For the Kids

I am so late with this post, I swear my time management skills are getting worse... or maybe I just have more and more to do?!  Either way, this should have been posted yesterday when the new challenge started over at Di's Digis with the theme "For the Kids", where we'd like to see a card with an image of a child or children, or a card or project for a child or children.
I have been spending a lot of time making a cake for MY child... it is Chris's 30th birthday tomorrow... and he's my BABY!... he had a party yesterday with a circus/carnival theme so I've been caking it up for days!!
Here's my card for the challenge

I've used one of Di's newer images, she's been drawing up some real cuties recently... you can get this one, "A Little Something" from here.  I coloured with Copics, adding some detail with Prismacolor pencils and some Ice Blue Stickles to the ribbon.

I followed the sketch from Digi Sketch challenge, though my image does take up a bit more of the space than on the sketch!  The papers are Kaisercraft and from my stash.  I added sparkly blue star brads, some blue gel pen "faux" stitching and a metal self adhesive "wish" sentiment I've had in my stash forever!  That's it!

I used the same sketch for the inside of the card, of course, it's what i do, lol

I'd like to enter the following challenges: 

Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Art by Miran	Anything Goes
Send a Smile for Kids	Anything Goes
That Craft Place	Anything Goes
Clear It Out	Theme & Stash: Anything Goes
Fab'n'funky Challenges	Happy Birthday
Crafts 4 Eternity	Furry Friends
Delightful Challenges	You're a Gem (Add Bling)
Digi Sketch Challenge	Sketch or Food
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge	Use Patterned Paper
Seize the Birthday	Anything Goes Birthday

I hope you get a chance to check out the rest of the Design Team Inspiration, and have a go at the challenge.  There's an awesome prize as always, and an extra draw if you use one of Di's cuties

I have to make Chris's birthday card tomorrow, nothing like last minute!  I'll post a picture of his cake when I put up his card

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

When is a Challenge Not a Challenge?

For me using digi images is no challenge at all, so calling this week's theme over at the Card Mania blog a "challenge" felt a bit like cheating!  I thought I'd add to my Christmas card pile, this is what I came up with

I embossed some white card with my new Snowflakes Embossalicious embossing folder; it's 6x6 so no pesky lining up to do.  The Paper Shelter wants snowflakes so I'm entering there.  The digi I've used is called Santa Mouse; this little cutie is one of the StampArt Design by Kathryne designs available here at Whimsy Stamps  Cutie Pie Challenge has Festive Furry Friends as their challenge, so I'm entering there, Papertake Weekly have 2 or 4 legs, so in there too and Sparkles Monthly Challenge theme is "the Big Guy (Santa)" so I'm entering there, hopefully my mouse sized Big Guy is big enough!  Crafty Creations has a recipe: 3 Layers, 2 Papers and 1 sweet Image... I'm in
I coloured with Copics, adding some of the deeper shadows with Prismacolor pencils.  I also added pastel white shimmering EP... but of course the glitter doesn't show in the pic, grrr.

I fussy cut Santa Mouse out very carefully (okay, I bailed when I got down to the curly bit of the tail, but I got most of it!) then mounted the image on an Action Wobbler... I've just about run out of these, but I've found a few tutorials on YouTube (here's one) on how to make your own... I'll let you know how I go :-)  
Here's a few pics attempting to show how he moves around - but I've got to say it's a challenge getting the thing to wobble and then getting back far enough quickly enough to get a focused photograph with it still moving!!
I thought I'd go the whole digi hog and used digital paper too... these are all from Nitwits Merry Christmouse 2 collection. Top Tip Tuesday wants us to use 3+ papers, I'm in! I tried to trim the red panel so that the "merry Christmouse" printed on the paper could be seen, the lazy way of adding a sentiment (well the quick way, for some reason time is still hurtling by)  The glittery gold matting card is from my stash, the stuff on the front in particular is a nice "soft" gold, I'm really going to have to try and get some more of it.
I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday , I even rounded the corners where appropriate... using my newly obtained 1" EK Success Corner Rounder.  I bought a couple of new corner rounders when I bought a slot punch recently... the reason I bought the slot punch is I was going to make some more tabs to hang my ribbons on; I have loads from Ribbon Ring and they're fabulous... but no longer ship to Australia, so I'm trying to come up with alternatives, at this point I've just got some nice corner rounders out of it, lol

I followed the sketch for the inside of the card too, mixing it up a bit so you can see more of the "Merry Christmouse" paper, I turned the jotting panel so that the rounded corners didn't match the mat, I liked it better that way.
Divas by Design had this gorgeous picture inspiration, I've taken it simply as a picture of Christmas so I'm entering there.   Delightful Challenges,  Without Words, Crafty Calendar, Bearly Mine Challenges and Stamping Sensations all have Christmas Challenges running so I'm entering them, and Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge has a Colour Choice Challenge, I've chosen Red, White and Green.
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, Through the Craftroom Door, Paper Creator Crafts, Little Miss Muffet and That Craft Place all have Anything Goes challenges so I'm entering them too.
Well that's it for today's card, pop over to the Card Mania Blog and check out the rest of the team's fab work.  Why not enter the challenge, after all, all you have to do is use a digi - no challenge at all really is it?  Great prize on offer too.
I thought I'd add a couple of pics of my "bionic hip" The machine to burn them to disc was not working on the day I had them taken, so these pics were taken with the Xtrays propped up against my lightbox in the craftroom... at least they're backlit!
The surgeon was very happy with me on Friday, I'm allowed to drive now, but alas all the other restrictions are still in place for another six weeks.  I am cheating a bit, I slept (with a pillow between my knees, so not ALL bad) for an hour this morning and yesterday... and I'm going to do it again tomorrow; I just don't get good sleep on my back!  I'm up to all my usual duties in the house, walking without aids and running the business etc, but BOY do I get tired! 
It's my son Chris's 30th birthday next Monday, I'm making him a cake... he's having a party in the park with a carnival theme this weekend (like a kid's party, the BIG 3 little 0 sort of thing)  I've got as far as baking four of the cakes, 3 more tomorrow should be enough... then I've got to start moulding some characters - there could be a very floppy ringmaster on show on the weekend, and I'll know EXACTLY how he feels, rofl
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Falling for Autumn at Di's Digi Challenge

Autumn is my absolutely favourite time of the year, so it's somewhat ironic that I live in Western Australia where we have a short and not very spectacular autumn, and are in fact in Spring right now!  However at Di's Digis Challenge Blog there's a new challenge starting today with autumn as the theme, so I'm getting my fill of autumn (or fall) lushness.  

As I said I don't have a great deal of autumnal splendour to base my ideas on, but I did plant a couple of Japanese Maple trees a few years ago (when I lost the battle with hubby over the HUGE Liquidamber that used to reside in our front lawn... I got to replace one rather muddy deciduous tree with two (very much smaller) spectacularly rich coloured ones, they are predominantly red, hence my card is. 

I've used one of Di's newer image, this is Fairies Storytime and you can get it here... cute isn't it?  I've coloured with Copics and there's lashings of Crystal Stickles on the wings (which of course you can't see), the white dots on the toadstools are Viva Decor Pear Pen.  I made a mistake and started trying to add coloured pupils to the fairies' eyes, so they look too dark; next time I'll just leave them as they are drawn.  I used my Lifestyle Crafts nesting circle dies to cut out all the panels and mats.

 I added a jewel ladybird to the bottom right hand corner adding Viva Pearl Pen eyes then swirls cut with a Memory Box Trailing Vines die that I was lucky enough to win in the fabulous Crafting Vicky's Candy recently (thanks Vicky)... I smothered it in Stickles too and it looks pretty good IRL, and of course doesn't show in the photos at all!  The little metal "Thanks" tag is from my stash - if need be I can change it out for another sentiment - they're handy like that.

The papers are Basic Grey's Indian Summer (not sure they do it any more), the deep red matting is from my stash.  I used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches,

I followed the same sketch for the inside of the card, used more of the paper from the Indian Summer pad, and used some of the pattern used for the diagonal strip to cut the swirl - it shows up better than the paper I used on the front but as I only remembered to make this card late yesterday afternoon I ran out of time to change the one on the front, I will when I get time.

 Well that's about it for my very simple card, I hope you get time to join in the challenge, there's a great prize on offer from Marker Pop, and as always if you use one  of Di's lovely images you go into an extra draw with its very own prize.
I would like to enter the following challenges with this card: 

Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly	Anything Goes
Little Miss Muffet	Anything Goes
Art by Miran	Anything Goes
Paper Creator Crafts	Anything Goes
Tuesday Morning Sketches	Sketch
Hiding in my Craft Room	Fall colours
Sparkles Monthly Challenge	Fall or Autumn Colours
Great Impressions	Thankful Thoughts
Totally Gorjuss	Warm Colours
Divas by Design	Bonfire Colours
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge	Use Patterned Paper
Delightful Challenges	Patterned Paper
Outlawz Friday Colouring Challenge	Leaves

On a Personal Note: I feel I have "turned a corner" with my recovery; Surgery was 5 weeks ago yesterday.  I had a consult with a Physio on Thursday and she told me (well confirmed really, I knew it already just didn't want to accept it) that I was doing too much and not medicating enough; she gave me better stretches and she also gave me acupuncture in the painful IT Band, Quadriceps, and my pectineus muscle (I think that's right, basically the one that joins your leg to your pelvis! it's been sore since day one which is very common in Hip Replacement Surgery).  I wasn't going to get acupuncture done as I considered it so much snake oil, but I was in so much discomfort in just about everywhere but my hip! and have been progressing so well in every other way I was pretty desperate... she used only nine needles on the Quads, and when the third one went in I felt a slight "popping" sensation (not painful, but like being flicked with an elastic band) and the relief was immediate!  Another four went in the Pectineus and I finally lost the dragging feeling, yay!!   I've slowed down a bit, medicated regularly (still only need Paracetemol, so not "heavy" medication) and I feel heaps better - back to the land of the living, doing all my chores :-( I'm walking around the house without any assistance, but do use a cane if I'm going for a long walk or to the shops as it gives me a bit of security.  One more week and I get to see an Xray of my bionic hip, and hopefully get cleared to drive.  What would be really nice is if my Surgeon thought I had healed so well he could lift the rest of my restrictions and I could sleep on something other than my back - not having to do that for the extra six weeks would be like winning the lottery I reckon :-))  I know he hasn't given me the extra restrictions to "punish" me, but 12 weeks IS a long time... still if needs be, sigh
Anyway until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Time to Use Your Dies for the Card Mania Challenge

I can't believe more than (another!) week has gone by since I posted on my blog... I've been spending a lot of time over at Bonesmart... sharing recovery stories with my fellow Hip replacees, time to think about bigger issues, like Craft, lol.  There's a new challenge starting today at the Card Mania Challenge, my third already as Guest DT, the theme this time is "Use Your Dies"... I love dies, not a problem; here's my contribution, a boxed set of note cards.

Now this project was a lot of work, very fiddly, so I'm going to bore you with a lot of photos... even if it's "more of the same" :-)  The main thing to note (as this challenge is about using dies) is that the dies I used are from the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Curved Borders 2 set. 
I love these things as they nest really well, but getting the "lining" behind the scrollwork lined up with the fancy edges perfectly was harder than I thought it would be... and of course I was committed to doing it seven times once I started!   I used very heavy weight textured brown card.  The orange paper is textured too, but light weight; it was a peachy shade originally... I coloured it with a YR Copic. Clear It Out has Theme: Orange  Stash: Use orange things so I'll be entering there. The patterned paper is from my "go to" shop for gorgeous paper; Starfish Lane.  Hiding in my Craft Room and Sparkles Monthly Challenge have Autumn colour challenges, so I'm entering there too.

Front of Box

Box Open

Back of Box

Here's the box, the front matches the note cards, the back uses the plain edge die used along the edge of the orange paper on the front of the box to cut the brown card as a flap,  I used some Velcro as a closer.  I'll pop back and post a template for the box... I just can't find where I hid, err I mean 'put' it at the moment!

The "pearls" are gold flatbacks from my stash coloured to suit using the same YR Copic I used for the paper.  The little brown bows were part of the fabulous basket of goodies my son Chris bought as my birthday gift, again from Starfish Lane
The note cards themselves are... well more of the same.  The only hiccup I encountered when making them was that I cut the top layer of first one with the "grain" of the textured card going in the opposite direction to the base of the card... so I had to cut the others the same, it meant I used more card in the end, ah well.
Crafty Cardmakers want to see something Cut Out for their challenge so I'm in, and the cut outs I have are Swirly and Curly so they'll fit in the Delightful Challenges Swirls and Curls Challenge.

I added patterned vellum to the inside of the cards, I had just a panel of it initially but it just didn't look right. I added another "loose" layer with a strip of the orange paper to hold it on and I think it works well.
Catch The Bug, Through the Craftroom Door, Divas by Design, Simon Says Challenge and Anything But A Card challenges all have Anything Goes themes this time around so I'm entering them all.
Well that's it for today's project, I hope you liked it... and aren't sick of all the photos, lol.  Pop over to the Card Mania blog and check out the rest of the DT's inspiration, and I know we all like our Dies so why not get cutting and enter the challenge too.... there are great prizes from Marianne Design and Hobbisimo!
I'll be back in a day or so with a card from my drafts... I really thought this hip replacement would have me crafting and blogging every day - but for one reason or another I just haven't made it yet... and I can drive in less than two weeks so I'll defo be out partying then, lol
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna