'Liebster'Award...

I was surprised and happy to receive an 'Liebster Blog Award' from Becky Litz. Thank you Becky! What is this award you probably think (and so did I:)

From Becky's blog...

The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are unclear but "the word translates from German as "darling" or "beloved". It's given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to generate some traffic for them.

Here are the guidelines for the Liebster Blog Award

1. Acknowledge the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Give this award to 5 other bloggers, who must have less than 200 followers, and let them know through a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog
4. Best of all- bask in the glory, have fun, and share the love!

I will pass this award on to the following bloggers...

1. Alex from Sweden...I love her style and use of 'white space' in her projects

2. Janine Koczwara from Australia...beautiful photography and vintage creations

3. Elena Stefanidou from Greece...inspiring projects (despite the fact I can't read Greek)

4. Aga from Australia... colorful and inspiring

5. Belinda Howard...long time no see:) How is life?

Thank you for the inspiration ladies and pass on the love!

I was also picked for the Top 5 that entered the Glitz Blog Challenge...happy about that, I liked the LO I've entered. Congrats to Wendy Kwok who won the challenge!

Glitz Color Challenge

I have been hoarding my Glitz products for a while and just needed a little push to start using them...they are all so beautiful!
The Color Challenge this month on the Glitz Blog was just the right inspiration to get me started!

Isn't that just the most beautiful color combo?

So here is my sample using mostly 'Little Dreamer' products and a few other bits and pieces.





Have a great weekend!

Lily Bee Sketch Challenge #5!

It's time to get back to our Lily Bee sketch challenge! With all the CHA excitement last month we couldn't fit it in but we hope you are ready to be challenged again this month!

Here is this months sketch and sample...




Check out the Lily Bee Blog for the fine print and deadline!

CHA pictures

I was so happy to find some images of my CHA projects for Grant Studios on the net! (Check out 'Shopping Diva's' Flickr images) It is always nice to see how they look in the booth...

Babyboo Collection (image on the left)...












Bubblegum Girl (bottom image)

















Party Time LO













Neighborhood LO:













Vintage LO

Lily Bee CHA Sneak Peeks

Lily Bee has some amazing new collections coming out at CHA Winter 2012!
Four new collections with 6 papers in each collection plus matching Stationery papers, die cuts, ABC stickers, cardstock stickers and stamps!
You have to go and see all the reveals going on at the Lily Bee blog right now!!

Jillibean Guest Designer

I've had the pleasure of being the Jillibean Soup Guest Designer for January!
The products are amazing to work with! Love the colors of the papers and all of the different embellishments that come with every collection.

My first LO 'Hold On' was created with papers from the 'Hearty Barley' collection and the soooooo versatile kraft tags (they come in different sizes).
I've used some different background stamps and embossed the images with white embossing powder. I totally love the look it creates.



















The next LO 'Spark' was created with the 'Sweet and Sour Soup' collection. What a great color combo with the teal, grey, orange and pink!
I have also used lots of the little stickers and die cuts that match this collection and the 'Cool Beans Buttons'.



















Next we have a Christmas Holiday mini Album created from the 'Christmas Eve' collection. The corrugated shapes, label stickers and small die cuts were just perfect for a project like this!
























Last but not least a card created from the 'Hearty Barley' collection...

Playing catch up...

Well, Christmas and New Year has come and gone. I have been to Europe within a week and back and now enjoying the last two weeks of school holidays with my parents in the country. It is just incredible how busy the last two months were and how fast they have gone by.
I have been busy with traveling and children but still had time to create. Here comes the picture overload...

Lily Bee has some great new products being released for CHA but the previous collections are still wonderful to create with. This week we are focusing on the Cardstock Stickers that come with every collection. Take a look at the Lily Bee Blog for all the amazing samples created by the Design Team.


















I have also had the pleasure to create with some of Grant Studios products for their CHA catalog. These are some great products that should hit your local craft stores very soon.

Vintage Collection:


















Playtime Collection:


















Neighbourhood Collection:


















Babyboy Collection:

Summer is here

It's only 10am but it is already hot and sticky outside and will stay that way all of next week. I'm so grateful we have a Swimming Pool, the kids will probably spend most of their time in there.
You know it's only 7 weeks till Christmas, just saying:)

I have some projects to share that were created for Fancy Pants.
Go and check out the FP Gallery for lots of inspiration!































The 'Summer Day' Layout was created using a mix of FP's Halloween Line 'Oct.31' and 'Summer's End'. It just shows that Halloween products can also be used for other projects.










I also have a LO to share from the Lily Bee 'Head over Heels' collection (my favorite so far!). You can see what some of the other DT girls did with this collection on their blog.



Have a great week!

Fancy Pants Chipboard Elements

Are you in the mood for Halloween? It's only a few days away. Here's some inspiration using the Fancy Pants Oct. 31 Chipboard Elements and Chipboard Banners, to get you ready to create during this spooky season.



I've decided to make a Door Hanger for my daughter's room. I've used both, the Chipboard elements and Chipboard banners. The Banners were layered on top of each other, I love the dimension that can be achieved by layering chipboard. Don't forget to use the little embellishments that come in the banner package. Here I've used the little hearts. I also love the Chipboard elements, the hat is just too cute!

To see what the other talented Pocket Chicks did with the Oct.31 Chipboard go to the Fancy Pants Blog!

Happy Halloween!

Lily Bee and Elle's Studio Blog Hop

This week Lily Bee is hanging out with Elle's Studio! Lily Bee's products mix perfectly with Elle's Studio's. The colors, the designs, everything goes together so well!

Each day this week, Lily Bee will post layouts/cards/projects using Elle's Studio and Lily Bee goodies. Lily Bee will also be giving away Elle's Studio's products worth $25 to a randomly picked lucky winner. So remember to go to the Lily Bee Blog and post a comment each day. The Design Team have posted some awesome work already! Here is a little sneak peek from a project by Lisa Dickinson...




Elle's Studio will also be posting projects and giving away Lily Bee products every day this week. So don't forget to drop by their blog and post a comment each day also.

Lily Bee Sketch Challenge #1!!!

Kids are back to school since Monday and life is returning to normal. I soooo enjoy school holidays with the sleep ins and just hanging out, sad to see the holidays go. Romy has gone of today to a class camp for one night at Taronga Zoo. She was really excited to be sleeping at the zoo for the night.

Now on to our first Sketch challenge on the Lily Bee Blog!
Sketches are great as a starting point for a project and I have been a fan of them for a long time. You can choose to take one aspect of the sketch and develop it into something different, you can turn the sketch side ways or up side down. There are so many possibilities! Let's see what you come up with.




So, here are the specific details for this challenge:

1) Use the Sketch as a guideline but feel free to turn it around or just adopt some elements of the sketch.
2) Use at least two Lily Bee product (any kind)

To be entered into the contest please post your layout on the Lily Bee Facebook page (please include the title Lily Bee Sketch Challenge #1) -OR- include a link to your project in the comments of this post.

We will announce one winner on the Lily Bee Blog on Wednesday October 19th to receive some Lily Bee products.

Happy Crafting!!

September update

I have done a fair bit of crafting in September but with school holidays I haven't had the time to update my blog!
Fancy Pants new products are a dream to work with...
'Summer's End' collection...


















'Saint Nick' collection...


Check out the Fancy Pants Blog for a World Card Making Day challenge! Join us in our challenge to create a greeting card. Here is what you need to do to enter. Check out the Fancy Pants Blog for the "Fancy Friday Challenge: Cards"!!

Simply create a greeting card with any theme that you'd like, make sure to use at least some Fancy Pants products and post it to our Facebook Wall between now and Oct. 8, 2011.

FP will judge the cards and select three winners to each receive a prize package. The winners will also have their card featured on the blog.

*We will accept only one entry per person. Challenge is open to US and International residents. Entries are due by midnight MST, Saturday, October 8th, 2011. Cards posted to our wall prior to Sept. 30, 2011 do not qualify. We will post the three winners here on the blog on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, so be sure to check back then to see if you've won.

I also had some Layouts featured on the Lily Bee Design blog...




The new collections from the CHA Summer release are just beautiful!! For supplies used on these Layouts go to the Lily Bee blog!

Where has August gone?

August has suddenly gone, it's September already and before we know it Christmas will be here :))
I do like the lead up to Christmas though, the weather is getting warmer, we are starting to have friends over for BBQ's again and the pool is warming up.
Not to forget less washing as we don't need to wear so many layers! Tennis is more fun too in the sunshine!
A little update on the crafty side...my daughter wants to be a smurf, what can I say?


















And a layout from The Color Room Palette (172)..loved the sketch and the colors!


















It;s my mum's birthday today...Happy Birthday mum!!!

TCR

I've had some extra time to play this week and liked the color combo #70 from The Color Room. I thought the pink, orange and green looked great together! Here is my take...


I hope you all have a great weekend! I'm going to tend to my sore body now...3 hours of tennis will do that to you!

Sad news...

Anyone that knows me knows I love animals, particularly my pets. Until yesterday we had 3 dogs and 2 cats. On Sunday morning we had to say goodbye to one of our cats, Josephine. She was only six years old, not a time to expect her to leave us just yet. She had been lethargic for a few days and didn't eat her food for 2 days. On Sunday morning I woke up and knew there was something wrong. She wouldn't walk properly and started to have no control over her bodily functions. I phoned the the vet, suspecting a tick. When I walked out of the vet clinic I was numb...no tick he told me...she was anemic and had pretty much no red blood cells left. Leukemia was the diagnosis, apparently not uncommon in cats. I gave permission to put her to sleep. She would have not survived another night I was told. Josephine was always a shy cat, didn't like strangers. She was very attached to me and would sleep next to me every night. I miss her dearly. My son, in an effort to cheer me up, told me he thinks she is jumping on clouds right now. I like that thought.

Transparencies

This week's Product Spotlight on the Fancy Pants blog focuses on the Baby Mine Flocked Transparency. It's a pretty floral pattern, the mellow yellow and velvety finish make it a perfect addition to any project that needs a little soft touch.

For this Layout I wanted to show that the Baby Mine flocked transparency can have many looks depending on the paper used underneath or used by itself. There are three different examples on this layout ... the flocked transparency has been used by itself (with no paper under it), it has also been used with a dark paper and a light paper under it. Every time the transparency has a completely different effect and look. I have also used some Maya Road products on this layout that were generously sent to us previously. I received a 'Play Word Chipboard Album' and some 'Gingham Fabric Blossoms'. I took the Album apart, used 3 of the inside pages on the left side of my layout to create lots of dimension and placed the front page of the album (play) on top for my title. The Maya Road chipboard was great to work with as it can be altered any way and matched to the colors used on the project.

To see what the other Pocket Chicks did with the Transparency go to the Fancy Pants blog.


I hope the sun is shining for you this week...we have the best weather here in Sydney at the moment!

Project overload...

I have a couple of projects to share today that were created with the new 'Baby Mine' collection from Fancy Pants.
First up is a Layout that has absolutely nothing to do with Babies which just shows that this range can be used for generic projects as well! I have mixed in a few elements from other collections as well.











Next are two cards also created with the 'Baby Mine' collection...one for a boy and one for a girl. They came together very easily...



































As I have 'threatened' this post is filled with projects, so here are a couple of things created with American Crafts products...

I've really enjoyed making this little canvas...I love the colors, the papers and the sentiment. It's just me (yes yellow :))












This Layout is another favorite, really love the pics of my sons!

Some more Lily Bee...

Continuing the Focus On Colors Month on the Lily Bee blog, some designers were asked to use the color yellow. Lily Bee features yellow prominently, it's just such a nice infusion of happiness!
For my Layout I have used the Silhouette to cut out the Artisan shapes and popped some of them up to create dimension. The pics are of our very cute little new kitten:)
For all the other 'happy' projects go to the Lily Bee blog!


Lily Bee supplies:
Stationery: 'Butter' Cardstock
This &That: 'Teacup' paper
This & That: 'Brooch' paper
This & That: ABC Stickers
Happily Lost: 'Amazing Views' paper
Happily Lost: 'Sun Soaked' paper
Picket Fence: Acrylic Stamps

Lily Bee Shadow Box

Hello from a very rainy and cold Sydney...
Today I'm showing you a project I had lots of fun doing. I've decorated a Tim Holtz Shadow Box for my daughters room with her favorite colors blue, yellow and pink.

First up I've painted all the compartments and outside of the box with crackle paint and after letting it dry (this can take a few hours) put some darker ink over it which will settle in the cracks and give it a bit of a rustic look. I've also painted the front frame with a coat of Glimmer Glaze (you can see bits peeking out from behind the ribbon).
Next all the sides of the compartments were covered with Lily Bee This & That 'Milk Bottle' paper.
The flower in the lower right corner was created by using a 12in strip of paper, cutting all along the strip in small intervals (make sure not to cut all the way through) and then rolling the strip around the end of a thin object (I used a brush but a quilling tool would be even better). Glue the ends together and start bending the little strips over to create your flower.
Here are some close ups of the project. I hope you enjoyed this!



Lily Bee Supplies:

This & That: 'Milk Bottle' paper
Happily Lost: 'Hammock' paper
Happily Lost: 'Sun Soaked' paper
Happily Lost: 'Good Book' paper
Happily Lost: Mixed Cardstock Stickers
Stationery: 'Oatmeal'cardstock

More Sneaks...

This would have to be one of my favorite papers released...to see the entire collection (available in October) go to the Lily Bee blog! I also LOVE the stamps and index cards that come with this range 'Head over Heels'!





Fancy Pants is also releasing some great new collections...here are my two favorites, 'Summer's End' and 'Saint Nick'! For the other two collections to be released go to the Fancy Pants Blog!