A 50th Birthday Card

Hello I want to share a special card I have made for my friend's 50th Birthday.

This is the year of turning 50 for me and some school friends

who I still keep in touch with.

This is the last one I will be making for 2011 as we have all turned 50 now.

I first met my friend in 1967 in grade one.

I was her bridesmaid in 1982.

I have tried to personalise the card by using seam binding for the bow in the same colour as the bridesmaid dress I wore at her wedding.

The sentiment stamp...Blossom....is a name her dad called her...

and

the little girl has a basket of eggs

Collecting the eggs is a job my friend had and I believe did not enjoy.

I JUST LOVE this Stampin' Up Easter Blossoms stamp set.

I have been dying to try it out since purchasing it on ebay a couple of weeks ago.

And it took me about 7 days to complete this card,

once again due to a combination of pain and working it all out as I went.

I never make the same thing twice and everything I make comes from the heart. I used a lot of techniques on this card. Inking, shading with chalks, layering and stamping under the focal images, tying a double bow the Amazing Paper Grace way, stamping, embossing, using lots of Spellbinders dies, Flower Soft for the little girl's bouquet, glittering up the scalloped frame around the little girl and using a final coating of Glossy Accents, pearl bling,

 ribbons secured with Scor Tape etc etc........

It is truly amazing how many products, techniques and effects go into one little card.

I enjoyed every minute of it!!!

Thankyou to all you wonderful people who release such wonderful products for us to use and enjoy when cardmaking.

It is amazing how much I have learnt in the last year and it is chiefly thanks to card making blogs and Youtube demonstrations.

When I think how my skills have expanded in 12 months it is mind boggling!

A 21st Card

This is the card I made recently for my niece.

You may be able to tell that her favourite colour is purple.

It took me days to make due to the fact that every card I make is a prototype and I don't follow any particular rules.

Therefore it's a pretty slow process especially when you add in my back problem and my physical restrictions.

Anyhow I am fairly pleased with the finished results and I believe my niece liked it as well, so that's a bonus.

Happy Creating!

Rain...finally!

Well it's been raining all night.

It's SO welcome.

Apparently it's been the driest November since 1914.

Well not now.

I think this must be the most rain we have had in one night since the January floods this year.

The rain has brought the temperature right down as well, which again is very welcome.

FLOOD   JANUARY   2011

The above two images were taken by me on 11th January this year.

The night before we had received about 80mm.

Not a day I would like repeated even though in the end we were not affected.

All day we thought we could have been and that was where the worry came in.

We are only new to this Darling Downs Town and seeing the creek level from our mail box was very worrying stuff.

The creek runs behind our house but is usually not visible from our house at all. The Oakey Creek has very steep banks and is a normally a slow running but low lying creek.

This is the town bridge but was taken after most of the water had subsided about 5pm in the afternoon.

For most of the day myself and other neighbours were stranded on our own personal island and had to wait for the waters to subside before we could get out and about and see what damage had been done to the rest of the township.

Potholders Galore

I'd like to share some of my

potholder collection

with you all.

My first attempt at a Folded Star, in just the right colours for my kitchen.

A retro style chook potholder for my kitchen. Mainly vintage fabrics used in this one.

I made this one out of leftover pieced bits and pieces, it was fun to make.

I love this one.

I found the pattern in a

Quilter's Newsletter Magazine

from the 1980's.

I made this one a few years ago and love the ceramic bee button.

This is a 'just for looking at' potholder.

This is 'some' of my collection.

It consists of vintage ones I have collected over the years as ones made by me.

Altered coasters

             Graduation Gift

I made this little box as a graduation present for my daughter.

It's the first time I have ever made one and it was a bit

challenging to make it fit together neatly but I got there after a lot of jiggling.

I added this bought photo frame.

I dismanted it so it could be attached to the front.

This is the original photo that came with the frame.

Empty frame awaiting a photo of my daughter on her graduation day.

One day I will change the tag that says

'graduation day' (it's a bit daggy), but I don't live in the same area as my daughter anymore

and I can't travel at the moment after back surgery.

I missed her graduation because of my bad back but got to see it live streamed on-line so that was a suitable consolation, plus my brother (as well as seven other family members) attended and took lots and lots of photos for me.

These coasters were purchased at an opportunity shop and cost about $1.

They were brand new still in the box.

I'm pretty happy with the way my altered project turned out and I think my daughter was happy with this gift.

Sweet peas, salvia and lavender

Spring has sprung!

I picked these this morning.

There's a crazy un-seasonal cool easterly wind blowing, so they are a bit battered looking.

Sweet peas are nearly my favourite, right up there with pansies.

They flower later up here on The Darling Downs than what I am used to in the sub-tropics.

The great thing is that they self seeded, so they came up just where they were last year and the trellis was ready and waiting, but the crop was much thicker.

The salvia was dormant throughout the long cold winter but has sprung into action the last couple of weeks and is nearly at its peak now, however will flower well until April I would think. Then I will cut it back again, it will lay dormant and the cycle will repeat.

As for the lavender, it loves the cold and flowered all winter.

After a good pruning at end of winter it has surged ahead and all the bushes

are laden with beautiful lavender heads.

The fragrance wafting throughout the house......sweet peas mixed with lavender is just heavenly.

It's a very respectable 19c here today and I wish it would never get any warmer.

Oh I do dread the summer.

However I have heard that the La Nina weather pattern has returned (I think it only briefly disappeared for a couple of months in winter) and it's looking like we could be in for a cooler and wetter than normal summer (just like the last year with the terrible flooding experienced in Queensland and some other Australian states).

 Let's hope that we do not experience the devastation of flooding and all the negatives

that come with it again this year.

The people, the local, state and federal governments and the economy

just would not be able to take it again.

Hat on Stand & House card

This beautiful Stampin Up hat on stand stamp is so nostalgic, I just love it!

It's the first stamp I have ever coloured in and I used Aquarellas and a water brush.

The corner die cuts are by Cuttlebug and the sentiment stamp by

Our Daily Bread Designs.

The oval and square are Spellbinder Nestabilities.

I will send it out one day, until then I will enjoy looking at it.

Friends card