Creations From The Heart

Nearly 10,000 visitors! Wowsers...

I've just noticed that my litle ticker is slowly going up towards the 10,000 mark!  Yep, never thought I'd see that ever happen so I'm glad that everyone enjoys stopping by to see what's happening in my little 'ol life.  So just to make life more exciting for you all, I'm going to put together a nice litle pack and give it away to one of my lucky blog visitors.

How do you win this piece of blog candy?

Just drop in and say hi by leaving me a comment before I hit 10,000 visits.

If you've never left me a comment before, come out and say hi and let me know which part of the world you're from.  I love looking at my map in the sidebar as there's dots on just about every continent across the world which is amazing.

For each comment posted from tonight onwards, you'll receive one entry into my blog candy draw.  Have no idea what you'll win yet, but there might be a set of Stampin' Up stamps, some papers from my stash, some ribbon offcuts and whatever else I feel like giving away.  My scrapbooking room isn't running short on goodies that would like a new home!!  Anyone can enter as I'm happy to post it off overseas if you live that far away - so what are you waiting for!

some gifts I've made

Today is my cousin Al's 21st birthday.  Happy Birthday Alison!  We were supposed to be going to her party but the boys fell asleep at 6.30pm as they wouldn't have a sleep during the day plus my voice has disappeared and I keep on coughing uncontrollably so I've decided to stay home.  Mum and Dad have just called in to pick up my present for Al, so here's what I've done for her and hope she likes it!

First is a card I've made using some goodies from my stash.   I got the templates from an Inspireco magazine which is full of beautiful crafty goodness!  The stamps are some Inque Boutique ones I've had from the What A Feeling set.  I've stamped and inked in Pretty In Pink and Mellow Moss Stampin' Up inks.

Following on from my post yesterday, here's my take on Keisha Campbell's canvas ribbon board.

The photo is a little washed out - you can never capture the details in a photo but here's a few little closeups to get the idea.  Click on the images to see them a bit bigger.

This was a quick and easy project to make as the canvas base was only $4 and all the other bits and pieces came out of my stash.  I didn't want to clutter the canvas up too much, so I think what I've added is just enough.  If you want to know what any of the products are that I've used, just leave me a comment.

Isn't this ribbon canvas idea just stunning?  This was made by Keisha Campbell so click here to visit  her blog and find out all the details.  By the way, I just love her photography skills and her daughters are just wanna-be supermodels!

Tomorrow night it's my cousin Allison's 21st birthday, so I'm in the process of making her one as her present, so hopefully later on I'll be able to pop my completed project up here.  But it's so unique and thought it would be a great opportunity to use up some of my ribbon stash!

father's day projects

With Father's Day only just around the corner here in Australia, I have had a request for tomorrow's workshop to make a card and a scrapbook layout, so here's a couple of the cards that the guests will get to choose from followed by the layout of my Dad!

Because I don't have any Stampin' Up embossing powders, I've used some from my own {huge} stash but everything else on these cards is from Stampin' Up.

Credits for first card:

Stamps - Bronc Buster, Weathered, Wanted, Always, Fine Lace

Ink - Versamark, Going Gray

Card - Basic Grey, Black, Mellow Moss, Really Rust, Kraft

Other - Black Twine, edge distresser, sponge, Stampin' Dimensionals, Mat Pack, black embossing powder (Tim Holtz distress embossing powder)

Credits for second card:

Stamps - Weathered, Always, Fine Lace, Occasional Greetings

Ink - Going Gray, Versamark

Card - Basic Grey, Black, Blue Bayou, Really Rust, Kraft

Other - Hemp Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals, gold embossing powder (my own stash), edge distresser, Mat Pack

 

CLICK ON THE PICS TO SEE A LITTLE BIT MORE OF THE DETAIL.

Here's my 12x12 layout done on some black textured cardstock.  I've also added in Basic Grey, Mellow Moss, Really Rust and Whisper White.  The word 'Dad' has been stamped with the Big Deal alphas and Crystal Effects has been added onto them.  I have stamped 'my' with the Short Order Alphabet and pinned it on with a silver brad.  I have punched out some large stars and distressed them with ink, tearing and screwing up (the fun stuff!) and stamped some smaller stars onto some of them from the Wanted set.  The only ink I've used is Basic Grey.  I've distressed most edges of the cardstock, inked some of them with a sponge, pricked holes with the Mat Pack set and mounted the Really Rust card onto Stampin' Dimensionals.  This piece also has some Hemp Twine tied around the top and I've also used the Spiral Punch along the top of this and stamped the Fine Lace background stamp onto it.  The Basic Grey piece has the Linen background stamp all over it and I've torn and rolled the right side to distress it.  I'll eventually add a journalling tag and pop it in behind my photograph.  It's a nice, simple layout but the Basic Grey is certainly a colour that has grown on me since it was released in the new Idea Book.

Things to post shortly!

Have some more cards and a layout to post, but waiting for the sun to come out for some nice light.  It poured down rain late this afternoon here, which we definitely needed, so fingers crossed, the sun will peek out tomorrow and I can upload some pics as it's been a few days since I've posted anything!

Just had to share a digi layout I made today as I absolutely love how it turned out (the kit was full of stunning, shabby goodies)...it's a pic of me and one of my old school buddies Lyn and you can read all the journalling and credits on my digi blog.

Bronc Buster card

Today I did a workshop for Helen and here is one of the cards we made.  She wanted me to make up a male card using a horse so I grabbed the Bronc Buster set which I hadn't thought much of until I started playing with it.  I'm really impressed with it and even this colour combo I used has grown on me.  The idea for this card came from Yvonne's blog and I think she received it in a swap with Ngaire Anderson.  I always like to get some inspiration from somewhere to get me going and I love how rough and rugged this card has turned out.  My main pic is a little orange so the colours are never true-to-life due to the light I photograph in, but you get the idea.

Stampin' Up products used:
CARD:  Basic Grey, Really Rust, Blue Bayou, Black, Kraft
INKS:  Chocolate Chip
STAMPS:  Bronc Buster, Life Definitions, Linen
OTHER:  Edge distresser, eyelet, Crop A Dile, Chocolate Chip thin grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, sponge

And here's a little gift I gave to Helen for having me there today.  Got this idea from Splitcoast Stampers from a tutorial that Beate John's had written on the ribbon sliders.  I omitted the ribbon pull bit and just popped in a sachet of hot chocolate.

Again, my colours are not too good but I had to take them last night as I gave them to Helen today.

Stampin' Up products used:
INKS:  Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Pumkin Pie, Versamark
CARD:  Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
STAMPS:  Always, Short & Sweet, Bodacious
OTHER:  Clear Embossing Powder, brad (my own stash), 1/4 circle punch, Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon, white pencil (my own stash), corner rounder (for scallops)

Layout for Alethea

Told you that I'd scrapbooked!

This is the layout that I made as an RAK for Alethea who won my blog comp recently.  These are her two gorgeous sons and I love how she can edit her photos in the camera before printing to have half black & white and half colour.  I grabbed bits and pieces out of my stash and I'll jot down what I can remember:

Background paper from We R Memory Keepers (Whiteout Collection)

Blue Bazzil for photo mats.

Daisy D's journalling card (I've left blank so Alethea can write something there about the boys)

Queen & Co black Felt Fusion

Creative Imaginations Swatch Book Impressons (terrible to apply - took forever to rub and nearly had to rub through the page to get them on and they're peeling off already)!

Making Memories rubons

Hero Arts stitched circle stamp

Tim Holtz "Walnut" Distress Ink

Basic Grey buttons

Chatterbox words

Heidi Swapp chipboard clock

Scraps of paper for the strips behind pics (Basic Grey, Daisy D's & others)

American Crafts metal photo corners

Staples, twine, thread, ric rac, metal charm

And think that's about it.  It's hard to see all the details but you get the gist with this pic and I'm really happy with it so hope Alethea is too.  She probably won't see this before I get the layout to her as her sister has just had her second child - a little boy named Charlie!  Congrats Allison....

A layout from Pene...

Keep meaning to show you this beautiful layout that Pene did of her gorgeous daughter Rachel using some of the goodies from the Pretties Kit.  Doesn't Rachel just make your heart melt!

And if anyone else wants to email their layouts, I'm happy to pop them onto my blog for the world to see!  Especially you Ange...love all your layouts and I'd love to be inspired by you and for you to inspire everyone!

Life is good!

Another update on our house situation....today the agents called me to say that the purchasers had come in and placed a $1000 deposit for our house after agreeing yesterday to take their final offer of $300,000....I'm doing the happy dance still!!  It is still subject to finance but they have provisional finance and the wife is a finance broker so I was told it would not be a problem for them to get it approved over the next week or so.  So just waiting for the conveyancer to do their bit then we can go sign our contract.  Settlement will be 19th September or earlier if I want that so will work things out once the finance is approved and will hit the road to check out some rental properties.  But once that 'Sold' sign goes up, I'll be a very happy chappy....out on the street, but very happy to finally be free and make a new start with the boys!

we've got a buyer!!

Wow, the house has been on the market a matter of days.  We've had 3 families come through and the family from Saturday made us an offer yesterday.  How great is that!!  They spent about 40 minutes at the house and as I came home they were driving out of our driveway so I thought they must have been very keen.  The agent rang me straight after and gave me some really great feedback about them and said they wanted to buy it.  So yesterday they made an offer, and I went back and forward with the agent to get the price up another $10,000 and today I'm just waiting on confirmation that it's ready for us to go sign a contract!  I can't believe it really after thinking it would take ages to sell.  Not sure if I'm sad to be going or happy to be able to sell and sever my ties with my ex.  Will have a couple of days to wait until the conveyancer gets some documents ready then we all have to sign the contract.  The purchase is subject to finance of which they have 10 days to get approval.  They also want a very quick settlement for around 19th September.  I don't have anywhere lined up to move into as yet so will have to get my butt into gear and start looking for somewhere to rent in Sunbury.  If not, my parents are heading away for about 4 months so could always put my house into storage and go live with them for a while (hi Mum!) just don't have anywhere for our dog and cat to go as Mum lives on 3 acres so the land is not enclosed for the dog.  I'm sure I'll find somewhere to rent but really need to start looking as rentals are becoming much harder to secure with everyone getting out of their mortgages due to the high cost of living.  But I'm just doing the happy dance at this point because it looks like we will be selling....yipppeeee!!!

a couple of quick finds...

Here's a couple of things I found today while surfing the net!  These great wall hangings on 2 Peas which are actually Basic Grey papers mounted on styrofoam and edged with black cardstock.  How easy and effective would that be in your living room.

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Then there's this beautiful card from Julia Stainton.  Isn't it just divine?  I'm a regular reader of Julia's blog as she comes up with the most amazing creations so make sure you go look at the rest of her blog.

OMG, I have scrapped...with paper and all!!

OMG, I've actually delved into my {very} dusty scrapbooking stash - and that would be my paper, hands-on goodies and not that digi stash on my PC!  Some time back, I gave away a couple of layouts to 2 of my blog readers so tonight I made a start on Alethea's one using two photos of her boys Logan and Liam.  I actually quite enjoyed going through my goodies and even remembered where things were that I hadn't pulled out for a very long time.  So hopefully tomorrow sometime (or today because it's already tomorrow!!) I'll have it finished.  I'll leave a spot for Alethea to pop some journalling in, but the layout will be complete and it may be the first one she's got as Alethea only makes cards.  So there you go Alethea, you're going to have to go and buy yourself a little album or maybe pick up a frame for this one to display.  Will take a pic of it and post it on here if it's sunny tomorrow as it's currently raining outside.  We were supposed to do some painting outside tomorrow {today!} but won't be able to if the rain persists.  But then again, we desparately need all the rain we can get nowadays.

Today we had another family inspect our house and the feedback from the agent was more than positive.  They loved it and were even talking about making our double carport into a workshop as the hubby is a carpenter and our single garage wouldn't be big enough for him.  They even hung around after the agent had gone and I came back 40 minutes later to see them driving out of our driveway.  They are requesting a Vendor Statement and once they sight that next week, they may put an offer in.  They asked the agent to call them if anyone else put an offer in.  Apparently they have recently moved from Canberra and are desparate to get out of their rental property so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  They also had 2 young boys so the decor would suit them to move right into my boys rooms.

And I have started going back to read The Pioneer Woman's blog as it's truly amazing.  She's got like 4 blogs on her site - one for cooking, one for photography/Photoshop (heaps and heaps of tips for photos and/or using Photoshop), one for home/garden and her general everyday ranch life in the US.  It's well worth a visit as you can be on there for hours.  Her photography is just amazing and her writing is so witty and enthralling.  Check out the prizes she's given away courtesy of her sponsors and check out how many comments she gets every day to her posts....like up to 10,000!  Her average daily comments are around 500 ... boy don't my 1 or 2 pale in comparison to that!  he he he..... I just love this pic of one of her cow Beatrice!  Sums me up totally!!!

Last minute fixes!

Talk about leaving things till the last minute to do around our house now that it's on the market!  We've had two families come through and another is coming at 2.30pm today but yesterday (well today really as I haven't been to bed yet) we had Mark and Dad here doing patch up work inside (see my Dad with plaster dust all over him below)!  We've had to patch up a large crack in the roof and also regrout floor tiles as the grout has cracked with the concrete slab moving due to the dry ground here.  So we want to fix it up and make it nice for a potential buyer to inspect.  But with sanding the ceiling, there's a layer of white dust everywhere.  Dad's coming back in the morning to do another sand and paint so I can't clean up until he does that.  Then there's some pic of my budding future little tradies helping Dad dig a trench in the yard to lay some drainage pipes underground!  They love helping out around the place but not when I'm asking...just when Daddy or Pa ask.  They like to feel part of the 'boys'!

Our house is online!

Here's a link to our house which has officially gone on the market today!

http://www.sunburyrealestate.com.au/index.cfm?pagecall=property&propertyID=878740

It's got 9 pics of our place, complete with kids toys EVERYWHERE and this is after I cleaned up!  But you get the idea it's a family home then!  It's also listed on 5 other real estate sites which is fantastic. Now anyone want to put an offer in! LOL...

Lovely As A Tree card

Wanted to post this card that I made at my last workshop for Deanne.  I wanted to try a card shape that was a little different so came up with this one...don't even have a name for it!  But the base is Blue Bayou, the next colour on the back piece is River Rock, then I've used Very Vanilla.  The front piece has Glossy Cardstock on it.

On the back piece, I have used stamps from Carte Postale in Mellow Moss ink that has been stamped off.  I have also distressed the edges of the cardstock with an edge distresser and ink too.

I have used our Round Tab punch to make an index tab out of patterned paper from the Brocade Background set which has been inked in River Rock.

I had a bit of a play around with the glossy cardstock piece using the brayer to give me a little hill for the tree to sit upon.  I've used a number of coloured inks with the brayer including Sky Blue and River Rock.  Further colours were sponged on to give some dimension to the ground and sky.  I then used a tree from the Lovely As A Tree set and coloured this with assorted markers.  Because the stamp slipped across the glossy surface (yes, I know for next time!), half my image was perfect while the other half was blurred so I just messed it up a little more by using a sponge in a circular motion to make it look more like a windblown tree!  See there's always a way to hide or blend in your boo-boos!  I then did some more sponging around the tree with Mellow Moss, Going Gray and Really Rust and finished up adding some Crystal Effects dots around the tree to give it depth.  Lastly, I used Black Staz On for a greeting from Sincere Salutations.  I used my Crop A Dile to punch a small hole in the corner and had a brad out of my stash to finish it off.  Something a little different but I like!

on the market

I think I might have mentioned that we will be putting our house on the market shortly as the interest rates are just too high for me to cope with on a single parent pension.  I had picked a real estate agent but hadn't given them the signed Sale Authority to actually put it on the market yet, but our rep knew we were going to get a few things repaired around the house and get the advertising ready in a few weeks time.  Well, we've had to expedite things because our rep called to say he had a couple that were urgently needing a property in our suburb and were prepared to come through knowing we hadn't fixed up everything yet.  Well they came through on Saturday and showed a bit of interest.  They were concerned about the things we hadn't repaired but know we'll repair them if a sale was to take place.  So wouldn't it be freaky if we were to make a sale before we even officially put the house on the market!  Once the agent rang me last week, I had to go on a mad dash and clean our place up!  There is a significant amount of toys that two particular boys own waaaay too much of and there is quite a bit of stuff (aka clutter) that I've accumulated during the 14 years I've been here.  Mum and Dad came around to help and Dad's been here today filling in some tile grout and getting ready to help paint as if this couple doesn't make an offer, we will have it on the market hopefully next week sometime.  We're going through LJ Whorlow so will let you know when our place is up on their website and advertised in the local paper....all very exciting!

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I want one of these!!!!

Looky at what the States are getting next month!

I wanna get me one of those...but it'll be next year before we'll see it if it's to come out in the next Idea Book!