Monkey business at Incy Wincy and DT call

Hi all,

I will try not to talk about the weather over here on this post as I know most of you are in freezing conditions and I really don't mean to gloat! Honest! Today I took Martha along for her taster session at Daisy's kindy as Martha is starting next Monday. She will just go on Mondays as it means I can do some more tutoring and get all my planning and prep done for my other tutor sessions in the week, but I'm already feeling bad about it. Daisy was 5 months when I had to go back to my teaching job, but I feel bad that Martha is going at 7 months. It is probably because Daisy spent time with her grandparents and other people anyway and Martha only really has me so I am worried how she will be. Probably she will be fine and love it as she loves being with other children.

Anyway, enough babbling and onto the card. It's Monday so it must be Incy Wincy time. This week we are sponsored by the fab


who are offering the winner a $10 CAD gift voucher for their store. The theme this week is Monkeyin' around, so we want to see monkeys on your projects. The DT were lucky enough to be given Mikey the Monkey from DWA and I think he's so cute. This is actually the second card I made for this challenge as I had one done about a week ago and was all ready to show it to the rest of the DT when I suddenly decided I really didn't like it and had to start again. I had a little panic on Saturday when I realised I had forgotten to make another, but I am much happier with this one. The papers are by Dovecraft.
And there's more! A few of our DT have sadly stepped down over the last few weeks and so we are holding a DT call for two new DT members to finish out the term and for maybe longer. If you want to join our friendly team, you need to email Heather and Chris at incywincychallenge@hotmail.com before Friday 4th Feb, sending 3 samples of your work, a blog link and a few sentences about yourself. The new teamies will be announced on the blog on Sunday.
I'm sorry for the length of this post. I should have warned you to get a cuppa first!

It was so long, I forgot to post the card pic. Ooops! Now all done - sorry!

Fancy a picnic?

Hi all,

It's been quite hot today, so we went to the beach. Daisy had a whale of a time and Martha had her first taste of the sea as she has always been asleep every other time we went. She seemed to enjoy it and kept trying to eat the sand all the time.

I found a great sketch at Papertake weekly, so I have used one of my new Sarah Kay stamps I had for my birthday but haven't used yet (I know, it's been two months, what have I been doing?!) The papers are by prima and the flowers are wild orchid.

How many frogs should you kiss to find a prince?

Hi all,

It's my last week of my GDT spot at CRAFT. I have enjoyed being part of the team and made styles of cards I have never tried before. This week's card is one of them. The theme is to make a tri-fold card with tag insert and there is a wonderful tutorial by Annette on the blog if you have never made one before. I have used another of my new Meljen's Designs digis. I've made this for hubby for Valentine's day as I thought the design wasn't too girly. Please go to the blog to see the wonderful creations from the DT.

It's been hot again here but Daisy had her swimming lesson this morning so we spent the rest of the morning in the pool. Martha loves the water too, but is more entertained by Daisy than by the water, I think.

Just for ewe

Hi all,

Martha had quite a long nap today and I felt inspired to make something. I found this wonderful sketch from 2 sisters and thought I'd use this fab image from Meljen's designs. I love it and obviously I had to use a sheep inspired sentiment! The paper is by dovecraft and the flowers are by Wild Orchid.

Tomorrow is Australia Day so hubby is off work. We are hoping to meet with some friends but it's meant to be in the high 30's so we'll see what happens (I know, I get no sympathy from those of you in freezing weather!)

Is it winter? Really?

Hi all,

It's Monday so it's time for another challenge at Incy Wincy. This week the theme is Winter Wonderland and we are sponsored by the fab Robyn's fetish.

We were given some great digi stamps and papers to play with. I chose this cute snowman.
The papers are also by Robyn's Fetish and the snowflakes are from a die cut sheet (I'm not sure who made it-sorry). I found it quite hard to get into the winter spirit as summer has finally arrived here - yippee! It means we spend a lot of time in the local park. Daisy was bought a big girl's bike for her birthday so she is learning to ride it and Martha has just discovered the delights of the swing!

Do you want to dance?

Hi all,

It's my third week of my GDT spot at CRAFT. This week the theme is martial arts/sport. There are two sponsors - fantastic ribbons who are offering 6 rolls of ribbons and a pack of buttons of the winner's choice and also:

which is run by the lovely Jo from CRAFT. She is offering the winner their choice of 3 of her new digistamps and a paperpack - see the CRAFT blog for more details. For my card, I used a wonderful salsa dancers digi by Jo. I love it as I used to do lots of dancing when I was younger and would have loved to have a go at this. I also used papers by Jo. I made a type of easel card. The scalloped square was made using a template I won ages ago and found when I was clearing up. I don't have a die cutting machine, but really would love one and this would have been done in less than half the time. Check out the fab projects by the DT on the blog.

Monochrome Madness

Hi all,

It's Tuesday and it's time for another challenge at Creative Craft. This week we want to see your monochromatic projects. We have two wonderful sponsors this week. Digi's with Attitude are offering a $10 voucher to their store and Whiff of Joy are giving one of their fab new stamps. The DT were lucky enough to have a play with an image from Digi's with attitude. I chose Grumpy Gretchen Work out. She's as grumpy as I am when I do my training, but if I looked like her, I think I would be smiling a bit more! I went for shades of green (again, I'm sorry!). Please check out all the fab projects from the rest of the DT.

Grrr!

Hi all,

It's Monday, so it's time for another challenge at Incy Wincy. We are sponsored by Aspire to Thrive who are offering a $10 voucher to spend in their store. This week it's all about bears. The very lovely Heather has a new collection of bears coming out for Aspire to Thrive and we had the chance to play with one. I immediately thought of a child's card and thought it would be good for a friend's daughter who is turning one soon. I decided to add a shaker element to the body and added some little heart gems.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Paperplay - Cutie Patootie

Totally Gorjuss - cuddly

I took Martha to have her 6 month injections today (6 months - how did that happen?). Luckily she didn't cry too much as I always feel guilty although I know it's the best thing to do. We then went for a little look in the craft shop but I was good and didn't buy anything! I'm thinking I should really use some of the new things I got for my birthday and Christmas first. I finally finished sorting out my cupboard and found things I had forgotten about so hopefully I'll use them soon. Daisy was happy too as I had found some things that she could use for her crafting.

Baby love

Hi all,

I hope you are having a good weekend. Daisy and hubby have gone to the cinema to watch Tangled, and as Martha is having a nap I thought I would pop on here and share a card I made. This one took me ages to do as I wasn't happy with some of the things I did to it, but I think it's okay now. I have a few friends who are having babies soon and as I am trying to get ahead of myself, I made this a unisex card. I had some fab Kaisercraft paper with bright animals all over it but unfortunately you can't see a lot of it here. I would like to enter this into these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - A fab sketch

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT challenge - baby

A moving experience

Hi all,

I hope you are having a good week. I can't believe it's nearly Friday already. I still haven't sorted out my cupboard as I keep getting sidetracked!

This is my second card as GDT for CRAFT challenge. The sponsor is HopeJacare, who is offering the winner their choice of 3 of her digistamps. This week the challenge is moving components. I must admit I had a bit of difficulty deciding what to do. Eventually I made a penny slider (although mine is actually a 5cent slider as we have no pennies!) I thought a football would be good for the moving part and so made this card using an image from Charmed cards and crafts. I deliberately didn't colour it as I thought the black and white would mirror the football (honest!) I have realised that I'm making a few green cards at the moment. I must go through phases as it was pink not long ago. Please check out the cards from the DT.

Just for you

Hi all,

I had a real urge to tidy out my craft cupboard today, so I went a bought new storage. Once Martha got to sleep, I really did try to sort things out, but I got sidetracked by some of my new birthday and Christmas stash, so I made this card and did no more tidying. Ooops! I've been wanting to make a card different from the normal square one for a while, and the challenge at allsorts -fancy folds made me finally do something. I found the tutorial for this swing card here and found it wasn't really all that difficult. The paper is by Little Yellow Bicycle and the pink heart card is the packaging from Daisy's doll's house furniture. She has learnt that I keep most things, because as soon as she opened her birthday presents she put all the paper and packaging into my craft cupboard! The butterflies are from my EK Success border punch (I can see it getting lots of use) and the flowers are Wild Orchid. The image is one of my new Penny Black slapstick stamps. I love this image. I would also like to enter this card into Penny black at allsorts - All you need is love.

Dot to dot

Hi all,
I hope you all had a good weekend. Hubby went back to work today after two weeks off for Christmas, and with Daisy at kindy, it was a bit odd being just me and Martha. It was Daisy's birthday today and she was so excited. We gave her a big girl's bike so before kindy she was zooming around on it. I got a few odd jobs done and then started another tutoring job. I am really enjoying it and feel I am making a bit of a difference.
Well, enough waffle. As it is Monday, it's time for another challenge at Incy Wincy. This week the theme is Go Dotty, so we want to see spots on your creations. We are sponsored by:

and they are offering 7 digis to the lucky winner.

We were lucky enough to be able to choose a digi from Bugaboo to play with. I chose peek a boo baby and made a new baby card. The paper is by Hot off the press and the flowers are by Wild Orchid. The butterfly border is one of my new punches by EK Success.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - circles

Cupcake Craft Challenges - Something New

OSCC - Card for a child

Pear Tree Designs - circles

You shall go to the ball

Hi all,

No card to show today, but I do have a share. We held Daisy's 4th birthday party at the park today. The weather report said it was meant to rain and thunder, so I was all ready to have it in the house, although 12 children plus parents would fill the house up completely! However, it stayed nice and even a bit of sun came through. Daisy had very specific ideas when it came to her party and requested a blue princess cake (she loves Cinderella because her dress is blue). So, I borrowed a mould and doll top from a friend who makes fab cakes and had a go. I'm quite proud of it and you wouldn't believe how long it took me to do the decorations as I wanted them all level. They are still a bit wonky but the children didn't mind and ate it quite happily.

GDT for January

Hi all,

I'm very proud to say that I have been asked by Jo at CRAFT challenge to be a guest designer for January. This week, we have a sketch for you. I really enjoyed using this one and will use it again. The sponsor is:

and the prize is four digital stamps from her store. I have used one of her images, called Little girl bear hugs, which I love. I decided to make a box for one of Daisy's presents. The paper is by My mind's eye and I used a Martha Stewart punch. Please hop over to the blog to see all the wonderful creations by the fab DT.
I'm frantically making plans for Daisy's party on Sunday. We are hoping to hold it at the local park, but the weather report says we might get thunder. This means we will have it in the house, so I need to get some wet weather games and things ready. Help!

Blog hop goodies!

No make from me today, but a show of a prize instead. A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a blog hop on Ladybug Crafts Ink and was lucky enough to win a prize on Kerry's blog, which was some crystals and a surprise. Well, they have arrived. The crystals are fab and the surprise was two Nikki and Friends stamps, which I love. Thank you so much, I love it all.

Do you have one?

Hi again,
It's time for another challenge at Creative Craft and this week we want projects relating to New Year's Resolution(s). We are sponsored this fortnight by The Crafty Pad and Little Claires.
Well, I must admit I had to think hard about this as I don't usually make resolutions and just do things as and when I need to as it works better for me. Anyway, I have decided I need to cut back on cakes and sweet food. Last year, as I was pregnant and then had a little baby, I didn't worry about eating puddings, but now I should try not to eat too many! Onto my card. It uses a fab image by Limited Runs, which I coloured with my whispers pens and then used 3D paint for the cream and glossy accents on the cherry. The paper is by DCWV and the buttons are from my stash. Pop over to the challenge blog to see the fab projects from the rest of the DT.

Hubby bought me a pamper session for Christmas, so this morning I went for 2 hours and had a facial and a massage. It was bliss. I then had to start shopping for Daisy's 4th birthday party, which is on Sunday and she has specific ideas what she wants to have. I'm hoping to make the cake sometime too, but I'm not the best at birthday cakes so it may take me a while.

Incy Wincy challenge 75

Hi all,

I know I'm a bit late, but as this is my first post of 2011, I would like to say Happy New Year to you all. On New Year's Eve, we went to see the 9pm fireworks that take place on the Harbour Bridge. We went with friends and found a great place to see them which wasn't too crowded. They do a family one at 9pm when it has just got dark and then they have even better ones for the midnight ones. They were wonderful and even Martha managed to stay up and see them (we tried to get her off to sleep, but her change in routine made her think it was party time!) We then went round to a friend's house for food (the kids went to bed). On New Year's Day it was about 40 degrees C so we spent it hanging around their swimming pool. Tomorrow is Daisy's first day back at kindy for two weeks and she is really looking forward to seeing her friends again.

Well, it's Monday and so it must be a new challenge at Incy Wincy. This week, we want to see ATC's. An ATC is an Artist's Trading Card - the size is 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches (64mmx89mm) and they are a great way to showcase your art on a small canvas. This week we are sponsored by Aspire to Thrive who are offering a $10 voucher to their store. On to my ATC. I used a great image from Aspire to Thrive. I inked the background with distress ink and decoupaged the butterfly.