone who took part in my VERY FIRST Blog Competition! It was lovely to have 11 entries to put into the Official Competition Blue Frisbee today (it usually does duty as my stamp cleaner holder! Lol!) Lacking anyone else in the house this morning, I dutifully shut my eyes and fairly drew out the winning entry. The Winner Is: (Drum role, please)

ANDREA! Congratulations!

If you would like to send me your address, Andrea, I will send you the card you have won. You can e-mail me at hurleylukeatstevens.net.au

In the Fold

At DCM this week, it was Jane's turn to dare us all: 'I'm daring you to make a card that has to have more than one fold - so it can be a gate fold card, or a 3 panel card with an aperture or a card with multiple folds OR you can incorporate paper folding on the actual card itself. It can be on any theme "

Well it just so happens I was taught how to make rosettes this week, by using nine little squares of paper folded into a flower shape! This challenge could not have come at a more perfect time for me so thank you, Jane. I even found an Irish blessing about being enfolded in God's love.

I have decided it is about time I had a competition on my blog and that that this card can be the prize. Anyone who posts something about this card will go into a draw to receive said card. Posts must be made before the next DCM weekly challenge is posted on Friday to qualify!

All Things Media

This week at DCMs You are being Dared to make a card that is inspired by 'All Things Media'. The dare has been set by our Gillian:

It's around us no matter which way we turn, and all designed to get our attention. Ads designed by graphic designers who know all the tricks & techniques to draw our eyes to the product in question. You only have to glance at a Newspaper quickly to read headings with 'Shock' titles & 'Clever' puns all designed to make you want to read what the article is all about!
Maybe you have been inspired by an Ad in a magazine, the colours or design that has been used. Or incorporate actual magazines & newspapers onto your card; maybe chop up letters (ransom note style) to create the sentiment So grab that latest edition of your favourite Mag, or pick up your newspaper, because there is so much inspiration there, Just waiting for you to discover!

At the very last minute, I came up with an idea inspired by an old photo on the 'Net advertising perfume - I caught a few more recent perfume images as you can see - have we really changed so much? Except maybe for the size of the bottles?? The SCENTiment is the same!! LoL!

Celebrate the Romance

"This week at DCM we're joining forces with the wonderful team of Scrapbookers over on the Everyone is Speshal blog. We're daring each other and you to make a Really Romantic Scrapbook Layout - but on a card! Scrapbookers are challenged to downsize your usual a 12x12 LO onto a teenyweeny one - maximum of 6x6, which can be sent safely through the mail. Cardmakers - you're used to working on a small space, and you know all about the ribbons, brads and other bits and bobs - but can you take on board all the other little touches that are used on a scrapbook page - the titles, the journalling, the photographs etc? "

This dare was actually sent out on February 2nd but I am just now catching up! I thought about this one a lot, and finally came up with something I think will amuse my Valentine. I used three shades of purple and some brown, some purple, blue green bg paper, deep purple ribbon, a heart & clip brad from SU!, an old key I had, and backed it all with beige cardstock. It says "You hold the key to my heart - a noble beau, a playful one, my only one, my Valentine". Awwww!

Ever had one of those days?

This morning I thought I knew what was in store for me - get up early, drive out to a community agency, teach for the day, drive home late, stay late at work finalising lesson planning for tomorrow and Thursday...but it didn't happen that way.

I had tried confirming that I was to teach at this agency today as planned late last year, without success, as no one answered my e-mails or phone messages left on answering machines. As there were 17 or so people involved in the class and I would not be at all popular if I failed to show and they were expecting me, I drove the 55kms out to the agency. The day was glorious - sunny and cool - the country was green and lush from all the monsoonal rains we had had. The joy of driving through such beautiful country is pretty special! There was little traffic, and no rush.

When I arrived at my destination, sadly there was no eager group of students ready to come to a class, but really I was blessed already by the unexpectedly peaceful interlude, so contentedly got back into the car for another lovely drive back to base. Then I had the gift of all the afternoon hours to prepare for the following days, without pressure, and could go home at a decent hour.

Ever had one of those days when you felt as though you were being paid for doing something wonderful, not just for working? This was one of those days for me :-)

Now if I had only been able to make time to create a card, it would have been perfect!! Gotta go do some marking now...

Work is too busy

Work is so demanding lately I cannot get time to craft anything. I just quickly read the latest challenges on DCM and would love to contribute something, but cannot do so for a bit. Just wanted anyone reading this to know why I have become a 'lurker' for awhile! I have lots of travel to do with work and don't have a way of taking my projects with me, and besides I don't get many breaks as breaks are the times for students and others to talk to me personally...This is not a whinge! Just a little info so you will know why I am not making new stuff just now.

I will be back!

Ali Edwards Challenge - the delightful side of crafting

Ali Edwards set a challenge for us this week: “This week I want you to take a look at those "extras" that are truly delighting you right now and making you want to create. Make a list and then CREATE a layout that details your favorites. I love how people ended up making layouts about their essentials - very cool idea.”

Well, I am still building up my craft supplies so most of what I have is really pretty essential for me, but I think I do have some luxuries too that I love to have around me. The more I thought about it, the more I realised it isn’t the things that top the list. It’s the connections with people I treasure the most. Here’s a list of things that currently give me joy:

The people:

1. Blogs, Web sites and Magazines about how other people make their cards and LOs. It’s a real luxury to me to have found some inspiring and warm people in these wonderful communities! You are all amazing.
2. RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) and the people who send them! What a wonderful, uplifting thing for people to do.
3. Live Workshops with friends – how relaxing and enjoyable these are. I had no nearby friends who were interested in craft when I started making cards seriously, but all that has changed wonderfully.

The things:

4. Flowers, little and big, silk and paper and punched and hand made. I love them. They seem to be able to bring a project into another class. Same as stickers and ribbons – they are fun and quick and easy and pretty. Oh and I like beads too.
5. Punches – I borrowed a bag of them from a generous friend – and they are so much fun. This friend also lent me a bag of new stamps! Joy! (Hmm – this is a people one too!)
6. A slow recovery foam block that can take on the shape of anything it can be pushed into - you heat it up with a hair dryer then push it onto something with an interesting texture, and voila - a new bg stamp! You can have different textures on each surface of the cube.
   

OK – that’s my list. I will have to work on getting a LO done which can reflect some of this. I may not get that part done this week, but ‘counting my blessings’ about my craft has been a very lovely thing to do. Thanks for the idea, Ali.

Sketch challenge

"For the Little Extra challenge this week on Daring Cardmakers we've a sketch for you to have a go at. We don't mind how you use it - bend it, stretch it, shrink it or turn it on it's head - as long as we can see the original plan in there it counts and we'd love to see how you use it."

I had trouble getting all of this together! It took ages to find what I thought was a pleasing way to fit all the pieces of this sketch together. I did come up with a card for a small friend's birthday - she is aged 12, so let's hope she likes the elements of this. First I thought I had too many pieces, but in the end I added to them. Now why is that, I wonder? I used an SU! balloon stamp in black ink on the brown cardstock bg, then layered on sky blue paper, roses wrapping paper, white cardstock dressed up with sponged edges in blue, pink and blue glitter gel pen plus an occasional punched heart, an SU! flower tag and a Be Inspired blue brad. Oh, and Inchworm & Scallop deckle edged scissors. I wrote all the words in me own fair hand - aharr.

Work

It's been awhile since I posted, and it's all because I went back to work. It's been a hectic week and I have had no time for crafting - have been coming home to get ready for the next day's agenda and have just been falling in to bed! I am a 'night' person more than a 'morning' person and I have had a struggle to get back on the old timetable this week :-) But never fear! I will find time to make cards again before too long. I love to do it, and I have to have something like it in my life or I get very borrrrring.

Have been thinking about the 'non essentials' of my card making as suggested in the AEzine this week and will also post that list soon.

Meanwhile, hubby wants to go our for dinner - yay! Going out to dinner with him does beat a night in, even a night in making cards!! Must dash and get ready. Trust you are all well and crafting - will look forward to having a look at everyone's cards this week with Gillian's fabulous LO ideas - more later.