Magnolia Down Under Challenges # 39

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you are all well. It seems that everyone in my house has their first cold of the year! Not much fun when you have a 9 month old. Oh well. My toddler recovered really quickly so I hope the little guy does too.

I still managed to find some "me" time to make a card for Magnolia Down Under Challenges! Their challenge this week is STITCHING - Real or Fake - fantastic! I try to use my sewing machine on all of my cards so this is right up my alley.

My card features a little "Sitting Fall Tilda" from 2008. It is the first time I have used her! Such a little cutie. I decided to make a little off-centre gate fold card and added a couple of flaps to close over the front. I also used some of those popular little doily things that everyone has seemed to master that I just can't seem to get the hang of! Maybe this time I've come a little closer... yes.. that's the trick - hide them behind something!! LOL.

The little lace heart is machine embroidered by my Mum. She makes these and butterflies for me on disolvable stabiliser - thanks Mum!

Tilda is coloured with Copics. The list is at the end. I didn't have all the colours that I needed so I improvised and blended two colours together to get the colour I wanted. I love Copics.

And the inside of my card. I needed to add a place to write, so I did the white square in the middle and stamped around the edges with an old Stampin Up set called Artfully Asian. Then coloured that with Copics too. The little blue pocket on the side is for a gift card, or in this case - an IOU!! We're getting professional photos done of the boys for Mothers Day pressies for, well, me I guess! and the two Grandmothers but left it too late to book in and the photography won't be done until May 27th! oops. So we're giving IOUs for Mothers Day.

OK - Copic colours are:

Skin : E11, E00, E000, R20

Hair: YR20, E31, E34

Pants: B21, B23

Top: YR 15, YR 20, R22

Wings: E95, R20,

Boots: E31, E34

Have a great day!

Kellie's 100,000 hits CC Designs candy!

Check these little cuties out!!! The absolutely gorgeous and talented Kellie is celebrating 100,000 hits and giving away this amazing CC Designs Swiss Pixies Spring Kit from All That Scraps as candy! Aren't these little guys cute? I am in love with the accessories... oh, and the Pixies of course. I WANT IT - are you reading this Kellie? Is there some way to rig this so I can win??? Yes?? Please??

So head over to Kellie's blog to enter... if you must... because you know by doing so you are lessening my chances of winning... oh well, spread the happines!

Congratualtions Kel!!

The Town Scrapper - Easter Challenge!

Wow - another week has gone by and time for another fantastic challenge over at The Town Scrapper! This week the challenge is to make something with an Easter theme. The very talented Design Team were given these yet to be released Victoria Case images to play with. Aren't they cute? We are all smitten with these cute little kids.

I made another Joy Fold card (tutorial is HERE) but this time I turned it 90 degrees so the top flap opened up.

So head on over to THE TOWN SCRAPPER and enter your creation in the Easter challenge to be in the running to win one of these fantastic new and exclusive Victoria Case images.

In the coming weeks there are going to be lots of exciting things happening at The Town Scrapper - including new Victoria Case images being released - I will keep you posted....

Party on Dude!

Hello Crafty Blogging Friends!

Happy Friday to you all. I am glad it is Friday, we've had a busy week. I am looking forward to a nice quiet weekend! Hopefully, with lots of stamping and colouring!

My card today features another new stamp I acquired this week. He is a Marianne Design stamp from her Party Fun collection. This little dude is drawn with a "pencil line effect" so I was a little unsure how he would colour, but he was lots of fun - and sort of quick!



I also discovered a challenge blog for this particular stamp designer - Marianne Design Challenge Blog. This week there is a sketch challenge (see the sketch below) so I thought I'd enter.



I coloured my little turtle with Copics....

Turtle - G40, G12, E31, E34, R20
Swing - C1, C3, C5
Balloons - B21, B23, Y35, Y38, BV11, BV13, R81, R85, R22, R24, R29, 0
Pressies - B21, B23, R24, R29

Here come the Sons

I received some new stamps in the mail yesterday and had to ink this one up straight away! I have a bit of a problem you see - if I find any images with little boys in it - I have to have them. This one in particular. The image is a Marianne Design stamp from the Eline's Babies collection. I fell in love with it. Put a couple of little teeth on the baby and they are my boys. Its an obsession.

So I coloured the little darlinngs in Copics (see the end of the post for which colours). I added some crystal effects to the sun for some shine. The checked background is stamped with my Darkroom Door stamp and "patchworked".

The sketch is The Pink Elephant challenges #59. And the other challenge I am entering with this card is Crafty Creations #60 - Babies and Stamp Something - Distressed Somethings



More sponged clouds... my other new obsession..

Ok - my Copic list is (its a big one!):

Toddler skin - E11, E00, E000, R20, 0

Baby skin - E21, E00, E000, R20, 0 (if there is more than one 'person' in an image I like to do them with slightly different skin tone)

Hair - E31, YR20, Y23

Shoes - E31, E34, C5, C3, C1

Wagon - E31, E34, C5

Jeans - B21, B23

Shirt - YG 23, 0

Sun - Y21, Y38

Ground - G12

Mad for Markers!

First of all, I want to congratulate the gorgeous Sammi for her new online Copic Marker store - Mad for Markers! If you are an Aussie Copic fan looking for the complete range of Sketch and Ciao markers, along with the best cardstock for your images, then you don't need to look any further - Mad For Markers has it all! Thanks Sammi, you have made a lot of Aussie Copic fans very happy!




I also want to share with you some very other exciting news - Sammi has selected me to join her Design Team for three months! I am very excited to be designing along side some very talented ladies...

Sammi
Tracey
Emma
Debra
Kristy
Mandy
Jackie
Sue

So pop on over to the Mad for Markers BLOG and have a look at some of the fantastic work already on show over there. And don't forget to become a follower of the blog as there is lots more coming up - Guest designers, challenges, tutorials, prizes!

Thank you so much Sammi for including me on your new adventure!

Tilda shopping for birthday cake

It took me two days to make this card! The idea came to me yesterday afternoon and I was itching to try it out, but it was not to happen! I finally got to sit at my craft desk last night and stamp the muffins (oh boy, there was three little masks for this one) but once I'd stamped it I hated how it looked and did it again... I still wasn't happy... but then I coloured it this afternoon and made the little checked frame and things started to come together. We just needed some colour! I really need to learn to be patient and wait to take my photos in the daylight, I really struggle with night photography....

So here is the front of my card. The sketch is from Magnolia Down Under #38, but instead of layering the papers to build up the card, I made a little window from the checked paper and placed the muffin image behind it to give the illusion of Tilda shopping for cake. I used a border punch for the inside and outside of the window. The little chocolate corners you can see are actually the inside of the window that I've folded back and distressed and rolled. The ribbon on the muffins is covered in Crystal Effects, as is Tilda's handbag. Tilda's wings and the heart sprinkes are covered in kindyglitz. The red checks remind me of a tea towel or table cloth.



The card is an easel card, so here it is standing up. Another little muffin on the inside.



And some close ups:





I am also entering this card in Cupcake Craft Challenges #83 - Food & Drink and Just Magnolia Week 47 - Easel cards

Copics used:
100, C7, C5, C3, C1, E000, E00, E11, E31, E34, Y23, YR20, R29, R27, R24, R22, R20, R39, RV11, RV13

A little cutie with a little cutie

I love Mo Manning - it is like she knows my boys. This cute little guy is the spitting image of my little Jarred with his stuffed dog, right down to his little ears!



I used the sketch from Friday Sketchers #94 to create my card and have distressed a few edges and sponged most of them as well to give it a bit of a grubby worn look - a bit like Jarred's puppy dog. I followed a Copic tutorial on colouring fur to get the texture right on the little puppy which I was really happy with the result.




So other challenges I would like to enter this card in are:

Stamp Something - Distressed somethings
Little Red Wagon #20 - Copics
Creative Inspirations - A Male Card
Crazy 4 Challenges - A Male Card

Chicken and Spinach Parcels

Back again. Do you have fussy eaters in your house? I came across this recipe last year as we had a flourishing veggie patch and silver beet coming out of our ears and I was tired of all the ways I knew how to cook it... so of course I googled for a recipe! This year I didn't plant silver beet and have been constantly harassed by my hubby wanting his chicken and spinach parcels "You always make me yummy things, get me hooked and then never cook it again!" whinge, whinge, whinge! And, well, my almost 2 year old loves this meal too. As I had some spinach in the freezer I thought I'd have another crack at it tonight and was told "I like this as much as pizza!" - so there you go!

This is what you need:

• 500g skinless chicken breast
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 150g spinach chopped (or frozen)
• Cracked black pepper - to taste, obviously the kiddies wouldn't really like much of this
• Onion (I don't add this because I can't stand onion and I'm cooking so no-one gets it, if you like it go ahead and add it)
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 80ml of chicken stock
• 200 ml cream (I use low fat milk as that is always in the fridge, we never have cream because I would just eat it!)
• 1 cup grated cheese (again, I use low fat grated cheese because I always have it in the fridge)
• Frozen puff pastry (about 4 - 5 sheets)

1. So, all you do is pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees C. Take your pastry out of the freezer and put it on the bench now. If you leave it until later you will have to wait for it to defrost...I always do this, its a bit annoying.
2. Slice your chicken into little pieces (like for a stir fry), melt the butter in the pan (I use a wok because it is nice and deep) and add your chicken and pepper and cook it.
3. Add the flour and mix it in well, then add the spinach, milk/cream and stock. Heat and stir until the sauce thickens.
4. Add the cheese and then turn off the heat. Stir until all the cheese has melted and allow it to cool a bit. It will thicken more.
5. Prepare you baking tray with baking paper - I use two.
6. Cut your pastry sheets in half diagonally. Arrange pastry on the tray and add a dollop of chicken, spinach mix onto the pastry and wrap the corners in, then turn it over so the nice side is up. Do this with all of the mix. You should get about 8 to 10, depending on how big you make them.
7. Once all of the parcels are done, spray lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with sesame seeds (if you have any).
8. Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 mins until nice and golden.

Serve with salad or steamed veggies.

My little boy can eat a whole one of these - he has a big appetite. My husband ate three tonight... like I said, he likes them as much as pizza!

So what were my family doing while I was cooking? LOL - Jarred was waiting not so patiently at the oven.



Here they are cooking



Jarred's plate ready for his salad. I like to put my sesame seeds on in a smiley face (I use one of those cappuccino cocoa template things).



After Jarred had finished his dinner.....



So there you go. If your kids won't eat their veggies, have a go at this - you can hide all kinds of veggies in there if you want - carrots, zucchini, you name it!

Just Magnolia and my AUTUMN DARE!!!

So here I am again! My third post of the day, I must be on a roll! LOL.

At Just Magnolia this week they are challenging us to make Easel Cards. Yep - another easel card for me this week! But I do love them so it was fun to play along. My easel card has an autumn there!!!! Hey there Aussies - are you over all of the spring themed challenges at the moment?? LOL. Keep reading to the bottom of my post - I have a DARE for you.



I stumbled across these gorgeous papers from Bo Bunny yesterday and I loved the colours and had to use them straight away. They are from the Kitchen Spice collection in Cloves and Nutmeg. I've also used Stampin Up cardstock in Chocolate Chip and Soft Sky for my layers.

I have coloured little autumn Tilda in Copics (yes, I know, what else) and added flowers, buttons and pearls to decorate!



I've also had another go at Zoe's fabbo sponged cloud background. I love doing these!



Soooo..... on to my DARE!!!

I want to see AUTUMN CARDS! Yep - I want to see oranges, reds, browns and yellows. I want to see leaves. I want to see all Aussies (or anyone else around the world) join this dare and play along for some extra fun. All you have to do is:

1. Make an AUTUMN themed card, scrap layout or other crafty item,
2. Write about my dare in your blog post,
3. Link it to this post in the comments section by April 1, and
4. If you would like to, join up as a follower of my blog!

It is that easy.

I don't have any special prizes to give away, although if enough people play along I might have to think about something little, I just want to see something AUTUMNY. So come on everyone!!! Join me and make something Autumny.

Sassy young Lola!

How LOVELY is this young lady? Her name is Lola and she is one of the soon to be released images by Victoria Case from The Town Scrapper. As soon as I saw her I had to colour her. And I am pretty sure all of the other Scrapettes were pretty excited too. She will be available in store mid April so keep an eye out.

I coloured Lola with Copics and added some Spica pen to her shirt and bag for extra sparkle(although I don't think you can see it in the photo). Her sassy little crop I thought needed some chunky colour through it so coloured her hair a little differently to what I normally do - more contrast in colour and thicker strokes to give the illusion of the chunky foils (I sound like my hairdresser at my last visit!!). She has bright pink toe nail polish and black pants - this is the first time I've coloured clothing black so I was a little nervous, but like the reds, you just have to ensure you have enough of the lighter tones and blend blend blend! All of my stitching is done with silver thread and I've coloured her bangle and the details on her shirt with silver gel pen. I've seen some gorgeous lacing recently with eyelets and ribbon so I thought I'd have a go at that.

I am not sure what the layout of the card is called, but you can see what I've done here with it open. The patterned papers are Kaisercraft Lilac Avenue Collection in "Violet" and the flowers are a combination of Kaisercraft and Bizzy Becs. The actual image is on Stampin Up Whisper White - I normally use Neenah Ultra Smooth, but I was really impressed how well the Stampin Up card coloured with the Copics. So there you go girls - an alternative for when you can't get your hands on some Neenah or Gina K!

OK - challenges for this young lady are...

Totally Gorjuss - Ribbon

Crafty Calendar - Flower Power

Little Red Wagon - Copics!

A new challenge over at THE TOWN SCRAPPER

I am really excited to show you this gorgeous image today. Her name is Sophie and she is a Victoria Case image - exclusive to The Town Scrapper. Isn't she "'birdiful"? If you are liking these gorgeous Victoria Case images, email Phebe for more information on how you can obtain them.

There is a new challenge over at The Town Scrapper - Ribbons and Rub-Ons. I have to say, this was a first for me - I've never used rub ons on any cards before! I really did like the effect though, so expect to see some more! If you like my card- you should see what the rest of the Design Team have put together for your viewing pleasure. I promise you - completly drool worthy.

For my card, I've used coloured Sophie in Copics and used Kaisercraft rubons and papers. The gorgeous flowers are Prima and the buttons and ribbons are all out of my stash.






There are lots more fantastic stamps coming soon as well... I will be making some cards with them over the weekend so keep an eye out for some sneak peaks!

I am also going to enter this card in the Spring challenge over at The Pink Elephant (#58).

Have a great weekend!

A little CC Designs Easel

I love love love easel cards. They look so fantastic and are so easy to make. If you haven't already tried one - do it!

This card below is actually a mini easel card - inspired by Debbie P. She makes the most gorgeous little easel cards. I used my Nestabilities Labels die to cut the shape out. I used CC Designs Heidi Among the Flowers and coloured her in Copics. The checked backgroud is actually stamped with my Darkroom Door background stamp. Everytime I see a CC Design stamp I want to use ric rak!



The challenges for this card are:

All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge - Easel Cards
Little Red Wagon #20 - Copics
The Pink Elephant #58 - Spring

Spring Tilda

Wow - what happened to my mojo? I feel like it just went on holidays or something. With the change in the weather, cooling nicely, I seem to be having afternoon naps when the boys do rather than sitting at my craft desk! Oops. Well, I am back today with a couple of posts!

There are a lot of challenges out there for Spring at the moment! Gosh - it feels strange seeing as though over here in Australia it is actually Autumn!

I inked up my Sunflower Tilda and coloured her in as I've only used her once before. She is really nice to colour too. This time I have gone for a pretty spring purple colour. Its a little strange to be mixing purple with yellow, but the challenge at Papertake Weekly is Lilac and Lemon so I thought, why not - and I actually really like the combo! So you may just see again soon.



I used the sketch from The Sweet Stop #47.

And a little close up of lovely Tilda. She is coloured in Copics - so I will head over to Little Red Wagon for their challenge #20 - Copics!

The Pink Elephant #58 is a Spring challenge.

Can we please come to your party?

Well, it is a big big week of birthdays! Edwin and Tilda are on their way to some birthday parties with a lovely bunch of red balloons!

The first birthday party is Magnolia Down Under Challenges - they are turning 1!! To celebrate they have a big birthday blog hop, so head over and check out the work of the very talented and gorgeous Design Team. Their challenge this week is to make a birthday card - how appropriate!!

Happy birthday MDUC!




Next is Cute Card Thursday - they are turning 2! Happy Birthday to you too! Their challenge this week is Celebrations.

And also having a birthday this week is Copic Creations! Their challenge this week is Your Favourite Copic Technique that they have featured during the year - I have chosen Suzanne J Dean's tutorial on colouring reds. Happy Birthday Copic Creations!!

So - now on to my card!! I have used Tilda and Edwin on their bicycles from tle Lazy Summer Days collection. I have coloured them with Copics. I have then stamped separately the balloons from "Tilda with Balloons" from the vacation 2008 collection and coloured them and cut them out to give Tilda a nice bunch of balloons. It is a bit hard to see on the main photo, but I have sponged a few clouds onto the back ground. You can see this a bit clearer on the second photo. This is something I saw my friend Zoe do so I had to give it a go. Zoe has a cloud template available on her blog if you want to give it a go. The layer of kraft cardstock has been run through the cuttlebug with the Happy Birthday embossing folder for a little bit of texture.

Copics I have used are:

E000, E00, E11, E31, E34, YR20, R20, B21, B23, B60, R22, R24, R27, R29, G40, YG05, C1, C3, C5, C7 and blender 0.

You make each day a little brighter

Another Mo Manning digi image today! This one is called Kai in the Sand. Isn't he gorgeous? Reminds me of my little Aiden. I love these Mo's images. I wish I could draw....

This card is actually a special gate fold card - Leann style. Leann is a very funny and talented all round crafty chic and her tutorial can be found HERE. I've been meaning to make one of these since I saw her gorgeous card. It wasn't until I had this image yesterday and decided he needed very little embellishment that it clicked that the gate fold card was perfect for it.



I've added Crystal Dimension to the ball to make it all glossy and some kindyglitz to the sand to add some sparkle.



And here it is open. I managed to find the perfect sentiment too - "You make each day a little brighter".



I coloured the image with Copics (Y38, YR15, Y35, Y21, B21, B23, B00, E000, E00, E21, YR20, Y23, R20, G40, G12, 0).
The paper is from Inque Boutique "Cabana" 6x6 stack (from Kmart believe it or not!)
White bazill for the base and Stampin Up Apricot Appeal and Soft Sky to matt.
Kaisercraft pearls.
Rafia and sun charm from my stash.

Challenges for this card are:
Easy Craft Projects #8 - COLOUR CHALLENGE
Secret Crafter #74 - Anything Goes
Saturday Spotlight - You're so slick

Creatalicious Challenges #8

It is that time again! It is a new challenge over at Creatalicious Challenges. This month we are looking for you to create something with "Your favourite drink" in mind.

Here is my "favourite drink" creation. I've made "tea for two" - tea bag holders. I've used the Magnolia Tea Cup stamp from the Yummy in your Tummy collection and paper pieced them, added a flower and charm and a bow, and all done. Nice and bright and cheery. They'd make cute little party favours for a kitchen tea.

I am entering this little creation into...

The ABC Challenge - Paper Piecing

Dutch Dare - colour inspiration

Thanks for stopping by today.

100% Adventure!

Since I coloured the Mo's image End of Summer the other day, I've been a little hooked on Mo Manning images so I printed this little guy out again. He has to be one of my favourite images of all time. There are a couple boys and men challenges this week so he seemed like a good choice anyway.

At Mo's Challenge blog they are looking for anything that isnt a square or rectangle. My card is a strange shape which I created by tearing the green c/s and adding the pale blue curved piece behind it. I then added the patterned paper and embellishments to create the little landscape.



This is how the card looks when it is open. The only thing I am really not happy about is the back of the image you can see all of my Copic colours coming through!! Oops!



Other challenges for this little darling are:

Double Dutch #38 - Boys Only - I always always check their challenges and always intend to enter but never seem to get there. This time I have made it.....just!
Fussy & Fancy #6 - Green
Crazy 4 Challenges - Its a Man thing

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

The Town Scrapper - new challenge: 3 buttons

I am so lucky to have been invited to be a guest Design Team member for The Town Scrapper for this month. The rest of the girls are very talented and such a great group to work with.

I am also very priveliged to be one of the first to use these gorgeous Victoria Case images which are exclusive to The Town Scrapper. This little guy is called Evan.

The challenge this week is to use THREE BUTTONS, nice and easy isn't it? And I thought it was perfect for a boys card. So please head over to The Town Scrapper to check out the gorgeous work by the rest of the DT and to submit your entry by midnight on March 18.




The inside of my card...

For my card I've used My Memories patterned paper, Stampin Up Blue Bayou cardstock and ribbon, buttons from my stash, Neenah white cardstock, Copics to colour (E000, E00, E21, R20, E31, E34, Y35, Y21, G40, YG23, R24, R27, B21, B23, B00, C1, C3, 0) and white gel pen.

Friday Sketchers & MDUC

First of all, let me apologise for the world's dodgiest photos. For some reason I just can't take a decent pic tonight. I ended up calling in my hubby to take these and although they are 500 times better than mine, I am still not happy with them! Thanks anyway Sweetie!

My card tonight is for two challenges - Friday Sketchers #93 for the fabo sketch (thanks Jacque!) and Magnolia Down Under #36 for the recipe.. (sorry girls, this is my third card, I don't mean to harrass you and you are probably all sick of me by now, but I am fresh out of mojo and your recipe seems to have stuck in my mind....).

I've coloured Tilda with Copics (yep, what else!) and the papers are Basic Grey from the Wisteria pad - I have seen so many cards with these papers! It must be their best selling collection! The little corner embellishments are sticky felt frames that I came across and decided to cut to fit the card. Something a little different. Its a little hard to see but there is actually a silver dragonfly on the corner as well, to go with the dragonflies on the papers.

Thanks for looking and have a great day,

One gorgeous image

I am in love love love with this image. Normally I would post the photo of the card first, and a close up of the image to follow, but I love this image so much I swapped them around.

This sweetie is a Mo Manning Image called End of Summer - stamped for me by my friend Zoe (Mo's images are now available as clear stamps from Stampavie), I love it so much I am heading over to Mo's Digital Pencil now to buy her in digi.



After I'd picked my papers and coloured her, I thought that she was so pretty, I wasn't going to use the patterned papers afterall, she called for a less is more approach. So here is the entire card with just some pretty lace and a crochet flower and some "natural" looking bits and pieces.



Thank you so much Zoe!