T on Tuesday

I am joining Elizabeth for T on Tuesday and showing off my new toy.... a new Tassimo coffee machine and today I am enjoying a Costa caffe latte in my Keep Calm mug that Chris bought me when we were in Brisbane.

I sat last night and made a set of cards, just quick simple ones that can be adapted for lots of different occasions.  They are a present for a friends Mum for Christmas as she loves to send snail mail.

This is a new Sissix die I bought this week so I am giving it a good try out!

Shiny butterflies are very hard to photograph... this looks a lot nice in real life...

Another shiny version... it looks lovely when its sitting on the desk, honest! 

Cut these butterflies from a delicate see through paper and they look like lace now.

So that is me, now need to make them a box or a folder to keep them in... should keep me busy for an hour or two this morning!

A Card for Dee

Have been sitting in the scraproom this morning with the rain hitting the windows and the wind blowing so thought it was the right time to sit and make a card for a lovely lady I met in Brisbane.  

Dee went into hospital on Tuesday for a double mastectomy and reconstruction work.  I told her I would make a card and pop it in the post to her for when she gets home.

I hope she likes it... and that her recovery goes smoothly, she has the right attitude and smiles all the time, so we are all rooting for her.

kind of spoilt it with my handwriting but she is such a sweety I am sure she will forgive me! :)

I used lots of little pink pearls and some embossing folders I bought in Oz and have not used till now! (Oops).  I saw a card on splitcoast stampers that I based this on but I cannot find it again now so will have another search so that I can credit the original design properly. OK, I found it! LOL

T on Tuesday

I am joining Elizabeth for T on Tuesday with a cup of frothy coffee and a mini book I am working on that is made from one sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock... thought it would make nice C presents if it turns out alright!

This is a pocket envelope and card I made and I decorated it with a homemade rosette, which I am chuffed with, as it looks as good as the ones you make with the Tim Holtz die but without the expense of the die! LOL

Cards....

Now I have managed to clear up after the fairy castle... isn't amazing just how far glitter can travel?  I thought I would continue with my self-imposed challenge of using all my TH dies... and it seemed like a good idea to make cards.

I wanted a card to go with the blogoversary giveaway... so used good ole Graphic 45 Communique papers and the lovely vintage telephone die.  I had some awesome black cardboard packaging from some David Yurman perfume which was glossy and shiny and looks like the old plastic stuff that phones were made from.

and I had enough of it to make a typewriter version

then I thought I would get clever (always a bad idea) and do one with a dictionary page as a background, it definitely needs something else... just not sure what!

and I was on the slippery slope downhill from there... but I did use the hanging sign die!  I don't have the rosette die so I had to make my own version. 

and I stamped the backs with this... I love this stamp, it just makes me smile because people are never sure if I will or not.... ;)

Cards... yeah I know... I don't 'do' cards...

A card for my Mum... who trod on her cat's tail and promptly fell over in her kitchen... and is now covered in bruises and a bump on her head... she is 80 and tends not to bounce as much as she used to! 

This is a close-up... my Dad's name was Scott.... so a nice touch eh?

and I had the Tim Holtz bird cage die out and the Graphic 45 Secret Garden papers were still on my desk... so I made this one too!  Now I just need to make some envelopes for them... because I never plan the size of the card to suit envelopes that I have already!  That's a dead give away that I am not a card maker, isn't it?  

T on Tuesday

Here I am with my cup of tea to join Elizabeth for T on Tuesday.

Behind my cup of tea are some cards I have been playing with this morning... see, it all started like this... I was looking at twinchies on a blog and I loved them so I thought I would give the idea a go! Now Sam says they are encaustic twinchies... and mentioned crayons and beads and stuff... so I go and search for encaustic medium and realise pretty quickly that I have nothing in my stash that is going to allow me to do encaustic anything... plus it looks like that stuff gets hot! 

Now, not having the ingredients didn't slow me down at all ( perhaps it should have) so I decided that improvisation is the key especially as I know for a fact that my local Spar won't have dufar crystals on the shelf!  So I slapped some gel medium, well it's a medium of sorts, onto a piece of chipboard, added some gold and silver paint to it, spread it a bit thicker... nope, it doesn't look like Sam's examples at all...

So I go and find a couple of tealight candles... they are wax right? Yes, I know she said she used beeswax but I don't have any of that either and I am pretty sure the local Spar doesn't keep that in stock either. LOL One was a burgandy shade and the other was a golden colour... so I let them burn for a while till there was a good puddle of wax and added that to the chipboard... and then I sort of flung anything I could find on top... little seed beads, chips of glass/plastic, 

and when it had all cooled down a bit I chopped the chipboard into 2 inch squares...

and this morning I look at the pile of twinchies and wonder what on earth am I going to do with them?

So I made some simple cards... 

I still have a couple of bits left... so if I need a card for something in the next few days people should be afraid... very afraid!! LOL

What's on Your Work Desk 16th February 2011

It has been one of those weeks where I seemed to spend most of it chasing my tail.... so not much new on that front then!  Here it is Wednesday again where heaps of peeps reveal all where there work desk/table/floor is concerned and it is amazing the things you learn on the way.  If you want more details then pop on over to the Leader of the Gang AKA Julia where all is explained.

This is my workdesk today and as you can see, there isn't much in the way of scrapping going on which is entirely the fault of Margaret who had a lovely little snippet roll on her blog and then gave a link to the tutorial by Carole  on how to make one.  Well, I had to give it a go, didn't I? LOL  Just a couple of problems, I haven't got any wooden cotton reels and they want silly money for posting them to me here in Canada from the States.... you'd think I was five continents away instead of next door!  But, that didn't stop me attempting it and I even got the sewing machine out and had a play with it!!

So here is a photo of my first attempt...

I'm hoping the next one will turn out better...

This little photo in the middle of it is of my great great great Grandmother taken circa 1835 - her name was Anna Maria Parker.

This is a scan of the original which is on metal and has a weird name.  I think I actually look a little like her!!

The other thing on my desk is a card... and we know I don't really do cards but every now and again I feel I have to make the effort.  My younger brother recently had big problems with his leg and the doctors wanted to amputate it, so we were all dreading him going into hospital and awaited the outcome.  Luckily he had a brilliant surgeon who has used some new techniques and they have saved his leg, but there were doubts about the foot which had gangrene and he had to go back into hospital last week to see what they could do.  He is back home again now and minus a toe, the toe next to his big toe, and in normal circumstances we would have felt terrible at the loss of it, but given the alternatives he has had to face in recent weeks, a toe seems small in comparison and he is feeling much better and happier.  So I  made him a card...

I know, I'm terrible, aren't I?  It's a good job all us kids have a similar sense of humour, as it was my older brother who sent me the pic!! 

It was all change in the scrap room earlier this week, mainly because I needed to find a home for the new toys I got last week which included the paper stand.  So with much huffing and puffing and sorting I moved everything about and managed to fit it in!

I have turned the desk so that it now faces the wall and much prefer it this way as stuff doesn't fall off the back when I give it all a good shove out of the way.

and this is the other wall, which is looking pretty neat and tidy now too!

When I was out shopping the other day look what fell in my basket!!

OK... I admit, it didn't fall into basket... as it is as tall as I am... but you know what I mean? So I thought she could use some brightening up and got the embossing powders out and some chipboard circles...

so now I have to decide what to do with the other bits... I thought maybe hang some chipboard tags and some metal bits and pieces?  Any suggestions welcome... I am thinking of maybe using her to hang all my ribbons.

Card

A young Spanish girl has been visiting with her Dad in the house opposite mine for the summer

and she is leaving to go back to school on Friday. She loved to come over and watch the kittens play in the garden and is such sweet girl. The afternoon Gremlin was collected to go to her new home, she popped over afterwards to see if I was OK... as I would probably be sad to see little Grem go. She dropped me off a beautifully written little note saying that she had enjoyed her visit and was leaving... which was lovely to receive, people don't seem to teach their kids to write things down anymore now we live in this instant messaging, texting, mobile, email type of world. So I made her a card with a photo of Pandora, the last kitten looking for a home, hope she likes it.

Sadly, little Gremlin died yesterday, she got sick and never recovered, I am heartbroken, she was such a lovely little thing, had the most laidback approach to life and the courage of a lion. I thought it was hard to accept that little Two Ears lost his battle last week but I had known for some time that the odds of him surviving the fall he had were not good. So two of my five kittens are now on their way to Rainbow Bridge

This is little Gremlin and Two Ears curled up together when they weren't very well.
This is Gremlin, such a little character, I will miss her terribly. She was the runt of the litter and alway so much smaller and frailer than the others and spent a lot of her time in the house with us so we got attached to her more than the others.

JYC December 3rd

As you can see... it is blatantly obvious that I am no card-maker... but at least I tried!! LOL

Well, hopefully they will arrive by Christmas... or at least New Year!!

Stamp that Candice sent me ages ago, which I adore, it is sooo me!! ;)