Taking a Break

Hi to anyone that pops on here. Am taking a break from the hustle and bustle of life and bringing up two children under the age of 3. Lots of heartache and stress that just get in the way of card making but will post at a later stage one day. Thank you for looking and leaving comments on my humble blog :)

At last! Stamp TV

I dont know whether you have heard of Gina K designs or not, but please take a look as she is divine! Gina also has this fantastic show called Stamp TV which has a lot of professionally filmed techniques on stamping and other papercraft projects. To the left of my blog is a badge which will take you straight there. Please do as it is so well the trip - oh and a word to the wise.....make sure you have stacks of time and a big mug of coffee as it is huge!!!!!

Blog Hopping #2

Once again I find myself being dragged out of bed at 4.30am by a screaming 2 yo toddler who just wants to go downstairs and will not be convinced that it is night time (even though I tried for nearly an hour to get him back to bed) and mummy is very very tired.........sigh..........if only I didn't care that he will wake up his 1 yo sister up and his very grumpy late shift working dad!

So.......I set my son up with a Diego dvd and hot chocolate; me a cup of tea, my computer and some toothpicks for my eyes, and start blog hopping. There are some great blogs out there and I feel that I need to give credit.

Heart Hugs - a challenge blog that uses Etsy stores for inspiration - great prizes, great stories (especially Parker's birth story)

Stamp Happy - designer for 2RedBananas. True art!

Paper Clipping - Got this link from Ali Edward's site. There is a video tutorial on 'bubbles' and visual triangles on Ali's blog, but Paper Clipping have many more free ones, plus lots more for members. If you have ever had trouble scrapbooking (like me...sigh...) then, this is for you.

Naturally Felt - Etsy Store member that sells beautiful environmentally saving lunch bags; totes and stuff for kids.........amazingly beautiful fabrics used. Well worth the look.

Well, thats about it from me. I made a card for my beautiful niece Emily who turned 10 this month but as usual didn't take a photo.

There won't be much blogging happening here for the next month as we are moving house (for 9 months whilst ours is being built) and as you can appreciate - is a huge headache, so dont give up on me and please come back. Love the comments. Promise I will be good and post lots once we have moved.

Blog Hopping

Most nights I am too tired to even think so I spend those times sitting on the couch and blog hop my way through some amazing creative websites. I usually dont bookmark them; I let my fingers do the walking through other links and....come what may. But I think it is time to spread the word so this entry is dedicated to the fantastic blogs i have come across tonight:

Kelly Rae, taking flight into Art, Love + Life - beautiful plus a great blog candy give away!

House Mouse Challenge - for those of us who have mouse house stamps and dont know what to do with them. there are some fantastical creations for you to peruse

The Sweetest Thing - one of my alltime go to blogs. Karen has a great card sketch for you to use.

Janneke's Creations - how she creates her cards using numerous DSP's leaves me in awe!

Diary of Claudine Hellmuth - beautiful

Tim Holtz - what more can I say?

thats all for now folks :) Time for bed.

Update Slice Machine cards

Thank goodness for Corel Paint Shop! My DH showed me how to get rid of the 'love smudge' and I can now show you the card that i mentioned in the previous post. thanks for looking :)

Using my Slice Machine

Just wanted to show you some cards I made over the weekend. It took me one night to make three cards - now that is really good for me. I was hankering over an idea my hubby gave to me using my slice machine. He asked me if I have used the patterns for making masks - never thought about it really but he is the one that thinks outside the square. Now I am going to show you two cards close up but the other card has a mark on it - courtesy of my daughter :)
This first card uses a circle mask. I stamped the French Script background stamp from SU! over the top in Chocolate chip. I also did some faux stitching around the circle for interest and popped on the butterfly from the Merci stamp set and coloured him in gently with the blender pen (not my best friend I am afraid). The butterfly is embossed in clear EP.

This next card i cased from HERE using the Technique Tuesday Loving Words by Ali Edwards. This is my DH's favourite as it is simple and clean.

And here is the lot together - the one on the right is the one my daughter loved a lot. I cut the circle with my slice machine and stamped the circle with the same background stamp as the first card, embossed and sponged, then stuck on the inside of the card. Some left over DSP from the last SU! catalogue backed on Purely Pomegranate cardstock is great if you dont have the appropriate ribbon. I found a button in my stash which went well with my one and only flower in my embellishment tin and voila - card finished. Thanks for looking.

Another thINKspot Challenge Card....

Hi All

Please excuse the terrible quality of photo but as it is now 10.30pm and I have no hope in heck in finding sun at that time of night, this will have to do. I just thought I would enter one more card for Marelle Taylor's catalogue challenge, and as this ends at the end of the month....well, you can see my dilemma.

I have used the sketch from page 29 of the catalogue, and have just turned it on its bottom. I had some coloured and crystal effect(ed) flowers left over from another challenge and decided to see if I could make it work. My greatest problem has been starting something and not finishing it so I have all these half finished projects. I think it turned out okay albeit a bit bright but that is the way I like 'em sometimes :) Thanks for looking.

Supplies: SU Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise; SU Ink: Summer Sun, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip Classic and Whisper White Craft; Stamp Sets: Technique Tuesday Loving Words stamp set; Scrappy Cat clear stamps Timbres Clair; white gel pen; dimensionals.