Some exciting news. . . For Your Inspiration!

Hello!

Well, do I have news for you!  I was invited to join the For Your Inspiration Design Team. . .  and I accepted! Can you tell I'm excited? I just love the photo inspirations at this challenge. Every new photo sets my creative spirit alight.

Lucky me, I get to start with an extra exciting challenge - the first challenge in September, and the first sponsored challenge. Yes, you heard me right, this challenge is sponsored by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  What does that mean for you? Well, when you enter For Your Inspiration Challenge #13, you have the chance to win a $10 voucher from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. As if the beautiful inspiration photo wasn't enough to drive you to enter the challenge to start with...

Sigh! I wish I was in Paris. . .

My card in response to this beautiful photo uses Sweet 'n Sassy digi-stamp "Forget Me Not".

I really loved the purples and blue of the sky in the photo, so I have tried to reflect those in my card.  I also just had to throw in the Eiffel Tower while I was at it. I was very clever with the ribbon, but it turns out that when photographed, a dark purple ribbon doesn't really show up the detail, LOL.

What I used:
Stamps: Forget Me Not by Sweet 'n Sassy, Artistic Etchings by SU!, a random birthday stamp (which I forget the maker of)
Card: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Whisper White
Ink: Perfect Plum
Assorted Inktense pencils and ribbon from my stash

This is quite a grungey card compared to my usual style. I hope you like it.

Now, why don't you take a look at what the other inspired ladies on the team have come up with?

Debbie
Debby
Keva
Peggy
Sara
Steph


Talk to you again soon.

Michelle
xxx

Happy Fathers Day, Hubby!

Hello!

Fathers Day here in Australia is this coming Sunday. As usual, I have been fluffing around trying to work out what card I would give to my hubby. Masculine cards and I aren't the best of friends. I don't know why, but all the great "man" ideas I come up with seem to NOT translate to paper from my head.  The sentiment I want to convey to my husband on Fathers Day is that I am thrilled to have him  as my partner in this parenting business, and how much I love him.  He isn't a fluffy-card type man. And as I've said before, he rarely gets excited about my cards. I've made about four cards so far. This one might be the one, but I still have a couple more days to go. . .

I decided to use the joint Clean & Simple and ColourQ challenge this week:

I was looking for a masculine colour scheme, and I liked this one:

The card I came up with was:

This card was so, so difficult to photograph and edit! The contrast of light and dark, the clear embossing, all conspired against me, LOL.  I clear embossed the definitions to give the card some texture and interest, and to get those sentiments that I was trying to convey across. The sentiment definitions I used: Delight, Happy, XOXO.

I used (all SU!):
Stamps: Artistic Etchings, Life Definitions
Ink: Crumb Cake, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy
Card: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Sahara Sand

So what do you think?

Michelle
xxx

P.S. Come back later today for some exciting news from me.

Coco and a Blue Tongue

Hello!

Not a card related post. Another of my musings on nature, and my doggy Coco.

I was waiting for the warmer weather to arrive before I took Coco in for her Spring grooming. I didn't want her to freeze to death at night time after losing her nice long coat. But things got a bit desperate, the dreadlocks were breeding despite my ongoing battle to brush them out. I'd brush at night and by morning they were starting again, argh!  She was looking totally cute, but was impossible to groom, and her long fur was bringing in every possible piece of debris from the yard (and some impossibly large pieces of debris).  This is pre-haircut:

After the haircut, things are better, she can see, she doesn't pick up sticks and stones in her fur, and when she covers herself from head to toe in mud during a thunder storm, she is easy to wash off. . .

Related to Coco, but not really. . . the other night we had a visitor. This visitor came in during the day through the doggy door. He wanted Coco's breakfast. He guarded that food all day long until we came home from work that night. Even then, he hung on desperately - hissing at us and making the fiercest faces. When we removed the food, he conceeded defeat and walked out the door again.

He's an Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard. A very large one. Blue Tongues are the largest of the skink family. They are omnivorous, eating plants and bugs and left-over dog food. They don't belong in laundry rooms.

But he's not leaving without a fight. His hiss sounds just like a cat hissing, it is very fierce.

I was told by the kids that Coco found him in the back yard again the next day and was harrassing him. 

Yesterday, I heard Coco barking madly. She doesn't bark much, so I went to investigate. There was the poor Blue Tongue hissing away while Coco had a ball trying to get him to play with her. Her tail was wagging, she was jumping up and down, she was doing the "play bow", but he just wouldn't join in.  I took her inside to give him a chance to go somewhere else. He didn't. He liked that spot in the sun at the bottom of the retaining wall.  I decided that if he wouldn't cede his spot, he would just have to learn to share the backyard with a joyful puppy.

They seem to be getting on just fine.

I love the wildlife in my garden (except the Scrub Turkeys, but that story I'll hold for another day).

One last photo - Coco in her typical "Frog" pose.

Michelle
xxx

Last minute entries. . .

Hello!

When I saw the Color Throwdown colours this week, I immediately knew I wanted to use them. BUT, I had a 4th birthday party to organise and NO time over the last week to do much card making. I also have Fathers Day coming next week-end, so had to find a little time to help my eldest daughter make a card for her Daddy. My card for him is yet to be created, eek. I also need to get a card sent off to my own Dad. It most definitely won't make it to him in time (he lives a long way away) but at least I made it before the day. . .

On Sunday evening, we sat down to make some cards. The big girl and I had chosen the colour scheme, we had chosen the papers and card stock, we had chosen the images, but the layout was eluding me.  We finally got the first card made, but I was still struggling. So last night I went looking for a sketch to use, because my own inspiration was sadly lacking. I found Dawny's Sketch at Simon Says Stamp, and I liked it.

So my card uses, Color Throwdown #156, which is these lovely colours:

and Simon Says Stamp, Dawny's sketch:

And my card looks like this:

 I used:
Stamps - Garden Friends by Jane's Doodles
Card - Crumb Cake, Perfect Plum, Barely Banana
Patterned Paper - So Saffron pattern from Washington Apple
Ink: Perfect Plum, Crumb Cake, Barely Banana, Memento Tuxedo Black
Googly eyes came from my stash

My daughter's card is this one:

It took us ages to come up with this design. My girls take after their Mummy a little with their perfectionism, sigh!  She wasn't happy with her colouring, but I think she did a great job. She's 8 (going on 18).

I hope you like the cards. You can see that my love affair with Garden Friends has not yet ended. It is such a lovely set of images, and the stamps work SO WELL. I'm really enjoying them.

What do you think?

Michelle
xxx

Dora Rainbow Cake

Hello!

Every year I make each of my girls their birthday cakes. Sometimes I have to call on my hubby for the execution of the design (because he is awesome at presentation), but this year I did it ALL BY MYSELF.  This year's challenge for me was to find a recipe for the actual cake part of the cake that was yummy to eat. Every time I make butter cake, it ends up crumbly and dry and definitely not fine and soft. But this year I was determined to make something yummy to eat to go inside the awesome outside decoration of the cake, LOL.

I went first to Bakerella, because she is just the BEST baking blog in the whole wide world. I didn't need to go any further, because she told me how to get moist butter cake, AND she gave me a recipe to follow.  The recipe is in imperial measurements, but I managed to convert to metric okay.  Bakerella calls this a Moist Yellow Cake. 

For the icing I made a butter icing using 250g of butter and about 6 cups of icing sugar, eek!  I only put a little bit between the layers and saved the smothering for the outside of the cake.

The final product is not the best Dora in the world, but my little girl was thrilled, the cake tasted delicious, and everyone was happy.

When I made the layers, I couldn't tell what their colour was going to end up, because the outside was a bit brown from cooking. So cutting into this cake today was a beautiful rainbow surprise for me as well as all the little kids.

For this cake, I followed the tip from Bakerella which said to wrap the cake in plastic wrap 5 minutes after it came out of the oven. I wrapped each layer separately. I also put all the layers in the freezer after they had totally cooled, because I made the cake last week-end.  I defrosted them overnight last night. When I took them out of their plastic wrap today, they were so easy to handle, and they were moist as can be. Perfect outcome for me. I actually iced a cool cake this year, which means the icing stayed in place much more easily, LOL.

Would you like a slice?

Michelle
xxx

Happy 4th Birthday, my darling!

Hello!

Today is my littlest girl's 4th birthday. I have been thinking about this card for weeks. My little girl is VERY particular, and I've been trying to figure out how to interpret her requests for her card so that she loves the outcome.  Yesterday she added to the list of requests that she wanted a cake on her card and that she wanted to "see it from the bottom". With that unreasonable and impossible request in my mind, I decided to just go ahead and make a card with cupcakes, LOL!

The colour scheme today I have taken from The Play Date Cafe Challenge #96:

Mint...Ivory...Coral

Isn't this colour scheme so pretty?

I don't have that pale mint colour, so I had to dig deep into my card stash to find something similar; and because I had to dip into my stash for much of this card, I am entering it into the Just Add Ink Challenge #82 this week, which calls on us to "use something from our stash"! I had to dig so deep that I can't even remember what the coral patterned paper is - maybe from SU Raspberry Tart?

The card I made has four cupcakes for the fourth birthday.  I used SU Cameo Coral, Very Vanilla, and Sage Shadow. I used the Build a Cupcake punch and the Create a Cupcake stamp set. The other patterned paper is Pebbles Happy Go Lucky Carefree.

The photo is terrible. It was taken very early this morning, and we have a very, very dull day outside. Even sitting right beside the window, there was barely any light.

The good news is that my little girl loves her cupcake card, even though it uses green and she doesn't like green because "green isn't in a real rainbow", LOL.  I think the card passed muster because the big sister gave the little sister a rainbow skirt as a present, and she was distracted by how BEAUTIFUL her new skirt was.

What do you think?

Michelle
xxx

Girly & Gutsy, and maybe a little Sexy. . .

Hello!

When I saw the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World this week, I had an idea almost immediately formed in my head in response.  I worked away at it yesterday and came up with a card that when my husband saw it, he said, "Oh yes, that is one sexy card! Is it for me?"  Now, to put this comment in context, usually when I show my hubby my cards he makes non-committal "Mmmm" sounds, or says something like, "That's nice." This time, it was a BIG reaction, LOL! I'm still giggling 12 hours later.

The trigger photo is this one:

In my card I have tried to set the scene with the swirly carpet, the black table, the sparkly light fittings, I even put candles on my table. Under my sentiment I have stamped a starburst to represent the chandelier at the same time as representing the framed mirror.  Here it is:

What I used:
Candlesticks, starburst, and yellow paper are all Pink Paislee Soiree.
Pink card is Pretty in Pink.
Black Swirl is SU Jumbo Wheel "So Swirly"
Black Ink is Memento Tuxedo Black, Pink Ink is SU Pretty In Pink
Sentiment is SU "Best Yet"

This card is not really my usual style, but I'm enjoying it.

What do you think?

Michelle
xxx