Card Challenge#17

Here it is, the last card from me as one of Card Patterns design team members...

This week we were once again lucky enough to have received images complements of the Digi Shack to work with. Thanks Digi Shack! This week I used three of their wonderful images on my card....

Love this flower image so I decided to show case it on a tag...

... which fits into the pocket on the front of my card, I have turned a part of Michelle's sketch inside out! The second image I have used is the lovely sentiment on the front.

The third image is tucked away inside my card.

Good luck to everyone who takes on the challenge!!

All the very best to the new design team, a few of whom are the old design team who have decided to stay on! Well done. I loved being a part of this gorgeous team of truly talented and friendly ladies. Leaving the team is a little bitter sweet for me as I would have loved to be staying on only, Scrap booking is my passion and I really struggled some weeks to get my card made in time. In saying that, I have a lovely supply of cards now, have sharpened up my skills a little and have enjoyed challenging myself! I will miss this little part of my weekly routine. Lastly I send a huge thank you to Michelle she is one lovely lady!

House Proud

Today I had a tidy up- out side! I have mowed our lawns for the last time before spring...I hope! When you have two boys it is amazing how much 'junk' gathers around ones property, our rubbish skip is full and I am feeling like I have achieved something! Tonight I am having a declutter in my craft room...but wouldn't you know it , my junk is all very precious and I can find NOTHING to throw away, anyway as I said, the skip if already full! LOL

Here is a page I have created using my design team goodies from Scrapbook Studio's.

The background is the new Dotty Swiss embossed bazill, I can see I am going to be needing more of this!

These bright houses are cut from a lovely piece of fabric that came in my kit and the felt flowers are from K&Company, also very yummy!

The little cat is a chipboard one from 2Crafty, I have inked him in blue and added some bright spots so he did not feel out of place!

Trails and Outward bound

Just a very quick post tonight. All of our children are away for the night, Cody has an 18th birthday to attend at some high country station. Aimee is looking after Uncle Davids children's for the night and Camden is away for the night as he is heading off for a hunting trip with friends early in the morning. Ye Harr, for the first time all year we might not get woken up before 7am on a Saturday morning!!

Andrew and I are about to watch a movie so that will be nice.

Our exciting news for the week was , firstly Aimee completed the Rail trail this week , she was the first girl home and bet a good chunk of the boys as well! Go Aimee!!!
Now, she was still buzzing about that when she found out yesterday that she scored the Outward Bound Scholarship from her school and received a bonus $200 from the principle!! So again...Go Aimee!! It has been one of Aimee's dreams since form one to go to Outward Bound so we are thrilled for her. But I have to say that she is welcome to it, as she has chosen to go in the next school holidays...the middle of winter. Swims in the sea every morning and cold showers.... Crazy I reckon. Aimee sure does not take after me!!

Now just to finish, I have a couple of photos to share with you. I opened the door to wave goodbye to Camden as he headed for the bus stop on Tuesday morning and this is the scene that met my eyes as I glanced over our fence.... spot the frost on the hills and grass, and the mist rising from the river....

Half an hour latter I braved the chill to pop out and take a second photo

Its little moments like these that I often do not take the time out to notice... and goodness me, I must remember to stop more often. How wonderful it is to life in the country..I should add the only sound to be heard was the river flowing in the distance

Message to self.... Be thankful for the small things in my life

Winter Wash

I have to admit that I am the owner of many many stamps! I become very addicted to stamps when my good friends mum, Marion, introduced me to the art of stamping over four years ago. About the same time my wonderful friend introduced me to 'trade me' and it really was a match made in heaven!! LOL. Anyway I try not to buy many stamps these days because I have containers full of them and I have not even inked over half of them.
Below is a picture of my Clothes Line stamp... its very cute and I can see why I brought it...but I have not found many uses for it yet. So can you imagine my delight when, at last I found the very reason for my buying this stamp in the first place......

.... my Winter Wash layout that I completed for Carols 'Scrapping the Everyday Challenge' at Scrapbook Studio's.
My pegs are a little strange, I just free hand drew them.... yes you can tell!!

and here is my lovely stamp, put to good use.

I'm thinking that now I have used that stamp I could treat myself to a new one!!

Win two Digi Stamps

Sketch #16 at Card Patterns is up and the prize is once again kindly donated by Digi Shack. As always we are on the search for a talented person to be the sketch designer for the next Sketch.

Here is sketch 16...

Lots of possibilities with this sketch!

This week my Digi image, from Digi Shack was one very cool giraffe

I have printed the digi stamp out on coloured card and painted Mr giraffe's 'flowers' with LuminArte' Iridescent Blue, this adds just a little shine! I fell in love with this fellas eyes!!

All details on entering the sketch this week can be found by clicking on CARD PATTERNS

Check it out

Have you seen the Up2Scrap Blog?? Louise has a great challenge running each month.
This month the challenge is to create a 'non square ' page. I thought I'd give this a go, firstly because I have never ever scrapped any thing but square, or rectangle pages, and secondly because, the winner get a years subscription to the very cool Up2Scrap magazine! Check it out for yourself HERE.
You still have time to complete the challenge, and if your weather is anything at all like the weather in Duntroon today then now is a perfect time to get scrapping!

Take a look at the sketch to get you inspired... This is the page I created for the challenge

Those two delightful people in the photo are my lovely Aunt and Uncle (they are also my God Parents)

The cherub is cut from a gorgeous piece of Prima Marketing paper called ...'Cherub' from the Angelique Collection.


Check out the delightful page created by Sarah Punnett and the details on the challenge over at Up2Scrap

Black and White

Recently I took part in the ATC 'Black and White' swap at Scrapbook Studio Check out all of the wonderful atc's I received in the post this week.

'Only shades of Grey', below, was created by Anya Bell. I love the way this atc is framed with stitches.

'Inspire' was made by Nickie and has so much dimension, love the clowns to.

Passion is the work of Dana, the flowers are beautifully sparkly, you cannot tell by the photo though.

Carol has created 'Dream Believe Love', as above Carol's atc has a lovely sparkle to it.

Lianne has created this very cute 'window' scene

My atc is titled 'Pear' for obvious reasons!

Here is Lisa fashionable little number

Amanda's atc has such a soft dreamy feel to it.

Check out the ever so sweet photo on Dianne's card.

Arn't these ever so cool! You can find Scrapbook Studios HERE. The latest swap theme is 'Clear' I have my thinking cap firmly on for this one.

Keep your eyes open for a new atc swap coming up next month and check out NZ Dares.

Come for a drive with us

Today I left my craft room...yes it's true... and Andrew and I went for a drive up the road to have a look at the Benmore Dam, that's about 40 minutes drive from where we live.

Here is snap shot of our drive through my camera lens

First stop was Kurow, our closest town, country town that is, population is about 300 during a busy year ! We brought fish and chips from the Restaurant our daughter works at during the school holiday and ate by the river. At the moment the river is in flood, and this bridge is closed between 6pm and 7am. With so much water flowing under it there are safety concerns. Free range sheep take on a whole new meaning as we near the Benmore Dam!!

See that huge load of water spilling from the dam?? That is the reason why our rivers are flooding at the moment. The spray goes for ages!

We are getting a little closer to the dam now, and rather a lot wetter from the spray.

Here we have driven over the top of the dam and are viewing the spillway from the other side

White water rafting comes to mind!!

Heading back towards home now, we are doing the full circle and driving back on the opposite side of our three lakes.

As is usual, we have our dog family on board so we stoped to give them a frolic. This is Bid, our sons pig dog...she has fast become part of our family and really does have a lovely life, she has her basket by the fire and favorite spot on the couch..hmmm not the usual pig dog kind of life I guess!

Check out this site http://www.odt.co.nz/the-regions/north-otago/56565/video-benmore-dam-spilling

for more on Benmore dam and video footage taken yesterday if you are interested! It really is a spectacular site to behold!!

The Next Level....check it out

Check out this new web site about to launch its called...

The Next Level

This site is shaping up to be lots of fun and has something to offer for everyone, from Card and scrap booking to a bit of Digi , hints ,tutorials ,down loads, weekly challenges and more! You can find it HERE Take a look at the yummy blog candy up for grabs!

What are ATC's?

Unsure what ATC's are???

An artist trading card (or ATC for short) is basically a small work of art created on a base 3.5 by 2.5 inches.
Atc's are made to be swapped or traded with another artist, you are not supposed to sell them.
On the front of the atc is an original work of art created by the artist. They can be a one off or part of a series.
On the back the artist puts their name, contact details, title , date the atc was created and number of the atc (depending how many of one type or how many in the series the artist has created).
Anything goes, that's what I love about these little pieces of art, create anything using any medium/s you like!!

For more information check out this link ...http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html

My two favorite trading sites are ATC Dares and...
Glamourgirlstamps

Another challenge

Here is another challenge for you... this time an ATC. This months challenge over at ATC Dares is to create an ATC that depicts a Town, City or Country. You need to have the name of the place somewhere on your ATC and you can include an icon that gives a clue to your 'place'. Check out ATC Dares for details

Here is the card I have made for this challenge.....

My background is printed out and covered with 'glue stick', to give it a painted effect. I have layered the 'big red bus' (one icon) and Big Ben clock tower (second icon) over the glued surface. Next I cut out and added the children and also a cut out clock face. To finish I added some clock hands and mounted my 'picture' onto chipboard and pearlex coated red card.

Hope you can join in!

Digi Stamping

Hi there. Last week at Card Patterns we were each sent a Digi Stamp to use with Michelle's sketch. To my knowledge Digi stamping has not hit New Zealand yet??? I could be wrong, I have done an Internet search but it has turned up no NZ digi stamps site. Please correct me if I'm off track here! Anyway Michelle sent me this image ....

My first thought was ARrrrrrrrrr......... HELP!!!

...but then the more I looked at this image the more I liked it! I mean to say, she really is so sweet isn't she. So I pushed aside the panic, printed her out and got to work!

I have printed out the image three times in fact. Once on green - for the leaf, and again in pink, for the togs, which I ended up cutting out and covering with glitter.

Here is Michelle's sketch...

...and here is the card I made...

This lovely Digi stamp had such a tropical feel about it that I just had to add the brilliant colours of the tropics, and of course a flower to match!

This digi stamp, and all of the other gorgeous Digi stamps used by the rest of the Card Pattern's Design Team were kindly supplied to us from the Digi Shack do be sure to check them out.

My challenge to you all is to create a card using Michelle's sketch. Remember to leave a link over at Card patterns to your take on the sketch. The winner from this challenge will be showcased on #17 as Guest Designer. You also will be in with a chance to win two digi stamps of your choice from The Digi Shack!!

Click HERE to get to card patterns and check out the wonderful cards made by the talented team. My time as designer here is almost at an end. I have been very proud to have been a part of the launch of this hugely popular site and a part of this team of very clever, friendly ladies from all over the world! Thanks Michelle!!!

Hand made

It has been a while since my last post. Last week I completed my handmade gift for the next person on my hand made list...here is what I made for Carol...

This is an eclipse tin covered in beads and little embellishments. I have painted over everything with light gold Jo Sonja paint then added three different coloured iridescent (Jo Sonja's) paints randomly over the base colour. I have drilled a small hole in the lid and threaded wire through to hold a bead in place. Lastly I added another embellishment, glued in a tiny gem, and added gold embossing , which I have stamped into , just to create a little more texture and interest. And very last I have sprayed the whole thing with two coats of lacquer to ensure everything stays where it was put!!

...and...

...as a thank you to Carol for the gorgeous gift she sent me...see it HERE I unleashed my jewelry making tools, and skills...which are somewhat limited, and tried hard to make a bracelet. My inspiration come from the beautiful Jewelry Renate made for me. See it HERE.

Tonight our boys are away, hunting. . . no surprises there! This afternoon we went to town to pick Aimee up and to bring her home for the weekend, and we ended up buying a new tele...Camden ( our youngest) will be beside himself with joy when he sees it...Camden is a real television fan!!

I will be back tomorrow, for now it is time I was in my bed. Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. xx

Snow and Mothers day

Winter has arrived early I think! Our days are grey, frosty and drizzly of late. Awesome weather for a scrapper!! I am not complaining.

Yesterday I was treated well for mothers day, for a short while at least!! Camden brought me in a savory muffin, fresh picked grapes, which he went out to pick in the rain--so he told me--- and a tepid coffee, I slept longer than Camden had allowed for.

Aimee gave me some very lovely salad servers that I had been eyeing up in the shop during the school holidays, and Cody brought me home dinner..... take a look at it ....

...he went for miles to find it for me....

... a close up of dinner!!! Hmmmm... BOYS!!

Gifts going out AND coming in!

Hi again,. Two posts in one day!! Go Me!!

Today, at long last I have finished my 'something' for Carol as promised in an earlier posting, called Handmade by me. Next on my list is the name -qq photoshop tutorials- If this is YOU please are you able to email your address to me so I can send you something soon. :-) Thanks

Now, I received the most delightful gift yesterday from Carol, this totally made my week, take a look....

This is the lid of what I thought was a delightful decorated box... then I opened the lid and it got even better, if that's possible!!...

Thanks ever so much Carol, this took my breath away. You must have spent hours and hours on this! I totally LOVE it!