for samantha, only 20….’forever young’

Hi all, Well some of this card is a little sneak peek of what is to come in our new summer mini catalogue to be released December 1st. There are lots of great things on offer again! So!!…. what’s new on this card you ask? Well the butterflies are new, aren’t they sooooo cute and we also have a butterfly punch that co-ordinates with this stamp set, coming out in the same catalogue. WoooHooo!!!! As you can see on my card, after you have stamped the image onto your card stock and punched it out, you will have a tiny border right around the butterfly, isn’t that just neat!!!! All other products used are Stampin’ Up and are available to purchase from the 2009 – 2010 Stampin’ Up Idea Book and Catalogue. The whimsical swirl stamp beneath the butterflies is from Scribble This (page 84) , the ~heartfelt~ tag is from Heartfelt Thanks (page 83) , Tempting Turquoise ink and card stock have been used, and so has Chocolate Chip ink and card stock, and some Designer Series Paper also in Chocolate Chip (page 135), has been selected for the matting.

I have made this sympathy card for my daughter, Caree, and her fiance, Adrian.  Adrian’s little sister passed away after a long battle with cancer on Saturday morning. Samantha was way too young, and she fought with so much courage that she has been an inspiration to her closest family and friends. She will be sadly missed by all that knew her and loved her. It has been a difficult time for Adrian and Caree, their hearts are sad and heavy, and as their family it is so hard to watch them hurt so deep inside, but they know that they are loved and that we are with them as we carry them in thought and prayer.

~for Samantha, only 20…. ’forever young’~

Love Sally x

just a quick pic of Ahria…

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, smiles awake you when you rise. Sleep pretty darling, do not cry, and I will sing you a lullaby. ~Thomas Dekker

You only live once,

Hi again, WOWSERS!!!!  2 posts in one afternoon!!!! I had a really busy week last week and didn’t play along in Makeesha’s last challenge. But this week…now, that, is a different story. I must admit these were hard colours for me to work with, but that is what a challenge is, and I enjoy playing along with them because they do make me think outside the square. Plus I love to check out what everyone else has done with the same challenge, that always fascinates me!

So for this week’s challenge, Inkspirations Colour Challenge #15, Keesh has given us some warm colours to play with- Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Really Rust and Very Vanilla. I decided on a Chocolate Chip card stock base with a Really Rust card stock matting. For my inks, I chose the 3 darker colours, using them with a flower stamp from the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set, I randomly stamped over the Very Vanilla card stock and overlapped the flowers. In the centre of the Really Rust outlined flowers only, I used some of that gorgeous, gorgeous Fine Supernova glitter in ‘orange’ (it looks like Really Rust) to give the card some bling. I have also just roughly sponged some Really Rust from the Stampin’ Pastels onto the same flowers, being careful not to go outside the outlines, plus I didn’t want to colour those flowers in fully, I wanted it to look a bit sort of hit-and-miss…lol lol, does that make sense? It makes them more of a feature and they sort of jump off the front of the card. I don’t have one of those u-beaut cameras that take great photos like I see on other blogs,  just my little-one-that-I-take-everywhere type of camera, so sometimes my cards look way much more striking in real life, and this is one of them, so sorry! I think I may have to put a new camera on my wish list for next year. I punched out the title on Very Vanilla with the Wide Oval punch and mounted it twice, once on Really Rust card stock and once on Chocolate Chip card stock that have been punched out with the Designer Label punch and I cut them both in half and placed them underneath the Very Vanilla oval piece at each end. I finished the tag off with a Chocolate Chip button on the side, with a tiny bow of some Linen Thread that I dyed with some Chocolate Chip ink from the ink refill bottle.

I had so much fun doing this challenge, I was so determined to do it, because it would be soooo soooo easy for me to back out and stay in my comfort zone. Thank you Keesh for a wonderful chance to play along and broaden my colour palette. I hope you all like my card, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Don’t forget to pop over to Makeesha’s blog and check out her gorgeous card and her Design Teams’ gorgeous creations too. One cannot help but be inspired, go have a look!

‘Never miss a rainbow because you are looking down’ -unknown

…love Sally xx 

meet my Xanthi…

Just take a peek at this gorgeous kid will you? This is my darling granddaughter Xanthi-Anne. Every Wednesday is our play date, how lucky am I? Xanth is just as cute as this picture shows. She loves to make things in Granny’s craft room, so last Wednesday we sat down and played, like we do every time she is here, and she made this special card for her Mummy. She was so into making it as pretty as she could and I think she has done an awesome job for a 5 and a half (not allowed to forget the ‘and a half  bit!!!) year old, her colouring in is pretty good, she has the concept of staying in the lines, unless she is in a bit of a hurry, then it is a different story…lol lol!! Her Mummy, Caree, was so excited to get this lovely card when she came out to pick Xanth up after a long hectic day at her work. I loved the look in Xanth’s face, her eyes were dancing and that cheeky little smile took over the whole moment, as she gave this card of love to Mummy…and of course Mummy loved it! Good job Dancee-Pants!

…thanks for dropping by this arve,

Sally XX

for my man….

happy birthday to my honey!!

Today is my darling hubby’s birthday, so I thought I would use Makeesha’s Inkspiration Inspiration challenge #14 and make him a card! Please hop over to Keesh’s site to check out the great ‘inspiration’ pic she has for us this week. Those colours  really reminded me of all the good times I use to have on the beach at Surfers Paradise as a child looking for shells  in the sand with my darling Gramps. I don’t know exactly why it reminded me of those times but that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the picture so I went with it! Maybe it was the big shell in the bottom corner, or the gorgeous bedroom linen that is so coasty, or maybe it was that I could see the water through the bedroom window that sealed the deal, but I loved making this card for the man I have loved since I was 15!!!! So Happy Birthday Honey, I love you to the moon and back and twice around the stars.

Everything that I have used is Stampin’ Up product. It is the first time I have used the large Jumbo Eyelets and I think they look pretty spiffy sitting up there on the edge of the card. Thanks again Keesh for another great challenge, I have so much fun playing along every week, and I love to check out what everyone else does with the challenge and am alway impressed with how we all do something so different with the same guidelines.

Thanks for dropping by tonight,

Sally X

ps The red bit behind my card is just a piece of material I have used as a background…umm no,  it’s not a part of the challenge! (smiling at you Kirsty, you are too too funny! hehe!!)

Cherish…

Hi everyone,

 Well Keesh has given us some beautiful colours to play with again for this weeks challenge, Inkspirations Colour Challenge #14 …Pretty in Pink, Basic Gray, Basic Black and Whisper White.  I love this delicious colour combination, it says romance to me. So to play I chose to go with the Cherish stamp from Illuminations and the Polka Dot background stamp, 3 flowers with black vintage brad centres and black ribbon. All the dots and the Cherish tag have been clear embossed and mounted on the Pretty in Pink base card that has been stamped with the En Francais background stamp on the top and with the dotty stamp from Big Bold Birthday set on the bottom in Pretty in Pink ink just to add a little more softness. All products used on my card are from Stampin’Up. It may have taken me a while to put this one together but I am really happy with how it has turned out. If you pop over to Keesh’s site you will be inspired with all the great  entries already there. They are gorgeous. Thanks Keesh for another wonderful challenge. Hope you all have a great week!

Sally x

…sweet, sweet, sweet and sweet!!!!

I just wanted to share with you all this very cute little picture of my 4 granddaughters, (from left) Akiah, Athanna and Xanthi with Ahria being nursed by Athanna. This moment that I was able to capture forever is one I will never forget. The love in that moment speaks volumes, these little treasures are all together for the very first time…and their future and times spent together as they discover the world for themselves is so exciting.

 I look at these four little girls and cannot help but be proud, these are my children’s children , the next generation of our family.

love Sally x

a cupcake for you….

Hi everyone, well I have just found a spare couple of minutes to upload my challenge for this weeks Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #14  by Makeesha Byl. I have been busy with granddaughters and enjoying every moment of  it. I cannot believe that Ahria is already is already a week old.  I was lucky enough to get plenty of cuddles in this afternoon when Melissa popped out for a little while. She is such a content little baby, so I hope she stays that way. Anyways onto the challenge… my grandkids love cupcakes and they looooove to colour in this stamp too, I have coloured it in with markers and added some bling in the form of Stampin’ Up(SU) Dazzling Diamonds glitter, I have mounted it up on SU Pop-Up Glue Dots. I have used SU Pink Passion and Orchid Opulence card stock to mat some pretty glittery paper from my stash. The ribbon is 6.35mm grosgrain SU Elegant Eggplant, the tag is from the set of SU Occasional Greetings. The background of the base card stock has been stamped with the heart stamp from the  SU Sprinkles set of stamps, using SU Orchid Opulence ink, as is the tag. I think this is a bright, fun card so does my little off-sider Xanthi. Xanth has had lots of fun today playing with all my off cuts and some special markers that I allow them to use to preserve my good Stampin’ Up markers and my other good markers. We have been just about blown away in the big winds today, so she has been only able to play indoors all day, so I tried to make it as much fun as I could for her, she loves being outdoors though. My hubby walked in from work a little while ago and said the wind had blown over an empty silo at some stage this arve, and the dust….don’t talk about dust!!! I feel so sorry for the farmers losing all their good topsoil off their already parched land, they are doing it pretty hard at the moment.

Thanks so much for dropping by today,

Sally x

..could I please ask a favour?

Hi everyone,

As you know I have been having some problems with my computer, well we decided not to pour any more money into fixing it so we went out last night and bought a new one. This time we have gone for an Asus lap top! We really drilled the poor sales guy, he earned his pay!!!! We went with a lap top so I can take it too workshops for the ones I have out of my home, or if we are going away. And Asus are right at the top with their computers so fingers crossed it will be good for a long while to come. And now we just have to finish transferring all our files over.

So my question is….

If you are wandering through my blog and you have a quick moment I was wondering if you might please give me some feedback about the photos I have up-loaded and posted on my sites, like if they are missing large chunks etc, I would be sooooo very appreciative. I just would like to know that you are able to see the whole photo.

Thanks so much…

Sally

sorry….

Hi everyone,

Well all is not as it seems in my little corner of the ’blogging’ world!! It has come to my attention that most of the cards etc that I am putting up on my blog are having large bits missing out of them. I don’t know what the problem is actually but it does seem that my computer is playing up big time again!! It has not long been serviced and fixed up and now it has spat the dummy again!!! Aren’t they fickle little things!!!! lol Anyway I just wanted to apologise for all the stuff ups, it must be so annoying trying to look at something and most of it isn’t there! The really stupid thing about this whole saga is that when I look at my site, everything appears to be downloaded correctly. So please bear with me until I can get it all sorted out, I am not computer literate at all so it may take me a while,  I will have to enlist the brains of my hubby, and…. hopefully our marriage survives it!!!! lol lol

 

Thanks again for your patience and understanding. I appreciate you all dropping by my blog and leaving me lovely comments I always find them so encouraging.

…have a great day,

Sally x