Birthdays, birthdays everywhere...!

Hiya,

Today's update will not only show a couple of photo's from my Nephew's first birthday party last Saturday, but last Sunday my friends and I celebrated three more birthday's!!

So my Nephew Alexander's first birthday was held at a lovely park in Bethany in the Barossa Valley.  It was a fantastic day and the kids had fun running and playing on the big oval.  So the Friday night before my Ma and I made some Macarons for the party, I wanted to make them Kid friendly so I made Sherbie lolly flavoured white chocolate ganache for the middle.  These were our best batches yet, and turned out beautifully, and they tasted fantastic!!

The cake was also amazing, my Sister's very clever friend made the Chocolate shards for around the edge, and it was covered in Easter M&M's.  The gorgeous cake topper was made by the Cupcake Stylist.  The perfect finishing touch!!

On Sunday we celebrated 3 Birthday's.  First up we have Todd's card whose birthday was on Tuesday 26th.  I have known Todd since high school, and back then he often sported a mohawk in very bright colours, pink, green, blue - it has probably been every single colour at one time or another!!  So for Todd I thought my Lil Monster from Annabelle stamps would be perfect.  For his card I used my new Vintage Basic papers from Whimsy stamps, these papers are just beautiful!!

On Wednesday little Kaiden turned 5.  He is growing up into such a handsome, intelligent and loving young man.  For Kaiden I decided to use the Kaisercraft mini stamp Turtle.  For the background I used my Tumbled Glass distress stain with 2 stamps from the Kaisercraft Offshore Collection embossed with Pewter embossing powder.  The Happy Birthday postage mark stamp is from Kaszazz.

The final card I have to show was for Jess.  Jessie's birthday isn't until April 14th, but we combined her Fiancee Todd's and their son Kaiden's birthdays all together.  For Jessie I used the beautiful Nevaeh from Saturated Canary.  I have combined her with Kaisercraft paper Estelle from the English Rose collection.

The cute little birthday sentiment is from Wild Rose Studio. The bling flourishes are from Kaisercraft in Champagne colour, and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The inside shows the two beautiful sides of the paper.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter Weekend.

Thanks for looking.

My littlest man is turning one...

Well this week brings an event that is a very happy occasion.  I have three little men in my life that I absolutely love to bits.  These three men are my nephews, the oldest James is 8, William is 4 and my littlest man Alexander will be turning 1 this week.  Whilst this will be a happy occasion, it also reminds me that time is flying by so quickly and my men are growing up way, WAY too fast!!

So this Wednesday is Alex's birthday, and we are having a party to celebrate next Saturday, let's hope there is not too much rain as it will be in the park!!  I am posting this now with the theory that my sister will be way too busy getting everything done this week to check in and have a look, so Lizzie if you are reading this close the window and come back after Saturday ;o)

I am very organised for the boys birthdays this year, with all the stamps I want to use for their cards already ordered and bought months in advance, very unlike me I know!!  Usually I scramble around at the last minute to get something organised as that is generally when I do my best work...perhaps I am finally growing up too... nah that'll never happen ;o)

Ok, so lets get onto the card.  Using Edwin with Airplane from the Prince and Princesses Collection.

My colours were very much in keeping with St Patrick's day today, although not something I had thought of when I first started colouring.  The orange and green is very similar to the Irish flag colours.

The other products I used were 

• Lovely Fence doohickey from Magnolia.
• The strip of paper behind Edwin is from the Kaisercraft Little Toots collection 
• I'm not sure where the gingham is from it has been in my collection that long!  
• The sentiment is from Wild Rose Studio 
• The number 1 stamp was from my Docrafts Forever Friends Hand Script Numbers set.
• And to finish, seeing as I can't put flowers on boys cards there is plenty of stickles, there has to be something 'pretty' on there so I used my True Blue, Waterfall, Eucalyptus and some Silver...only a little bit of bling ;o)  

Alexander, I got the pleasure to see and hold you when you were only hours old.  You have such a unique little personality, and I look forward to watching you grow and learn and become your own little person.  Aunty Mimi loves you, and will always be your biggest fan xoxoxo

I'd like to enter this into
7 Kids College Fund Challenge Blog - Glitter
Tilda's Town - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking.

xx

Happy Birthday Lizzie!!

Hi All,

It was Australia Day here in Oz yesterday and what better way to spend the day than to sit with friends listening to the Triple J Hottest 100 (I'd say who came in #1 but this is a scheduled post to ensure my sister doesn't see her card before I have had a chance to give it to her).  Even better at this time of year is that it is my big Sister's birthday.

For my Lizzie's card I have used the Flourishes Sweet Pea collection inked in with Distress Inks. Flourishes stamps are made with clear acrylic they are very detailed, beautiful stamps.

The Sweet Peas were coloured using Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry.

The paper used came from the Wild Rose Studio's Annabelle's Meadow collection, and the card was finished with Wild Orchid Crafts Flowers.

Happy birthday Lizzie, I couldn't ask for a better big Sister in the whole world.  Love you to the moon and back again.

Thanks for looking

xx

Christmas 2012

Hiya,

Well it has certainly been awhile, what a crazy year 2012 was!!  Happy new year to all, here's hoping 2013 is better!!

Although not starting off so well for me, since my health problems in September 2012 have not gone away, and I am looking at probably having more surgery in the near future, here's hoping it is all out of the way early in the year and we can get on with it!!

So the end of last year crafting wise was not flash for me either, between my health and work I barely got any Christmas cards made, in fact 3 only!!

Let's start with the Wild Rose Studio's Starry Night stamp from the Xmas Bella Collection.  Being that this was for one of my male friends, I have tried to limit the bling on this and keep it a little more...blokey...??

The snowflake background was done with my Kaszazz Snowflake un-cut set and the fur on the hats was made using liquid appliqué, love using that stuff - so much fun!!!

Next card was for my sister and her family.  With three boys 8, 4 and only 9 months I certainly didn't want anything girly for my little men either.  I came across the docrafts, Christmas Boofle Stamp - Reindeer...perfect!!  The natural colours of this card seemed to blend perfectly with the colour of my reindeer making 'Rudolph's' nose pop off the card :)

Such a cutie!!

Finally a card I made for my dearest Ma.  As soon as I saw this stamp at the scrap store I had to have it.  She is quite a large stamp, but utterly gorgeous!!  I really did have a lot of fun inking her in :o)  From Penny Black Inc. it's Fairy Holly.  Not much other embellishment required for this little beauty...

The Snowflakes and Monogram M stamp are both courtesy of Kaszazz, and some liquid pearls to complete the job :)

I hope you and your families enjoyed a safe and happy festive season, and I wish you all good health, happiness, love and laughter for the year to come.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment :)


Thanks for looking xx

A catch up...

Evening Bloggers

Tonight's post is a bit of a catch up of cards I have been meaning to share for awhile now.  

This week I have not been well, and today found out I need to go into hospital for a minor operation tomorrow :o(  It's a little scary, but I am definitely looking forward to feeling better, and a hell of a lot more comfortable!!

Well enough about me, first up two cards for Miss Sammy's birthday.  The purple one I made for her husband to give her, and the Pearl and Largo (from Magnolia Summer Memories Collection) one is from me :o)

Next is a card I made for my friend Kalyan's 30th featuring Cool Edwin from Magnolia's Sweet Rainbow Collection.

Next is a gorgeous (if I do say so myself) Baby Shower card for Miss Jess.. who is due to pop anytime soon!  I have used a Kaisercraft Mini Stamp Owl as Jess is using Owls to decorate her nursery.

Next up a card for my friend Damian's Birthday using Fergus from the Wild Rose Studio

A card i made for my gorgeous nephew William's 4th birthday using the Kaisercraft Rockpool stamps, and some of their mini stamps (fish and seahorse) released to tie in with this collection

Finally tonight is a card I made for my friend Mandy to give to her parents for their Anniversary.  Using the Magnolia Loving Couple masked with the Wedding Rose Arch from the Wedding Collection.

I just love the colours of the Prima Flowers in this one - the Laraine Collection in River Rock.

That's all now.. I promise ;o)

Thanks for looking

xx

The Stash

Good afternoon Bloggers,

Wow what an amazingly busy last few weeks.  Its Sunday lunch time here in Adelaide, and I have just been lying on the couch all morning.  My boss at work has been away on leave, and I work in a small team of three, so myself and my other team mate have just been run off of our feet, it's been crazy.  Consequently I haven't been making as many cards as I would like to lately as I have been too tired, however there has been a couple of additions to the stash over the last couple of weeks.

First up is little Fergus with Tulips from the Wild Rose Studio collection.  These stamps are just beautiful, and quite a few of them have made it into my scrap room over the last few weeks.

This was my first use of the new seasonal distress ink refills to colour with, Ripe Persimmon from the Fall Collection, such a gorgeous vibrant colour.  Also from the Fall Collection we have Seedless Preserves on the Tag, and from the recent Spring Collection we have Peacock Feathers for the Tulips.  Just beautiful colours, and super excited that they are now available in ink refills!!  I'm looking forward to my Summer colours hopefully arriving this week :o)

Next up, another card using my Wild Rose Studio Collection.  This one is Bella and Butterfly, and also using the Bella Paper Stack - just gorgeous papers!!

The stamp didn't quite fit the die cut frame, so I inked it in and then just sneakily lengthened the black lines to make it fit perfectly, it worked really well!

Next up is a card I made with my new Summer Flower Tilda and Wild Rose Studio Bella Paper Stack.  Also my first card with my delivery of Wild Orchid Crafts flowers.  These flowers are just beautiful, a fantastic price and great shipping!!

I love this little Tilda, and she is inked in with the new Spring Colours, Shaded Lilac and Squeezed Lemonade.  Loving the roses and Cherry Blossom flowers, such gorgeous colours and beautiful quality.

Next up, it was my Friend Paul's birthday yesterday, and I have had no time this week, so needed a nice card for him, that wouldn't take me too long as I was seriously running out of time after going in to work yesterday.  Using some lovely Kaisercraft stamps I came up with the following -

Finally a commissioned project.  One of my friend's from work has a sister turning 60 soon, and asked me for a card to be able to give her. I tried a bit of a "quilted" effect for the back ground here, and although I like the effect I have been playing around with this a bit more since making this card, as you will see below.  First up lets have a look at the card.

So the quilted effect is good, however it seemed very flat to be able to quite pull it off, so I went and bought an embossing stylus to try and round out all the squares.  With some patience and a couple of breaks (the stylus pen hurt my hand) I finally ended up with the following

Look out for it on a card soon :o)

A couple of final things to share for today - I was put on to these you tube videos recently to show me how to make 10 different flowers using my retro flower punch.  These are amazing, and actually quite simple - please have a look!!

How to make 10 flowers with 1 punch set (Part 1)
How to make 10 flowers with 1 punch set (Part 2)

Here are a couple of the flowers I made following the instructions in the video

Finally, this week I went to cooking class to learn the fine art of making Macarons.  These little meringue biscuits with filling are a bit of a modern day fad at the moment, and understandably because they are so delicious!!  

So here are my version with White Chocolate and Caramel centres, the biscuit itself has no flavouring added, just food colour to make them a bit more interesting :o)

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday :o)

Baby Shower Invites

Good Evening Bloggers,

So my friend Jess' Baby Shower Invites are done.  An afternoon and an evening later and all 25 invites were reading for being written on and sent out, and I  must say they are cute!!  

So the invites started out with many plaques with owls that needed to be die cut and inked in. The little owl is part of the Kaisercraft Tiny Woods clear stamp collection, and is just too cute.

Did anyone lose an Owl ;o)  These are started before I got there, and we were way to busy making the invites to take any more photos as we were going along, so here is the finished product - 

The template came from a website, that you can find in a previous post.  The ribbon on the finished version worked so well and really finished them off.  The inserts were made using Imaginisce Baby Shower Stamps, and they worked perfectly!

Just after Mother's Day, one of the lads rang me at work to ask if I could make him a card.  He had been sick on Mother's Day and spent the day in bed, not spoiling his wife as he wanted, and it was her Birthday that week so he wanted a special card to be able to give her.

Using Lilyrose the Dragon from the Prince and Princesses collection and the Wild Rose Studio Bella Paper Pack.

Just adorable isn't she!!  I painted her using Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord with Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick for the accents, the colours work so well with the Bella Papers.

Add some Prima Flowers and Die Cut Shapes and you have a very cute card which Shaun really appreciated, and his wife loved :o)

Finally I was at my Ma's this afternoon and her partner Denis needed a Thank You card that wasn't to over the top and girly, Ma checked her stash and she had nothing that would work, so Denis said he would just buy one... you can't say that around card makers!!  So while Ma updated her blog I made a card for him.  Using her Kaszazz Stamps, cards and embellishments I came up with a lovely understated Thank You card, perfect for who Denis needed to give it to.

Thanks for looking xx

Bella's Birthday

Good Afternoon Bloggers,

Today I have a card I have made for my friend Jess' 30th Birthday.  I picked up this cute stamp from the craft fair last weekend and was itching to ink in the little cutie.

So the stamp is Bella's Birthday from Wild Rose Studio and the paper is from the Bella's Birthday paper stack.  Love these papers, they are all just gorgeous!!

I have actually taken a few photos through the colouring stages this time so that you can see how Bella comes to life as I slowly layer on more colour.

So first of all we start with the plain outline stamped in Black Staz-on ink - 

It stamps a beautiful clear crisp image.  First of all I started with Bella using Distress Ink Refill Pumice Stone

Slow and steady certainly wins the race, so I start with a very light layer, but still trying to keep a bit darker around the edges for the shadow.

As you can see from the top of her head, I go back and slowly layer over colour until I am happy with the result.  Pumice Stone is the perfect colour for Elephants.  I have used Black Soot in the bottom of her feet.

So next is to work on adding some pink in the ears and some rosy cheeks :o)

Sorry about the photo being a little fuzzy!  So the ears are coloured with some Spun Sugar and then Worn Lipstick where I needed it to be darker.  Bella's cheeks are Worn Lipstick, layering on colour very slowly as it is very easy to overboard why such a strong colour!

I then finished painting the rest of the image, and we have one very VERY cute little Bella!!

So for the present I have used Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord and Black Soot, the Present Bow and the Balloon are Victorian Velvet, and Stormy Sky for the butterfly.  I love this image, I can see it being used for boys or girls depending on the colours you choose :o)

Last but not least the finished product :o)

Happy birthday Miss Jess, hope you had a wonderful day :o)

Thanks for looking

xx Milly