Cute bear

So cute.

As soon as I saw Angie make this bear, I knew I wanted to make one. I didn't stop there though, and ended up making four. And then I had to use them on something of course.

The other three frames from Lily Bee worked out perfectly. Or maybe I made these bears first and the pink one (from yesterday) was left over and I used that last. Not sure. Again I made flaps for the back for the cards themselves. Or another way to say that - I cut and folded a cream card base smaller than the frame and then adhered the frame on the top. Make sense? So fun, and so easy.

On that note, I apologise for saying fun, cute and easy a lot, but that's because all these things are so fun to me. It's just so cool to do this kind of stuff and it makes me happy.

Sorry again, there's another word I use a lot - cool.

Here, let me get them out of my system...

Fun, fun, fun!

Easy, easy, easy!

Cool, cool, cool!

Okay, out of my system.

Not.

Make a bear.

He's fun, easy and cool.

And lastly, thanks, Angie. Great ideas that lady.

PS. The other bits and pieces of paper I used are from October Afternoon Weathervane (cloud and woodgrain), Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday (pink ledger, grid ledger, Hi letters and speech bubble, pink dot, giggle rectangle) and those buttons are ones I've had for a while from Making Memories.

PPS. Maybe I should get a dictionary or thesaurus out to find some new, fabbo descriptive words. Well, there's one...fabbo. Good word, but I'm not sure I'll use it on here because I could accidently type "flabbo" and then we'd be in all sorts of trouble... :o)

PPPS. Maybe I should get out a dictionary and punch out of it. Have you ever done that? Can you imagine your husband going to look up a word and saying, "Honey, why is there a big scallop shape cut out of the C, D and E sections in this dictionary!?"

That aforementioned husband wouldn't be my husband for a few reasons:

1. He doesn't call me Honey.

2. He wouldn't look up a word. He's just not like that. He'd ask me to, or he'd just forget about it. Not knowing the meaning of a word isn't something he's all that worried about frankly.

3. He wouldn't say "scallop shape". He'd say "hole". "Why is there a big, gaping hole in this book?" Well, actually, he wouldn't say that either because he wouldn't be looking at the book in the first place, remember? :o)

PPPPS. I love my husband, he's gorgeous.

PPPPPS. And just a final note about dictionaries....if you ever did decide you wanted to punch out of yours, just proof read the pages before you start punching. Okay? Just a tip for ya.

PPPPS. Oh yes, and make a bear, he's flabbo. See? Trouble.

Spot the difference...

Yes, spot the difference in the first two photos below. Andrew's steering in one, and not in the other. That's because we broke down and had to be towed. Rats. Some nice people came along and gave us a lift.

Recently we decided to go boating and see the Brisbane River from a different perspective. Have always wanted to do that.

Some people aren't impressed with the new walking bridge. What's with all those wires everywhere? I don't mind it because it's different from the others.

And after going over the Captain Cook Bridge a million times, it was nice to see it from a different angle. It was nice to see everything from a different angle.

That was our day. Good, then not so good. But mostly good.

Better when Andrew got the motor started a few days later. Our joint hip pocket is rejoicing!

Rustee

Look who's visiting me. Aren't I a lucky girl? I love this dog a lot. Gad, people, gad.

I love the way she hangs out with me all day. We get the mail, hang up washing and go for little walks. It's nice to have the company.

And the bit I love about having her the most? (besides her greeting me at the door in the morning)

I love how she follows me around the house. If I'm in the living room, she'll sit outside the door there. If I'm in the office (like now), she'll come and sit outside the door here (like she did 5 mins ago).

So gorgeous.

She's supposed to go home on Weds. Maybe we should just skip Weds, and then she'll have to stay with me until next Weds. That's a good idea. Or, maybe I could kidnap her for the day, so when my father-in-law comes to pick her up, she'll be no where to be found. That's a good idea too.

Big sigh...it's hard to see her leave.

Love you, doggie.

The tree

Here's the whole tree. Look at the mist in the background....brrr! :o)

Just because they're pretty...

...that's all. And they're pink.

The frame on the card is from Lily Bee. It came on a 12 x 12 sheet with three other frames. I originally bought the sheet for journalling blocks, but ended up using them for cards. I put a flap at the back to make the card itself. It was just one of those things that worked out well without any pre-planning. Love those types of cards.

I don't even know what type of tree that is. Took the photo on our USA/Canada trip just before we started off one freezing morning. Japanese something? Really not sure, but it sure is beautiful. Gorgeous actually.

And pretty.

And pink.

What's not to love?

PS. The flower is easy to make. Just punch and then pinch the petals to give them a more 3D look.

Cupcake prettiness

So if you'd like to make some cupcakes, here's some colour combinations to get you started. Sometimes it just helps to have a starting point, hey?

You'll recognise some of the combinations from previous blog entries, but having them in one place is good for future reference.

Don't forget to pull out your Cuttlebug! Fun stuff.

PS. Not all cupcakes have a cherry on top, but those ones I made purposely without anything look like they're missing a topper.

What do you reckon?

Chocolate cupcake

A quick idea.

Embossing is good, but remember you can sand it when you use Co-ordinations cardstock so the pattern comes to life. See bottom photo. The Co-ordinations colour is slightly different to the Bazzill brown I used, but you get the idea.

Will post some colour combinations a bit later to finish off the day, and the week!

More cupcakes...why not?

Wanted to share more cupcake cards today. They're just so fun to make and easy too.

The good thing is that there are lots of variations so you can use what you have on hand. I've already showed you the Nestabilities ovals and scallops, but you can also use punches (of course! The cloud is used below) or just draw a pattern and cut it out.

Either, or preferably all, is good!

Hope you enjoy and that the pics are enticing you to make one too.

More tomorrow.

:o)

They just keep coming...

Hello again, more cupcakes for you today!

This one below is an actual cupcake card. It's huge too. About 6 inches tall at least. I just traced around the shape to make the piece to put at the back to make the card open.

And here's some tiny ones. I realise you can't tell the difference in size as easily because of the photos, but these ones are about 2 inches tall (including the button). They're not cards either, they're magnets. So cute.

The one in the back is stuck to the top of a gift box. Remember the link to the gift boxes that Erin showed me how to make? It's one of those.

Don't you think this would make a cute gift? A little box of cupcake magnets.

At the moment they're sitting on my shelf in my room so I can look at them and enjoy them. After a while they'll go on the fridge and I'll look at them there. I like making pretty things to look at, do you?

Ekka holiday

Today is the Ekka holiday, but we're not going because we went last Friday. Andrew did a bit of volunteer work there, so we spent the day there together. Or I spent most of the day walking around by myself until he finished. I missed him, but I had fun looking around at everything. Haven't been for few years and really enjoyed it actually.

Ah, more wood chop. Can't go wrong there. Was there for the last half hour of the day and saw the last heats of all three events. This time in the tree climb the back marker started on about 105 secs and came second. Amazing.

And the ring events. Ah, the ring events. Who can go past sitting in the grandstand watching the precision drivers and a jet truck of all things? Yes, a jet truck. It was a jalopy with a jet engine on the back - so cool! I was too busy watching the thing to take a photo, and only realised after, so I took the one of Andrew and I with our thumbs up. Pretty fun.

And a tip for taking photos of fireworks. Put your camera on your fireworks setting if you have one (most cameras have heaps of specific settings nowadays) and use your husband's head as a tripod!

Have a great holiday day today!

More cupcakes

Since we were talking about cupcakes yesterday, I thought I'd show you these today. They're the ones I did for my mum for Mother's Day this year. You'll recognise the Divine Swirl Cuttlebug folder on both. The card bases are String of Pearls Bazzill Bling - a nice background colour with a bit of shine of course. I put the glitter on the buttons. That's fun, you've gotta try it.

The card base is big - 6x6 square. Really into the big cards.

I always make my mum a tag for gift-giving occasions. That is, Mother's Day, her birthday and Christmas. She is collecting them on a ring and they're becoming a keepsake of bits and pieces I've given her over the years. It's just something special between her and I.

Love you, Mum.

And to finish...

And lastly for today.

Remember how I said that this texture plate (top row, second from left) would be good for the cupcake card too? Well, I quickly made it this afternoon to see what it looked like.

Swirly!



Now there's three options.

Embossed cardstock from Bazzill, Divine Swirl embossing folder from Provo or the swirly texture plate from Fiskars.

Which is your favourite?

Just a little info...

Hi there again,

Just wanted to add a little more info about the Piercerabilities and how to use them. Mine is called Ric Rac Scalloped Border. They can be used in three ways - cut, emboss and pierce. Do just one, or all three, it's up to you.

Here's what the template looks like. It's just sitting on top of a piece of card here ready to be used. The little ridge along the scallop at the bottom is the cutting line.

Here's what the cut looks like. Photo is a little blurry, sorry about that.

And here's what it looks like when you emboss after that. Remember you can skip the cutting part and just do this embossing bit if you like.

And here's what it looks like when you start piercing the holes. Because the sample is embossed at this point, the template sits nicely on the embossing so the holes can be pierced without the template moving. On the other cupcake cards I showed today I just used the piercing part and it was a little trickier to hold the template still while pricking. Worked okay though, just had to hold it down on the slippery bling card.

I like the pattern of the swirly bits when they're pierced - that's my favourite thing to do out of the three options. I find the template a bit tricky to use - I think it's because I use a Cuttlebug machine. There's instructions inside the Piercerabilities packet when you purchase it, which is really helpful. It gives you the sandwich for their own machine, as well as the Cuttlebug, Sizzix Big Shot (and other Sizzix versions) and Quickutz Revolution machines. I used their instructions, but had to change the sandwich to fit my own Cuttlebug. It took a little playing around, but I got it sorted.

Basically whenever I cut any of the Nestabilities on my machine I have to use the A plate, two B plates and 7 pieces of cardstock shim (not necessarily in that order of course). If I use the A plate and C plate to cut - it cuts, but it embosses it as well, and I don't want that a lot of the time.

Just have a little play around with your machine to see what works for you. And write your sandwich down otherwise you will get frust-er-rated! Not that I have any experience with that...
Hope all that info helps you!