Congrats to Kim and Sherri!

Our new DT members on Scrap Whispers - congrats ladies, and enjoy the fun!

Here are their blogs:
Kim - http://cyho-kimberly.blogspot.com/
Sherri - http://sharpshootingbysherri.blogspot.com/

2 quick cards

I remembered this morning that the birthday of my friend's father is this week - about half an hour before church, when I was due to see him. Aargh. So this one was produced really quickly. It's a little naughty actually, because he has Alzheimer's, so maybe the elephant was near the knuckle {whistle} but we gave him a bottle of beer called Sheep Shagger for Christmas (he's Welsh) and he thought that was hilarious. Thankfully he has a naughty sense of humour too.

It fits into this week's Simon Says challenge of "animals".

The adorable little stamped elephant image is one of a bundle very kindly sent to me by Glenda. Thank you Glenda! Isn't it cute?

The second card is for this week's Colour Create challenge of lemon, green and white. I'm on my usual new year mission to use up the beautiful bits left over from last year's crafting. I get together all my extra die-cuts, and left-over holes from cutting files and die-cuts, and I try to use them up rather than throwing them away. This card is not my usual style, but that spotty paper was just too nice to waste. It was actually a scrap from a mini-album class I took in Singapore, so it's done very well, considering! I've added the usual Stickles and a gem, and a Tim Holtz greeting to cover the missing corner in the scrap papers underneath {more whistling}, and Bob's your uncle.

Scrap Whispers Challenge #87 - fabric

I don't know what happened to this week. Last time I looked it was about Tuesday, I'm sure. But here we are again, having another Scrap Whispers Challenge, and this week we are including fabric on our LOs or cards.

I added an extra challenge to mine too - for me, "fabric" does not include ribbon or lace either, because that would be just too easy. I used felt, which goes through my Cuttlebug like butter melted, and looks so dramatic. This LO is going to be the title page in the album I'm making for the niece's and nephew's school photos. We get sent the professional ones every year, and they go on the shelf and fade for a year until they are replaced by the next one, so I decided to put each year's in a special album to show how they grow and change. I remember hating most of my own school photos, so I wouldn't want them together with the family one.

And for you chrono-scrappers, yes I know the title page won't last until they leave school! I might update the pics of the kids as they grow. I'll see how I feel.

The new Scrap Whispers game will be starting soon, so if you want to join in,  drop Georgina an email.

We will also be announcing the new DT members, so come back and check.

Now you only have a couple of days to enter this one before the end of the month if you want to be in with a chance of winning the January prize, so get scrappin'!

Some exciting news!

Well if I can't blow my own horn on my own blog, where can I blow it? Hehee.

I've been accepted onto Susan Godfrey's Creative Team (or CT) for digital scrap-booking! ("Thank you, thank you very much!") Now I'm a little nervous about this, as although I've done some digi work before, I just got a new laptop, and this time it's a Mac. Yup, very different. I'm still getting used to organising my photos in Apple's own bizarre fashion - well bizarre to this girl who has used Windows all her life.

I love the Mac. I love how it doesn't crash every time I take my eyes off it. The graphics are a-maz-ing. The touch-pad is something else. It boots up in less than a minute, instead of the time it takes to open the blinds, unlock, put the kettle on, make my breakfast, EAT my breakfast while watching the Windows laptop STILL doing its anti-virus checks. {sigh.} I love how you can shut it down in just a few seconds rather than having to go "yeah I'm coming, just a minute, give it a chance... ah you go on and I'll catch you up..." And I love my new PhotoShop Elements 9, which replaces my old version 6.

But it all takes a lot of learning. And I think this may be just what I need to make me learn quicker. I'm loving it!

But back to Susan Godfrey. My friend Kim suggested I apply for a CT position, even though I'm a bit of a digi novice (but learning fast and enthusiastically) and to my surprise, I got it. Susan designs the prettiest and most versatile digital scrap-booking kits I've seen. When I first saw them, I asked Kim whether Susan had just boys, because although her kits do have girlie elements, they are in mostly boy colours - and that's the most adaptable combination. You have to agree with me that bubble-gum pink really does have just the one application!

Have a look at this one, Softly Snowing. How delicate and beguiling and just delicious is this?! 

You can download it from any of these stores:
Susan Godfrey
Faith Sisters
Scrapbooks Gone Digital
Divine Digital

I just went a little crazy when I got it. I made a LO which you can't see yet ;-) and this one:

What do you think? This photo was from June in the UK so it wasn't softly snowing at all, but there were plenty of elements in the kit to use for any time of the year. I really like it! I can't wait to get going on another one now, and as tomorrow is Australia Day and a holiday, I think I may be able to play. Yay!

2 cards for 2 birthdays on the same day

Once upon a time I was privileged to work with two very special people, who happen to share the same birthday, just different years. They still work together, so every year I send them a card each to the same address. I just have to be very careful to put the right card in the right envelope. ;-)

Here are this year's cards. Debs's is being entered into these challenges:
Cute Card Thursday with a 123 recipe (1 ribbon, 2 circles, and 3 flowers)
Colour Create with pink, blue, cream and grey
Simon Says with a bingo challenge - I chose punches, embossing and ribbon
House Mouse and Friends with embossing (Cuttlebug Happy Birthday folder)
Friday Sketchers with a sketch by Whiff of Joy

And Chris's is being entered into these challenges:
Basic Grey with flower power using my brand new Marjolaine pack {drool}
Spoonful of Sugar with blue and green
Stampin' for the Weekend with "get warmed up"
Sketch Saturday

 

I had such a fun afternoon!

Scrap Whispers Challenge #86 - office stationery

Over at Scrap Whispers this week, the challenge is to use office stationery on your LO. Well the first thing to spring to mind is paper-clips and staples of course, and then I stuck. What else could I use that was acid-free? Off I toddled to our little study upstairs, which was about 36*C at the time (aaargh) and had a (very quick) poke around. I found some stuff in there that I'd forgotten I had. But I came downstairs with a handful of bits and pieces.

I had a pack of coloured staples which I used to frame the photos, although it's hard to see them. The pink geranium is surrounded by pink, the blue love-in-a-mist has a dark blue border, and that gorgeous hearts-ease is framed in gold. The pattern on the back was actually prettier - I wish I had used the staples upside-down really, but maybe you can learn from my experience!

I punched holes out from the sides, and then used the anti-holes (you know what I mean!) as decoration. I had one special paperclip, and one nice shiny one so they got used as they were intended for, and then I went digging in DH's tool bag (I'm wondering whether I'm ever going to get my shopping bag back... ;-) ) borrowed his pliers, and made some curlicues out of three of the less shiny ones. Now sticking those on was not easy either, but liquid glue did it. I'm too impatient to use liquid glue normally. I'll happily spend far more time working out a way of sticking something instantly than I could have done just waiting for the goo to dry. And I never realised that till now {face-palm}.

Using the correction tape for the labels was a bit of a gamble, because this stuff is almost certainly NOT acid-free, so I kept it away from the photos. But I thought that was an inspired idea! I also sat fiddling with treasury tags (you know, those bits of green string (STRING! I forgot to use string - aargh) with the metal bits on either end, that you use to bind papers with?) but I just couldn't get them to look like anything I wanted on the page, without cutting the metal ends off. I suppose I could have done that.

Anyway, now it's over to you. I've given you a couple of extra ideas, but what else can you drag out of your office area which we haven't thought of?

Celebrating Henry

2 posts in one day. Scary.

This card is for Diane whose birthday is next week. I'm entering it into Whiff of Joy's colour challenge of teal, chocolate and cream, and Friday Sketchers' sketch challenge:

with this:

The image, of course, is Whiff of Joy's Celebrating Henry, coloured with Copics, and surrounded by Basic Grey's Kraft paper, American Crafts and other scraps.

Combining papers

Truly Scrumptious have challenged us to put pink, brown and green together this week, Creative Card Crew's 'men' challenge is perfectly timed for Andy's birthday card, for which I've rotated this sketch from Stampavie:

to make this:

I've used papers from all over the place for this. The Chinese paper was a scrap from a challenge at my LSS, the green is the back of an American Crafts paper, you can see a glimpse of Basic Grey's Kioshi, and the background is Heidi Grace. The stamp is from Inkadinkado's Utopiary collection, all inked with Artnic inks. Quite basic, but that's about as far as you can go for a blokey, isn't it? They get all embarrassed about ribbons, bows and buttons, and quite rightly so. This isn't one of my favourites, but hopefully Andy will appreciate it.

New, blue, for Sue

The current challenge at Creatalicious is ribbon and love (inside it says "Happy Birthday With Love X"), House Mouse and Friends want "new" (new stash), Stampin' for the Weekend have given us "new and blue" and the dear people at Simon Says Stamp suggest this sketch by Domi:

My card for Sue's birthday this year covers all that! This beautiful SEI and Bella paper, the ribbons and the House Mouse stamp (coloured with Copics) are all new, and the Coffee Ice Stickles used to draw the swirl was a Christmas gift from my DH. Very new. I love this so much, I might not be able to give it away!

Scrap Whispers January Blog Hop

Did you all enjoy your December break? We thought we wouldn't clog your pre-Christmas preparations up with blog hops, and this one is a really easy one to break you back in for the new year. I think it took me no more than about half an hour including decorating. I can see I'm going to be making more of these cute little gift bags.

I love how you can use up those patterned papers which you're tired of, and suddenly they have a new lease of life and you wish you weren't giving them away after all, hehee. This is DCWV paper from the Citrus collection, decorated with handles salvaged from shopping bags, my little Cropodile, and shapes cut using the Cuttlebug and the Silhouette, and not forgetting Stickles, without which my projects never seem to be complete.

The tutorial for how to make this is over on the Scrap Whispers blog site comes courtesy of the lovely Kelly. So if you want to have a go, join in and hop through all the DT's blogs and leave some love:
Helen
Kelly
Nilsa
Georgina
And don't forget to link us up to your version on the Scrap Whispers blog.

Enjoy, and have a great week everyone!

Scrap Whispers Challenge #85 - red and black

Let's get our Valentines done in plenty of time this year, eh? The challenge over at Scrap Whispers this week is "red and black, one heart and some glitter", and here's some inspiration for you.

Just to be a bit different, I made this easel card 3D in more ways than just the easel part. I designed a black box frame, cut out the heart, and hung a key charm from it into the aperture. The text is in gold Stickles, and reads "you hold... the key to my heart". Very clean and simple for the man in my life.

And a side view to show the box:

I'm also entering this into the Creative Card Crew challenge of "more than one fold", Cute Card Thursday's "monochrome", and Stampavie's "glitter" challenges.

Come and play with us at Scrap Whispers, and you could win a fabby prize!

The Big Reveal

is ON over at Scrap Whispers, and guess who won? OK I'll put you out of your misery (as if you had time to get impatient!) because for the second time running, Team 1 is the winner! That, by the way, is MY TEAM of talented, enthusiastic, communicative and artistic ladies. I can't begin to say how lucky I've been with my teams. So congratulations Team 1!

Now go on over to the blog and have a look at Georgina's video montage of the beautiful art-work from all the teams, because I tell you, we have some real artists out there.

Some more news while you're there - we're having a DT call too! So if you fancy bringing your own particular style to our little design team, just let Georgina know. It's all on the Scrap Whispers blog.

And finally, this week's challenge is just for fun, but it IS a fun one. ROBOTS! Use robots as embellishments for your card or LO. For a bit of inspiration to get you going, here's mine:

Isn't that the cutest little t-shirt on my cutest (well, only) little nephew? The little pickle didn't want to pose for my photos, so I had to use reverse psychology on him ("don't wave your arms about, just cross them over your front") hehee.

The paper is from Basic Grey, the card-stock is DCWV and yup, that's his favourite Wall-E printed off the net and coloured with Copics. That's the same Wall-E that DH gave him, and that I get clobbered with every time I go to visit our baby angel there. It's a boy's way of showing how much he appreciates it, and us. I think. Yup, that'll be it.

In the rest of my life, I have at last joined the ranks of the Mac users. Yes, my creaking Windows laptop has been relegated to "church work only" (Apple doesn't make a Publisher equivalent that's compatible with the church computers) and I've been enjoying the AMAZING speed, display and functions of Apple. So there has been an awful lot of backing-up and copying, converting, learning, and the odd blue-air moment when things didn't go entirely to plan. I'm still working on getting it to my liking.

Our priest has returned from his holidays in Europe. He now understands what I meant by a Christmas Fayre/Market, and really wants to hold one here next Christmas, instead of just humouring me. He wants iced mulled wine, and a water slide for the kids, and a sausage sizzle for the grown-ups. Well we have to make some concessions to the problem of desert heat and sunshine till 8pm, instead of the west's snow and needing the twinkling lights to cheer up the winter darkness. I get it. Let's do it. Just let me catch my breath from this Christmas first though, OK? :-)

He also appreciated the work that DH and I have put into the church while he's been away, and we got a public round of applause in church yesterday. Gah. That wasn't why we did it. All our British reserve jumped to the fore and we didn't know where to look. Overwhelming, but kind of nice, you know?

Today I had to report to our agent that the air-con in the bedroom is a bit hit-and-miss about whether it comes on or not. She promised to get someone out ASAP, because February is just around the corner, and that's the really HOT month, didn't you know? Uh-huh? Hotter than this? Oh yeeeeh, she says ghoulishly, 42*c for days on end. Oh that's OK, I said, we've already had 42*c for a few days running according to the thermometer in our back garden, and we coped with that. Ohhhhh, she replied, and I swear I detected a note of disappointment in her voice. Some Aussies love a bit of gentle Brit-baiting, and I can't blame her for trying. I do it myself with our visitors ;-) But she was forgetting that these Brits just spent 5 years in Singapore though so FAIL on the heat jokes!

Note to the family - I AM working on your calendars for 2011, I promise, and I will get them to you when I can. I've just got to learn how to do it on a Mac. :-)

Tune in next week on the 15th for the Scrap Whispers BLOG HOP. We've got a ridiculously easy, yet super-impressive challenge to keep your mojo up, so come back and check in then. See you!

Blow, blow

My first card for 2011 and this one was fun! The sketch I was trying to follow was from Sketch Saturday. It's hard, isn't it?

I rotated it, sort of, and I think it's still recognisable. What do you think?

Happy anniversary!

For my darling DH.

Monica mouse with this cute shape from Simon Says for their "celebrate" challenge.

Have a wonderful New Year everyone!