First let me start with a card that I made recently, before I get into my other newsy news. My nieghbour came over recently and requested a card for her soon-to-be-born first  grandson, and this is what I made for her.

Stamps by Stampin'Up!; Card stock - Whisper White, Baja Breeze, So Saffron; Ink - Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point; Accessories - MS punch, Kaiser Rhinestones, and circle nestabilities.

It was one of the last cards I made before I started to pack all my stuff away. A few weeks ago I decided to put my house on the market and I got an offer that I agreed to, five days later. I thought it best to pack my stamping stuff away first as I would always be distracted with wanting to make ‘just one more card’, LOL. I certainly got a lot of packing done but I’ve reached a point where I can’t pack away anything more coz I’m using it ( and I’m just so over it already). Now I spend more of my evenings watching TV! I’m so over that too.

I wont find out until tomorrow afternoon if house sale is unconditional. I’ve already got a little farm house lined up to rent  but wont be able to sign any leases until I know for certain about my sale. Oh the joys of waiting with bated breath…not! In anticipation that I was going to have a very long weekend, I asked my boyfriend to keep me distracted, so he took me shopping. What a guy! Then this morning he invited me over and cooked me breakfast. Thats when I took a photo of this little guy.

The cows were let out to feed around the house, and the mums and the calves were just off the verandah where I was eating my bacon and toast. After brekkie I went and fed the orphaned baby swans that have recently been adopted onto the farm.

I was hoping to get a photo of one of the peacocks roaming about the sheds  but they are very ellusive critters and I just couldn’t get that close to them so I took a pic of this handsome fellow instead.

I can’t lay claim to being a riveting writer or photographer, but this is a bit of what I’ve been doing today. Just also wanted to let some of my reader know that I have not dropped off the edge of the world despite my blogging abscence. No doubt I’ll be busy over the next couple of weeks as I (hopefully) move and unpack my stuff into my new home. Then I’ll be back into my card making. I can’t wait!

Basic Grey rarely creates a range that doesn’t appeal to me, and I just fell in love with this Lemonade range as soon as I saw it in their  ‘coming soon’ section on the website. Busy person that I am though, I’ve only just got around to buying it last week. I also found a store that had a variety of the 6×6 Basic Grey pads ( my all time favourite) in stock, which was refreshing to see. I’m often told that they are hard to keep in stock since they are so popular. The shop also stocks Martha Stewart punches which are also very popular now, so I bought a couple of them as well. I’ve been admiring the punch out on OS crafters blogs for months now, and I’m sure they’ll get a good work out in my hands.

Stamps- Sincere Salutations, Stem Silhouettes (SU!), butterfly by Hero Arts. Paper - Basic Grey Lemonade, Very Vanilla (SU!). Ink - Rose Red, Green Galour, Summer Sun, Pretty in Pink. Accessories - Martha Stewart Punches, Nestabilities

The big craft fair was on in Brisbane this last week and it’s been a couple of years since I’ve been to one. It was good to get out and look at what was popular and up and coming. I was very good and kept my purchases very minimal, but I did buy the Hero Arts butterfly stamp that I used for the above card. I’ve seen this stamp around several times, used on various cards in the blog world. So I couldn’t let it pass when I saw it.

This next card is just more playing around with papers and punches.

Stamps - Bet Yet (SU!). Paper - Basic Grey Lemonade. Ink - Red Riding Hood (SU!). Accessories - Martha Stewart punches, Nestabilities

 I made a couple more cards along these lines and thought they’d be ideal to make as kits for my next card club day down in the city. Every November all 12 members of the group make card kits for everyone in the group and we have a fun day of putting each others kits together. It’s a fun day of crafting, and making cards you may not have considered making before. You know the ones? For me it would be the ‘cute’ cards, lol. I rarely create with cutsie images but I tell you, they are fun to make when they are in a kit.

Where ever you may be, I hope you are have a good day!

Theresa

I have a young canadian couple staying with me at the moment and one of them, Tash,  was celebrating a birthday yesterday. It would be very remiss of me not to make a card for her, so inbetween a lot of business that I had on yesterday I came up with this card.

Stamps - Unity KOTM, Image Tree Brush Letters: Card Stock - SU! Rose Red, Ballet Blue, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White: Paper - Basic Grey Lime Ricky: Ink - Stazon black. SU! Rose Red: Other - Prisma coloured pencils

Being short on time can be a bit of a challenge when it come to making cards. I had in the back of my mind that I needed to make one, but ideas weren’t really coming my way. I’d coloured this stamped bird image a few weeks ago just for the fun of it, and then put it aside since I had no other plans for it. I really like the doodled line art and it was a fun little image to colour with my colouring pencils. I think Tash thought I’d actually doodled the image from my own hand, but I had to confess it was in fact a stamp (from a Unity Kit of the Month). Now that I had the image I wanted to use, all I had to do then was come up with the rest of the card.

The rest was literally made with scraps, except the card base of course. First I pulled out the odd sized blue scrap, and then I got to thinking about my scraps of Lime Ricky paper, which I thought would be a good match for this image.The tricky part was getting the sentiment on there. Well it wouldn’t have been so tricky if I’d put away the stamp I wanted. But since I couldn’t find it I had to improvise. That then gave me an excuse to pull out my newly acquired Cuttlebug and the Birthday embossing folder, and I ran a couple of small, and I mean small, scraps through it to get my words. I still had a lot of space to work with, which I filled with a cut-to-size scrap of pink card. I love those cut-to-size scraps as it save a whole bunch of time recutting. Nearly all my cuts are made in 5mm increments so even my scraps layer and matt well together.

I love a good card made with scraps, as it involves a whole different approach to being creative. This is not my usual style either but I had fun creating this funky little number. It makes me smile. And it made Tash smile too!! She claims it’s her favourite card yet that I’ve made. And since she has seen a awful lot of my creations that is high praise indeed!

Happy Birthday Tash. May you have many interesting travels in your future.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve done a Splitcoast Stampers Inspiration Challenge. Occassionally I’ve  had a look into the recent challenges, had a few ideas go through my head about how I could create a card, but then got busy doing other stuff. Yesterday, while my stamping friend Kirtsy was over, I finally got to make a card. We were also trying out our new American Craft Zing Embossing Powders. Here is the inspiration picture for my card.

And here is the card.

I wanted to heat emboss those flowers onto the card. The Aqau Zing is a perfect match for Cool Carribean, (a retired Stampin’Up! InColor from 2007), which I then teamed up with the current InColor Pacific Point.. I wanted to keep this card very simple, because I was pressed for time. I had a very full day of church, morning visitors, car repairs, afternoon visitors,  card making, doing some small errands on my friends farm and even a half hour walk/jog. All my stamps used are SU!. I even pulled out a flower from the retired Bodacious Bouquet set. And now that I’ve finally got a Cuttlebug I can cut out those lovely larger Circles with my Nesties. I’m totally lovin’ my CB and Nesties..

So yesterday Kirsty and I got together to try out our new American Craft Zing Embossing Powders. I’d purchased my first one, Gold Glitter a few weeks ago and I loved it. I’ve made a heap of Christmas cards with it and have nearly used half a jar of it already!! I was so impressed with it that I wanted to get some more. I bought Opaque Black which is  truely amaZing. So smooth, shiny and raised when heated. My Glitter Black I’m not so hot on. The sparkle was really lacking on that one, which is odd since the sparkle was really there for the Gold and the Red, both of which I have. The Aqua is not as smooth as the black but it really is opaque, which was what I needed for this card.

I’ve got another busy week ahead of me. I’ve got to start working on some card kits to share at my next card club day.I might have a look back over some previous cards I’ve made for imspiration. See ya later!!!

I was getting ready to make another post for my blog, starting with the taking of the photos. I went to open the photos in Photoshop as I usually do but could not see the pics I’d just taken. Hhmmm….thats odd. Nothing I did seemed to work, so I just thought I’d sit on it for a few days and eventually the solution would come to mind. That day was last night as I was going off to sleep, so this morning I put my new idea to the test and found my solution.  Somehow I’ve created a new file on my card ( not sure how that happened, but it did), so I went looking for the new file and there I found all my pics for the past week. Yay!!!

And this is what I’ve been wanting to show you for a week now.

Last weekend I bought a secondhand Cuttlebug. Weeks before I purchased my first set of Nesties, knowing that the CB was coming my way. As soon as I got it home I was quick into making these cards. I really love the embossed edges you can put on the cut out shapes and I love the stencilling too.

I made these for a local sidewalk market stall I’ve finally got around to participating in. A few people over the past year or more have suggested that I do this, so I did. I don’t anticipate that I’ll be making big dollars doing this, but it is good for me to get out and about and meet people. I tend to be a stay at home sort of person, but as much as I love my own company, I find I should balance it out with a bit more social interaction. I’m sure I’d like my job at the bar more  if customers didn’t turn up. LOL. Seriously though, I am getting use to the fact that I’m required to interact with others in a public and open place. I don’t think I’m overly shy as I’m just very private. Anyway I digress. The market stall is a nice little diversion for me, I’ve made a few sales and I’ve got a couple of requests to make a card to order. I may take a photo of me and my little, little stall one day.

The images were stamped with Stampin’Up! A Rose is a Rose stamp set and the sentiment is by The Unity Stamp Company.

The Unity Stamp Company is starting a new blog participation event every Friday (US time) called Friends with FLAIR FRIDAY, and I’ve decided to join in.

I made my card with images from the Unity Julne Kit of the Month. With eyes like that I sure the owl has to be a girl, so I created a feminine looking card, LOL. I thought it’d be interesting to create a frame with the branch, just for something different. I watercoloured the images with dye inks to give a soft look.

I’m really liking my Unity Kits of the Month. I can’t wait for the new September KOTM to arrive. I’ve already got some cards planned out in my head with some of the new images. Don’t forget, all you Aussie girls, that Craft-a-Lot handles the distribution of the Unity KOTM here in Australia.

Be sure to go and visit the other Friends with FLAIR blogs as one of them has a special blinkie. When you find the blog with the blinkie and leave a comment, you will be eligible to win BLOG CANDY of 50 random stamps from Unity. Who wouldn’t want to win some great Unity stamps?

A Unity card challenge that is. After several weeks off from doing some creative card making I feel it’s time to get back into it. And here is my first offering.

The challenge was to use the colours purple, orange, green and black, and images from the past two Unity Kits of the Month. I used the bird from the July kit and coloured it with artist colour pencils. I love the way the colours can be layed down and blended. I bought myself some Nesties on the weekend, even though I haven’t got the other neccessary equipment to use them. So I went around to my friends place for a cuppa and a chat and she just happens to own a ‘bug’, tee hee. The orange layer I had to trace and cut out by hand as it doesn’t cut to that size, but I think it is so groovy having these decorative shapes thatI didn’t mind one bit. I think this card is really pretty and I’m very happy with it.

To my lovely Aussie readers. If you’d like to subcribe to the Unity Kit of the Month, I’m happy to say I have found a shop in Australia who handles the distribution. Details about how to subscribe can be found here and more info about the kits can be found here. Unity has a lot of fun activities to join in with, as well as prizes to be won. With this card I’m eligible to win the September Kit of the Month for FREE!!!!

The title comes from the name of the card stock that I used for my latest cards and they are for two sweet little girls. One of them will be having a birthday and I didn’t want the other one to miss out on a pretty card.

I purchased a foil paper tole sheet from a craft shop recently and I used it to make their cards. I’ve been feeling rather lazy about stamping and just plain haven’t been able to get my head into gear to be creative. These little card toppers are great standins when a card is required. I know the little girls will love them.

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I started this post feeling upbeat about finally getting around to updating my blog. But you know what? Those previous two brief paragraphs seems to have sapped my energy. I think it may take me a bit longer to get back into the ol’ paper saddle than I thought. Thanks to all who sent me cards and messages from the last post. I’m doing well and a lot of positive things are happening in my life at the moment which is very exciting (and scary too sometimes, LOL).

I’ve got a new job starting soon so my financial situation will improve (I’ve been seriously underemployed for the past few months), and I’ve been doing some retraining to get into a different field of work in the near future. I’ve been to the bank to have a chat and set some goals. My teenage children are doing well and making their own goals, which is a mighty relief for me as a mother. I have a close male friend, and events of the past couple of months have drawn us a lot closer together ( now thats the real scary bit, LOL).

I haven’t been my usual creative self but I’m not going to worry about that, coz I know it’s part of my inherent nature to be creative so I’ll just keep busy until it comes back to me. I’m told by those who know me that I have control issues (it’s true too). But there is very little I actually have control of. I’m learning how to  let some things just be. I feel relieved and lightened already.

Thanks for dropping by to see what I’ve been up to.

Warning – this is a long post about loss and grief. Friends, please don’t read if this kind of thing upsets you.

Last Wednesday my father died.

Wednesday was also the last day I had with my daughter, before I put her on the plane early the next day. She was up for a brief, one week visit. We were to go and have tea with my dad that evening, the last family get together on her hectic itinerary.  At 5pm I rang and said we would be at his place in 15 minutes. Just before we got there my father had just had a ‘turn’ and his wife had called the ambulance. He had an aortic anuerism which we knew would burst one day and that day had just come. An hour later we got the news that he had died.

We are amazed at the timing of it all. If we had arrived five minutes sooner, my daughter (15) would have seen dad having his ‘turn’ and I’m glad she was spared that. 15 minutes later and he would have already been taken away by ambulance. We had a ten minute window of opportunity to see him before the help arrived. As I was talking to him I noticed things about him that I’d not noticed before. Little, insignificant things.

12 hours later I was putting my daughter on the plane (I wish I could tellyou about the delightfull time I had with her). I went back to my dad’s place and just sat and comforted his wife and helped her with arrangments that needed to be made. Dad had said that he didn’t want a funeral and he didn’t want us making a lot of fuss. He was cremated yesterday, just the way he wanted.

I wanted something to commemorate my father and I had an idea to buy a ring, that way I’d have something close to me. I don’t really like to spend a lot of time shopping, so I just left it to fate that the ring I needed would be found. I went to a couple of jewellery stores but couldn’t see what I was after. I thought, I’m going to try one more store and if it is not there, I’ll just give the idea away. I went into the last store, made a selection, slipped it on and immediately knew it was the one. Perfect details, perfect fit.

I got up this morning and thought I do a bit of a tidy up and look for my other rings that I took off 10 months ago, but haven’t been able to find since. Lo and behold, I found them in less than ten minutes looking in the place I had been looking all along. One of the rings is one that I bought myself for my fortieth birthday. I went and bought the biggest diamond ring I could afford with my settlement money from my separation. We were together fifteen years and my partner never once bought me a ring, so to celebrate my new beginning I bought my own. I slipped it on next to my dad’s ring and it sits beautifully next to it. I love my dad.

When I was nine my mother ran away, took us (kids) with her and relocated on the other side of the country. I was not allowed to mention or cry about my dad. Just after I turned forteen my father found us and our reunion was bittersweet. Those few short years intervening years had taken a toll on my father, he was a broken man. I was so delighted to be reunited with him, but then came the parting a couple of days later because he had to go back to his life and work. It was heart wrenching and tramatic. Dad and I had a very bad case of separtion anxiety.

For the next thirty years we went thru the same thing everytime we visited each other and had to part company. We just couldn’t cope with the parting. Several years ago I moved to the city where he lived and found a place to live nearby. For the next five years I got to visit him often and not have to go thru the whole parting ordeal.

Among  other health issues, he had dementia. I would often go around and have a cuppa with him and his wife. Dad couldn’t follow the conversation but would sit and listen as best he could. While I nattered away with his wife I would look at my dad and feel connected to him. But I knew the day was fast approaching when the final separation would come. That day came last Wednesday.

I have coped with it surprisingly well. I’ve cried and felt saddened. That is until today. Today I’m living my separation anxiety. If I had to rate this grieving compared to all the other times I had to go thru this with him I would honestly have to say it is no worse. It is been traumatic every time and it’s intencity was never wavered. And just like every other time, I know I’ll eventually calm down and go about my usual business.

Today I grieve for what happened to us in 1975 when I was just nine years old. Time never did heal that wound, sad to say.

I love you dad.

I got a phone call today, from my stampin friend, Kirsty. She seemed awfully relieved to have got in contact with me. Apparently she had not heard from me since Tuesday (today is Sunday), and was starting to worry about me. As it so happens, I’ve just got really busy this past week, with a few extraordinary things taking up my time and attention. Kirsty and I have been in regular contact with each other over the course of our stamping friendship. I didn’t  realise how much and often we did talk to each other. That is until today. Poor girl even rang up my boss to try and get some ‘leads’ as to my where abouts. I’m touched that someone was that concerned about me, but I feel bad that I didn’t recognize the patterns I’ve made with my friendship with her.

Like I said, I’ve been extra busy this past week and I haven’t had time to even look at a piece of cardstock. So Kirsty and I got together this afternoon to get creative and laugh about me being ‘missing’. I ended up making a few things, which surprised me since I thought my mojo had gone. I’ve got two cards for this post, which I made for Makeesha’s Inkspiration Challenge.

I made this one first….

…and as I was thinking about packing my supplies away I came up with this card.

The second one is my favourite. I wanted to make a vintagey, distressed kind of card which was predominately the neutral colour. There is a lot of layering and overstamping with this one too, which is a style I really like to recreate. The stamp sets I used are Baroque Motifs, Boho Backgrounds, Just Because, One of a Kind (card 1), and Illuminations and Weathered (card 2).

So what have I been doing that has been keeping me extra busy. Chauffeur driving my boss for the State of Origin game, picking up my daughter (15) who flew in for a quick, unplanned visit and co-ordinating her visit so she gets to see everyone, attending a full day course of study, teaching son to drive (about four hours over a couple of days), attending the annual show in town, as well as the usual working, cooking and cleaning. I think I’ve driven an extra 700 kms this week!! I’m so glad I got to finish my week with some creative fun.

Thanks for dropping by, Theresa.