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