...over to the dark side....

That's what my friend Cate would say about this little project. Look out Cate - I've been scrapbooking!!

This LO is part of a challenge at the Twiddleybits DT blog. Here's the sketch:

and here's my take on it:

I'm getting good mileage from the photos I took of LouLou when she cut her own hair.

I used some MME paper (my love affair with polka dots continues), Kaiser (paper) and Maya Road (fabric) flowers, and my white gel pen for the journaling. It must have been one of those moments when I have the right amount of caffeine in my system and I have a steady hand LOL.

Here are some obligatory close-ups:


And here's the journaling:

April sneak peek

Here are a couple of sneak peeks at the cards I made using the upcoming A la Tarte kit. I don't think I'll get into too much trouble for telling you that the papers are deliciously blue, green and brown. Not my usual palette, but oh my! My little adrenal gland was firing let me tell you (apologies if that's a little too graphic for you LOL).

Anyway, here are the pics.....enjoy, and stay tuned for more details.

Rachel's birthday card

This is the card I made Rachel for her birthday. I think it's the first card I've made this month that reached the recipient on time LOL!


I used my Nestabilities to cut the circle and scalloped circle, my Cuttlebug to emboss (Swiss dots), a border from a Sassafras Lass paper and some pom-pom trim.



The bird on the left is a felt bird from Remember When, and the bird on the right is from Buzz and Bloom.

I cut the number out with a Slice machine and ran it through the Tiny bubbles embossing folder on my Cuttlebug.

I just realised my children's ages: 3, 6 and 9. It's put that song in my head now:

Three, six, nine
The goose drank wine
The monkey chewed tobacco
On the streetcar line

The line broke
The monkey got choked
And they all went to Heaven
In a little row boat

Does anybody else remember that song, or is it just me?

Jake's card

This is the card I made for Jacob's 9th birthday. I distressed the background paper with my edge distresser and some Frayed Burlap ink, and tied some cotton string through the eyelets on the left.


The number was cut using a Slice (I love that little machine - it belongs to Lesley at Little Bits where I teach classes). I then ran it through the Cuttlebug with the tiny mosaic embossing folder. The embossing really shows with a light sponging of ink.

Next year Jake will be in double figures. I wonder how tall he'll be then - he's already up to my shoulders!

My love of kraft.

I love kraft cardstock - especially teamed up with black and white. Here's a card I made using a digi download image from InStyle stamps. It's called kissing birds.


I coloured it in with my Copics. I wanted the birds to stand out a bit more, so I went over the background with the colourless blender. Looks sort of watercoloured now, doesn't it? Here's the delicious bow - Making Memories riboon and a button tied with string:


And this is the little sentiment:


Being a digi download, you can manipulate the size of your image. I simply printed the birds a little larger, and cut out one of the hearts. The glitter sticker is a Making Memories alpha.

Thankful Thursday

Every Thursday on the InStyle Stamps blog, one of the dt members hosts a sketch challenge. This week was Shary's turn. Click here to see the sketch.

Here's my card with a twist. I turned the sketch on its side to suit the image, and instead of a thankful sentiment, I made it into a 4th birthday card. I also added the sentiment on the right:


I used an image called Mellie. She's available as a rubber stamp and as a digi dowload.


Patterned paper is by Rusty Pickle, and I used my Copics to colour in the image.

Art retreat book

This is the book I made in the class I took with the amazing DJ Pettitt. She was such a quiet, humble, talented teacher - a real delight!


The covers of the book are made with the thickest watercolour paper I've ever seen, and we added texture with gel medium and some masks. Then we painted with some acrylic paints - inside and out. This is a close up of the fabric spine.

I spent ages painting the other side fabric to match the colours of the cover, and then I accidentally set it down onto my palette. D'oh! I wiped as much paint as I could off it, and DJ happened to walk past then and say "Oooh - I love that". So there it is - the serendipitous spine!

Here's inside the front page. DJ had us add signature wraps - I used various fabrics and some of DJ's art prints.
I was determined to get the book bound and finished by the end of the class, and I achieved that. I just need to hang some beads of the threads I left hanging out of the bottom, and it's done.

At the end of the class I got DJ to sign my book, just to prove I had been there:

And here I am with the talented lady herself (I look pretty proud of myself, don't I? LOL).


This class I did was one of three days of the Creative Souls Art Retreat, organised by Bevlea. Pop on over and check out the line up for next year. It was wonderful to see some friends including the always inspiring Liz, (thanks for the big hug Deb!) and meeting new ones (hi Kelsey and Sue T, who is a fellow Medical Scientist - gee we're a rare breed LOL). The venue was just beautiful, and I envy those lucky girls who were able to stay in rooms on the premises. Roll on 2010.

Top o' the morning to ya!

Aaaah - it's St Patrick's day today.

My favourite memory of this day was when I was backpacking across Europe. I hadn't heard spoken English for weeks, so it was nice to drop into a pub in Salamanca, Spain and have a pint (or several) of ice cold green guiness, surrounded by other gregarious english-speakers, singing songs I knew some of the words to, until the wee hours. Please excuse my reverie of a misspent youth - those were the days!

Anyway, back to the cards. Here are a couple I made with my Odd Bird Planet stamps. I picked one of the owls with a beard (Santa Flo Owl) because when you colour him in green, he can look like a leprechaun.
I hope your day is wonderful - have a green guiness, sing a loud song and think of me!

My Spring card

This is the card I made for My Sketch World's mid March card gallery:


Patterned paper is by Sass Lass, the background paper is Cuttlebugged Core'dinations, sanded back a little. The word is rub on letters by Heidi Grace (love that font!).

Pop over here to see the original sketch and all the other wonderful creations by the talented team members.

Lime Tart March Gallery

...is now open! Click here.

Here are the cards I made with this month's A la Tarte. Lots of lovely colours in this kit, and so many different combinations were possible!

Visit the gallery if you'd like more views of these cards.

The layout I did has been featured on Zest blog, so I won't show you pictures here lest you get sick of it LOL.

Tagged

These are the tags I received from the justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet design team tag swap. The swap was organised a couple of DT terms ago. Aren't they amazing?


They are all different shapes and sizes, so binding them will be a challenge. Everyone here knows I love a challenge - I'll show you when I'm done for sure!

Where is my little boy?

My shower was interrupted this morning by Jake, asking "Where has your 8 year old gone?" Gone forever! My little boy is now 9 years old.


(If you're wondering where the other candles are, well they were sparklers, and I just didn't get my camera out in time LOL).

Here he is enjoying his birthday present from us - a big bike:

I distinctly remember my 9th birthday - I too got a bike, but unlike Jake, I was unable to ride it outside because I had the mumps. I'm pretty sure Jake had a much better day.

None of us were in the mood for a big party so soon after the death of our BIL, so Sammy and I decided to talk Jake into inviting 3 bestest friends for an evening of fun, food and bowling. Here are the invitations - a bit late, but that's what happens when your mum can't just print any old thing out on the computer and pass it off as an invitation ;)

Lime flavoured goodness

Here's a sneak peek at what I made with my A la Tarte kit this month:


It's a LouLou layout using the most beautiful Little Yellow Bicycle papers and a host of embellishments.

The kits are selling quickly this month - the Half Tart is already sold out, but there are some Full Tarts and A la Tartes left.

Don't forget to enter the contest Philippa is hosting. Lime Tart newsletter subscribers will have details already, but those who don't can email Philippa for details. The prizes are amazing!

Art retreat

I'm off to an art retreat this weekend. Finances only allowed me to do the one class (actually if truth be told, finances didn't allow any classes at all, but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do, right?).

As usual I'll be packing everything about 10 minutes before I leave, but thanks to Christina of Christina's Crafts, who patiently went throught the entire requirements list with me, I know I have everything I need.

These are some of 50(!) little houses I've made for a swap. They are all identical (I'd still be going in June if I had to make 50 different ones!).


My workshop is with the amazing DJ Petit, and I'm really looking forward to it. I will of course blog about it soon.

For sombre occasions

Near the top of my wishlist is some images I can use on cards for a more sombre occasion, such as the passing of a loved one. I think this Willows digital download image fits the bill perfectly.

It's stylish and elegant. For this card, I printed the image twice - one slightly smaller than the other onto beige paper. (Digital downloads allow you to fiddle a bit with the size, which is just so handy!) Then I printed the image again onto vellum in a size that's in between the other two images, and put a computer-generated sentiment on top.

So easy, and I love that the card is understated. Perfect for a heartfelt message.

Sweet 16

For this sweet 16 card, I used a digital download image from InStyle Stamps, simply called Dress. It's a great image to paper piece.

I printed the dress out onto both white cardstock and polka dot patterned paper. Then I cut just the dress from the patterned paper and stuck it onto the white dress with some mounting tape. I added some tulle at the bottom for a nice touch.


The numbers are Making Memories with glitter for some added sparkle (that didn't photograph at all well!).

Thanks for looking!

For Sale

When my children misbehave, I threaten that I'm going to sell them on eBay. (Is that wrong?). It's a really effective behaviour modification tool - everytime they see me on the computer, they start to worry hehehe!

This layout is in Spanish. The title reads 'For Sale - Boy, 8 years old.'


The journalling reads 'Laughs a lot, Doesn't know how to make his bed, Asks too many questions.' I left out the bit about 'Fights with his sisters all the time' and 'Looks up rude things on the internet.' Do you think anyone will want him ;)?


Anyway, the details: Bazzill cardstock (don't ask me which colour! A blue and a grey), yellow acrylic paint (Looks green, doesn't it?), Spellbinders dies (Labels One), Cuttlebug alpha dies (Red Tag Sale), Sassafras Lass patterned paper (Woodland Whimsy), Basic Grey rubons, Black gel pen (Sakura), ribbon (American Crafts), white ric-rac, machine stitching and the edges were distressed with an edge distresser (Heidi Swapp, but Tim Holtz does one too), and inked with Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap). I think that's it.

I had all day to do this LO - school was cancelled today because of high fire danger and erratic weather conditions, and Jacob had one of his friends over for the day. Which meant that I was only really bothered when they needed feeding or watering, ie I was up every half hour!

I'll put this LO up on the 1WorldScrap dt blog with a couple of different angles - pop on over and check it out.

Welcome home!

I recently welcomed home the tag book a group of us started sometime last year. Here it is:

This is the sign in page I prepared. Once a page was completed, everyone signed a tag and stuck it down.
The second page is by Nikki Whatford - beautiful and bright:

The third page is by Dianne Whatford - delightfully vintage in shabby chic colours:

The fourth page is by Kylie Mell - each image is mounted on chipboard. I saw this on Kylie's blog months ago, and I just couldn't wait to see it IRL:

The fifth page is from Ness Henry - so much texture cheeky little details. I love it!

The sixth page is by Jo Hughes - another very dimensional page with so many gorgeous details to explore - I absolutely adore the buckle on the left hand side.

The seventh page is by Gail Smith (I think a little bird told her I LOVE polka dots!). I regard Gail as the Image Queen - she always uses the best images!

The eighth page is by Debra Murray. I know she laboured over the embellishments on this page, and I think she's done a marvellous job. I just love that shade of aqua with copper. There are even real sea shells at the bottom left:Now all that's left to do is complete the cover. I wish I'd done that first - I've got a lot to live up to after seeing the pages inside.

I want to thank all the participants in this swap - I want you all to know how much I love this book - it's become one of my favourite swaps to date! Thank you!

Lime Tart March kits

One of the delightful parts of being on this design team is seeing a sneak peek of upcoming kits. I have some pics I can share with you.

I'll be working with the A la Tarte:


But check out the colours in the Full Tart:


And how's the Half Tart:

AMAZING aren't they? It won't be long until we have the March gallery open for your viewing pleasure. Once again, I can't wait to see what the DT comes up with.

Wishful thinking

This is what I hope to be able to give to my children one day - the keys to their own car. Is that just a bit of wishful thinking?


I used another digital image from InStyle Stamps for this tag - it's the pink convertible from Color Collection 1. I wrote the words on with my black gel pen, then I tied a variety of ribbons on with a button on top.

It's nice to have a tangible aspect to my dreams.