Wishing You Love

Hello!

Today I'm bringing you another love-themed card. I was pondering this month's Mama Elephant Challenge when I saw the new CASE Study challenge and my idea went POP! Because they are featuring Mama Elephant over at Simon Says Stamp this week, I'm joining in there too.  I don't think that it is any secret that I am in love with everything Mama Elephant, so I couldn't resist. ;-)

The Mama Elephant inspiration was making me think lace and bling and I had my Filigree set out when I saw Donna's beautiful card on CASE Study. If you squint your eyes, my card could look like a direct copy. I just loved the whole card so much I couldn't move very far away, oops! I really love Donna's work, she's amazing!

I used Mama Elephant Filigree and So Breezy stamps. Sentiment is silver embossed. Ink is Memento Luxe Rose Bud.

Thank you for dropping by to see me!

Michelle
xxx

Fusion #3 - Hearts Galore!

Hello!

Are you starting to feel the LOVE flowing through our blogging world? There has been pink and red and flowers and hearts and chocolates in every nook and cranny! I think Valentine's Day may be just around the corner! ;-) Our inspiration this week at Fusion Card Challenge allows us to enjoy our "inner Valentine" if we choose, or if you aren't inspired by hearts, there is plenty of other inspiration to be had.

The first card I made is a Fusion of the sketch and the inspiration photo. I took the hearts from the photo.

Stamps are PTI Wonderful Words: Hello (sentiment) and Heart Prints. Dies are PTI Hearts. Colours are SU! Primrose Petals, Pool Party, Very Vanilla. The paper is SU! but I forget it's name.

The second card I made was directly inspired by the photograph, with a washi background and a washi heart. My heart was made by lining up a few rows of washi and die-cutting the heart. The "Hello There" sentiment makes me smile. I like the idea of sending a card with a bright red heart and just saying an offhand "Oh, hello there!". :-)

This card uses all washi tape (and I can't tell you what the brands are) except that one little sentiment, which comes from SSS Sketchy Banners.

The Fusion DT has come up with some amazing work this week. Why don't you pay them a visit too?

Betty J
Cathy Weber 
Dannielle Robeson
Deepti
Geri Freeman
Julia Aston
Katie Brooks
Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan 

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu
Stephanie Severin

Thanks for visiting me!

Michelle
xxx

Retro Sketches 99

Hello!

It's Retro Sketches #99! I just love Retro Sketches. I wish I could find time to join in every week. My card this week was a little experiment in using dies. The sketch had a semi-circle, but because I've done that before, I thought I'd try something new. :-)  It ended up being a little more tricky than I had imagined... anyway, here is my card.

Stamps are Polka Dot Parade #10 (and matching dies). Colours are SU! Bashful Blue, Real Red, Early Espresso. The grass is a distress marker in Peeled Paint (I think).

This is the sketch.

Today was the first day of school for the year. My Grade 6 girl treated it like any other day and sent her Dad off before the bell rang. My Grade 1 girl was super-confident and sent me away before the bell rang. I'm proud of both of them. Apparently, according to all reports, the day was pretty boring, lol! For the big girl the day was saved by a horse riding lesson this afternoon. ;-)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Runway Inspired Watercolour

Hello!

As promised, I'm back with some new cards. I have made two cards for Runway Inspired Challenge #52 where the inspiration is a gorgeous dress by Dennis Basso.

The dress made me think of watercolours. The first card I made was directly inspired by the splashes of pastels. This was a bit of an experiment. I quite like the effect of the black and white with splashes of colour.

Stamps are Janes Doodles Pretty Peonies and Simon Says Stamp Sketchy Banners. Colours are Distress Ink Worn Lipstick, Mustard Seed, Tumbled Glass, and Memento Tuxedo Black.

The inspiration is this gorgeous floaty dress. I would defnitely wear this dress myself, so pretty!

I then moved away from the direct inspiration to make my next card, which uses the same colours, but on watercolour paper and with much more saturation. The stamp set is PTI Meadow Greens.

This card was made for the rescuers of Coco. On that note, here is my Coco, with an extra 1.3kg added over the past 9 days. I think we can slow down the feeding now and work on building her muscle back up again. ;-)  Her back legs are half the size they were, but they'll come back with some exercise.

 Thanks for visiting.

Michelle
xxx

You make me SMILE

Hello!

I'm back! It is the end of the Australia Day long week-end. My daughters have one more day of Summer holiday tomorrow before starting school for the year on Wednesday. I'm not sure they are ready to give up the television and their sleep-ins just yet, lol! This afternoon, I managed to find some time to sit at my craft desk. I came up with a few cards, yay! I'll share these with you over the next couple of days.

This first is for CAS(E) This Sketch #61. I had all sorts of ideas for the sketch, but when it came down to it, my card wanted to be one layer, and bright and happy.

I used PTI Polka Dot Parade #10 and Heart-2-Heart #8. Colours are Memento Luxe (yellow and lilac) and Mama Elephant Hazel & Mojito.

This is the sketch.

If you have followed the story of my missing dog, Coco, and haven't seen the news already, Coco came home last Saturday after 19 days on the run.A family found her in a park about 9km from where she went missing. She appears to have followed a creek, and was halfway home. The family took her home for a bath, because she was covered in stinky creek mud. They then took her to the RSPCA where they checked her microchip and called me immediately. That was Saturday night. There were tears all around - me, the family who found her, the RSPCA workers, my family, and many of my supporters on the internet. Coco was very, very skinny, has cracked off a lower canine, had a torn paw pad, and an infected eye. Overall, she fared remarkably well. She has been thoroughly checked by the vet and given a good report. This past week she has put on a significant amount of weight and is a very happy dog. And I am a very happy human. :-)

This is a photo of her last week. I haven't taken a new one this week-end. I'll do that and share it in another post. ;-)

Thanks for coming by to visit me. I hope to get around visiting everyone over the next week or so. Apologies for my long absence.

Michelle
xxx

Fusion #2

Hello!

I'm here with the new Fusion Card Challenge! I just adore the inspiration this time. I'll probably say that every week, lol! But I really mean it! :-)

Last challenge, our first for the "new" Fusion and the first for 2014 had so many AWESOME entries! Woo hoo! It was so exciting to visit so many fabulous designers.

Onto my card. This time I did not use the sketch. I had intended to, but this card had other ideas when it was creating itself. I think that the inspiration photo was just so lovely, that I had enough inspiration right there! The fact that it has my favourite colour (yellow) and mixes it with grey, black, and woodgrain... oh, yum! Irresistible!

I used Simon Says Stamp Flower Friend and Sketchy Banners stamps and dies. I also used PTI woodgrain impression plate for that kraft panel, and Mama Elephant Femme Frames for the top panel.

The Fusion inspiration is this:

The rest of the team have done some beautiful work also. Please take a moment to visit them as well.

Betty J
Cathy Weber 
Dannielle Robeson
Deepti
Geri Freeman
Julia Aston
Katie Brooks
Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan 

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu
Stephanie Severin

For those of you who visit regularly, you may have noticed my absence over the past couple of weeks. I am still searching for my dog Coco. I have discovered that a broken heart is not conducive to crafting, not for me anyway. All of my energy has gone into searching for Coco, thinking of new ideas for how to find Coco, and then making a superhuman effort to be as "normal" as possible for my kids (and also to try to function at work). My husband has been my rock. He's an amazing man. I'm truly blessed to have my gorgeous family, and extra-blessed that they understand how I feel about Coco's absence. I hope that sometime soon she will be home. Edit with news:  Coco was returned home. A good samaritan family found her 9km from where she went missing, 19 days after she went missing. She came home on the week-end, very skinny, but happy to be home. Vet checks show that she is okay, other than some infection. She has an infected eye, slightly torn pad on her paw, and a broken lower canine tooth. You can see some updated photos on her Facebook page.

On a happy note, we got chickens. Four little chicks that are now 1 1/2 weeks old. Two black australorp hybrids and two light sussex. They are very cute. They were ordered before Christmas (they are my Christmas present). They are growing up very quickly.

 

I hope I'll be back again soon to say hello! Thank-you for coming by to visit me! I hope you join us for the newest Fusion Card Challenge. :-)

Michelle
xxx

Fusion - Congratulations!

Hello!

Welcome to my first post as a member of the Fusion Card Challenge Design Team! You would not believe how excited I am to be joining this AMAZING team on this AMAZING challenge! I was excited by the concept when Fusion first started, and was lucky enough to be chosen as an honorable mention in the very first challenge. And I was a guest designer in the second challenge! I continued to play along as often as possible, and I was so sad when Fusion ended. I think I was not the only one, because here we are, starting a brand new year with a brand new team, yay!

For those of you who have not yet discovered Fusion, the concept is simple - you can choose to use the inspiration photo, or the sketch, or you can combine the two to create a fusion. Simple and with inspiration galore!

For this first challenge of the year, I have created a fusion card. I took the colours and some of the pattern from the photo and I used the sketch to create this card.

I have used PTI Congratulations Mini set, Embellishments, and Mama Elephant Flashy Letters. Colours are SU! Basic Grey and Pumpkin Pie. The circles were created using Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles.

This is the inspiration board:

I wouldn't normally mix grey, orange, and white, but this bedroom looked so elegant, I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did! I love this combination!

Now to introduce you to my team mates. :-)  These lovely ladies have all come up with their own beautiful response to the inspiration. Why don't you take some time to pay them a visit, too?

Betty J
Cathy Weber 
Dannielle Robeson
Deepti
Geri Freeman
Julia Aston
Katie Brooks
Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan 

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu
Stephanie Severin

Thank-you for visiting. I hope to see your entry to the Fusion Card Challenge in the gallery. ;-)

Michelle
xxx

P.S. For those of you wondering, my dog is still missing. Please forgive me for not visiting and leaving comments at the moment. I'm spending every spare minute searching for Coco.

My Dog is Lost

Hello!

My dog, Coco, is lost.

She went missing overnight between 30 and 31 December 2013 from the boarding kennels where we had placed her (for safekeeping) while we had a week at the beach. The kennels are in an area completely unfamiliar to her, about 15km away, and I have my doubts she can find her own way home.

Coco was lost from Sherbrooke Road, Willawong in Brisbane, Australia. We live in Kenmore.

Coco is a small/medium sized spoodle (poodle x cocker spaniel). She is black with a white chest and chin. She was clipped about three weeks ago. This photo is of her on Christmas Day.

Coco is microchipped. She did not have her collar on because the kennel remove collars when dogs come to stay.

We have listed Coco on the RSPCA lost listing. We have listed her at the pound and with the Brisbane City Council. She is listed on the Qld Lost Pet Register on Facebook, and with many other Facebook pages. She is listed as lost on Gumtree. I have friends and family sharing my Facebook posts to spread the word. The kids and I drove around Willawong, Durack, and Inala this morning putting posters along the main roads and in parks. My husband ran (in extreme heat) from the kennels to home, looking for her this morning. At this stage I don't know what more to do.

Coco is a much-loved family member. We miss her. I just hope that a nice person has taken her into their home and that they will eventually bring her to the pound, or a vet, or the RSPCA to return her to us.

Update 5 Jan 2014: We have been searching daily, we have broadened the search and still no word of Coco. I have shared more on Facebook and Twitter. I have spoken to people in the area and put up more lost notices. We advertised in the newsclassifieds and received no response. We will continue to search for our missing family member. My girls are missing their dog so much, and I'm sure that Coco misses us as well.

If you know where Coco is, please call RSPCA on 1300 36 37 36 and quote Pet ID 764791. They have her listed on Pet D Tect for us.

Our hearts are breaking.

Michelle.

A New Year and a New Team!

Hello!

Happy New Year!!  I am currently on holidays at the Gold Coast, Australia. Hopefully we have blue skies and hot days to fully enjoy the week at the beach!  While I am holidaying, I have some exciting news to share (well, it's exciting to me!). I have been invited to join the amazing team at Fusion Card Challenge, yay! We will be starting the first challenge of the year this coming Thursday, and I hope you will join us. :-)

While you wait impatiently for Thursday to arrive with the new challenge inspiration, here is a card to keep you happy. ;-)

Yes, it's PTI Mighty Oak, with some Teach & Inspire apples added. To make this card I made a mask with the Mighty Oak die and sprayed with gold Smooch Spritz. Then I stamped over the top of the sparkly tree with Ranger Archival Black and Mama Elephant Mojito pigment ink. I can't remember the colour I used for the apples. The card mat is made using Mama Elephant Femme Frames.

Here is a different angle to show you the golden shine.

I'll be back on Thursday with my first submission as Design Team member with Fusion.

The team I am working (playing) with is this wonderful group of ladies:

Betty J
Cathy Weber 
Dannielle Robeson
Deepti
Geri Freeman
Julia Aston
Katie Brooks
Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan 

Michelle Williams (that's me!)

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu

Stephanie Severin

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx