Typewriter - Darkroom Door

Having a secretarial background in my distant working life, I was extra thrilled to received the newly released Darkroom Door Collage Stamp, 'Typewriter' to play with.  In the foreground of this photo is a vintage paper punch that belonged to my Poppa.  I keep it in my studio because I love how it looks, however, it came in quite handy for this project.

 

To begin with I worked on a piece of watercolour paper (the smooth side) and stamped the collage stamp, 'Typewriter' and then added scripted text from the stamp sets, 'Correspondence' and 'Vintage Office,' which both work beautifully with the Typewriter collage stamp.  I also used the postmark stamp in red twice on the background.  I decided to keep the colour palette very simple using only black, grey and red inks, along with shades of white and taupe papers.

Then it was a simple matter of embellishing with other images from the stamp sets, a Tim Holtz pen nib and mini paperclips, staples, vintage postage stamp and text, and finally punched circles with Poppa's paper punch.

Now it might be time to search for my Poppa's old typewriter and put it to use once more!

Supplies Used:

Darkroom Door Collage Stamp Typewriter

Darkroom Door Stamp Sets - Correspondence and Vintage Office

Ink - Onyx Black and Smokey Gray (VersaFine), Red Brick (VersaMagic)

Tim Holtz mini paper clips and pen nibs

White card, vintage novel and old postage stamp

Sew In Love

See... brown paper bags... my new addiction!!!!  

I was having a play with some of my Spellbinder's dies and put this love banner together recently.  I really enjoyed hand-making the flowers, doing some beading and hand/machine stitching!  Happy hours were spent putting this together, reflecting upon our 'big day' and how wonderful the gift of marriage is!

There's even some scraps from my wedding gown in there!

It's so good to be back home with my Mr!

And it's wonderful to love and be loved!

In sickness and in health...

Unfortunately, I've been putting some of our very new marriage vows to the test. Well one of them mainly! I've been unwell for the last two months, this latest illness landing me in hospital on Thursday night! Joel has been an amazing and supportive husband through it all. I'm so thankful for all he's done for me! Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm on the mend this time and God willing, I'll be able to come home to my sweetheart tonight.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

SDC80: Out With The Old, In With The New

'Brave Girl'

Stampotique Designers current Challenge (#80) is Out With The Old, In With The New.  It's the last day of 2012 and I've been reflecting on this past year, so full of blessings and so full of struggles.  'Brave Girl' has been my catch-phrase for the year (yes, I most likely caught the phrase from Kelly Rae Roberts) and so I wanted to create a keepsake in celebration of doing just that, being brave and overcoming many of my fears.  This piece has been pretty much created from my collection of scraps.  The only things that are new are the white flowers in the bride's bouquet and the one in her hair.  I got a little 'brave' today and had a go at creating the two characters in this piece, the girl and the owl... drawing is a little out of my comfort zone, which is why I love stamps so much - especially this Stampotique tree!

Right at the start of this year I was in the midst of making one of the biggest decisions of my life, Joel had unexpectedly proposed in early December and I had yet to give him an answer (I made him wait about 5 weeks in the end)!  Yes, he can be quite a patient man!

I knew for me to say yes, I would need to be 'brave'... maybe it sounds funny to you, but being the age I was, having never married before, knowing that my life would never quite be the same, and not really having expected this possible change of marital status (I had pretty much resolved myself to the fact that I was going to remain single for the rest of my life) I was going to need to be 'brave' in trusting Joel and to be 'brave' enough to give myself to someone in a way I had never done before.  

Being a 'Brave Girl' kept ringing in my heart right the year through... I've had to face and deal with a number of huge fears this year... which to many would seem totally insignificant, but to me, they have been momentous.  I know that my faith in God, the encouragement of Joel and other close family/friends has enabled me to be brave and conquer fear, and for this I am very thankful!  What a blessing!

We're Getting Married!

Yes, it's true!  Joel proposed in December, I said 'yes' in January and we're getting married 4th August (eight days away)!  Life has been a wonderful whirlwind this year, with many more amazing things to look forward to for the remainder of the year and the rest of our lives!

Photography by David Sobik

With eight days to go, you can imagine we're right in the thick of final preparations and I'm determined to remain calm and enjoy this special time of anticipation and excitement.  There will be lots of handmade goodness to share with you once the big day is over.  I've been incredibly blessed with many of my friends making beautiful contributions to our wedding decorating - I can't wait to see all the handmade goodness all set up and ready for our special day!

Photography by David Sobik

This is my beloved and this is my friend.

On Turning Four...

Last month, my nephew Sean, celebrated his fourth birthday!  When asked what kind of cake he would like for his birthday, his simple request was that it would be green!  He had green cupcakes to share with his friend at the first party, but it was green and a few other colours for the family one.  A scrumptious, colourful Fredo Frog icecream cake.

The only problem to overcome with an icecream cake is in fact, 'brain freeze'!

I had a fun time shopping for the birthday boy and it was all things'Toy Story' from me.

Right down to the costuming...

and rocket... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0....... Blast Off!!!!

Sean (or should I say 'Woody') took Buzz on all kinds of adventures that day!

Dear Santa - Oxford Impressions

'Dear Santa'  All images from 'Sleigh Bells' rubber plate by Oxford Impressions.

Oh the excitement and anticipation, waiting for Santa to deliver his gift.

I don't think I ever wrote a letter to Santa when I was a child, but I can't help wondering what I might have hoped for?

This year Sean Alexander became one of Santa's little helpers.

 

It was amazing to watch him help Santa deliver gifts... he even put his own gift aside to continue handing out gifts 'til the job was done!

A gift for Grandpa!

Ho Ho Ho - Happy Christmas!!!



Whale of a Time

Mummy and Sean

Ready for a great adventure! 

Trevlyn and I were going whale watching, but Sean was all set to go fishing!

Apparently he was going to catch a Pink Snapper.

We were thrilled to see whales leaping about and frolicking in the sea.

Aunty Susie and Sean

I got completely drenched, tried to protect my camera from the spray, but didn't want to miss the action!

Feel Like A Cuppa?



HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY

Sean Alexander!

I'm looking forward to having a 'cuppa' with you very soon :)

XOXOX

Guess Who's Turning 3 Tomorrow!

Sean Alexander

I scarce can believe it! 

These pieces were published in Cardmaking, Stamping & Papercraft Vol 15, No 4 a while back.  I used some gorgeous October Afternoon papers and stamps to make these.  I love the way CS&P stylised the photo!

Sean has two pet rabbits - Peter and Flopsy.  I think this is a pic of Peter?

More pics of the birthday boy tomorrow - I'm far away from the birthday boy this weekend, but am looking forward to seeing him again soon.

Oxford Impression's 'FARM BOY'

I'm most excited to announce that I have been invited to join the Oxford Impessions Design Team. OI has just released a new stamp plate called 'Farm Boy'. As I know one of the cutest little farm boys ever, it has been a pure delight to work with such a great set of stamps. This set also works beautifully with OI's 'Country Girl' plate and I have included a couple of these images in the work that follows.

'Baby Chicks' Postcard

'Organic Eggs' ATC

'Seed Company' Postcard

Speaking of cute my cute little farm boy, here's come photo's of Sean, taken on Easter Sunday.

Sean, Lambo and Freddo

Time for a walk!

Leaning Post

Look!!!

'Farm Boy'

Meet Molly

Molly is the latest addition to the Smith family... she lives with my brother and his family. And yes, she has one blue eye and one brown eye!


Sean and Molly are quickly becoming constant companions, especially in the sandbox!

Smoochy time!

Being introduced to Peter and Flopsy - the bunnies.

There, there, there!!!! Sean is pointing to where the train is... out of sight, but in hearing distance.

Isn't it great to see a little fella having so much fun with his pet animals! What a delightful way to grow-up!

Look who's ONE!

Sean greeted Grandpa and I on his brand new tricycle! He had the biggest grin on his face and a cute little giggle!


He was so tempted to touch the flame! And he loved all of us singing, 'Happy Birthday' to him.

Heading north again...

I'm not sure where the last week or so has gone...??? I haven't managed to get any creative time :( Anyway, I'm heading up to Perth this afternoon for a conference - get to stay at the Sheraton, bit flash, eh! But the best bit will be catching up with Karli & Co. It sounds like Olly has been coping better with his latest cycle of chemo, which is good news... hopefully it will continue like that for the next 10 -11 months!




Here's a recent pic of Sean Alexander from Fathers Day... Smooches from Aunty Susie.

This little fella's turning ONE next Thursday!!! And is walking around like he's been doing it for months!!!!

Anyway, I hope you all have lovely weekends and I'll chat when I get back. xo

Here's the DIRT!

I'm trying to post every day this week... a little challenge I've set myself. I did want to make it an arty post each time, but today I've been working on what will hopefully be a magazine project, so there's nothing arty to show, yet! Maybe tomorrow!

My sister-in-law emailed these to me today and I just had to share them.

Sean had been playing happily on the lawn... but then discovered the garden bed! What a cheeky fella! All good for the immune system and lots of fun too!

Brrrrrm, brrrrm!!!

How clever is Sean!!! He'll be out working the land before we know it!

WS - Twinchies

The challenge this week at Wednesday Stamper is to make 'Twinchies'. Each 'Twinchie' is 2" square in size. I've made four 'Twinchies' using lots of little scraps that have been sitting on my table from a number of different projects and grouped them together.

Stamps are by Inkadinkado and Stampington.

I'm on the mend and am very grateful to be feeling much better.

I had a lovely little visit from Sean Alexander today. He is sporting 3 more teeth and crawling around quite quickly now. He was looking as cute as a button in some new clothes I bought for him in Perth last weekend. It's time to 'baby proof' the house, LOL!

Core'dinations and Kookaburras

Here's Sean Alexander and Grandpa at the beach in January.


The lovely Steph at Southern Stationery gifted me with a packet of the new Core'dinations Vintage Collection cardstock. The Vintage Collection has a presanded look to it's textured surface and is two toned in colour, rather lovely I think, and no need to sand it yourself which is a bonus! This is one of the things I've made with it so far. I've torn some of the edges and inked them with dark brown ink, flipped some card pieces over to show the lighter colour - pretty easy, eh! The vine stamp is by A Muse Artstamps and the alphabet is Hero Arts.

It's pretty hard to see (bad photography), but the image on the Australian postage stamp is of a kookaburra. I often get woken in the early dawn to the wonderful sounds of the kookaburra's laugh! One of the first songs I ever remember learning at school goes like this...

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Merry, merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh kookaburra, Laugh kookaburra,
Gay your life must be.

It's sung in a round, which would have been rather difficult to teach to six year olds, but it's stuck with me and I do so love to sing! I'm in a singing team at my church.

Emerging Flair!

I'm not really sure where the last two weeks have gone, but gone they have! I've had a creative holiday break and have managed to complete a number of projects that will hopefully be published a little further down the track.

I enjoyed my outing to The Wizard of Oz with two of my neices - it was so lovely to spend a little time with them. They had never been to the Town Hall before, so it was extra special taking them there for the first time. I'm heading back there this Friday night for a concert... more on that later.

'Emerging Flair' by Julie H

In the second week of hols, I had the opportunity to catch up with Julie H. She's a talented local mixed media artist and she presented me with a drop dead gorgeous ATC called 'Emerging Flair' (the textures and composition are awesome) along with a little bag of delectable charms. It was so lovely to catch up with her! Thanks, Julie! I feel very blessed!



Another extra special event was babysitting Sean Alexander. He's now seven months old! Time flies, eh! My SIL went on a mini shopping spree and left the two of us together for a morning! Sean is rolling all over the place and it seems that at present his favourite pastime is playing with empty boxes and paper - just like me really :)