Did Ya Miss Me??

Hello my long-lost blog darlings!! Actually, I'm the long-lost one, aren't I? hehe

How are you all? I'm good, just been busier than you could ever have imagined and had my focus off of all things creative/crafty in the recent weeks/months. Forgive me??

The little fellas are doing well. I hope to pop over and have afternoon tea with the dudes and their mum tomorrow afternoon. Yay!! I haven't actually seen anywhere near enough of the family lately and can't believe wee Charlie is 10weeks old already!! What?? Where?? When?? How did that happen??

Since I last posted I have made a total of 2 cards. Yep, count them......one.....two!! That's it. Seriously, two cards in three months - that's outrageous and way tooo sad. And only one of the cards I'm about to share is one of those two. The other I'll save for my next post. It was spesh enough to need its own write-up. :)

And, for the record, just because I haven't been creating doesn't mean I haven't been buying!! I've added an air compressor and attachment for my Copics so I can do airbrushing (thankfully, some lovely peeps in my world contributed too so its part b'day pressie - phew, it was a lot of $$$).....and lots of yummy new DSP's (I actually cannot physically walk past a new 6x6 pad without purchasing it.......and am NOT interested in any 12 step programs for this, lol). And have almost the entire range of Distress Ink pads now. Three more colours to go and I'll be there. And the new SU catalogue has just launched here in Aus - so there are a couple of new stamp sets and (FINALLY) Crumb Cake (aka Kraft) ink!! WooHoo!! And now I really need to get started on this year's Christmas cards. Someone kindly (or not) shared today that it is only 96 days til Christmas!!

Anyway...that's enough words from me for now, right?? Onto a couple of cards right?!!

This is a card I made for a dear friend, Pri, for her birthday. I whipped this up in about an hour (maybe two, including all the creative processes that go on in my head before I get started....layout, colours, papers, etc....). It came together reasonably well and quickly considering how little I've been playing recently.

She is expecting her first wee bubba in a couple of months and wanted pj's for her birthday, so my roomie and I went in together to get her some truly yummy pj's that she can wear in these next "growing months" and thereafter as well.

They were in pinks and blues and lilacs, so I kinda went with that for my colour choices. And I stamped the damasky-type flourishy thingy on the envelope too to tie it all in together as well as the wrapping paper, which of course I didn't photograph. :(

The photos of this card were taken on my new iPhone 4.0 and I'm so in love with it!! The camera is soooooo much better than on my ol' iPhone 3G......as you can see in the photos of my next card below. I promise to only use my phone camera when I 'forget' to take shots with my DSLR before giving my cards away though. I was recently given a white photography tent too and I can not wait to try it out. Yay. :)

My dear ol'd friend Les has had another birthday. I can't believe I've been blogging long enough to now be showing you birthday cards for friends for a new year. Last year's card was a CASE of one of Julee Tilman's Verve creations, but this year's was a card I made way ahead of time for her. I made her card before I made her husband's, though her birthday is two months after his. (Jeff's card will be in my next post as it was rather spesh.)

I wanted a go at resist embossing and went with my ol' favourite Upsy Daisy. I paired it with Kraft and PTI's Hawaiian Shores ink, paper & ribbon. This also came together well and I was so happy that an idea I had in my head actually turned out much the way I had planned.

And there you have it. Not gonna say sorry for being away so long as I also can't promise it won't happen again. We're heading into our busiest time of year at work in the Clinic and I have a couple of "events" between now and Christmas as well. More about those later.

Love to hear from you and I'm so happy I've managed to post for you, my faithful friends.

Much love,

Michey xxxx

Pri's Birthday Card:

Cardstock: SU Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum; Basic Grey Kioshi

Ink: SU Perfect Plum, Pale Plum

Stamps: Kaisercraft Lilac Avenue, PTI Signature Greetings

Others: SU Mellow Moss Taffeta Ribbon (discontinued), Kaisercraft Rhinestones, SU Top Note Die

Lovely Les's B'day Card:

Cardstock: SU Kraft, PTI Dotty Biscotti

Ink: Versamark, PTI Hawaiian Shores

Stamps: SU Upsy Daisy, Hero Arts Friends (background)

Others: Clear Embossing Powder, PTI Hawaiian Shores Satin Ribbon & Twine, Random buttons from stash. SU Top Note Die.

I've just realised that I've used the Top Note Die on both cards. Totally random and not intentional. :)

And.....just a little whisper to you, my fave peeps, I've got some candy coming up too, to celebrate my first year of blogging (even though that was a month ago). Stay tuned. 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