It's a (belated) celebration!

Hello!

It's Mojo Monday's 300th challenge. I've intended to join in all week long, and I've left it to the very last minute! So a belated entry (but not too late) and a belated birthday wish to my good friend, who I neglected to send a card to on time.

I used Snippets paper, PTI Ruby Rose and Stylish Sentiments: Birthday stamps. Card base and ink is SU! Early Espresso.

This is the sketch for Mojo Monday #300.

I've just returned home from a week-end at the Gold Coast. We stayed at Surfers Paradise, which is really not my favourite place in the world (crowded, tourists, crime, massive roadworks and blocked roads), but we were treated to beautiful weather, and the kids got to play on the beach. On the beach, everything is perfect - the beach is long and white - and I can ignore the highrise buildings and the crowded streets. :-) Here is an unedited photo to give you a taste of Surfers Paradise Beach in Winter. Unfortunately a bit cloudy, today was pure blue skies, but we were on our way home and no time for photos.

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Happy 200, Color Throwdown!

Hello!

My little girl is attending her friend's 5th birthday party tomorrow. This called for some thinking about little girl presents and cards. With my own little girl by my side, I created both today.

This is the card.

What I used: Colours - SU! Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery, and Chocolate Chip. Card base is PTI Vintage Cream. Image panel is watercolour paper. I used Hero Arts Envelope Pattern background stamp, and SU! Pony Party (I think this one is retired, but I still love it).

Bright, hey? The colours come from this week's Color Throwdown, which happens to be their 200th challenge! Woo hoo! When I first saw the colours, I thought that I would never be able to use these five colours on one card, with four of them being so bright. What did I know? I LOVE how these colours work together. :-)

I don't use Pink Passion very often. Or Tempting Turquoise, for that matter. The Brights probably don't get a fair go in my cardmaking. And look how happy they make my card look. :-)

The layout is from Mojo Monday. I didn't follow it faithfully. The three little dots at the bottom became three flowers around the central image, and the sentiment flag at the top became sentiment grass at the bottom.

And now on to the pressie! I made an 8" x 10" frame, using Pony Party and some gorgeous Pebbles papers, and a bit of SU! and a bit of Pink Paislee.

I sparkled up Stella's name with Dazzling Diamonds glitter (just quietly, I sparkled myself up quite a bit, too!). Those little clouds are Memory Box Puffy Clouds. The pony is coloured in PTI Fine Linen and SU! Pretty in Pink, and has liquid pearls brushed over. She's very pretty. I hope Stella loves it. I know my little girl does.

Thanks for coming by.

Michelle
xxx

A card by my daughter

Hello!

My 9 year old daughter, Olivia, did some stamping with me yesterday. She wanted to make a card for a challenge. She chose a sketch challenge and a colour challenge, but when we came to finish up the card, we realised that my printer had betrayed us and printed yellow as green! So the colour challenge was dropped and this is her entry into Mojo Monday #246.

She used Cameo Coral, Pool Party, Not Quite Navy, and Old Olive. The images are Kikki K and the sentiment is Hero Arts.

The sketch she used was this one, turned on its side.

Thanks for coming by. I would love it if you would leave some comments for Olivia, to let her know that you took a look at her card.

Thanks!
Michelle.

For Your Inspiration #30

Hello!

It's time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Challenge number 30, to be precise. The inspiration photo at first glance was tricky for me, but then I thought about it for a while, and ideas started jumping! This is an AWESOME inspiration photo and the DT have done AMAZING things in response to it.

Take a look:

Sitting here in my jacket and scarf, I totally start daydreaming of summer while looking at this picture.

I'm in Brisbane (most of you know this) and we have fairly mild weather most of the year. This autumn it has been as warm as summer, well as warm as summer somewhere else (Summer in Brisbane is really HOT). Autumn hasn't really hit. This week we skipped past autumn and went straight to winter. Morning temps are quite cool (about 8 celcius/46F) and we have no heating, so getting out of bed is a challenge!

Anyway, back to the challenge! I had an idea formed, but I really needed a layout and I couldn't think one up myself in this instance, so I went where I knew I would find a great layout - Mojo Monday. This sketch is for Mojo Monday 241.

I love this sketch, I think I'll use it again.

In the end, this is how my card turned out.

I'm in love with this card. It turned out even better than I imagined!

Card: crumb cake, pumpkin pie, early espresso, apricot appeal (retired)
Ink: early espresso
Stamps: PTI Turning a New Leaf, Pretty Peonies
Other: PTI buttons, Sizzix dots embossing folder, twine, Spellbinders circle dies, SU! square punch (for the ends of the banner)

The DT have done some seriously awesome things with this inspiration. Please take some time to browse their creations, because I promise you'll be inspired.

Debbie

Debby
Rudlis
Karen

Rochelle

Sara

Steph
Sylvia

Vicki

I'm looking forward to seeing your responses to this photograph, too!

Michelle
xxx

Happy 40th Birthday

Hello!

I have been thinking about my brother's birthday card for a few weeks. I have to send it to the UK, so I need to be a little organised. I would sort of like it to arrive in time for his birthday this year, since it is a big one... I am fairly certain that he never looks at my blog, so I should be okay sharing his card here well before the big day.

If he does pop in (by a miracle), Happy Birthday, dear brother!

I picked up a new-to-me, hand-me-down stamp set or two the other day (thank-you, Cassandra), and I've been itching to get into them. Added to those, I have a couple of borrowed stamp sets too. Oh, I am a lucky girl to have such good friends.

I found the Mojo Monday Sketch #208, on Monday, funnily enough, and I have been looking for a colour scheme ever since. The sketch is this one:

The square sketch really, really appeals to me. So neat and tidy, two squares and two rectangles inside a square. Mmm, nice!

Today the new Play Date Cafe Challenge #101 came out. The colour scheme is gorgeous, and perfect for a masculine card. It is also perfect for the ideas I had floating about in my head for this card. These are the colours:

On the subject of The Play Date Cafe, I'm very thrilled to let you know that the card I squeezed in at the last minute for Challenge #100 received an Honourable Mention. I'm the Cream in their Coffee! Am I feeling a little excited about this? You betcha! I find it so thrilling when a card I really like, is really liked by others. Thank-you, thank-you, PDCC Team.

So back onto the subject at hand...my card:

There is a tonne of shimmer mist on the cream panels, but I don't think you can see it much in any of my photos. The patterned paper is metallic, so the shimmer mist works well. I don't usually do this type of stamping - lots of different stamps layered on top of each other - but this is what has been sitting at the back of my mind for a week, so I did it. The card is supposed to be warm like a big hug, with uplifting messages (live, love, laugh, dream), along with the birthday wishes. I feel that I achieved what I was trying to do. I played around with all sorts of other embellishments, but I couldn't work them in. My CAS soul wouldn't let me frilly it up any further, LOL!

What I used:
Stamps: PTI Embellishments, Postmarks, Outlines Alphabet
Card: SU! Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Paper: SU! Mocha Morning (yummo! I just knew I NEEDED this paper)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Ruby Red
Shimmer Mist

So, what do you think?

Michelle
xxx

Put on your sunglasses for Mojo Monday 202

Hello!

Today's cards are so, so different to what I usually do, but I have a couple of young girl birthdays this week-end, and I thought I would try something fun. So put on your sunglasses, they're BRIGHT. 

When I saw the Mojo Monday sketch this week, I had so many ideas, not quite as bright as what I've ended up with, but lots of ideas anyway, LOL!  It is a great sketch.  This is my first ever entry into Mojo Monday. I look every week, but until now haven't made it to making my entry in time. 

Here is my entry:

Bright, isn't it?

Here is the sketch:

Several weeks ago I won a set of papers and other bits and bobs from the Moxie Fab World blog.  The set was pretty much everything from the Pink Paislee "Soiree" collection. The papers are bright and fun. Some of the bits are more angled towards scrapbooking, but that hasn't stopped me using them!

Here is the second card, almost the same as the first, but slightly different:

No stamping on these cards. That's a first for me!  The pink card base is SU Pretty In Pink. The colourful ribbon on the first card is SU. The ribbons on the second card and the bling on both are from my stash. Every other thing is Pink Paislee Soiree.

My daughter has given the stamp of approval, so they're definitely being given out this week-end.

What do you think?

Michelle
xxx