Craftmad January Sketch

This is the Craftmad January Sketch Challenge and you will see what other members have come up with here in this gallery album.

Not sure if this is a Valentines card for hubby - we don't normally do anything special for this day.  Or maybe an Anniversary card for my Mum and Dad's 48th Anniversary in February.  Decisions. :-)

Anyways, I used the sketch above and turned it sideways.  Started with some Bazzill Cardstock then Stampin Up Blush Blossom...yes I know old stock.  I embossed this with my Victoria folder.  Added the satin ribbon which I feel could have had a little something running down the centre.  Yes, I am not entirely happy with the finish of the card.  That is why it is still sitting on my desk waiting for sudden inspiration.  I then added the labels that I have had in my collection for a while now and finished with the heart bling.

I would like to share this at:

Bearly Mine - #71 Hearts Galore

Shopping you Stash - #87 Valentines, Hearts, Red, etc

Alpha Challenge

Over at 'The Craft Barn' I have been watching a fun challenge grow.  A few people who own blogs I follow have been entering their creations.  This weekend I had a little extra time and thought why not have a play.  The idea of the challenge is that every fortnight a letter will be chosen and then preferably you alter a page in a dictionary matching a image to a word chosen using that letter.  I found this old primary school dictionary on the shelf that has already been altered by our daughter (she is now 17yo).  :-)  I hesitated as I thought she may want it for memory sake and then thought, 'no, she will just google rather than use a book'.  Yes, she spied me doing a page and said that the book had lots of memories and was sad that she couldn't use it anymore.  I told her I would buy her a new one if ever she needs a dictionary and that I am just adding more memories to this one.  :-)

So the first letter was 'V'.  I went through all my stamps and came up with VINE which I have circled.  The opposite page I painted over with straight White acrylic paint.  Then stamped up with this vine from a Kaisercraft Stamp set, the bird is from the same set, the butterflies are from a Stampin Up punch.  I finished by chalking clouds in the background.

The current letter is 'C'.  Originally I was going for cupcake but this word is not listed in this dictionary.  So thought this was a good chance to use these wonderful gold 'Communication' stickers from 'The Sticker Store'.  This time I painted both pages with the white paint leaving the word highlighted.  I added the stickers with some word stamps I found in my collection.  Finished with the various dots and some gold glow smooch spritz from Stampin Up.

So I would like to enter the above page in the 'C' challenge at the Craft Barn.

I have to share.....

I have just been to visit Baukje blog - Quilling Creations and she has the most amazing quilled teacup, sauce and teaspoon.  I just have to share.  Here is a tease photo.

Happy Australia Day

To all the Aussies.....happy Australia Day.

Sausage Sizzle and waterslide on the agenda for us.  :-)  Maybe a bit of backyard cricket if someone brings a bat and ball.

Google Reader and Photos?

Hi there, one of my lovely followers Wilma has pointed out that she can't view photos from my blog post through Google Reader.  However, when she visits my blog she can see the photos.  Same thing happens when I try to look at my blog through Google Reader, I just get white space where the photos should be.  Have other people had this problem in the past and do you know what I can do to fix this?

I personally just use my Reading List on my Dashboard here at Blogger to keep track of blogs that I like to read.  However, I thought I would try to fix it so that people that do use Google Reader can see the photos immediately.  Thanks for any help.

Update......... looks like I have fixed it and the only change I made was Cathy's suggestion here:

"It may have something to do with your site feed settings. In Settings, Other, see what it says, it may be selected to short ;-)"

Hope that can help someone else at sometime.  This did not happen instantly....seemed to take a couple of days.

Craftmad Moneybox Swap

This is the start of my moneybox.  Over at Craftmad we decided to swap a moneybox (gallery here) so that we could start saving for the next get together in October.  I was googling and saw a suggestion of using a soup tin.  So for some silly reason I thought I could not buy the classic tomato soup which is lovely and runny I must buy something special.  So Potato and Leek it was.

Out in the backyard with a hammer and nail to punch some holes along where I wanted the slot.

Then I used the chisel to make the slot nice and even.  Next I had to shake out that thick Potato and Leek soup.  Silly, next time a nice broth I think.  Rinsed it out, removed the label and had to let it air for a little as the soup smell was really strong.

Then decorated the outside with these lovely papers, bling and kindy glitz, rub-ons and stickers.  Actually, my daughter helped me out and started the decorating and I finished it off.

MichelleH...recognised the stickers they were perfect for the job.  

The top view...I added a piece of matching paper to make the slot look really tidy.

The other end.  Yes, the only way into get the money is by the pull tab.  So once it's opened thats the end of your saving.  I think a good incentive not to raid the moneybox.

I would like to share this with:

Scrappy Frogs - Try Something New

Inspire Me Fridays - #92 Always Anything Goes

Crafty Catz - #166 Anything but a Card

I was featured at Inspire Me Fridays for this project.  Thanks Maria.  :-)

Half Way Inspiration for Unstampabelles

This is my Design Team Half Way Inspiration card for Unstampabelles Challenge #19 - Use One or More Dies I have decided to have a male theme.  I dug out my Large and Small Spellbinder Octagons dies and cut a large octagon from white gloss cardstock and the smaller octagon from the Past Spodia patterned paper range from Blue Edge Crafts.  The base card and next layer are Linen Textured Cardstock.  I added a strip of Stampin Up Chocolate Chip through the hexagons which I topped with a couple of ribbons from my stash. The sentiment is a rub-on and then finally found a button which threaded with kitchen twine.

This card has a duel purpose.  My half way inspiration for Unstampabelles which Craftmad is sponsoring.  It also is one of my swap cards for this month at Craftmad (gallery here), the theme just happens to be two card Using One or More Dies. :-)

I would like to share this card over at 

Moving Along With the Times - Birthday

Card Crafters Circle - #58 Layers.

Make it Monday - #124 Always Anything Goes

Inspire Me Fridays - #92 Always Anything Goes

Port Douglas, North Queensland

These are a small portion of the photos taken of Port Douglas by my hubby when we stayed the week over New Years.

This is a view is taken from Island Point Lookout looking back over Four Mile Beach.  You will notice that everyone is swimming in the stinger net area.  So they are protected from the Box Jelly Fish and Irukandji Jelly Fish which frequent our coastline between October and June.

From Island Point Lookout looking back down our coastline towards Cairns.  

I thought this was a pretty photo and needed sharing.  A flower on the lookout walk.

 Looking out from Island Point Lookout to Low Isles.  The first little bump on the left is actually Low Isle where the tourist visit and get a glimpse of coral and tropical fish when snorkelling.  The second bump is Woody Island which is part of the Low Isles....but is an uninhabited coral/mangrove island.  Lastly, the third bump is a Freighter Ship.

View from Island Point Lookout looking back over Port Douglas. 

St Mary's by the Sea Church....yes, lots of weddings are held here.

A landmark of Port Douglas.

Different view.

Never too old for a swing.  Me giving my daughter a push. :-)

The family waiting for hubby to take some photos.

Anzac Park, Port Douglas.  The fisherman in the centre has such a hard life. :-)

I just like this shot.

Macrossan Street Port Douglas...the main street full of dress shops and restaurants.

Thanks for visiting, hope you all have a great weekend.  Hopefully next week I will share our sons view of Port Douglas.  Too many photos to put in one post.

Last of the Rainbow Churn Dash Block

Just discovered the Thearica has set up a linky party just for Churn Dash Blocks/Quilts....check it out here.

The last six months over at Craftmad saw four of us swapping Churn Dash Blocks in rainbow colours. It has been wonderful fun going out searching for the right colour fabric each month and then making up the blocks for the swap.  At the end we decided to swap Violet or Purple blocks which would cover the Violet and Indigo colours of the rainbow.  We just thought this last two colours were too similar so we added Pink as our last block colour.  These are mine here.

These are all the blocks that I have received so far. Just waiting on a pink and purple.  Not bad out of six swaps and with three people sending them each time .....so 18 envelopes only one got lost in the mail system.  Yes, it contained a Yellow and a Blue.  Although luckily at the start of the swap one of the members mixed up their colours and sent me a blue block to start with in lieu of green which she later made.  So I do have four blue blocks.

Edited......if you would like to see other Churn Dash Quilts visit Thearica's 'Do the Dash' Linky Party here.

Cathy was one of my swap partners and she has come up with the idea of adding black sashing which I was planning on doing but then adding a square of the fabric from each of our blocks at each join.  I think this would look wonderful.    Does anyone have any suggestions of how they would put this together?  I would love to hear.  I am not really sure if my sewing machine can handle this size.  Or rather if I can handle this size with my sewing machine. :-)

Just sharing this photo as our dog was in a posing mood this morning and took a while to move away so I could take a photo.  Sorry the photos are so dark but looks like the wet season may be starting.  Yep, a few light showers this morning and apparently the forecast is for rain for the next week.  The plants will be so happy.

Weave Bag from Papua New Guinea

I thought this was very special and needed to be shared.  My daughter did some child minding last year while the Mum visited her Mum in Papua New Guinea.  This is the lovely bag that she brought back as a thank you present.  Apparently, this was made by a 12yo girl.  I was told what tree the fibres came from but can't remember at the moment.  This is a link that talks about Bilums (String Bags) of Papua New Guinea.

I really love the texture of the bag and the natural colours.

Reverse Applique Coasters

Over at Craftmad back in October 2012 our sewing swap was Coasters.  Yes, took me a while to finish this one because of a mixture of time and motivation.  In December I finally completed the coasters above and sent them off to my very patient partner Cathy.  :-)  I had so much fun sewing these coasters which apparently is Reverse Appliqué that I made another two sets from friends at Christmas time.  I found the pattern here at 'The Sometimes Crafter' great tutorial.  You can see the other swapped coasters in our gallery here at Craftmad.

*Tip - in the tutorial the edge of the coasters are cut with pinking shears.  I don't own a pair of them so I used my Crafters Companion paper cutter with the wavy edge blade.

Enjoy your third week of the year.

I would like to share these at:

Inspire Me Fridays - #91 Always Anything Goes

For the very first time I thought I would share this in Jill's -

'A Round Tuit - #136'

as this is definitely something I finally got around to it. :-)

2013 Alpha Challenge

I was just visiting Chris's blog the Sketching Stamper and she was showing off her DT piece for a  challenge called 2013 Alpha Challenge.  They suggest using a dictionary for the images which Chris has used for her creation and plans to use that for other letters of the alphabet as they come up in a challenge.  The first letter is 'v' and Chris chose VOYAGE which she circled in the dictionary and on the opposite page stamped a hot air balloon and coloured it.

The reason I am sharing as I think this is I think it is such a wonderful idea and the end product would be so much fun.  It is something I would like to try but I don't think  I will get to it straight away but thought some else who visits would like to have a try.  It's on my 'to do' list for this year.

Quilting by Cathy

Just wanted to share this post of Cathy's sharing her favourite quilt for 2012.

I have enjoyed watching Cathy's blog as she tries new quilting blocks and techniques.  She is such a neat sewer and inspires me to keep trying.

Anyways, Cathy has entered this quilt into the Quilter's Show and Tell event and needs votes to help her win a special prize.  Just thought maybe you would like to check out all the very beautiful quilts that are entered along side Cathy's lovely quilt and put in some votes.  You can vote on four different quilts.  Even with this number it was hard to reduce the choice to four.  So many talented people and so many different styles.

Here is Cathy's Blog Post

and here is the link to the Quilter's Show and Tell event.

Happy 90th Hilda

I was recently asked to make a card for a lady named Hilda who turned 90.  This lady looks so small and fragile but very strong willed and determined.  It was only about 5-7 years ago that she stopped riding her pushbike everywhere around town.  Hilda still likes to walk most places although much slower these days and you have to fight her to take a lift especially when the temperatures are up around 35C.

I dug out my Stampin Up cardstock and papers to create this Joy Fold Card.  I have used a white sticker sentiment (Sticker Store) along the top and a lovely white lace sticker along the bottom.  The image 'Ribbon Roses' from Beccy's Place I have coloured with my copic pens.  Below I have share a few more views of my card.  I have a little time today and hope to catch up on some of the wonderful blogs I love to follow.  So see you soon....wishing everyone a good Friday.

Jungle Surfing Cape Trib

Warning.....lots of photos, 21 to be exact. :-)  You can click on the photo for a larger view.

I have decided to share our photos starting from our last day.  For one week we stayed in a house at Oak Beach which is approx 10mins south of Port Douglas.  The final day we drove past Port Douglas, through Mossman and onto Cape Trib or Cape Tribulation, we Aussie have to shorten everything.  As the sign says we have to use the ferry to get to the other side of Daintree River.

The Ferry Ride

Off the Ferry and ready for the thin winding road through the thick rainforest.

 First stop Alexander Lookout.  Rainforest meets Great Barrier Reef.

Now the reason we headed to Cape Trib......we are going Jungle Surfing check this link out.

This myself and our daughter kitted with harnesses and helmets before we commenced the 5min walk uphill to the first platform.

The staff have fun with handing out the helmets I am sure.  This is my husband with his 'Tinkerbell' helmet.  I had 'Alice in Wonderland', our daughter had 'Bambi' and our son had 'Tweetypie'.  

I was the first for our family off the platform.....isn't that a confident smile. lol

This myself and our daughter heading from platform one to two.

Hubby is already to go with camera.  Don't worry the camera is safely clicked on to his harness.

The view from one of the flying fox zipline sections.  There were four sections in all.

The guide waiting for us on platform three.

Our son the budding photographer.  These photos are a mixture of his and my husbands.

This is the shot of my husbands feet whilst dangling 22.5 metres above the ground.  This is half way across the second flying fox zipline where they let you dangle for a little to take in the view. :-)

Not sure if our son has a face anymore as this seems to be all we see. :-)

A downward view.

The guides like to challenge you on each section of the flying fox zipline.  First section it is just the fact that you are out there and getting used to the idea that the harness does support you.  Second section is where they guide you out to half way which is the highest point of 22.5 metres above the ground they let you sit there for a little.  Third section.....time to let go and fly with your arms out wide.  This is our son showing how it's done.

Fourth section, it's time to let go and hang upside down.  Yep, this is me.  I managed all the other sections quite confindently when I was used to the harness.  Hanging upside down did get my adrenaline rushing but I am glad I did it.

This is all in a days work for our daughter who loved the experience but thought it was all a tad slow.  She does abseiling with Rangers and just loves the thrill of it all.

Here is hubby having his turn and enjoying it more than me.

Not sure if this photo will enlarge but it is a panoramic that hubby took at Cape Tribulation where two World Heritage Sites meet.  The Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

Heading home and back on the ferry.

I hope you enjoyed our day.  If you are ever in Cape Tribulation I thoroughly recommend the Jungle Surfing.  Have a great day.