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!