MerryMade Crafts etc ...

  Hi everyone,  I made this for my nephew who turned 12 last week. As I'm not quite sure what he is into these days, I thought I'd stick with a bright, cheery and fun theme. I layered up some word die cuts, coloured the top ones with my silver pen.  

   Our Craftmad Swap for November (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1862456534025182) was 1 x Recycle card and 1 x card using another card as inspiration.  I used all the items above to create my card below, this was my second attempt of the recycle card as I wasn't really happy with my first try.  The orange background squares used the granola box topped with an egg shell mosiac - such fun.  A technique I will do again.  The flowers and letters from a magazine. My first attempt used all of this - calendar, dictionary page, ribbon from gifts received and washi tape. I love looking at styles like this and admire them but I just can't seem to get it.  I'll stick to looking and admiring. Our inspiration photo My card.  The flowers are embossed onto a pearl sheen card which doesn't show in the photo.  I hand cut around the flowers. Thanks for visiting and I will try really hard to not leave my next post too long.

Hi everyone,  I like these weeks in review posts I have been doing.  It's fun going back through my photos to see what caught my eye during the week.  Not many photos to share but did have some achievements, like our burn pile which was from the cyclone in March finally was reduced by two thirds.  What remained was still too wet or turning to mulch.  We are still getting rain, not much but enough to keep everything lovely and green and wet.  Now the artwork above I just love, it was hanging at the local cafe for sale and what's even better is, I discovered it was my Mum's cousin who had painted this piece.  :-D  I have watched her work evolve as I have grown up, her first artworks were cane fields and poinciana trees.  I love all the detail in this piece so had to share.  You can find out more about Lorraine and her work here. This is huge, I replaced the zip in my daughters favourite skorts, only took 8 months.  I do not like zip s...

This was the view that greeted me Saturday morning as I was driving my puppy and I into walk along the Esplanade. This just has to mean a great day is coming…..and it wasn't bad at all. :-) Part of my Saturday was an impromptu drive through the Atherton Tablelands . My daughter asked if I would accompany her for some indoor rock climbing - they were shut.  So went off to check out an op shop - shut.  She saw a subsidiary store that her boss owns and thought we'll check that out - shut.  I thought we might go visit my friend who had moved up here and had a baby - not home.  But my friend had these amazing hibiscus in her front yard plus I got some great Mother Daughter time. :-) I saw these photos and love the story with them.  My husband took me to a coffee/breakfast meeting with his car club for Mother's Day.  About ten of around the table above until someone said so you want to see under the bonnet - then it's just me. :-) And there is - under the bonnet ...

Hi everyone, I am really feeling like my life is settling into a new routine which finally includes crafting again.  I did let my job take over but fingers crossed I am back on track.   Here are some cards I have made and loved putting together.  This one was for my Mum, the starting point was green which is her favourite colour.  I found this vellum with tiny flowers which sat nicely on the checkered paper background paper.  I don't think I have used this label die-cut before and really like the look.  Added some paper punched flowers, the vellum flowers I ran through the swiss dots embossing folder.  Added the bow and bling.  The Mothers Day sticker was black but I coloured it with a permanent silver pen. This card I made for my Mother in Law and is part of the Uniquely Creative Dreamer Card kit I bought to help with motivation and inspiration in my card making.  The kit has certainly done the trick as well as the beautiful papers I came t...

  In January, I decided I needed another quilt for our lounge and I needed to use my scraps of fabric that were really too small for anything but either too pretty to toss or had memories attached to them e.g. I had made something for one of the kids, or they were part of the quilt block swaps I used to do, or Mum gave me the fabric. So, I decided on a crumb/scrap/crazy quilt (whichever term you like).  I gathered all the pieces together and randomly started sewing fabrics together. After sewing each section I ironed the seams flat then made sure there was a straight edge I could sew to another straight edge then it was back to the sewing stage.  I think I went through this cycle about five times so that the fabrics were really mixed up in the 7" blocks I created. I decided on a black border to seperate the blocks and allow the eye to see each of the blocks lovely patterns that had been created. I just love how tiny some of the pieces of fabrics became and the shapes that...

Well its back to work for me today, I'm happy that it is raining today and looks like it will be all week rather than on my holidays.  I have gotten this far on a jigsaw of Bondi Beach in Sydney, really not sure if I will finish the sky and the water - we'll see.   Last Friday, I ticked Babinda Kayaking  off my bucket list.  Had a fantastic time and will definitely be doing this again, hopefully with Sully sitting on the front. $50 for the kayak hire, life jacket, kayaks ready for us to row away, then a pick up at the other end to bring us back to the car.  Oh, and can't forget the bonus iceblock we received.   I was all covered up and lots of sunscreen as there is not much tree coverage along the way but not too hot as you can take a dip anytime you felt like it. So peaceful and quiet, the kayaking is done at your own pace.  There were another two groups (1 x 4 and 1 x 8) floating down when we did, we would pass each other every now and again as one o...