Up, Up and Away

Hi and I hope you have all had a beautiful day wherever in the world you live. Here in Upper Hutt NZ it has been another glorious autumn day. It was a little cool this morning but the sky was clear blue and as the sun got higher so did the temperatures. Most enjoyable. Just the right kind of day to go up, up and away in your beautiful balloon. This is my take on another Barbara Gray creation. The hills are created with torn paper masks and sponged ink, clouds done in the same way. The small hedgerows I created using the same paper masks and the side tips of the conical shaped tree. The conical tree and the balloon are Clarity Stamps created and made by Barbara herself. All the other trees are from vaious sources. The little flock of birds, which I use a lot, is by Lavinia Stamps. Try Googling that name and have a look at Tracy's fantastic works of art. She is another lady who draws and make her own stamps. Aren't we lucky to have access to such talent? For the ballooon I first stamped it onto the artwork, then I stamped it onto suitable designer paper and cut out just the bag of the ballon, then used glue stick to stick it over the stamped image on the card. Have another good day tomorrow and thanks for looking.

Posh in the Park

Hello Everyone and sorry for the long gap (again). I am very busy just now. We go away for our annual overseas trip in just over 5 weeks. Before I go I have 6 classes to teach which will take care of 3 of the Saturdays I have left. Of course for each class there is at least one sample to make and a set of instructions to write. I also have 9 birthday cards to get ready to cover the time we are away (7 weeks) and I always send a card to our two daughters and 3 grandchildren, so that they receive them the day after we've left, to tell them how much I love them and to take care of them selves and each other whilst we are away. Add to that a few gifts of sets of cards to take to friends in the UK and you will see why I haven't been blogging very much. A lot of the things I have made in the above list I have blogged previously but this Special Lady tonight is new. I bought her a wee while back but haven't used her until today. She is an Ecclectic Images stamp and there is a whole family of them!! I think I may have to send (to Aussie) for some of her 'sisters'. We have had lots of exercise today. We cycled about 32kms and had our usual Wednesday swim (100 lengths for me) too. We are toughening up our rear ends, as part of our holiday is cycling from Venice to Florence, which is 285kms in 6 days. It is a great way to see the countryside and we get to take our bikes on the train through the mountains instead of having to cycle over them! I'm really pleased about that! Anyway I'm off to bed and I think I will sleep well tonight. Thanks for stopping by.

Feminine Frills

Hi again. I'm not quite so late tonight so that's good. I haven't done one of these corset cards for quite a while so it was nice to do this one. Once again the inspiration comes from my very favourite artist Barbara Gray. This card is on her DVD number 3 I think. The 'legs' of the model are the word FEMINE stamped twice, once in each direction - very clever font usage! The corset is stamped in conjunction with angelina fibres. The underneath layer (darker pink) I trimmed around the image close to the black line BUT left the fibre fringe at the bottom. The top layer (pale pink) I trimmed ALL around the image and then trimmed off the outside panel on each side. I laced the two parts together with linen thread, tied a tiny bow and twirled the ends. I then used super strong tape to stick the corset in place over the stamped words. I had sponged the dusky pink around the edges of the card before hand. I thought it lacked a little something when I had mounted it up but the gold peel craft corners fixed that I think. What do you think? We're hoping to do another coastal walk tomorrow but I think we'll be out of luck as the weather forecast isn't very flash. Still they have been known to get it wrong sometimes !!! Thanks for stopping by.

Panda Bear

Hi again Everyone. I know it's late but I have just finished this cute little panda bear card and want to post it before heading off to bed. The card is for our great-niece Grace who will be 9 on May 9. She lives in the UK and so I need to get this away quick smart for her to receive it on her birthday. I have had the stamp for ages but not really used it much. In fact I had it in a stamp sale a couple of years ago but it didn't sell and now I'm glad it didn't as I think Grace will love him. I coloured the bamboo with glaze pens. I coloured the white on the panda with a white gel pen and the black I did with fun flock so he is furry as well as cute! I hope you like him too. 'Night 'night and sleep tight and thanks for stopping by to look.

ANZAC Day

Hi Everyone - long time no talk to you. The week with Trent and Tayla was great. The weather was just beautiful and we were able to get out and about plenty, but I must admit to being a bit pic-nic-ed out by the time they went home. They just love taking lunch and eating in the great outdoors! Where did this last week go since they went home? Well I have been busy doing class instructions, typing them up and getting kit sets ready for the classes which are here at home. That sure takes a while. The first home class was yesterday afternoon when 3 ladies came here to make the Flying Geese and Windmill Patchwork cards (blogged a little while ago). It was a very successfull afternoon and they were all well pleased with the two cards they took home. Plus they had enough pieces from the cutting to make two more cards at home. So here we are a week on from the end of the school holidays and here in NZ it's ANZAC Day which prompted me to make this poppy card. The verse I sourced on the internet. It was hard to choose as there were so many lovely poems dedicated to Rememberance Day. I printed the verse onto vellum and overlayed it on the front of the card so that the verse and the poppies are visible at the same time. Makes me a little teary eyed when I look at it. I hope you like it. I hope to be back soon but in the meantime take care and have a good week ahead. Thanks for stopping by today and for any comments you may leave.

Stripey Sock Day

Hi Everyone today we are having a Stripey Sock Day and here are my two favourite Little People (alias Trent and Tayla) in their Stripey Socks (and a less than flattering one of G'ma in her Stripey Socks) as we set off down to the dairy to spend our $2 pocket money. You just don't know how hard it is to spend $2 each and make sure that the other one doesn't get a better deal than you!!! Yesterday we went to see How to Train a Dragon in 3D. It was really cool and extra special because Grandan went with us. Today we were going to go to the beach but it isn't nice enough and so we are going to bake chocolate chip cookies (Trent) and double chocolate chip muffins (Tayla). Yum!!! Off to the kitchen - Bye!

More Mosaics

Good Monday morning Everyone and I hope you all had a good weekend. finding at least a little time to do just what YOU wanted to do. I know that's not always easy, especially if you are a Mum to younger children, but remember your children are MOST SPECIAL and will be grown and independant in the wink of an eye, So enjoy EVERY stage of your childrens development even if it does mean leaving what you had planned to do for yourself until another day. Our two Special Little People are due here any time now to stay for the second week of the school hols so I may be Missing In Action for a few days after this - Woohoo water slides here we come! Right, onto this morning's posts. Two more mosaic cards as you can see. At the class on Saturday I showed off some of my latest creations (already posted) to get a feel for what the ladies would like in future classes. Turned out that they want them ALL including the mosaics, which I hadn't intended to make into a class. So I created these two to go with the other two posted a while back. I particularly like the top one as I feel it has just the right elements for the mosaic technique. I hope you enjoyed your visit today and I look forward to you visiting again soon. Bye.