Friday Smiles

Week 134 at A Stitch in Time with Annie where we share our happiness or laughs for the week.

Well if you've been following me lately you will know we have moved house...yippee - am I smiling??? YES!!!! - home at last - 5 years and 3 months away. We arrived safely yesterday lunchtime and even got a visit from our special gd Sophie and her mum. Our gear doesn't arrive till next Thursday so we've time to sort out our downstairs storage area, so it will fit. And today I'm sorting a few cupboards in the kitchen - so our stuff will merge with all the stuff our son has. Plenty to fill my days for a while and then hopefully our building and renovations will get under way sometime in the future.

Just a couple of funnies from the internet - I think I may have a few more grey ones over the last month.  Hope you've had a wonderful week and are looking forward to a fabulous weekend, cheers from sunny Townsville
ps I just explained to Lisca what is happening at this house....
About our move.  We own this home and our son has been house sitting for us and as he has no special lady in his life (yet) he is welcome to live with us. But as he has a house full on furniture and ours has been travelling about the country with us...now we have to thin down as we have two of everything. Now this won't happen until our renovations are complete - sigh - I had hoped this would have been started and nearing completion by now but no we only have plans, so I'm trying not to get mad and just realize they will happen and until then our gear is going into storage (under the house) and then when it's all done we'll sort it all out and it'll feel like our place again. Because we've been visiting lots over the last 2 years it still feels like we're visiting now - hope you understand all that. Today I had to sort and restack the pantry and so I was on a roll and did all the kitchen cupboards..changed then all about so we'll see what our son thinks when he gets home. Stay turned I'll be taking pics when it all starts to happen

Joy

I just love the Bokeh technique  and I had this piece made a from a few weeks back, so decided it could look good with this die cut Christmas tree.  I cut some more circles in three shades to represent the tree baubles and then used a matt metallic card to die cut the work Joy....I love how I didn't have to cover up the background too much. I'mm posting my card to Christmas Card Challenge Week 38 - Anything Goes and also August Rudolph Days Challenge. Thanks for taking a peek

August Rudolph Days Challenge

Merry Christmas

This week at 52 (Christmas) Card Throwdown the August technique challenge is to make a 'shaped card' not square or rectangle.  I made this round easel card - cut two circles with my largest die in cream and embossed it then added some ink to the raised section. Then cut the center/easel part of the card on a folded piece of white card leaving a small part of the fold uncut so the top part could be folded to form the easel. Finished the card with a hand cut topper in gold, a ribbon, a few gems and a sentiment. Thanks for taking a peek

  

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday??

Week  325 at What's On Your Workdesk today???
Here's my desk this morning at 6:30... very empty - just my laptop with me getting ready to post  and my note for tasks to be completed today before the removalists arrived.
They did at 6:40 and all packed by 10am, and hubby and I made a last minute decision at 8am to pack the cars, finish the clean up and hit the road.  We got away at 1pm and have stopped half to overnight so I can get a break from the 9 1/2 hour drive.

Here's the back seat of my car...3 crates of stamping gear also the boot is full - crazy aren't I.

So excited to be started another chapter in our lives and hopefully our last move and a more settled life nice and close to our family... we have a house in Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Want to know why I'm raving on - all the details are on Julia's Stamping Ground blog.
I might not get to visit too many desks today but maybe over the weekend I'll find time, so have a wonderful week blogger friends and thanks for dropping by

Rescued Notes Holder

Do you do like I do? - when you have a chore you don't really want to do and so you find something at your desk to fill in your time. That's what happened today... should be finalizing my craft room packing but instead I decided to finish this project.  I have had this container on my desk filled with pens and paper bits and I thought I could revamp it for the Artplorations Mixed Media challenge -

Stencil Sunday #5 + August Mixed Media Challenge

It is a point of sale stand that I rescued from the bin when I was working at Target. So I gave it a coat of acrylic paint and then cut two panels of patterned paper that I would never use to make a card and gave it a light spray with an orange mist. Then I used Distress Inks to try and disguise that crazy pattern... used my stencils to sponge on some hexagonal dots and a few different arrow. I repeated the dots on the ends and cut a green piece of card to line that front box - and gave it a bit of medallion embossing before I glued them all in place.
I die cut the word NOTES on card and used it as a stencil, then coloured some texture paste with black distress ink and plastered it to the front. When it was all dry I die cut the cat and attached him. Wish I was real free with mixed media but it's a start and I'm happy with my finished revamped note holder.  Thanks for taking a peek

Snowflake - Wishing you a Joyous Christmas

My card today is CASE-ing Stephs card (below) for the CASE-ing Christmas August challenge.  I was inspired the snowflake theme, the colour, the background embossing and the string element.  I stamped my sentiment and embossed it with white EP and then sponged over it with some distress ink to help it stand out of the red background. Attached this panel to a snowflake embossed background and tied a string bow topped with a mini button.
I am also posting to Christmas Cards All Year Round - August theme Snowflakes.
Thanks for taking a peek

August Challenge-Snowflakes

Wishing you a Joyous Christmas

This week's challenge at Merry Monday #169 - there is a colour theme...Dark Green, Green and Red.. so Christmasy. Today I was inspired by this gorgeous die cut Christmas tree a friend sent me - it's cut from glossy card of a tissue box. I found a stamped background in green (used distress ink on the polystyrene foam, white card on top and brayered it) and then stamped the sentiment across the top and layered it onto dark green card. I mounted the tree with foam tape and used up those big dark red pearls - I tend to use the smaller ones on cards, so it was great to see the big ones worked well on this tree.  Thanks for taking a peek

Friday Smiles

Friday Smiles Week 133  at Annie's Blog

Hi everyone, too busy packing here to take photos...no that's not true, I had a lovely day making cards before I finally have to pack the stamping gear and close the boxes or at least the ones the removalists need to take. The bare essentials will still be with me for the trip up in my car. No photos but I did manage to see these two 'funnies' on FB to share...

Hope you've had a great week and if you'd like to share your happiness pop over to Annie's blog and join in. Cheers and have a wonderful weekend

Merry Christmas

Haven't I just had fun with recycling used postage stamps today - here's my third card for the Jingle Belles challenge - Special Delivery. I popped the used stamp on to my stamped image and lightly coloured one aspect.  Then layered the top panel on two shades of blue card stock. Thanks for taking a peek

Special Delivery

Merry Christmas

My final card today I've created for the 52 (Christmas) card challenge - August theme ...for a Child.
I had previous stamped up this cute Pooh Bear image and have layered it up with some bright Christmasy coloured paper and card and a fussy cut sentiment. Thanks for taking a peek

Merry Christmas

This week at Freshly Made Sketches they are celebrating 200 sketches - congratulations team, a super effort of inspiring the card making community with your fabulous cards now for 200 sketches....all 11 girls cards this week are sensational...so different and creative.
So I've made a Christmas card as my effort using this weeks sketch. This gorgeous Santa stamp has given me heaps of trouble trying to get a good print but this time using my roller I think he has turned out fantastic.  I left a white border around the image when I trimmed it and layered him on matching card stock.  Then just used two different font dies to create my sentiment.  Thanks for taking a peek

Thinking of you across the miles

I'm back again with another Christmas card using recycled postage stamps - I found this cool mail related background paper and layered onto red card, also a Post Card cut out from a Christmas pack. I  trimmed some more Christmas stamps and arranged them scattered across the card - I think they look fabulous against the darker background. I finished off with a fussy cut stamped sentiment.  I am posting to Jingle Belles - Special Delivery challenge  And to ABC Christmas Challenge - Q for Quantum leap where I've chose "C for Colorful" as my past theme.  Thanks for taking a peek

Special Delivery

Q is for Quantum Leap

Merry Christmas

During the process of packing my craft stuff up, I came across and huge pile of used envelopes - my mum collects them for the Sammy Stamp redistribution group, and so it's one of my addictions to collect them for her and of course instead of when they arrive and somehow stash them  in a drawer and then - wow there's a lot. So yesterday I cut them them all off.  I remembered that Jingle Belles were using 'Special Delivery' as their theme this month, so thought I might be able to incorporate a stamp or two on a card.  This stamp from New Zealand caught my eye and I ran with the colours for the background...layering my stamped image onto three pieces of paper. I placed my trimmed stamp over one on the image and wrapped some gold ribbon and tied a bow to finish the card. I have used the sketch at 'Tis the Season #49 as a guide for my layout and I am also posting my card to Shopping Our Stash #215 - where they'd like to see layers on your card.  Thanks for taking a peek

SOS #215: Layer It On Me

Special Delivery

What's On Your Workdesk, Wednesday??

Week 324 at Julia's blog - want to join in for some desk snooping then pop over there to read how you can join in.  And firstly I would like to thank everyone who visited last week and apologize for my lack of comments - this week I feel like I'm on top of everything so will be around to visit as many WOYWWers as possible. 

This is part of my craft room and if you're a regular you'll know that I am packing for the big move next Wednesday and this is looking very empty - most of the sorting and discarding has happened and only a few things remain  so that I can continue to  make my cards - nearly forgot it's Fathers' Day soon here in Australia and best not forget to make hubby's dad a card. 

So you can see a vintage car stamped ready for my mojo to kick and for me come up with an amazing creation (lol, we'll see)  On my work pad I am finishing off a butterfly card and to the side I have two Christmas cards in progress. Along the back is my cuttlebug, Ott-Lite, my Distress Inks and two containers of different inks ready to be packing into crates and into my car for the trip to their new home.  I have set aside stamps, cardstock and inks to take with me so this addiction can continue on the dining table

Hope you're all enjoying some lovely weather and time at your desk, Cheers and thanks for popping in.  
ps    This is our 14th move in 39 years so I am totally used to packing up and for the last 3 there has only been hubby and me and this time I am not working so I have been very slowly packing box and room at a time....the most time consuming room to pack is the "Craft Room" - just hope it fit into the new space.

Best Wishes

So while the packing up my my craft room nears completion I found a few elements that I have combined to make this butterfly card. The embossed background and tag were pieces that I wasn't too happy with when I first made them, but with a bit of ink and sponging I like they have come together. Some matching twill tape to frame the sentiment and then a scattering of butterflies, finished with gold gems and some gold twine to complete the card.  I used the sketch at Try Stamping on Tuesday #231 and the theme at Mixed Media Card challenge #14 for August - Butterflies and an optional gold element.  Thanks for taking a peek