TGF The Royal Battle

So the Battle has begun!! My team leader kick started the challenge for my team: "Super Pink". Tina has done a great job with this interpretation of the "Retro Colour Challenge" for Week 1 of the battle.

If you have some "votes" left, we'd love for you to vote for us so we can keep challenging ourselves and all of you, our bloggie friends, in the battle. ;)

Its so much fun.....I've seen some super entries already. But I'm holding onto my vote until all entries are loaded into the gallery.

Here's the link direct to our entry in the Galleria: Team Super Pink.

Thanks gals and guys.

Hope to see you around in the challenge again. :)

Hope you've all had a superb weekend. Mine's been great - I actually got a little bit of sunburn yesterday - can you believe it. It's the end of March already - where's Autumn/Fall??

Hugs, Michey xxx

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #51 & Color Throwdown #85

I know.....can you believe it. Two posts in one night. Its a miracle and a new PB, lol!! :)

Here is my interpretation of this week's Cupcake Challenge. I loved the lace cupcake wrappers and the blues and greens this week......but am not much of a 'lacy' type of girl. Haven't embraced my inner shabby-chicness yet. Surprisingly, the colours also matched the Colour Throwdown Challenge. Double Yay!!

Anyways......I needed a birthday card for a lovely girlfriend and decided to pull out this gorgeous Flourishes peacock set that I've had for a wee while and hadn't seen ink yet!! Seriously, I think I need to stop buying as I almost have as many uninked-yet stamps as I do inked ones. I just know I'm gonna use them one day and be so glad I bought them. :)

I started by colouring my image, knowing that I wanted to use greens and blues. Out came my beloved Copics - where, oh where would I be without them? Don't even ask, lol!! After I had coloured the image I dived into my DP stash to find suitable matching papers. I found a great piece of paper in some DP I'd also received in my order from Flourishes, "Glitterati". It co-ordinated perfectly with SU's Certainly Celery and I had matching grosgrain - it was meant to be!!

Again, here's a smaller shot on an angle so you can try to see the bling and sparkle in this card. I used some silver Kaisercraft rhinestones that I coloured with a Copic and then used Baby Blue stickles on the feathers to make them shine.

I took these photos on my kitchen bench in the afternoon sunshine. I think they might be some of the best ones I've done so far - not much tweaking needed. I really need to get myself a photo tent so I can shoot at night and not have the colour temp probs I've been getting.

Anywho, almost too much past my bedtime tonight. Better retire.

Hugs, Michey xxx

CARD DEETS:

Stamps: Flourishes "Strut Your Stuff"

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper/Cardstock: Flourishes Classic White, SU Certainly Celery, MemoryBox "Glitterati", Bazzill Textured Blue, Random piece of corrugated black paper from stash (I think I purchased a multicolour pack from KMart)

Others: Copics, SU Certainly Celery Grosgrain ribbon, Deckled Rectangles Nestabilities, Kaisercraft Rhinestones, Baby Blue Stickles,

Anya Ink & Club Anya WCW Challenges - Bling

This week's challenge on the Anya Ink blog was simple.....BLING!! So bling I did. :) And the colour challenge for Club Anya and Friends Wild Card Wednesday was this stunning pillow. I didn't have any paper that matched every colour so I picked out the pink and went with that.

I made this card to send to a dear family in the states that I've been praying for recently. Their gorgeous youngest daughter lost her battle with Neuroblastoma recently and I wanted to let them know they are still in my thoughts and prayers from the 'other side of the pond'. Beautiful little Layla Grace was often photographed with gorgeous little hats with huge flowers on them and so I knew this WS Dahlia would be perfect.

I hope you can tell from this smaller piccie that Miss Dahlia is absolutely blinged up. I used stickles on all the little flower blossoms and then got out a couple of my Spica Glitter pens and added some sparkle highlights in the lighter areas of her hair and around the flower in her hair. Her gorgeous skirt and stockings even have "metallic" thread in them, *thanks Spica*. :)

I also wanted to keep this card somewhat simple - not overwhelming and busy like my last card. So I simply cut out Dahlia and mounted her with some dimensionals and then wrapped some pink and silver thread around and added my sentiment on a matted punch on the bottom. (I've gone over the stamped sentiment with a Spica pen too so it has some shimmer to it.)

Anywho....that's it for this post. Mwah!! Love ya, mean it. xx

CARD DEETS:

Image/Stamps: TGF WS Dahlia, Verve Notes of Prayer (Sentiment)

Paper/Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Basic Black, Bazzill Textured Pink, Flourishes Classis White Paper (Image stamped and coloured on)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Others: Copics, Spica Glitter Pens (Clear & Pink), Stickles (Cotton Candy), Pink Thread, May Arts Metallic Cord (Silver), SU Scallop Oval & Wide Oval Punches, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Mama Update:

For those who are interested. I was blessed to be able to take my Mama home from hospital on Tuesday night. She's so much better than she was and I'm absolutely thankful for all who have been praying and thinking of us during this time. Sadly, she's fading with each month, but I'm determined to keep her as strong and as well as possible for as long as is possible too. And make the most of every moment we get without pushing both of us tooooo far trying to fit a billion things in. :) It's her 63rd birthday on Saturday and its gonna be so great to be able to celebrate with her somewhere other than a visiting room at the hospital. The weather is supposed to be stunning here over the weekend so we are going to have an early dinner at one of the local beaches with all the kiddies. YAY!! But before that, I'm heading out with her tomorrow night to see a gorgeous young Aussie Italian croon us all with his magical voice. I discovered the talents of Alfio a few years ago when randomly looking through the jazz CD's in my local Sanity shop....became a fan and have seen him perform several times since. Beautiful voice and funny, funny Italiano/Aussie fella too. Should be a great night tomorrow night. I gave Mum one of his CD's for Christmas a year ago and she fell in love with his voice too - she knows we're going out, but has no idea to what or where - though I think she suspects, lol.

M xx

St Paddy's Day!! (CIC50 + SSCS60 & Flutterby Wednesday)

Hello.....I can't believe today is here......its been in my calendar for several weeks now and its here!!

Why am I sooooo excited??? Well.....how nice of you to ask. :)

One of my biggest inspirations, Dawn McVey from Papertrey Ink, is holidaying in Australia with her husband, Bartley. They're currently in Sydney and she's ever so kindly organised a get together with her Aussie "Blog friends" tonight!! Yay!! I'm beyond excited. I'm hoping a wee, small, even miniscule amount of her talent and ability will leap from her and find its home in me during the time we get to spend together tonight. LOL!!

I love Dawn's clean and simple, yet totally elegant style and was going to mimic this in a card for her and Bart...however, I think ya'll have figured out by now that is just NOT the way I roll!! I decided to stick with the "green" thing as it is St Paddy's day afterall - not that I put a single thread of green on this morning when I got dressed - my dear Irish ancestors are all rolling over in their graves!!

It took me ages and ages to decide what to do and where to go with this card - my MoJo is definitely having a lovely extended break - though I'm reasonably happy with the overall effort here. I'm feeling a little uneasy about there being NO ribbon on this card anywhere!! I can't believe it. I used this week's Cupcake Inspiration and Sweet Sunday Sketch to guide my way.

You can't see it in this photo but I've also added Crystal Effects to the wings of the butterfly sharing the spotlight with our little Miss Innocence as well as her shoes to make them nice and shiny - 'coz every Little Miss loves patent leather Mary-Janes. :)

I got my hands on some new Copics on Monday - my collection is evergrowing and I'm sooooo loving them. There were some new greens in this purchase and I really, really like them. :)

(I want to apologise for this atrocious photo too - I brought my DSLR in with me today and took some lovely photos, but forgot to bring the card reader, so had to take a quick snap with my trusty little iPhone, which has the world's dodgiest camera, and will swap this out with a 'betterer' photo later on.)

Hope the luck of the Irish is with you today. :) Michey xxx

CARD DEETS:

Images: Pure Innocence Digi

Paper/Cardstock: SU Choc Chip, Flourishes Classic White, Basic Grey Origins

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink "Frayed Burlap" (Digi image printed with Epson Printer)

Others: Fiskars Border Punch, Martha Stewart Butterflies Punch, SU Crystal Effects, KaiserCraft Rhinestones (coloured with Copics), White Gel Pen, Glue Dots

Copics: Hair: E27 + E47; Skin E21; Dress: YG67, YG97, YG99; Grass: YG67, YG93; Y15, YR68, W00 + Blender

I'm am still around :)

Hello blog friends,

A sorta quick post to let you know I'm still here!! I've been peeking in from time to time - but haven't really had the time or the energy to hang around too long.

And, just for some eye candy, here are a couple of cards I made last year. One is for a fellow crafter's birthday and the other for a friend who has been through a tough time.

If I had to pick a card stock colour that was my all time favourite, it would be Kraft!! Anything goes with it....colour or black or even Kraft on its own - its sooo versatile. I had the idea for this card floating around in my head for a little while and was so grateful it came together as well as it did. The photo isn't the bestest, sorry, but I took it at night - about 10mins before the birthday girl came over to celebrate.

And the second card used the two colours that my sweet friend Rosa loves. I'm not much of a lover of yellow. I don't have anything against it, lol, I just can't wear it (is the one colour that makes me look ill and all washed out) and so tend to steer well clear of it......fortunately it is Rosa's all-time favourite colour and I had no choice but to get creative with it.

Can you believe that I have stamped only on both of these cards - not a single COPIC in sight!! They are definitely feeling the neglect here. I haven't even been able to pick up a single one of them to colour for almost 2 weeks now!!

My mojo and motivation is currently on holiday in the UK - and I wish, oh how I wish, it had taken me with it, hehe.

Michey xxx

CARD DEETS:

Priya's Birthday Card:

Stamps: SU Upsy Daisy

Cardstock: SU Kraft, Urban Oasis DSP, SU Basic Black

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Others: SU Kraft Taffeta Ribbon, SU Top Note Die

Rosa's Thinking of You Card:

Stamps: SU Botanical Blooms (Saleabration 2009)

Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Bazill Yellow and Pink Textured Card

Ink: SU Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink

Others: Random Pink Chiffon Ribbon, Pink Kaisercraft Rhinestones

And an update: for my dear friends who have read this far and care to know, life's throwing a few too many challenges my way at the moment. My mum went home from hospital on 26th Feb, however, was readmitted as an emergency via ambulance four days later with a widespread infection. This was managed fairly quickly with strong antibiotics, but she's not bouncing back quite so well this time. She's still in hospital now and I think the medical team looking after her are doing a better job of it this time. We've come to the realisation that treatment for Mum is now palliative and, at best, we probably have 6-9 months left. Mum has loads of medical issues, which, when looked at all together are pretty significant and challenging. I'm coping with the reality much better this week, last week was all about floods of tears and making some pretty tough decisions regarding surgery/palliative care. Its Mum's 63rd birthday at the end of this month and my brother and sister and I made the decision not to tell Mum how bad things are until after then. I think she has an idea, but it's not been voiced amongst us yet. I'm still believing for a miracle and all but at the same time, want what's best for my dear Mama, and I think a new, fabulous heavenly body might be just the thing.

So there you have it....plus works insanely busy with new patients at the moment and I'm supposed to be off to a church conference for the next few days and a work conference at the end of next week, eek!! There is little time left over to play. :(

So please excuse me if I'm not around as much as I want to be at the moment. I'm desperately in need of some crafting therapy and may well pack a few Copics and a couple of images along with me to play with at the Conference I'm going to for the next couple of days.

xxx