Why is it some days are just so much faster then others?!

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What an amazing it day it’s been today and here it is 11pm and I’m still going… not bad considering I only managed FOUR hours of sleeps last night… and the only thing I probably haven’t achieved was any time down in the Studio but hey, today I can live with that!

I’m still in disbelief as to what I’ve achieved all because of some plants! Yes, you read it correctly… plants! It’s always annoyed me that we inherited a front garden that wasn’t quite planted up correctly. I ask you, who in their right mind plants bromeliads into full sun… WHO? So this week-end, we’re righting a wrong!

Having put out an SOS to a dear friend, I was locked and loaded to collect what I thought was some mere cuttings mid-morning.  Preparations for school, returns made, and  a grocery shop and unpack were all made in record time before heading out for these cuttings.

CUTTINGS! Hello, I returned home with the back of my car looking like a nursery – 2B’s I can’t thank you enough. Of course, the majority of these plants needed to be in the ground TODAY so home I went but before I could get to the garden I needed to sort the cupboards under both vanities, reorganise the walk-in robe, vacuum the entire house, take some of our excess to the basement and get gardening gear sorted… that’s all… oh nearly forgot, we also have two extras for sleep-overs tonight!

After all this I didn’t get into the garden until almost 4pm but what I did in an hour impressed even ME. Although after all one side was dug up and planted up, I will admit I did feel a little bit of the dill standing their watering my new plantings… in the rain (lol). So Phase 1 of the full-sun area is complete, tomorrow we start on the shaded area… bring it on!

After all that I feel bad I haven’t a card now highlighting plants in some way. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll squeeze in a butterfly or two to celebrate our gardening achievement. In the meantime here’s a little deja vu as you’ve seen this card before but in one of the retired colours so I’ve redone it to bring it up to speed, so to speak.

This card uses the wonderful Medallion Background combined with Versamark and Stampin’ Pastels. Whenever I get the pastels out it alwasy leaves me wondering why I’m not using them more as the effects and depth of colour you get from them is just fabulous. And no card would be complete at present without an Antique Brad!


Card Recipe
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Stamp Set/s: Medallion Background, Dreams du Jour
Classic Ink: Old Olive
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels, Antique Brads,
Deminsionals, Sponge Daubers, Versamark

Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x


Another one of those days…

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I sometimes wonder if my expectations of how my week is going to be, or at least begin, are just too high as I seldom seem to begin the way I have planned. I really wanted to get down into the Studio today as, even with Father’s Day celebrations yesterday, I managed to spend a little time down in the Studio which really had my creative juices flowing hence I wanted to do more of the same today. Alas though, it just wasn’t to be.

Not to say it wasn’t a good day, how could it not be with my Darling Husband home, plus BOTH the house, car and ironing pile are all looking fabulous, and the hubster has returned to work with a freshly made fruit cake – so fresh out of the oven it was still warm when packed!

As I wasn’t able to complete what I so dearly wanted to show you tonight… Artistic Etchings is my new favourite… but only until my Elements of Style arrives I’m sure. In the interim I’ll show you an old favourtie, the Medallion background. These are the three cards from last month’s Technique class – two using the Medallion, the third using Baroque Motifs. The first card is using heat embossing (this card was influenced by one of the talented ladies over on NING – Juliette Ann Chapman).

This second card is embossing resist. First a background was chosen and stamped, then the Medallion was heat embossed in clear. Over this then a colour was sponged until the desired depth was acquired, the clear embossed image was given a quick wip over with a baby wipe and voila… this was the end result.

The third card was the Faux Metal Technique. This is where you become a Swedish Chef as the silver embossing powder is heated and melted in three layers, then following the third heating you quickly place your chosen stamp into the not-yet-set melted embossing powder. I did want the centre of the Medallion stamp for this card but it wasn’t working so changed to the Baroque Motifs and a stamp from this set. The flourish and the sentiment were both heat embossed.

Joke of the Day:

What did Mr and Mrs Chicken call their baby?
Egg

Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x


Retiring colours – 30 colours in 30 days…

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Now that it’s five days into August I now get the wonderful idea of highlighting each of the 30 colours that are retiring during the month of August. One colour for each day of August. And YES, I do know there are 31 days in August but I really thought the last day we could simply reminisce about those colours we’d seen and those we’d love. So… let’s bring on the encore” performances.

But before I do, I meant to tell you yesterday that whilst I was having my sneak peek at the new Stampin’ Up! catalogue, I noticed that although most of the prices have stayed the same, there was one exception in particular – CARDSTOCK!

At the moment a packet of 24 sheets of cardstock is $10.50, this will become $13.95 – that’s a price rise of $3.45. Which is still great value given the quality of Stampin’ Up! cardstock and with all the other products in the colour families remaining the same, it’s not so bad. And hey, the stamps sets are the same price – honestly I hadn’t expected that so I’m relieved!

So, if there were any cardstock you were thinking of getting that you can purchase now rather then waiting for the new catalogue it might be worthwhile doing it now. I was having a ponder on my way for school pick-up and realised if you waited until after September 1st to purchase the same colours you can buy now,  you’d could lose by the price of an entire packet.

 How? Well, if you buy four packets of cardstock in September at $13.95 that’s a total of $55.80 whereas today it is $42 – five packets would cost $52.50 – that’s an extra packet of cardstock and if your budget is like mine… EVERY CENT COUNTS! And don’t forget, you can always go halves, thirds or even quarters with friends so ensure you get more for your money… it all helps let me tell you. Hey, I did it just last month with a hostess so it does work!

Now for the encore performance…

 

… from left to right…
Pink Passion / Apricot Appeal / Sage Shadow / Yo Yo Yellow / Almost Amethyst

Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x


Lovin’ the Pastels!

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This weeks Technique classes had me really working outside of my comfort zone by working with pastels. As I’ve mentioned before, if it hadn’t been for my initial starter kit, there would have been no way I would have bought these chalks… but goodness, oh how glad I have them now!

Initially I didn’t know where to start so I did some surfing whereby I came across a tutorial by a very talented lady in San Jose by the name of Elaine Schader. I was wanting to highlight the technique of  making the pastels “pop”. I so like what she did I couldn’t help myself but CASE it. If I do say so myself, I really do like this card, what do you think?

The next technique was to sponge the colours directly onto the card-stock then erase what you want to create your desired effect. In this card I chose to create a lattice effect by putting my work under the arm on my Stampin’ Up cutter, then simply ran the eraser down where the blade would normally go. Made even lines that much easier!  Ithen combined this with the Level 2 Hostess Set from the Autumn-Winter Catty, Asian Artistry, which I think compliments it perfectly!


Which leaves me with the third style within this technique which was to use the blender pens to pick up the pastel then colour the image that I’d stamped in black StazOn. Once again I was able to utilise my current “favourite” stamp set – Dreams du Jour… what can I say, I’m totally besotted with this set just at the moment!

What I did to the background was to stamp in Versamark  a butterfly randamly over the cardstock then daube with same colour as the cardstock. Which I think is Apricot Appeal but when I foolishly take photos of a night it is sometimes difficult to tell!

And  hey, I even had a go at doing a ribbon twist rose but I admit now, one requires more work on that technique!


Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x


What a day!!!

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Today was Under 8’s Day at our school with loads of activities taking place this morning on the oval that parents and carers alike were invited to attend. To cut a long story short, and with Miss Six having won the toss for which child I should be with, we were finally on the oval, amongst all the celebrations.

We headed to the police display as this was were all the noise was coming from. Miss Six was rather chuffed with sitting in the paddy wagon, riding on the BMW, and even singing into the Highway Patrol car’s loudspeaker but mummy, oh mummy was very excited. Why? Because I had the thrill of wearing a flap jacket!

Yes I know, you’re yawning but let me tell you, I was EXCITED – and I still am! For whatever reason I’ve always found the donning of the flap jacket the ultimate. No I couldn’t tell  you why I’ve always secretly harboured this desire but for whatever reason I have and today I fulfilled this little dream. I think it’s time for the dance (and if you’ve never watched Evan Almighty you’ll have absolutely no idea what I’m on about…)!

But as you know, nothing ever goes to plan so all this took much longer then planned hence not much of my “to-do” list was accomplished today which is more then a tad annoying. However, I did get a good head-start on Girl Child’s birthday present. I had briefly thought, as I raced out the door hoping to get to the Post Office before my 4.45pm appointment, that I would have the children in bed early tonight thus I would be able to come down to the studio to complete it tonight. Therefore being on track for tomorrow but that was obviously the two pots of coffee I’d consumed talking as I’m ready for bed NOW yet I hear the children still going strong in their bedrooms ;(

One thing I did achieve was the completion of a card I put together on Monday. It was layout that had caught my eye by the very talented Sharlene Meyer of Magpie Creates. Sharlene had found it in our Autumn-Winter Mini Catty and tweaked it to her liking so I thought, why not, I have the Medallion background on order so I may just have a “tweak” myself… and I did!

This is the end result in one of my favourite colours that sadly is retiring in just a few short months, the Pumpkin. Not my usual style but I’m impressed with the end result, very crisp and clean!


Oh, and have yourself an... Inkee Fiddling Day!

Joanne x

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