House Mouse in monochrome

These days I seem to have time only to craft on a Friday, after I've got the bedding washed and out on the line, and have run the vacuum round the house. What happens to the rest of the week I wonder?

Well this week was a little busier than usual, because the church work began half a day late, and I spent all yesterday on a magical mystery picnic tour with the ladies' choir I've just been accepted into. I was introduced to it by Glad in church, and it's such a giggle, even though we worked out I'm the youngest by 17 years! I had my first rehearsal last week, and this week was a performance - one of the songs without music - so it was a challenge. OK, that's where half my week went, learning music.

But this afternoon I managed to sneak a little fun with Monica and her mum on this card. This week's theme at House Mouse is "monochrome", and I used this sketch from Sketch Saturday which I flipped horizontally:

I used Kaiser Craft papers, paper and stickers from the Rebecca Sower Spring kit, Prima flowers, American Crafts brads and ribbon from my stash. The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, and the image is House Mouse of course, coloured with Copics.

New Scrap Whispers round

The last Scrap Whispers game was superb! Well I would say that, wouldn't I, because my team won - yay! Here is the winning sequence of LOs, starting with Georgina's, which all the team leaders began with:

I created this, changing the elements but keeping the design pretty similar:

Next it went to our digi queen Kimberly, who simplified it with this delightfully cute LO:

Mary was up next with her impressive interpretation:

Telah's adorable kids stole the show on her version:

And Mindy's bright double LO finished the round:

The whole team (even I!) got to choose one of three fabby prizes. Well done team, you did me proud!

And on November 1st we're back with another game, and more fun. If you want to join in this new round, please send Georgina an e-mail at gh26@sky.com even if you played in the last game, so that we know who's in. New players are always welcome, and keep an eye on the blog for some exciting announcements coming up!

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

Hellllllllllllllllllo, hello, hello, hello, hello and WELCOME to another Scrap Whispers Blog Hop!

This month's tutorial has been written by your very own blog host {bowing left, right and centre} and if I say so myself, is rather nice! I watched the advent of the Kindle, and the iPhone electronic book apps, and experienced a slight worry that the printed page would die out, but thankfully books are as popular as ever. And they don't take batteries. ;-)

So, do you fancy making this pretty dust jacket, a complement to any book-lover's Christmas stocking?

Go for it. Show us what you can do!

If you came straight here, swing over to Scrap Whispers first, and take a couple of hours out to make a masterpiece. Link your creation up to the Scrap Whispers blog (or e-mail it to Georgina at gh26@sky.com if you haven't got a blog) then follow the links through the DT's blogs and leave us each a nice comment. Your next port of call is the lovely KELLY.

Enjoy the hop!

I left autumn behind in the UK

I'm an autumn girl. Always have been. I love the autumn more than all the other seasons: the colours, the crunchy leaves, those blue and gold, cold, crisp days, and even our west country coastal storms when the sea roars and the wind flings rain and seaweed at the windows, and we cuddle up in front of the TV with the heating on for the first time. Two years ago I was lucky enough to spend most of October in the UK's beautiful south with my family, and we all delighted together in the leaves turning, long walks through the woods and up hills - and even the earliest snow in Mum's lifetime. Nature put on a particularly good show for me, and I took photos as if it would be the last autumn I ever saw.

Because other than that, living in the perpetual Singapore summer for the last five years we've missed autumn again and again. And I've really missed it. When we left the UK last week, the weather was just starting to get cold, wet and windy, the annual signal to the trees that they can start putting on their magnificent clothes. After we'd flown back to Australia's spring. Spring-ish. Ho hum.

But nearly all the challenge sites have had an autumn theme over the last few weeks, and I'm revelling in it. Not that I've had the chance to craft until today, but I've been drooling over everyone else's creations. And today I managed one of my own. I don't think I'll ever get tired of Basic Grey's Indian Summer colours.

This one is for:
Basic Grey: Sparkle
Stampavie: Autumn colours
Stampin' for the Weekend: Autumn inspiration
and Friday Sketchers with this sketch:

 And my card:

Here we have a Sugar Nellie image coloured with Copics, a sentiment from Lili of the Valley, Prima and punched leaves, and brads from my stash. The brads, leaves and the leaves on the image have all been Sticklesed (I might just patent that word hehee) with my favourite Diamond. They do sparkle, honest. But it's a dewy sparkle rather than a frosty one. Early autumn I'm thinking. Maybe around next week.

Am I letting my imagination run away with me....?

Bizzy Becs

Have a look at this?

Bizzy Becs, my newly-discovered "local" (haha!) Aussie on-line crafting store, has opened a new blog - and to celebrate they have this fabulous lucky draw blog candy to give away.

Anyone world-wide can enter. Just click on the link in my side-bar. ------------------->

We're back

DH and I have been in the UK for the last 3 weeks working on renovating our little house for when we move home. We flew back to Australia yesterday, and have been spending today catching up on sleep and laundry. (Why is it that even when you have access to a perfectly good washing machine, you still accumulate laundry so quickly?) Spring in Perth has been sunshine, wind and showers, very much like the weather we left behind in England's beautiful autumn. I got one load hung out and almost dried before the showers out-weighed the sunshine. Ironing next I guess. {sigh}

So I've done nothing creative since mid-September, except hold the vacuum cleaner underneath DH's drill as he chased walls and put in ceiling lights. He did think my outfit for this was very creative: an over-sized face mask, a pair of safety goggles and... a shower cap. Well he told me to cover up! Luckily there is no photographic evidence of this, hehee.

My internet access was limited and patchy, but I picked up an e-mail from The Craft Stand to say that I won September's card-making challenge. That made my day! This is the post showing my Poor Henry card, and here is the other one.

And the inside.

I get a $20 voucher to spend in the store, so I'm just off now to check out their latest stock...

Scrap Whispers fun challenge - if you're happy and you know it

"If you're happy and you know it... Create a happy layout - a happy day, a smiling face, something that makes you smile."

Hehee! And I know just the photos for this one! They weren't taken at the same time, or the same ball-pit, or even taken by me - in fact I was in a different country at the time. But MIL sent them to me and I grinned and grinned. I was reminded of that Simpsons episode with Maggie in the ball-pit ("the babies are looking unhappy sir" "Add more balls")

Here are Basic Grey Kioshi papers and as many different letters as I could find, coloured with inks, Stickles and Copics.

What can you do with this one? Isn't it a great challenge? Post your creations at Scrap Whispers.