Yummy!

I have always admired beautiful shots of cupcakes.
We made some today for a special holiday treat, so I wanted to have a little play around with the camera and take some snaps... just because I can!



Yummy...

...yummy...

...and even more yummy!

Hurry home Daddy, there's not many left!

Smiles,
bye.

A little set of cards...

How is your week going so far? Enjoying the school holidays here, it's nice to not have to be anywhere at any particular time for a couple of weeks.

I have made a few of these card folders, they are so easy to make and great to have on hand for unexpected little gifts.

Ingredients: Whisper White cardstock, note cards and envelope set, Upsy Daisy stamp set, design series paper - Urban Garden, inks - Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Basic Grey, Not Quite Navy; large oval punch - all from SU!, ribbon and brads from my own stash.

Enjoy whatever treats your day brings : )

Photoshop is COOL with a capital "C"

Ok, so I am still having fun playing around with Photoshop Elements, I can't believe I have waited so long to check it out! I am promising my girls that I will turn the computer off after this post, I have been having a little too much fun with it! This is a new world to me, a good way of covering up not having a fabulous digital SLR... which is on my Christmas wish list...



Playing with the photos of my lillies from a couple of weeks back.

Tahlia and Grandad... I finally found this font this morning, I love it. Kind of reminds me of my favourite stamps from Lizzie-Anne Designs, you know the ones - Say it in Script is one of the sets I love.

My favourite photo which I have shared before, but now I have added some groovy effects.

And lastly, an overlay that I found online this morning to have a little play with.

So, not much actual crafty creating going on, lots of computer time at the moment as I slowly try to hone my technical skills. I am so desperately wanting a digi SLR now, I have never been great at taking pics, but am wanting to learn and try more things now I have the little blogaroo set up.

I had better dash, time to play some Hungry Hippo and a bit of mummy time with my little angels, I hope your week is off to a fabulous start!

Having a little fun and a lot of issues...

So, as you can see, I am having a little play around with my Blog... it will always be a work in progress, but it is important to me that it is reflective of me.. of who I am. I have been reading and fiddling and searching and trying lots of new sites and books, trying to retrain my severely technically-challenged brain into thinking it might actually be that of a computer genius... and, well, um, let's just say it's not going so well. Please bear with me, I am learning, trying, failing, succeeding and having a little fun along the way... and a few internal swear words along the way too. I will post a little link list over the side of the sites that I have discovered in my quest for the perfect blog downloads... things to prettify and personalise my little online journal, you should take a look if you are in the market for some cool bloggy things, some great pretties to be found.

Be back soon with something PHISICALLY creative. Enjoy your weekend ; )

Cheeky girls

So, I am the first to admit that I am not the best at taking photos... that's a major understatement... I am SHOCKING! but trying to work on it I assure you. I made the girls some cute little skirts with some Kokka deer fabric, they both wanted the same fabric so I tried to change them up a bit by swapping the fabric placement around. Do you think I could get them to stand still for one shot??? How am I supposed to practice on these cheeky little moving targets??

Cute.. yes, I know, but very difficult to photograph. Such cheeky little monkeys!

Happy Sunday!!!

I have a few of these little origami boxes always on hand for my Stampin' Up! hostesses, so easy and fun to make and they are always a hit. This one is made from Urban Garden papers and the Upsy Daisy stamp set - all from Stampin' Up! They are a great way to turn a simple set of cards into a lovely gift, don't you think?

Other supplies: Whisper White cardstock; inks - Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy; Bahshful Blue ribbon, Old Olive ribbon - all from SU.

Now check out these lillies, I picked them up last Sunday from the Boutique Markets at Portside and they are still just beautiful now, one week later! They smell just divine, especially at night, I love flowers, think I'll visit the markets each month just to get my hands on more of these.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday :)

Bag Lady

I have had a busy couple of days with the girls, but today I have had a little time to sew up another bag. I learnt to sew using the Birdie Sling bag pattern by Amy Butler, so had a little fun today revisiting this easy simple style. I have fiddled with this pattern a little... I found it way too big and a little shapeless, so I have made a smaller pattern and reshaped the body of it a little to suit how I like my own bags to sit and feel.

I am still working on getting a little stash of bags ready for the girls kindy fundraising night which is coming up in October.

This one will be for sale at the kindy night, I just love this fabric by Amy Butler from the Midwest Modern 2 range. I have added in a little magnetic clasp and two pockets, one split down the middle - perfect for the phone and lippy, and one big one, great for a little portable folder of baby wipes... that I still always keep on hand. I wish I had of known how to sew when my girls were little, this would have been a perfect nappy bag!

This one is my own sling bag, I think it is my alltime favourite bag, it's made from some beautiful Joel Dewberry fabric - it's a home decor fabric, so a little heavier than the cotton ones I usually make, giving it a lovely feel. I just love the colours in it.

I hope your weekend is going ok so far. Bye for now :)

Lara's turn today

I have finished another wee project today. Lara had picked a sparkly purple button out of my stash and wanted me to use it on her shirt, so after madly going through my fabric offcuts - I rarely go for purples so I was a bit worried, but, luckily I found this cute Michael Miller fabric in the scraps drawer which was perfect for my little purple-loving, bambi-loving princess.

A much, much easier skirt pattern this time around, I can see myself making loads of these - it's only 3pm and I am finished! I didn't even run out of sunshine today.. and I didn't start until midday.. those are the kind of projects I like!

One happy little girl with her sparkly purple button, sparkles don't really show up in this pic, but, trust me, it's really sparkly.

Enjoy your afternoon, bye-bye.

A first for me

So, I went to the markets at Portside on the weekend and got a bee in my bonnet about making something for the girls, I swore I would never be interested in making clothes... but I may have to eat my words.

The munchkins have a bit of a yucky cold, so this is where they ended up... in my study, come papercrafting space, come sewing room... the poor dears.

... and this is what I did! I had some leftover Amy Butler Daisy Chain that was perfect for this ...(I just went to write little;)J) project. Tahlia has never worn this shirt cos it's not "fancy" (in her words), now she likes it.

Ta da... this is a bit of a big deal for me, as I haven't made an item of clothing since Home Ec in year 11, my mother will have a fit! I don't think I will do this pattern again in a hurry, will try a simpler one for Lara's tomorrow, just a few too many cuts and piecing in this one for me, way too much fabric.. heaps more than necessary, and without an overlocker, I am having issues with the mess of fabric on the inside... so me, control freak! I am also a little concerned that she looks like she's wearing a curtain?? Any thoughts to share, what do you think? A bit too grown up maybe?? Can't quite put my finger on it.

The finishing touch that turned a non "fancy" shirt into something pretty darn special I think.

Have a good one, bye for now :)

Welcome Daisy Black and Daisy Brown

The girls were very excited over the weekend when Daddy told them they could have some chooks. Daddy madly dashed about building the perfect spot for them on Sunday, then it was off to the produce place to pick them out...



... so they picked out a chooky each, but both wanted the same name, "Daisy", so we compromised and we have Daisy Black and Daisy Brown, who are both loving their little Taj Mahal Chook House... Thankyou Daddy, you are the best!

I finished off this little number today, using some yummy Timeless Treasures fabric.
This one is spoken for... I think... hope you like it K ;)

Then I wanted to have a little more play with some yo yo's and came up with this little design, kind of cute I think.

Heather Bailey fabric and some lovely soft lightweight denim. I love using the denim, it allows me to use really vibrant fabrics, while still allowing the bag to go with most outfits, kind of tones it all down a bit. Sorry that the pic is a bit dark, I ran out of sunshine today, so taken under lights... which never looks quite as good.

More HB on the inside, I am loving the colours in this, I think I might keep it!

I hope your week is off to a great start. Bye bye.

Love those Scraps...

I was having a bit of a play around with some fabric scraps yesterday, and below are the results. I am getting quite a collection of handmade bags now, and along with it comes drawers full of fabric leftovers, so I am always on the lookout for ways to use these.

I love these fabrics, a bit of Mezzanine (Patty Young) and Amy Butler's Lotus.

For me, there's nothing quite like a crisp white card with a little blurt of colour, and these little yo yo's sure do that. What do you think?

Bye for now.

Missing my Camera:(

I am camera-less today, the Hubby needed the camera for a car thingy, so can't take any pics of today's creations to show you, sorry, have been having fun with my fabric scraps on some cards;) hopefully can show you that in the coming days.

I have some old piccies for you today of my own Frilly Dilly's (Janelle Wind pattern). I love these two... in fitting with my Amy Butler obsession. I started sewing this year, and just love that I can now make a bag to go with any outfit I want, I was never one to have many handbags... now I have LOADS!

... and look! ... it matches my new cooking apron! Ok, so I don't intend on using the two at the same time, but still cool, hey?

Well, I hope your weekend is coming along nicely so far, enjoy:)

Calendar, Card and Cooking

So this is actually Friday's post, did it up yesterday arvo to save time as today is a busy day, and have just realised that when I do it a day ahead and save it, it actually comes up as the post of the day I saved it, oh well, not optimal, but the techy challenged part of me can't seem to work out how to change it, sorry.

A bit of everything in today's post. I make Clint a desk calendar each year for Father's Day, this is the one from this year that we gave him last weekend. It will take pride of place on his desk when the new year begins.... which is fast approaching scarily enough!


I used heavy card (chipboard) covered in some yummy SU papers for the base, joined with some folded lighter card in an accordian type fold so it stands alone, my trusty Bind-it-All pulled it all together.

Here's a scary thought.... my first Christmas card... EEEKKKK! I make about 30 cards for my mum each year, and need about the same myself so figured I would start early this year to avoid the usual end of year pressure and late nights! This one's for you Mum, I know you'll know who it's for ;)

And, lastly, this. I just love this funky little number that arrived yesterday (was so excited, I didn't even take the tag off!). My pics don't do it justice, but this is my new cooking apron, made by the lovely Elke from Wonderland Avenue's store on Etsy - http://www.wonderlandavenueaprons.blogspot.com/

Do you think anyone would notice if I wore it out? So comfy and such a lovely cut, I don't want to take it off.... not to mention it's made from Amy Butler fabric, which, let's face it, you all know I am a little obsessed with. Thanks Elke:)

Hope your weekend plans all come together, have a good one :)

The Jam that Marmalade...

Having a bit of a play around with some Sassafras Lass papers from the Sweet Marmalade range. Those who know me, know I generally shy away from 'bling', I'm not a fan, I do prefer to keep things pretty plain and simple, that's just the way I am. I have tried really hard to incorporate some in these cards, just a little question... do pearls count? or does it have to be really really sparkly? If pearls count, than I have finally done it! If not, well sorry, but sparkly bits and me are just not meant to be then.

These cards are not my usual style, I think they are very busy and I am a little stressed when I look at them, I feel like I am having a little sensory overload, but it's good to change things up every once in a while, isn't it?


Ingredients: Kraft cardstock, Curvy Label punch, Best Yet stamp set (Level 1 hostess set), corner rounder punch, spiral punch, Tangerine Tango ink, Pumpkin Pie marker - all from Stampin' Up!, paper is Sassafras Lass and October Afternoon, Butterfly punches - EK Success, pearls - Prima, ribbon

Ingredients: Kraft cardstock, round tab punch, Party Punch stamp set (retired), corner rounder punch, spiral punch - all from Stampin' Up!, paper - Sassafras Lass, October Afternoon, assorted flowers, thread, pearls - Prima, Versamark, white embossing powder

I haven't sewn on cards for a long time, a little different to ribbon for a change

Ingredients: Kraft cardstock, corner rounder punch, square punch - Stampin' Up!, Early Bird paper - Cosmo Cricket, rubon - Pebblesinc, pearls - Prima, ribbon

Bye.

More Sweet Simplicity

The potatoes are cooking, the washing is off the line, groceries are put away and the kids are turning into prunes in the bath... do you know what that means? I CAN HAVE A LITTLE PLAY WITH MY NEW STAMPS! YAAAYY!

I have loved this little Jungle Pals set by Sassafras Lass for a while now, it arrived this morning, so I have been keen to have a little fiddle with it... I did just have to save it from Lara's clutches as she is simply besotted with giraffes, found it on my craft table, and took off with it, apparently it is her's. So after a few tears and some pleading, she is a happy little camper again, with her very own giraffe handmade card that she has tucked under her pillow... Phew!


Added a little sentiment stamp to this one, Nursery Necessities set and Close to Cocoa ink by Stampin' Up!, Cinnamon versa colour ink

A little birthday rub on by Pebblesinc, Bamboo versa colour ink

Birthday rub on by Karen Foster Designs (I have had these sitting around for sooooo long), Indigo versa colour ink


Another Karen Foster Design rub on, Cardinal versa colour ink

I hope you have had a happy week so far, must be off to rescue the two little old ladies in the bath, and check the taters'... see you later!