Gift Bags

I made these two gift bags and filled with chocolate to go with the thank you cards I posted yesterday.  I found this wonderful mini bag tutorial on Silvey's Craftroom blog.  This bag comes together so easily and no cutting is involved.....just scoring and folding then decorating.   I have used my new Floral District Design paper from Stampin up to embellish the outside of these bags.  I didn't add any flower embellishments as I think just the papers may have been a tad on the girly side for the recipients. 

The inside of the bag.  My friend Helen found on the internet at some stage these wonderful magnet clasps which are intended for real bags.  Helen kindly gave me a couple and I was keen to put them to use.  They were perfect for this bag and kept it closed tightly.

I so have to work on allowing time for better photos.  These bags look so much better in real life.

Well Friday has arrived although I felt like it was Friday all day yesterday.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  I have a few plans and one is to help Helen celebrate her birthday with a few other friends.....so it will be a good time.  I will get in early......Happy Birthday Helen. :-)

Thank You - Washi Tape

I decided to put my Washi Tape to use for some quick and different Thank You cards.  I have used Stampin Up Naturals White for both cards.  I have raised the front layer of this card with foam tape and added strips of my Washi Tape.  Finished with a sticker sentiment and flower.

This card I attached the strips of Washi Tape to the front and then the black bird rub - on, stamped Thank You.  I then ran the front of card through my Stampin Up Lattice embossing folder which melded all the elements together.  Finished with a flower bling.  I really love this effect.  I also lucked out with the bird as this card was for our daughters Ranger (older Guides) Leader and her Guide name is Jum Jum which apparently means crow or black bird.....I think in aboriginal.  I am yet to find details.

Happy Thursday everyone.

Memory Card into CD slot on Mac Desktop

We have a Mac Desktop and I so knew that one day I was going to come across this drama.  At the side of the monitor is where you can slot in your camera memory card and above that is the slot for the CD drive.  Once or twice I have just put my memory card to the side and suddenly realised it was going into the CD slot thankfully I have always held on.........till this morning that is.  Yes, I put my tiny memory card into the huge CD slot and let go.........disaster.  I googled and guess what, I am not the only person to have ever done this.  There is a wonderful video here that offered the simplest and cheapest solution. I am so happy.  You just cut a piece of cardstock (cereal box, tissue box, anything thicker than paper) to resemble the shape above.

Then you slide this in over the top of your memory card, lower and the simply pull out.

Hoping that is all my dramas for today.  Wishing you a good day.

Farewell and Thank You

Last night the school P&C had our Christmas get together.  We took this opportunity to farewell the Principal of the school who has taken up another Principal position closer to her home and family.  This is the card I made to go with the present.  I did struggle a little with this card but I happened upon a card by Kim S which I really liked so decided to case it.   I didn't have the wonderful notebook punch gadget so used a page from an old school book on which I printed out the duties do a school Principal.  I have used the great little image from Fred She Said which I coloured with my Copic pens.  The sentiment I printed on with the computer and added a bling to the end.  Much later I added the red and black lines to the edges as my card just did not look finished.  This was also after consulting friends on Facebook as there was no one at home to offer suggestions.  Love technology.

Have a terrific day everyone and thanks for visiting.

Jack's Calendar Tree

This is the calendar tree that my Dad made for my little brother many, many years ago.  :-) My Mum added the dates, days, months etc.  As my brother is 12 years younger than me I remember having fun with my other siblings reminding him to do this each day.  My two kids put it to good use too but I never did get around to renewing the numbers etc for them.  So by the time they had finished with it the numbers etc were tossed as they were a little ratty.  I spied this a couple of months ago sitting on top my cupboard and thought that it was the perfect present for my brother's little boy who was turning three.  Thought I should get to and decorate it as he is the youngest and last of the nieces and nephews.

Here is the end product.  Two days and two rolls of double sided tape to put all the layers of Textured Linen cardstock and Bazzill Scrapbook Paper - Dinomite together.  The numbers and words I printed off the computer.  I sat forever going through the fonts to make sure that the number '4' showed as the way they have to write it at school.  Also spent a lot of time looking for the right lower case 'a'.  The '4' I got right but then the 'a' I got sidetracked along the way and started looking for skinny fonts forgeting the shape of the 'a'.  Didn't realise until everything was printed and I was sticking it all together. Duh! I used shower curtain rings to hang all the words etc.

Last week of November.....have a good one.

Why Black Friday?..... I have googled again.

I saw that a lot of people were mentioning Black Friday and I was wondering why as it is not Friday the 13th...which I thought was Black Friday.  So yes, I had to google and ended up at Wikipedia with this explanation.......interesting.

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early and offer promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth Nations. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many non-retail employers also observe this day as a holiday along with Thanksgiving, giving their employees the day off, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005,^[1] although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate,^[2] have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.^[3]

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.^[4][5] Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".^[4][6]

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m., but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohls, Macy's, Best Buy, andBealls^[7]) opened at midnight for the first time.^[8] In 2012, Walmart led several other retailers in announcing it would open its stores at 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day,^[9] prompting calls for a walkout among some workers.^[10]

A day at Michaelmas Cay

Wednesday morning hubby saw that the winds were down to 5 knots and meant to be the same again on Thursday.  So arrangements were made for him to have the day(Thursday) off work.  As it was a no new learning day and second last week of school for the year our daughter came along for the ride.  We haven't had the boat in the water (Tinaroo, Atherton Tablelands) for 15months and haven't been to the reef in 2 1/2 years.  This view is of Cairns as we travel out of Trinity Inlet.  Yes, it was a cloudy day....and we were even getting spots of rain.

Michaelmas Cay before the tourists arrived. :-)  This is a National Park and humans are only allowed inside the roped off area the remainder is for the birdlife.

I like the way the water glistens in this photo and yes the water was a perfect temperature.  I am one of those people that it takes forever to get past the belly button to get into the water but yesterday I was quiet happy to jump in and could have stayed forever.

A shot of the whole Cay....the little black dots are actually tourists getting ready to snorkel.  You should be able to click on this photo for a larger view.

One of the many bat fist at the back of our boat.  They are a little like pigeons and turn up not long after our boat is anchored waiting for scraps.

Our Darling Daughter (16yo).  Yes, she can swim but was using her Wiggles ring yesterday so that she could just float over the coral and fish.

Our daughter in action.....the ring was great when all the tourists arrived as we could definitely see where she was at all times.

More fish coming in for a feed at the rear of our boat.

We shared a little bread.  Those black fish are at least 1 metre long.

That was our day yesterday (Thursday) as you can see no crafting was done.   It was a beautiful day and reminds us why we love living in North Queensland with the reef on our doorstep.  Have a great day and weekend.  I hopefully will catch up on everyones blogs this weekend.

Darling Daughters Delightful Doodling

Click on image for larger view

Our amazing daughter has been doodling again.  This is the card she has created for a friend at school who happens to be a boy but that is it. :-)  He turns 17 tomorrow but I am feeling very safe that he won't see it as I am sure that none of her friends would even know I had a blog.   I just love all the details she has drawn and the more I look at it the more I see.  She has drawn a lot of his favourite things.  Starting at the top - Arnott's Little Teddies....chocolate flavour, pizza, McDonalds, Orchy Orange Juice, icecream, Nesquik, more pizza, the girl stick image is an image of herself, the big P with the cross through is because he should be moving on to 'P's but he has not got his driving hours done.  That is an image of him in the middle and he is always so proud of the couple of hairs under his nose and says he will try to grow a moustache but then apparently has the hairiest of legs.  Oh and the container of sunscreen on the side as our daughter is always saying how white he is.  Not sure the story behind the floaties etc. 

As you can see in this shot there is just a hint of glitter used. :-)

Time to get moving.  Have a wonderful day.

I think I might share this card over at 

Make it Monday - #116 Always Anything Goes

Inspire Me Fridays - #85 Always Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everyone - #7 Always Anything Goes

Little Umbrella

Hi everyone, shock I have posts two days in a row. :-)  Yes, Helen, finally here is the card that I had fun creating.  The photo above shows all the Copic colours I used to colour this wonderful Mo Manning image - Little Umbrella.  I made this card for a friend who will be turning 50 at the end of November but she has already started celebrating.  A group of us went out to tea with her last Friday night and had a wonderful meal and lots of laughs.  This Friday she heads off on a cruise of Bali area with 3 other ladies for more celebrations.  That is why I have used the image on the front.  The story for the inside of the card.  A couple of years ago this same lady went on a trekking holiday to Milford Sound, New Zealand and part of the money she paid for the holiday was $80 on a walking stick.  We have given her a hard time since that she paid $80 for a stick hence the inside of the card.

I have teamed this image with Stampin Up Design Papers and computer printed sentiments.  Glued some sand under her towel for a bit of texture and blue chalk for the sky.

The inside of the Easel Card.....a stick from the back yard.

Wishing you all a fantastic day.

I would like to share this card in the following challenges:

Chalk-Ah-Lot Cafe - #23 You must use chalk (I have used chalk for the sky background)

One Stitch at a Time - #140 Must use a Digi

Monochromatic Christmas Tree

Hi everyone, I have my fingers crossed this week is not as busy as the last one.  Everything is coming to an end for the year.  Touch Footy is now finished for us so Wednesday nights are free again. :-)  Only a couple more activities to finish in the next couple weeks....one is school for our daughter, she only has two weeks left then holidays until end of January.  We saw the Total Eclipse last Wednesday which was awesome and glad I experienced it.  I think the best bit was that I only had to walk a few steps before being able to witness it.  Everything did darken when the eclipse happened and the poor cockatoos were squawking.....I think they were saying 'What the? we have just flown out for the day and it already night time'.  :-)

I have put together this Christmas card for the Half-way Inspiration post of Unstampabelles for the Monochromatic Challenge #17.  I really thought we would struggle getting entries for this challenge but we already have an amazing 32 monochromatic entries without the use of stamps, very inspiring.  I created this card by dragging out all the green Bazzill cardstock I own then cut into 1cm wide strips.  Next I cut into the shape of a Christmas Tree.  Added a star sticker and sentiment.

I would like to share this card with the following challenges:

Simply Create Too - #26 Use your Stash ( I have used a piece of every green Bazzill cardstock I have in my stash)

Little Claire's Monthly Challenge - #27 Christmas

Make it Monday - #116 Always Anything Goes

Inspire Me Fridays - #85 Always Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everybody - #7 Always Anything Goes

Tilda Christmas

Surprise......I have made a card. :-)

Last Saturday I finally found that I had the time to attend the local Copic Club started by the lovely Michelle of the challenge blog Make it Monday and her own blog Pink Paper Paradise.  Now if you live in the Cairns area and want more detail visit Michelle's blog and view her sidebar.  My friend Helen was able to join in as well, so a wonderful morning, colouring, coffee and friends.

I have not coloured for ages and really struggled with my first Tilda who is sadly sitting in the bin.  My friend Helen has always admired all the red copic colouring around the internet and we asked Michelle what colours she used.  I found that I had all but one of them and thought I would give it a go.  So this is my first attempt of colouring something red.  Yes, a lot more practise is needed but thanks to some shading tips from Michelle this looks better than my first attempt.  The other first on this card is the highlight area in Tilda's hair.  

I thought after all that colouring that Tilda should be the spotlight of the card so decided everything else should be white.   So used Stampin Up Shimmery White....as the name suggest it has a white shimmer/glitter to the card which does not show in the photo.  I dragged out my Spellbinders Label 18 Dies to use as the background for Tilda.  Ran the large one through my Candy Stripe embossing folder and the smaller through the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  The flowers I have received at some stage from a lovely lady called Kaye.  The centres are lovely jewels and I have added Kindy Glitz to the top petals.  The sentiment along the bottom is a Kaisercraft rub on.

I would like to share this card with:

Make it Monday - #115 Always Anything Goes

Card Mania - #7 Embossing

The Crafty Bloggers Network - #5 Christmas Anything Goes

Totally Stampalicious - Bling

Total Solar Eclipse - 14th November (Aussie Time)

We are lucky enough to be in the Path of Totality for the Solar Eclipse happening 5am, 14th November Brisbane, Aussie Time.  Just discovered there will be a live web cast of the event here.

Just might be the way I view it also instead of getting up that little earlier and driving to a better viewing location. :-)

Have a good day.

Charlie Chaplin Quote

Hi everyone, Saturday here...overcast.  Hope we get rain as the yard and gardens really need it.  Nothing to important to report on and no crafting to share.  So I thought I would share this quote I heard on TV last night at the end of Criminal Minds.

“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles.” ~ Charlie Chaplin

Have a great day.

Selling off my Cards

Just wanted to let you know I am clearing out my stash of cards I made this year ready for Christmas and New Years.  So have a sale on my cards 30% off here - Made It

These are some of the cards I have for sale.

8 cards Sold.  :-)

Our Son's View

This is my favourite photo....I just love the colours.

 Comments from our son: This is a sunset from the other day. The weather has been like Melbourne lately! Just keeps changing!

 Son's comments: This was taken at about 9pm in the pitch black, had the shutter open for about 3mins……my arm was sore after a few attempts!

Son's comments: And this one I woke up way too early! But I think it was worth it :)

(I have since learnt that way to early is 4am, so I do agree with him)

Morning all, I have nothing craftwise to share with you today or probably the rest of the week.  I have a few things happening that are keeping me away from my craft desk.  So today I thought I would share these photos the our son sent to us.  These are photos from his accommodation in Brisbane.  He is up on the second or third floor.  

Have a fun day everyone thanks for visiting.

DT Card for Unstampabelles #17 - Monochromatic

Here we are again on a Monday and the start of another Unstampabelles challenge.

Now this was really a challenge for me as the theme is Monochromatic and not something I have done much of.  Let you in on a little secret this is my second finish of the card.  I was all excited and uploaded my card for the DT to see and then sat admiring suddenly realising I had used a stamped sentiment and stamps on the butterfly wings.  Yes, Unstampabelles.....first and foremost challenge is paper creations with no stamps.  However, I must say I am happier with my corrected version.

To help me with the monochromatic theme I went to my Stampin Up (SU) stash.  I have used Wild Wasbi, and Certainly Celery card stock and design papers from the same colour range.  I cut the papers into 3cm squares and then attached them.  Finally used my new Cheerly Lynn butterfly die.  Firstly I traced around the edge of the die and handcut to create the larger white butterfly for the background.  I ran this butterfly through my SU Lattice embossing folder.  Then used the die to cut out the green butterfly which I ran through my Victoria embossing folder.  Added some bling for the butterflies body and was lucky enough to find a matching green rub-on sentiment in my stash.

So please come over and see the rest of the Design Teams terrific MONOCHROMATIC creations and add yours to our entry list at Unstampabelles.

I would like to share this with:

Come and Get it Challenges - Monochromatic

Sketchy Colours - #138 Green and White

Make It Monday - #114 Alway Anything Goes

Challenges 4 Everyone - #6 Always Anything Goes

Yellow Churn Dash Blocks

Just a little more quilting today.  Our quilt block swap over at Craftmad for October was a Yellow Churn Dash Block with black background.  Mine is the one above that I made for everyone.  The pattern is made up little yellow hearts.  When I bought this it was one of the yellowist fabrics in the shop but now that I see it here next to the photo below it looks very washed out.

This is the block that Mandy sent me for this month.....sorry Mandy I didn't take time to iron out the crease line from when you mailed it.  It is a lovely bright fabric though.

Friday already.....so that is it for me this week.  I will be back again on Monday with a DT project for Unstampabelles new challenge.  You still have a few hours left to enter into our current Unstampabelles challenge all about recycling/repurposing.  So many wonderful entries this month.

Craftmad Family Quilt

I have done it....put together the swap blocks I received from the first half of this year for the Craftmad Family Quilt. I have really enjoyed the whole project. Firstly, even putting together a block which I have never done before and then trying different styles. I forgot how much actually goes into putting all the blocks together then quilting and binding. 

Our poor dog - Scruff was claiming that quilt yesterday as I sat on the floor and pinned the binding. I constantly moved him but he kept coming back to where I was pinning. I think he was jealous of the sewing maching and the quilt for all the attention it was getting from Saturday to Wednesday.  

Here are a couple of photos. Scruff helping/hindering me. The front of the quilt and the back. The back panel I made up about four years ago to use as a front but thought it would be great a great backing for this quilt. The first photo is our old worn out quilt. 

Our old worn out quilt

All the blocks before I increased the smaller blocks size or trimmed any blocks. 

The four corners are practise ones on which got the measurements wrong.  Also got the measurement wrong on those three smaller blocks (pink, blue and tiny one in 4th rows).  Majority of other blocks I received from members of Craftmad.

Does this look like he is saying "What about me".

Pinning the binding.

Front

Front with a bit of sun on it.

Back view.

Have a great day everyone.