D'oh - I've been tagged

I’ve been tagged by Philippa, who clearly thinks I don't have enough to do LOL!

This is what you do:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and leave a comment on their blog, so that their readers can visit yours.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Share 7 Random facts about yourself on your blog.

4. Tag 7 random people at the bottom of your post, linking to their blog. Let each person know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Now, here are my 7 random facts about me:

1 I speak Spanish, which is handy when I need to communicate with my parents who only speak Spanish.

2 I have a scar on my face (right between the eyes). It's a straight line, so I'm known as the ATM in some circles. It's a symbol of a misspent youth, and testament that I am NOT invincible.

3 I've had 3 children and 3 miscarriages, so I guess I'm even.

4 I only ever drink water.

5 Number 4 above is a complete lie. It's thanks to me that the Coca Cola company will never go out of business.

6 I am a night owl, and it's not uncommon for me to get by on 3 or four hours sleep a night.

7 I love the Golden Girls - yep, remember that 80's tv show? I love it!

Now I get to tag some unsuspecting people:

Jo

Gail

Kathy

Liz

Ness

Julie

Cathrine

Ha ha! Now go forth, and dump other people into it!

Before I go, here's a sneak of a little tutorial I've got coming up soon:

Happy Birdie

This is a little project Johanna set for us. Everyone on the design team was sent a little wooden bird to decorate. I gave mine a little green beaded nest, a bejewelled crown and a ruby red eye. I used Basic Grey paper and stamped over it with the flower garland s stamp in Timber Brown StazOn.

People are coming up with some amazing things. Check out Philippa's - it's gorgeous! And I love Godelieve's too.

New justjohanna images

New images were released not too long ago (see them here), and these are a couple of the cards I made with them. This is a fun release, but then again, aren't they all? ;)

These images were coloured with Copic markers. The words on the card below were done on my computer - there's no such stamp............yet!

This next one uses the new menu board stamp. I used black watercolour to make it look like a well-loved blackboard that's been left out in the rain, and I love it because you can write your own message on it and really customise your card. I made this card as a dinner invitation - it's for tonight - anyone free? I'd normally give people a bit more notice than that!

My Gothic dabble

This is my effort for a swap on the ArtyOz yahoo group. We had to use German Scrap on an ATC. I picked this photo of one of the Notre Dame gargoyles, and printed it on a transparency sheet. DeMeng's influence: I melted the edges of the transparency and put some white acrylic behind the image to bring out some of the hidden detail. I had a bit of trouble photographing this one because of the reflection on the plastic, but you get the idea.

A card for Rachel

Easter Sunday was also my daughter Rachel's 5th birthday. She's finally 5 - thank goodness the day has come - I thought she'd burst if she had to spend another day being 'just 4'.

This is the card I made for her the night before her birthday. A bit rushed - now that I've taken some close up shots of it, I wish I had painted the chipboard letters before glittering them. Oh well - I'll plan better next time.......

Here's a bit of trivia for you all: This year is the earliest Easter any of us will see for the rest of our lives. Only people 95 years old or older have ever seen Easter this early. The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913.

Dropped off the face of the earth.....

No I haven't! It just feels like it.

March for us is as busy as December. Birthdays galore - lots of entertaining and gift buying and sharing meals and catching up with people. A bit of a bad time to catch a cold, but I'm feeling better everyday. Just hope I haven't infected too many other people!

All this partying leaves little time for art, but I'm managing to squeeze some in thanks to the Easter break. I'll have some stuff to show soon, when there is some daylight to help with the photography.

For now, I leave you with a grungey card I designed with my nephew Adam in mind. His is the last family birthday in March. I did those bands of colour using the credit card technique and acrylic paints. The happy birthday stamp is by justjohanna.

A Christmas card and Grungeboard news

These two topics are seemingly unrelated, but please stay with me......

The Christmas card is one I whipped up using bits from the Lime Tart A la Tarte kit for March. Why a Christmas card? Some of you will remember that I've resolved to try out a design or two per month in order to avoid the last minute panic in December. This card has the sentiment "Feliz Navidad" which is Merry Christmas in Spanish. Clearly this was meant for someone from Andalucia, because I coloured the baubles in the branches to look like oranges (there are cities in southern Spain where streets are lined with inedible orange trees). All stamps by justjohanna, and all available at Lime Tart.

Also available at Lime Tart is Grungeboard, but just to add to the excitement, it is available BY THE SHEET! This is wonderful if you just want to have a little play with it to see what all the fuss is about, but also good if you are trying to complete a swap and need just one more of a particular shape. Check it out here.

See - the two unrelated topics came together in the end. Ha! The take home message here is: all roads lead to Lime Tart...............

Jake's card

This is the card I made for Jacob.

I used black cardstock for the base, then copper cardstock overlayed with some flyscreen mesh from when our brother in law fixed a sliding door at my Mum's house. The letters are Collections painted with olive green Lumiere paint, and then some copper wire wriggled around the letters.

My little man turned 8, and I think I'm missing the little boy he used to be. He's already showing flashes of teenager - like the scowl I got yesterday when I asked him to pack up their rumpus room. Are we still allowed to put them over our knees for a spanking? Somehow I don't think that would help LOL!

Oh my!

I've just finished tidying up after my son's birthday party - I had 12 eight year olds running around the house. You can imagine how it all ended up! Actually, wasn't that bad - we had temperatures around the 40 mark today, so a good old fashioned water fight was in order. They did spend most of their time outside, so I guess it could have been worse.

Anyway, I've been really busy, and there's so much I want to blog about, but it will have to wait for another day. Soon I promise.

Here's a LO I did of my daughter (LouLou, the devil in disguise). I can show you the whole hog today because the March gallery is up at Lime Tart. Pop on over and have a look - the girls have done a fabulous job this month, lots of great work there!

March kits

Photos are up on the Lime Tart website of the kits for this month. Check out what I've got to work with this month woo hoo:

Take a look at the other kits available at Lime Tart, as well as some super offers which include an exclusive store discount!

I've had a little bit of time to play with my A la Tarte kit, here are a couple of sneak peeks of come cards I've made:

don't have a cow.....

.....or then again, why not? Here's one of the new release images justjohanna has in store now:

Click here to go to the new section of the online shop. Happy looking!

some random cards

I've been playing with my Copic markers. I was put onto these by the very talented Cathrine St Clair, who is an absolute master.

Enjoy!

Absolutely NO pink

Just to prove I can work with other colours ;)

This is one of 50 wedding invitations I made for one of my husband's colleagues. The wedding will be held in the country, so besides the invitation they had to include a map, a list of suggested accomodation as well as the gift registry cards.

I thought a square invitation would be good, with all the contents in a matchbook style cover. The couple loved the idea, and they made me nervous by giving me absolute carte blanche with regards to design. They didn't even suggest a colour - they left it all up to me. If everyone was this easy to deal with, I'd probably do more paid work!

They were thrilled with the end product - Jason said "WOW - they look like they have been printed!" That's a real compliment - way ahead of "yeah - these look handmade."

The best bit about doing wedding invitations is that you get to see the guest list before anyone else hee hee!

More pink

I finished this with a little help from Julie.




Julie has been running a journalling tutorial on her blog, and when these ATCs for the ArtyInternational yahoo group were not coming together for me, I looked to her tutues for some inspiration.

I made a collage background (by myself), starting with some thick bookboard, I glued down pieces of old music (compliments of the lovely Gail Smith!), then stamped into some Impasto medium with my Stamp It harlequin stamp. Then I painted the whole thing with acrylics. Added a small piece of tulle, a PaperWhimsy image and some ribbon. I embossed the Purple Onion flourish in the top left hand corner (accidentally melting the tulle - but I love that bit!). Then I got stuck. It looked unfinished and I didn't know where to go next with it.

Enter Julie's tutorial - I added the doodled border and then dirtied the whole thing with a charcoal pencil. Then I added the Collections number and definition, and SHABAM - I'm thrilled with the outcome.


Thanks Julie for coming to the rescue!

The last bit of Parade in Pink

This is a wee little handbag I made again using justjohanna stamps. I used Michelle's little scroll (again), the lacy border, the heart with flower stamp and a gorgeous butterfly called Nora.

Again, very simple project with just some scoring and cutting into shape. The easiest way I found is to make a template from scrap paper in the size you need, and measure and cut from that. Sometimes I like to make a more slimline purse - for a more sleek, fashionable look. I just make my template wider at the sides and not so tall. I put a little square of velcro under the heart to get the whole thing to stay closed. You could also use some of that flat adhesive magnet.

I've used ric-rac here has the strap, but you could use nice ribbon, ball chain or some pearl strands.

A tiny purse this size would be good for presenting a gift certificate or rolled up cash, or a little sweet treat, or a lip gloss - well anything small really. You could even make a little book out of it!