Freshly Made Sketch #59 and Grace's First Halloween

I have had a very productive week, another card, 1 single page layout for Grace's Album from scratch. I also finished a double page layout for her album that I have had on my desk for a loooong time. Long may it continue I would love to have a few more layouts done before her birthday, which gives me just over 1 month.

 

Anyway on with the card, I used the Freshly Made Sketch #59 as my starting point. I wanted a clean and simple card that could be a masculine birthday card. It got hubby's tick of approval, even if buttons are in his words 'girly'. I used Pocket Silhouettes, some actual stamping!! I found some scraps of Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Old Olive, Soft Suede and Crumb Cake and put them to work.

 

 

 

We had a Halloween Party for our Babies, they all looked so cute. We had Pirates, Puppies, Sheep, Fairies, Christmas Elves and my little Black Swan. I dyed one of her onsies black and sewed her Tutu and I stitched a little bit of tulle and a few feathers onto some elastic lace for a head band. Grace wasn't that co-operative for photos so I will try again.

 

Long Time Gone & Retro Sketch #34

Wow so May was my last post!!! Life has ticked along beautifully since then, 5 months ago. Grace is growing up very quickly, she is such a cheeky wee girl at 10 months.

 

I have done some crafting in the last 5 months, a few pages for Grace's album and the odd cards which I will share in a couple of day. But for now I am sharing a card using Retro Sketch #34. The sketch was so versatile I struggled to narrow down what I actually wanted to do, until I found the wood Hydrangea flourish. After that the card came together fairly quickly and I am quite happy with the end result. Clean, graphic and the colour combo is one I love using.

Grace, just this morning in her new overalls from her lovely Grandparents. I am sure she will test the durability now that she is on the move.

   

Happy Mother's Day & Colour Throwdown 191

Sooo, contrary to all evidence I have been crafting, just not very successfully. I have either forgotten to take photos before I have given the cards or they were just not very good. We have had a pretty busy couple of weeks with Ron's 30th birthday. Lot's of family and friends to catch up and celebrate with. It was also the opening weekend for Duckshooting season. Ron and Dad both headed away to the traditional haunt for the weekend leaving Mum and I among the duckshooting widows. We continued our tradition of a good meal out in town. Delish!!

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in NZ, my first as a Mum!! We had a nice quiet day at home with Grace, before hubby cooked dinner for us. A great evening catching up with my parents. During the day I took advantage of Grace's naptime and got some crafting done!!!

I used the Colour Throwdown 191 as my base for my first card. I loved the fresh colours and knew what I wanted to do. When it came to actually putting it together I struggled to put the colours together as I had envisaged. Overall I am happy with the result.

I loved the colours together so much I whipped up a quick card. To simplify the card I only used the Certainly Celery, Pool Party and Elegant Eggplant. I love the CAS elegance of the card.

In fact I loved the sketch so much I made this card for Mum. The colours are a close match to the wrapping paper on her gift. Just perfect, normally I can't use Coral but in this context I actually like it.

Finally a quick photo of Grace in her Jolly Jumper, now her favourite thing to do, all day everyday if we would let her.

Happy Easter

I hope that everyone is having a Happy Easter. I am loving spending time relaxing with family. My sister and her partner have come home for the weekend. We haven't seen them for a couple of months so of course Grace has changed a lot since then! 

I have had a chance to try a new technique this weekend and I love it. I used the Freshly Made Sketch 29 as my base for a card using a new technique. I saw a card using Velveteen Stamping, you stamp on the background in white pigment ink and then stamp over with your main image. The background shows through a faintly. I needed to use a stamp that is 'filled in' rather than an outline so I used Nursery Necessities and rolled the Nursery Letters wheel as my background.

 A close up so you can see the velveteen effect it gives a really lovely depth and texture to the stamping.

I realised I haven't had my camera out at all this week!!! So no new photos of Grace, this is a photo of her first sleep in her cot at 7 weeks old. The same age that my sister last saw Grace, it feels like a lifetime ago.

Happy Easter, Cavina.

Freshly Made Sketch 28

I struggled to find my Mojo this week, I had been trying to do something with an Easter Theme but I just couldn't get anything that I was happy with. Instead I used the Freshly Made Sketch from this week as a base for a Birthday Card.

I love the Graphic Botanical DSP and matching stamp set. I felt that with such bright colours and strong images that a CAS base was the way to go. A card that will hopefully be suitable for some birthdays coming up.



We tried to go to the Ohakea 75th Anniversary Airshow yesterday but got caught in a traffic jam for 2 hours instead!! We decided to turn around and ended up having a lovely lunch with my parents by the Wanganui River.

Grace with my Mum going for a walk along the river bank.

Cavina

Autumn Retro Sketch #3

I am loving this weeks Retro Sketch, it is so versatile. I decided to go Clean and Simple for a masculine card.

I wanted to celebrate the changing of the season. As much as I love the long hot (wishful thinking really) days of Summer. I really enjoy Autumn, the warm days, cool nights and leaves changing colour.

I need more masculine cards in my stash, especially Birthday Cards. I checked with Ron and this passes muster, just apparently even buttons are a bit girly!! The leaves are punched using the bird punch. I used Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Really Rust and Crumb Cake for my autumn colours.

Such a cheeky monkey, playing with Daddy.

Cavina

Happy St Patrick's Day!!!

Hope everyone has a great St Patricks day. We are having some friends for an Irish dinner tonight. We have adapted a Beef, Guinness and Oyster Pie recipe to use Venison instead, it smells delicious bubbling away on the stove. Of course it will have to be served with potatoes in some form and some green vege.

No crafting today, Grace is very unsettled, it has taken all day to get her down for a nap. We think a couple of teeth are descending, fingers crossed they go back up. Could be something else entirely though, any alternatives??

In any case here is a scrapbook page I finished a few days ago.

I used Beau Chateau DSP, Soft Suede and Crumb Cake CS for my base. Some pink (I'm not sure which) and Marina Mist CS with Vellum for the squares. The buttons are from my local sewing store and the pink ribbon and 'adore' rubon are from my stash. Photos are from about 8 weeks old.

A lovely photo of Grace, Ron took it this morning before the day fell apart. :)

Cavina

ColourQ 128

 I joined the girls at ColourQ this week with this lovely cushion. Ron would love this, all his fav colours:

Here is my card not exactly a St Paddy's card but close enough for me. My card is fairly CAS just a little stamping using Growing Green, some Gray CS and courdory brads.

 

I didn't have any Going Gray so I used Basic Gray instead. I would have preferred to stamp the sentiment in gray but don't have any gray ink. In this case close enough is good enough for me. The top portion is Certainly Celery, then Garden Green with Wild Wasabi on the bottom.

A quick photo of Grace to finish up.

Cavina

Switching Sides

Finally I am switching sides from the reader/follower to blogger. I love reading all the different blogs out there but mainly the crafting/card making/scrapbooking/sewing and home making blogs. There are so many talented, interesting and witty women out there in the blogosphere and I have decided to throw my 2 cents into the mix.

I am a 25 year old new Mum to a darling wee daughter, Grace. Born 11th December, she has changed my life irrevocably and I love it. Everyday is fun, exciting and different as we both learn together. My husband Ron and I live and work on the family farm here in Wanganui, New Zealand. We moved back to my hometown 18 months ago after several years moving around the country working. We have lived in some beautiful parts of the country but are loving the chance to set some roots for our little family. We love cooking great food, really we love sharing the food with good friends and family and the odd bottle of wine. I love reading a good absorbing book and listening to music when I get the chance.

I have loved getting my craft on since I was a young girl, Mum was great at crafting with us, her annual Christmas cards and newsletter are a family tradition. My Mother In-Law reintroduced me to crafting when I first met Ron she showed me the family scrapbooks and something just clicked. I loved flicking through the albums, an excellent way to get to know their huge family. I have been slowly crafting more and more regularly. I am now enjoying recording our lives, especially for Grace. Recently I have tried my hand at other papercrafts and even started to teach myself Quilting. Although that is a work in progress.

Hopefully this will be a place for me to show my crafting endevours, better to have them out in the world rather than just in my craft room (aka the Dining Room). Plus somewhere to show off photos of the lovely Grace, she is growing like a weed as Ron says.

My next post will be a 'proper' crafting post complete with photos and everything!!

Cavina