Its a Mo's Celebration

Well I had hoped to have a crafty weekend and I did play but not as much as I has hoped.  I have just completed this little card using a few new things I received from my friend in the States,  I used the copics for the skin and whilst I haven't got it quite right its ok for a first attempt.  I also used this very useful stamp alphabet set for the word "enjoy" and inked around the flowers to make them the colour I wanted. The image is "Kansas" from Mo Manning.  Mo's are celebrating their 100th challenge and so its a "Celebration" challenge.  I have also been playing with alcohol inks but I need to play some more and I think I read somewhere to use transparencies (can you still get them?) because I think my acetate is too thick and won't die cut.  And I also discovered you need glossy card - so I have learned a few things along the way.  Anyway prattle, prattle here is the card.  P.S:  Go the All Blacks.

Just Playing!!

I received an email this morning prompting me to post a picture of something.  Si thats what I will do.  I have been working on something else that I can't post because I don't want a certain someone to see it  but suffice to say it is taking up some of my time at the moment.  But here a couple of shots of a card I have made for a swap.  The criteria is cats and dogs and peace.  Quite a tricky combination to put together and I'm not quite sure that I have got it right but here it is anyway.

This is the card closed - suppossed to resemble a kennel



This is is opened  and this is my contribution towards peace



This is the card opened completely with cats on the paper.



One For Mo and One For Sassy Cheryl

Well today I bashed out not one, not two, but three cards.....making up for lost time.  One I can't post as it is going to be on its way to someone celebrating a September birthday, but here are the other two.  The first is a Mo Manning Image, coloured in pencil and I hope that Mo adds to this collection as I think she is quite lovely and needs a few friends. Purple is not a colour I usually play with and I can't seem to loose this thing I have going with red, I think it adds a little bit of drama.  Its a little hard to see but the black background is embossed with one of my new folders.

I haven't entered any challenges in a while so I am entering this one into Mo's Challenge #98

 This next card is A Sassy Cheryl image and is nice and soft and glittery.  Quite different from the one above and if I could show you the third card it is again completely different and not a flower in sight.  Anyway back to this card.  Coloured in pencils and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, I think they do the best flowers and I get them direct as I have not found anyone here that stocks anything quite as good as these.

He is very cute this cheeky little fellow. 

 I am entering this one into Sassy Cheryl's Challenge #79

August and playing with Inks

Well I have been very neglectful of my poor wee blog of late.  I see it is almost a month since I posted - and I have no idea just where that month went.  Well.....actually I do really.  You may or may not know that I am on the committee of the Dance & Performing Arts Society and this weekend just past we hosted our annual Competitions,  Entries far exceeded our expectation and we took on running two venues simultaneously.  It was a huge undertaking, with lots of preparation and challenges along the way.  But I think overall we did a pretty good job and can tick the weekend off as being successful.  I was totally exhausted by Monday. 

At school we have also had inter school cross country and Nick was one of the 8 boys to represent the school and he came a very respectable 21st out of around 80 boys. Taking into consideration his asthma this was a fantastic result and he was rightly very proud of himself. We also have had the annual speech contest.  Both Nick and Abbey got into the finals and Abbey gained first place.  She went on to represent our school at the finals against all the schools in the area and gained third place.  The competition was really tough and she is the first student from our school to have ever placed in this competition. So yes I am extremely proud of them both.

This month also saw the school production take place - no wonder the month disappeared so fast.  The kids did a wonderful job with the direction of the teachers.  It was called the Button Box and the whole school was involved.  Just quickly it was based around a box of buttons from around the world and each one told a story.  It was fantastic.

Finally I have received some wonderful packages this past week from some very thoughtful friends and you all know who you are and I want to say a huge thank you. So THANK YOU.  One of these packages was also from a comment I made on a local scrap booking online shop and as a consequence have been playing with this beautiful La Blanche stamp and inks.  Quite pleased with my first attempt.

La Blanche stamp (German Company) coloured in Inks

Lili of The Valley Cards

Well this week saw us back to school.  The weather has been the perfect winter weather this week.  Cool crisp and clear.  Bright blue skies and sunshine.  We have sat outside and had afternoon tea a couple of times this week.  Alas it is all going to change over the weekend apparently.  Nick and Abbey ran cross country at school this week and both had very respectable results Abbey coming 9th in the girls and Nick 8th in the boys.  That puts Nick going to the inter school race in a week or so and Abbey just missed out she says she would have liked the inter school experience but not to have to run the course.

Well I have managed to make a couple of cards using a cute little image form LOTV. I have had this cute stamp for a while and not used it and a bit of talk abbout bunnies inspired me to pull him out. I decided to add just a touch of colour rather than colouring the bunny in completely as I wanted to use these October afternoon papers. I wanted the bunnies to stand out and I thought that colouring them softly would prevent them from blending into the bolder background. That did however make it harder to photograph.

This one I am putting into the LOTV Rose Challenge # 108

Same image different card and colours.

Stand by - twice in a week - making up for lost time

Yep I know I am outdoing myself this week.......

And Petra I am posting this with you in mind......wildlife and photography who else would I think of aye!

Yesterday Nick, Abbey and I went to the Movies.  The movie we saw was called "African Cats".  Its a movie made by Disney and it follows the lives of two families of cats in the Masa Mara in Kenya.  A pride of  river lions and a cheetah and her cubs.   The movie shows the bonds between a mother and her cubs and the lengths she will go to, to protect them.  I don't want to tell you too much in case you decide to go and see it.  Suffice to say, you will laugh, cry, hold your breath and have lots of ahh moments, guarantee it.

By now you have figured that it is really a documentary style movie, not a cartoon in sight....phew, I have had 11 years of seeing animated movies, thank goodness they seem to be coming to an end. The photography (I suppose its actually cinematography) is outstanding, actually breathtaking in parts.  The cats are beautiful and magnificent and captured perfectly.  If you like this kind of documovie I can highly recommend it - it is not specifically a kids movie in fact I would not take the littlies.

They also trailered a movie called Mr Peppers Penquins with Jim Carey, that looked funny and another that I may take myself to on a day off called The Help.

So thats it for now - I am going for the tri-fector this week so stay tuned.

Yep I have been slipping up.....

Where does the time go, one minute its the 5th of July the next its the 25th.  I am sure someone keeps messing with my calender.  So in the last twenty days, gosh that sounds bad, has it really been that long.  See B you are doing way better than me with your postings.
Anyway Nick and Abbey turned 11 and it seems like this year they had a perpetual birthday, just kept on going.  It started on their actual birthday when I  put on lunch and invited my Mum and sister.  That evening they had a friend each stay for dinner and a sleepover.  Dave took the boys to work with him for the day as thats what Nick wanted to do.  Dave works in the Hunua Ranges monitoring and maintaining the dams that feed water to Auckland City.  So its in the middle of nowhere in acres and acres of native bush.  The most beautiful natural place one could ever hope to work in.  They found a giant Kauri tree and bought home gum and bark.  They found a knife and whittled spears which they almost caught eels with.  Went hundreds of steps down into the dam and found stalactites and giant wetas with their headlamps.  The perfect day for a couple of 11 year old boys. 

This is one of the Dams in the Hunua Ranges

The following thursday Nick had 4 friends over after school for afternoon tea and an afternoon of talking the most amazing rubbish you could imagine coming from 5 boys.  This was rounded up by Abbey having not 4 but 7 friends for afternnon tea on Saturday and by request my lounge became a salon and I gave the girls a mini facial and my sister did all their nails.  A perfect afternoon for a bunch of 11 year old girls by all accounts.
Now we are on school holidays and we were supposed to go away this week but things just didn'r pan out so we are just doing things like going to the movies having friends over and if the weather holds maybe a round of mini golf.
In between all this I have done a little crafting.  I have been making, well altering notebooks.  I did some a while back but have just made one for a swap and I made a couple more. A great way of using up scraps.   There is one winging its way across the water to a certain reporter I know and until she gets it all I can say is that elephants and hippos are both large grey animals....... when it is received I will reveal what I mean by saying that.

Oh and I am thrilled to see I have a few more followers than when I last checked in - thanks ladies for following my ramblings.