October Candy

This post will remain at the top for the month of October.  

Please scroll down for more recent posts.

Hi Blogging Beauties,

As a way of saying "thank you" to my lovely blog-land friends I have this candy available for someone to win.

I will leave it up for the month of October and then draw a winner randomly.

To enter all you need to do is become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already) and leave a comment on this post.

What is the candy you ask? It is the lovely high-quality papers from the Spring Awakening collection by "The Scrapcake".  There are two papers of each design totalling 12 papers altogether and six "Manor House" gorgeous flowers.

I look forward to posting it out to the lucky winner soon!

Thanks for entering!

Alicia xx

Boys Rule!

Hi Blogging Beauties,

I made this card as a special order for a lady.

It was for her son Riley.  She wanted an outdoor boy card.

She really loved it when I gave it to her so I was so happy about that.

I used Prima paper scraps to make the card and some alphabet stickers for the sentiment.

I coloured "Skater Ian" in these Copic Colours:

Browns: E47, E37, E35

Greens: G14, YG06, YG03

Blues: BG05, BG01, BG000, BG10

Skin: E00, E21, E11, E04

I would like to enter this card in the Colour me Creative Copic Challenge - Boys

I have just signed up to this group.  If you are a bit addicted to Copics (like me) you might want to head over and check this out!

We had a family dinner at our place last night.

It was lovely to catch up, but lots of work with cleaning and cooking and then cleaning again.

I think I over did it a bit as my tummy has been a bit sore today. 

(I was sweeping, vachuming, carrying chairs around etc etc.)

I have concentrated on just resting today, and taking things easy.

I will have to post a photo of my belly soon as it is growing and I dont think I can get away without looking pregnant anymore!  Ben keeps saying "its going to get bigger"...which is ultimately true and obvious.  When I am at home I wear leggings and t-shirts.  But for going out, summer dresses are proving to be the most easiest form of clothing.  I have not bought a stitch of maternity clothes or anything baby yet.  But when I was in Target on Friday I walked past the baby section and couldnt stop smiling thinking I am going to get to buy that stuff now!!

Just need to work a little more so I can get some money!!

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

Thanks for stopping by.

Alicia xx

Dance like no one is watching....

Hi Blogging Beauties,

Here is another image I coloured up at the Conference.

At the conference I was sitting next to Annette and for those of you who know Annette, know that she LOVES the colour purple.  I am not a big purple fan, but I was really trying to get out of my comfort zone and learn new techniques at the conference.  I wanted to have a go at colouring hair with black and purple Copics.

When I got home I put her on a card and then I posted her off to Annette and she received the card yesterday.  Consequently I didnt have a lot of purple papers or embellishments in my stash.  But I found a scrap of purple paper and teamed it with some black and white.

I layered three flowers together and sprayed them with glimmer mist.  The top little rose I added Kindy Glitz to the edges.  The swirl I made using Kaisercraft gemstones.  This cute little Odd Girl stamp is called "Dancin' Mae" I bought off Sammi.  If you want her too you can get her here.

The Copics I used were:

Hair: 100, C-7, C-5, BV08, V09

Skin: E00, E11, E21, E04, R20

Purples: BV08, V17, V15

Greys: C-1. C-3

So I thought I would enter her in:

Paper Pretties - Embellish

Thanks for stopping by,

Alicia

P.S. Carol, in answer to your question about how Tommy and Ellie are getting on....It took Ellie about a week to accept Tommy.  But now they are pretty good mates.  They sleep together during the day and play together.  Ellie does tire of Tommy's constant playfulness and did snap at him and left a scar on his forehead...but I think he deserved it as he is going through that puppy nippy phase.  We take them for a walk every day.  Tommy still likes to be picked up and cuddled.  Ben has been training Tommy every day and he is pretty smart.  Even Ellie is learning a few new things too.  Overall we love them both to death and are so happy we got Tommy as he has brought a lot of fun into our lives.  

Male Beach Card and a Children's Craft Project

Hi Blogging Beauties,

How is your week going?

Mine is pretty good...just mainly tutoring this week and getting a bit of gardening done here and there.  Before the really hot weather sets in!!

I made this card for my uncle John who lives in Hervey Bay QLD.  A lovely tropical part of the country.  I coloured the hair while I was at the conference and was learning how to colour hair better.  The card was made out of scrap papers.  The waves I hand drew and then cut out.  Then I drew on a little white border with my white gel pen.

I had some little sea charms so I added those on in the water.

I would like to enter this card in the Die Cut Dreams Challenge - So Charming.

The colours I used were:

Hair: E35, E37, E33, Y38, E31

Skin: E00, E21, E11, E04

Yellows: Y17, Y08, Y11

Blues: B05, BG05, B02

Also I thought I would share this photo with you.  My niece loves crafting and so we have organised for her to come over on a Monday afternoon and do some craft.  We had our first session this week and we made a mobile.  It was easy and fun too.  Here are the instructions.

1. Trace around a plate onto white cardboard and cut out.

2. Draw a line that splits the circle in two.

3. Paste blue card on the bottom half of the circle.

4. Draw a sun and rainbow on the top half and colour in.

5. Punch out flowers and colour the centres yellow.

6. Paste them on the blue half of the circle.

7. Laminate the circle and cut it out.

8. Attach ribbon streamers to the back of the circle using sticky tape.

9. Attach a ribbon hook at the top so you can hang your creation.

10. Glue on many flowers to the ribbon streamers at the bottom.

My niece loved making it and she loved the finished product.  It took about one hour to make.

I had fun making it too.  I thought I would link it up to Jill's Worldwide Blog Hop.

Hope you have a great week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Alicia xx

Tommy Taking a bath and a 50th Tri-Shutter card

Hi Blogging Beauties,

Just had to share this cute little pic of Tommy having a bath in the laundry sink.

He really does get that doggy smell about him so a fortnightly bath is going to be a regular occurrence I think.  Luckily he loves it and Ben happily gives it to him!

Last Saturday night we went to my Uncle/Cousin's 50th Birthday.

I made him a tri-shutter card...havent made one of these for ages.

I had this Kenny K image already coloured in my stash and so I just needed to pop her on the card.  I did lots of faux stitching with a white gel pen and did the writing with the white gel pen as well.  It kind of turned out a bit like a chalk board.

The copics I coloured with were:

C1, C3, C5, C7

Black 100

R59, R27, RV13

E51, E21, R20

Thanks for popping on over to my blog.
I hope you have a good week.

Alicia xx

Sympathy Cards and a Tidier Desk

Hi Blogging Beauties,

I hope you are having a nice weekend...

Unfortunately I have had to make a lot of Sympathy cards lately.  Not all for me to send out thank goodness. This first one is my favourite.  It came together with scraps...but you wouldnt think it as it all matched so nicely.

These cards are made with a SU stamp set that is just so easy to make Sympathy cards with.

I pull it out every time because it doesnt involve much thinking and is a quick way of making a card.  I try to keep them pretty simple and I like the nature theme.

I would like to play along with 

Fairy Tale Challenge Blog - Sympathy

 I have been using heaps of my scraps lately.  It all started after sitting next to Annette at the conference and telling her about my messy crafting desk.  I vowed to come home and try and clean it up and so I bought a new document tray and organised all my card and scraps into colours.  Having them in the same drawer means I see the scraps when I go to get some card and I tend to use scraps rather than cutting up new paper.

For such a very basic idea it has been very successful.

Here is a photo of the two sets of document trays.

 When you pull out a drawer you see the scraps on top of the card which encourages you to have a look and see what is available to use.  The more document trays you get the more papers and colours you could hold.  I had to combine some colours because I also included a drawer for clear bags, stickers/rub-ons and images/sentiments that are already printed out.

For me it is much easier to tidy up at the end of a project and that is keeping my desk more tidy and making me want to craft more!

Thanks for stopping by,

Alicia xx

Mad for Marker's Sketch with Princess Marci

Hi Blogging Beauties,

I have another card using Susan's Sketch over at Mad for Markers.  For this card I used Princess Marci which Sammi has in stock and can be purchased here.

I really loved using this sketch and found the card came together easily.  I added a little posy of flowers in the corner and sprayed them with Glimmer mist.  I embossed the silver card and then used Kindy Glitz over the top of the swirls.  It ended up being a very sparkly card.

The colours I used to colour were:

Hair: E47, E37, E35, E33

Skin: E04, E11, E21, E00, R20

Blues: B05, BG05, B02, B00

Greys: C0, C1, C3

Lips: R22, R32

You still have a week to enter this challenge.

So what are you waiting for?

Link up your card or LO here for us all to see.

I would like to play along with:

4 Crafty Chicks - Marker it Up!

Charizma Cards - Embossing (I chose Dry)

Thanks for popping by and have a lovely weekend,

Alicia xx

Mad for Marker's ~ Susan's Sketch

Hi Blogging Beauties,

Firstly I wanted to say thank you to all the beautiful well wishes and Congratulation messages I received on my last post.  I am busy visiting you all back now.  Thank you so much.  They really made my day : )

Secondly have you popped over to Mad for Markers and tried Susan's sketch yet?  I have and I love it.  I found it so easy to make a card to this sketch.  I guess I modified it a little...but we all tend to do that dont we!

This is the sketch:

I coloured this gorgeous stamp with a Colour Combo I learnt at the conference and then modified slightly to suit the Copics I had in my collection.

Hair: E29, R46, E08, YR16

Skin: E00, E21, E11, E04

Pinks: RV21, RV23, RV34, RV29

I really like the vibrancy of the colours.

Well I hope you play along this fortnight!

Link up your cards here.

I can't wait to see what you create.

I am going to play along with...

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Fairytale 

(Mine is a little fairy out of Sleeping Beauty, I read that story yesterday at tutoring.  It has three little good fairies in the story that are very cute!)

Thanks for stopping by,

Alicia xx

A few little creations and a pretty big announcement...

 Hi Blogging Beauties,

I havent posted for a few days...life has been busy with working and tutoring....but I think the busiest part of my week is over.  When we went to the Mad for Marker's Conference we received this gorgeous little book bound of xpress paper.  It was blank and we happily stamped images onto the pages to practice our colouring.  I thought I would show you a few I have done.

The first one was me colouring the front cover.

This next one is this cute La-la princess stamp.  I have put her on a card since and will share that with you later this week.

This next one is "No-Lines" attempt.  (My first go ever.)  It was stamped in light pink memento ink and then coloured in.  It was so tricky.  Then I practised drawing in the footpath and adding some grass.

This last image was my "Crazy Mermaid" attempt.  I challenged myself to use colours I normally wouldnt, like the darker skin and the orange hair.  Annette suggested I do the scales with Spica pen which turned out really pretty.  She is wild though!!!

Last of all...my announcement...I am having a baby!!

We are very excited as this will be our first baby and we have been trying to have one for so long.  We conceived him/her through IVF and we are 15 weeks pregnant.

Here is a little pic of our baby...can you see him/her??

I have been feeling very well...tiredness is really my only complaint and I am quite happy to cope with that.  Just wanted to share my exciting news with you.

Thanks for popping on over to my blog.

Alicia xx

A few recent creations...

Hi Blogging Beauties,

I have a few creations to share today.

A lady at the market asked me to decorate some notebooks for her as Christmas presents.  (How organised is she!!) She wanted to have the first initial of each girl on the front cover.  Three are for girls around the age of 5 or 6 - they are the pink ones and one is for a girl aged 11 - that is the white one.

I wanted to enter these journals in the Ribbon Carousel Sparkle and Bling challenge you have to use ribbon and sparkle or bling.

Also I coloured an image at the Mad for Marker's conference in all greys.

This was one of the demonstrations we had.

Some of you expressed interest in seeing what we coloured.

I have put the image on a card (kept it pretty simple) for my sister who wants the card for our cousin.

I was happy with how the image came out.

I used the colours C-0, C-1, C-3, C-5, C-7.


I would like to enter this card in Scrapbook Sisters - Anything Goes

Also I have a new corner punch and I am obsessed with rounding off the corners now.

Can you tell!!

I love the rounded corner look!

Life is busy as usual.  I am stepping up the tutoring from next week with two new students so am busy preparing for that.  I hope you are having a great week.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Alicia xx

Mad for Marker's Copic Conference

Hi Blogging Beauties,

I was treated to an amazing weekend this weekend just gone.  I flew to Sydney to take part in the first Annual Mad for Marker's Copic Conference.  It was the best weekend!! We lived it up at the Holiday Inn, ate the most amazing food and coloured the weekend away with a group of amazing ladies.

The best part (apart from the awesome time I had learning such great colouring techniques and being able to colour without a thought for anything else in the world) was meeting some of my blogging friends for the first time in real life.

We had so much fun together chatting, laughing, eating and of course colouring.

I hope to show you some of my creations soon!

If you are interested in taking part next year you should book it in early!

It was so so so much fun.

I would love to do it again.

Alicia xx

Southern Girls - Slugs, Snails and Puppy Dog's Tails

Hi Blogging Beauties,

I have actually stepped down form Southern Girls and this could be my very last post for them.  Lou is having a baby literally now, so they asked if I can stay on a little bit longer until they sort out their DT call.  So I get to participate in another challenge! This one is "Slugs, Snails and Puppy Dog's tails...to make a card for the men or boys in your life.  I made this card for my brother Paddy.  He turned 27 years old a few days ago. When we were little kids he used to have ferrets as pets.  So when I saw this image of a ferret from Meljen's Designs I knew it would be perfect for him.

When he opened the card and had finished reading it he said "Cards make you feel so good dont they".  Coming from a 27 year old male I was so happy with this comment...it was one of those rewarding moments when you feel like someone appreciates your work.

I coloured with the following Copics:

Browns: E47, E37, E35, E33, E31

Greens: G99, YG63

Outline: BG10

I also embossed the papers, because it was so clean and simple I thought the embossing might add a bit of interest.  The brown paper already had stars on it and I embossed stars over the top.

Here is a picture of my brother on the night of his birthday with his gorgeous girlfriend Renae.

 So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Southern Girls and link up your male card or project!  There are great prizes to be won as always!

Alicia xx

An old farm card...

Hi Blogging Beauties,

Saturday night we went to my uncle's 50th.  It was a lovely party.  So good to catch up with family.  Keith is a farmer and loves old things so we bought him an old iron from a second-hand shop as his present. The iron wasnt the same as this (this is one of google images) but it kind of gives you an idea of what I am talking about.  It was a rectangular shape and was so heavy I couldnt lift it.

This was the card I made to go with the present.

I printed off an image from Google of an Australian Farm and Home Magazine from back in 1958.  The paper behind that is a map I printed off of New South Wales in colonial settlement times, got that from google too.  (But most of this got covered up.)  I added some coloured chip-board and some rafia and some hat pins to embellish it a little and fill in that big space.  Here is a close-up.

I would like to enter in the Crazy Amigo Challenge - Animals

and the Digital Tuesday Challenge - We Like to party
and Crafts and Me - Digital Images 

Here is a picture of me nursing Tommy.  He is such a baby when he wants to be.  He loves to sleep in my arms or on my lap.  I dont get a lot done though when he does this.

Here is a close-up of his closed eyes...

 I have been busy today and busy again tomorrow.

How have you been going??

Thanks for stopping by.

Alicia xx

P.S If you havent entered my October candy yet please click here.

Mad for Markers - Favourite Copic Combo

Hi Blogging Beauties,

Today is the start of a new challenge at Mad for Markers.  This fortnight the challenge is to use your favourite Copic Colour Combinations.  We all have our favourites, the ones we reach for time and time again.  This card I made as a special order for a girl who takes ballet class and wants to be a Ballerina when she grows up.  She was turning 13 years old.  I wanted a card that didnt look too "little girly" as a lot of the ballerina images are more for the under ten age group.  So I tried to find an image that was a little more "teenage looking."

I used my favourite Pink Colour Combo consisting of:

RV29, RV23, RV21, RV34 and RV13.

I also used:

E11, E21, E51, R20 for the skin,

and Y38, E31, Y21 and E35 for the hair.

The motivation and inspiration for this card came from one of the gorgeous Iwona Palamountain designs.  This is the original card here:

I just love this card...I think it is beautiful.

Can you see how I copied the sketch and the distressed edges and the colour scheme a little.

We have many more of Iwona's cards for sale at www.aussiecardsforsale.com

if you like them too you can head over and check them out.

Trust me, they are great inspiration!!

I hope to see your entries for this fortnight's challenge at Mad for Markers!

Don't forget to let us know what Copics make up your fave Colour Combo!!

Alicia xx

P.S I am very excited about the Copic Conference this weekend in Sydney!! 

Are you booked in and attending??