Congratulations Darren!!

Our friend and fellow British Motor Club member Darren did very well at the National Rally up at Port Macquarie over Easter, coming home with the Paul Kelly Trophy. So I thought I would make him a congrats card using my new Morris Minor car stamp which I had bought from England. I had trouble taking the photos as the colour really didn't show up very well, I am sorry about that, but was happy with the look of it, and he was pleased too I think! (I think my phone was having a colour blind day!!)

Darren is now working on getting his traveller (you know the wagon with the timber in it????) on the road so will keep you posted.....they are really cute and if you are familiar with Sylvanian Families this is the car they have.....

 Entered into the following challenges:

My Time to craft - Toy box

Cards for Men

Karber Challenge - Anything Goes

Lexi's Creations - Spots/Stripes
Digistamps4Joy - Boys 
The Paper Shelter - Distressing

Vintage Valerie....

It's been a while since I got in and did a Midnight Madness Layout and wanted to get back into it. The Paper players also had some colour combos that I liked so combined the two and this is the card I have made. This is a new image but it is an old piece of left over background paper that I have embossed with my new Tim Holtz embossing folders! The lace I only bought the other day at Scrap & Stuff & the brads I fell in love with a while back thought they would be great on vintage.

Other Challenges I have entered this in are:
I did it Creations - Lace & Ribbon
One Stitch At A Tine - Anything Goes
The Emerald Faerie Garden - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenge - Something old / Something New
Catered Crop - Recipe
Crafty Cardmakers - Embossing 
Incy Wincy Designs - Clean & Simple
There's Magic In the Air - Embossing
Creative Craft Challenges - Distressed/Vintage 
Anita Be Stampin - Pearls & Lace

A Day Out & About....

Today the British Motor Club of Canberra (which we are founding members of) plus the Southern Highlands Morris Minor Car Club & the Yass Antique Motor Club Inc for a great day out to Taralga.
Where is Taralga you may say. This is what Wikipedia has to say:


Taralga is a small village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Upper Lachlan Shire. It is located at the intersection of the Goulburn-Oberon Road and the Laggan-Taralga Road. It is accessible from Oberon to the north, Mittagong to the east, Goulburn to the south, and Crookwell to the west. At the 2006 census, Taralga had a population of 812 people.^[1]
Taralga is located relatively close to the famous Wombeyan Caves. It is a very cold area and is frequently affected by snow in the winter months.
The population of Taralga has fluctuated over time - from 100 or so in 1863, to over 700 thirty years later, followed by a decline to half that size immediately after the depression of the 1890s. By the mid 1950s it had regained almost its largest size, but today houses around 400 people.

We all met at The Trapper's Bakery at Goulburn for a yummy late breakfast.....you should see the BLT's I have never had one with soooo much Bacon....mmmmmmmm!! A good cuppa always helps too! Then off we set for a little drive of 44 km's in beautiful country. Once there we headed straight into Warren's place to see his old fire engine amongst other items of interest. If you are a fan of Top Gear Australia you may recognise Warren!!

Then all but four of us ladies, headed of to Ricks Auto Museum for a look around. Four of us hung back and had a lovely pot of tea and a chat before heading off to join the others where we were serenaded by Rick himself. When we finally finished there it was after 2pm and well past lunch. It took a while to sort out but finally we joined some others in the park for a sausage sizzle. Shaun & I had also bought chips, dip, crackers & cheese to add to it. It was very pleasant. Finally after a bit more chat it was time to go. I think everybody had a really good day. We certainly had perfect clear skies even if it was very chilly to begin with!

 This is what the McGrath's Austin J40 pedal car is based on....an Austin A40!

This little car brings back memories for me. My friend Nerida had one and we would drive around the Adelaide hills in it, often me steering from the passengers seat!!

A Special Order....

Having received one of my cards for her Mother's Day card my friend Alison wanted me to make another friend of hers a 50th birthday card. I asked for anything specific she would like, but just said something pretty.....I asked would she like something funny and she said yes to that as well.

However, when it came time to make it I again made 2 cards one funny & pretty and one simpler and pretty. So it will be interesting to see which one she chooses.

The image was stamped at Lovely Linda's Home....thanks Linda!!

Entered into the following challenges:
Card Makin Mamas - Recipe
Crafty Ann's - Birthday
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Pink/Black/White

Digi's With Attitude! Challenges -  Make us laugh

Frosted Designs - Ribbon &/or Twine

Prairie Fairy Fridays - Here Come the Girls!

Our Craft Lounge -  inspiration
Drunken Stampers - Use Numbers 
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturdays - Use Old Supplies

 This card I have used a stamp from Stampin' Up's Bliss set

& the butterfly is a Layer's of Color stamp

This card was entered into the following challenge:
Polka Doodles - one of these 3
Easy Craft Projects - Use Pastels

A Gorgeous Girl for a Gorgeous Girl

I discovered yesterday that I had missed my nieces birthday last weekend & felt terrible. So thought I had better make an extra special card for her with my lovely new stamps I had won from the Greeting Farm. I love the colour combo of orange and pink so yesterday at Lovely Linda's I sat and chalked. Last night after going out to a wonderful concert by Don Fransisco I came home and put the card together. So here it is.

I have entered this into the following challenges:
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Flowers
Clear It Out Challenge - Ribbon & Trim
Flourishes Challenge - Anything Goes
Karen's Doodles Nederlandse - 2 Stamp challenge
Oldie but a Goodie - Say it with Flowers
Paper and Such Design Blog - Birthday Card
Top Tip Tuesday - Flowers
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - Girls with Curls
Creative Inspiration Paints - Inspired by your favourite colour
Dream Valley Challenges - Flowers
Sentimental Sundays - Include sentiment
Sparkles Forum Challenge - Recipe
Catch the Bug Challenge - Anything Goes
CES Challenge - Favourite Colour Combo
One Stop Craft Challenge - Must be Cute
Creative Inspirations Challenge -  Glitzy & Bling 
Stampavie - ?
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Anything Goes
Paper Pretties - PWC153
My mum's Craft Shop - To Die For
Diva's by Design - Anything Goes
designed2delight challenge - Handmade Flowers 
My Creative Moments - Child / Children

Heat Embossing....it's been ages!

Well the technique challenge this week at Jac-inks is Heat Embossing. This is something I would do all the time when I first started stamping but haven't done it in years. So I had to get my heat gun back from a friend I had lent it to so she could make her wedding invites and then put my thinking cap on. I had a very busy weekend so had little time to put something together and sort of rushed this first card, and so wasn't l00% happy with it. So instead of doing a scrapbook page at Ann's on Monday night I decided to have a play with my favourite Stampin' Up stamp set at the moment, and do a bit of embossing on the bees. It was the first time to that night that I had made the flowers and was pleased with the results. Hope you like the cards.

Sense of Time stamps by Stampin' Up This card also fitted some other challenges: Cards For Men Challenge 10 For someone Special
Stamps R Us - Masculine

Other Challenges for this card are:

The Crazy Challenge - Anything Goes
Critter Sketch Challenge Blog - Green & Yellow 
Karber Challenge - Favourite Embellishment 
The Ribbon Reel Challenge Blog - red/blue/yellow/green
Stamping Scrapping Challenge - Birthdays
colourQ challenge - colour 
Scrap-Creations - Circles 
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Punches or Die Cuts 
The Stamping Boutique - Circles 
May links - Outlawz 
Crafts and Me Challenge - Punches 
4 Crafty Chicks - Spring has Sprung

What a lovely day....

On Saturday I had an early Mother's Day as we had to go out to Yass on Sunday for a Baby Christening for our dear friend's Rick & Anne's youngest. They had asked us to be Godparents to Vali which we are more than happy to do.

So Saturday morning along with our children we headed over to Tuggeranong and enjoyed a yummy breakfast together, although it was more like brunch. Tamazin our youngest and only daughter gave me a photo she had made onto a canvas.......as I was opening this gift, I couldn't believe my eyes.....there is the photo of the kids and I from about 1989, not a flattering era for me!! In fact, I hate this photo, so was feeling a number of things when I saw this 'lovely' gift....LOL!!!! I have included it in this blog, as I figure you will all get a laugh, and that is good for the soul!!! Tam loves the picture.....& I hate it!!! I do love her dearly and will put it up in my home for her sake.....she also gave me a movie ticket voucher so that I will enjoy.

Our son and daughter-in-law know how much we love games, so gave me a great game of Cranium but it is not the board game which they know we have, but a card game....so it will be great to throw into the suitcase on our travels!! Thanks guys!!

In the afternoon I headed for a Layers of Color workshop held by and at my friend Lovely Linda's. She is hoping to run another one of these soon so if you are interested and live here in Canberra contact her through the link above and book in!! Sadly, I had to leave early as I needed to make dessert as well as have some time with my hubby who I felt I had hardly had anytime alone with this week so before we headed out to friends for dinner we just had some time to catch up on what is happening with us....he is my best friend, and our relationship is really important.

Anyway, here is what I produced so far from the workshop, (most of which I finished at home that night after we got back from our friends!)

Entered it into some challenges too:

Get Hippity with Ippity challenge - Flowers
Incy Wincy Designs challenge - Mother's Day/Girlie 
Karen's Doodles Challenge - Pastels 
Make it Monday - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Anything Goes
Woodware USA Clear Stamps - Wedding or anniversary
Crafty Creations - Anything Goes 
Joyful Stamper - Anything Goes

Here is what the other lovely ladies produced!

A night at Ann's

The first Tuesday night of the month sees me often at Ann Craig's for scrapbooking. However, I had finished my page early and so decided to use the left over craft card stock to make a card. I absolutely love these stamps from Stampin' Up and so while I had access to them I thought I would use them. I had in mind to follow the colour challenge on The Shabby Tearoom blog which I just love the combination of colours they had chosen. This card also fits the Paper Players Challenge of Birds, Bees, Flowers & Trees. So here is my card hope you like it, I do!

The Inspiration photo for Shabby Tearoom colour challenge......love it!!

Pleased to see it also fits The Outlawz challenge of flowers / pearls / kraft.

God our Provider

Sometime back, our youngest, Tamazin had her 2nd car involved in a car accident. A copy of her first car's accident where she got squashed between 2 cars. Both cars have been written off. It has taken quite some time now for the money to come through from the insurance company, which has been a little frustrating but God's timing is always perfect.

Yesterday on the bulletin board at Shaun's work there was advertised a Toyota Echo 2000 model for sale for $2000. Shaun checked with the red book and saw it was a good buy. So straight after work we headed over to check it out. The woman who was selling it was not living at where the car was but actually lived quite some distance out of town so had to organise for everyone who wanted to look at it to come at the same time. Thankfully, we got there first. However, we had not been there long before someone else turned up. Looking at the car we knew it was a bargain so had to make a rushed decision without Tamazin even seeing the car to purchase it. We did not haggle at all but quickly informed the lady we would take it.


The car had been sitting out the front under a gum tree since her mother's passing (it was her mother's car) and the neighbours kids had been over and let the tyres down and broken into the car so she just wanted to get rid of it there and then. So she asked us to take it and pay for it today.....how trusting!! The battery was so dead we had to jump start it but not only that it would drive a little way and then just die and we would have to jump start it again. We made it JUST to the petrol station to get air in the tyres but Shaun then went home and got Tam's battery out of her smashed car and bought it back to the garage. It drove lovely the rest of the way home.

Sent a pic to Tam who decided yes, she would keep it after an initial 'Why did you buy it without me looking at it?' which I explained. I told her if she didn't want it her brother & his wife would have gladly taken it. It needs a good clean both inside and out and a good service, but we can surely say this is yet another gift from God. Thank you God for providing yet another car for this family.