Clean and Simple Cards

I'm a member of a Stamping group here in Oz and this months online challenge is Clean and Simple cards.
And that's when my mojo hit me about the head and off I went.

Again long time no see

At Andrew's funeral they had a photo montage and it was there I realised that they didn't show a photo of Andrew and my oldest together. The reason is that he is his Godfather and I came to the conclusion that they probably didn't have any. So that realisation made me think of the 300+ negatives I have that needed to be scanned and saved. So for the last few months Ive been scanning my heart away.
Though that did nothing to appease the card maker in me. Also at this time I lost all my mojo and just couldn't be bothered.
Lately though Ive been on a card making bender and I'm feeling the love for crafting again.

Birthday card

I made this card for my brother in law John for his 40th. I loved this image from bugaboo and I love to tease him as I'm actually 2 days older than him.

I struggle with patterned paper and like to keep my cards simple and clean. At the moment I am loving this cardstock colour from Stampin Up called Cherry Cobbler

I added several layers of dimensional glaze to his glasses to try and give that bottle glass thickness look, similar to Mr Magoo's glasses. After I took the shot it lookes a little like breasts on his face they were that high. Not sure the camera caught exactly how high it was.

 

I noticed at the Forever Friend site that this month's theme was "anything goes" and in part sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps so I thought I would enter this card.





RIP Andrew Wilks

Today the 13th of May my brother in law Andrew was pronounced dead. On Mother's Day while home alone Andrew got on the roof of his house to trim down tree branches and fell off, causing massive head injuries along with collasped lungs. The only reason we know he was cutting down branches as they lay next to his body.
Unfortunately his 12 yr old son found him. An ambulance and police were called with the home been corordoned off as a crime scene.
Andrew was placed on life support until his mother and brother could get here to pay their respects. Andrew was an organ donor and in his passing he saved many lives, not sure how many in total but even one was enough.
To my sister Tanya and my nephews Connor and Rueben my deepest sympathies to you and know I love you all and I'm only a call away.
Andrew's death brought home how we just never know when our time is up. He didn't leave behind a will or life insurance so my sister has a long road ahead.
When I became a single parent not only did I have my will made up but I also had a living will drawn and made sure that my wishes were known to the young lady I nominated. I choose a good friend's daughter who my children are comfortable with and also she has nursing experience so can get the facts and deal with them.
I'm sorry for the dark feel of this post but if one person was to read this and think bugger I dont have a will and goes and does something or even talks about organ donation to their loved ones then the message got through.
To anyone out there dealing with loss or sadness or depression a big virtual hug from me and I hope at the end of the day you can see a little ray of sunshine.

A card for Girlie

My daughter loves whales and asked me to do her a card. This Kaisercraft stamp is the only image I had. At first it looked like this, But it really needed some WOW so a few more little touches and this is the end result

Anniversary Card

Recently I celebrated a 5yr anniversary so I made this anniversary card. Using Digi Stamp Boutique Louie with Little Hearts

The hearts I applied spica clear pen and added Dimensional Magic, which I also applied to his nose.

working on my shed

This is standing at one end looking down. On the left of the photo are two small windows.

This is at the other end looking back. You can see the windows in this picture.

 

 

My shed is 10m by 3m and as you can see it is insulated and will be plastered, painted and decorated.



Its been ages

Sorry for the MIA. Life is more busier now than ever. On top of that I've had computer problems again and again. It seems my mother's computer got hacked and it went through her contact list and hit me not once but twice. Then there was a Federal Police scam that got around and when I put the computer into be fixed they had such a back log of computers hit with the same scam. So I'm back hopefully this time for a more regular appearance.
I'm in my shed and besides a few more funiture addtions it is complete. Ive made several cards which I will post over the next few posts.

The new baby

This is one of the extra lenses that came with my camera. Each lens has it's own sun hood lens cap and lens cover for the back. They also each come with a bag to keep it in. The bottom of the bag is reinforced to help absorb a knock if it gets one. The other camera I looked at had all these covers and such as extra charges.

 My camera is a Nikon D5100 and I love it. At the moment with everything happening it is staying in auto mode until I can go and explore and play.

Long time no see

It's been awhile since I last posted. Unfortunately I recieved an email from my mother and even though I didn't open it ( it looked suss) my computer still got hacked and my email sent lots of funny messages to lots of people, so I had my computer in to be fixed.
As my craft stuff is packed up, today I am scanning my negatives onto a hard drive so I'll have a copy just in case, of all my photos. Needless to say its a boring job, each neg roll takes a min of 25 mins to scan. Then its given a neg number and name. For example neg 1 is Bailey w' chicken pox June/July 2004. Neg 7 is CWCC Christmas party Dec 2004. Then its all put into a excel program. I'm nothing if not an organiser.
Good news is I found my external hard drive with some photos of my old shed and new one in the process of been finalised so later tonight I will publish some photos.
My next great news is that I brought myself a new SLR Digital Camera. Got a great deal on one that came with three lenses so I'll post some of that too.
That leads me to the news that soon there will be no more ever scanning of negs, my butt will be thankful.
Will be back to post photos later
Linda

Its all happening again (long post)

Over here in Oz we have a reno show on TV at the moment and ads for it have the the contestants catch phrases made into a little jingle. The opening line is "It's all happening again". That's what is going on in my place at the moment.
I'm having my workspace plastered and the electricity connected and a split system installed so all my gear needs to be packed up for the next month or so.
Because I can see the end of the tunnel this pack up isn't troubling me as much but it does bring back mixed emotions.
Jan 3rd 2008 I came home my ex started to threaten me with death and the two youngest children. I stood there taking it when I had that lightbulb moment. I'm out of here. Unfortunately I couldn't safely get the kids out but I promised to bring the police back with me. That went badly because they weren't in immediate physical danger they couldn't do anything.
So there I was homeless childless with only the clothes on my back. Go foward 16 months to Mother's Day 2009 and I'm allowed 4 hrs to get my belongings out of the house. 34 years and 3 kids and I get 4 hrs to remove all my stuff. Well it didn't happen and what was left he threw into the skip.
So all my craft stuff got packed up.
March 2010 we move into a rental and was assured we had at least a 5 year lease so we make it home I slowly start to bring some craft stuff out of storage when in Nov 2010 we get told we need to move out.
Karma has really been good to me as we are trying to find somewhere to rent the sale of my former home goes through and enables us to purchase a home. Dec 23rd 2010 we move into our home.
Over the next year we build a big barn type shed which is divided into 3rds and I have my own space noone can take away from me, but with money tight electricity wasn't affordable now again karma comes into play and the business sells allowing my space to be finished at last.
So I've packed it all up again. The lounge is full of gear the play room is full of gear the bedrooms are full of gear. My house is so untidy looking and will be for awhile but I'm not worried I'm almost at the end and LIFE IS GOOD.
So later I will post pics of my empty shed but none of the mess around my house.
Thanks for reading till the end.
Linda

Forever Friend Bear - Baby Card

I'm entering this into the Forever Friends fortnightly challenge. The theme is "Ribbon or Lace"

 

 

This stamp set was brought back in Nov and ever since I got it the baby cards have been churning out. Two little girl cousins were the recievers. The little angels were born within days of each other. The photos of those are still on my phone I'll have to see about transferring them to my computer

Another boy pocket card

Another pocket card with the die and stamps and the denim background. This is for my nephew and the brother of the previous pocket card.

A close up of the image on the pocket

The inside. Again stamped off once before stamping on the card, then the b'day stamped straight on top.

Pocket Card for Boys

Using the same pocket and stamp die with a denim background stamp from Stampin Up, this was made for my nephew

Yep had to photograph it with another prop.

The inside of the card.

Pocket Cards for Girls

Using a pocket stamp and matching die, I made this pocket card for my niece.

This is the inside, what I did was stamp the flower image as above once off onto a piece of scrap paper then stamped onto the inside card, this gives the flower image a paler look. I then stamped Happy Birthday straight over the top of the flower image.

This is the card she recieved with the money sitting in the pocket.

The same card but photographed with a wand in the pocket. This could've been the gift as well instead of money.

Copic Colouring

This is the 2nd class offered by Mandi Klinger from Copic Me. The classes are well thought out and well executed. I have enjoyed them throughly and am looking foward to the 3rd class. This photo shows feathering blending on the wings and tip to tip blending on the flowers

This shows monochrome colouring on her tights

Giving the sleeve a see through look

the finished picture. I havent decided how to finish this card yet.

The dress was done using V12, V15, V17 and V09

Thank You card

This card was done to thank a nice elderly gentleman for allowing my DP to park his 5th Wheeler on his property,while DP was working in QLD

This is the inside of the card

The envelope.  I likThe envelope. I like to stamp the front of the envelope in the same style as the card

I like to ink the edges of my cards to give it that finished look. My friends are all starting to recognise my "style".

Is that the date already

Life is so hectic with preparations for the close of business. I had hoped to be on more but its been hard. My area of Oz is currently having bushfires evacuations and warnings. Several fires have been out of control within 30 kms of our home. Tuesday the 8th Jan saw my bags packed at the back door ready to go. Luckily there was no need to leave. Tuesday was also my eldest's sons' 21st birthday. That is just hard to imagine. I also got rid of my other two to Taree where they are staying with my BF for two weeks on her farm and boy will they find life much more full on than here.
I have put lots of photos on my computer ready to post so over the next few days I'll post quite regularly

Business sold

Well our business was sold prior to auction so now its time to prepare to close on the 27th Jan. We opened our store on Boxing Day 2004 and after 9 long years we get to say goodbye. Its been on and off the market for a long time but my parents are not getting any younger so this time around a sale was really needed. We operated 7 days a week even opening on Christmas day. I must add ours is a food takeaway business so we cooked pre ordered BBQ chickens so people could have hot chickens for their christmas lunch. In the beginning we opened at 8am and closed 11pm, so after the close and cleaning we weren't getting home until around midnight. We did this for 3 years before we started to put our needs first.
During the 9 years my marriage broke down due to domestic violence and I had to buy my ex out of the business which added more strain to getting the place sold, even though he never played an active role.
So the end of an era is near and I'll admit to going to be a little lonely without the daily customers who are friends, that because of life we never see each other, until we see each other at the shop.