A man card

Hello and welcome, happy Sunday to you.

Oops it was my brothers birthday on the 13th and although i remembered it and spoke to him i am yet still to give him his card and gift.

Male cards are always a challenge to me, so this is what i came up with yesterday.

Apart from the chipboard bubble which is from my latest Studio Calico kit the rest is made from scraps and as it was pretty basic looking i added two different types of stitching and my beloved wood veneer stars, have i said how much i love these things.

here's the inside

yep he'll get a big head when he reads this. The stamp set is from Simon Says Stamp and its called Shoot For The Stars.

Now Andrew is cooking tonight, another new recipe from his new cookbook , i don't have to do the ironing as i can do it tomorrow oh i love holidays, so my only dilemma is should i start quilting my table runner or should i print my Project Life photos for week three or should i play on the Silhouette Cameo or all of the above. Oh decisions decisions.

xx

A quick and easy card

Hi there
just popping in to share with you a card i made, this card was so easy i made four whilst watching an episode of Downtown Abbey.
The design is not mine it comes from Michelle Wooderson who has designed this card for a kit, as long as we link back to her any one can make the cards using their own stash.

I have used papers from my current Student calico kit, love how it/they turned out.

i was meant to be finishing of my PL for this week instead i find myself reading blogs and for those of you who commented on my should i or shan't i post i DID couldn't help myself, this is me you know, some would say more money than sense so I'm just waiting on Postman Pat. ooo i hope he's gentle.

xxx

A Simple card and PL week 6

Evening/morning everyone. Its evening here and a hot humid sticky one i might add.

First up a card. I had a photo left over from one of my Project Life weeks and i know my mum doesn't have an up to date photo of my kids so i made it into a card.

Very very simple, and i got to use a Ali Edward stamp. The ribbon is from my Cocoa Daisy kit.

OK on to Project Life, and a little bit of playing and fun. I got some new fringe scissors so i had to use them in my title. I also got some October Afternoon goodies in the Sasparilla line so everything i have used this week comes from them.
Sorry about the flash, i left it too late in the day to photograph, but you can still see
here is the LHS

I had fun this week playing around with digitally typing on some of the photos before i printed them. Its a good way to journal if you know you are going to have enough photos for the week and not enough journal space.
and in case you are wondering about the shoe photo, i am 6ft tall or 182cm and i have HUGE feet and it is so hard to find ladies shoes in giant sizes. I have been forced to buy mens shoes that look kinda like ladies shoes, anyway i found a website that is especially for giant ladies feet except they are so so expensive but what can a person with giant feet do, i had to have at least one pair. So, i have my first pair of ladies shoes in about 12 years, yahoo i was excited.
ok enough about me, here is the RHS

i tell ya i was getting a bit desperate that week for photos and even took a pic of Andrew's new watering can! Oh, if you get the chance go and grab an iced coffee frappe from Maccas, or maybe not ,if you are on a diet and be warned they are addictive.
I do like to try and use some of my stamps in my PL pages usually my Ali Edwards club ones but this time i used Stampin Up and papertrey Ink.

One thing i have noticed is that there are a lot of food photos in my PL, i can blame some of it on chef Joe but not all.

All in all i love doing Project Life, i have fun using bits of my stash and playing around. It does take me about three nights to complete, it doesn't have to be that way, i just like to add a lot of bits and pieces.

Andrew is on the countdown for our yearly trip to Penang, we leave in about 6 weeks i think (ok i wasn't actually listening when he told me the countdown)but its not too far away and this time we are flyiong premium/business class oooooooooooo i cant wait.

thanks for visiting, please say hello and come again.

have a great week everyone
Linda

Banana Bread & Project Life

Well what do the above two have in common? Absolutely nothing, but i made some banana bread on Sunday with i recipe i got online (and can you believe i have lost it) and oh boy it was seriously yum. We aren't big cake eaters here and i can make a cake and then four days later i end up throwing half of it out. Not this bread, it was made and eaten all on the same day. The addition of maple syrup flavoured butter might have helped also.

Here is my project Life for week 5. I have had fun making my own journal and header cards using lots of supplies from my stash and lots of October Afternoon papers.
the LHS

The highlight of the week was Joe meeting Buddy Valastro and as Buddy had about twenty minutes to spare he was gracious enough to spend it with Joe asking questions and watching MY boy cook. (proud mama).
RHS

I purchased some more washi tape during the week and had fun covering my hearts with it (this tip came from Nichol Mcgouirk ) The four of us went out to lunch and had a fun time. I love my kids we all love our kids, but if possible i think i love them even more at this age 17 and 19, it just great hanging out with them.

and i tried a new technique that i learnt from watching "stamp TV" on You Tube

easy and fun.
Thanks for looking and still following with my erratic posting.
xx
Oh and Happy Valentines too you all. My flowers/card and chocolates seem to have got lost again...that's about three years in a row now.
xx

Card Kits

Hello and welcome
Boy its humid here, i don't mind the heat but i hate humidity.
Ok that was the weather general chit chat, now for some crafty chit chat.
I was very lucky/spoilt to be given a card kit just after Christmas, thank you Susan . The kit was designed by Tracey and is available from here.

The kit comes with instructions from Tracey to make four cards and a little gift bag. There is so much left over you could easily make another ten cards.
So here are my cards

Kraft card stock , doilies, butterflies, and banners, how could you pass that up.

Thanks for stopping by and have a greeeeaaaaaaaaaattttttttt weekend, i intend too.
xx

Etsy shopping

Well hello and happy Monday to you.
On Christmas eve i was browsing my favourite blogs and i ventured into Michelle Woodersons Etsy shop. I love her style, all mixy matchy and layers, so i treated myself to two of her notebook kits. (and yes i do not take notes but these are very cute and i will use them at work)
Here's the first one

and the second one

both were easy to assemble and they would make great gifts.

My PTI order for December finally arrived on Friday (they have just had their Jan release and i have only just got my Dec order, no ones fault that's what happens when we live half a world away). So even though they are now old they are still new to me, so here's a card i made playing around with their heart border die

and yes i did order more today, cant help myself its an addiction.

Tomorrow i will have my PL to show you, the first week anyway, i cant guarantee that i will have finished last weeks pages before tomorrow.

TTFN
xx
..and just a little note-the etsy order from Kansas only took ten days to get here yet my pti takes four weeks.hmm i wonder why that is?

Hi there

Well hello and Happy New Year, yep its come and gone already.
I'm on holidays so i am having a very relaxing time doing.....nothing really.

I have finished the first part of the Stitch A Long that i am participating in, so here it is

kind of a skinny long panel.

I also wanted to show you a card/envelope that i made and i am sorry i didn't take note of where i found the idea.
Here is the envelope

ahh so pretty
now for the inside where you cut a real envelope in half to create these two pockets

weird ha, but in one pocket i will be putting cash and in the other a little note just like this

here i have used the beautiful Mendhi Medallion stamp from PTI, and as the person that i made this card for has already had their birthday i had better go and post it.

I made some mini quiches today to take to my crafty interlude with the "Three of Us" (which will really be the ten of us as the children are on holidays)  but i forgot to tell my man giant (Son Joe who is a 17yo 6ft 6in hungry tower) that they are NOT TO BE EATEN, alas there is only half left now. I tell ya it costs a fortune to feed teenage boys. Actually, given the language that is coming from his room as i type this (Joe plus Xbox live) i will be giving him a few bars of soap to eat. Does anyone else have this problem?

Alrighty i have a few crafty things to do tonight and i may even do my first week of Project Life. Enjoy your night. Thanks for stopping by.

Linda
xx

Just in time

Hello there
it was my work luncheon today where i wanted to give my table toppers too my two wonderful co-workers.
Yesterday saw me frantically sewing on the binding for number two TT and making some cute tags.
So without further adieu

here they are
and here they are again with this cute tag

and here's a close up of the tag (my PTI dies and stamps came in so useful here)

As these were made to go on a table i made them with a great cheap wadding that makes washing easier. Of the two girls one uses a dryer and the other is appalled by this and prefers good old fashioned sunshine so i stipulated both on my little tag. I must say that i never hand wash any of my quilts and quite often throw them in the dryer, after all i do have this super sized washing machine. (ok maybe i am lazy-a little bit).

Here's a card identical to the one in my last post but in pink.

Now has everyone finished their Christmas shopping? I am nearly done and will finish it of on Wednesday.
The postie dropped of my Project Life so i am going to go and unwrap it now.
Enjoy your night.
xx
 

Holidays

Yep it's official, i am finally on holidays (from paid work that is) yahoo
Thought you might like to know that one table topper is finished and the other one just has to be bound. another YAHOO. You have no idea how my crafting mood changed as soon as i got it into my head that i was going to make these as gifts. I love giving home made things as gifts but as soon as i said i need to make two before Christmas my brain went into some funny kind of state thinking ah i will do it later but then when i went to do something else my brain would be telling me you need to do this first so in the end i was doing nothing. DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ANYONE out there. So i have learnt a lesson, i will make extra things for myself when i feel like it and put them away in a pile so i will have some gifts on hand.

Okey dokey

Here's a card i made and i must say that i quite like it (even if i do say so myself)

Everything is Papertray Ink, i may just have to make another one in pink tones as its one of my friends favourite colour and her birthday is coming up.

Here's some more of my food journal

inside the cover i put this little pocket to keep receipts and business cards etc.

Here's my first page, i found this wonderful app for my IPhone called Diptic that makes little collages of your photos, i think most of my photos will be like this in the journal.

and another page. We literally fell upon this restaurant at Hillarys, the food was nice and the views were glorious but this is my food journal so no photos of the ocean.

The weekend will be spent putting the final touches to the table toppers ie) signing them on the back and making up two cute how to labels-how to wash me and "what i am"-just in case my friends don't exactly know.

Enjoy your Friday everyone, i will as i am out to Grilled for lunch on the first day of my holidays. More photos for my journal
oh and my Project Life is on its way, another YAHOOooooooooooooo
xxxx

Playing

Yahoo its Friday afternoon and the weekend. I am making a concerted effort to show you all the things i do and post more frequently. So today i have two things to show you.

My PTI was delivered during the week and last night i was playing with some of the new stamps, so here is a card.

This uses the new Tag Its No 10 stamp set. Do you think it's alright for a boy card?
and next is a bit of re-purposing.
I needed somewhere to put my quilting pins and what better than a chocolate box that Caitlin was given.

I removed the chocolate -yes there was only one left, took of all the stickers and used the new PTI stamp set called Stitches & Swirls isn't it gorgeous. This set comes with heaps of stamps and i am thinking of stamping some onto some fabric to embroider. Well that's the plan it will get added to my never ending must make one day list.

Other news-Caitlin left for Bali yesterday with 6 or so of her workmates, she will be there for eight nights and i can honestly say that these will be the longest 8 days of my life.(trying not to think about it).
                 -there is a parcel waiting for me at the post office, i hope that its my Fig Tree quarterly project from The Fat Quarter Shop, i will pick it up before i get Joe from work
                  -booking our next trip to Penang on Monday (two weeks from the end of March 2012)
                  -haven't bought one Christmas present yet
                  -or written out my cards like i said i was going to do
                  -haven't done any more sewing on my table toppers,
                  -but have managed to stay on my diet for a whole week

Time to get Joe
have a great weekend.
xx

About Time

Hi there and a thousand apologies my poor bloggo has been badly neglected over the last few weeks.
Here are some of the things i have been doing,

making jam, and how cute is this label,here's the top of the jar

making these oh so very cute gift boxes (and not a cricut in sight)

Here's the link and a great tutorial from Cosmo Cricket The boxes are quite big and will hold a lot of normal size cards and envy's.

Tracey has been busy making some more cards and of course i had to copy (and copy i did, this is exactly like hers-thanks Trace)...(have i no shame-na i love her cards)

and here's a cute fun card made with leftovers from something

and yes my table toppers are still a work in progress, this one is half quilted and i only have three weeks left to finish them

My to do list is BIG and i had better go and start writing out my Christmas cards or my international ones will never get there.
Have a great week.
xx

Cards Quilts and A Storey

Hi there
its a beautiful day today here in WA i hope your day is as nice as ours.
I have made a couple of cards this week, here's one

The idea came from the Papertrey Ink Gallery and uses PTI dies with Stampin Up ink and cardstock
here's another one

I was making some felt flowers (will show you another time) and had some left over felt on my desk so i used it on this card.
and leaving the very best till last

I love love love this one. Its a lift and the designers name is Julie and i forgot to write her link down, i will find it and add it later. The butterfly's are a Hero Arts digital stamp that i have printed and cut out.
On to other things
Now because i obviously have heaps of time on my hands and NO unfinished quilts in my basket (I LIE) or cards to make or LO's to do oh wait i haven't even mentioned cooking cleaning and ironing yet have i? Now this is the perfect time to start another quilt and join a stitch a long. (The link is in my side bar) Here are my first two blocks

I am trying needle-turn which is a different type of applique for those of you who don't sew. On My family gathering applique i am doing blanket stitch, just in case you are wondering and following my progress. Anyway for this quilt i am using more Fig Tree, this time its Buttercup. Love heart love my Fig Tree.

And now its on to the storey
I had no intention of wasting my precious time going to see the Queen. Na, no, not interested.
On the day of her arrival in Perth i had to go and pick Joe up from work and as his work place is on the route that the Queen would be driving down i thought i would go early to avoid the traffic. Which i did.
I had half an hour to wait for Joe and from the car i could see the road and hundreds of people lined up on the far side of the street. So i thought why not go for a stroll across the park and wait with all the masses, after all you will only be sitting in the car checking out Pinterest on your I Phone. So off i toddled.
When i got to the highway everyone and i mean hundreds of people were lined up on the opposite side of the road. This didn't appeal to me at all so i sat with two other losers  people and waited and waited and watched all of the police cars and motor bikes then finally the motorcade arrives and low and behold can you believe it the queen was sitting in the side of the car that was closest to us, so when i say the queen waved to me well she did b/c there was only three of us on this side of the road. All those poor people on the other side ..one of the ladies with me was beyond happy and excited which probably rubbed of on me a teeny bit. So alas after all that i toddled back to the car and waited for Joe.
Enjoy your Sunday evening everyone
Linda
xx

Sometimes

Sometimes
the first attempt is....mmmm...not what you had in mind

so you try again, adding things, but it's still not right

still missing something, so you add some more

and finally you are happy with the result.

Have a nice day everyone.
xx

A bit of Tracey love

I think that i have mentioned before that way back in 2009 my friend Tracey from "A Luscious Journey.blogspot.com" won the the award for the Australian Card maker of the year. Well Tracey has been on a roll lately designing some wonderful cards and of course i just had to copy/lift them.
So here's my take on Tracey's wonderful cards.

This uses a beautiful stamp called Mehndi medallion from PTI
and of course some tags

so simple and so stylish

This card uses the same stamp as before and also PTI's flower bloom builder die and tag no 1 die.
yes more tags

using the bloom builder die
and here's another card. last one

this one is quite a bit different from Tracey's, but that's the fun part of lifting you can work it around what supplies you have.
So thanks Tracey for the inspiration and all of the gorgeous cards you make.
xx

The Juicer

Hi one and all
its school holidays here-yippee
my new buffet/side board arrived yesterday so that meant i had to get out my polishing cloths and unearth this antique from a packing box that has been in there for years. My MIL gave it to me because it was a pain to clean and yes it is but i love it.
I have searched books and websites trying to get some info on this solid silver antique all to no avail, unfortunately my MIL has been diagnosed with dementia and other illness's so i doubt if she would remember so if anyone has any info on this piece can you please leave a comment.

here's another one from a different angle

two of the glasses sit on these cute flower like somethings, my FIL told me that even the glasses are antique (they have a lot of antique pieces and were collectors for a couple of years)
 Now for the next one just pretend its a lemon, i had no lemons so used an apple instead.

So happy that its finally out of its box
Also on my buffet is my new collection of glass-nothing antiquey just stuff that i like

and here are some more projects i have made using the art philosophy cartridge

beautiful lace doily

cute little gift box and flower and tag

some more flowers

yep you guessed it more flowers.

The postie just dropped of a Papertrey Ink package choca block full of goodies so i am of to play.
See ya
xxxxx