Blingy New Year!

Hello!

I know, we have a little more time until we reach the new year, but I have a couple of challenges I wanted to play along with, and the deadlines are looming. ;-)  I'm playing with my new stamps from Mama Elephant - Flashy Letters - Aren't they marvellous? So are those snowflake fireworks (PTI Snowflake Flurries)!

I have been inspired by a few different challenges in creating this card. Firstly was the colour scheme from Dynamic Duos.

Then the theme at CAS-ual Fridays and 10 Minute Craft Dash, who are running a joint challenge this week. I didn't make the 10 minute time limit. It turns out that adding glitter to the dots in the lettering takes a long time, and then when I decided to add a strip of glitter, all was lost, LOL!

And lastly, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge calls for us to Bling It On! In real life, my card is BLINGY. :-)

Thanks for dropping by! I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Michelle
xxx

Merry Christmas!

Hello!

It is Christmas Eve, my family are about to settle into our Christmas Eve traditions - setting out Santa's refreshments, putting the stockings out, getting to bed early so that everyone is sound asleep by the time Santa arrives. (That last bit is a bit of wishful thinking.)

I would like to take some time to say thank-you to all of you, my blogland friends, who add so much to my life through your thoughtful comments, your support, and the friendships we've made through this hobby of ours. The friendships are one of the nicest parts of keeping my blog. :-)  Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas! I hope you are all surrounded by friends and family and lots of love.

I made a card. It's actually for my hubby, but I was thinking of  you all as I made it. ;-)

I used Mama Elephant Merry Greetings stamps. I also used Mama Elephant dies. Colours are SU! Gumball Green and Poppy Parade.

The inspiration came from CAS(E) This Sketch.

I made a very literal interpretation of the sketch, because I find it totally beautiful! So clean, so CAS!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Michelle
xxx

CASE Study #171

Hello!

I just love the inspiration at CASE Study this week. I've had a hugely busy week, firstly finishing up for the year at work, and then preparing for my family Christmas celebration, which we had on Sunday. My card making has taken a very far back seat. I've had an idea sitting at the back of my head since I saw the inspiration last Thursday, and I thought I'd get it out onto a card before the deadline! :-)

I used PTI Mighty Oak stamps and coverplate die. Colours are SU! Ruby Red, Pacific Point, Gumball Green, Pumpkin Pie, and Ranger Archival Black. I also sprayed with gold Smooch spritz.

I used the Mighty Oak coverplate to create a template to paint the tree and leaves. Then I stamped over the leaves in black.

The inspiration was this:

I have hopes that I will be back before the end of today with a card to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Fingers crossed that I make it back! I do have a little last minute shopping left to do.

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

CASE Study #170 and some cockatoos

Hello!

I didn't want to miss CASE Study this week. The inspiration is a delicious-looking cupcake! So I sat down quickly before bed tonight to make a card. My card does have sparkles, gold, and glitter, but it didn't photograph well.

A relatively literal interpretation of the inspiration photo.

I also thought I'd join in at  CAS-ual Fridays (Let It Snow)

and Addicted to CAS (Snowflakes)

 Before I go, I thought I'd share some cockatoos. I took my daughter for her first horse-riding lesson last week-end, and at the pony club I found a flock of cockatoos feasting on some sort of tree seeds. I adore cockatoos. They are very noisy, but they are very beautiful! This group were about 10 birds together. Gorgeous!

Thank-you for coming to visit!

Michelle
xxx

A beautiful (feathery) life!

Hello!

My hubby asked me to make a birthday card for his runnning coach. Masculine cards are not my forte, but each time I make one I get a little bit better, and a little less apprehensive about the next one! I suggested that I make a "feather" card, since I  am currently having a love affair with Fine Feathers. Hubby gave me one of those wobbly yes's - ye-e-e-sss - but I kept going, and I think he's pretty happy with the end result.  I will admit that this card is not my own original design in any way. I CASEd Claire Brennan. I KNOW, what was I thinking? CASEing the stamp designer? LOL! Claire's card is amazing. My card is slightly different, but pretty much I made a card with what I remembered from her card - a wreath of feathers with sentiment in the middle. :-)

I made a stamping smudge - the bane of the one-layer card-maker's life! It's too late in the night for me to go back and fix it. Hubby is taking it to his running group in the morning. At least they'll know it was handmade. ;-)  The feathers are Waltzingmouse Fine Feathers. The sentiment is from PTI Meadow Greens. This card is big, so that the whole running group can sign. It's 7.75" x 5.5". Colours are SU! Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, and Delicata Golden Glitz.

Here is a little closer look at the shine of the golden feathers.

I almost don't want to give this card away. It's really delicious and warm.

Thank-you for visiting! I have a big week-end of major housework planned (we have our family Christmas party here next week-end), but I hope to sneak off to make some cards at some point. Fingers crossed!

Michelle
xxx

Feather crazy!

Hello!

I may have fallen totally in love with Waltzingmouse Stamps Fine Feathers... I can't get enough of them!  Today I made a little bouquet for a birthday card - yes, out of feathers! :-)

I just love how well these feathers layer over each other! And they're so elegant! The top (dark blue) feather, I stamped in pigment ink so that it sat properly on top of the other two feathers. The other two are in dye ink.

As well as Fine Feathers, I used Simon Says Stamp Sketchy Banners. I stamped the "Wishing You" in Delicata Golden Glitz, which was hard to photograph. Here is a closer shot.

The problem was that if I showed you the full intense shine, you couldn't see the sentiment. You may just have to trust me that that little banner is SUPER glitzy! :-)

My kids are off on adventures tomorrow. Vacation care is taking the little kids to Lone Pine Sanctuary, where they get to feed kangaroos and emus, pet koalas, and hold snakes, amongst other things. The big kids are going to Dreamworld (a theme park). We are lucky to live within a reasonable distance (about one to one and a half hour drive) from a number of theme parks. My eldest daughter isn't so keen on rollercoasters and other rides, so I'm not sure how her day will go.  I hope she tries some of the rides out. ;-)

Now I'm off to bed for a little beauty sleep!

Thank-you for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Stormy Weather

Hello!

I have a friend who is going through some stormy weather in her life right now. As much as I would like to help, it is her own journey, and I can only offer my support from the sidelines. I am her hand to hold, her shoulder to cry on, and her ear to bend any time she needs. Because I am inarticulate when it comes to offering support, I made a card. I hope it helps.

I used PTI Mighty Oak stamps and cover plate die. I made my card base slightly larger to provide the red border. Colours are SU! Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade.

I will admit that I'm not sure how helpful this sentiment will be when in the middle of the storm. I know that when I'm having a difficult time, I don't much care how much stronger it is making me, I just wish it was over and all better... now. With hindsight, I appreciate the struggles I've had, but not so much when living through them!

I used the current (revived) Fusion Challenge inspiration board for this card. I used the photo inspiration only. I'm not sure if you can see in the photo, but the card is sparkly. The tree in my card is a reflection of the deer silhouette in the inspiration photo (that's the inspiration for me, not sure if anyone else can see how I got here, LOL!) and I used the colours.

For my friend - you are one of the most amazing women I know. Your endless patience, your never-ending helping of others, your amazing energy for getting things done, and doing them so well, are all inspirational. Never doubt your abilities, you are one of the best.

For everyone else, thank-you for visiting! I love having you here on my blog, and I love visiting you back!

Michelle
xxx

Merry Christmas, Mum!

Hello!

Today I made my Mum a Christmas card. She is leaving on Monday night to go and spend Christmas in London with my brother, his partner, and their new baby boy (Mum's first grandson). I'm very envious! I'd love to be spending Christmas in London meeting my new nephew, too! (Oh and with my brother and my sister-in-law.) I decided to make a card that would match the wrapping paper, mostly because the paper was in colours my Mum likes, and secondly, I really love that paper! :-)

I will admit that I am amazed that I managed to replicate the wrapping paper so closely, LOL! First I created the flourish background using PTI Embellishments in Soft Stone, then I silver embossed the SU! Christmas Deer (I love this deer as much as I love Dasher, and that's a lot!). I stamped the sentiment to ground the deer, and then finished off with a few stars from PTI Christmas Friends. The card base is Soft Stone, and the mat is Night of Navy. Colours are Soft Stone, Hawaiian Shores, SU! Pool Party, Coastal Cabana (swiping it across my card yesterday has had a positive effect in drying it out a bit), Night of Navy, Pool Party.

My Mum is rarely impressed with my cards, but she did like this one. She spent quite some time looking it over and comparing it to the wrapping of her present. It made me happy that she likes it so much. I hope it travels with her.

My eldest daughter just realised this afternoon that this will be the first Christmas that she hasn't been with her Grandma. She is very sad. This afternoon she asked Grandma to take her along, but that would bring the problem of not being with us! We'll have to make good use of Skype.

My youngest daughter today danced in her final ballet concert for the year. She did a wonderful job of dancing, remembering all of her steps without referring to the "helpers" at the side of stage. She told me afterwards that "it was a long time to remember all the moves!" She's 6. She loves ballet.

Thank you for coming to visit me!

Michelle
xxx

Feathers Galore!

Hello!

I'm here with a flurry of feathery cards. The first is my entry into this week's CASE Study Challenge. This month at CASE Study, the muse is a selection of the best of the "Oh My Moxie Fab!" posts from Moxie Fab World. I will admit, that these posts were some of my favourites of Cath's. She always came up with something a little surprising, often sending me on journey's of discovery to find out more about the picture she had shared.

I used Waltzingmouse Stamps Fine Feathers stamps. The inks are SU! Cool Cabana (I thought smudging this across my card may be a good way to get rid of the WETness from my pad), plus some sponged Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Crushed Olive. The gold is Delicata Golden Glitz.

My other cards were not made for a particular challenge, but just because I love these feather stamps so much! This card was mostly me checking out how Mama Elephant Hazel ink stamps with a fine image. I can report that it stamps perfectly!

These next couple of cards were the original idea I had in my head when I first wanted feather stamps a long, LONG time ago.  The pink feather went to one of my daughter's violin teachers. It was taken off my craft desk almost before the ink dried! I think the ink is PTI Hibiscus Burst.

And finally this one, I used Memento Luxe Nautical Blue.

Today was the third day of school holidays. My youngest daughter still had her gymnastics lesson this afternoon, but other than that we had a day at home. The kids swam in the pool and watched tv. I think they thought they were in heaven! Next week I am back to work and the kids are off to vacation care... I think I'd rather stay on holidays. ;-)

Thanks for coming by to visit me!

Michelle
xxx

Teacher Thank-you

Hello!

Yesterday was the last day of school for the year. My daughter's teacher this year was a young man. I was stumped for a while for what to make for a card, and what to get for a present. I was going to make presents, but I just ran out of time this year. For the classroom teacher we bought a groovy pen. Apparently that pen spent the last day of school securely tucked in the teacher's pocket. My daughter was pleased. ;-) The card matched the pen (but I didn't actually capture a photo of the two together, oops!).

I used PTI Teach & Inspire and Wonderful Words: Teacher. Colours are Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Daffodil Delight, Coastal Cabana, Real Red.

The die-cut TEACHER was layered in the same colours as the inks. The black top layer was covered in Crystal Effects to make it shiny. Here is a closer look at that.

My Coastal Cabana is one of the new Stampin' Up! inkpads. It's very WET. I struggle to get crisp images using the new inkpads, but I feel like an old fuddy-duddy when I say that I like the old ones better, LOL! For this card, I didn't mind the splotchy effect, but for most cards it would bother me hugely.

Today was my daughter's 4th Grade (AMEB) violin exam. At the end of the exam I grabbed some more work from her teacher to keep her busy over the Summer holidays (5th grade pieces and technical work). I'm pretty sure that is not what my daughter had in mind as fun for the holidays, LOL! To her credit, she didn't moan at all.

Thank you for coming by to visit!

Michelle
xxx

Twinkle All The Way

Hello!

I made a card for Jonah. Jonah is a four year old, gorgeous, little boy who is undergoing chemotherapy after finishing radiation. Susan over at Simplicity is collecting Christmas cards for him. Because I am relying on international post, I'm not 100% certain that my card will arrive for Christmas, so I made it a Christmas card that will suit any time. ;-) Jonah's story has touched me for many reasons and I wanted to reach out and try to help him smile. I hope I help his family to smile as well.

I used Mama Elephant Party Kit and Merry Greetings. Ink is Memento Luxe in Nautical Blue, Morocco, and Dandelion/Daffodil (?).

While I had this set out, I whipped up a couple of additional super-CAS one-layer cards.

And this one.

My daughter loved this last one and has taken it as one of her "Teacher thanks" cards for end of year.

Speaking of "Twinkle All The Way"... we put our tree up on the week-end. 1 December always marks the date from which we are "allowed" to put the tree up. 1 December fell on Sunday this year, yippee! We had time to do it (before heading out to carols by candlelight at school). While we were decorating the tree (the kids did it this year by themselves after I put the lights on), our dog Coco discovered that tinsel is very comfy. My eldest daughter captured this photo just before she took the tinsel away to dress the tree. :-)

Tomorrow is the last day of school for the year. Then my kids have about 9 weeks of Summer holiday. I think we are all ready from the break from the school year. ;-)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Christmas Tags with Tracey

Hello!

I'm thrilled to be here today joining Tracey McNeely in her 25 Days of Christmas Tags! I can't imagine coming up with 25 different ideas for tags, let alone doing it year after year! Tracey is Superwoman! Tracey and I met here in blogland and over the past couple of years we have built a lovely friendship that I truly value. I am honoured to join Tracey in her tag extravaganza!

I've never really made many tags, but this past year I have tried it a few times, and I am really enjoying it! Tracey's invitation had me panicking a little - would I be able to come up with a tag that was pretty enough to share? I can report that I'm happy with these. :-)  They are double-sided. The green is on the back of the white. I think these may be my favourite tags that I've made so far.

I used Mama Elephant Merry Greetings, and PTI To You From Me stamps. The die is Mama Elephant Embellished Tag. Colours are SU! Poppy Parade and Gumball Green.

Here is a little closer view of the tags.

Do you make tags? I'd love to know. Recently when I made some tags and shared them on my Facebook page, someone asked me what I would do with them. My answer was that I would place them on presents. What do you do with your tags?

Thanks for visiting.

Michelle
xxx

Dynamic Duos #80

Hello!

I'm joining in with Dynamic Duos this week. I couldn't stay away! :-)  And what's this? They have three colours? Uh oh! They're calling it the "Triple Threat" week. I'm not sure how I feel about this... LOL!

My card uses my new Mama Elephant Party Kit stamps again. I can see this set being a new favourite. I made this card for my brother's partner. Her birthday is just around the corner, and I have actually sent the card, so I think it may just arrive on time (depending on Australia Post and Royal Mail both working properly). I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog, but if she does... Happy Birthday! :-)

Stamps are Mama Elephant Party Kit and So Breezy. Dies are Mama Elephant Femme Frames. Colours are SU! Pretty in Pink, Primrose Petals, and Old Olive.

Just a quick one tonight. I'm hoping to get to bed early. Although, I'm so behind with my "end of school year" tasks that I probably should work through the night!

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

CASE Study 167

Hello!

CASE Study this month has Keisha Campbell as the muse. Keisha's cards are amazing, but they are in a style that I find a bit unattainable. Me being me, I can't resist a challenge. So I thought I'd give Keisha's style a go. I have a LONG way to go before I come anywhere near Keisha's style. With this card, I really just copied, not so much as following the muse as copying the muse... but at least I gave it a shot, and I'll try again, I'm sure!

My card is a mish-mash of stamps and dies. The feathers are Waltzing Mouse Fine Feathers, flowers are Jane's Doodles Pretty Peonies, zig zag is Hero Arts, the sentiment is Papertrey Ink Stylish Sentiments. The dies are Mama Elephant. I would love this card, if I hadn't accidentally stuck the feathers in slightly the wrong position (the glue stuck by accident while I was positioning, argh!). It's really different for me, but still reflects my style. This is one of the things I love about CASE Study, I get to stretch outside of my comfort zone. :-)

This is Keisha's beautiful original.

This morning my daughter attended her piano exam. She has decided to stop learning piano, even though she's very good at it, because she doesn't enjoy it. I'm sad. I'm hoping she goes back to it in the future. She will continue violin (which she loves) but, for now, the piano is to be sidelined. She's only 11, there's still time to return.

Now it is time for my beauty sleep. It's been a busy few weeks. Only a week and a half left of school, and I don't have the teacher gifts done yet, eek!

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Colour Q 216 - Birthday Balloons!

Hello!

It was my brother's birthday recently. He and his lovely partner also had a new baby. My baby nephew was arriving over the time of my brother's birthday, and so in the excitement I forgot to make and send a card! Oops! It's okay. I'm now going to send my brother's card and the baby card all together, so they can have a double celebration. ;-) I'm celebrating like crazy here! My brother lives in London, England, so my new nephew is a LONG way away from me. It may be a good thing, otherwise I may just be smothering him in too much love right now. He's pretty gorgeous! I cannot wait to meet him when he comes with his parents to visit me next year. :-)

Back to the card. This is my brother's birthday card.

I used Mama Elephant Party Kit stamps. The sentiment is PTI. The dies are Mama Elephant Femme Frames. Colours are SU! Crumb Cake, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue.

I took my colour inspiration from this week's Colour Q colours.

We've had a busy week-end here. My daughter's swim club hosted an A-Grade meet yesterday. It was a fun day! My daughter swam two PBs and made me proud, as always. Tonight we are having our pizza night instead of last night. The pizzas are cooking right now, and my house smells heavenly. I love pizza night!

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Christmas is coming!

Hello!

I just love Christmas! I love Christmas carols. I love Christmas decorations. I love it all! I think I would happily buy every Christmas stamp available every year if I didn't have a stern talk to myself about how useful those stamps may be for the rest of the year. Regardless of my self-talks, I still ended up with some yummy new stamps this year, yippee! When Mama Elephant released their October release, I wanted just about everything on the release. Unfortunately for me, but perhaps fortunately for my wallet, by the time I returned from my travels and got to my computer many things had sold out. I had to wait. Then the "other" things I wanted sold out, argh! Not to worry, I still ended up with a very happy haul. :-) Then I went away for work again, and had to wait to play. I know that my work pays the bills, but sometimes it really cramps my stamping style, haha!

Enough of my talk. Here are a couple of cards.

Aren't Santa and Mrs Claus just so cute? Don't look too carefully at the colouring. I don't own Copics, so I used my daughters Faber Castell connector pens. The dies are Mama Elephant Femme Frames, and I am in love with them. You'll see these quite a bit, I think. The stamps are Cozy Christmas. Can you see how the presents and hands are popped up? That involved fussy cutting, sigh! The good news is that the stamp set includes a set of hands, so I don't have to cut around the Santa and Mrs Claus stamps just to get their hands out. The present is also separate.

This next card was just a quick play with the Christmas tree from Cozy Christmas. I like the simplicity of this card, although I'll probably go back and fill in that star with gold now that I've taken another look at it. There are those Femme Frames again... ;-)

Edit to add: I'm linking this tree up with Curtain Call CAS-ual Christmas. I forgot to link up when I published, and managed to miss the CAS-ual Fridays side of this challenge!

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

One Layer Wednesday #166 - Tags!

Hello!

Right up front here I am going to let you know (in case you haven't yet guessed) that I struggle to photograph tags. I'm too impatient (and maybe too lazy) to style them nicely like other people do. ;-)  One day I might take the time to learn how to make them look pretty. In the meantime, I apologise, LOL!

One Layer Wednesday is on Cheryl's blog this week and the challenge is to create tags. It just so happens that I have a new tag die and some new tag stamps that I couldn't wait to try out. So here they are. Clean. Simple. One Layer.

The stamps and dies are Mama Elephant. The stamp set is No Peeking. The die is Embellished Tag. The ink is Mama Elephant Apple and Memento Tuxedo Black. I coloured the reindeer skarf with my daughter's colouring pens.

Just a quick one tonight. I'll be back again in a day or two. Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Pink Christmas!

Hello!

Last week, the evening before I went away for work, I received a parcel in the mail. My Mama Elephant order had arrived! I have just spent several frustrated days being unable to dig straight into this wonderful new stash of goodies - stamps, ink, dies! This card is the first I made, and there will be many to follow, I'm sure!

I just LOVE Mama Elephant. And I love the products even more now that they've expanded to include dies and ink. I can tell you that the stamps, dies, and inks are all excellent quality, I've tried them all. ;-) Anyway, onto my card. I made this for this week's Muse Challenge. Therese made a Christmas card with non-traditional colours, using snowflakes, so did I. :-)  I used Mama Elephant Merry Greetings and No Peeking. The dies are Femme Frames. Colours are SU! Pretty in Pink and Memento London Fog.

Today I watched my eldest daughter's end of year string ensemble concert. All of the school ensembles played - 8 ensembles for kids ranging from Grade 2 at school (beginner string students) to Grade 12 at school (most of them advanced string students). There were some amazing performances, as always. I'm always so proud watching the kids play so beautifully.

Now I'm off to bed for some beauty sleep before starting the work week again tomorrow. Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Happy Birthday, Anne Marie!

Hello!

It's Anne Marie's birthday! Our mutual friend, Lesley, has organised a super birthday party to celebrate over on the Dynamic Duos Challenge blog! I may be a little late to the linky party - it is the middle of the night in Australia right now, and I'm in Canberra for work, so no access to my computer for blogging. Never-the-less, I'm still here partying on my blog, and will link up as soon as I'm able. :-)

For those of you who don't know, Anne Marie is one of the sweetest people in the world. Not only is she a talented card artist, but she is the best animal foster carer in the world. If you pop over to her blog, you're sure to find photos of her foster pups and kitties, and they are ALL SO CUTE! Her own pets are gorgeous, too! Anne Marie's tireless efforts to find homes for homeless animals is a small indication of her BIG HEART.

Happy Birthday, Anne Marie! I hope your day is fabulous! Your card will probably still in the mail on its way to you at this stage, but at least it is on its way. ;-)

Knowing that Anne Marie likes pink, I went VERY pink on my card. The card base is Soft Stone, the watercolour panel down the bottom is Jane's Doodles Pretty Peonies white embossed and watercoloured with Melon Berry and Berry Sorbet, and then a little Perfect Pearls added for shimmer.

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx