Birthday Cards Part 2

Here are two more birthday cards I made this year.

Amy's Card:

Amy is my middle niece and is a very sporty girl. A real chip of her daddy's block (and he's my twin). I didn't think a girly girly card would fit her as well as my other niece....so hunted through my images to find the "right" one.

Rock the Farm Anya was right on the money!! Cute, but not too girly and feminine, if you know what I mean.

Amy's fav colours are purple and yellow - her football teams colours, go figure.

I didn't mind the purple - its my favourite colour too.....but the yellow, hmmmmm - well I did it - though its not in my top 10 of favourite colours or colour combos.

The photos all look a bit different in colour, I'm sorry - definitely need to think about setting myself up with some proper lighting and all for photos in the new year....can't get the right colour temp on my DSLR for night photos atm....and since that's often the only time I have to get a snap.....will have to consult my fellow photographer buddy for his opinion. :)

Jeanette's Card:

One of my Mama's dear friends needed a birthday card earlier in the year too!! She's a lovely older lady so I went with a card of lovely flowers.

I tried to remember what I had seen in Jeanette's garden when I was last there and themed my card around that. I used some of SU's past InColours. This was card was also CASE'd from someone's blog, but I can't for the life of me find the original post (if its you, please let me know so I can give credit). :)

This was also in the days before I discovered Copics....so my colouring is done by dabbing a fine paintbrush into the stamp pad and applying colour that way. Labourious and time consuming compared to my favourites, the Copics. :)

There also some razzle dazzle on this card - though its a little hard to see. I DD'd all the little blossoms on the lower panel. And made a matching envelope as well. Fancy, schmancy.

Thanks for taking a peek-a-boo.

Hugs, Michey xxx

THE DEETS:

Amy's Card:

Stamps: The Greeting Farm "Rock the Farm", Misc Alphabet stamps

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Perfect Plum, Barely Banana

Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Barely Banana

Others: Spellbinders Embossing Plate, SU Perfect Plum + Very Vanilla Ribbon, Copics

Jeanette's Card:

Stamps: SU Embrace Life

Inks: SU Basic Black, Groovy Guava, River Rock, Old Olive, Regal Rose

Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Ginger Blossom, River Rock, Groovy Guava

Others: Paintbrush, Dazzling Diamonds, Random Brads, Groovy Guava Grosgrain

Club Anya Blog Hop

Short and sweet....both in words and images:)

I know there's quite a list to get through in the hop.....so thanks for stopping for a peek anyways.

Here is a card I recently created for two gorgeous friends who recently got married (2 wks ago).

Sorry for the BAD photos....I forgot to take my DSLR away with me (I know, I know - what was I thinking) so had to use my iPhone.......and the sun was setting, romantic candlelight, etc....anyway they didn't turn out too badly. ;)

Card Deets:

Image: The Greeting Farm "Caketopper"

Cardstock: SU Kraft + Whisper White

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black + VersaColour Cement

Others: Nestabilities Dies, Copics, Spica Glitter Pens, SU Kraft Taffeta Ribbon

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to make anything else for the blog hop.....life is outrageously out of control at the moment. Will promise to do much better next time. :)

Enjoy the rest of your hopping.

Hugs, MicheyMoo xxx

More Birthday Cards

Here are some more birthday cards I made for some of my family throughout the year.

First up is the second card I made for my twin brother.

The first was sent to him whilst he was serving with the Army overseas.

This one was for the family celebrations we had on his return.

There were several birthdays whilst he was away and we just waited and had one big party when he was back in country.

He's an avid fan of fishing and loves to head out when he can get some free time.

This little Ian was just perfect for him.

And, then I also made this card for my brother's partner, Cutie, for her birthday.

She's not a girly-girl and I so struggled with making her a card that wasn't tooo over the top with embellies and the like.

Definitely no fluffy bits, nor kitschy pretty things and definitely no big bows or lace, BUT I did have to bling Anya up with some stickles!!

And a couple of rhinestone brads for the corners.

I couldn't help myself and I definitely couldn't give out a card with absolutely NO bling on it - esp not if it was for another girl!!

Cutie's favourite colour is blue, so I started there and it all came together.

These two are some of the cards I whipped together in a couple of hours, together with the one I made for my niece (see earlier post). My MoJo was definitely my friend that day. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, MicheyMoo

( ) ( ) ( )

Card Deets:

Dan's Card:

Cardstock: SU Not Quite Navy, So Saffron, Kraft, Whisper White

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Not Quite Navy

Stamps: The Greeting Farm Ian "Rock the Farm"

Others: Multiple Copics, Misc Brads in Navy & Glittery Yellow; Nestabilities

Cutie's Card:

Cardstock: SU So Saffron, Whisper White, Urban Garden DSP, Vellum (over the DSP)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black; Not Quite Navy

Stamps: The Greeting Farm Princess Anya

Others: Various Copics; Baby Blue Stickles, Misc Brads in Yellow and Blue blingey, Giga scallop punch

Magnolia Blog Candy

Kellie, over at the Magnolia Down Under blog, has some fabulous candy up for grabs until 19th December.

The requirements aren't all that hard either.

Check it out here: http://www.kelliewinnell.com.au/?p=3805

I am yet to add any Magnolia images to my collection....the temptation is strong, and I may well give in before Christmas!! I just know my stamping addictive personality will then need more and more and more images!!

Hugs, Michey xxx

Boy Wonder Turns 1!!

My darling nephew Cameron was 1 last Thursday and we had a little family party in his local park to celebrate the momentous occasion last Saturday.

Poor bubba was a wee cranky boy when we all got there - he'd picked up an ear infection, poor darlin, and was feeling very miserable. And is very clingy to mummy at the moment too.

After 45mins or so, Aunty Michey decided to work her "baby whisperer" magic and took him for a walk in the pram. Up and down and around and around we went and still no sleeping bubba - though he was content to lie there and watch the world go by. We had a little friend along with us as well and she talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked!! By the time we got back to the family 20 mins later, I think she was all talked out, the poor possum, and decided to go in and revive herself with a cold drink. I thought Cam and I'd just check out what was down the other end of the path in the hope that without 'Miss Cute Chatterbox' along he'd fall asleep. Sure enough, not 5mins later Boy Wonder was visiting ZZZZZ-land. One quick power nap later (35mins) and he was awake and back to his usual cheery self.

Such a transformation deserved a treat - his first piece of fairy bread. The look on his face was priceless. Bread he knows, but what were these sweet little round things that were in my mouth?? He didn't quite know how to eat them and it was cute, cute, cute!! Can you tell I'm in love with this little man??!! It was just sooooo nice to see his sweet little smile back on his face.

Then it was time for lunch and afterwards, presents followed by blue robot cake.....I took some photos of these on my "big" camera and haven't downloaded them yet...just believe me when I say the cake was cute but very blue and very sweet and very much won't be had ever again!! lol

Of course, Aunty Michey had to make her wee bubba a cute card & who better than funky little Edward to use. Sorry the pic isn't any better.....I took it at 2am on my iPhone after I'd finished making it and then forgot to get a better photo when we were at the party on Saturday. :( My poor brain needs more than 4hrs sleep to function properly at the moment. (Might ask my sis to bring it to the next family gathering so I can get a better shot.)

Anyways, there you have it. Thanks for taking a peak.

See y'all again next time.

Michey xxx

Card Deets:

Cardstock: SU Kraft; Flourishes ?????? DSP

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: TGF Edward, Verve Party Time

Others: Various Copics (see photo), Silver Pearls, Corner Chomper, Taupe Embroidery Cotton

Several Birthday cards....

Since its already been a wee while since I've been able to find the time needed to post.....I thought I'd upload a few of my creations in one post.

I'll try keep the chatter to a minimum with this one too (though I may find it a wee bit difficult). :) These were all cards I made for various birthdays.

Dave's Card:

Here's a card I made in May for my Pastor. His birthday is the day after mine and he and his wife have been great friends of mine for several years now. I first met them when they were just pregnant with their first bubba, and she's now a stunning girl of sixteen. You really see how the years have gone by when you see the little ones you used to babysit grow up, hey!!

I tried my hand at creating a graduated background for this card - a little challenging without a brayer (which I now have) and required lots of daubing. Again, the photos aren't so great - but my previous apartment was very light challenged. :)

Aunty Evelyn's Card:

Here's a card I made for my Mama to send to her oldest sister, who also happens to be my Godmother.

Not that I see her very often at all these days and she is no longer required to be my legal guardian should something happen to my folks.

Anyway, I really wanted to use Bella Rose DSP for her card and used that as my starting point.

The ideas sort of flowed from there and I played around with the layout for a little

bit until I was happy.

My Mama loved it and was more than willing to send it on to her sister. :)

Lesley's Card:

One of the longest and dearest friendships in my adult life has been with a treasure called Lesley. We met during my first year in Sydney and became firm friends. We just about did everything together even though she is just a year or two younger/older than my parents.

She got married to a lovely chappy 12 years ago and we've managed to keep the friendship alive over the years. She had a big birthday this year - 60!! And I wanted to make her a spesh card - trying not to resort to her favourite colours - being a Kiwi that means Black and White. I used this lovely set that I had just received from Verve and also used Julee Tilman's sneak peek card for the layout and design.

Fereen's B'day:

My dear Fijian friend Fereen (try saying that ten times fast) was seconded to Canada for the first seven months of this year and I missed her dreadfully. She's just a whole bunch of fun to be around. I was late in getting a birthday care package in the post for her, but when she did receive it she was very, very happy.

A box full of many different types of Tim Tams and some yummy, yummy tea from T2 (or so she said. I wouldn't know as I really don't like black tea at all).

The parcel arrived just as she was starting to pack up all the things in readiness for being sent back to us who love her here in Sydney. She had accumulated quite a bit of stuff during her stay and the Tim Tams got her through the trauma of packing (though most of it will be of no use here - we just don't have the same winters that you Northeners do). :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, Michey xxx

RECIPES:

Dave's Card:

Cardstock: SU Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Whisper White

Inks: SU Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Blue Bayou

Stamps: SU Upsy Daisy

Others: Misc White Brads, SU Slit Punch (to make scallop border on sentiment), Clear Embossing Powder & Heat Gun (on flowers)

Aunty Evelyn's Card:

Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Bella Rose DSP

Inks: SU Old Olive (sentiment); Versamark + Versacolour Gold (on presents)

Stamps: Verve Birthday Surprise

Others: SU Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Curly Square Punches x 2, Kaisercraft Rhinestones (coloured with Copics to match cardstock)

Lesley's Card:

Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Kraft & Old Olive DSP

Inks: SU Old Olive, Baja Breeze, VersaColour White

Stamps: Verve Just For You, SU Oval All

Others: SU Hodgepodge, White Taffeta Ribbon, Kaisercraft Pearls

Fereen's Card:

Cardstock: SU Riding Hood Red (I know it looks quite orange, more poor lighting); Kiwi Kiss & Kiwi Kiss DSP

Inks: SU Riding Hood Red & Kiwi Kiss, Versamark

Stamps: SU Upsy Daisy & Verve Thankful Blossoms

Others: SU Kiwi Kiss Ribbon, Random Red Brads, Embossing Powder and Heat Gun

Pretty in Pink Anya

I've been so blessed in my life to have such wonderful friends....you know the kind, you don't see each other for a billion years, but when you get together its like you last saw each other yesterday. :)

Linnie is like that. We grew up in the same small Qld town together, though she is a year younger than I am and then we both joined the same church within a month or two of each other in our mid-late teens.

Linnie married one of the Pastor's sons and they moved to the "big" town nearby and not long after I moved down to the really, really "big smoke" (Sydney) and we lost touch.

I caught up with Linnie again at a women's conference about 3-4 years ago, amazingly enough. We almost missed the beginning of the meeting we were chatting so long. I visited Linnie & Sean early last year when I was on hols in Qld and got to meet their four great, and totally different, children. Three boys (14, 11 & 8) and their little girlie-girl (5).

Anyway....they moved closer to Sydney this year and I got to spend a day with Linnie and the kids when I was on hols in July. I even caught the train up and back so that I stayed 'holiday-relaxed' - so different when you can look out the window to your heart's content & read a book and not have to concentrate on the road.

I wanted to make the ladies a little thankyou card for being lovely hostesses and could not go past this gorgeous little Anya. They had spent some time showing me their lovely gardens - so an Anya with a basket of flowers was perfect!! I coloured her to match her DD's colouring - the most beautiful pale blonde hair you can imagine, and, of course, she adores PINK!!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek.

Michey xxx

Card Deets:

Stamp: TGF Miss Anya Collection, SU Baroque Motifs (background)

Card/Paper: SU Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Sweet Always DSP

Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, Memento Tuxedo Black

Other: Various Copics, Pink Rhinestones, Cotton Candy Stickles, SU Top Note Die, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon, Sponge Daubers

Mother's Day 2009

Universally, I think we all have the same date (more or less) for Mother's Day - 2nd Sunday in May for us Aussies.

This is the card I made for my darling Mama (she hates it when I call her that, but its my affectionate term for her, actually......I think she hates it when I shorten it to Ma - hehe). I had just received my first Copics and used them to add some shading and definition to the image.

Mum loved her card, so much in fact, that its still sitting on her dresser almost six months later. Makes my heart happy to know its truly appreciated. :)

Didn't have a better sentiment to use at that time....or one that said what I wanted it say anyways. :)

My mama's health isn't too good these days - lots of my free time (the 0.5mins spare I have each week, lol) is spent taking her to many different Drs appts and I think - from memory (that's how bad this year has been) she was in hospital not long after this....or was it just before??? It must have been a week or two after. Whatever, right!!??

Sorry for the not so good piccie.....I took it on my iPhone and have yet to remember to take my digi cam with me when I visit to get a better shot. :)

Card Deets:

Stamps: SU Friends 24/7; Verve Fairy Tales (Sentiment)

Paper: SU Riding Hood Red, SU Pink Pirouette, SU Chocolate Chip & SU Pretty In Pink

Ink: SU Chocolate Chip

Other: Fiskars Oval Shape template & cutter, Various Copics, Pink Rhinestone Brads, SU Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Misc Spotlight Pink Ribbon, Paper Piercer, Sponge Dauber, Dimensional Tape

Thanks again for stopping by for a peek. :)

Michey xxx

Mama's B'day

My darling Mama had a birthday in March and since she's not really well, we decided to have a wee party for her and not wait on her birthday 'til my brother returned. She wasn't seriously ill or anything but her health is precarious at the best of times and life is fairly unstimulating ho-hum day in, day out for her - so some spice and a family-time moment was decided as essential. (Plus it gave me more Auntie time with little Cambo, lol.)

She lives in a low level care nursing home and we all put in to buy her a fridge for her room as her birthday pressie. This was delivered the day before her birthday and the delivery guys beat me to her place by about 15mins. She was surprised and almost managed to convince the guys they had the wrong person and wrong room - until they showed her the delivery docket which had her name and my phone number on it!!!

She's a fussy eater at the best of times, so it helps to have her own fridge so we can keep it somewhat stocked with the food she will eat. Plus it has a decent freezer so we can take over some "extra" meals for standby if necessary.

I searched through the blog list I had at the time and found this card by Carolyn King (I'm still learning how to use blogger and haven't quite mastered embedding the html code behind a word yet.....sorry).

http://myblogbycammie.blogspot.com/search/label/Verve%20Visual

I loved the idea and the layout and since I actually had these stamps from Verve - I launched right into it.

Anywho....she's been loving my adventures with card making this year and has commissioned me to make several for her to send to her friends/family throughout the year. I wanted to make something spesh for her and knew her favourite colours were green and red (I had made a memory board for her last year incorporating these colours). How to make a card with these colours, yet not have it look all Christmassy & festive.

It took me a while to colour all the flower layers as my only form of colouring in my early days was with a paintbrush and stamp pads. Long and labourious colouring and not too much blendability on my part. I now have my ever handy and much adored Copics for such work.

Still Mama loved it and it sat in pride of place until Mother's Day when my next card replaced it (but that card is for another post, lol).

Recipe:

Stamps: Verve's Abundant Blessings, Birthday Surprise

Cardstock: Whisper White, Purely Pomegranate, Old Olive DSP, Random Dark Green Bazzill Textured Card

Ink: Old Olive, Real Red, Certainly Celery.... Plus many various shades of SU's pink/red/coral to colour the petals :)

Other: Purely Pomegranate Grosgrain, Dazzling Diamonds + 2-Way Glue, Dimensionals and Sponge Daubers.

Thanks for taking a peek.

Michey xxx

Why is everything so embarrassing at fourteen??

My oldest niece turned 14 in June and I can't believe how much she has changed in the past year or so. The innocent, wide-eyed child has been replaced by a too worldly-wise young lady who thinks she knows more than she does. (Don't they all!!)

She still has moments of delightfulness, though these are somewhat infrequent these days. And everything we do/say is just SO EMBARRASSING!!

I am yet to realise the blessing of marriage and children in my own life so make the most of my brother's and sister's little ones. Three girls (though one now lives in heaven - see my earlier post) and a darling little boy.

This gorgeous fourteen year old niece is actually a step-niece and joined our family as a blonde, 18mth old darling. She is the one who has the greatest hold on my heart as we have walked some incredibly sad days together and she used to have lots of sleep-overs at Aunty Michey's.

I don't get to see nearly as much of her as I'd love to these days, however, I try and get a visit in whenever I can. She and I have both recently discovered that gluten is definitely NOT our friend - so we have some funny conversations about what we can and cannot eat and how we get around it.

Anywho, in my previous post I mentioned that my brother had been away for the first half of the year and missed almost all of the family birthdays.

We mostly waited until he got home and had one big combined family birthday bash at his place. In order we celebrated: Jo's birthday (sister); Mum's birthday; Jo's 1st wedding anniversary; Dan's (twin brother) & my birthdays; Jess' birthday (niece) and Cutie's birthdays (Dan's partner). And now we've just had my other niece's 12th birthday and my brother-in-law's birthday.... and Dad's is coming up...then its the bubba's 1st birthday!! Phew. Christmas will be just around the corner then!!

So I had several cards to make for the party - and after all my fluffing around ended up with really only 1 day to do so!! Thankfully, I had stamped and coloured the images during the week, using my favourite new toys - Copics. But I still had to work out layouts and colour schemes etc.

I knew Jess was definitely not going to be impressed by the 'cutesy' images from TGF, so I used one of the Anya's from the Rain/Snow/Shine set and just hoped that I could make Miss Anya suitably appealing, and not toooooooo daggy. :)

IT WAS A WINNER!! Thankfully these gorgeous Anya images are right up Jess'alley - which is great as I have 5 more images that I can use for her cards now!! Yay!! Plus there are some new stamps that have been released recently that I think may need to find their way into my collection and are perfect for teens!!

My biggest difficulty with this card was finding cardstock that matched the Copic colours/blends I had used. I ended up digging out my retired Bali Breeze DSP and matted it with some random red from Kaisercraft paper that I'd picked up at the scrapbooking shop (I can't remember what the print is on the other side). My flatmate has a corner rounder punch - but I couldn't find it so decided to use my scallop circle punch and was even more pleased with this result than if I'd just had rounded the corners.

Recipe:

Card Stock: SU Soft Sky, SU Bali Breeze DSP, Kaisercraft, SU Whisper White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Anya Rain/Snow/Shine "Rain"

Others: Various Copics ;), Scallop Circle Punch, Various Ribbons from Spotlight, Pearls coloured with a Copic to match (R46), Dimensionals & Cotton Candy Stickles on the umbrella, ella. ;)

Thanks for dropping by.

Michey xxx

Gurl Bubba

Its funny....towards the end of 2008 and early in 2009 there were six of my girlfriends/family having babies. I'm grateful and thankful that all mums and bubs (and dads) are safe and sound and continuing to thrive. Can you believe that there were five boys and only one little princess!! They were kind enough to space them out for me though, with one arriving every month from Sept through to January (December had two - though one (my darling nephew) arrived early in the month and the second (the princess, born to my cousin) in the middle). I'm sure they all had me in mind when they were planning their pregnancies too!! LOL!!

Since then.... no one in my immediate world has had a baby or announced that they're expecting. Though I'm off to a couple of weddings in the next few months - so now need to get cracking on some wedding cards.

Anywho, since I'm of an age where lots of my friends & family are procreating, or thus considering such for the near future, I thought I'd get ahead and have a little stock of both girl and boy baby cards on hand.

Here's a quick one I whipped up one afternoon.

The little bubba is a cute-as Stamping Bella image that I got at my local scrapbook shop. I coloured "her" in with my copics and then added a little fun sparkle with Stickles. Until I had actually decided on the colour of the bathmat and then matted this on the pink scallop circle it could have been either a boy or girl. Easy peasy. The sentiment is from SU.

Recipe:

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pink Bazzill Textured 12x12

Stamps: SU 'For A Friend', Stamping Bella "Bella Baby Bubble Bath'

Ink: SU Basic Gray

Others: Various Copics ;), Stickles (Baby Blue on bubbles, Gunmetal on outer edge of bathtub, Cotton Candy on bathmat), Pink Rhinestone brads, Misc Pink Taffeta ribbon from Spotlight, SU Pewter Hodgepodge hardware.

She's still sitting in my stock box waiting patiently for the next little girl bubba to arrive in my world.

Thanks for taking a peek.

Michey xxx

He got teefies.....

I started stamping at the end of January 2009 and by June - just about everyone in my family had received a handmade card - 'cept the couple who hadn't had birthdays yet. BUT my darling nephew hadn't received one either. He was born on 3rd December 2008 and had not had any significant things happen until June. I don't let that be what dictates me making cards - friends have also received 'just because' or 'thinking of you' cards, but a 6-7 month old can't really read or appreciate these. :)

Anyhow....word travelled through the family like wildfire that bubba had finally cut his first 2 teeth. Clever boy!! Aunty Michey was so proud and was NOT going to family night without a present to celebrate Cam's first big achievement!!

I needed an appropriate card for the moment too! Nothing using any of my girly papers and definitely no ribbon - but how to embellish a card without them.

I'm pretty impressed with the result. I think its too cute. I had seen someone make 'popsicle' cards/invites using the scallop punch to take a bite out of the top of the iceblock shaped cards and this got me thinking.....maybe I could do this to a corner. Afterall, we are celebrating NEW TEETH!!

I've used almost only Stampin Up for this card (I just realised). The baby image is from Greetings Galore. When I bought this set and was trimming and mounting the images I cut all the sentiments off so I could use them as a separate stamp and stuck them on the end of the stamp block so I could mix and match. as it took my fancy.

It was a whole bunch of fun making a card for a little boy. The photos haven't turned out quite so well. My last apartment was very dark and dimly lit - and I couldn't get the white balance on my DSLR to find the right temp. If I get a chance I'll play with the photos again so the almost white card stock is actually ... almost white. ;)

Recipe:

Paper Stock: Urban Garden DSP, Pacific Point, Textured Ivory Cardstock (Riot!)

Ink: Pacific Point

Stamps: Greetings Galore (retired)

Others: Scallop Circle Punch (SU), 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Blue Brad, Copics, Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by again,

Michey xxx

Dan's B'day Card

It took a little while to upload another post - our WiFi has been on the blink since Thursday. Seems to have sorted itself out for now though.

I've been on a pretty wild ride since my introduction to stamping in January this year. Had a whole bunch of fun and found out just how addictive it can be to venture into this world. I'm not really into scrapping (yet!!) but love making cards for my family and friends.

Most of my family has their birthdays in the first half of this year, which kept me on my toes to come up with original ideas for each of them. I don't have a large immediate family, but its big enough when you take 3-4 hours to make each card (usually) and you also have a pretty demanding day job too!! :)

I have a twin brother who we all love and adore and he was overseas serving our great country for the first half of the year. Therefore we mostly put all our birthday celebrations on hold until he was back home and we had one great BIG bash!! But I couldn't let our birthday pass without making sure he got a little package and a little card to open on the day.

As soon as I found The Greeting Farm's website I knew I was destined to have this set. I'm an Army Brat (thanks Dad) ;) and now an army sibling. You may notice I made a little change to Ian's outfit here......no offence guys, but I'm Australian and my brother serves in the Australian Army - so I wasn't about to send him a card with USA on it. My trusty little knife removed that from the stamp permanently, meaning I can adjust it to suit whichever defence force I need it for.

I thought about where my brother was and what they usually wear when deployed and tried my hand at colouring the image to match. This was my very first attempt at colouring with Copics - so was very unskilled and have learnt a great deal about blending, etc. and also added to my collection since then. But I was impressed with my amateur efforts and my brother was absolutely stoked with his card - made my day, month, year (almost). My fav is the criss-cross effect on the helmet - supposed to mirror the netting I've often seen on the helmets of our mighty soldier heroes. :) Colourless Blenders are a marvel....I also used this to help "scuff" up the boots a little.

I've used a sheet of retired SU DSP for the background and picked the Chocolate Chip and Mellow Moss colours to matt the image.

From memory I stamped the image on Whisper White in Versamark and heatset it with Black embossing powder to give me an image that wouldn't bleed when I coloured it in. I've since purchased Memento Tuxedo Black for this purpose.

Here's the side view to help show the layering.

Recipe:

Paper: Outlaw DSP, Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Whisper White

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versamark

Colouring: Various Copics (didn't make a note, sorry) & SU Markers

Others: Pewter Brads (SU HodgePodge), Dimensionals, Black Embossing Powder

Thanks for looking.

See ya next time.

Michey xxx

Another Early Card

This is another card made early in 2009 for a dear friend's birthday. My friend is Chinese and so I took my inspiration from that. Looking back now.....I'm not really that happy with the card, but in the early days it seemed fantastic!! It could have something to do with the dreadful photo though. I had a tendency to forget to take a photo of my cards before I gave them away and remembered to grab a shot just before I left for the birthday girl's dinner. Its taken with my iPhone in a bad lighting situation - so that makes it even worse.

I think I must have used some red bazzill cardstock as the base and then some basic black/black card stock for the card body. I've used the embrace life image and stamped it in Versacolour Gold and then coloured in the outline using a paintbrush dipped in the stamp pad

Happy Birthday hasn't stamped very well. The ribbon is actually a beautiful maroon/burgundy colour but looks a dreadful pinky/red in this shot. I've used some Kaiser rhinestones in each corner.

Definitely would try something different for her birthday next year. She'll have the physical proof of how much I've grown with if she keeps each card I make.

Recipe:

Card Stock: Red Bazzill Textured base, Basic Black/Black Bazzil

Ink: Versa Colour Gold

Ribbon: Random Maroon from my collection

Others: Kaiser Rhinestones - Clear, Dimensionals

Will definitely need to add another post tomorrow so this one makes it a little further down the list.

Blessings,

Michey

A Sad Day for my family

August 19th every year is a painful day for my family. Its the day that we remember a devastating tragedy that changed our lives forever in 2001.

My beautiful niece Katelyn Amber grew her angel wings and left our lives forever. There were no warnings, no time to prepare ourselves for what was about to happen, no opportunities to tell her once more how much we loved her or that we would miss her darling little face forever. SIDS is a devastating thing to happen to anyone and to watch my twin brother endure the pain and heartache of his little treasure leaving in such a way was truly horrible.

Most SIDS deaths occur before a baby reaches 6 months old and as a paediatric nurse I thought we were way beyond that stage. Katelyn died aged 15 months....a walking, talking little sweetheart. Her little personality was emerging and boy was she a cheeky little one. Had her daddy completely wrapped around her finger (and everyone else too, I might add).

Here are the last pictures that were ever taken of Katie-coo. The pink dress picture was on the weekend before she died. My brother had taken the girls to have some photos done. Amazing in retrospect that they did that the weekend before. The other two photos were taken at her day-care during the week before she passed away. Again, amazing that they had a photographer who took some gorgeous photos of our girl just days before she left forever.

Every year the pain is a little less intense, but there is always a sadness around this time of the year.

Now, this is the card I made for my brother for today.

I couldn't believe it when Verve released this set recently. Its says exactly what I have always wanted to say!!

I stamped the image in Kiwi Kiss and then rock and rolled it in Not Quite Navy to get the colours for the main image.

And here's the inside:

Here is the recipe:

Cardstock: Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Urban Garden DSP, Cream Flocked Card

Ink: Not Quite Navy & Kiwi Kiss (not sure why I didn't use Old Olive ink - or why I didn't use Kiwi Kiss cardstock - I had a brain snap, obviously)

Stamps: Forever In Our Hearts (Verve)

Other: Dimensionals, Random Navy Brad from my collection, Sponge Dauber

A Card.......

Here I am again......about to post my first card for you all to see.

My flatmate had a significant birthday in March 2009 and this is the card I made for her.

I'm not happy with it at all, though she absolutely loved it. It doesn't have enough ba-da-bling for me, but Trud's likes her cards to be much more simplistic in layout than I do.

She is the one who has introduced me to my "new therapies" each year. Last year was jewellery making and, in January this year.....SU - stamping/cards, etc.

Her favourite colour is green - so that was the starting point for my card. You can't really tell from this photo, but I did emboss the sentiment with clear powder after stamping in Wild Wasabi and then Versamark.

This one is all SU as I hadn't discovered much more of the "stamping world" at this stage.

Card Stock: Whisper White & Wild Wasabi

Ink: Wild Wasabi & Versamark

Stamps: French Script; For a Friend; Leaves A La Carte Jumbo Wheel

Others: Sponge Dauber, Heat Gun, Clear Embossing Powder

I can't believe I've done it......

Hi, Michey here......well I've done it. I don't really have any idea what I am doing for now.....but I'm on my way. :)

These first few posts will probably not be very pretty as I begin my blogging adventure.

Please be patient. I'll endeavour to learn as quick as I can and will be a little more creative each time I post, I'm sure.

I'm really only here to have some fun for now and to share my ideas/creations with whosoever is interested in checking them out.

Constructive feedback is always appreciated. ;)

Til next time,

Blessings,

Michey xxx