MerryMade Crafts etc ...

I made this card for my friends daughter who turned '9' last Tuesday. When I made the slider card for my nephew's 18th birthday here.....I decided to google and see what everyone else does with slider cards.  Discovered this slider card at Stamper on the Store .  Sandra had a template for sale so I just had to give it a try. Sorry about the photos but this was taken late afternoon on a rainy day. I have used Stampin Up paper and card. I embossed the icing with my 'Victoria' embossing folder. Cut strips for the candles and free hand cut the flames. Above is a photo of the cake collapsed to a size to fit into an envelope. And here the I have pulled the cake out to it's full size. When my friends daughter pulled it out of the envelope she pulled it out backwards and all collapsed and she was trying to figure it all out.  The expression on her face was brilliant when I turned it around and showed her it was actually a three tier cake. Happy Monday everyone.

Saw this fun post over at Thearica's Pigtales and Quilts .  So thought I would share what I am up to today and would love to hear what you are all working on. At this very moment I am trying to catch up on everyone's terrific creations in blog land.  I have missed seeing people on my blog list for a couple of days.  Amazing how quickly time gets away.  I am doing this while counting down the minutes before I go and join a friend at our friend Ruth's Stampin Up fundraiser for cyclone Yasi.  Yes, I will be with other cardmakers...chatting and hopefully making some cards most of the day. :-) So what project are you working on?

Well it is a tad wet here in the north.   This report say s between 50mm to 250mm since 9am yesterday.  Not sure where that 50mm is as everywhere here would be 250mm I am sure.  Everything is fine...just have that wet feeling.  I know some kids will be happy as they are flooded in just up the road at Peets Bridge.  Our son did well with his driving yesterday and was very 'chuffed' with himself.  Said he got nothing wrong.  Learnt how to parallel park and got it right each time.  Yes, he did put the wipers on a couple times by mistake. :-) Afterwards we went for a drive into Cairns in the heaviest downpour ever.  Nerve wracking for me but great experience for him as at this time of it is pretty normal.  So wipers were on full speed and me constantly saying 'drive slower in the rain', 'you don't have to go the speed limit'.  Oh the joys. I have made this fun card for my wonderful nephew who turns 18 this Sunday.  18 :-0......ti...

Morning everyone, a very wet morning here today.  Our son's first ever driving lesson too with an instructor.  Which on one hand is a good thing as our indicator and wiper are on opposite sides to normal cars....so now he won't feel silly turning the wipers on instead of the indicator. :-)  But rain first day with someone different in the car might make him a little more nervous...different things to think of.   Now this card I made for my Dad whose birthday was on Tuesday 22nd Feb.  This is such a fantastic day that I know of three other people born that day.  One of those also shares his birthday with his Grandfather and there were three other babies born the same day as him.  Mentioned this to my friends and one said she also had two friends birthdays that day and another friend also had a friend sharing that date.  I was blog hopping this morning and came across a 13yo crafter whose Mum also shares the date. So that is 12 people that I know ...

Back again with my second card for my Craftmad partner . We had to swap two cards this month using the Craftmad February Sketch Challenge . My other card is the chicken card I posted on Sunday. This time I dug out this lovely Stampin Up design paper ..... sorry don't know the name and then matched it up with matching Stampin Up card. I embossed each top panel with a flower from the 'Stylised Flower' embossing plate. Finished with a bling in the centre of each. Then I went around the edge of the second panel with my fine tip black pen, drawing lots of little dashes. My ribbon is from Secret Santa at Christmas Time....thought it looked very countryish. I used a greeting rub on on white card and then backed with the yellow card.   Attached a twine bow. Sentiment says :   BEST WISHES for today & every day.

Finally, I have made my DT card for Stamping Vacations - When I Grow Up Challenge which asks us to use the Mailman theme.   This opens up lots of options, could be a image of a mailman, postage stamps, envelopes, handwritten letters. So this is my take.  I have used a matching set of papers I have collected from a magazine giveaway.  I like the country feel to them.  I used my sewing machine and stitched around each panel.  Coloured in the lovely Penny Black Hedgehog stamp I won at Christmas time.  Now I thought this stamp would be very limiting as he is holding holly.  Thanks to Kathy who sent this stamp to me from over at The Daily Marker ....as she showed how you can just ink up the hedgehog and have him carry other items.  Now an unlimited stamp. Someone had sent me a little green envelope shape that they had cut with a die.  So glued it all together and it was the perfect size for this little guy to carry.  Found a little scrap p...

I was getting a bit worried about what I was going to create for this DT card for the Sticky Situation Challenge over at Stamping Vacation this month.  Denise has asked us to use 'four leaf clover' stickers. After much searching through my collection and through some shops I was lucky enough to find this sticker in my stash at the last moment.   Now I look at it I realise that it is only a three leaf clover. Can't be too choosy hey! I have decided to give this card to my SIL whose birthday happens to be on St Patty's Day. The layout is the January Sketch Challenge for Craftmad which you can see here and creations here in the gallery. I embossed some metallic gold paper with my 'Victoria' embossing folder. Then added this fabulous green textured paper which has a lovely gold fleck through it.  Added a gold Happy Birthday sticker from Sticker Store and two little clover brads.  Then finished the card by adding my one and only clover sticker. :-) Now it is ...

This is my DT card for Stamping Vacations - Fountain of Youth Challenge using Birds, Nests or Eggs. I opted for this fun Dawn Moore - Happy Girl Bird (free) Digi image . I have used the Craftmad February Sketch Challenge to get me started on this card too. I have coloured the images with my water colour pencils and gold metallic pen.   I started with a orange base card then used this bright and cheery paper I had in my collection. Found some card that matched the spots well and adhered that to the back of the image.   Placed some Stampin Up grossgrain ribbon down the side of the card.   Then layered up the rub-on greeting which says. "May your day be filled with joy". Can't wait to see your creations. Remember to go to Stamping Vacation and add them to the "inlinkz tool". This will put you in the running for this months prize drawn 1st March which is a $25.00 Gift Certificate to the store of your choice. :-) While there check out the 29 other challenges av...

This is my DT card for Cardmadfairy's Digi Days Challenge .....this fortnight it is all about DISTRESSING .  Not something I have done a lot of but get a real satisfaction when I do do it.  I have used Cardmadfairy's wonderful Sleepy Morris  for this creation.  I made this for my Penpals daughter whose birthday was on Tuesday and I know she loves cats.  I made a Joy Fold card using Stampin Up papers and card.  I stitched all the paper panels onto the card.  To distress the edges I dug out my scissors and dragged the blade along the edge of the paper.  I coloured Sleepy Morris with my water colour pencils and aquamarkers.  Found three buttons to glue in the bottom corner.  Also parted with some of this beautiful lace I have been saving for just the right occasion.  So come on over to Cardmadfairy's Digi Days Challenge and add your creation so that I can visit and be inspired to try more distressing.  :-) Remember you must inc...

Check out this fantastic blog called Feline Playful .  The Creators name is Karen and she has team of wonderful people that list challenges each day.....the best bit they even list what you theme the challenge is about. But there is more.......they then have a 'Winners' section where they take the time to list the winner of each previous challenge they have listed. Is that amazing or what. Ok, I am off to check this blog out more.

Hi everyone, I have been itching to have a try at this month's Card Sketch Challenge over at Craftmad .  A lot of the Craftmad members have already made creations with this sketch and posted them here in the gallery ...they are very inspiring.  Be sure to check them out. I have also wanted to try out the Stamping Vacations - Monochromatic Colours Challenge which this month is Purple.  A colour I love to use. :-) I started with Stampin Up Card from the Bold Brights collection.  Next was a layer of KaiserCraft Paper  then layered up squares of purple papers.  I then stamped up some white paper flower with the word stamps from my Stampin Up Priceless stamp set.  Added a purple button to the centre of each which I have stitched some purple thread through.  I punched out the purple oval and topped it with the lovely white 'Thank You' Sticker from Sticker Store.  Finished with a recycled ribbon....this has been cut from the shoulder of a new sh...

I have made this card for my Mother In Law as I really wanted to send her some flowers but I would like them to last.  A week and a bit ago MIL was rushed to hospitalat 4.30am  in a lot of pain.  Turns out she had an infected gall bladder which antibiotics eventually fixed and a week stay in hospital.  Now she is home and on a very bland diet....no fats at all until her op to remove the gall bladder in April. I haven't made one of these cards for a long time now and had a great time putting it all together.  The pot is made from a corrugated metallic card .  I wrapped the top in the lovely satin edge cream ribbon and added a little dragonfly charm.   The flowers I have attached to a tab that slips into the pot so you can write a message on it.  I punched out large retro flowers for a lovely pink patterned paper.  Then layered this with pink and cream paper flowers all held together with cream brads. I made this special stand and attache...

Morning everyone.....I spied a tutorial for this card over at Stempeleinmaleins  and thought I must try.  My very good friend in New Zealand is having her birthday this Friday, 18th February.  So a perfect chance to try it out. So I dragged out some papers and card that I had won a little while a go at a Stampin Up day.  I think they are older colours as they don't quite match what I have in my collection.  Pretty all the same, just can't tell you their names. The front of the card I embossed with my Victoria embossing folder.  Sticker flowers with bling.  My friend is always up for a little fun and although this lady in the image doesn't look like her what she is doing looks something my friend would do on her birthday.  I found this terrific 'free' image at Beccy's Place called Nell on Bicycle.   I coloured her with my watercolour pencils and then added some Kindy Glitz to the dress and hat.  Oh and I tried a little thing that I ...

1 Here I am at the end of the year with my Desk Calendar.  So much fun. This little mushroom stamp I was lucky enough to win in a prize.  It is so perfect for paper piecing.  I have used lots of my Stampin Up design papers.  I coloured the little mushrooms with my Stampin Up pen.  Finished the page with these just perfect square gloss stickers. 2 And here is the last Tilda image that the wonderful Stacie sent me to colour in.  I am sure that this is called Aussie Tilda.  I have coloured her with my water colour pencils and tried to give her a safari look with a little feminity(sp)  Dug through my stickers again to finish off the page and found all these wonderful bugs and a terrific skeleton leaf sticker. 3 This is another prize I was so lucky to win at Christmas time.   As we were away over Christmas I did not get him until we returned in January so I was very happy to have an excuse to use him.  I won this wonderful stamp from the ...

I received this beautiful award from Stacie  ( All Things Crafty ) a little while back.  Sorry to take so long posting it Stacie, just taken me a while to catch up.  I love going to Stacie's blog and seeing her latest creations and lately Stacie has started posting photos of things she cooks every Tuesday with a link to recipes.  Oh so Yum!!!!  Thanks Stacie for this lovely award.  If you are a follower of my blog please feel  free to add this to your blog....there are too many 'Magical Blogs' that I visit to list. I was given this award this morning by the lovely Linby .  Linby always has wonderful creations to share and often a lovely story to go with them.  Thanks so much Linby, award accepted. :-) Now as part of the conditions of this award I am to TAG another 3 to 5 bloggers to participate. This is very apt as yesterday I really wanted to share a couple of new blogs on the block who have been started by friends of mine.  ...

1 Back to the Desk Calendar Pages....you can see more here  and here . This is another wonderful Tilda stamped image that I received from friend Stacie .  I used my watercolour pencils and Copic Ciao E51 on the skin.  Finally I found a use for these lovely buttons embellishments that I received years ago in a prize when I first joined Craftmad . 2 Now this is one of my favourites.  I so love the colours and the image is a digital stamp from over at Cardmadfairy Creations called Flower 1 . I paper pieced the flowers and added a brad to the centre.  Coloured the stems and leaves with my Stampin Up pen and a touch of gold.  Finished the page with some paper piercing. Oh can't forget the two little cute clear and sparkly butterflies stickers from Sticker Store . 3 Now I know that you have seen this one but I wanted to keep all the pages together. I created this page using Lulu one of Cardmadfairy's newest digital stamps. This was my creation for the Des...

I made this quick thank you card up for my friend Cathy.  Decided to have a go at the Clean and Simple challenge over at Stamping Vacation.  The challenge this month is to use 1 sentiment, 2 pearls, a border and oval panel.  I also attached this lovely fairy tag I have collected from a magazine at sometime. Just an update on the happenings over at Stamping Vacation. Very exciting...... we reached 300 followers and  JANET BEREZOWECK was the lucky winner of $20.00 gift certificate. Now this means we are now on the way to 400 followers and the terrific Denise has put up another $20.00 gift certificate prize for one lucky follower when we reach 400.  Good luck everyone. :-) ARDILLA was the winner of the February Prize.....thanks everyone for take part in all the wonderful challenges. Our prize for March drawn 31st March is:  a   $25.00 gift certificate  to the place of the winner's choice! So get your entries in! Remember you can enter any chal...

1 Three more Desk Calendar pages for you today.....these were for my January Swap over at Craftmad .  You can find more pages here . Now my daughter was looking over my shoulder while I was creating these pages and was loving how the papers looked so good on the images.   So I asked her to pick an image for me.....which is this cute bear and mouse a free digital from Beccy's Place .  Next I asked my daughter to pick out papers to use.  Now they are not what I would have chosen but it has turned out lovely.  e.g. I would never have chosen this spotty paper for the flower.   I have coloured the bear and mouse with my watercolour pencils.  Finished the card with some paper piercing. So this page is paper pieced and pierece. :-) 2 For may I have used another wonderful image drawn by Ruth over at Passion for Stamps called Pip Hangin' Out.   I have paper pieced his jumper and pants.....I used my white gel pen to add the dots across the middle...

Our swap project for December/January over at Craftmad was a desk calendar.  It took me a long time to come up with a plan until I saw what one of our new members at Craftmad had made for her swap partner.  Yes, I was inspired.   Zena made a page for each month using a different technique.  You can s ee her calendar here . I have been wanting to try paper piecing and thought what a better time....now I can use all my stamps. So I will show you three at a time.   To start I found these wonderful months already to print.....thought I had kept the blog....if you know who they belong to please let me know as I would like to acknowledge them. Next out came my Stampin Up card as it seemed to match the tone of that the months were printed in.  I created the 'Birthday's' tag myself and printed out.   Then came the stamps...some digital and other rubber. January I have used the wonderful Sparkle N Sprinkle Stamp....Dani's Swing .   I have gone throu...

Our days with Yasi Tuesday it was clean up day....so every thing not required went away.....everything here has been moved to our shed. I mowed on the Monday....thinking if the cyclone did come in with all the rain it is one less thing we have to worry about.......so before. After ..... this shows how high cyclone Yasi was......which made us so lucky.  He was gusting in the tree tops....if that had been a couple metres lower there would have been all sorts of damage.  It was a roar that you could hear come for what seemed like forever and then you would see tree tops move in the distance.  You could watch as they swirled around and came straight for the house.  This mess still took as a long while to clean up as there are lots of small branches in there that you can't just run over with the mower but were too small and too many to simply pick up by hand.  So lots of raking. Monday and nicely mowed....a hint that the cyclone is coming but thinking....they...