The Shark Bite

This is a pic of my husband's shark bite. Impressive, isn't it?

It makes me smile because I know better.........it's not a shark bite at all, it's the scar from when he put his arm through a window at high school. Accidentally of course. But that's a story for another day.

Before we hooked up he used to call it his shark bite in order to pull chicks. He even had some mild success with the shark bite story, which makes me laugh because he couldn't even swim! He can swim now, because I enrolled him in swim lessons where I taught swimming.

Anyway, that's the story of the shark bite. Hope you're not too disappointed ;)

First grunge

This is my first play with grungeboard (or manureboard if you identify things by smell). Clearly this stuff is made from some dead farm animal - nothing that came from a plant could ever smell this..........um.........what's the word..........faecal.

It looks like chipboard, but it's flexible and much much easier to cut. I bought some so that I could participate in a swap, I got the elements with a stripe pattern. The shapes are not what I'm used to, so I just picked one of the larger shapes and cut it up into the shape I wanted using my Tim Holtz scissors. I'm sure this stuff would go through the Cuttlebug without any dramas. I"ll have to wait until someone gets some plain sheets into the country, and try cutting my own shapes out.

Anyhow, this is the ATC I made. I used a stamp by Collecitons onto an acetate sheet with StazOn ink. I put that onto some patterned paper with a couple of brads and mounted it onto some cardstock that's been stamped with one of my virgin Tim Holtz unmounteds. Then I added ribbon, lace and some suede cord, and topped it off with a little grungeboard heart that's had some Distress Ink sponged on it.

Join us..........

Lime Tart has a design team call out at the moment. If you love to play with beautiful products and love receiving special packages once a month, this may be for you! You get a generous store discount and news on the latest products too.

Check out the details here

LOVEly gifts

These are a few little gift ideas done in a Valentine's day theme, but they could easily be adapted for another occasion, like Mother's Day or Christmas or a birthday.

This first one is a little gift bag - large enough to hold a gift like a ring, or earrings or anything with a big diamond on it. Front and back views:

The next one is a little photo frame. You could put a little photo of yourself in it, so that your loved one can put it on their fridge and be terrorised on a daily basis. The dangles are the heart with flower stamp stamped onto shrink plastic and attached with jump rings.

The last one is a simple little bookmark - I'm always looking for bookmarks and I can never find one - I just end up using a receipt or clothing label.

Hope that inspires you to make something to go with your card this Valentine's day. All stamps by justjohanna.

another swap

........done! This one is for ArtyOz. The hostess Greta sent all participants a photo to incorporate in their ATCs. I felt the girl in the photo looked a bit too serious, so I lightened the ATC up a bit with a quote.





I used Making Memories patterned paper, various ribbons and lace, a Collections chipboard scroll and a vintage tram ticket from Adelaide.

You'll have to excuse the photography - it's the middle of the night and the flash on my camera is not really flashing. Unlike my husband who has fallen asleep on the couch in an unfortunate position. I'll spare you all a photo of that!

Check this out....

Seth at The Altered Page asked a bunch of artists a few questions, and the fascinating responses will appear daily starting Thursday 24th January. The list of artists is on the blog today - get your bookmarking finger ready - it's an amazing collection!

*Kudos to Seth for this amazing exercise in discovery*

Puzzling

Late last year I was asked by Kathy to join a swap with Debbie and Donna. We had to alter a puzzle piece using some Basic Grey Periphery paper and the theme vintage children. I've finally finished mine, and here it is:

I've used some Basic Grey rub ons, various ribbons, prima flowers, tulle, a pin from Papier Valise, a tiny little test tube (a Durham tube to us scientists), a Collections chipboard heart painted with Tim's crackle paint, a button from my stash, a lock also from my stash, a little gold frame I bought at Christina's and some papery flowers from God knows where. The stamp is Heidi Swapp, and I used it because it's one of the few that would fit inside the frame.

I'm hoping the girls like it - I loved the picture and it reminded me of all the little friendships I had growing up, where my best friend was the whole world to me. We'd share secrets and give each other little presents like lockets and flowers made into daisy chains, and sit and make clothes for our little dolls, and share dreams about what we'd do when we grew up.

Well I've certainly grown older, but I don't think I ever want to grow up!

Love is in the air

I've been making lots of Valentine's day themed things of late........anyone would think I was in love or something! C'mon - in September this year we'll have been married for 10 years - the shiny lustre has certainly worn off. What remains is the aged patina of a long-standing friendship, and the rust of putting up with annoying habits. (Hope he doesn't read this - there'll be no chocolates and flowers for me this Valentine's day!)

Anyhow, this is a card I made using the January A la Tarte kit from Lime Tart, some clipart and some tulle. This month's kit includes some beautiful papers (as usual), as well as some German scrap wings and count them - 3 stamps!

Back to the drudgery of housework for me..........no wait. Let me put a postive spin on that - back to the duties of Domestic Godessery for me. There - that sounded better.

Something fishy.......

justjohanna images are so much fun to play with - I love mixing the cute little critters with photos. Here's one I did using a photo of a shark, which are quite common around these parts. In fact, you'd be hard put to find anyone without scars from a shark bite at my house!

Still loving aqua

Still not sick of this colour!

This would make a nice Valentine's day card if you ever get sick of pink and red.

Images by justjohanna, on some watercolour paper. I used Twinkling H2Os, and sprinkled water on it when it was still a bit wet to make it look like raindrops. I then mounted the whole thing on some more of that yummy handmade paper, and finished it off with some gauze to look like netting. You can get the gauze from any hospital - look for a patient with wound dressings, or alternatively just buy some at the chemist. He he.

put your sunglasses on......

.....this one's a bit bright!

justjohanna images and coloured with watercolours after heat embossing (to stop me from going out of the lines). A card with these colours should be kept petite!

Wishful thinking

Here are a couple of quickie cards I made for birthdays:

The aqua one is simply the sentiment embossed with white embossing powder on some delicious handmade paper, and the B & W one is white embossed on some water colour paper with a black acrylic wash. Hope that makes sense - it's a bit late for me to be too coherent!

Stamps are by justjohanna.

A couple of blog giveaways.......

Not on my blog, but here are the links:

Melissa from the Lime Tart DT has a challenge up on Zest blog. You need to make something, link it to the blog post, then give it away. If your creation is chosen, you'll receive the handmade gift pictured, as well as something sweet! You have until the 20th of January.

The next giveaway is from Kim on the justjohanna DT. She's giving away some stamps she designed herself. All you need to do here is leave a comment on her blog. You have until 10pm Monday night (that's US central time) to enter.

Good luck folks!

New banner

I've just discovered how to put a photo behind my blog title (yep I know - bit slow on the uptake!). I've used a photo of a wedding bouquet I did for a friend a couple of years ago.

When she came to me and said she wanted roses, I agreed to do her wedding flowers. But then she said she also wanted lotus pods and succulents, I said she was crazy! In the end I just loved the look. Would you believe the lotus pods are actually artifical? The succulent came out of her mum's garden - her mum was thrilled to be able to provide them. The grey stringy bits are Spanish moss.

This is the groom's buttonhole arrangement - it's noice, unyusual..........

And this was the cake I made her in the same theme. It's still one of my favourites of all the cakes I've ever made:

More house photos

By popular request (well, Gail at least!), here are some photos from the front of our house.

This is a shot from the left hand corner of the block, showing the fledgling rockery, Sammy's car in the driveway, and a tiny bit of his beloved lawn.

This is the view from the right hand side of the block, showing more of Sammy's lush lawn and the rest of the driveway. That garden bed to the right of the front door is our next big job. (That's the shadow of my head at the bottom of the shot).

And these are my beautiful little young roses. I'm expecting big things from these babies in the years to come.

I'll post more photos when I have something new to show (which might be a while - my back hurts from carting rocks we used to landscape the pergola!).

Vintage White ATCs

Finished - here's a sneak peek, so that it will still a bit of a surprise for participants when they get their swaps back:

I'll post them off to you soon Ness!

How's the house going?

This is a question I am often asked, so I'd better post a pic or two. I'm a bit funny about taking photos before something is finished, but as someone pointed out to me the other day - it's my home and I'll always be working on it, so it will never be finished.

We moved in mid July, and since then we've laid concrete out the back so the kids can ride their bikes almost all the way around the house. We've also sown some lawn in the front yard, which I mowed last week for the first time! I've also planted up the rockery and one garden bed at the front of the house, so I've got white standard roses doing their thing at the moment, looking gorgeous.

This weekend Sammy got stuck into the pergola area in the middle of the house, and when I got home on Sunday I gave him a hand with the pebbles. Each little pebble has to be placed just so, or the black weed mat underneath will show. I insisted on some bark as well, or I said we'd might as well concrete the whole back yard! We've got the yuccas and some date palms our sister in law gave us at Christmas still to put in, but I reckon it looks pretty good, and Sammy is loving it too. What do you think?

Just wait until it's completely planted up with some more ferns and other shade-loving plants. It's going to be so relaxing sitting out there in summer, I won't want to leave home. Plus I'll need a pool boy (not that we have a pool IYKWIM!)

Vintage white birthday

I'm referring to the card, as well as the recipient. My Mum turned 72 today, but she doesn't look a day over 80! Ha ha! I'm always joking with the old girl, it keeps her on her arthitic toes. She just smiles, and says "you'll get yours!" I bet I will too with my three little rascals.

This is the card I made for her, using the same colours I'm using on an ATC swap for ArtyOz, vintage whites. There's heaps of lace folded under the braid, the heart I cut out on my Cuttlebug using a sizzix die, and the stamps are by - you guessed it - justjohanna.

Mum like the card - I saw her squinting at the little humming bird charm tho. She'll have to put her glasses on to see what it is. He he.

Tribute to love

With Christmas behind us, I guess the next big day we like to celebrate (besides Australia Day) would have to be Valentine's Day. I was so excited when I received the Lime Tart Kit for January, and it contained gorgeous stamps, papers and other embellishments that I thought would be perfect to make some love-themed art. Here are some sneak peeks.

This first photo is of a canvas I put together using papers from the kit, a Paper Whimsy image, and other odds and ends. I stuck it all together using Gel Medium, which gives it a beautiful sheen in real life, but is an absolute b*stard to photograph!

This next photo is of a lay out I did using a black and white wedding photo (no, not mine!), and more of the fabulous papers from the A la Tarte kit. I just adore the colours Philippa put together for this kit. Yummo.

I'm baaaack!

What was that? Feels like I've been hit by a train....oh yeah - Christmas. That's what it was! Looking back now, I had begun to shut down mentally at least a week before, so Christmas itself is a bit of a blur. Does anyone else feel like that?

I ended up taking a 2 week holiday from MY WORLD - I didn't even have a chance to step foot in my studio until about a week ago. I didn't even know where the mobile phone was, and I eventually found my diary under the car seat, where it had been since the second week of December! I was busy doing enjoyable things with my family, I got to really enjoy the little people my kids are becoming. I've got Mr Inquisitive Jake, Miss Look after everyone else Rachel, and Miss I'm not afraid of nothing Elouise. I've never been more proud of who they are - I really love spending time with them.

One huge obstacle to getting started on the many projects I've got on my plate was the huge mess I left the studio in before Christmas. It took me two days to put it back in order. After that, the art just flowed. The mess must have been blocking my Chi energy. I'd like to resolve to never let it get that bad, but then that would be one new year's resolution already broken!

Anyway, I finally finished my pages in Debbie's altered book. Her theme was vintage women, and you know me - any excuse to pull out one of my nudes! I used my new Tim Holtz stamps, my new Basic Grey rub ons, and my new Artchix german scrap. The page virtually sparkles with newness! It felt good to rip open packets too. If blogger is behaving itself, you should be able to click on the photo to make it bigger. If blogger isn't behaving, then the writing says "Let's rumble - I need to return to my stamping." Clearly, this is a woman with her priorities in order, but only just!