Gift of Winter

I have a Christmas card from my (burgeoning!) Draft Folder today... this one was made for Christmas 2015 but it hasn't been "Blogged" yet so here it is

It's a very simple card, but I really love it.  Quite possibly the beautiful Sara Burrier image from Crafts and Me called "Gift of Winter" is the reason!  After printing the image on Versalinen paper I coloured it with Prismacolor pencils, I really like the effect of the pencils on the textured card.
The background paper is from Kaisercraft, can't remember the pack... it's probably one of my 6x6 pads (that's what I use the most) but it may not be; it's so long since I made it I simply don't know where to look, and if I'm completely honest my Mojo isn't quite back yet so I can't bring myself to get up and start looking for it!!
I cut the oval mat with Spellbinders Floral Ovals, love this set, and embossed it with gold embossing powder from Ranger - it doesn't give a smooth finish and is exactly the look I was going for with the vintage image and paper.  The poinsettia is a Cottage Cutz die (I think, the name I put on it has rubbed off!), the gold "beads" in the centre are actually from my stash of egg decorating supplies... from 20 years ago!!  Who said I'm a craft-hoarder, lol.
The little dove is a Memory Box die, I inked the edges with some Colorbox gold ink, which I used to soften all the edges on the card inside and out.  
Talking of the inside, here it is.  More paper from the same pad, the sentiment is a really old wood stamp - I should have juiced up my red inkpad but I think I get away with the slightly starved look - it has a vintage feel.  The same Spellbinders Floral Oval die for the mat, Spellbinders Standard Oval die for the sentiment panel and poinsettia die as on the front.  That's it

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Little Red Wagon What's Red All Over? (Use Lots of Red)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper
Cute Card Thursday Vintage/Distressing
Hiding in my Craftroom Anything Holiday

Fab'n'Funky Challenges Christmas

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Anything Christmas Goes (opt: Things with Wings

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Extra Challenge Anything (Christmas) Goes

12 Months of Christmas Anything (Christmas) Goes

A Snowflakes Promise Anything (Christmas) Goes

Simply Papercrafts Anything Goes

Creatalicious Challenges Anything Goes

Create and Inspire Anything Goes

Polkadoodles Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Anything Goes

Crafting With Friends #53 Anything Goes

Crafty  Creations Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Little Miss Muffet Anything Goes
Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes

Thought I'd add a quick pic of the twins... my how they've grown!  We took them to a local park last week and my son Chris took a few pics - these ones are from LAST year, the same park though, lol, I'll add the current ones another day

I hope to be back soon with another offering (quite possibly from that Draft Folder... though I HAVE managed to add some "new" makes to it over the last few weeks, so it's not as dire as it sounds.  Until then Happy Crafting, Donna 

Emily's First Birthday Card

Well I've finally found a bit of time to drag a card out of my Drafts Folder; it's the oldest I have in there... the card I made for my granddaughter Emily's first birthday; FIFTEEN months ago - ye gods and little fishes, where did the time go??  I was going to put both the twins' cards in one post, but decided to make two posts out of it, better value for money  Here's Miss Emily's card.

I don't know if this fold has a name... all it is is a piece of A4 card (in this case cream pearlised) with one end folded over to make a flap and the other end folded so the main front piece just fits under the flap when it's closed.  It's size is always determined for me by what punch I use to decorate the edge of the flap; if I use a shallow-ish punch (like the Martha Stewart Doily Lace Edge punch I've used here) the fold at the other end is made in one place, if I use a deep punch (like another Martha Stewart punch I use, Garden Trellis... which is being discontinued apparently, I'd better check out any I want before they go!!) it's made in another.  I usually then cut the "height" to make the card square, but as I have some rectangular envelopes in my stash I decided to cut it down to fit one of those.

I embossed the main part of the card with an Embossalicious Folder, Floral Frenzy, and inked all the edges with Orchid Versamark ink.  The letters making up Emily's name are self adhesive foam, from the kids section at a local craft shop (pack of a gazillion for $2) I coloured them with Copics then coated them with Ice Stickles... I did heat emboss one and it distorted a bit... not as much as I was expecting, but still wonky :-) .... so I defaulted to the ol' Stickles.  The inside of the card has a simple computer generated sentiment, mounted on gold foil card.... the embossing on the front of the main panel actually adds to the texture of the inside, I haven't bothered taking a pic though, you'll have to trust me on that one :-))

Now we get to that GORGEOUS image; it's one of Sylvia Zet's fabulous Wee Stamps images, I've had it for a while, saving it for a special occasion... my only granddaughter's first birthday qualifies, lol.  It's called simply Birthday Baby Girl and is a digi; imagine my horror when I popped over to Whimsy Stamps to grab a link and saw that the dreaded new European VAT laws have caused a (hopefully temporary!) closure of the digi section of the store... it is available as a rubber stamp so if you (unlike ME!!) "do" rubber you can still have it.  I SERIOUSLY hope it... and so many of my other favourite digi stores can find a way around these problems, I may have a LOT of digis, but there's still a LOT I'd like to get!

I coloured with some Copics and Prismacolor pencils (mainly the face with Copics, this is printed on linen card and I don't do a great job with pencils on faces with textured card!) I matted on gold mirror card, just for a little lift.

The flower is foam... can't remember the punch I used, coloured and Stickled, the pearl centre is from my stash as are the pearls

AAA Cards is celebrating their first birthday and have a birthday theme using this pic as inspiration (and CAS or Near CAS as an ongoing requirement) so Emily's First Birthday card is going to be entered there as well as in these challenges:

Little Red Wagon	Make an Impression (Dry embossing)
Gem of a Challenge	More Than One Fold
Send a Smile for Kids	Anything Goes for Kids
Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends	Anything Goes
Art by Miran	Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion	Always Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes

I'll be back in a day or so with Nathan's FIRST Birthday in a day or so... truly!  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Guest DT at Little Miss Muffet

A few weeks ago one of my cards (this one if you're interested!) got "Spotlighted" at Little Miss Muffet Challenges; the lovely Faye contacted me and asked if I would like to have a Guest spot on their DT.... would I????? Errr, YESSSS PLEEEAASE!!  So here's my offering for their challenge starting today, the theme is Blue and Green

Now, I was always taught "Blue and Green should never be seen, without a colour in between", well I'm thinking... bunkum!  Here I have those two colours up close and personal and she's looking prett-tty swish :-)  Of course having a lovely little image like Katie (one of the gorgeous Polka Dot Pals, available here) did help, quite a bit :-) Little Red Wagon has Girl Power for their challenge, Fab'n'funky Challenges has For the Kids while Send a Smile for Kids has Anything Goes For Kids so I'm enterng those... oh, an Crafty Little Fairies has Cute and Cuddly so I'm entering there too :-) 
I used Copics from the Blue, Blue/Green and Green families and some Prismacolor pencils, which I especially like the look of on the linen textured paper I used for the image. I made an easel card, they are my favourite fold after all :-) Though I do have a few "favourite folds", lol

Papertake Weekly have their regular "Sketchie Free For All" challenge, yay!!, Sketch #51 really lent itself to the idea I wanted to use of having the image "sticking up" over the edge of the fold (instead of covering the whole front with a square. It looks pretty much as I was hoping it would.
The papers are all from (ANCIENT) Die Cuts With A View Mat Stacks, Far East and All Glittered Up (I think) They're very glittery IRL.  I cut a circle of the blue and green then cut a frame with black cardstock from my stash, using Lifestyle Crafts circle dies - a great set for this sort of job as there are 20+ in the set so you can make very narrow frames easily, here I've used about 3 sizes apart so you can get MUCH narrower frames than this.  

I managed to get some glue on the black when I was sticking the silver cord (bought for egg decorating 11 years ago!) around the edge so I added some Gloss squiggles to disguise it, I'm really happy with the result; it helps tie the frame in with the pattern on the DP
I merged Katie with one of the stools from LMM's Tea Party Table and Chairs Combo pack, especially easy to do with Little Miss Muffet digis as they're in .png background (meaning they already have a clear background perfect for layering) Sadly I can't find the combo pack on the website any more, but Katie is still easy to merge with any background.  I had put her originally on some digital paper, but I managed to drop a Copic on it so I had to fussy cut her and mount her on foam dots on the DP circle.   The sentiment is from Create With TLC, I think it was a freebie... Paulette is very generous with her sentiments so it's highly likely :-)  I added a couple of star stickers, again from ancient stash.

The silver lace was a gift from one of my Mum and Dad's Malaysian holidays, the rhinestone button isn't - a button that is - it's a slider with a glittery cachou thingy stuck inside, which was silver, I coloured it with a Copic to make it green (I have some green ones but  they're too Christmas Green, if you know what I mean)  I added a couple of tiny silver "pearls", what is a pearl that's not pearly called??
Top Tip Tuesday, Tuesday Throwdown, Crafty Calendar, Simon Says Challenge, Crafty Girls Challenge and Cute Card Thursday all have Anything Goes Challenges running so I'm entering there.
Anyway that's (finally!) it for today's card.  I'd like to thank Faye again for the opportunity to be a part of their fabulous DT - make sure you check out the challenge blog so you can see just what I mean by "fabulous".  I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too, fly in the face of those Blue and Green should never be seen-ers, lol. 

I'm off to get dinner ready, Thursday is a super busy day for me, we have the kids over for dinner and quite often (like tonight) my parents as well; my DIL brings the twins over about 4 o'clock and life as we know it ceases from that moment, lol. 
They're growing up so fast, we put a little sandbox in for them last week (just a planter filled with white sand and some toys, but they love it) so now we have mayhem inside and out, lol. I thought I'd share this pic of Grandad watching "them" in my laundry last week, Emily got his attention while Nathan (in the background) got into the cupboard and took the lid off the disinfectant!!!  I swear they're in cahoots!  Time to put locks on methinks.  I do my shopping on Thursdays too, so enough from me!
I'll be back on Saturday with my regular DT card for Di's Digis.  Until then Happy Crafting, Donna

Time's Just Flying By!

Well my life is still flat out hectic... can you believe my beloved Twinnies turned ONE yesterday - pics to follow (but you knew that, lol)  Hard to believe a whole year's gone by already.  They had a big party today, for which I made a cake; even though I say so myself it was pretty super - I'll post pics when my son sends me them.  All of this Twin-based activity has cut into my crafting time (well along with the building of rock walls in the pool area and the making of my hubby's birthday invites - he turns 60 in two weeks OMG! talk about time flying... and yet another cake to come up with for yet another party) 
This doesn't change the fact that a new challenge starts today over at Di's Digi Challenge.   It has the nice and easy theme of Welcome Spring, I managed to make time to alter a little notebook for it, here it is

It started life pretty plain, just like this one (only green!)  I love the nifty little pens that came with these notebooks.  So clever. 

I covered the front and back with this pretty floral paper from Prima (Faerie Florals, I think) then coloured up the lovely Daisy's Delight image with Copics, adding some (hard to see) Liquid Pearl highlights to the centre of the flower and some Stickles to the butterfly and bows on Daisy's shoes.  Then I fussy cut the image out and stuck it on the book.  Instead of trying to do impossibly intricate cuts (such as the one between Daisy's face and the leaf and her leg and the stalk) I leave the white background in and colour it to match the background paper... it works particularly well on a mottled background such as this one.  I also add some Copic shadows around the image to help ground it and make it look more 3D - especially when you are trying to keep the whole thing physically flat, as you would with something like a notebook going in and out of your handbag all the time.

 Here's a link to another one of these altered notebooks, completely different but just as simple.

Anyway that's it for this little project, I'm entering in the following challenges

Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Paper Crafting Journey	Anything Goes
The Crazy Challenge	#167 Flower Frenzy
Cupcake Inspirations	#253 Garden
The Paper Shelter	#251 Spring Delights
Kaboodle Doodles	#216 Dreaming of Spring
My Mums Craft Shop	Spring and Easter
Paper Creator Crafts	21 Spring is in the Air
Clear It Out	Theme: Greens Stash: Anything Green

I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge, great prize (from Really Reasonable Ribbon) on offer as always, and if you use one of Di's fab images you get entered into an extra draw... what are you waiting for?!

I'm trying hard to get some Blogging time in to post some of the projects in my drafts - not having that much success tho', lol.  With any luck I'll be back in the swing soon, Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Holly Jolly GDT

I am very pleased to say that I am the Guest Designer for the Holly Jolly challenge this week... the theme is "Christmas Tags" - you can make a tag or a card with a tag on it.  I've gone with the "card with tag" option :-)

I've used a Bugaboo image, they are the sponsors this week, this is Fancy Sunbonnet Christmas.  I coloured with Copics adding some gold flatbacks from my stash to the centre of the Poinsettia.  Fab'n'funky Challenges has a Christmas challenge so I'm entering there, Winter Wonderland wants us to use a digi, Crafty Creations has Seasonal and Whimsy Inspirations Challenge want us to use something new - in this case my digi image - so I'm entering those too.

I've used the sketch from the Friday Sketch challenge, I thought it lent itself well to adding the tag.  The papers I've used are from Kaisercraft's Christmas Carol pad, the print is nice and shiny (not that it shows in the pics of course!)  the scalloped strip and the tag are from the same pad, I matted everything onto Kaisercraft card.  The sentiment is from a set of clear stamps by Xtra, the eyelet was set using my Cropadile (love that thing, so much easier than the old bash-and-hope system I used before, lol) and the green sheer ribbon and red bow are from my stash.  Creative Craft Challenges have a recipe challenge, sadly their last for the foreseeable future; 1 image (check), 1 sentiment (check), 2 papers (the background print and the scalloped border), 2 different types of embellishments (gold pearls and ribbon/bow), so I'm entering there. 

I finished the inside of the card using more of the Christmas Carol paper, and another of the tags from the pad, the jotting panel is really textured, very nice IRL.  I added some Pearl Pen berries to the tag and Cropadile-d a smaller eyelet to it.  I cut a scrap of the paper from the front with Spellbinders Classic Border scalloped die and added a few gold flatbacks to tie it all in.
Through the Craftroom Door, Papertake Weekly, Paper Creator Crafts and Bugaboo have Anything Goes challenges running, so I'm entering them all.
That's it for today's card, I'd like to thank Holly Jolly for having me as their Guest Designer and to particularly thank Cindy for adding my card as I only realised when I wrote the date this morning that I hadn't sent her photos of it.. in fact I hadn't taken photos of it so it was a rush job - and I'm sure she didn't need the stress!  Sometimes time just gets away from you... or is that just me?  Nah, surely not!

Nathan

Emily

I'm going out with my DIL  and the twins in the morning, it's the first time since Matt was in hospital that we've been out together just the two of us, and actually the first time I've been out with her and the twins without any other people wanting to cuddle them and show them off... we see each other at least twice a week so it was actually surprising to me when I worked out that this was the case; I'm so looking forward to it, even though it's a medical appointment first there'll be lunch after and even though I spent most of today with them I'm excited, lol. 

I'll be back soon with another card from my draft pile, Until then Happy Crafting, Donna

Christmas is so "last year"

Happy New Year!!  I've stolen a few minutes - alright I'll admit it, I've mooched around just about all day and have still had to stay up late - to "blog": I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are raring to go in 2014.  
It is summer here, our industry (construction) closes down for a few weeks over Christmas and New Year (we're going back on Jan 13th) and it is school holidays until the beginning of February so we're still in holiday mode, though with hubby at home there's not a great deal of time for crafting... so here's some I made earlier, lol.

Christmas cards I'm afraid (you're probably sick of the sight of them too, lol) I'll hold a few back in case I get desperate to blog something in a few weeks. The first one uses one of the Xmas Frames set from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils with the obligatory sparkle courtesy of Stickles and red ornaments courtesy of a Viva Decor Pearl Pen.  The card is gold metallic (you know the ones that come in a set with matching envelopes) embossed with Cuttlebug's Snowflakes folder, distressed a little before adding Viva Pearl Pen dots.  The plaid paper is from Basic Grey and the red card is Kaisercraft.  I added some Sakura Glaze pen to the sentiment to add a little dimension. the Digistamp Boutique challenge is open to anyone using one of their fab images so I'm entering there (if the link's up, sometimes it's not) 

My second card uses another of the Digistamp Boutique's Xmas Frames Set... again coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and again having that Christmas sparkle added with Stickles.  

The background paper is from my stash, wish I could get some more, it's such a useful pattern.  The horizontal strip is from Kaisercraft's Christmas Carnival pad and the green matting from my stash.

As with all these simple Christmas cards, I finished the inside very simply.  The sentiment is a wood stamp I've had for years (well before I started making cards regularly), my sister gave it to me after SHE had it for years :-) I really like it, it won't offend anyone's religious beliefs, is especially appropriate here as we are very much "on Holiday" and is in a nice font to boot! Crafty Calendar has a Christmas challenge and Colour Me Copic has a Holiday Themed challenge so I'm entering there. 

The third card I have for today is very simple indeed!  I made an A6 card (holiday postage rate, always a plus lol), printed Bugaboo's Sunbonnets Christmas Ornaments quite large (and incidentally facing the opposite way - I just like my images to "look" to the right, or future!) - love digis!  

I coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils adding Stickles sparkle to the ornaments, Sakura Glaze pen to the "Merry" (fabulous freebie sentiment from the Desert Diva, thank you) and some Holly Berry Dew Drops from The Ribbon Girl to the Sunbonnet.  

I mounted the image on some Forest Green cardstock and that was that! Craft Your Passion has a Something New challenge, this little image is new, mind you the images on the other cards I'm showing today are new to me as well in that I've never used them... even though I bought them (with the best intentions) last Christmas, yegads, where did THAT year go?!  The Catch the Bug challenge this time around is "Your Favourite Christmas Song"; I have sooo many faves, one is "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", especially when sung with gusto, lol, so I'm entering there.

Creative Craft Challenges, The Paper Shelter, Crafty Creations, Through the Craftroom Door, Cute Card Thursday, Crafty Little Fairies, Gem of a Challenge, That Craft Place and Kaboodle Doodles all have Anything Goes challenges running so I'm entering those.

That's it for today, I'll be back in a few days - getting back in the routine with a DT card for Di's Digis on Saturday.  

I thought I'd share a photo of the twins (yes it WAS lovely having babies for Christmas again, lots of special moments and an all round fuzzy feeling for all of us)  As I said it is summer holidays here, Matt and Elaine have taken the twins to stay for a few days with their good friends who have moved to the country (about 180 km away) Mummy was in a bit of a flap about what to pack, Daddy knew the most important thing: see pic!

I'm not sure how much relaxing they're getting in, it's the first time they've tried going away with the babies, when we spoke earlier Matt said they now realize how much "stuff" they use every day - oh well, only another night or two (depending when they crack, lol) and they'll be back.  We're going to have Nathan and Emily for a day to give M&E a break; sounds like they'll need it! I miss them already; Emily now says "Nanna", clever girl that she is ;-)  Nathan looks like a vampire as he has cut his two bottom middle teeth and his two top lateral incisors.... too Cute!! 

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna 

Sympathy for Sid

Today I have a card that I made for my Aunty Ellen;  Sadly, my Uncle Sid lost his battle to cancer in September, Sympathy cards are always a little difficult - especially for a man - and as my Mum asked me to make one for her as well, I had twice the difficulty.  Anyway this is the card from us

 I relied on the sentiment (which I made on the computer - feel free to grab it here - open it before Saving to make sure you get a better resolution - or from my Freebies page if you like it) to "make" this card, and the lovely paper - which is flocked with silver embossing - from my go to store for specialty paper Starfish Lane.
The sentiment panel was cut using Nestabilities Classic Ovals, as was the brown mat, the silver mat is Nestabilities Floral Ovals.  I used the Lavish Branch die from Memory Box (cut up) for the embellishment, adding some tiny silver pearls from my stash and some faux stitching done in silver pen.  Delightful Challenges have a Favourite Things challenge, I love die cuts, and my Floral Ovals are one of my favourite Nesties sets, and any Memory Box die is a Favourite!
The inside of the card followed the same layout as the front.  All in all a very simple card, always the best for the occasion IMHO.
I thought I'd enter the Aud Sentiments challenge, where you can use any sentiment and Bearly Mine Challenges, Through the Craftroom Door, Simon Says Challenge, Cute Card Thursday, Hobbycutz and Cards for Men which all have Anything Goes challenges running.
I'll be back tomorrow with my DT project for Here Come The Boys.... how quickly these fortnights come around - especially at this time of the year!
I thought I'd pop a picture of the twins on, just to lighten the mood - we babysat them the other day, so I took the opportunity to get some photos even though they weren't all scrubbed up after dinner; which my son pointed out as soon as he came to pick them up! I still think they're cute pictures, but then I would, lol  Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday blog loves to see what we've been up to (and gives us nosey peeps the opportunity to see what others have been up to, lol) so I'm sharing my babysitting pic there... trust me there isn't much time to do anything else when you're watching eight month old twins at dinner/bath/bed time :-)

 I'll put some more pics on tomorrow's post,Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Show us Your Colouring Skills at Di's Digis

The new challenge starting today over at Di's Digis is right up my street... we want you to show off those colouring skills.  Colouring is the favourite part of card making for me, sometimes I like to mix it up with some fab papers, but most of the time I just love colouring those images :-)
For today's card I decided to colour up TWO images and make a "different" sort of card...

I've used Candy Star Ted and the Background Xmas Fireplace for this card; I wanted to create a sort of scene, with Ted having fun outside in the snow knowing that inside that window there's a nice warm fire burning :-) It's really hard to photograph, but I'm sure you'll get the idea!  Crafty Calendar wants to see bears, so I'm entering there.

I cut the window panes out (just with my paper trimmer) and added acetate - it's amazing they just look like holes then you add acetate, completely clear acetate and voila they look like windows! (well they do IRL, of course it's hard to see in the pic) I coloured the images with Copics, adding some Prismacolor pencil shadows and embossing the fur trim with Pastel Opal glitter (there's some on the snow too, I know you can't see it!), Gold Stickles on the star and the centres of the flowers on the fireplace and Royal Coat Gloss on the fire. The Crafts-Too Challenge You Theme is Texture, Twist: add something shiny/glittery - plenty of glitter here, I'm in. I did some basic colouring of the back of the bear because you can see it through the windows.  Charisma Cardz want us to Decorate the inside of our card, I have in spades!
The patterned papers are digis from Bearly Mine, the Christmas Frolics set. I cropped the stripy paper for the carpet and I even scaled one of the papers down (in Word) and cropped out the picture for above the fireplace, mounting it on a gold oval cut using Nestabilities Scalloped Ovals - I love digis :-)  Totally Gorjuss wants to see Traditional Christmas Colours, and Pile It On wants to see Warm or Cool colours - I've used Warm - so I'm in.
The snowflakes are from Marianne Design, embossed with the Pastel Opal glitter again, the brad on the ones on the front is from my stash and is the only true embellishment on the whole card!! I put some on the inside of the front to cover up the "legs" of the brad.
The panel with the fireplace image opens the opposite way (a bit like a Joy Fold card I suppose) revealing the jotting panel below... more of the same paper collection and more of those snowflakes and another brad from my stash :-)  Hiding in my Craft Room has a Lots of Layers challenge so I'm entering there.

Designed to Color has Anything Goes (provided you use a coloured image of course)as do Digi Makeover, Crafts 4 Eternity, Through the Craftroom Door, Simon Says Challenge, Bearly Mine Challenges and Marianne Design Divas (using a product from Marianne Design, like my snowflakes!) so I'm entering all of those.

That's about it for my "little bit different" card, I had a ball making this - and worked out some of the pitfalls... like making the middle layer a little narrower than the front to give it room to close; of course I didn't work it out before I cut it, hmmm, I know for next time :-)

I hope you get a chance to check out my teamies offerings, fabulous as always.  and I hope you get a chance to "Show off your colouring skills" and join in the challenge. Great prize as always, this time it's the Cutting Café with the choice of 3 items from their shop :-) and if you use a Di's Digi image you go in an extra draw too.

Nathan and Emily... 6 months old today!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, we are watching the footie grand final today, and making the most of tomorrow with our son Matt and his family as he is starting back at work on Tuesday... hurray!!  It has been a long (17 weeks to the day), and at times difficult journey, and while we know it's not as if nothing has happened it feels so much closer to "normal" now.  My hubby can take it a bit easier, and in a few weeks Matt will be back up to speed and we can maybe take that week off we've been trying for since MAY!  We're heading into summer, which is our "silly season" so a break before that would be great.

I've still got a few cards I haven't "blogged", I'll be back in a few days with one of them, until then, Happy Crafting, Donna.

Things With Wings at Di's Digis

It's that time of the fortnight again... a new challenge has started over at Di's Digis Challenge Blog; the theme this week is "Winged Things".  I thought about using one of the lovely images with butterflies that Di has in her shop, but in the end decided to use one of the lovely images with BIRDS on instead :)

The image is Christmas Robins (you can get yours at Di's new site) and it was a dream to colour... which I did with Copics, adding a few of the deepest shadows with Prismacolor pencils. I added the sentiment, which is from Create With TLC, using Word before printing the image out.  Corrosive Challenge has My Sentiments Exactly, so I'm entering there.
Oozak has Anything Goes with Earthtones as their challenge theme and Color Me Copic want us to use Orange/Coral somewhere in our picture - they even have this photo for inspiration - so I'm entering there.  It's a very long time since I've seen a robin redbreast (I've lived in Australia for over 40 years) so I don't know how accurate the colour is but I think it looks nice and cheery at least ;)
I used the sketch from Sunday Sketch and Stamp, I do like a nice sketch :) The papers are from Kaisercraft, I can't remember which pad, the orange colour paper has flock spots on, it feels yummy:)  My Mums Craft Shop has Spots or Stripes for their challenge so I'm entering there.
 The gold foil card for matting is from my stash, as is the lovely heavy ribbon.  Winter Wonderland wants us to Use Ribbon or Twine and Deep Ocean Challenge Ribbon and/or Lace, so I'm entering there.
The chipboard snowflake on the front is from Make It Crafty, I inked it up and embossed it with Glitter Gold EP  then added a Kaisercraft Sparklets centre.  The one on the inside is a Marianne D die, cut from gold foil card and embossed with the same EP, the centre is a Dewdrop from The Ribbon Girl. 
I also embossed some iridescent sparkle on the snow on the image and added some gloss to the holly berries. Moving Along With The Times has Embossing and Stamping Sensations has Embossing and Texture for their challenges so I'm entering there. 
 Paper Pretties has Fab Faves as their challenge theme...I love all my digistamps, couldn't possibly choose "a" fave :) so I'm entering there.
Bearly Mine Challenges, Whimsy Inspirations Challenge, Creative Inspirations, Eclectic Ellapu and 
Through the Craft Room Door all have Anything Goes challenges running so I'm entering them too.
That's about it for today's card... why not pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the team's inspiration - it's awesome =D> I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge, we're being sponsored by The Cutting Café with an awesome prize.

I just thought I'd load a couple of the latest photos of "The Twins", - they're doing so well; 
Nathan has just about caught up with Emily in weight and is catching up with the smiles and cooing too.  We worked out a great way of keeping them amused; we lay them under the glass coffee table and put colourful things on top so they can see them, it's developed from there and now Matt and Elaine hang some of their toys off their table too - of course they don't spend too long under there, but they do enjoy it :)   
Poor old Kruza Dog doesn't look convinced (I think he looks like he can't believe they're still staying at his house, lol)
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna