Easter Craft

Avryl and I did some Easter Craft today. I would love to be able to take credit for all of the ideas here but alas a lovely lady at our local shopping centre is responsible for most of them :)




This is a "nest" a single egg carton with pretty cellophane glued to the outside, shredded paper for the inside of the nest and it fits a baby chic and mini Easter egg very nicely!



Marshmallow Rabbit - Two large marshmallows stuck together with a toothpick. A circle/oval of green paper for grass with some shredded paper stuck to it. Ears are cut out of paper and stick into the top marshmallow. Face is done with icing that you can buy in a tube! And best of all it's edible!!!

Matchbox covered - pretty paper for the top has shapes cut out of it to show through bottom paper. Glue them both to a matchbox, add a tag and put some shredded paper inside and you're done!

This one I can take credit for :) Eater Basket - fruit seems to come in clear containers from the supermarket when you buy 1kg at a time. We have found these very useful for dolls beds and now an Easter basket. Avryl decorated it with pretty wrapping paper and stickers. We decorated a handle that is attached with sticky tape and screwed up some wrapping paper for a "nest" for whatever the Easter Bunny brings:)

Here's Avryl organising her goodies!!! We had lots of fun making these and have got Hot Cross Buns in progress now:) Hope this inspires you to do some craft with your kids this week-end!

Digital Scrapbooking

This is the first go at digital scrapbooking in quite a while!! I was inspired by some professional photos we had taken of Avryl by Apple Green Photography. I quite like it but think I'd like to have the bottom layer a bit more faded - but too impatient to figure out how :)

Nerine's Layout Challenge

I actually completed Nerine's layout challenge before the end of the week this time!! I bought the Color Spritzer Tool quite some time ago because I liked the way it made different backgrounds but often forget that I have it and therefore hardly ever use it:) I used masking here to give the effect of the two squares on Nerine's Layout.

Recipe - Card stock - Blush Blossom, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, Cameo Coral and Ruby

Red.

Stamp - SU Reason to Smile
Tools - CM Oval Custom Cutting System, CM Micro Meadow Shape Maker, SU Color
Spritzer Tool
Ink - Cameo Coral and Ruby Red. Cameo Coral Marker

What will Loki do next???

You need to look at these pictures from the bottom up! Yesterday, while I was chatting on the phone, Loki took advantage of Avryl opening the door to come in from the backyard and decided to come inside. He then proceeded to take advantage of me being hindered by the phone in my hand and played dead whenever I tried to get him out before making himself comfortable on our couch (which he has never been allowed to sit on in his life!!!). After hanging up Avryl and I got him out and vacuumed the couch, which as you can see from Avryl's face was very serious business :) I will be very careful about names in the future, Loki is the Norse God of Mischief and this dog has definitely lived up to his name!!!

Re. Engagement Card Post

Hello all, I forgot to mention yesterday that the layout I used for the engagement card was from Nerine's layout challenge last week - I really miss running across the park to borrow supplies Nerine!!!

Engagement Card

Today was only the second time since our move that I have sat down for some craft time in my new craft room. This card is the result. I've used a combination of Stampin' Up and CM products as follows-

Card stock - SU Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery and Brushed Copper.

Ink - Chocolate Chip

Stamp - Scribble This

CM - Title Sticker from one of the retired Power Palettes (sorry I can't remember which one it came from!)

Ribbon - from my ribbon box that has built up over the past 10years of crafting.

Miss 3, who loves anything with 'sparkles', gave it the thumbs up, I hope my friend likes it as much as she did!!!

Feeding Ducks

Aaron headed back to the NT for his 3 month stint yesterday, so Avryl and I are keeping busy. The suburb we live in has a lovely lake with several playgrounds, it's definatelybecoming a favourite. Today we took lunch down and Avryl fed her bread roll to the ducks.

We are settling in here, enjoying civilisation and being closer to family and friends. I think it is taking longer to get organised because we've been busy catching up with everyone:)

Nerine's Virtual Stamping Night

Last Night Nerine hosted a Virtual Stamping Night. Luckily for me I live across the park from Nerine so when Avryl didn't see fit to allow me to stamp I headed over to her house!! These are the projects I completed.

The second one is above - the challenge was a one layer card that used one ink colour, which had to be a non-traditional Christmas colour and extra brownie points for using a reverse mask. I've used Elegant Eggplant ink on Blush Blossom cardstock. The stamp sets are French Flair and Carte Postale. I only have vanilla grosgrain ribbon so if I want another colour I find a way to dye it! Last night I ran it roughly over the Elegant Eggplant ink pad to give it uneven colour.

This card was for the first challenge - a layout. I used SU Cool Carribean and SU Pretty in Pink cardstock I paired this with some SU designer Series paper (not sure what the name is it was a sample block I bought on sale a couple of months back). I used my Snowflake Spot stamp set with Real Red ink and Dazzling Diamonds. I coloured my ribbon over the Real Red ink pad. A nice bright Christmas card!

Season's Greetings

These cards were inspired by Carol Dunstan's "Cool Paisleys" in Stamping and Papercraft Vol 13 No 9. I love my Paisley Background Stamp almost as much as my Scribble This set. I have used them more than any other stamps in my collection. So I was very excited when I saw some cards that used the two sets together. Being Christmas time though and only half way there with the required cards I converted them to Christmas cards.

I highlighted a couple of Paisley Flowers with Dazzling Diamonds using my CM Precision Point Adhesive Pen for glue, but it doesn't show very well in the photos.

Recipe - Cardstock - SU Whisper White, Night of Navy.

Ink - Real Red, Night of Navy

Stamps - Paisley Background, Many Merry Messages, Scribble Wheel.

Accessories - Dazzling Diamonds

Daddy's Girl

This is the first page I have done that doesn't have CM paper on it since becoming a consultant 2 and 1/2 years ago! What a strange feeling.

Recipe - SU Cameo Coral Cardstock, SU Tempting Turquoise Cardstock, SU Whisper White Cardstock. SU French Flair Stamp. SU Cameo Coral and Tempting Turquoise Markers. CM Petal Multi-Maker. DCWV Vellum Quote Stacks It's All About Girls.

Mel's Colour Challenge

I often visit Mel Hanlon's blog to check out her great cards. Every week she has a colour challenge, this week you had to use Lavender Lace, Chocolate Chip, Green Galore and Whisper White. This is what I came up with.

Recipe - Cardstock - Lavender Lace, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Green Galore.

Ink - StazOn Black

SU Watercolour Crayons - Lavender Lace, Chocolate Chip and Green Galore.

Stamps - SU Bloomin' With Beauty, SU Merci.

Tools - SU Designer Label Punch (thanks for the loan Nerine:))

Ribbon - SU Vanilla Grossgrain died with SU Green Galore Stamp and Write Marker.

This card is winging it's way to someone special who has helped us a lot recently I hope they like it!

Flour

This is a variation of a sketch I found on SCS. It was definitely a quick and easy page to complete.

Recipe - SU Chocolate Chip Ink, SU Paisley Background Stamp, CM Pink Lemonade (again!), CM Pesto, Kindy Glitz, CM Petal Multi-Maker, CM Pens for title, CM Expressions of Daughter Vellum.

Bath Time

I have finally gotten around to scrapbooking our photos from our Christmas 2007 trip to Brisbane!!! It's fun looking back and seeing how Avryl has changed. I'm really pleased with this page. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

Recipe - CM Cherish Perfect Fit, CM Pink Lemonade, CM Aquamarine, SU Chocolate Chip ink, SU Friendship Blooms stamp set, SU White Craft ink and SU Textured Sky cardstock.

I used the stamp-a-ma-jig to line up where I wanted the swirls stamped on the photos. I'm told Stayz On ink would work better on photos but since I don't have any I used the craft ink - still works but probably not as bright as Stayz On would be.

Christmas Card

This is the first Christmas card I've made this year that I've been really happy with. It's made with a combination of SU and CM products as usual! Hope you all like it as much as I do.

Recipe - SU Real Red ink and cardstock, SU Night of Navy cardstock, SU Whisper White cardstock, SU Classic Stars Jumbo Wheel, SU Silver Embossing Powder, Versamark, SU Many Merry Messages. CM Large Square Maker and CM Galaxy Micro Maker.

Gift Card to Scrapbook Page

My lovely SU demonstrator always makes a card to say thank you for our orders. Since I seem to have as much of an addiction for SU products as I do CM I have lots of these gorgeous little cards(I'm a hoarder!!). I was doing a clean up of my craft table and found one of these cards and again couldn't throw it out - far too pretty, so I've used it as an embellishment on my scrapbook page.

Recipe - Nerine's gift card with the satin ribbon it came with, CM Blush Blooms (now deleted), CM Pink Lemonade, CM Cloud and CM Expressions of Family and Friends Vellum.

Masculine Scrapbook Page

I struggled with this page for some reason but I'm happy with the results.

Recipe - Paper - CM Cabana tone on tone and designer prints (now deleted), CM Expressions of Him Vellum and SU Cameo Coral ink sponged around the edge of the page.

For such a simple page it took a very long time to complete!@ Hope you like it as much as I do.

Butterflies Page

This page was inspired by Nerine's Pirates and Butterflies Page. I've used a combination of CM and SU products again. It was hard not to make the page too girly since the photo has Liam is in it as well as Kiara and Avryl!!!

Products Used - CM Spargo True 12 inch page, CM Pink Lemonade Card Stock, SU Night of Navy Card Stock and Ink, SU Flitting By Wheel, CM Navy Fine Tip Pen, Kindy Glitz.

Hope you all like it as much as I do.

Scrapbooking

I don't know why but for some reason blogger is uploading these images in their original rotation - anyone who knows how to fix this please leave me a comment with instructions! So imagine these pages rotated 90 degrees anti clockwise.

I was surfing the net for inspiration and came across a sketch for a card challenge that I based these pages on (go here for the blog I found the challenge on http://inkastamp.blogspot.com/). I came across another challenge that was for Breast Cancer awareness month - use a pink ribbon anywhere on your page. A combination of the two and this is the result!

Products - CM Pink Lemonade, CM Earth Elements Designer Prints, SU Whimsical alphabet (now deleted), SU grosgrain vanilla ribbon, CM brown and pink pens. I used a pink bold tip pen to colour the ribbon as I didn't have any pink ribbon.

I'm really happy with the result - I hope you all like it too!

After that marathon blogging session I'm off to help Avryl tidy up her room!!

Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

By the time we hit Edinburgh I was extremely tired, so I reserve judgement on it as a city. It is very different to both London and Paris. We only saw a tiny part of it really despite walking all day again!!! Edinburgh Castle from the outside looked like the largest castle we had seen, but because it is still very much in use the part that was open to the public didn't take long to see.

Normandy Beaches

Typical Aussie showing a bit of bum crack above her jeans!

Avryl Posing with her Sandcastle

Avryl and Daddy - Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

OK so again I don't have many pics of Normandy - I know that Aaron has more though!! These are all from Omaha Beach. We stayed in Arromanches and spent a whole day driving along the different beaches - it's surprising how long it takes to drive short distances in Europe. The roads seem to all be narrow and windy unless you're on a motorway, which our GPS apparently objected to!! I loved the Normandy area, I could quite happily live in an area like that, it's very pretty - the only downside is the cold weather!!