Bugs 'n' Luvin.....

Morning all.

Sadly (again) it has been a couple of weeks between posts. I cannot believe how far behind I am. Time is fleeting, it evaporates and you play catch up constantly. I hope I am not the only one that is caught in this time warp!!??

This is what I gave to my niece (Jessica) for her birthday in APRIL!! (yes I am that far behind!!!) She was 2...where does the time go?? We were lucky enough to catch up with her in a park. All the pics taken were done in pursuit of a VERY energetic 2yo. This is Jess now.....

Her gift actually inspired my card. Anyone with a child under 7yo will be familiar with "Pillow Pets". They are insanely cute and have different characters. I chose a ladybug for Jess. Once again though...I ran out of time to make something appropriate to match. Fete however kindly intervened!! Before I started stamping, I made cards from all sorts of things. I stumbled across the lightweight wooden cutouts and mounted them up very basically. I simply added the number to the card I already had made and woo hoo!!!

The number I felt kept up the "dotty" theme of the ladybug.

Here are the gift and card together...kinda sweet I hope??

Thanks for popping by. I do love reading your thought and comments so much and appreciate the time taken to leave them.

Stuff used (as best I can recall):

CS: Black, Red, Patterned paper fm bundle pack I got at Biw W YEARS ago, SU Whisper White, Black and Real Red for #2

Ink: VersaColour Black

Stamps: Gel-a-tins Numbers

Punches: SU Scallop Circle, CM 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circles

Other bits: Ladybug purchased in packet from Alice in Paperland

Lynda xx



Pre-Teen Rock - #2

Time is marching by so very quickly. A couple of weeks ago (yes I am still posting Sept projects) my son turned 11!!!! Buoyed by the success of the 1st Extreme Guitar card I did (last post) I decided to put my own twist on another card I had seen here. This is my version that Mast 11 received.....

I 'grunged' the background and the "11" up as previous, as well as the bits behind the guitarist...

I then thought, since my son's friends are all roughly the same age, I made another, but this time left the age off to be added when needed.

I used the KaiserCraft "Grunge" stamp on the background of this one. It is less of a tyre tread texture as the "rough Texture" SU wheel is.

I hope to use this image much more as all the boys around me grow up. It's kind of fun.

Thanks for popping by.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Real Red, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Real Red

Stamps: SU - Extreme Guitar, Just Jawing, KaiserCraft Clear "Grunge" Stamp, Gel-a-tins "Numbers"

Punches: (SU) Large and Small Square Punches, Spiral Punch

Other Bits: Dimensionals

Lynda xx

Now where was I last weekend??????

Hi all, (warning...lots of pics in this post!!)

Yes we all returned safe & sound (if not somewhat shattered & exhausted) from our whirlwind trip to Cobar. Where is Cobar you may ask....well if you click here you can get a better idea. It is basically 700km NW from where we live....so yes....1400kms round trip....left Fri AM - returned Sun PM!!

What was there you may ask?? Well Miss Jessica, my niece, turned 1.

 The time has flown so very very fast. Now I did not take a picture of her invitation, but trust me when I say that the whole party was themed around Minnie Mouse. Pink and black were the colours carried through everything and everywhere. Even the guest of honour was dressed accordingly.......

We last saw her in January at Dad's 70th and she has grown heaps since then!! Even bis sister Tilly (on the left) and her best pal Billy (yes it is Tilly and Billy!!) got into the spirit.......

Now Jessica's Mum (Wren) makes cakes....really well and of course she made Jessica's. It was amazing...and I don't think the photo does it justice. Needless to say Jessica loved it too!!

Now....for the card.....and the theme was EASY!! The hard part was getting it just right. I found a picture of Minnie Mouse and wanted to break it down into the most basic of shapes. The circles of the face and ears are a given, the mask and face were different all together. This is what I came up with.......

I was very, VERY happy with the end result...considering it was all done with punches. All in all Lg and small circles, large and small ovals and a heart was all there was to it. here is a close up of Minnie's face....

If you want a detailed list of the punches used, please leave me a message and a contact e mail in the comments and I will get back to you. The "1" is stamped in Regal Rose ink and outlined in a black SWM.

Thanks for enduring a very long post. I am going to curl up now and rest a while as even though we have been back since late Sunday PM, the culmination of little sleep and a long drive, and work on Monday have taken their toll.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Whisper White, Basic Black, Blush Blossom (ret), Elite card - Fuchsia

Ink: (SU) Regal Rose, Basic Black SWM, Signo White Gel Pen

Punches: Circles, Ovals, Heart, Nestabilities Scallop and Classic Circles

Stamps: "Gel-a-tins" Build a Set Numbers

Other bits: Pink spotty ribbon fm stash, Dimensionals

Lynda xx



Going Round In Circles (aka Light Bulbs and Brick Walls)

Again, this is NOT a reflection of my disposition...although SOME may argue the point!!

The title refers to my most recent effort for one of our young neighbours who turned 7. He is the most beautiful little boy who has a developmental disability. He gives you so much every time you see him. He loves everything bold and bright as well as being heavily into anything to do with animals.

Once again....I strapped on my thinking cap. I knew that I wanted to use my very neglected Wild About You set (which covered the animal quota), but the bold and bright.....I hit a brick wall.

So.....I went blurfing for inspiration and came across something that the delightful Christie Wallace said. Although the whole of the quote pertained to SU product, the part that stuck with me was "Sometimes when you lack a bit of inspiration you only need to look at the papers and colour combinations"........So I did. I rummaged through my ever increasing stash of papers and found a bright bold circular pattern and then the light bulbs started to go off....so thank you Christie!!

So now I had my paper, my stamp set and I managed to match most of the colours with inks that I had. All was going sweetly. The idea of concentric bright circles and the animals in the middle then.........BRICK WALL!!!! After having thought I had nearly every size of circle punch from 1/16"-2"...the only one I did NOT posses was a 1 3/4" circle...AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So...another light bulb...my dear father gave me a primitive (but as it turned out exceptionally useful) circle cutter for my birthday last year that I had not used. It's like the old geometry compasses but it has a blade where the pencil would usually would have been. So then I measured out a 1/2 of a 1 3/4" circle and HUZZAH!! Blade did not quite go through the CS, but it was enough that I could cut it out.

Anyhow...this is the result...

As I did not do the best job of cutting out the large circles, I decided to distress them with the cutter kit. The "7" is from a Gel-a-tins set that I got sometime ago too, but just had not gotten out. I popped up all the circles on dimensionals...which you can (sort of) see here.

The best part of course was that Jayme LOVED his card and the fantastic smile I got was worth all the ups and downs of putting the card together.

Thanks so much for sticking to the end of this arduous tale.


Stuff used:
CS: Optix Turquoise and Yellow CS, SU Riding Hood Red and Whisper White.
Ink: (SU) Riding Hood Red, Tempting Turquoise and Summer Sun Stamp and Write Markers, VersaColour #14 - Scarlet
Stamps: (SU) Wild About You, Whimsical Words and Gel-a-tins "Build-A-Set" Numbers
Punches: CM 1 1/2 and 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Franchenville Circle Cutter and Compass
Paper: G.C.D Studios Designer Paper (#710) "Jumbo Dots" - Lost In Paradise Collection

Lynda xx