Friday Smiles

WEEK 200 FRIDAY SMILES

Firstly one very big well done to Annie on your 200th Friday Smiles post... you really do inspire us to take a moment to reflect on our week and find the positives, the happy events and the laugh out loud moments....thank you Annie.

As it is practically Christmas eve my post is you to wish  you one and all a Very Happy Christmas and Wonderful New Year.

I'm busy at this time with a Christmas cake in the oven, happily have all the presents wrapped and food all ready for the festive eating.

 Here's our fibre optic Christmas tree on the back deck - it looks gorgeous twinkling away, changing colours against the night sky and I can see it through the kitchen window.

And here are the gorgeous grand daughters... in their Christmas outfits...

Here's wishing you all the best and hope to see you joining in the blogging fun next year with Annie. Cheers

Friday Smiles

  WEEK 199, FRIDAY SMILES

 ...this week has flown by so fast - I've missed Friday altogether but I'm sure I had plenty to smile about.... for instance this little table and chairs set hubby has made for our gorgeous grand daughters for Christmas.  I made sure we saved all the offcuts of our tongue and groove flooring when the renos were happening and they have been put to good use so far. He even cut hearts in the chair backs and I got some chipboard letters for their names....I know they'll be rapt to have their own setting at our place.

Next thing I remember mostly about this week is that had us jumping for joy.... it has rained, yippee!!! see the green grass above, it wasn't much rain but at least it didn't pass around again but it did freshen up our weary gardens.  Here's a pic of my pink frangipani that has just come into bloom, first time...there are so many lovely colours but only the white spreads it's fragrance around the garden.

So now all there is to do - is check off our list and make sure all the presents and food is organised - I don't want to go shopping this week, there'll be no car parks.

So if you've some smiles or a funny joke to share please pop over to Annie's blog - A stitch in time and join in the fun.  Have a wonderful week, cheers

Merry Christmas tag

Lucky last Christmas project for this year.... days are getting very busy now, with last minute shopping and cooking and my mojo is running low.  My tag this morning is for the Tag, You're It #62 challenge - where we are being inspired by Laurie.  I like her fresh red, green and white colour theme and the simple row of trees below the sentiment.  I've also used a square scalloped tag  and edged my top panel in red.  Thanks for taking a peek

'Tis the Season to be Jolly

I have finished off two cards and this tag today and they will be my last for the year.....
I posted off 90% of my cards yesterday and am relieved to have that task completed... but on saying that I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in lots of challenges so that all the cards in my stash are different.
When I saw Loll's tag  at Tag You're...It #61, I just had to play along... love the gorgeous none Christmas colours with the crisp white of the trees. This Christmas tree die just arrived this week just in time to cut my trees and decorate them with glitter. I found this shaving cream background and thought it looked a bit like the northern lights, splattered a few snow spots with white gel pen and created some snow banks with glittery snow.  Stamped on my sentiment and added some ribbons to finish. Thanks for taking a peek

 

Sending Warm Wishes your Way

My card for Novembers Society of Stampaholics card chain challenge went to Jerrie in USA.
I used both the layout and colour theme for my card. Swiped Distress Inks across my background and fussy cut my stamped flowers and them coloured them with Twinkling H2Os.  Thanks for taking a peek

Peace on Earth

I have made two more cards from my stash for the Muse; Christmas Vision 73 challenge... I was so thrilled to be Guest Muse and impressed with all the cards entered I decided to scrounge through my stash and see if there was any suitable backgrounds and sentiment strips.
If I can remember rightly the first card background is made with Metallic Marvy Markers and I used some die cut holly branches in silver, then 3D mounted the sentiment strip.
The second is using the shaving cream technique which I spritzed with Perfect Pearls Mist and stamped on a swirl and embossed it with white, then added the sentiment strip.
Thanks for taking a peek and playing along with the challenge.

 

Friday Smiles

   WEEK 198  at FRIDAY SMILES
Happily today I can share a quite a few photos.... ones that really have me smiling.

Can you guess??

Yes we're at the beach....

Hubby and I decided it was time for a few days away in the caravan  

...so we are at Forrest Beach, just east of Ingham which is about an hour and a half drive north of where we live.  See here hubby in the background cooking us breakfast

off on our morning stroll down the beach

to the stinger nets (for safe swimming from the box jellyfish)

 

yep, that's me - lolling about in the beautiful warm, clear water  

Here are a family of curlews who visit the camps in hope of being fed

Today we drove around the area and here at Lucinda is the longest bulk sugar jetty in the southern hemisphere, just under 6 kilometers (around 3 1/2 miles) 

And lastly, this sunrise had me running for the camera at 5:30 this morning.

Hope you've had a wonderful week, have you some thoughts, photos, or funnies that you'd like to share.....pop over to Annies, blog - A Stitch in Time  and join in

Merry Christmas

Today I am very honored and wish to thank the Muse: Christmas Vision challenge team for inviting me to be their Guest Muse this week (#73). I'm feeling quite excited, but what to make for my inspiration....as I don't really have a style - I love them all and I especially love being inspired by others, so hope my card today has you looking at your stamps in a different way.

I'm not sure how crazy you are with card making but if you are anything like me, you don't throw anything out, hence I have a great stash of stamped images, off cuts, die cuts and oh yes lots of backgrounds.  So for this challenge I decided not to create new but to use some of my stash.  One card making artist that I do love is Sarita at 'Little Princess Cards, so my idea today is to only use 'Flourish' stamps on my cards....I seem to have lots of them as part of stamp sets but they get overlooked as not an image or sentiment.

I'm loving how this card turned out.... the background is made with Brushos and the sentiment strip are both from my stash. I simply stamped on a couple of flourishes and added some sequins and a thin metallic layer to top and bottom.

This card is even more 'clean and simple' - again from my stash a sentiment strip (usually while a stamp is inked I create a couple more for the stash) and I simply stamped on my flourishes (please note below - I didn't ink the whole stamp). Then attached another strip of matching coloured card to display my sentiment 

Can't wait to see how you are inspired by my cards - just have fun.  And thanks for taking a peek

I had so much fun using up my stash I managed 7 more cards and this one did include a flourish - stamped in Versamark and dusted with Interference Gold.

JOY to the World

Recently I played around with my alphabet dies and made the word 'Jolly' by cutting around the negative of the letters.... so here I've used that technique to make my Joy tag.  I then simply used part of a stamp for the rest of my sentiment on a white strip and attached them to the really colourful background made with Brushos and spritzed with Perfect Pearls for a silvery finish,  I die cut the top of the tag, added a tassel and then positioned the center of the 'O' and attached a glittery star.  I was inspired by Tracey's tag (below) on Day 19, of 25 Days of Christmas Tags... I love how she used the glittery snowflake for her 'O'.   Thanks for taking a peek