Frenchie Leon Friday

Good morning,
Just popping on to share a creation I made yesterday ... this is cute little French boy is Frenchie Leon from Make it Crafty ... I  printed him out at fainter so that the black lines wouldn't be showing... almost the "no lines" technique but not quite.

It is FRIDAY now yay!! looking forward to the weekend! Hope you all have a super weekend!!

Sammi

xoxo

a card and a revelation ...

First up I want to share a card I  made... I was practising the clouds (like Kristy did them) again on this image the other week and I wanted to pop her on a card!! It's a pretty simple one as I thought the image was the major focus... the image is from Saturated Canary.

Here's the card....

 

Now my revelation....

Although I can have the best intentions... I am most terrible at sending cards .... giving them to people I will be seeing a bit better .... I can "mostly"make them no problem... but then they sit around the place and pile up... when I need a card for someone's  birthday etc I have to make them a NEW one I just don't seem to be able to send them ones from the piles... as I feel like they deserve a NEW one made especially for them ... I feel like a bit of a cop out when I don't have the time or energy to make a new card and end up giving one from THE PILE (with that in mind I am way behind on making cards I really do want to send to people still - so tomorrow is CATCH up day) ... but back to THE PILE ... I am going to try and give them out from the pile... and I am working out how to try and sell them ... and I've just had a thought that I will write myself a list of DEFINITE people/ cards I need and then I can premake some .. My Nan used to have a Birthday book.. she would find cards for people throughout the year and then keep them in the book so when it came to the month of the birthday she would be PREPARED. My Nan was and still is THE BEST at sending cards for EVERYTHING ... and I would love to be like that! It shows people that you are thinking of them.. that you care! So I think I just found the PERFECT use for my Purple Pocket SMASH book!! I'm off to do some Birthday SMASH book planning! :D

And it will also mean that I can SCHEDULE cards for blogging too once they are made.. 'cos um there's no way I could show them on my blog before I gave them/ sent them is there!?! :)

Have a lovely Tuesday night!!

 

Mother's Day joys and sorrows

 

a.k.a ... Sammi's Mother's Day rant ...

Good morning everyone. I hope you are well and having a super Sunday! Here in Australia it's Mother's Day and I've just got off the phone from chatting to my lovely Mum :) I am thankful that my sister's and I have a Mum that loves us and has and does continue to care for all of us!!

HAPPY MOTHER's Day to all you Mum's out there... Thanking God for your selfless love and care for your children... I hope that you are having a lovely day! Thanking God for the blessing of children and the joy that comes from being a Mum. Children/ people out there with Mother's in your lives... don't wait for one day of the year to thank them... show them you appreciate them today and everyday!!

For many people Mother's Day is a very painful Day!!

For those who have lost their mothers it's often a painful reminder of grief and loss ... for those whose mothers have not been loving and cared for them as they should it could bring out anger and renew hurt ... for those who have known and lost their children somewhere along the way it's a terribly sad and painful reminder ... for those who have been through infant loss or miscarriage it's heartbreaking ... for those who have suffered infertility and want nothing more than to hold their children in their arms and see them grow up it's so incredibly raw and painful ... for those who are single it's often a reminder of what's so far from their grasp....

Please spare a thought and a prayer for those whom Mother's Day is a day of pain and sorrow... If that is you... I pray that the God of all comfort would surround you with his love and comfort today and fill your day with understanding friends and family!!!

For me Mother's Day is difficult as I wonder what would our little ones that never grew be like if they had of lived... what would we be doing with them today to celebrate the day... it's a stabbing reminder of what will never be! It's something that I live with everyday... I don't just have these thoughts today.. today they are just magnified by the focus on Mother's.

I thought I would give away some free images today ... one to honour Mothers out there and a Flower for all of you out there that will not be given any physical flowers today!

 

Congratulations card

Good morning! How are you all? I hope you are well! As for me... I've had a little bloggy break.. have been a bit out of sorts for a few different reasons... but the worst part is my THUMB which I thought was just infected from when the rose thorn went through my nail back in about February... although I was a little concerned there was something in there... so Dr put me on antibiotics... which turned out to be based on Lactose.. which I can't tolerate... and so I was a bit sick from that... went back.. new tablets ... still soaking thumb in hot water as suggested cutting the long gory story short turns out there was still part of the rose thorn in my thumb ... and now it's out but my thumb is still recovering.... which makes it HARD to do MUCH at all.. and very painful to colour :P


So I have an old creation to share.... and not a brilliant pic ... as it was taken on my phone before sending off ...  but you get the idea right :)  I made it for my beautiful friend Em who is going to be having a baby! Very excited for her little (or big;) family :)

So .... I drew the image and turned her into a digi.. now available here -  although I added the glasses and earrings in with a multiliner as I was colouring.... the "Love this Moment" sentiment is from Give a Girl a..... IN THIS April set Loving these sentiment sets!! Can't wait to use the latest one!!!

Sweet Blossom

Hello all!! I fell in Love with Sylvia's drawings when she was designing for my beautiful friend Tracey at Spesch Stamps!! And the other day I thought it would be fun to colour up one of her images Sweet Blossom... Available at Wee Stamps

I've tried the clouds (as The Odd Girl Kristy does them) and has a tutorial on again ... but in different colours this time.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Friday

Koala Hugs for Copic Australia's Koala Kids challenge

Good morning!! How are you going? Hope your week is going well! Just popping on to share a card I made as well as a FREEBIE Digi that I drew :D 

There is a card challenge being run right now by Copic Australia - HERE. The great news is that for every entry Copic Australia will donate $5 to Koala Kids :) Pretty cool huh! 

I thought that it would be fun to draw an image especially for the challenge and so that's what I've done... Here's a card I made (this one's not for the actual challenge... this is just for fun and to tell you about the challenge... my real entry will not be shown here tee hee!)

Now for something I  have not done for quite a while... I'm going to enter a few challenges (yay)! So they are:

Critter Challenge - to use flowers :)
The Cutie Pie Challenge - lots of layers :)
Artistic Inspirations - also lots of layers :)
Digital Tuesday Challenge - Distressing :)

Would you like to colour up this image?? I would love to know if you download it - so please do let me know :D And yup would love to see what you do with it too!! Oh ...And if you want to use it to enter the challenge then Go for it!! :D  

Just click on the image to make it bigger and then save to your computer. 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a lovely Wednesday!!!

In Stitches Tia for Odd Idol

Good afternoon,

I hope you are having a good Tuesday... I've been having a bit of a rest day ... oh and a trip to the Dr to get my sore thumb looked at... Gardening wars :P the rose thorn that hurt me months ago left a lasting infection and so now I'm on antibiotics ... YUKKO .. well hopefully it will fix it up and it will no longer be sore to colour, craft etc etc etc!!

I DID manage to get my Odd on today... to enter the Odd idol competition!! Yay!!! Here's my take on the sketch... using the Some Odd Girl "In Stitches Tia" set.. she's just too cute!! :D

 

I created my own PP using the buttons from the same set!! :)

Thanks for stopping by! have a lovely day!!

Monday Musings and a little Art journaling

Good morning! I hope you had a lovely weekend! Mine was pretty good... but full on and tiring lol... we went away with our church Growth Group... down the coast to a friend's wonderful holiday house ... so about 3 hours drive... but such a beautiful location and such wonderful weather, it was GLORIOUS! Great fun and fellowship with lovely brothers and sisters in Christ! We finished up The Course of your Life which we've been going through. It's been great looking at God's agenda for our lives :) A good challenge to think through my priorities - how I spend my time ... also a big thing for me and I'm also thinking through how this effects my blogging is that I am too concerned about other people's opinons of me... being liked, pleasing people... when that is not the most important thing.. I may have to think this through a bit more :)

This morning I just finished off an art journal page in my book of fairytales that I'm doing... so page #2 is now complete!! Not sure I  like it ... I struggle with the balance of messiness and order and when to stop and when to keep layering! But I've stopped and here it is :)

 

Apologies.. the pic is not brilliant as I  had to use my iphone!

Have a wonderful week!!

Gone a little ODD

Good morning!! I went a little ODD this morning lol... and I  created not one but TWO
Some Odd Girl Creations....

I finally got a chance this morning to watch Kristy's youtube tutorials on colouring Cloudy Sky and Grass, and I  got to have a play too!!

So first up is my card with the clouds.... I used Autumn Mae.. as it's been a cloudy Autumn and yet a summery sky Autumn too so far... much more windy today though..... anyway enough waffling... Here's my card...

I used Brads to mimic flowers and the little Ladybug brad too as there is currently a  Trash your Stash of Brads challenge going on at the SOG NING forum!!

The Rainbow is a chipboard one from 2Crafty that I coloured with Copics and then opaque white and gelatos!! With a nice dash of Kinderglitz on top! lol! The sentiment is from My Favourite Things!!

2nd card (below) is for the April Sketch challenge at Some Odd Girl and uses Mooey!!!

 Thanks for stopping by ... I hope you have a super Friday! and then a fun weekend!!!


 

The Girl who was on Fire

Good afternoon! I drew this image a while ago... after having a chat with Alyce ... we were thinking it would be fun to try and colour a dress to look like Katniss in her dress that was on fire from the Hunger games!! Had a bit of trouble finding an image we thought would be good for it and so I thought I'd just try and draw my own... well it seems that was the easy part... not as easy colouring it making it look like it was on fire... anyway here's an attempt! I'm Still waiting for Alyce to do her one (hint, hint :) are you reading this???? lol)

Want to give it a try?? This image is now at Mad for Markers with some other fun characters too!

Have a great arvo!!!

Paper dolls!!!

Oh I have been a big kid lately... reliving childhood memories of Paperdolls.. I thought it would be fun to make some.. so I've been designing and colouring and cutting and using my Cameo to cut for me and having all sorts of fun creating mixmatched characters!! I am selling them in a number of different ways on Mad for Markers ...  Anyway I wanted to share the gang with you....

this adorably rabble-y lot are:
Rhys, Pippi, Taya, Ryan, Archie and Brianna

 

OK so they are just paper dolls right.... kids would love them but no use for us crafters??? WRONG! lol.. look what I made by paper piecing Taya and one of the girl outfits ...

So much fun and so many different options.. and I  have so many more ideas for outfits for them too!! :) Oh and I am going to make up a bunch and sell them as all ready made paper dolls... like this example below of Taya.. she is just under A4 size tall :)

Thanks for stopping by!! Have a lovely day!!

Monday moments

Good afternoon :) I hope you are having a great Monday!! Mine going ok but it's been a long one!! Could do with a nana nap but not going to be so will just plod along lol!! It's been a productive day .. Highlights - Some cleaning, chatting over iphone messages and facebook and some home haircut hacking ... Mine and MILs .. Should have had a professional do hers I think ... O well... Was a bit of fun anyway!!

I just created this card .. I coloured this image up the other night in front of the tele... It happens quite a bit hehe .. Have to colour whilst watching!! Today I'm posting from my iPad .. Hope it comes out ok :)

The paper is Kaisercraft .. And the spotted paper totally inspired my colouring of the mushie ... love it!! The sentiment is from Give a Girl a ... ...I won this set and love it!!!! I did crop around the text though as the circle was slightly too big for my card :) and the cute lil Dragonfly chippy is from All about Scrapbooks here

Anyways have a lovely afternoon!
Sammi
Xoxo

It's FRIDAY!!!!

Ok.... I do love Friday!! Well really mostly because it means Saturday and Sunday come next .. I also love this Creeper from The Greeting Farm.... who is called Friday!! :) An oldie but a goodie :D She was one of the images I'd coloured for the show "tree display" and so the card was a nice easy one to make :D

The paper is a new 6 x 6 paper pad I  bought from All About Scrapbooks at the show ... I LOVE these small paper packs.. they are just perfect for cardmakers  :D Oh and did you see?? Emma, Alyce!! Anyone who cares lol.... I USED FLOWERS!!! tee hee!!! 

OK.... I've been working on something images, Silhouettey... and it should be lots of fun.. once I  work out why it won't cut in the RIGHT spot!! ahhhhhhhh!! 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!!!

Shows over ... I'm back

Good morning!! Last week I was preoccupied with a Papercrafts Show... I booked Mad for Markers in (pretty last minute) to have a stand and so I was rushing to get everything done.. and then of course I was at the show... and then I came home and crashed! But I'm feeling almost human again now lol and so I'm FINALLY blogging again...

Yesterday I  finished off an Art journal page I started a couple of months ago.... It was just waiting for inspiration which came via the Gelatos I purchased from All About Scrapbooks. Loving them so far!!

Ok so to the Art Journal... this is the FIRST page in a book I've altered to a journal... it's an old Kids Dictionary that I  picked up at the Stash and Treasure market ... I'm going to have a series of Fairy journal pages in it... yeah.. I still love Fairies... little kid in an adults shell here (in case you didn't know) tee hee! This page uses Love Fairy Venetia... I printed her very pale to do the no lines effect... once covered with gel glue she really popped off the page (bit harder to tell from the photo). In other exciting craft news I  received my new Silhouette cameo BLADE yesterday so I can cut again lol!

Here's  a picture of my Tree display from the show last weekend! The upside of the time it took to create is that all those leaves have coloured images on them which I can now turn into cards... which is particularly great for a QUICK card! so I should have some more creations to blog soon!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
 

The Essential Jesus giveaway

Good morning :) Today is Good Friday!! The day we celebrate Jesus' death ... Seems a strange thing to do doesn't it? Celebrating death ... the Death of someone who was supposed to rule and save the world??

It's easier to forget that part and just look at Easter in terms of chocolate and bunnies and buns and all that cute and yummy stuff! I want to urge you to look past those things... whilst they are good fun and yummy to a deeper and life giving event ... Jesus death. He died the death we deserve (for trying to be King of our own lives).

I am so thankful for the new life of hope in Jesus and I'd like to share some of that hope so thought I'd have a little giveaway of this great book ... The Essential Jesus (which will explain things much better than I ever could)....

Would you like to "Meet the real Jesus through the gospel of Luke"?? I have 3 copies to giveaway on this post so please leave a comment and I will send you a book (first three commenters - but if you miss out.. would rather not comment here send me an email and I'll work something out!) :D

What I've been working on....

Firstly... Here are some cards I have made using the new M4M Easter Digis...

I have also been doing my own version of Project Life type scrapbooking... will share some pages later as they are not done yet ... basically I  bought an American Crafts Memorology album and some of their pocket pages and now I am just filling them up with photos, paper, some decorations and journaling!! It's quite fun - QUICK and I LOVE the effect of the different sized pockets! :)

Have a great weekend!!!

Easter at Mad for Markers challenges

I'm posting my creation today that I've made filling in for Sam at the M4M challenge blog ...
I'm sharing this creation I made... using one of my M4M Easter Digis... Grace with Hot Cross Buns!

I've used a number of papers, washi from my stash and the doiley was cut on my Cameo... which has a blunt blade now :( SAD!!!!! The sentiment is from Give a Girl a ...  LOVE it!! lol!! I double stamped it... first in pink then purple...just slightly off to try and get a shadowed effect.. it sort of worked! 

Copics used:

Skin: E000, E01, E11, BV000, R21, RV11

Hair: E23, E25, E27, E37

Eyes: E13, E23, E25

Purples: V12, V15, V17

Pink: RV00, RV11, RV13

Dress: B91, B93, B95

Boots: N3, N5, N7

Buns/ Plate: N0, N1, N3, E34, E13, E25

Uninspired to create and blog...

Well .... I'm coming out of an uninspired season.... I've not really felt like crafting, colouring etc... I  know shock, horror right! lol and seeing as this blog is MOSTLY for Craft stuff then I have not really had anything to blog! Hopefully I can be back on track again this week for posting... but if the creativity's gone what can you do right?? hehe!! Also I have been spending LOTS of time getting Copicendium #5 print ready AND IT IS... so I can't wait for it to arrive!! :D

Anyways... I have done a bit of sketching  ... and so have a couple of images to share from my Instagram feed of images I've drawn and copiced :D First up a little Easter gal... she has a plate of Hot Cross buns!! YUMMO!! I wish I could eat them! :0

close up as I coloured her!!

and then as it's Autumn here in Oz I drew an Autumn Fairy! :)

Think I might make them available at M4M in the next days ... I keep umm'ing an ahh'ing about whether I should draw digis or not as there's so many out there and what are mine compared to those that are out there... lol! But I had fun with them and I enjoyed colouring them which is the main thing right! I also need to save money ... which means I can't just go buy images... so instead of buying an image - when so inclined, I have decided to draw something to colour. 

Have an AWESOME weekend!!

 

Origami Owl living locket

Good morning! I hope you are all having a great week! Ours is going OK... got a few things to get done still.. but enjoying the holiday! We had a few days in Canberra on the weekend which was great... saw some old friend...we saw the Toulouse Lautrec exhibition! It also happened to be the enlighten festival too whilst we were there so we got to see that! It was Fun!!! :D I might post some pics a little later ... or maybe just in a Smash book or similar tee hee!!!

Anyway I'm excited that yesterday I received my living locket that I'd ordered from Origami Owl! I loved the idea of these when I saw Jess post about them last year on faecbook .. and then Krista also posted about them this year and so I looked into getting one... and thought that being in Aus meant I would not be able to get it.. however a dear US friend made it possible!!! :D And Elizabeth was awesome!

the packaging was so cute!!!

Look at all the yummy little pieces inside....

Here it is all spread out on the table...

Here is the locket all put together.. without the dangle... was trying to decide whether to have it alone or with the dangle too :D

Here I am wearing it with the heart dangle included :)

a close up...

I wanted to get this locket as a "memory locket" for our little ones that didn't make it... so each little gem is a birthstone gem ...(the dates they were fertilised ... as they were all IVF embryos) and then a  G and an S which is pretty self explanatory - our initials :)
I know some might find it silly or sentimental but I just thought it would be nice... I carry those precious little ones around in my heart and thoughts ALWAYS yet I thought it would be nice to have a little physical reminder of their SHORT lives. I  do thank God for their short lives.. although I  do wish they had lived longer and we'd been able to see them grow ... for some reason it was meant to be this way. I trust Him in that!

I Do love this Locket :D and glad I  got it!! :D

You Had me at Hello

Morning!!! I am enjoying some time off with Guy :) nice to just do what we want to when we want to... or not do anything at all! things we take for granted until we can't lol! It does mean I have been crafting a little less.... and colouring still as we continue watching Star Trek .. Next Gen :)

Today is a yukky rainy day here.... so I'm sorry for my not so great pic of this card!!!

I've used an image from Saturated Canary... one of the lovely Princesses :) and the sentiment is from Give a Girl a..... It's a fun little sentiment set!! Can't wait to use "Cool Bananas"it's something I used to say a lot lol! Guess I was inspired a little by their hop yesterday (although image was coloured the day before!

Copics used (main image):

Skin: E000, E01, E11, E04, BV000, RV00

Dress: RV90s

Hair: E70s, B28, BV29, BV25

Thanks for stopping by!!

Sammi

xoxo