Welcome Little Miss Croghan Blog Hop

Hello!

Today I get to take part in an extra special blog hop for the very wonderful Lesley Croghan who is expecting the arrival of her beautiful baby girl very soon! I'm so excited for Lesley! First babies are just amazing and baby girls are just awesome (I may be slightly biased as the mother of two girls, haha!).

I've been lucky enough to be on the design team for two of Lesley's challenges - Dynamic Duos (I still miss this one, it was so challenging and so much fun!) and Fusion Card Challenge (which is still going strong). Lesley has a talent for imagining fun ideas that everyone just wants to play along with. I've played along with most of her many challenges over the years. :-)

For my card, I took inspiration from the nursery colour scheme that Lesley posted on her blog - Cameo Coral, Coastal Cabana, Smokey Slate, and White.

I used Wplus9 Be Merry Florals stamps, PTI sentiment stamp and die.

This post is going live at midnight my time, so I will be linking up a little later on after I wake up in the morning. I can't wait to see Lesley's reaction and I hope that she feels the love being sent her way from all over the world.

Lesley, I hope you last few weeks of pregnancy progress well with zero issues. I hope your delivery is exactly as you wish for. And I really hope you experience an amazing sense of awe when your little girl arrives into the world. There's nothing like it. I hope you enjoy your box filled with wonder. I missed the box, but my card is on its way!

Thank-you very much to Lori Turner for coordinating us all! Lori pulled it all together with such apparent ease and I know that there was a lot of work involved but Lori has stayed cool, calm, and collected the whole time. Thanks, Lori!

Thanks for visiting! Please take some time to check out the blog hop, there's sure to be some fabulous baby card inspiration along the way.


Michelle
xxx

CAS(E) This Sketch 117

Hello!

It has been raining here. The volume of water coming from the sky makes me wonder if there is any left in the ocean. My backyard is a big puddle. The poor chickens have nowhere dry to stand. My dog keeps bringing the mud into the house after a wander in the rain... she just loves the water! Our tank is overflowing. All that water just running down the hill. I'm pretty sure the last time it rained like this in April was around 1996 when we were building our first house. Somehow Summer has forgotten to leave properly. The temperature is now bearable, no longer super hot, but the rain remains. Oh well, I think this Easter week-end will be spent mostly snuggling with the family inside. :-)

I'm bringing you my card for CAS(E) This Sketch. The sketch is a super CAS design so I made a super-CAS card.

I just love this giraffe from Mama Elephant's Nursery Deco stamp set. Such a cutie!

We recently had a new great-niece arrive in the family. She looks just like her big sister, and just as beautiful! We are yet to meet her, and I'm looking forward to the day we do. :-)

Thanks for visiting! I hope you have the time to visit the rest of the CTS team and then to join in on the fun! Have a wonderful Easter.

Michelle
xxx

Welcome Little One

Hello!

I'm popping in quickly tonight to share a card I made for Retro Sketches and Pals Paper Arts.

I used Mama Elephant Nursery Deco and PTI Sweet Speech stamps. The paper is SU!

I flipped the sketch.

These colours are just fabulous, and I had the perfect paper to match, lucky me!

Not much to say. I'm a bit tired after a busy day at work. My brain has shut down already! It must be bedtime. ;-)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Fusion #5

Hello!

I'm back with another Fusion Challenge card! I've gone one layer and I've taken one little portion of the inspiration photo and used the colours as well for this one.

See the lower left corner of the inspiration photo, where there are the line drawings over the coloured splotches? That is where I found my inspiration! :-) I took my Mama Elephant Nursery Deco stamps, flipped them over and stamped the splotches, and then flipped them the right way  to stamp the black line images. I've never used this technique before. I think I'll play around with it a little more, it was fun! Colours are Distress Ink Mustard Seed, and SU! Pool Party. The black was Ranger Archival Black. I'm still intrigued by that handbag, too... perhaps I'll come back later in the week to respond to that little piece of inspiration. ;-)

If you'd like to see some of the other inspiration on offer for this challenge, why not drop by the rest of the design team?

Betty J
Cathy Weber 
Dannielle Robeson
Deepti
Geri Freeman
Julia Aston
Katie Brooks
Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan 

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu
Stephanie Severin

Some of you will remember my dog Coco's adventures three weeks lost in the wilderness (of suburban Brisbane) through January. We took her for a haircut on the week-end, and under her fur I found her weight has been fully recovered (and perhaps a little extra, oops!). Here are some before and after photos. I like her furry, but the heat is too high at the moment to leave her with too much cover.

 This week I've been in Perth. As this post goes live I will be flying back into Brisbane. I have never been to Perth. It is over five hours flight away, on the other side of the country. Unfortunately I only get one and a half days and I'm working the whole time, otherwise I would be catching up with some of my friends while I'm there. I can't believe I'm going to Perth and can't meet up with anyone!! I probably won't even get to see much of the City, and I hear it is beautiful. I might have to get up early and take a little walk. :-)

Thank-you for visiting! I hope to see you over at Fusion soon!

Michelle
xxx

CASE Study #163

Hello!

I'm still pinching myself. I'm really in the fourth week of guest designing for CASE Study!! Eek!

This week at CASE Study challenge #163, the inspiration photo is pretty in pink! Elena made the most beautiful ballerina set of tags. She had me wishing I had ballerina stamps! I don't, so I went the next best option and made a card for a baby girl, with a tag on the front. ;-)

I used Mama Elephant Nursery Deco stamps. Colours are SU! Pretty in Pink and PTI Hibiscus Burst.

I did get some help on the card sketch this week, which came from Retro Sketches #86.

Thank you for coming to visit me! I hope you pop over to CASE Study and visit the rest of the team. Then I hope you join in the fun and make your own version from Elena's amazing inspiration. :-)  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Michelle
xxx

Dynamic Duos #65

Hello!

It's been a quiet few weeks here on the blog. It will probably be a little quiet for a few more weeks. Work is busy, and after this week-end I am away every week-end for a month! We are heading into birthday season in our home, starting in two weeks and lasting two months. We also have a wedding to attend (which I need to make a card for!). In the middle of everything, we've decided to squeeze in a mini-holiday - a long-week-end in the Snowy Mountains, yay! It's been snowing quite a bit for the past week or so, so I am hoping the snow holds on for another two weeks. The season started dismally, and until a short while ago there was barely any natural snow. I think Australia has had the warmest winter in history this year, sigh! I hope it doesn't lead into the hottest summer in history, because our summers are quite hot enough already. ;-)

Anyway, onto the reason for my post today. It's time for new colours at Dynamic Duos! This week we have Blushing Bride and Pistachio Pudding. I immediately thought of babies when looking at these soft pastels.

I used PTI Wonderful Words: Baby and Polka Dot Parade #4 stamps and die. Colours are SU! Certainly Celery and Sweet Blush.

The rest of the team have done wonders with these colours this week. Why don't you pay them a visit?

Alison Barclay

Anne Marie Hile

Debbie Henderson

Hayley Kew

Janet Bagnall

Janet Zeppa

Lori Turner

Susie Wittwer

Tara Bourgoin

Tracey McNeely

Thanks for coming by to see me!

Michelle
xxx

CAS Baby

Hello!

Today I bring you my contribution to CASE Study #141 and CARDS Magazine May Challenge.

I used Mama Elephant Nursery Deco. Ink is PTI Hawaiian Shores, Hero Arts Pale Tomato, SU! Daffodil Delight. Twine is Twinery Lemon Drop.

The inspiration came from Maile Belles' card at CASE Study.

I was actually using the colour inspiration from CARDS Magazine, and didn't have the photo of Maile's card in front of me when I made my card (I'd sketched the layout, to try to come up with my own version). Anyway, I ended up with a VERY similar card, oops!

Today I'm back at work for the week. I think week-ends need to be a LOT longer. Two days is just not enough. ;-)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Retro Sketches #52

Hello!

It's hot and sticky here today. So uncomfortable. I'm praying for a big storm to bring some relief.

Retro Sketches #52 is inviting us to choose one of the past 51 sketches to use for our entry this week.

This is my card.

I used Mama Elephant Nursery Deco and Basic Borders (those spots on the giraffe), and a PTI Think Big Favorites (not sure which number). Ink was Memento Grey Flannel, SU! Pretty In Pink, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue.

The sketch I used was this one.

Off to try to squeeze in another card or two before I finish the week-end. We've had such a busy week-end, I've found crafting time non-existent! This working five days a week gig is very bad news for the crafting life, LOL!

Thanks for dropping by!

Michelle
xxx

Clean and Simple Card Making 2 - Day 4

Hello!

Again today at Clean & Simple Card Making 2, the inspiration was overwhelming! I'm still working on Day 4, and hopefully I'll come up with something amazing to share. This is where I am up to so far. :-)

One card, by Kristina, was a variation on the chalkboard theme - clean and simple chalkboard (no dust and no blurs, and lots of black space. Here is my version.

I used my current favourite baby stamp set, Mama Elephant Nursery Deco. I white embossed the stamped images, and drew the white frame using my gel pen.

My other cards are the best of a big batch. Some of my cards today actually ended up in the rubbish bin, and if you know me and my "don't waste anything" mentality, this is a sign that this technique was beyond me today! LOL! Anyway, here are two that were partially salvaged. I have to go back and do this again. The technique was demonstrated by Julie Ebersole and she is one of my cardmaking heroes. Julie makes it look so easy, and yet it WASN'T (for me).

I used Stampin' Up! Organic Grace, All A Flutter, and Because I Care (all retired).

Thanks for coming by to visit!

Michelle
xxx

A card in 10 minutes?

Hello!

I've been watching the 10 Minute Craft Dash for a while now. I've been intrigued. I look at everyone's amazing creations and think to myself, "There is NO WAY I would ever be able to create a card within 10 minutes!"  It turns out I was wrong. I can actually create a card in 2 minutes 27 seconds. And then if I want to fancy it up a bit, it will take me 6 minutes and 8 seconds. And then, if I want to add a little extra bling at the end, I'm pretty confident it didn't take me 3 minutes and 52 seconds to adhere it. :-)

This is the final card. Yes, I've been photographing at night again (sorry!).

I used Mama Elephant Nursery Deco stamps. Card base is PTI Basic White. Ink is Memento London Fog and SU! Pretty in Pink. The paper is Pebbles.

The 10 Minute Craft Dash for Challenge #10 asks us to use the colours Green, Pink, and Grey.  I immediately thought of this stamp set and a one-layer baby card. It definitely helps to have an idea in your head before you start a 10 minute card!

The following photos show my stages and timing. This was the first version.

Totally acceptable if you only have 3 minutes before you have to dash out the door and you've forgotten a card. But, I felt that little giraffe needed a little boost... so...

This was the second stage.

It takes me 3 1/2 minutes to stamp and fussy cut one tiny giraffe. Now, can you see why I like dies so much?

The final version (up top) has a couple of rhinestones, but I'd stopped timing, and only decided to add them while I was photographing the card. It took me another 10 seconds or so to attach them.

I might give this challenge another go, and try to make something more involved next time! I think I made it too easy on myself by going one-layer. ;-)

This was fun!

Thanks for coming to visit!

Michelle
xxx

New Baby - a splash of pink

Hello!

This morning I have a new baby card to share, using a splash of pink.

I used Mama Elephant Nursery Deco stamps, PTI Basic White card, SU! Pretty In Pink, Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and a little Blossom Twine.

I am seriously in love with this Mama Elephant stamp set. I can't wait for more babies to arrive so that I can make MORE baby cards, LOL!

This card is for two challenges.

Less Is More challenge #101 - black and white with a splash of colour. It has been so long since I've played along at LIM! It's good to be back. :-)

Simon Says Stamp - new something.

EDIT: I'm adding this as a second entry to CAS-ology #25

Thanks for coming by to visit!

Michelle
xxx

Tuesday Trigger: Frame by Frame

Hello!

Today I get to show off some of my new stamps that haven't had a blog outing yet. I bought Mama Elephant's Nursery Deco set when it was first released, because it is totally irresistible! Here is today's card.

Stamps are Mama Elephant Nursery Deco. Patterned papers are a variety from Stampin' Up! and Papertrey Ink. Colours are PTI Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, Fresh Linen, SU! Pretty in Pink, Daffodil Delight, Coral, Barely Banana. Ink is Memento Tuxedo Black and SU! Early Espresso.

The inspiration came from Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger: Frame by Frame

I went a bit bolder in the colours that I used, but I think I still ended up with a card that reflects the trigger. :-)

Those of you who have been hanging out with me for a while will know that I'm not a fan of fussy cutting, but this card is full of it. I can say that I feel that, in this case, it was worth it. ;-)

Thanks for dropping by.

Michelle
xxx

PDCC#113 - Baby Congratulations

Hello!

The Play Date Cafe Challenge this week has the most beautiful sea glass colours as the inspiration. I think these colours rival yellow as my absolute favourite.  Unfortunately, I don't have sea glass colours in my ink supplies, a major oversight that I MUST take care of.

This is the colour story:

Yum, don't you think? I am pretty sure I have that top left photo torn out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine, for future reference for paint colours somewhere in my home. :-)

I have gone for a "blue" theme and hope it fits well enough.  One of our cousins has just had a baby boy within the past 24 hours, and this card will be winging its way to him very soon.

My card:

I absolutely adore this card, totally. The frog is one of my favourite images from Jane's Doodles' Garden Friends set. The dies are PTI. The embossing folder is Sizzix, I inked it up before embossing to get the blue stripes. The sentiments are from PTI - Inside and Out: Baby. I coloured the frog using my Inktense pencils.

I hope you like him.

Michelle
xxx

Baby girl card for CTD#160

For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down, or click HERE

Hello!

It is a stunningly beautiful day here today, and I am on holidays! Yippee!  

Yesterday I spent the day with a couple of stamping friends, and got a lot of chatting accomplished, but not a lot of stamping, LOL.  I did stamp out some friendship jars, so hopefully I'll do something with those elements soon.  

Today I actually did some housework BEFORE starting stamping. Yes, floors and bathrooms are sparkling, a load of washing is swinging in the breeze, and I even emptied and reloaded the dishwasher.  The kids played around taking photos. I haven't looked at the photos yet, I'm a bit scared of what they might have come up with...

This card was supposed to be an entry into the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge, but when I got to the point of making my circle, I realised I gave back my borrowed circle cutters yesterday. . . oh well.  

It is also supposed to be an entry into Color Throwdown #160, and despite one very obvious flaw, I am still going to enter it, and I am going to ask you all to pretend that the white is Very Vanilla *wink*.  These are the colours:

I'll probably have to make another card, because I truly LOVE this colour combo, I just forgot that I was supposed to be using vanilla and got all excited and carried away with how nicely my card was turning out.

This is my card:

Mmm, that looks a bit out of focus. . . let's try another one:

I really like how this turned out.  I hand-folded that ribbon and stuck it down with lots of sticky strip. I like it. I think I'll do that more. I paper-pieced the little birds, they're so sweet.

What I used:

Stamps: Jane's Doodles Garden Friends, PTI Inside and Out: Babies (sentiment)

Card: SU! Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip

Paper: SU! retired DSPs with Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie

Ribbon: Regal Rose grosgrain

So, what do you think?

Oh, I wanted to say thank-you to everyone who has been nice enough to leave me comments recently. I have made an effort to get back to visit everyone, I hope I didn't miss anyone.  It took me a while because I got distracted by all the beautiful blogs that I ended up visiting. Isn't it always the way?

Michelle

xxx

OLW #63 - Baby card

For my For Your Inspiration post, scroll down

Hello!

One Layer Wednesday is back! Yay! If you haven't looked at Jennifer and Susan's challenge, you should pop over to Jennifer's blog this week and have a go. If you haven't tried one layer yet, you should definitely have a go! For me, it is extra challenging.  This week there is the added bonus of a giveaway up for grabs - A Muse products, LOVELY!

This week's challenge is to create a one layer BABY card.  I have a few cards sitting on the table right now after spending last night trying to create SOMETHING that looked good on one layer.

I'm still playing with Jane's Doodles "Noah's Ark", because I adore the image, and I know I haven't explored everything I can do with it yet. This time, instead of paper-piecing (because of the one-layer rule), I coloured. Yes, ME, I coloured. Another of my personal challenges. I used SU! inks with a blender pen.  It turned out okay. I was using pale colours and attempting to make a gender-neutral card. I tried to anchor with the blue sponging, but I think I need something more. Maybe that is just because I have been anchoring this image with "water" in all my other cards, I feel it is a bit NUDE this time.  This was quick to create, which is always a bonus. I must be getting better at one layer.

What I used:
Card: SU! Whisper White
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! various colours
Stamps: Jane's Doodles "Noah's Ark"

What do you think? Do you like my simplified Ark?

Michelle
xxx

Nicely Neutral Baby!

For my FYI post, please scroll down, or click HERE.

Hello!

It's Fathers Day! I probably should be spending some time with my family instead of blogging. . . but my hubby and kids are having fun between basketball and Playstation, so I'm having some time out to myself.  I've been having stamping withdrawals these past two, very busy, weeks.

Today I decided to respond to the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World, which this week really, really appeals to me. . . all those neutral colours, yum! 

I needed to make another baby card. It seems that there are babies arriving left, right, and centre at the moment. I loved the idea of making a baby card in neutrals, something different to the usual pinks and blues. And I ABSOLUTELY love how this card turned out.

In real life this is so soft and warm looking. The frilled ribbon is the first time I have done anything like that for a card. I ended up having to sew the ribbon down on small strips of card to keep it in place. I do like how my "ribbon water" turned out.  The ribbon treatment was to reflect the frills on the cushions. Because of the ribbons, I had to double-pop the ark to get it to fit over the water! I added the bunting to Noah's Ark to reflect the bunting on the headboard above the bed. I luckily had a bunting stamp from Pink Paislee that fit across Noah's Ark perfectly.

What I used:
Card (SU!): Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Paper: retired SU! paper which I forget the name of
Ribbon: Chocolate Chip Taffeta, kitchen twine
Stamps: Jane's Doodles "Noahs Ark", Pink Paislee "Soiree"

Sigh! I just LOVE this card.  What do YOU think?

Michelle
xxx

Noahs' Ark - CAS#150 and JAI#78

Hello!

Well, news since I last blogged: I received an Honorable Mention (Cream in Our Coffee) over at the Playdate Cafe Challenge for this card. I was so excited. The entries were all beautiful. It amazes me sometimes, the depth of the talent out there, and I'm so grateful for all that inspiration that comes with looking at other people's work in these challenges.

This week I got some new stamps. . . and you know what that means. . . I had to get working straight away to test them out!  Back in June I came across a Blog Hop for Jane's Doodles which demonstrated Noah's Ark and Garden Friends stamp sets. Of course, I at once fell in love with both sets, and after a month of thinking about it, I couldn't hold out any longer. I have a new baby nephew arriving in the next six weeks or so, so I want to get the card prepared. . .  I might have a few prototypes along the way, LOL!  One of the great things about Jane's Doodles (apart from the fabulous stamps) is that they ship from Australia, so postage for me is reasonable, yippee! Oh, and the order arrived within two working days, and I love great service.

Today's inspiration for colour came from Just Add Ink #78:

Today's layout inspiration came from Clean & Simple FTL#150:

Unusually for me, I added some extra colours in.  I had to.  My animals needed them. LOL.  But the basic colours used stuck to the formula.  Also unusually for me, I got a bit creative with the layout.  I think it is still recognisable as FTL#150, though, don't you?

Here is my card:

Lots of paper-piecing here. Looking at my cards, you'd think I like cutting out, but I don't really.  Sometimes though, it is needed.  This stamp works beautifully with colouring, but I don't have any colouring pens, so paper-piecing it was.  I did use a blender pen to colour my monkey's nose, LOL!

What I used: Not Quite Navy sentiment, waves, and circles in the water. Sahara Sand card base, elephant and monkey's patches. Chocolate Chip monkey, giraffe spots, and all of the outlines. Certainly Celery Ark.  (I also added Pale Plum hippo, Apricot giraffe and lion face, and Pumpkin lion mane, and the Bashful Blue background because I needed sea and sky).



I actually did another card before this one, outside of any challenges, but when it was finished, I decided that I'd used too strong a blue for the sea compared to the rest of the colours, so my sea stands out and the rest of the muted papers disappear, including my animals!  I'll show you anyway, because it is still cute, and I will probably use the layout again, just with different colours. I do love my elephant's ears and my spotty giraffe on this one.  Oh, and the bird fits on this layout, I had to cut him off for the other one.

So what do you think? Isn't this image just the cutest?

Oh, I forgot to mention, I have noticed my follower count rising again. You ladies make me feel wonderful, adding me to your blog list, I feel very honoured, thank-you!

Michelle

xxx