A little bit more?

How much is too much Basic Grey? Hmmmm...

The current Copycatcard challenge is to make a card using one of the new techniques that have been tried out for the Scrapsidaisy May challenge. I had so much fun using up some leftover alphas that I thought I would run with that idea...

...except with numbers! It's my nephews' 10th birthday coming up, so I created a card just for him using lots of leftover numbers...all Basic Grey, of course :) The paper is Marrakech Palace Blue and Cardamon. Simple? Yes, but a great way to use up some more stickers!

TTFN xxx

Basic Grey Overload

Is anyone else loving Basic Grey at the moment? I can't seem to stop using it as you will soon see :)

I started with a Pagemap for this first double...you may recognise the photos from a few weeks back...and went from there. They are a great starting point, especially for LOs with lots of photos.

I've used mainly Basic Grey Wisteria- violet, sundial, element stickers and even the gorgeous dandelion stamps. There are lots of little clear bling dotted over the LO too (on the bug antennaes and dandelions) , and the border around the photos is stitched with purple thread. I laid it all out first, then drew the border with a pencil before stitching. It took quite a while for this one to come together, but I love the result.

Then we have Lime Rickey...I did warn you a couple of days ago how much I love Lime Rickey :)


This bird paper would have to be my favourite...so bright and cheery! Stitching around the borders, and letters cut on the MM Slice.

I even found a home for the last of my October Afternoon Daydream rubber charms...gotta love that!

I made Linda a card from Lime Rickey for her birthday which is today

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDA xxx
It was always going to be made from Basic Grey...it's Linda's favourite :) Pop over to her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday if you get the chance :)

And then there is my LO about my quirky shoe fetish...

...they don't get much simpler than this, but with all that colour in the shoes and the paper, I didn't want to overwhelm it.

Are you Basic Grey-ed out yet? No? That's good, because I have yet another Lime Rickey LO sitting on my desk as we speak. When you find something you love, well...you are best to go with it :)

TTFN xxx

The Cute Factor

There is nothing like having a pack of new photos to get your mojo happening. Not that I don't already have lots of photos that could be scrapped ...but new ones are a bit different, aren't they?

It's Friday...and a long weekend here in Western Australia...so I can't wait to get into it! Here's a LO I completed this morning...(I promise it's straight IRL)...



I love these photos :)

Merryn has wanted to do dancing lessons since she learned how to walk, but we were a bit hesitant to start her too early. This year we gave in :) and I wanted to record how, if she wasn't so darn cute, there is no way I would be getting up so early on a Saturday morning!


I've used some new October Afternoon...the paper is Ducks In A Row This Little Piggy, and there's a bit of Cherry Hill in there too. The chipboard diecut is one of my favourite shapes from Twiddleybitz from the Basic Bag of Circles pack...very versatile! It's painted, then stamped, then I drew the little black dots around the edge and used two types of Making Memories alphas. The stitches are hand drawn, and the ribbon is by Anna Griffin.

Enjoy your weekend! I am off to the fabulous Linda's for a crafty get-together tonight...can't wait :) so if I can stop chatting for long enough, I might have something new to show you soon.

TTFN xxx

Clever cookie :)

Quite a while ago, I made a little baby book to record all the birth details of the special babes in my family. I made it from the Animal Crackers range by Making Memories...perhaps my favourite baby line of all time ;) The cover looked like this...

I've had it sitting on my desk so that I can add an extra page for my darling little nephew Samuel, the latest arrival in our family.

Merryn is captivated by the alphabet lately. Everything is s-s-sounded out, so that she c-c-can identify what the word starts w-w-with. This m-m-morning she found the baby book, and amazed me by telling me which baby was which.

How did she know? She looked at the first letter of each name, then the second, and guessed from there which of her cousins/siblings was the baby.

What a clever little cookie she is!

And in case you are wondering....yes, it is VERY cool here this morning, but the pink ballerina dress is still her favourite :) Brrrrrrr!

TTFN xxx

Peace

Where has the week gone? Wasn't it just Friday?

Time is flying by so fast lately...don't you think? (only 214 days until Christmas, but you didn't hear it from me!)

With the sudden cold snap we've been experiencing in the last few days, we've all been reaching for our warmer clothes, only to find that ankles and wrists are showing! These kids of mine must have done some serious growing over the summer months, and each morning is an exercise in trying on many outfits until we find one that fits. Merryn's are the worst, so we have had a HUGE cleanout today. Hopefully tomorrow morning might run a little more smoothly when it comes to selecting an outfit :)

Not much time for crafting with all this domestic activity going on, but I have done a little...

Hardly worth photographing really, but things are a bit boring without a photo...LOL.

Enjoy your day

TTFN xxx

A rather blustery day.

It would seem that winter has finally arrived in Perth...we've had cold days, rain, and last night a big storm blew some of our side fence away. The whole family has varying sniffles and snuffles...sure feels like winter to me!

Of course, the cold weather means staying inside and doing some scrapping :) I've had some goodies from Twiddleybitz sitting on my desk for a little while, thanks to the girls from Tomorrows Memories , so have had a play.


This Twiddleybitz piece is called "Bullrush and Butterfly", and I knew it would have to be used with some shots of the river. I have plenty of pics to choose from...we used to swim at the river lots when we lived in NSW...but decided to use photos from the river at my Grandfather's farm, taken in 2007.

I sprayed the piece with bronze Colour Spray (much like Glimmermist), but covered the butterfly first so that I could later paint it a different colour. I then attached feathers onto the bullrush tips...they look so real! The paper is October Afternoon Cherry Hill Sunday Dishes and alphas from American Crafts and Making Memories.

The whole Glimmermist thing is quite addictive...this was my first play with these types of sprays, and they are so easy! On the next LO i used them again...

The bronze is a great colour...and matches nicely with the MM tiny shimmer alphas. This LO uses mainly Basic Grey Wisteria...finch, dahlia, willow, mini monogram stickers and element stickers. The blue diecut is not actually a diecut...lol...I traced around a MM one to give me the shape, and extended the bottom one for my journaling, then inked the edges.

The journaling is very personal, so I chose to keep it hidden on this LO. You pull the little flower
and it comes out :) Lots of stitching and distressing on this one too. And just so you know....this ultrasound photo was taken 10 years ago (just in case you thought I was expecting again!)

That's it from me today. Hope you have a great weekend....and if you have time, please leave me a comment :)

TTFN xxx

Fabric love.

The last few days have seen me immersed in fabric...well, almost :)

Our little trip to the Craft Fair last week has inspired me to move the papers off my desk and pull out the rotary cutter and trusty sewing machine once more. However, you will be pleased to know that, instead of starting on something new, I have been working on my Christmas Belles quilt :) I thought you may like to see a picture of the pattern...


I am using fabric mainly from the Faded Memories range by Moda, so my quilt will look quite different to this one. I layed it all out and am working on piecing the last few blocks in the bottom right corner...and it is looking very pretty, but I can't show you any completed blocks just yet.

This flurry of activity has come about mainly due to this book..


I purchased a copy at the Fair, because I love the cloth dolly sitting on the bed and thought I'd make one for the girls. Now that I've studied the book more closely, I think I need to make one of at least everything in there! There are some gorgeous, gorgeous things...little babushka dolls, angels, a divine quilt and cute little pinwheels...all just stunning! Since I have no room in my sewing basket for any more projects, I am working on completing Christmas Belles so I can start something new....a great plan! Off to join some more blocks...

TTFN xxx

Lime Rickey

It's bright...oh yes, it's bright...but the new line by Basic Grey is really lovely to work with. Even better though, is that it matches my kids' school uniforms just nicely with all that red and yellow, and that's an unusual thing to find in scrapbooking paper :)

So here is my first (of many I am hoping) LOs using Lime Rickey...


This is my attempt at the last of my challenges over at Scrapsidaisy...use a technique on your LO that is new to you and that you've been wanting to try. See the white background? This is a technique that I saw quite a few months ago here which is the blog of the talented Leeanne Pearce. She was guest designer for Tomorrows Memories a while back, and has some really great ideas. The technique involves creating a background with your leftover chipboard alphas, then painting several layers of paint over the top. It felt so great to be able to use up a couple of packs with no "e"s or "r"s or whatever letter I am usually chasing :)

It also gives the background a lovely raised texture. I kept the rest of the LO quite simple. The circles are cut out of the back of the background paper (shhhh...don't tell anyone)
and raised on foam tape. The stickers and brads are Lime Rickey, the ribbons are from my ribbon jars (ie...no idea who made them) and the journal card is Collage Press. The month ticket is Creative Cafe.

OK...I had better scoot! Trampolining comp today :)

TTFN xxx

Inspired...but tired.

What a beautiful day we had today. A day of inspiration and fun, catching up with friends old and new, and a wonderful introduction to Craft Fairs for Miss Lydia ;) who I might add, came home with more purchases than me...

...including this white fluffy cat, "Minnie" that she hasn't stopped cuddling. Love going to the Craft Fair...the stalls filled with fabrics and quilts, patterns and notions, stamps , beads, papers, and everything in between. So much inspiration going on there, makes me want to start stitching right away!

Going to the Fair also means catching up with Gai, the lovely owner of Just Patchwork in Tuncurry ...once my local quilt store. Funny to think that she remembers my kids as babies in NSW, and now we see her on the other side of the country :) Her stall was packed with wonderful things, as usual.

We were also lucky enough to meet the lovely Janelle and her friend TJ... I could have pulled up a chair and chatted to these girls all day :)...

...and since she threatened to post pics of us on her blog, I thought I would get in first LOL (hi Janelle xxxxx hee hee hee)

So wonderful to be able to share the crafting love with my girl :) Off to have another look through our purchases....yuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

TTFN xxx

Everyday stuff.

This week has been all about everyday stuff. Mummy stuff. Driving-kids-where-they-need-to-be stuff. Days that come to an end, and you question what you have actually achieved. Do you have weeks like that?

To preserve my sanity, I stopped everything and scrapped today, and this is what I made ...

I made it as part of my May challenge on the Scrapsidaisy forum...to scrap a page that tells the reader something that they don't know about you. I've had this journaling jotted down for a while, so decided to get it onto a page. It's about how I get a bit blues-y on the days that my hubby flies out (he works away), and how I've learned over the years to just accept that as the "norm" and know that it will get better. Probably a bit heavy, but hey, that's the way it is.

I've used paper from Cosmo Cricket Little Boys Biography Collection, which I've had sitting at the front of my stash for, oh, probably two years now. Love it, just couldn't bring myself to use it. If you look closely, one of the papers has little planes on it, which is what pushed me to cut into it. For the record, I also have the Little Girls Collection :)

The clouds are hand drawn, then cut out and raised on foam tape. The black plane is cut on the MM Slice, and the stamp around the outside edges is Love Elsie. I even pulled out the old MM Heidi rubons, which I used on almost every LO a few years back. A true classic.

Lydia and I are planning to go to the Perth Craft and Quilt Fair later in the week...her very first craft fair (well, that she has actually wanted to go to, anyway)...anyone else going? We are starting to get a little excited :)

TTFN xxx

Cats, birds and bunnies!

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers that I know (and even those wonderful Mums I don't know LOL) ...hope you have been spoiled :) Couldn't resist the picture of Duchess and her kittens from The Aristocats...it's one of our favourite movies.

When "Plan A" for the Little Bluebirds quilt didn't work (the needleturn applique), I came very close to putting the project into the "too hard basket" aka UFO pile...that would be the normal thing for me to do. However, I worked through it, and went to "Plan B"....


...the Vliesofix and blanket stitch approach! This involved recutting my polka dots, adhering the new piece to the embroidery and working blanket stitch to hold it all in place.

Here's the close-up. It's probably not as nice as the needleturn method, but considering how messy mine looked, I think this was the better option! Now I am working on the second month (it's a Block Of The Month program) so stay tuned for an update ;)

I've scrapped too...

...I forgot to check with my MIL if it was ok to post her photo, so I've blanked it out just in case. This LO is very simple, but the bunnies are flocked and so darn cute and furry that I couldn't bear to cut them....sound familiar? Hahaha! The paper, ribbon and embellishments are all from Making Memories Flower Patch, and the alphas are MM Noteworthy. My Threading Water punch got quite a workout too!

Enjoy what's left of the weekend,

TTFN xxx

Another challenge down!

As I've mentioned before, I set some challenges over on the Scrapsidaisy forum for the month of May...have you checked them out yet? One was to create a LO based on a sketch, and this is mine...

It's based on a Pagemaps sketch by Becky Fleck. Since my double page repetoire is fairly limited, I thought it was a great chance to mix up the LO a bit, and pagemaps are a great starting point!

I've used lots of Basic Grey Marrakech here...Vanilla Chai, Cardamon, Sencha and Palace Blue...how delicious are those names? The stamp is by Fontwerks, and that yummy brad is K&Co. All the little dots along the borders are drawn with a Uniball Signo pen.

Off to do some stitching

TTFN xxx

I've never met a stitch I didn't like...

...until now, that is.

It appears that Needleturn Applique and I are simply not meant to be friends. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to master the technique recently, and tonight I unpulled the whole centre block of my "Little Bluebirds" quilt because I just could not get it to look like I envisaged it should look.

Perfectionism can be a good and a bad thing.

While I am on that subject, there's a great article posted by Ali Edwards recently which is worth a look... check it out here. I particularly like the part about creating for yourself, and that there will always be people who love your work, hate it, or are indifferent.

Something to think about with your Friday night glass of wine :)

TTFN xxx

Housework Avoidance.

It seems I would rather do anything but housework today. Which is sort of a shame, because this is the only day I have free to do some. Blah.

So I have done a lot of walking from room to room, walking to the fridge for chocolate, walking to check the mail, and very little in the way of anything else. Blah. Oh, and walking backwards and forwards to my scrapping desk, putting bits and pieces on this LO until I felt it was done.

A shame it's finished, really, because now I have no excuse not to vacuum the lounge room mat. LOL!

Here's a closeup. The paper is by We R Memory Keepers, and again, too pretty to cut. I seem to be having this problem a lot lately. A bit of distressing around the outside edges, some brads to add texture to the flowers, and a little Creative Cafe sticker in the corner and Thickers for the title...too simple.

I had a few pieces of paper left over from the card I made yesterday, so made another similar one...

...see, anything to avoid housework today :) The little stars were cut with a punch and then raised on foam dots.

Best go start that vacuum cleaner...

TTFN xxx

A single solitary card.

That's all I have to show you today :(

It's for a very special little friend of ours who is turning 6 today, and I have just this minute finished it. What is going on? I am usually much more organised, but life is crazy busy around here! I have even resorted to posting out store-bought cards for Mothers' Day, which is not good. What can I say, life is busy!

Have a wonderful day.

TTFN xxx

A couple more...

....that I made last night, which are for sale at Tomorrows Memories right now!

The letters and the frame in this one are glittery...most Mums like a little bling :)

The butterfly is a rubber charm by October Afternoon...I really can't wait for their new releases to hit our shops. Yes...it's an addiction ;)

TTFN xxx

Sunday Night

Not much time for scrapping so far this weekend...and being Sunday night, that will probably be the way it stays :) The weather has been perfect, and far too nice to spend inside, even for me! I have managed to do a little though.

Can you believe that next Sunday is Mothers' Day? That has crept up so fast this year! I've been working on some more cards for the shop, and this is one of them...


I have almost run out of these beautiful glitter diecuts from Making Memories, which will make me very sad. They have been favourites of mine for a while now.

I also completed a LO...


This paper from Creative Imaginations was far too beautiful to cut, so I just embellished it a little and called it done.

Always nice to use some older products on a LO. I even had to paint the Collections letters (gasp!), which is something I haven't done for the longest time...I've been a bit spoiled by American Crafts thickers I think!

Here's to a wonderful week ahead!

TTFN xxx

The Candle Angel

Another block of Christmas Belles down....yay! It may even be finished for Christmas 2009 if I keep going like this!

This is the Candle Angel, and if you look closely enough you will see why :)

I'm thinking that I should probably put some sort of disclaimer with these blocks...they really don't take all that long to complete. In fact, if you really got into this quilt, it wouldn't take very long to finish.

But, true to my style, I don't get into it. I procrastinate, and veer off onto other projects, and have little breaks. And even when I am "working on it" I mostly just stitch when I'm watching my son do his trampoline training (when I'm not chatting to someone or playing with my girls LOL), or on the rare occasion that I watch TV. It takes me far longer than a normal person to actually finish a quilt.

Just thought I should share that with you, in case I am turning you off stitching/patchwork/quilting altogether. It's really not as arduous and time consuming as I make it look!

TTFN xxx

It's May already..

...which means that Tomorrows Memories are celebrating their 5th birthday!

All through the month of May there are competitions, prizes and celebrations! You can read all about it here! (hopefully, LOL....I have just learned how to link things, so if that dosen't work, go to the sidebar and click on Tomorrows Memories, heeheehee)

A big congratulations to Jo, Vicki and Clori on reaching this milestone event...and many more to come xxxxx

TTFN xxx