paper smooches sparks challenge December 29th

Another paper smooches sparks challenge is upon us and i love this one. it is bright and colorful!
here is the inspiration.

And here is my card.

I wanted clean lines and colour but i wanted the colour to pop so i made sure the card was not too busy. i used surf and turf,glossy accents on the bubbles,copic markers to colour and some bobble eyes. then a bunch of different colour twine to finish it off.

Tara :)

Lawn fawn challenge

Lawn fawn which we all LOOOVE are having a challenge. they are looking for cards for their catalog and are giving us crafters the chance to have a card in their catalog. here is the link.
I have made a couple of cards for this challenge. here they are.

In this card above i have used my distress inks and jenni bowlin inks to make the sky, fiskars border punch for the waves and squeeze punch for the clouds and then used copics for the critters which i used critters i the sea.

with this card i used critters on the farm and thought the whole chicken and the egg would be a good clean look for a card. i used copics to color and Martha Stewart twine.

Tara :)

Lawnscaping challenge #24 Texture.

 Now trying to get a card done between Xmas and getting everything ready for the family OMG how hard was that! but i managed to get some time to do it while the kids are in bed!

The Challenge this time was texture. felt and glitter was my texture of choice and i made a bon voyage card.
I used the little mini set from lawn fawn, MFT cloud dies to cut the felt and a judikins pop block cut in 1/2 to make the plane'fly'on the card. i shaded with copics and the background papers were unit papers i found a while back.

Cute Huh!

Tara:)

A nightmare before christmas, photos finally!

So it has been 2 weeks but finally i have got the pics sorted to put up. the party was great the kids had fun, and Zoe made the BEST Wednesday Addams!

Cookies anyone????

I'm off to a kids christmas party today and really did not want to battle the shoppers to find some treats to bring to the party.
So i got cooking!
I made some cute christmas tree cookies,piped royal icing on them,then flooded them with more royal icing and decorated them. But the icing is still not quite dry. so how will i pack them???
Good old Fiskars to the rescue!
I grabbed my Fiskars Surecut Trimmer, my Fiskars upper crest border punch, my Fiskars cling stamps season greetings that i got from USA and away i went.
I put all the little cookies in individual bags and created a topper for them. It kept the cookies from sticking to each other and each child will have a cookie of their own to take home!!!
Thanks Fiskars!!! You have saved the day again!!!
(and don't you just love the stamped sentiment!!!)

Tara :)

Done and Dusted... all my xmas cards are finished and posted!!!

Finally i finished my xmas cards.
I wanted to go simple this year as with Poppy in the mix sometimes i only get a little while to colour before she is wanting my attention. (do i sound like a bad mother??LOL!!)
I picked a simple hero arts cling stamp this year. on craft card and a greeting from Fiskars seasons greetings cling stamp set. I colored with G85 and G99 the leaves, the berries were fired brick distress stickles and the branch was E27. i was surprised how the copics went on the craft card. it sis not bleed at all and it was more like water coloring than markers the was the ink moved about the card stock. but it was a good effect and i am quite happy with the finished cards!

I thought i might enter this card in the Mad for markers monthly challenge as well.
if you would like to enter the christmas challenge just click on the link
Tara :)

A Christmas Apron.

Hello there! I love to be festive throughout the christmas period so i make myself an apron each year.
This year i have made a 1/2 apron with lots of frills! And then i thought what a great gift for Zoes teacher!!!'So now i am making 2!!!
You will have to bear with me when i show you how to make this great apron as i cannot seem to find the pics i took as i was making it. so i will have to show you what i can.

Paper smooches sparks challenge December 14th.

I am a bit late this time but as everyone says...better late than never!

so the Sparks challenge this time is focused on this pic from pinterest.

I thought i would use my new set today called Wake up! I just love all the little smiley faces!
I coloured with copics and wrote a little sentiment. the paper is Bella Bvd . A bit of twine and done! simple but effective.

Tara:)

Phew! day 12 tag and i think i may need a higher dose of blood pressure pills.....

I hate to say it ........but thank god that the 12 tags of Christmas are over.
Over the past 12 days i have been burnt,maimed,confused,stressed excited...yes excited.... and exhausted!
I love the 12 tags of Christmas cause i get to learn new ways to use my stash and the 12 tags makes me think of alternate ways to create what Tim has put on his blog. But i am exhausted!!!!
I think i still have 2 children and a husband...... i will have to check the kids rooms and check under the covers in my bed tonight just to make sure i have not left them anywhere over the past 12 days while being focused on getting each tag done ASAP.LOL!!!
Today was a great tag. i got to see what all the fuss was about the tissue paper. but i don't have any so i used the tissue tape instead. it kind of gave the same effect and i did not have to use the glue!
I did not have any of those doll things so a fragment with a pic of Poppy did the trick and i made the flower with tissue tape like tim has done in the past. I did not even have to make the silver border as i used Bella! tape for that and tinsel...i just nicked a bit off the Christmas tree....Shhhhhhh....don't tell Zoe she will be mad!!!!

So here is my final tag.

Stay tuned because you will see my labors of love again soon. I am planning to use them all on my Christmas pressies this year!
I'm off now to sleep for the next 16 hours!!!!!
Tara :)

Twelve tags Day 11..... and the ##@$%## shrink plastic!!!!!!

I love the Technique today on tag 11's tag for the 12 tags of Xmas. But if i have to even THINK about F***ing shrink plastic again i may hurt someone!
Last night started as it has most nights bar 2 over the past 11 days.....me waiting at the PC for 7pm Australian time for tims tag to go on his blog and me getting excited, finding what i need and making it.
Last night and today was different.......
I went to get out the supplies. I KNEW i had shrink plastic. I brought a sampler pack ages ago and i was SURE that it was with all my photo papers , acetate, canvas etc. I looked. I looked again. Nothing....... I thought where could it be? i went through all my boxes of craft stuff in Poppy's room.Nothing. Maybe i used it all up, i thought to myself. So i thought...i will do what i can on the tag and but the shrink plastic at the craft shop tomorrow and finish up when i get home.
Easier said than done........
I went to Richmond (about 30kms away from my place) to the local craft shop. I was pouring rain and i had a grumbly Poppy in toe. I got there. Lights out.....The craft shop closed on Mondays!.... i am not physic am i? how was i suppose to know this! so i went to the 2 newsagents. Nothing."Whats shrink plastic?"i was asked!
I went to Big W. Nothing. i was getting a bit pissed off by now as it was STILL raining and Poppy wanted food. so i fed and watered myself and Poppy and continued on my quest.
I drove back home. went to my local town Springwood and then went to the office place. Nothing. the news agency  Nothing. then the art shop. I asked the man. He knew what i was talking about YEAH!!!! "sure"he said "i will show you."WooHoo! VICTORY!!!!!! we went to the shelf and you would not believe it.... SOLD OUT!@!!!!!!!!!!
This was getting ridiculous!
I thought i would try one last place. so off i went to Sew and Save. no shrink plastic their either but the lady did tell me i could use #6 recycled plastic from bottles etc. Great i will go home and do this.
I got home. Dumped Poppy off on Rob and started my search in the fridge. #1....#2.....#2......#1.....and it went on like this for everything plastic in the house. I even resorted to hunting through the recycle bin outside looking for #6 plastic! I must have looked like some kind of hobo with my bum up in the air,head in the bin!!!

So i gave up.
I decided that if i just cut out small acetate holly leaves and put alcohol inks on it it will look ok.
I went to the cupboard and grabbed the packet of acetate. Went to get a sheet...........
THE F***ING SHRINK PLASTIC WAS WITH THE ACETATE ALL ALONG!!!!!!!!!!!!
Excuse my language but OMG!!!! you would not believe it would you!
So without further ado here is the Tag that is the bain of my life.........

And you know what. ....... i don't really like it!!!

Tara :)

lawnscaping tags or treat bags challenge....with a twist

It is Lawnscaping challenge time and this one is a little different. I was going to do a tag but i thought...why not incorporate the challenge with the craft i am doing with my daughter Zoe's Class this week. So i emailed Kelly Marie to get permission to photocopy some of lawn fawns great stamps for the kids in Zoe's class to make door hangers. I did not think that the whole stamping themselves would be a good idea so Kelly Marie said it was ok to photocopy the stamps. So i went about making a page of images for the kids to colour and cut out. we have the snowman and clothing from making frosty friends, the cozy christmas set and the tree from critters in the forest. I reckon that that tree must be the most used stamp in ALL of my stamps.....an i have a LOT of stamps!!!
So i coloured the images...i did not bother about shading cause the kids will not be doing this, cut out my pics, created a background on the kraft card door hanger i made using my Fiskars Trimmer and Circle shape template and started gluing! I even used a glu stick like the kids will!
and here are the results...

I added bit of sparkle stuff for snow and ripped the paper to make the snow on the bottom.
they don't look to bad and i think the kids will be able to follow ok.
Tara :)

Tim's tag day 10....better late than never!

THis is quite a quick post as lat night was our nightmare before christmas party and after a bit of a headache this morning i have finally done the tag
here it is!

Tara:)

Day 9 it is almost over Booooo Hooooooo!!!!!

Well after today's tag only 3 more to go........'I really liked this technique cause it was bright and bold. plus one of the very few dies of tim's i have is festive greenery and this has been used A LOT in these tags!! I drew the candle and cut it from grunge board(embossed as i did not have plain) i even managed to navigate the heat gun with out burning myself or catching on fire!!!!!
so here is today's tag!

Tara :)

tim's tags day 8

Looking at tim's tag today i was not sure about it. i am not use to doing "manly"tags so i decided to use the techniques in this rag but with my own twist. I love Christmas trees so this is what i did.....

Tara :)

A spinning Christmas Card....

Hello there, As Christmas gets closer i am frantically making my xmas cards and getting them in the post. One of the cards i made this year is a cute spinning christmas card.

Tim's tags day 7....we're cooking now!!!!!!

Yeah!!!! 2 tags done in a row and no hiccups!!!
Todays tag is great i love the effect tim got with the holly and zoe was fascinated on how he did it in the video. though zoe did mention about 15 times how much the paper stunk...and was smoke suppose to be coming from the heat gun!!!!(i have asked santa for a new one)
so here is day 7's tag

Tara :)

Day 6 tag and no permanent injury.........

I knew it!.....See I knew it!
If i did the tags of an evening all would go well...and apart from getting electrocuted by the Computer when i turn it off tonight, i have not gained any injury tonight! YEAH!!!!
Day 6 tag seems to have gone without a hitch tonight. I did change it a bit by using a fragment with zoe's picture in it rather than a charm which i did not have,but all in all i am happy with the result!
what do you think????

Tara :)

THe 12 tags continue with day 5 and another day another saga......

Well we are almost 1/2 way there in the 12 tags of Christmas with tim holtz . BoooHooo!!!! i don't want it to ever end..... well... maybe i do....because it seems to me that i am getting into a bit of a funk when it comes to creating my tags each day.
I have come to the conclusion that when ever i make a tag in the evening all's fine and well but if i do the tag the following morning ... well all hell breaks loose!!
 This is now the second day in a row that my tag making has not gone according to plan.......
Let me explain........ if you read yesterdays post i finished my tag and by the end of it i was maimed and disfigured by my heat gun......  well today it was the tools i was using that bore the brunt of the destruction today.
Firstly if you know me i am a VERY organized person when it comes to crafting. Having Zoe who has ASD i need to keep organized. So when i come to find a specific item......say an archival ink pad........ you would think i would know where it was....but NOOOOOOO......could i find it? Damm ink pad had disappeared. Unless Rob is secretly crafting and stashing my ink pad WHO KNOWS where it's gone. so i had to use Staz on. Which to be fair Tim Holtz said not to do. I now TOTALLY agree with him cause no sooner than i got the staz on ink pad out i dropped it on my trousers!   I now REALLY know why it is called STAZ ON!!!!  It will not come off no matter how many time you put your trouser in the machine with large quantities of washing powder.
Ok so i am now sitting at my craft desk in my undies(trousers are in the wash for the 2nd time) inking my tag. Surprise it worked! yeah!
I then go to grab my slice machine to make the wreath for the tag. i go to cut the bazzill card
(i learnt from last time slice + grungepaper = disaster) but the blade snapped. i tried again...it snapped again. so my slice machine has decided to die on me. so instead of finishing my card i email slice etc as it is still under warranty.
Meanwhile while this is all happening Poppy(my 1 year old) is running wild in the house her trouser are off too....maybe seeing mummy with no trousers she thought it was some kind of game?? and snot all over her face as she has learn a new trick.....everytime mummy blows her nose she will too! but on her hand or just snot into air! so between chasing poppy around the house trying to get her pants back on,cleaning up trails of snot i finally got the tag finished. Done!
And do you know what happened next........... Poppy fell asleep just as i finished!!! Typical!

Well i hope you like the tag. from now on i am SOOOO doing them of a night!

Tara :)

Day 4 tag done but not without getting the #$*@ with the cuttlebug!

Ok as i have been putting up all of the tags for the 12 tags of xmas from tim holtz I have had most of what he used of if not i have had something similar that i can use in stead of.
My slice machine has been great apart from breaking 3 blades in the machine trying to cut grungeboard and acetate with it! but mostly i have achieved what i wanted to do with the tags.
Today was different.........
Nothing seemed to want to go my way today! the snowman did not have a hat..... i could not find my buttons..... the crackle paint just DID NOT want to dry and my stupid heat gun kept over heating and stopped working.... on top of that i picked up my heat gun the wrong way and burnt my middle finger..ok i hear you say i can give people the bird and say i am showing them my burnt finger but IT HURT!!!! and now i have a circle pattern on the tip of my finger!
on top of all of this...for the life of me my die-namic snowflake die and my memory box snowflake border die WOULD NOT cut through acetate  or even thin plastic! so i had to improvise with a glue pad snowflake stamp and some glitter to try to get the effect i wanted.

so after all of this.....here is my tag.....oh and did i mention i was doing a card the same for zoe to give her tutor... so double trouble!!!

i hope you like them

(a burned and frustrated) Tara :)

and now it is day 3 of the 12 tags saga......

busy,busy,busy i am with keeping up with the 12 tags of christmas and we are only on day 3!
there is my tag to share...

don't forget to check them out on tims blog

tara:)

Tim Holtz Twelve tags of Christmas- day 2

Day 2 is up already and i have given it my best shot. here is the link to the tim holtz blog
and here is my tag for day 2......

looking forward to day 3!
Tara :)

Tim Holtz is Doing the 12 tags of Christmas again! Yeah!!!

Once again Tim Holtz is creating his 12 tags of Christmas. It is a great source of inspiration Check it out here.
This year i am going to make the 12 tags and use them on all my Xmas pressies. You do not need to have all of Tim's tools you can substitute some of his dies for other dies etc.
Here is my tag for day 1.

Tara:)

moxie fab world tuesday trigger - red and rustic

Here is the Tuesday trigger above if you want to play along click here.

Here is my card....

The striped papers reminded me of the cushions on the trigger and who would not want to sit on those cushions and eat choccies!!!
Tara :)

Lily pad cards sketch challenge

Lily pad cards have their sketch challenge here at the moment. i decided to join and create a card for this challenge.
here is the sketch......

and here is my card....

I have used Fiskars cling stamps for the banana and the sentiment, my Fiskars med circle squeeze punch and fiskars border punch called apron lace for the "ribbon" i colored with copics and embossed the sentiment with white. as i did not have yellow embossing powder i used my y08 copic marker to carefully color in the word banana so it was seen better.
Tara :)

paper smooches are having their blog hop....

Paper smooches are having their blog hop today! you can check out the December new releases and get a chance to win the 3 sets that are getting released! YEAH....plus new chubby chums! yeah..again!

Lawnscaping challenge #22 Photo inspiration... Zoe's turn!

zoe has just finished her card for the lawnscaping challenge. just in case you did not see the last post here it is...

and the link is here.
Zoe has gone over and beyond with her card... now you have to remember Zoe is only 10 years old and has irlen syndrome so her colours and art is not always perfect cause she sees double when not wearing her special glasses. but i am SOOOOO proud of her. Not only did she make a card she also make a background for me to photograph it with!!!

zoe has used critters in the forest, fiskars leaf punches and upper crest border punch, My Favorite Things die namics branches  and coloured with pencils and gamsol.

here is a close up of her background

Zoe, you are a clever little girl!
Mum xx

Lawnscaping challenge #22 Photo inspiration

Hello there! Once again it is the lawnscaping challenge. this time it was a photo inspiration challenge.

I can just smell the apple pie and cinnamon!
So with those colours in mind i created this card.

I have used Lawn fawn happy Halloween for the tree and leaves,then to get the sentiment i have used Jessie's abc's for 'falling' then masked off the words 'for' and 'you' on 2 stamps from many thanks set to get my final 2 words. a bit of distress stickles on the leaves and done!
Now while i have been making this card. my daughter Zoe has got a bee in her bonnett that she can win lawnscaping challenge this week! so stay tuned for her card. meanwhile here is the mess she has made on my dining room table!!! I cannot believe she has got the gamsol out and is blending her picture!!! she so takes after her mum!!!!

Mad for markers...anything goes challenge

So i thought i would kill 2 birds with one stone today, make a card for a friend who has just had a baby girl and also make the card for the anything goes challenge on mad for markers challenge blog .

Here is my card. simple but effective i think!
I used the greeting farm onesies clear stamps. it is the boy set but i had a little crown from an old pink cat studio set to make it a little girly. the sentiment is from lawn fawn.
I coloured the onesie with R81,R83,R85,R59,Y15 and Y17. the little buttons on the bottom were highlighted with atyou spica glitter pen gold and a few gems to ad that little bit of bling. a ribbon and there you have it!!!
Tara :)

Paper smooches sparks challenge November 17th-30th

Hello there! Once again it is time for the paper smooches sparks challenge.

If you have not joined in before here is the link for this weeks challenge.

The inspiration for the challenge was this lovely pic from etsy.

don't you love the colors!!!!
so i thought i would use a great Hero arts background stamp with my Chubby chums paper smooches stamps. I was a little limited with options as i only own 2 sets of their stamps so far. it is a long battle to justify buying MORE stamps to rob!!! but i am working on it!!!!
So with my card i stamped the background embossed it with gold embossing and them used several distress inks to blend onto the card. pumice stome,shabby shutters and broken china. a spritz of perfect pearl spray and i was happy....well almost! the gold was a bit too bright so i took my iron and a bit of kitchen paper and took the embossing ink off. i was then just left with the brown ink i used to start with a little fleck of gold. much better!
i colored in my owl with copics and cut him out. then with my Fiskars everywhere punch i punched a hole for my owl. I die cut a vintage scroll flourish from My Favorite Things dies and sat the owl on it with a bit of 3D foam. i cut another flourish and cut out the bit to match the outside of the card. Stamped Woohoo! with ink went over it with quickie glue pen and a bit of glitter.
done!
Here is the finished card.

Tara :)

Jay Gee's Nook challenge #13

Today i finally finished Jay Gee's Nook challenge #13. using holiday stamps in a non holiday card.

I had to have a long hard think about this cause i do not really have many "holiday"stamps. i tend to buy stamps that i can use for most occasions.

So I decided to use Lawn Fawn cozy Xmas stamp set
Here is the card.

I tried to create a party scene rather than a Christmas one. so the milk became beer and the cookies became cakes and the little flame is just a little creatures now. I also used Lawn fawn quinn's abc's.

If you would like to have a go at this challenge you can check it out Here.

Tara :)

Need Icicles????

Hello there everyone!
Today i am here to share with you a neat little trick with the Fiskars grass border punch.
Did you know that if you use it upside down you have your very own icicles to use on your cards!
Neat.Huh!
Here is a card i have made using the Fiskars grass border punch for just that purpose...Icicles.

As you can see i have made some pretty silver icicles on the bottom of my card.
I have also used my Fiskars snow bubbles border and corner punch, and i have also made some glitter ric rak by punching with the fiskars scalloped border punch, trimming my paper close to the scallop and punching again slightly off centre to get the ric rak effect. Then i ran it through my Xyron 150 to get it sticky, glittered it and ran it through again to get sticky glitter ric rak.
The winter wonderland stamp is also a Fiskars simple stick stamp i got from America and the image is from My favorite things.
I hope this little trick helps you our in your christmas card making.

Tara :)