Brighten your day

Today's card is bright enough to brighten anyone's day and this cold Melbourne Winter.

I have been super busy colds have done the rounds (twice), a friend was in hospital so I have had her daughter (my niece- you know those children of old old school friends haha) and some of those times I had my other niece who is a similar age so they are happy to play together which leaves Aunty Nat to get things done!

It's a culture shock when you have near teenage/ teenagers then you have a 5 yr old and 7 yr old. Mostly the energy levels of the 5 yr old is the scary part! Love them both dearly and I wouldn't change a thing.  Yesterday I did have a big sleep in!! lol Sorry I'm off topic.... :)

I recently bought some alcohol inks from Riot Arts and Craft when it was half price! (They currently have another special at 50% until the 14th July 2019) The colours are beautiful.

I used Paper Mills Citrus and Mandarin to make the background. I waited 2 minutes and applied the foil over the background and gave it a good rub. 2 minutes seem to be the sweet zone for adding foil. Too soon you destroy the alcohol background and have to reapply and too late ... nothing happens. It can be abit hit and miss to start off with but keep trying, it proves some stunning results!

The photos really don't show off the gold foil. Because you have a narrow window to apply the foil, I did that first then using the new Paper rose Distressed Mesh stencil. I applied a small amount of blending solution thru the stencils to remove some of the alcohol ink.

The flowers are one of my childhood favorites! My Grandmother always had a Frangipani tree in her front yard. To me they are always white and yellow. One day I might go outside my box and colour one another colour but for the time being I can't bring myself to colour it another colour.

Unfortunately they are an old Stamp It stamp that I can't get rid of! Stamp It has been gone for a few years now. I originally coloured 5 of them so there will be another card as 5 just didn't fit.  

Copics I used were: 

Y15, 11, 08, 06

C2 

0

Well, that is it for this week. I have more family arriving Tuesday so abit more fun is to come.

Thanks for stopping by.

Best Kind of Friend

Busy, busy, busy. Things are crazy town. School holidays have started which signals the start of sickies!

Today, my non niece, niece (you know a friend that you have known since childhood daughter, one of those) arrived for a visit while her mum isn’t well and she will stay for a couple of days! It’s been a while since I have had a 5yr old in the house! Oh my gosh, their energy is scary. You forget what they are like plus, I suppose you are older and don’t have the same level of energy either lol Tuesday another full niece arrives to save me and keep the other company. Second one is (I’m going to get in soo much trouble if I stuff this....) 7 nearly 8 but half of my own kids are off sooo... wish me luck! Lol

Recently while I was away I played with Alcohol inks and the pearls.

I think it was the last 30 day colouring challenge I coloured this little man and he has been sitting in my desk since. He was coloured with Prismacolor pencils. The background is some of the pearl alcohol inks with some foiling. I think I waited abit too long to add the foiling. There is a narrow window to apply it. Seems to be around the 2 minute mark if wait time before adding the foiling. 2 minutes seen to be the sweet zone!

You only get to see a little bit of foil in this one. There will be more later when you can see I found the zone! Lol

Well, short and sweet today as I coloured this before I started to wrote everything down, regarding colouring etc.

Next week I have another alcohol background using the Riot Art alcohol inks. In Australia, it can be hard to get alcohol inks as they get stopped in customs and businesses get charged like $45 a shipment as it is ‘alcohol’ on top of all other taxes.

 Riot Art is a business who was selling them for half price so I grabbed some and they are pretty. Lovely colours and a great price!

So look forward to that!

See you next week!

Ballarina Dancing

Hellooo again! 

I am soo exhausted after my Glamping. Soo much fun. This was suppose to go up a while ago but I clearly dropped the ball. i thought I had scheduled it up but.... fail!

 I'm back from both of my weekends away.  Next week I will have some pics of my adventures.

Today's card

Tim Holtz has come out with this awesome embossing folder. 3D folders are soo beautiful and you find them more and more. Quite a few companies are bring them out.

I sponged a little bit of brown ink, not that it needed help to bring out the image.

Using a sketch I found I made a clean and simple card.

Copics Used

Hair E33, 35, 37

Skin E53, 51, 50

Dress R00, 02, 05

Green Trim YG95, 67, G99

Hey Mama

Today's card is abit late I forgot to schedule it while I was away but it is soo cute, I think. I really love it.

Inspiration came from a YouTuber named Yana Smakula. She used coordinating dies to make a little hidden pocket in the front of the card. She used a little swing tab to keep it closed, however I didn't need that as my image wasn't quite so straight edged. It tucked into itself nicely.

I used a Darkroom Door crackle stencil to add the texture to the background with Early Espresso ink. Just abit here and abit there.

The stamp is a Uniquely Creative set called 'Hey Mama' It is a very cute set that you can use for lots of different reasons including sending it off to a new Mum to let them know they are doing great and CAN do this 'parenting' thing.

The stamp set doesn't have the Giraffe with spots but I wanted them to be abit more realistic. I drew them in with a Copic multi-liner pen.

 Copics Used

E97, 99, 08 YR01

T4, 2

W7, 05, 03

Warm greys were used to 'ground' the giraffes. I personally can't leave them floating mid air on my cards. (It's a me thing)

You partial die cut the front of the card with the coordinating die, making sure it is straight and leaving enough to make a hinge. 

Open up the cut area and use it to position your sentiment inside the card.

Finish it off with some doodling around the edges.

I look forward to having more of a play with this stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by.

Otterly Love

Life is starting to settle again after the big storm. Next weekend I'm off you my first of 2 craft retreats. Queens' long weekend myself and 34 friends head down to 'The Briars' which is a beautiful old area.

The following weekend... I'm crazy enough to do it all again! This time down at Philip Island.

I am going full on minimalist this year. I have planned what I'm going to do and only taken things for that project. Stay tuned for a photos of camp and my see if I really do STAY minimalist.

Today I have 2 cards for you. They are super cute! I was abit proud of how they turned out, especially as I had NO IDEA what I was going to do with them to start off with! LOL

I coloured the Otters for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge on Instagram.

The colour isn't the best in this photo, might have been a dark old day.

So... I remembered an awesome embossing folder I bought. It is from Spellbinders and it is called "Fabric Weave" but it works so well for water! Emboss a little bit of Stamping Up's Baja Breeze. it is now retired but I may have squirreled some away. I'll cry when I use up the last little bit!

Added a little bit of Faded Jeans to bring it to life and done! Water! I'll let you know Copic colours at the end! So a pretty straight forward card.

Card 2

This one is some good old sponging again with some Faded Jeans but I have added a little Black Soot here and there for texture and depth. I didn't want it to be all smooth and a solid colour. I splashed it with water and after stamping the water and decided on where to place my little Otters.

Using a craft knife I made some slits along the wave lines so my little Otters can slip in behind. This gave them the look of in the water and not just sitting on top. More engaged in the over all image.

Copics Used

Otters W5, 4, 2, 0

Heart R29, 27, 22

Rocks E77, 74, 71 N1

That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Blast of Fun

Hi again,

So many things are happening. Life is pretty crazy but we always have to set aside some time for ourselves... Not an easy thing to do as Mums.

Kids getting to school, arguing with each other and you! Oh my Gosh!! The level of their voice has no limit! Love them dearly but they are all consuming at times. :)

That is how it SHOULD be but you need to make sure you have time for you!

Find your thing... Like most of us reading this post it is craft. To make something, whether this is mixed media, off the page, cardmaking or scrapbooking is our happy place. That list isn't conclusive of course but we like to make pretty things!

I set myself challenges sometimes to break things up. At the moment it isn't working! lol I have lost my mojo... again! I seem to want to make things and then sit at my desk and I can't think of any of the ten tonne of things I wanted to do an hour ago!

During the last 30 day colouring challenge I coloured some images and waited for the time and inspiration to make them into cards.

I haven't finished all of the images but here is the first.

This stamp set is from My Favourite Things named 'Space Explorer'

Copics Used

Hair: E47, 37, 33

Blues: B18, 23, 21

Greens: BG99, 96, 93

Skin: E000, 01, 11, 04

Grey: C4, 2, 0

Gold:T4, YR24, 21

Background

Sponged with Ground Expresso, Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass.

When I sponged the ground expresso (I didn't want it really dark) I sponged random areas so the other colours can shine.

Flick of water and flicks of white paint for stars and it is all done.

I wish you a week of happiness and crafty fun. See you next week.

OH THE SHAME!!

I know I am the only person in the world who has ever gone to sold a stamp set without using it!!! I know, I know.... terrible person ha ha ha.

We have all done it and maybe hid the fact we have never used it, apart from maybe stamping it for a catalogue.
Well this set I think needs to go but it was just that... Unused! Such a waste of money which can have it's own shame. I spent that money.... and never used it!

No shame here! I've decided I'm going to learn from it and move it on to another person who possibly couldn't afford to buy it new! That's what I'm telling myself.

I couldn't let it go without stamping it out and playing with it at least once!

It is a cute set, it just isn't my style anymore and we change as we got older and learn more about ourselves.

I used pinterest to spark some ideas.

I masked out the peacock and added some flourishes and some flowers stamped in random places.

Inks- both cards are the same colours

Marina Mist- love this colour, I know it is gone but I just loved it!

Emerald Mist

Pumpkin Pie

Crushed Curry

I am not a demonstrator that does parties and gets rid of old cardstock. It's not going to happen. I like the colours and that is that. :)

I wanted to ground my peacock so I used G14 and G17.

To finish it all off I gold embossed some dots as I felt it just needed a little something!

Side note- My house got hit by lightening!

It has been soo annoying but thankfully no major damage just annoying things. Internet died, one T.V. died (it was a smart TV... not so smart, but makes sense because it connects to the internet) it appears the lightening struck something related to that!

BUT did you know, when this happens lots of people lose their garage door! Which I totally couldn't understand! Theories went around regarding that it is because of the remote... blah blah blah.

Yesterday, I found out ( when it finally got fixed after nearly 6 weeks of no garage door and one tv down. My husband sorted the internet( when 3 teenagers and no net... thank goodness! They thought they were dying!)

Any who...

It goes back to the thing that nothing lasts anymore! Years ago they use to have some big (like a nut, don't quote me!) thing. Now they make things in China and they put in 3 little cheap parts and one dies, it is fine. Two die and... she no work! ha ha. So they are now sensitive to things and this is why!

Your welcome! I know you always wanted to know this!

Anyway we are now back to normal apart from furniture that had to go cos the insurance replaced the TV with a bigger TV which didn't fit the old TV unit. Now.... I can't get rid of the unit! No one wants the older fashion units where the tv sits in the unit not on it! So annoying but never mind.

Gees I've had some things happen lately... stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by. Take Care