Cool Yule!

So its Christmas day and one of the gifts the kids received was this enormous spring-free trampoline. It took hubby and I a good few hours to put it together (with many cool-water breaks and a lunch break). Finally at 2.30pm it was time to give it a go. Caitlyn's face says it all really...Wee bit proud of myself and hubby for managing to get this together on our own. Saved ourselves an additional $140 due to DIY.

Happy Christmas, Cool Yule and Merry Solstice to everyone!

Christmas Busy

I wanted to reassure readers that I've not been idle behind the scenes here in blogland. Busy busy making loads of things for our school Christmas stall. These tealights are made from an Ikea set of 12 plain glass holders (Glimma) onto which I've painted a mix of Crystal Effects and a drop or two of Cherry Cobbler ink. The decoration on the candle and the tag are using the Perfect Punches Christmas sentiment stamped in Cherry Cobbler with a decorative Artistic Etchings in Pear Pizzazz behind. Think they've come up a treat! Hindsight, I'd try and either make the consistency of the crystal effects a bit thicker, or do more thin layers... Food for thought next year! A few simple cards for the stall too. The two on the left are made with Cajan Craze and Cherry Cobbler card stock (run through the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder) with a touch of Pear Pizzazz. The sentiments are stamped from Christmas Classics and Word Play. I used Contempo Christmas for the bright coloured baubles on the card on the right. Thanks muchly for the creative assistance from Clare, Michelle, Malyn and Caz at our team Christmas get-together.
So, you see, I've not been idle! I'm also working on hand quilting my patchwork. I'll post a picture when I'm nearer completion of the panels.

un-post

Well, my dear younger boy has cared and shared his dreaded lurgy with me despite assuring me it wasn't him. I'm feeling a bit poorly, so please excuse the lack of quilting and stamping progress happening in this corner of cyberspace. Hoping to knock this on its head over the weekend as there's a busy week coming up including my kids' school P&C AGM. And yes, I'll be putting my hand up for a bunch of jobs once more... Its all part and parcel of being a Primary Parent, really!

Quilt progress

So here's the progress on my quilt. Going to be a bit smaller than I thought - but that's okay. The white border is going to have more pink ribbon sewn on top - haven't quite got there yet. I'm quite happy with it despite all the little mistakes in it - No one will know when its all put together!

Not exactly sure how I'll quilt it - might need to see if I can beg/borrow a hand quilting hoop from someone so I can give that a go. I'm sure my stitching will need work! Anyway, its progressing.

Been a bit topsy-turvy in the emotion department - very concerned about Grumpy-George's heart failure (this is the diagnosis finally). I'm worrying more because Mum is worried, but it also occurred to me yesterday that I just don't want him to die just yet. He's been my step-dad/Dad for 27 years now. I only had 16 with my biological Dad with about 4 years estrangement. Anyway, I love him and don't want him going and dying any time soon - he's 67 and gets a bit stroppy when people try to tell him what to do - including doctors regardless of his best interests at heart. So excuse any teary-ness observed - its sometimes hard for a leopard to change his shorts.

R U OK? day

Are you okay? day is an inititive by the sons of Barry Larkin, an Australian management consultant who took his own life in 1995. What a great idea! I've been there - persistent thoughts of self-harm involving sharp objects - resulting in an inability to enter our kitchen. The very next day I was admitted to St John of God hospital in Burwood with my youngest son, Toby. Below is a fab video from Aussie footballer, Nathan Thompson. Remember to ask often, not just the once.



Visit the R U OK website for more info.

Brayered sunset

Apologies for the poor image quality - taken with my phone. I was inspired by Michelle Zindorf's brayering instructions to work on this card using the new Stampin' Up colours. Cajan Craze is becoming a favourite - such a rich and delicious spicy colour!

This sunset uses Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Cajan Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede and Early Espresso. I think I may have used a touch of Poppy Parade too. The silhouette of flowers is repeated stamping of the main image from Just Believe. The sentiment I did originally with Marina Mist and Tangerine Tango, but I've gone over the leaves with Pear Pizzazz, flowers outlined with Concord Crush and the berries with Blushing Bride markers. Its added a depth that I felt was needed to help the card along. I'm not entirely happy with my setting sun, but I'll work on that in the future!

A little bit different

Quilting/Patchwork has long been on my "to do" list as something I'd like to try. Stephanie, a lovely, lovely former manager of our school canteen, who I used to help on a more or less monthly basis gave me a gorgeous Moda fabric "Blush" charm pack just before she moved to greener pastures. Its been calling me for ages and this morning I went and found this fabulous website: www.modabakeshop.com which inspired me to finally drag out the sewing machine and create.
Don't pay attention to how off-square this is - this is my very first attempt at patchwork. I pieced together nine-squares and then cut them in half vertically and horizontally to make the squares. I then laid them out on the table and moved them around til I was happy with the pattern. Then I wanted to expand the whole thing a bit - after finding no joy in my fabric scraps, I delved into my Stampin' stash and pulled out the 1 1/4" pink pirouette grosgrain ribbon from Stampin' Up's Autumn mini. I cut the ribbon and singed the edges using a candle to stop them fraying. I've now had to order more fabric so I'll be able to make this a decent size. The fabrics are just delicious and some of the "recipes" on the ModaBakeshop website are sweet! I'll be making at least one more quilt once I get better at making things square!!

Morning Cup

Some of my test pieces for Michelle's launch - there were some really terrible ones - these are the ones that worked best... Wonderfully worn in the background here with loads of masking and reverse-masking. Tea for two!As you can see, I was rather obsessed with the Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz and Peach Parfait colour combination. Here's Perk Up using the same colour combo and the Retro Remix wheel.

So breaking free a little, I did this as a sampler of all the new SU In Colors. Poppy Parade stamped with Wonderfully Worn once more, some Concord Crush as matting and some masking to keep the stack of cups going. Lots of fun to do, but couldn't manage to find a sentiment. I keep thinking of the Manhattan Transfer version of Java Jive "A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup - yeah"...

Launch at Michelle's

Long time between posts, I know. I had trouble finding the charger for our camera! Necessity made me find it so I could print up instructions for Michelle's 2010-2011 Catalogue Launch yesterday. I was a guest/helper and I demonstrated this card using an adapted technique from a video tutorial at Valita's Fresh Folds blog. Hydrangea's are one of my favourite flowers and are so pretty in various colours! The flowers are created using Valita's technique with the new Fancy Flower XL punch rather than the heart punch (which I don't own - yet!). I've added the sentiment from Garden Whimsy together with an antique brad - another new product. The flower centres are a dot of Multipurpose Liquid Glue with Olive supernova glitter. I used the same technique for the flowers to make the leaves with the scallop oval punch.
I also helped with this make-and-take card using the new Morning Cup stamp set and Take a Sip wheel. I have the clearmount version so it was a great opportunity to show off how easily the images assemble without having to use a stamp-a-majig. I love my clearmount stamps and especially love the Stampin' Up! clear blocks - they are a beautiful weight with a lovely rounded finger-hold edge all the way around. This card was made using reverse-masking to sponge colour into the different areas of the teapot and cup. I used a craft knife to cut away the area to be coloured from an image stamped in the middle of a post-it. Its a great technique for adding even colour to an image and it was so much fun to do with these little tea-cups! The guests all thought I was a bit bonkers for cutting around the little flowers on the teacup. We also used the new Stampin' Write markers now available in the In Colors! WOW! Its so lovely to get detail through with a fine-tip instead of using a blender pen or aquabrush loaded with In Color ink!
I'm thrilled with the new In Colors. This card uses Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait and Blushing Bride. Lovely colours!

Christmas in July projects

Its been a long time between posts, I know... My boss went away for the entire school term, which meant I started working 4 days a week. Pat and I are struggling a little in the office. Its now only 6 weeks and 5 days until the end of term! Not that we're counting down!! LOL
As my 4 day week started earlier than expected, I asked Michelle to substitute for me at a workshop and she kindly accepted. Apparently she made a good substitute teacher and she was a font of knowledge about many things for my lovely ladies!

These are the cards I designed for the workshop. This first one is inked using a sponge on the Medallion stamp. I masked the inside with a circle punched from a post-it and sponged ink first with Garden Green, then Old Olive and finally Kiwi Kiss around the outside. When I'd stamped the image, I thought it looked a bit plain, so I went back with markers to rubber on the holly from Christmas Classics. I used alternated Old Olive and Garden green holly around the Medallion. I then used Real Red to draw over the berries again as they weren't "popping" enough for me! After that a few drops of crystal effects (which I then stuck my finger in before dry!!) on each berry to make them gleam! Oh, and I used the sponge I'd inked the stamp with to decorate the edges of the card. I'm so pleased with the result! The Medallion stamp has to be the most versatile and EASY stamp to use, creating a beautiful single layer card in seconds!
The next card was meant to be a CASE of one of Jayne Mercer's cards. In the end, apart from the layout and using Kraft and Pale Plum, it looks very little like her original! But similar enough to see where the CASE came from.
Because I see the same group of ladies every month, I find it difficult to come up with new box designs with which to WOW them. This one is an adapted "Sevens" box - score at 7 cm all around an A4 card and fold in this complicated way! Once closed, you can fit a chocolate or two inside. When open, the card folds right out so you can put quite a large message inside. Its very cute and quite easy to do. Considering I threw this together, I'm very pleased with the results. I'm going to miss using Kiwi Kiss at the beginning of September!

Which nicely leads to the following information. Stampin' Up! Australia's 2010/2011 catalogue! Its coming! I will have copies in my hot little hands towards the end of this month and ordering from the 2010/2011 catalogue begins on 1 September. There are quite a lot of discounted items and here is part of the Last Chance list. I've sorted this list for the discounted items only first by catalogue page, then alphabetically. Please don't use this PDF without permission. I will post more information in the next couple of weeks. Don't panic about some of these "Last Chance" items. Many of the punches are being re-configured to a new flatter style punch which is great for storage. However, the old style punches will be available until 31 August (or while stocks last).

Quick post

I've had to head down to Canberra a bit earlier than expected as my step-dad had a mild heart-attack on Monday. He's fine and was delighting in pulling the oxygen saturation monitor off his finger to make the wiggly lines on his monitor go berserk for the kids. Far too big a grin considering he's in hospital hooked up to machines and oxygen and how much of a scare he gave my Mum!

Plans for updating my blog and card-making are on hold while we are visiting. It was also my niece's first birthday yesterday and the tribe and I went over for a quick visit yesterday evening. Claire is walking, a chatty sociable little person who warmed to me rather quicker than I expected and I was BESOTTED! I fell in baby-love again. She reached up and gave me cuddles and sat on my lap quite content for a nice while. So miss seeing both Claire and her big brother day-to-day as they grow.

Just in case the Inklings Christmas in July blog-hop lands here, I'm popping the list in here... Apologies for not being more organised!
Bloghop for Inklings team "Christmas in July"
1. Christie http://www.christiescreativecorner.blogspot.com
2. Dani H http://daniholland.wordpress.com/
3. Carol http://inkantations-and-inkarnations.blogspot.com/
4. Michelle D http://www.stampinkpaper.blogspot.com
5. Jayne http://www.jaynemercer.com/blogs
6. Kylie http://kraftykylie.typepad.com/blossom_designs/
7. Kari http:// www.karigail.wordpress.com
8. Dani F - http://danifender.blogspot.com
9. Beth - http://www.elisabethstewart.com/bethinking/
10. Nicky A http://www.nickyadamson.blogspot.com
11. clare http://www.crafty-cow.com
12. Ryn http://rynscraps.blogspot.com
13. Amy http://amyandersonsblog.blogspot.com
14. Fiona B. http://www.fionajanestamping.blogspot.com
15 . Michelle Frost-Stevenson http://www.stampinground.wordpress.com
16. Fiona Poirier http://fionapoirier.blogspot.com/
17. Divya Rao - http://www.creadivya.blogspot.com/
18. Rachel Jackson http://havefunstamping.blogspot.com/

Deals of the week #4

This week's deals are available until 11pm on Tuesday 30 June. Great savings!

• Square Ice Rhinestone brads (109113) were $19.95 NOW $11.97
• Circle Ice Rhinestone brads (109111) were $19.95 NOW $11.97
• Square Fire Rhinestone brads (109112) were $19.95 NOW $11.97
• Bashful Blue 1” double-stitched grosgrain ribbon (111848) was $19.95 NOW $10.97
• Certainly Celery 5/8” grosgrain ribbon (109050) was $14.95 NOW $8.97

Contact me for orders!

Deals of the week #3

This week's deals (and I didn't put up the last two weeks, sorry!) are discounted stamp sets. Here's the list and the discounts. Order before 9pm on Tuesday 22 June! You can view images of the sets on the Stampin' Up! Customer website catalogue.

Très Chic!

Oo La la! So for various reasons I challenged myself to think beyond the 'Cutsy' square for punch art... What's not cute? Sophisticated! Chic! French fashion, Chanel, etc! So I went searching for some images online with "Chic" silhouettes... And the rest, as they say, is history! Here's what I came up with:
I liked the bold red and black theme for this lady. The original image showed her walking a dog, but I kinda like the bag too. And the shoes! And the legs and the skirt!
Among the pictures I found the 1920's fashion... Hats say chic fashion to me.
Next on my list to try is an Audrey Hepburn look. I adored her in her movies... Sabrina, My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Funny Face and Roman Holiday. And she was the quintessential stylish, graceful and poised lady. One of my favourite quotes of hers is:

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
-- Audrey Hepburn

Mother's Day card catchup

So here's a sample of the cards I constructed for the Mother's Day stall at my kids' school... First was super easy to pump out using the Manhattan flower embossing folder only available from Stampin' Up! I've used Melon Mambo ink on both the envelope and sentiment. This is a longways half A4 to allow the ribbon to wrap around the top. It was super easy to make 20 of these cards! I used the "my Mum" sentiment from "Occasionally" together with a little heart from "Tiny Tags".

Next, I made these Fifth Avenue Floral cards. Actually quite time intensive as there are three ink colours, but effective and popular with the kids! 10 at a time in assorted colours - also easy to construct.
And lastly (or should that be "firstly" cos I did these ones first!) the inspired by nature daisy silhouette in various colours with a spot of crystal effects and some chunky sprinkles for a bit of interest. These work with almost any sentiment (possibly not Father's Day!!) and I used my much loved Occasional Greetings for "Happy Mother's Day".
Hope that's inspiring!

Guess who came to visit?

For quite some time I've been toying with the idea of a TARDIS card. Obviously fairly simple as its simply a series of straight lines and boxes etc. Well, today I did it!!! The base colour of the card stock is Not Quite Navy with a Night of Navy inkpad swiped across it (faux wood-grain style) and MANY layers! Here's my DL (99mm x 210mm) TARDIS Card!
The writing on the top I printed out in Word using white bold Century Gothic font expanded by 125% in a black background table with three columns, no spacing and fonts re-sized to fit and look like the TARDIS. The text on the door-panel is just pencil scritchings made to look similar to the writing that's on the police box. As last week's BBC episode involved one of the "cracks" being observed through the keyhole of the TARDIS door, I had to include the lock complete with black for the keyhole. Note this is the most recent TARDIS, including the St John's Ambulance round white emblem. When the family had a look at the card, they immediately opened it to look inside. Well, I thought, I really need to go the whole nine yards. So, here's the punch-art I made for inside:
Don't ask for instructions at this point! I spent about 4-5 hours on this today and it was a case of punching, re-punching, shaping, re-shaping to get the look I wanted. The Doctor's and Amy's hair, the Doctor's braces, Amy's shirt are made using various parts of the Extra Large Two-Step Bird currently available in the Autumn Winter Stampin' Up! mini catalogue. The Doctor was going to be holding his sonic screwdriver, but it looked a bit rude when I put it in a hand, so I tucked it in his jacket. His jacket flicks out hugely because I built him from shirt outwards and had gone to the trouble of adding his red braces, so had to make sure they could be seen! There is actually another one under his jacket on his left as well. The picture itself was inspired by a drawn picture by Kinky-Chichi. I find it much easier to work from a drawn picture for these things - someone else has done the hard stuff, simplifying colours and structures down to more basic elements. I'm quite pleased with the results! Feel free to comment!

Inklings Team Bloghop!

Welcome to The INKlings’ Team’s first ever blog hop. You may have arrived here from Christie's Creative Corner or just be visiting my blog, whichever way once you’ve checked out my creations you can continue the hop through the link at the end of this post to the next team member.

What style of cards do we frequently get asked for inspiration for? More often than not it’s masculine cards, be it little boys or grandfathers everyone seems to struggle with cards for the males in our lives. So as a team we thought we’d help you out by providing you with 20 team members’ fantastic blogs that you can hop through and get lots of fantastic ideas from.

Want to win some Blog Candy? Simply leave a comment on each blog and then email Michelle D and let her know you’ve done so and you’ll be in the running for a fantastic prize of 20 handmade cards plus other goodies. Sorry Blog Candy prize not available to Stampin' Up! demonstrators.

Now to the meat in the sandwich! Here's my contribution, a punch art up-sized version of the little "Get well soon" robot in Lots of Bots. I had loads of Kraft cardstock left over after doing those many many pillow boxes for Mother's Day, so I've used up some scraps to make Mr Bot here. He's so forlorn and sweet! Anyway, I've repaired his arm so he's not looking quite so broken...

The pieces I used:

Well that’s all from me. Next stop on the INKlings’ Team Blog Hop is my fellow Children's Hospital volunteer, Fiona Brown. Have fun and don't forget to leave a comment on each blog to win some great Blog Candy.

Anything but Mother's Day cards

So I was looking for inspiration for a card the other day and wondered if any Elite Challenges had been posted. I'm a member of Angela Sargeant's downline and every month Carol Dunstan posts challenges in which any member of the Elite team can participate. So here's my answer to the May colour challenge, Razzleberry Breeze, and also to the stamp set challenge. I was so glad to be making something other than Mother's Day cards, and other than chocolate boxes!
So here's the reason I wanted to do something different - these are the chocolate pillow-boxes I made for my children's school Mother's Day stall last week. All the tags have the "One of a Kind" (c) Stampin' Up! stamp on the back, which I find endlessly amusing when I'm stamping out 300 Mother's Day items!
These are bath salts I put together at the last minute. Neroli, Lavendar, Rose and Patchouli. I should have done Lime for the last lot - Patchouli didn't sell well! The labels were printed up on the computer.
While I was sitting selling raffle tickets with my leg up and an ice pack on my ankle (short version: I sprained it on the way into the school while carrying the box of chocolate things), I made some more tags. I'd already stamped them out and run some tape along the back of the card-strip, so it was just a matter of punching them out. We sold them 2 for 50 cents and they were quite popular. I have stacks left over though.
I didn't manage to take a picture of the 100 Mother's Day cards I pumped out. The camera battery went flat! They were all single layer cards without embellishment and with matching envelopes. They sold reasonably well too - I've some leftovers, so I'll post the results when I've taken photos!

Pillow box bird house

So the specifications were to make something "Ryn-ish" to demonstrate at my upline Michelle's Stampin' Up! Autumn/Winter Mini catalogue launch today. This is what I came up with this morning using the pillow box die:Train of thought was "little bird houses are neat, how could I make one?" followed closely by "How could I make one demonstrating the Big Shot and using my available Sizzix dies?". So, is it decidedly Ryn-like? Michelle thought so and I'm hoping she loved the choccie eggs inside.

Full instructions are available at my demonstrator site.

What? You want INSTRUCTIONS?

Just kidding! ;)

So, Tina has asked for instructions in the comments to my last post. I guess this means I gotta start taking pictures of the elements of my punch art!! Thing is, most of my creations are a one off and involve piecing together as I go to get the look. However, just because you asked, worthy minions (argh, channelling Ming the Merciless for a moment), I will see how I go. Might be another couple of days before something pops up on my blog, but I guess most people who read it are "followers" so will pop up when it happens. I'm assuming that you, Tina, are particularly interested in the Bakugan version.

Ah, it gives me a chance to finish off the dragon card and make a slightly happier one too. Thanks peoples!

Challenges addressed

Carol's challenge was for me to do a punch-art dragon. As she went ahead and did one herself, I was a bit stumped as to what type of dragon I could do... I have a few very gorgeous little ceramic figurines called Pocket Dragons and one of my favourite little characters is one called "I Didn't Mean To". So this card is based on that dragon. I "borrowed" Carol's cave idea and the line of red under his bottom is sticky strip ready to pop chunky glitter on. Didn't quite finish it...

t_lockhart5 suggested I make a card with Bakugan and waved a red flag at me by suggesting it possibly couldn't be done. Well, here's one! Perhaps not terribly refined yet, but I've printed a few images to work from. Also, both my darling sons enjoy playing (arguing, fighting, shouting?) with bakugan so I can borrow some to use as templates.

Finally I did a very simple Google search on Cartoons... Woodstock and snoopy are two of my favourite peanuts characters. And the sentiment fit perfectly with this image! I think I need to do Snoopy's head again - I wasn't careful enough with drawing his eye and mouth. Would love to do one of these with him lying on the roof, or one with him being the Red Baron!
Thanks for the challenges everyone! I'll continue working through the excellent suggestions!

I'm in LERV!

So, the last Stampin' Up! mini catalogue really didn't rock my socks as much as I'd hoped. The Sale-a-bration sets had me humming and ha-ing about whether I really needed any of them. And along came the Autumn/Winter mini catalogue...

Oh. My. God! I'm in LERV again! I didn't think it was possible for Stampin' Up! to blow my socks clean off my feet again - but they did! Here's why I'm in love... The Clear Mount Blocks... Well, as you can see in this picture, the stamp sets themselves are foam mounted as usual - storage is in slim DVD style containers with not only an index of the stamp name, but teeny images of each stamp that's in the set! No more photocopying the sticker sheet for the wood mounted blocks, no more searching to see whether one of the stamps is missing! And storage? well, how many more sets can I hide from my husband in these skinny boxes! :) The acrylic blocks, well, I dived in and bought the lot. With a saving of just over $13 by purchasing the "set" of blocks, I felt it was well worth it. And when I received them, I was NOT disappointed. They are gorgeous to hold, smooth edges, weighted beautifully and very easy to see through (with a teeny bit of magnification for my tired eyes!).

BUT WAIT! There's MORE! New punches in a slimline design. And matching stamps to go with them. The cutest has got to be the little bird which can be pieced together. Again, a sleeker storage solution to one of my bulkiest crafting items. I love the little locking mechanism that keeps them closed. I love the reference image on the edge of the punch too - again, easy to store AND pick out the one you need quickly.

Lastly, but certainly not the least, is the Big Shot with exclusive Stampin' Up! dies and embossing. The other day I trawled through the Sizzix website searching for a small envelope die similar to the one available through Stampin' Up. Well, I couldn't find one! In my travels, I was distracted/attracted by a number of other dies and every time I clicked on them, I found they were Stampin' Up! exclusive!

So, all in all, the Autumn/Winter 2010 mini has proved an expensive exercise for me, but I am LOVING every inch of it. Two new hostess sets available, three of the US in colors (Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo and Soft Suede, YUM) and very cool new products! This is why I love Stampin' Up! And this is why I love being a demonstrator. Now, to nail those socks onto my feet for the next Idea Book Catalogue!

Oh, PS! I am intrigued by the ideas offered for punch-art, thanks everyone, and am currently working on some designs. I'll post my creations soon!

I need a challenge

So I need a challenge! What would you like to challenge me to make as Punch art? Quick re-cap, I've done Wall-E and Eve...
Yoda...

Marvin...

Asian dolls...

And of course Mr Bump...

So, offer me a challenge of something you think might be far too hard for me to do! ;) Or a favourite character that you'd like to see done as punch art! I'm up for it! Suggest in my comment section and I'll do my best to come up with something.

A little bit of history

Ryan turned 9 today. In fact, just a few minutes ago he turned 9. Here is a picture of him just moments after he was born. I'd been having contractions for most of the day and was put on a drip to augment the labour. He was born at 36weeks and 6 days. I remember saying to my Mum that I hadn't got my step-dad, George, a birthday present. She said she didn't think he'd mind; Ryan was a pretty good present.
Here he is just a few minutes ago being a silly-billy.
And here he is blowing out his 3+6(=9) candles.
His birth started a long and winding road which included the inception of my blogging as an "Optimist with PND". Much work has been done to reach this point including large amounts of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), psychiatric help, DoCS early intervention, an invaluable family stay at Coral Tree Family Service, medication, creating a post-natal depression support group, a hospital admission for PND right through to beginning to wean myself off medication. Ryan, I'm so glad you are a part of my life. Its been a hard road for me to grow into motherhood and you have helped me learn patience, understanding, resilience and most of all the deep connection between a mother and son. I love you, darling boy!

Wall-E Punch Art

So it's Toby's 5th birthday tomorrow. Here's the card I made for him very surreptitiously last night. Cardstock colours used are Creamy Caramel, More Mustard, Going Gray, Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White. Ink is Close to Cocoa, Chocolate chip, Certainly Celery and Green Galore. Punches I've used are Word Window, Small Oval, 1 & 3/8" Square (or bottom of the Tag as the box is a little shortened), Star (to notch the small oval for Wall-E's eyes), Spiral and Wide Oval. I've used a regular hole-punch or the retired 1/8" circle punch for the eyes. I've also crimped a piece of Going Gray before punching. Can you guess which stamp I used to create Eve's little plant? Post your answer in the comment section!

Failing eyesight...

So its started... I've now procured reading glasses. Hoping they don't make me look too much like my Mum, and REALLY hoping I don't look like my brother!

Of course, Caitlyn needed to be in on the whole photo thing. After I stopped her from doing rabbit ears behind me, it was not too bad. She's poised in mid kiss in this one.
So, what do you think? More distinguished?? ;)

After Toby's first week

Toby: sound asleep after his first school week... Plum tuckered out.

Toby's First Day

YAY! I'm doing the happy dance today cos Toby started school today!! Here he is near his bag hook. His hat is hanging in the background. My baby!! So ready to learn reading and writing and everything! <- sure sign of an insane mind all these exclamation marks!