Tuesday 28 April 2009

Mothers Day flowers

I decided to start a few flower cards for HA challenge this week. I had been watching Kristina Werner's MACM video and got the idea for this card from there. I stamped the Inkadinkadoo (Doodle Flowers) in olive chalk ink onto craft card. Stamped the Sentiment (Stamp-It) and covered it with the printed organza. The butterfly is from HA Artistic Butterflies set - which I coloured in with watercolour pencils. Finished with some gems. I am taking a few mother's day cards to work for my workmates to choose from.

On the home front, we are still waiting for Diane to have her operation to remove the mass on her brain. Hopefully tomorrow. Hubby is going to head down to Wellington tomorrow after work... going as far as Hamilton to stay overnight and then take his brother with him. Hamilton is around 2 hours away and then a further 6 hours travelling to Levin to visit their Mum - Wellington is a further 1 1/2 hours from there.

Blog Candy

Just found this neat site - this lovely lady Debbie has been blogging for a year and has some amazing give aways - and an awesome site. Go check it out and leave her a message...

Monday 27 April 2009

Good news and bad news

The good news from yesterday was seeing our daughter and her fiancé... who came over to have dinner and celebrate their engagement with us.... the bad news was just before starting to serve up dinner we had a call from hubby's niece to let us know her mum ( his sister) had had a seizure and was in hospital and they had found what seems to be a tumour on her brain..... she is conscious and feeling okay - has spend the day having heaps of tests and then this evening was transported by helicopter from Palmerston North Hospital to Wellington Hospital, where she is to have surgery tomorrow. Our prayers are with you Diane, and with Terry, Angela, Matthew and Rachel.

I made an engagement card for Emma & Brad. I used HA design Block Flourish and embossed in white Holographic powder. The love birds were from a free set I got in a magazine and the sentiment by Hero Arts. Used my Threading water edge punch and used a scrap of Cuttlebug'ed white ( still waiting for the CB to be fixed)
They loved it. Found a lovely verse for inside -
" Our wish for you is that the joy you feel, the happiness you know and the love you share....will be with you through a lifetime of tomorrows"

After dinner I had a mother's day card to make. Some of the ladies at work want a supply to look through. This one is inspired by Arlene's card for the one layer challenge,

I used an Inkadinkadoo flower stamp for the rose, and stamped it in Impress Ink - Pansy then used my new watercolour pencils to colour it in. The Happy Mother's Day is by StampIt. Again stamped in Pansy. The writing is HA Old French writing. I edged all three panels with the pansy ink and sponged on Tim Holtz - Distress ink - Shabby shutters. Add the flowers and all done. Thanks Arlene for the inspiration.
Thanks for visiting.



Saturday 25 April 2009

ANZAC Day

Today is a special day for New Zealanders and Australians as we celebrate ANZAC Day. It is when we remember those who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations and not just those who were involved in the landing at Gallipoli in 1915. My hubby rose at 5.30am to go to the Dawn Parade in our local area in remembrance of his father who served in WWII in Egypt. I watched a number of different services on the TV throughout the day.

After doing all the housework this morning I managed to get another 2 sets of 4 swap pins done. Both of these are based around the stamps I used. The purple one is a stamp by Rubadubadoo - a NZ stamp maker. I stamped the image onto patterned paper and coloured in the hydrangea and leaves with Tombow pens. I inked the edge with Lavender ink from HA Colourbox Queue Christmas - which I also inked on the white cardstock. I then distressed both with my fingernail. I'm starting to get into this distessing stuff this week with the HA Challenge
The 2nd swap pin is also based on a stamp. It is by Hero Arts - K4911 Good Thoughts. It is the perfect size for these swap pins. I stamped it in Archival Ink - Sepia. I then coloured the surrounding flowers and leaves with watercolour pencils and Gamsol. I stamped the butterfly onto patterned paper and cut out and layer on top of the original image. Added a few dots of Kindyglitz and used a Sharpie Paint pen in Gold to run around the edge and hey presto - all done. I've now made 24 swap tags - so think that might be about enough.

Now I only have to make an engagement card for my daughter - before they come round for dinner tomorrow. That and 3 weeks worth of ironing should keep me busy tomorrow.....

Thanks for visiting.

Friday 24 April 2009

Distress swap pins no 2

Just a quick post.. managed an other two swap pins tonight. Both using the same vintage photo I used the other night. Distressed all round the photos and card stock

Thanks for looking

Distressed swap pin collage

I had to visit the hospital yesterday for some tests. It's been 6 months since I had pulmonary embolisms in my lungs and went into repository distress and it's time for follow up. I had a CT scan of my lungs and an Ultra sound on my leg to check on clots. Still a couple of little ones just below my knee. I go to the outpatients clinic next week to get the results and see if I still need to have blood thinning drugs. Anyway, afterwards I headed off to work - via the stamp shop... ( I had taken leave for the morning) I picked up this lovely stamp by Inkadinkadoo. I used a cream cardstock and stamped the image once on the base card and once to cut out. I lightly coloured with chalks and pop dotted on the base image. The sentiment is from Hero Arts CL250 My Art Sparkle clear set. I then distressed the edges with a sponge and the Impress ink. Quite pleased with the results. So another 4 swap pins done. (12 in total now so about 1/2 way there) Now to decide on the next idea.
Well that's all for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Thursday 23 April 2009

Distress week on Hero Arts

I can't believe it's been 4 days since my last post... I have been too busy looking at the HA Flickr group and making comments to spend the time writing.... I have been very impressed with all the wonderful creations this week. HA Blog week is all about distressing. I don't do all that much real distressing...other than just running the ink pad round the edge of some stamping. I did some on one of my card I did on Saturday.... using my finger nail...so tried some of that on a card my friend ask me to do for her mother's 80th. I printed the photo from the internet and used Archival Ink Sepia to do the flourishes and the sentiment. I used the Walnut Stain Distress Ink to edge the card and to distress the flower and the edge of the button. The flourishes were by Inkadinkadoo and the sentiment by Hero Arts. This card is quite a big one - I used a A4 sheet of Kraft card folded in half and added a sheet of plain white paper inside for everyone to write a message to the birthday girl.

The weekend of 2 and 3rd of May is Stamp Camp put on by Stampzone, one of my local stamping shops. As part of the weekend you do swap pins. As there are around 25-28 people who go I have been busy trying to make some. I have decided to make 4 of a number of different styles. This one is about 2 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches and is based around HA CL250 My Art set. I have used distressing round the edge of the craft card - used my fingernails for this one.

Now for some exciting news on the home front. Our daughter rang us tonight to say Brad had proposed to her and they are now engaged. They picked up the ring this afternoon and he drove her out to their favourite West Coast beach and asked her. She thought he was going to wait till her birthday on the 6th May.... so very excited. Looks like the wedding date will be late November 2010... gives us a bit of time to get organised. She is rather a planner/organiser (her profession being a town planner) so no doubt will have everything well organised. I am a very happy Mum tonight.

Well that's all for me for now. Thanks for visiting.

Sunday 19 April 2009

Saturday Girls Day

Back again. I was trying some stuff out earlier on Flickr - using the mosaic feature to put all the cards from class together. Seemed to work ok.
Had a really good day yesterday. After class came home and made some bread pies with minced meat left over from the other night. I had set the auto on the bread maker (funny how you have spells of using equipment then nothing for a while) and the dough was nearly ready when I got it. Got them made and left them to cool on the bench covered with a tea towel while Emma and I had a girly outing to the local Mall. We wandered round looking at jewellery and cookware, stopped and had a coffee and muffin and had a great old time. Emma was looking at rings ( just to get an idea of what might suit her) and she wanted a particular necklace. The first one she saw was nearly $300 - but we popped into another jewellery shop and she saw exactly what she wanted for under $50 on sale, albeit that it was only 9 carat not 18 and on a cheaper chain.... so I bought it for her. Her birthday is in 2 1/2 weeks so have kept it here and will give it to her on the day.
Anyway several hours later got home to find..... the tea towel had been dragged off the pies and one had been dragged to the ground and all the filling eaten out..... yes that DARN CAT again. He got a right telling off I can tell you. Luckily it was only the one pie... and the rest were ok. Hubby and boyfriend arrived home from the car racing and eat the rest.
Emma has decided that she needs to think about costs so has started to learn about cake decorating and flower arranging. She looked at some videos about bouquet making and came over with a lovely bouquet of orange and yellow gerberas for me. I took some photos for her. I love taking macro photos of flowers.










Managed to get a card made after tea. It's for the HA challenge this week- using messages. I was inspired by Kristina Werner's design for 2peasinabucket - A year in cards April sketch. I also used some of the Papertrey ink paper that I download yesterday. I layered it onto a dark chocolate paint chip and then pop dotted it. The sentiment was made up of two different ones from HA CL181 and the exclamation mark was the "i" from CL183 stamped upside down. I did some faux stitching in gold gel pen to finish this off. I really like the monochromatic look
Well thanks for visiting. Time to do some more cards

Cuttlebug class cards

These are the three card I made at the class I took. We had a fund couple of hours with Sarah. As I still haven't got my CB back from the repair shop.... I shared with the others. We used alcohol inks to paint the embossed acetate. A first for me as I have never used these before. I like them but at $12.90 a colour and $26 for the mixing solution.... well I think I'll be looking from afar for a while. I will think about what colours I might use and then slowly collect them over a few months or so. Not so hard on the budget that way. I've been thinking that I could adapt the technique by using vellum and colouring that .... plus I don't have two of the dies we used - namely the butterfly and the heart. I kept the butterfly cutout to use as a template or could use my HA stamp the cut it out.

Friday 17 April 2009

Shopping Spree
















I had a bit of a shopping spree this afternoon. I had to leave early as I had to go to the doctors to pick up my prescription for my cholesterol lowering drugs and on the way I called into the stamp shop... I loved the little Penny Black hedgehogs so got one free with the stamp. It's it just the most adorable little thing. He's about 3 inches tall and is currently waiting over my stamping space. I also picked up the three paper packs for $10. There is enough stuff in each pack to make at least 3 cards. Each one is a bit of a lucky dip as to what's in it. For example the yellow pack has white/orange/yellow card stock, 12 different patterned papers of various sizes, two embossed vellum pieces with words (congratulations and happy birthday) a plain piece of vellum, a sunflower sticker and small cream tag, 12 brads and eyelets and a piece of cream coloured ribbon. There are no instructions with it..... it's all about using your imagination. I also bought a few other bits and pieces. I bought an other pack that has all the bits in it to make just one card. It is Stampzone's card of the week. When I've made it up I'll post it....The other thing I bought was a brayer. Couldn't believe how expensive they were....

Tonight while checking out Flickr Hero Arts Group I came across a lovely card from Lucy In her comments she provide a link to PapertryInk which give some free samples of their papers to try before you buy. Here it is:
I recommend it if you want just little samples of paper and don't want to cut into that lovely big bit. I printed some onto computer paper and some onto card stock as well and both looked fab even though I forgot to change the print to "Best" and it was still on "everyday"

Well it's getting on a bit and I've got a busy day tomorrow. Got to make sure Hubby is up bright and early as he is heading off to Hamilton to watch the V8's race. He is taking Brad (daughter's boyfriend) with him. Emma is coming over to have coffee with me in the afternoon and then wait for them to get back home. Hamilton is about 2 hours south of where we live. They are going with a group which has organised a mini-bus to take them down. They will be in a corporate box... so plenty to eat and drink no doubt.

Thanks for stopping by...

Thursday 16 April 2009

I've broken my Cuttlebug!!!!

I can tell you there was much gnashing of teeth, many swear words ( some not even repeatable in mixed company) when I realised that I'd broken my Cuttlebug. I've had it for 6 months now and love it to pieces. I had cut out a nestibility label and decided I wanted to emboss it. Well of course I thought I knew what to do.... A plate, B plate, nestie, tan mat and C plate. Bit of a tight squeeze but I'd get it through..... about half way it stopped.... so a good turn on the handle and it went through ok....with an almighty bang..... Oops.... I thought - there goes the B plate.. ( its inclined to curve a bit)... but no all well there. But the next time I went to use the CB - nothing happended.... no pressure on the plates.... So quick call to my LSS (local stamping store) - no more in stock but if I bring it in Judi will take it back to the manufacturor and they'll see if it can be fixed..... Whew!!! I really don't want to buy another one... but might have to. So took it in this afternoon and will have to wait and see...... I'm supposed to take it to a Techniques class on Saturday, but will have to share someone elses. Luckily I had a piece of paint chip cut into a scalloped square already.... not actually a colour I was going to use on a card for Mother's Day... but managed to find some co-ordinating colours. This card was inspired by one I saw in a video by Kristina Warner in her MACM series from May last year.
I used my grid stamp by Rubadubadoo with gold ink along the top of a 10.5Cm X 10.5cm base card ( Curlew Cream by Kaskad) The yellow spotted paper was in my scrap folder so can't remember where it came from and same with the ribbon. Flowers by Hero Arts - black gem in centre.
I stamped the MUM letters onto white card. These are from the Basic Font by Fiskars ( got them yesterday 1/2 price from a stationary shop) and then cut them out and stuck them on. Love you is from the HA CL129 Anytime Messages. This is an entry into the HA Blog challenge this week.
I will try and get some more done... I want to sell some mothers day cards at work so need a variety to take in. I seem to spend so much time blog hopping and viewing videos ( and I wonder why I reach my 10G limit each month) that I don't get much actual creating time!!!!
Anyway I'm doing this as my dinner is simmering away, so thanks for visiting and have a great day.

Tuesday 14 April 2009

Easter Catchup

Well Easter has been and gone. I can't believe how much of the years has gone by. Am I getting old... time seems to disappear. Had a very pleasant Easter break.

Decided to make my own Easter buns this year, so got out the bread maker and started making them. Of course the phone rings half way through getting the ingredients into the pan ( in the right order). It was my daughter... so carried on chatting to her and putting the stuff in the pan..... only to turn it on and suddenly realised I HADN'T put in the yeast....... luckily only about 2 mins of the first kneading had happened so sprinkled the yeast in.... what delicious buns they turned out... I was impressed with myself..... ( but then the breadmaker did all the hard work - all I did was take out the dough and handshape it) I did make the crosses as well - used a different recipe for those this time and it was perfect. Took them over to Emma's after church on Sunday morning....and helped out with painting some of the outside of her house. First time I've been allowed to paint.... hubby always said I couldn't do it.... but I managed.

I did get some time to make some cards. One is for Caardvarks Fantasy Challenge.


I used an image I had from the Internet... not even sure where I got it now and used my Nestibilites to cut the label and the mat for it. I stamped and embossed a crown in the corner and stamped the words and the scroll. Ribbon and some gems to finish. It is for my neice for her birthday. She ues to call herself Princess Sasha when she was younger.

The other card is a mosaic one I did using a piece of background double CB'd and inked that I did a few weeks ago. I cut out little triangle peices and layered them onto the background after putting the focal sentiment. I used a peice of Kwik Clear ( double sided mounting film) so that the spaces were still sticky. I then used black micro glitter to act as the "grouting" Thought this would make a good masculine card.

Back to work today.... need to earn the $ so I can spend on my stash....

Just had a break.... and went and booked our trip to Cairns in Sept. We head over on the 18th Sept for 9 days.. looking forward to it. Plus I'm looking at flights for my parents to come over for Christmas.... they live on the Gold Coast in Australia. It will be great as I haven't had a Christmas with them since the children were much younger.

Well Thanks for looking. Have a great day

Friday 10 April 2009

That Darn Cat...


For the second time in as many weeks this little ratbag bought in vermin... yes Snoopy bought in another mouse early yesterday morning. About 6.20am I heard him racing up and down the hall but couldn't be bothered getting up as it was too early. Heard the son get up about 6.30 and unusually go into the kitchen, got a rubbish bag and went out again, poking his head round our door shortly there after - to ask how he got blood off the carpet.... and to say he's disposed of the half eaten mouse.....ugh!!!! Better him than me though.

Snoopy actually belong to our daughter, but lives with us. She got him 3 years ago for her 20th birthday from her then boyfriend.... (partner now not so keen on cats) He is really a cat with character. He is rather large cat, who as well as being a hunter/gatherer is also a bit of a kleptomaniac..... yes that's right, he is a "cat burgler".... a bit choosy as he has only decided to take stuff from one household. On a regular basis he arrives home with swim togs, rash shirts, caps, dolls and toys etc, all from the neighbour across the driveway from us. So once a week I will take an assortment of bits and peice back to Natalie - and she knows if the kids togs are missing, they'll be at our house. (PS Have tried to show him pics of jewellery but no avail, he's only keen on the other stuff. ) I think Emma named it well as he really is a snoopy cat. As a kitten he was into everything. Love climbing into boxes, cupboards, anywhere he shouldn't have been. She had thought about calling him Nosey but decided on Snoopy. Hubby calls him "the dog" as Snoops follows him around all day on a Saturday when he's outside doing his gardening etc.

Photo of him isn't the best, but today we had a lot of sun and he would'nt sit still for me. Thank goodness for the nice weather as I had all that washing to catch up on. Got 4 loads done, but the downside to all that washing is now I have a whole heap of ironing to do and I've only just caught up on the last lot. I HATE ironing, so do my crafts stuff instead and then end up with about 2 weeks worth to do at one time.

Today is Good Friday so have had a peaceful day. My son and his girlfriend have headed off for the weekend so Peter and I are "Darby & Joan" for a few days. I managed to get the housework done, while he surfed the net looking for accomodation for us when we go for our trip to Australia later in the year. We are going to Cairns in Sept as he has an "old Farts" rugby tournament and then we will spend some time up there. As the weather was so lovely I decided to go for a walk. One hour later I got back after going over the cliff path to the next bay and then walking up and down the hills back. Felt really good so didn't feel guilty about doing a card before cooking dinner. Yesterday I had been to Spotlight and got some felt which I cut with my Cuttlebug into flowers. I have never done this before so was pleasently suprised how well it went. I stamped then with a HA stamp - Old French writing. I used a real mixture of stamps on this one. The flourish is by Inkadinkadoo and the grid by Rubadubadoo ( a NZ based stamp maker)
I used a nestibilty to make the oval scallop and white embossed the sentiment from HA CL129 Anytime Messages. I liked how the felts went so will be making a few more of these to have as ebellishments. As I used the sketch from CPS I have linked it to their site for the challenge. I love this sketch and think I'll be using it again and again.

Well I have one more card to finish off before tomorrow. One that has been commissioned by my gym instructor for her friend's 50th.
Hope you all have a lovely Easter and may God Bless us all at this time of hope and joy.
Thanks for stopping by and reading this rather long post... take care

Wednesday 8 April 2009

Monday's Washday Blues...

I know it's Wednesday... but Monday really was a washday blues sort of day. My son hadn't put out his rugby gear for washing till late on Sunday so I left it to do after work on Monday ( as well as the weekend towels etc) - so go to do it... in goes the powder and clothes - turn it on, push the all change buttons ( heavy duty cold wash) press the start button...... and NOTHING>>>>> did all things one does for computerised electronic systems. Turned it off at the wall, tried again... still as dead as a dodo..... Okay... next morning ring the electrician- can come 8.00am Wednesday, so here I am waiting....... still with heaps of washing to do and the weather has now packed in and it is raining. Two beautiful days just past.

Glad I'm not a home during the day though. Our local council is doing some reticulation work round our place. Our drive has been dug up and new storm water drains are going in,.... now they want to do more work round our drive way. Hubby is out there now discussing with the council exactly what it is.... and the noise from the concrete cutters, diggers etc is so bad. I usually leave work prior to this all starting and by the time I get home , they have packed up for the day. It's been ongoing for 4 weeks already and looks like going for some time more.

Have managed to get some crafting done over the past few days. Did Easter cards for MIL and SIL - no photos as I had to get them into the post ASAP ( Easter seems to have snuck up on me) . Marnie from work wanted some cards done with her little boy on them so got 4 of them done. Ollie is such a cutie.

Plus last night I did a card for the HA challenge this week. The challenge is to use something other than paper or cardstock to stamp on. The other day we did a technique where you stamped on acatate and then put easter egg foil on the underside. I found some lovely multi coloured eggs the other day so bought them - unwrapped them all and used the foil ( Eggs still in the fridge waiting to be eaten) As I didn't have an Stazon black I stamped in white. It didn't look so good so went over it with a permanent black marker....
Stamps used: Branch from Asian Designs by Inkadinkadoo, Grid pattern on oval is by Rubadubadoo ( stamped once straight and once on an angle) sentiment HA CL129 Anytime Messages, Butterfly HA F5158. Lace edging - Fiskars Edwardian edging. Bottom edge is the off cuts of the side edge.

Well the electrician is here ) only 20 mins after they said they would... so can't really complain. And he can fix it now.... albeit its going to cost $139.00

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by
PS after some discussion on Flickr - I will be submitting my pink card for the CPS challenge. I used the sketch for a starting point on this card.

Sunday 5 April 2009

Stamp club day

Yesterday I spent an fantastic day sharing my stamping with like minded ladies. One of my local stamp and scrapbook shops runs a monthly club day and this month had a "big" one. It started at 10am and went on till 4.00pm. During the course of the day, Jill demonstrated different techniques to give ideas. The rest of the time was spent doing your own thing.... but also walking round looking at what others were doing, sharing stamps and ideas. There were around 25 of us - some card makers, some scrapbookers...

I had bought a pack with lots of purple card and paper and embellishments which I thought would be a great starting place. I have been looking at different sketches so had put some in a notebook for future use and decided to use one from "Our Creative Corner" from Feb 2009. I was pleased with the results. I used my Cuttlebug to punch out three ovals with my nestibilities, one of my Fiskar border edge punches and some ribbon and peelcraft to finish.

Someone said my ovals looked like Easter eggs so that was the inspiration for my second card.... cut out more ovals and tied ribbon round the middle to make the egg. CB'd the background in swiss dots and used a scallop oval to emboss the centre before putting the egg on. Sentiment stamped on the bottom.And my third card came from using the cut out ovals as a template to sponge and egg onto white card in yellow. The then masked it and did the purple egg. Decorated with stamps from HA Cl180 Happy Greetings. It looked a bit stark, so sponged the sky blue ink all over the card and put the ribbon on. Decided I would just use the word " Celebrate" for the greeting.

Today has been busy as I had to do the groceries that I didn't get done yesterday. I was doing some surfing on the 'net and came across these cards at Penny Black. I did something similar expect I stamped the daises in Versamark on glossy card and embossed in white. I then sponged some greens and oranges and reds ( from my Kaleidacolor Autumn leaves ink pad
I then dry embossed around the edge and layered the glossy card onto plain white card stock and then stamped the sentiment
I was really pleased with this for a quick and easy card.
Well I'm off to have dinner at my daughter's place. She and Brad have invited both sets of parents to dinner in the new house.

Thanks for visiting.....enjoy the rest of your weekend

Saturday 4 April 2009

Blog award - Lemonade stand

WOW... I checked my blog today and was amazed to see that Anne had graciously bestowed upon me a blog award.

The Lemonade Stand Award for being a blogger who
shows great attitude and gratitude:
To pick up the Lemonade Stand Award:
  1. Comment on this blog.

  2. Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog.

  3. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.

  4. Link to your nominees within your blog post.

  5. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.

  6. Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.
So here are my nominees for this award. These people have always been supportive of my creative work making lovely comments via my Flickr page.

Paula - Pajalu's Papers & Fabrics Addiction
- always has lovely cards and thoughts. Did some wonderful pages for the victims of the recent bushfires in Victoria Australia.

Arlene - A Bit of This and That
- again a creator of beautiful cards. She has a lovely granddaughter who is following in her creative footsteps

Lucy - Lucy's cards
Lucy makes the most beautiful cards - does lots of lovely bright cards and has just become a member of Caardvarks design team

Kelly -Lovin the life I color
Kelly always has a nice word to say to all the people who post their cards on Flickr Hero Arts group and her own creations.... well they are really amazing. PS when you visit her site you'll see she loves buttons!!!!

Deborah (aka Gigi001) -society of Stamp & Scrap-aholics
Deborah has one of the most amazing blogs where she shares her wonderful and insightful thoughts as well as her cards. Even has done a video tutorial.... I so enjoy visiting her blog as I know it will cheer me up. Plus she does these amazing interviews with crafters each week.

I hope you'll take a moment or two to stop by these blogs (including Anne's) and leave a nice comment. It takes just a moment, but it is soooooo nice to receive those comments! :-)

Thanks for stopping by.... will be posting my stamp club cards tomorrow, once they are all up and going on the computer.

Thanks for visiting

Friday 3 April 2009

Friday night dinner.

No cards tonight. Hubby rang me about 20 to 6 this evening to say he was just leaving work and did I feel like going out for a drink at the Club. We belong to the Bays Club in Browns Bay, so off we went and had a drink or two. We then decided to go to dinner. One of the people I know from work, owns a restaurant in Browns Bay. It is called Flavours of India. We had an amazing meal. We started with the vegetarian entree - 2 veggie bahjii , 2 huge samosas and two other veggie things. Then I had the chicken shajaraini and Peter had the hot Lamb Pepper fry. Mine was chicken cooked in a creamy cashew sauce - mild but tasty and Peters was HOT and SPICY. Absolutely perfect. I feel so full that I don't think I'll eat for a week!

Got home in time for him to see the last 20 mins of the rugby and for me to get my stuff packed to go to stamp club tomorrow. We are having a 10am - 4pm day with demo's, spot prizes and fun for all. Looking forward to it. Just have to decide what to take..... can't take it all. We take whatever we are working on. I want to do a few Easter and mother's day cards

Thursday 2 April 2009

New Baby

Just a quick card tonight. Got it done while I was cooking tea so I could get the photo taken while it was still light. It's getting darker earlier as autumn is approaching. Daylight savings finishes this weekend so it will soon be even darker earlier.

Anyway this card is for Judith who became a grandma to Caleb this week.Used HA B1918 shadow stamp IV in sky blue ink and overstamped with black - some farm animal stamps I got free with a magazine. I printed the sentiment on the computer - (went a bit crooked) . Finished it off with some blue and white ribbon I got today from The Warehouse. I've put it in the HA Flickr group as a "onelayer" entry.

Spend the rest of the evening cataloguing my new stamps. I have a folder where I stamp them onto card in categories so I know what I have. - or at least that's the theory. All up to date now.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

New stamps

It was a great day today. First off I got some new stamps I put in an order with Hastings Rubber stamps yesterday and when I went to go to work this morning at 7.30am, there they were on my doorstep. Such amazing service. They overnight couriered them to me. I can't wait to play with them. Then this evening the gym I go to, started a walking group. 4 of us meet at 5.30pm and went for a 45 min walk. The gym is in Milford, on my way home, so we walked down to the beach and walked along the beach towards Takapuna and back again. The weather had cleared and it was beautiful. Tide was out so made it nice to walk along the sand for a bit. I had done a 20 min bike ride at the gym first so really felt like I'd done my share of exercise today, which was good as there had been a big morning tea shout at work. Robyn was 60 today so three teams of us(around 25), had a lovely shared morning tea. Of course, I took cut up watermelon, but the willpower wasn't so great when I saw all the lovely goodies, and I had more than I should have. Stuck to the savory stuff - but still. Didn't eat anything for lunch as I was too full.

Am just waiting for the batteries for the camera to charge so I can photo the quick card I just did for a friend's granddaughter. Kathy saw a lovely photo that was on an email we were both sent, so I lifted it, and printed it on photo paper, mounted it onto white card and stamped the sentiment in Versafine black which I then heat set. Quite pleased with it. The photo doesn't do it justice. My camera doesn't like the reflected light from the card.

Last night while blog hopping I came across a neat video from Gigi001 (aka Deborah Nolan) showing how to make a spining disk card. Here is the link to her blog page and the video.
It really is a neat card and I have to say I really enjoy Deborah's blog. She is a very insightfull lady.

Well its time to go make a cuppa tea and watch Cold case.