Busy , busy....

Things have been very busy the past week and this week is another hectic week!
It's been a merry-g0-round of kids school activities, tests, homework, extra mural activities, baking, outings, making cards, selling cards, end of the month errands and accounts,Etsy shop orders and the list goes on!
I had some card orders this week , these are two I sold today to someone that wanted happy anniversary cards

I must say, I enjoyed making them, because I don't normally work with red, it's not one of my favorite colors. But I like how they turned out.

I hope your week is going to be a good one!

For the love of Birds. {cards}

Anyone who knows me, knows I love birds.
They are everywhere, in my designs in my digital kits, on my cards, in my home, in my scrap booking pages..in my garden {lol!} and picking on my brain I feel sometimes too!

Here are some cards I made a while back.
These are little hand painted gift tag cards I did. (set of 4)
and a hand painted birdy.





I am selling all these and more here:
http://www.setcom.com/mall/default.aspx?merchid=7J03N4F955
They can be purchased with credit card visa or mastercard.

If you would like to purchase any of my cards in dollars through paypal, let me know and I will set it up on my Etsy shop for you.

Some new cards

It's been so good to have some sunshine the past few days! No wind or rain!
I made a few cards last night. I challenged myself, using one sheet of 12 x 12 paper, and two 6 x 6 sheets to see how many cards I could get out of it and I got three cards out of that! The flowers are hand cut from the 12 x 12 sheet!

I hand painted the thank you and hello onto the cards using white craft acrylic paint.

I hope you are having a good week!

My first card challenge!

So I decided to do it...why not?
I've been making cards ever since I can remember. I can recall selling cards at school for Entrepreneurship day! I would sit in the school holidays and make cards, I've never believed in buying cards when I know I can make them, with a personalized touch for any occasion.

Card making took a back seat when I had my children and then got kicked to the boot when my passion for scrap booking became quite big a few years ago. But the last year or two it's been renewed and being given a new lease on life! For the last two years I have sat down and in a week flat made ALL my anniversary cards for the year ahead. I then slip them into plastic covers with a sticker on for who it is for and put them in a special anniversary book that has a pocket for each month to slip your cards into with place to write the date and name of the anniversaries on the front of the pocket. I Love doing it this way because when the anniversary rolls around, I know I don't have to stress at the last minute getting out supplies to make a card. It's all done ready to pop into a carry bag with a gift.

Each person comes to mind while I am making the card and I try to incorporate something personalized into the card, maybe a color I know they like, or a little embellishment I know will appeal to them...just something small to know that they were important enough to take the time to make a card with just them in mind, and that is what I think is so special about homemade cards.

I have entered my first challenge. It is from the Caardvarks blog
And the one I entered was this one.
I used this sketch from Heidi Van Laar which was one of two to choose from for the challenge.


And this is my card created today.

I stuck a small piece of ribbon behind the scalloped border at the bottom just to add a bit of interest and color.

apparently I am supposed to list the supplies I used....
The trouble is these have been in my stash for so long, I don't know who it is by anymore.
what I do know is that:
background paper is from webster pages -postcards from paris
the rest of the papers are from K & Company (I think)

Aren't humans peculiar?! {and cards}

my little kitty-cat, chloe

Okay...so I bet this has happened to you before...

You walking along, quiet happily minding your own business, maybe singing a song in your head,
or deep in thought, when suddenly you find yourself hurtling forwards and seeing the pavement looming towards you at alarming speed!! What happened?? you regain your balance (and composure, whilst whipping your head around to see if anyone saw) and turn to stare accusingly at the ground behind you to see what caused this sudden impertinent and annoying trip, only to see ....nothing. Maybe a raised cobblestone, or a small hole, basically nothing at all too phenomenal.

This happens to me more often than I care to admit...it happened again today. After yesterdays post and today's you are going to think I am super clumsy...really I am not. The clumsy one in my family is not me, trust me! But what I find so funny is after this has happened to me and yes, to other people, is how almost every time, the person whips around with this "how dare you trip me!" accusing look of absolute denial and anger at the GROUND! IT is the funniest thing ever!

It doesn't only extend to humans by the way...a few months ago we finally got around to installing a cat flap on our back kitchen door for the cat. (well of course for the cat, it's not like we installed it for the kids!!) anyway...at first Chloe is her name...refused to use it. She would still come to the window of the room we were in or the front door and scratch and meow to be let in. This highly annoyed us all as she was like a stuck record until she got her way. And of course I was getting sick of the scratch marks and dirty paw prints smeared all over the windows.

So we put the cat flap in. She approached with wary caution, the hair on the back of neck bristling, as if she were stalking her prey! The first time I flicked the flap to show her it moved, she did a backwards jump that would of won her an award in any gymnastics show! For the next couple of days, I would take her and place her on the outside of the door and temptingly open her food inside and call her, while showing her food to her through the transparent flap.
She would salivate and meow but refused to come anywhere near the flap. After that clearly wasn't going to work, I then pushed her as gently as I could through the flap, which she definitely took great offense to and wriggled and cursed with each shove! (gentle shove by the way!)

I did that a few times much to her dismay...
Eventually after having done that along with holding the flap open for her to pass in and out without her feeling it and then once half way through, dropping the flat so she could feel it on her body, I think she finally grasped the concept. because lo and behold, she started to use it!

The funniest thing was when I saw her come through it for the first time on her own, with no coaxing or shoving from my side. She pushed it with her face, a bit hesitantly at first and then slowly, she snuck in, edging her body in bit by bit. It was almost in slow motion she took so long to do it! But the funny part was when she came through, and her tail just cleared the flap when the flap swung back and knocked her on the bottom, (pretty much like my experience yesterday at the gym-see previous post).

Well....she spun around at lightning speed,, hissed and stared at the flap swinging back and fro as if to say " what the heck??" all accusingly !! It was a laugh!!
She did this for at least the next 5-8 times she passed through the flap, giving us all a good giggle.

Anyway...I made these two cards last night.
Did a "thinking of you" card, wanted something bright and fun.
And something a bit more vintage and feminine with this blank card. It has a pocket where you see the ribbon, that whole section is a pocket you could put a gift card in or a photo or something fun to personalize it! The tag is attached though.


Thanks for all your kind comments, it makes my day!

A request for my neice....

A little message for my neice Cherye....
photo taken by me.
{Read her blog-from the beginning, which isn't all that long ago, as she only recently started it} She is 16 and going through a pretty tough time (not your average teenage stuff). If you can offer her any encouragement or advice, please do so...she needs support and she needs to know there are others out there maybe who have gone or are going through a similar thing. It's hard enough being a teenager, having to cope with mood swings, confusion, raging hormones, without added issues that only make what should be an exciting time in your life, more complex and confusing. so please hop on over...

I Just wanted to show this card i made on the weekend for a friend who requested it, someone she knew was moving away...
I can't take credit for the lovely design, I got the idea from Cindy Lee, a blog I recently discovered. I love her card designs.

I also recently did this paper scrap page of my daughter.

I used a plain card stock over and tore the edges and stuck some lace behind as well as some gorgeous rose paper i had for ages. I tried to stick to the colors in the photo's-the teal and pink tones.
And made this ribbon flower and circular swirl.


And yesterday I went and bought a piece of cork and a backing board and made my own cork inspiration board, Sooooo much cheaper than buying it already made. Will take photo's when my board is more full as the moment I only have 3 things on it!