Santa Claus is coming to town...in May

Hello everyone Happy Friday I just finished this card I started last night. I bought a cute little set of Kaisercraft Christmas stamps for a bargain off Ebay and I got them this week. I decided to try out the cute Santa and color him in with my watercolor paints. I can't take credit for this but Greg gave me a great idea of doing a gradual peeking Santa so each Santa gets a bit bigger and it turned out cute. I had the idea of then turning the circles that I cut out and putting them on a larger Christmas ornament die cut. As you can see lately I do enjoy watercoloring and love to keep practicing. I went around the background with a very light green watercoloring. Turned out very cute! I will do a couple more cards leading up to when we move and will do the rest in my new craft room/shared office with hubby. I stood in that room today when we went to see how the house was going and it's great lots of room for my desks and a walk in storeroom for us to share, exciting!! Thanks for looking, have a nice weekend.

Our first home

Hello tonight I did a layout of our first house, I don't have a layout of this so I wanted to make sure I did as I loved our first house. We are pretty grateful we were able to get such a nice first house as these days it's so hard for people to buy a house. We've come a long way since our first house but I wouldn't change it, it was a lovely first home and Greg made a beautiful job of the heart shaped garden bed at the front and the lovely landscaped back garden too. I enjoyed looking after the garden too and enjoyed time in that house. Now we are looking forward to moving into our new house designed by us just the way we love and Greg really did a fabulous job of putting that all together in the design and he really has come up with a cracking family home for us (Chockie, Toy Miss Ivy and our little future pup Zoe). But for this first house layout I used the Cricut to cut out the Our 1st home die cut and the little wreath around the photo of Greg is one I got recently. The bird is a die cut from a pack and the two little birdhouse stickers are from a sheet I got that were color-in stickers. I did my journalling on my Cricut. I think this turned out lovely, thanks for looking.

A Christmas card with watercoloring

Hello tonight I decided to get my watercolor paints out again as I do love playing around with my paints, it's so fun and relaxing. I thought I would make a few of my Christmas cards now and the rest when we are in the house just so I know I have a few made. I am into my peel off stickers again, they were around years ago when I first started making my cards and even though they went out of vogue for a while I kept them (although I did send some to my friend Christina in Germany when we left Chicago as I didn't have the space to bring them back) but I did keep some and I'm glad I did. I can get them here though which is nice as they were non existent in America. So I found this nice set of baubles so I cut the white oval out of watercolor paper on my Cricut then a larger scalloped one in dot paper. I coloured in the baubles with the paints and I love it. I stamped the greeting in Versamark ink and then embossed with white powder and added a couple of stars. I do like this one!! Below I've just wrote a bit about starting with watercolors for cards or scrapbook layouts just for anyone who reads my blog and is interested. It really am glad I got past my fear of it and had a go because now I love it.

So below is a picture of what I use, it doesn't cost a lot to start and I'm glad I've got my tools to have a go.

So you will need some watercolor paper, I got some from Lincraft but I did find some at a shop we have here (that is closing down shortly) but I did stock up on some pads while they were 50% off. You also need paints and brushes. I started off with a palette of paints, I got mine from Spotlight but then I got some tubes too and these are my favourite. You will need a palette, again very cheap from any craft store, I got mine from Lincraft but they have them at The Reject Shop and Target. Greg (lovely husband) came up with a great idea of using a squeezy sauce bottle to get the water into the palette, it works so well and makes mixing the colors easy. The brushes can be found at craft stores but also discount stores like The Reject Shop. I got most of mine at our local discount/Variety store Prices Plus. I recycled a jar to put them in on my desk. I forgot to include it in the photo but you need some masking tape or painters tape to stick your paper to a board to keep it nice and secure whilst painting. It won't wreck the paper. The board I got from The Reject Shop it's just a dry erase board but was only $2 I think and it's perfect. Happy Watercoloring!! : )

Grandma's layout

Hello I have a lot of photos in a box that I was going through and I came across these ones of both my nanna's so I thought rather than keep the photos in a box I would scrapbook them. I started this on Friday and finished it tonight. I liked the patterned paper I used it looked a bit "grandma-ey" The flowers are stickers that were bling stickers and I stuck them on some colored paper and cut them out. The Smile and Butterfly are from a pack of die cuts I got a while ago at the Reject Shop. Thanks for looking.

Sympathy Card

Hello again, I got an email from my friend Alex in Chicago (I walked her dogs Benson and then Louie) today as we still keep in touch and she told me that her mum died. Her mum had a really long battle with Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimers Disease. We often used to chat about it both in notes, she would leave a note on the bench when I went to pick up the dog and I'd leave one back, a bit like penpals but we lived a 5 min walk from each other but when I'd see her in the street I would always ask how her mum was. Her mum lived in New York so she went over as often as she could. She lost her job recently too so she's had a hard time. So I made her this card and I don't like making or sending sympathy cards because it's sad but I do like how this one turned out. They are hard to make because you have to be respectful and keep the colors subtle and the images. So I stamped my image which was from Close to My Heart in Black Archival Ink onto watercolor paper and my sentiment. I then got out my paints, I love to try out my watercoloring it's relaxing and fun which is what I needed for this evening. I mixed up some purple with water and just went across in a diagnol line then I went over it again once it was dry but only in some places to give a two toned effect. My lovely husband gave me that suggestion and it was perfect. Greg loved the card and gave me some great encouragement on it and I do like it. Thanks for looking. I'll get that mailed off to Alex tomorrow.

Older photo layout

Hello on the weekend I went through some older photos and then I saw our wedding albums, engagement layout I did and photos as well as all of our wedding, engagement and bridal shower cards in the cupboard and I thought "I haven't scrapbooked my bridal shower photos". So I decided to because I want to enjoy the memories in a layout not just in a box of photos. I had a lovely bridal shower at mum and dad's house with family and friends there and it was a fun day, I even got a toilet paper wedding dress lol. I love too how I've got a photo of nanna and me too because I always miss her and it was nice to scrapbook a photo of us having cake together. I used a white cardstock base and a wedding words patterned paper. I added a silver heart border (mum and dad gave me these for my birthday) and also a cloud showering hearts which was perfect (I got this in a pack from The Reject Shop). I used my Cricut for the title and the bells as well as the banner and I used my Cricut pens for that. I added a foam heart which my friend Christina sent me for my birthday. It was nice to go down pre-wedding memory lane, but yet today I still feel lucky to be a happily married lady! Thanks for looking.

Thank you card

Hello hope you've had a nice Thursday, we had a nice Thursday, I don't start my studying again till next week so I was lucky enough today to have some time in the afternoon so we went for a walk on our local beach. We are quite lucky as our beach is not a tourist beach it's a raw natural beach with very little if no people on it. So we walked a long walk and collected some shells and coral along the way, it was a beautiful day warm but with a lovely ocean breeze, I really enjoyed walking together in the fresh sea air, I'm really glad we live so close to that beach so we'll be able to go more and more. Anyway tonight I decided to make a thank you card for the building company we are using, they are a nice family owned local builders and so far have been really great so I've made this in advance for when the house was finished. Greg was even saying providing the house is ok lol he might make them a cake but regardless I've made them this card. I used the Life's a Beach cartridge for the card and I used my Cricut pens to write my greeting. The house is a separate cut. I added some white faux stitching around the frame with a white gel pen. I think this turned out cute, thanks for looking.

Gregs birthday layout

Hello I did this layout over the last 2 nights of Greg's birthday, I really like how all the colors worked together. I used my Cricut to cut the font and the rest of the die cuts were ones I have bought recently in packs. The journal card I also bought in a pack. The border is from a pack mum and dad gave me for my birthday, I love how this turned out of my birthday boy!!

wreath card using new die

Hello again I was about to pack up because I'm pretty tired tonight but wanted to try out my new wreath die I got. Mum and Dad gave me a gift voucher to an online craft store for my birthday so I got 2 things with my order and one was this really nice wreath die. It's actually from a brand called Lea'bilities and it can be used with my Cuttlebug. The wreath is really versatile which is one of the reasons I chose it because it comes with snowflakes, holly, flowers and hearts, so it's not just a Christmas wreath, you can do a Valentines day wreath or any love themed wreath, you can do a floral wreath for a birthday or get well and then there are Christmas and winter wreaths. I love it. So for this one I did a wintery themed Christmas card. I cut the wreath in silver then the snowflakes in silver glitter card then a red bow. I cut the wreath again in watercolor paper and used the middle part to stamp my snowman and I colored him in with watercolor paints. I went over the snowman a bit with some silver glitter gel pen and then I added my greeting at the top. Thanks for looking, goodnight!

My tropical birthday

Hello here is a layout of my birthday recently. I started this on Saturday and just finished it now after I finished my Assignment. I like how this one turned out with the lovely photos and that cake! I cut a smaller piece of dot patterned paper and then used the Cricut to cut out my font. The other die cuts are from some packs I bought recently from the Reject Shop. Also I found a pack of project life type cards and I don't do project life but I did want to use them on my 12 x 12 pages so I just printed some journalling strips on publisher and stuck them to my card in the right hand corner. Thanks for looking.

a birdy birthday card

Hello I made this one mostly last night and a bit today. I had planned on going with Greg to the block today. I was going to whipper snipper the weeds on the block and poison them but it rained a bit this morning so Greg said when he needs help pouring the quick set concrete into where he is digging the posts for the retaining I can go and help, not sure whether that will be today or tomorrow. So anyway whilst I'm home alone thought I'd do a bit of crafting in between doing the laundry. I made this card for my friend Melanie, she is a keen bird watcher so I thought this would be nice for her birthday. I made a square card and then added two layers, the blue one I embossed with my flower embossing folder. The birds and flower aren't actually stamps. Greg and I were at "Lets Go Overflow" yesterday and they had 50% off everything and they had these colour  me stickers, I know that coloring is all the go at the moment and I enjoy coloring in so I got these birds and flower stickers. They are just colored in with pencils. I think they are lovely so I also cut larger circles from kraft cardstock and then put them on the card. The sentiment is from a pack I got from the Reject Shop a little while ago. Thanks for looking, have a nice weekend.

Anniversary card for Greg

Hello I made this teepee card for Greg's anniversary tonight, I'm trying to make sure I have all my years worth of cards done (apart from Christmas) now so when we are moving I know I've got the cards made. I have been wanting to try a teepee card for a while, I thought they would be complicated but they are really easy and I love how it's something different  and it will fold flat into an envelope. It has some velcro on it so you can fold it into the teepee shape. I cut the scalloped circles on the Cricut and used my Spellbinders circle dies to cut the regular circles out of watercolor paper. I stamped a cute Forever Friends bear on the watercolor paper and then I used my watercolor paints to color him in. I also stamped some hearts and colored those in with the paints. I used my Cricut pens to write the sentiment. I also stamped Happy Anniversary on the inside. I was really happy with this turned out. I got some watercolor pads today at a shop we have here called "Lets go Overflow" it's like a bargain shop and they had 50% off everything so I grabbed some of the watercolor paper and some other crafty items, it was fun. I also got some crafty things off mum and dad for my birthday so lots to play with, Have a nice weekend.