I know I’ve shown you photos of Sydney before but I hope you will enjoy these too. Last weekend we went to Sydney with some of our family. It was youngest grandson’s first time on a plane and first time to Sydney. We all enjoyed ourselves, who wouldn’t with the gorgeous scenery and fabulous weather.
A few trees to show you first off –
Down by Circular Quay – Jacarandas
The next tree was at Taronga Zoo – Is it possibly a “tree waratah”? Can anyone tell me?
A tree of a different type. This is the Swarovski Christmas Tree in the Queen Victoria Building. It spans three floors. This year the tree has over 144, 000 sparkling Swarovski crystal ornaments and 60,000 twinkling lights. Over forty hours and 72 construction technicians commit three days to installing it.
A beautiful window also in the Queen Victoria Building.
Madame Tussauds, Darling Harbour. Does anyone in Australia remember this man (the one on the left I mean – Graham Kennedy). In the background you can just see Harold Bishop from Neighbours.
Cathy Freeman from the Sydney Olympics with Layne Beachley and dgs surfing.
We loved “Wicked” it really was fun.
The weather was great and lots of people were enjoying their weekend at the beach – Bondi Beach.
We did lots of walking and our dgs was terrific he hardly missed a beat.
We saw lots more including Australia vs Sth Africa in the 20/20 Cricket but I think that you get an idea of the lovely weekend we had.
Bye for now,
Hello crafty friends. A group of friends get together every month or so and last weekend was our last COD for 2014. It just gets too busy and crazy from now until Christmas doesn’t it.
Here are 3 of the cards we made.
We are going to meet next year again but for 2015 we have set specific dates, which I think will prove a much better way to ensure everyone can come along. We agreed that the group would meet on the last Saturday of each even month ie – February, April, June, August, October and the last for the year would be November.
Just a quick post today to keep you updated on what has been happening here.
Bye for now,
These are little angel earrings I made for the Cuddly Buddly theme for October “Stocking Filler”.
You’re welcome to pop over to the Cuddly Buddly blog HERE. You will be able to see how to make the earrings and see what the other members have made.
Bye for now,
To go into town from our house we have 2 alternate routes. One is a busy road and the other is a back road. This photo was taken on the back road about a week ago. So cute. Are there 14 or 15 ducklings? They were with their mum crossing the road to visit a dam. Poor mum, what a handful wingful. This is taken through the windscreen of the car and on high zoom, so sorry about the quality.
My dh has seen them since then and was sad to report there were only 6 remaining. 😦 We think by the evidence that a car had hit them. 😥
Even though it is a narrow road cars speed along.
Spring has sprung but the weather is still very changeable so I hope the remaining ducklings survive.
Bye for now,
Almost one of the very first stamping products I bought (all those years ago) was a set of Perfect Pearls but they’ve been hidden away in the drawer untouched. Looking on YouTube a month ago I saw a video using Perfect Pearls and Distress Ink Pads (I’m sorry I can’t find it now) and it inspired me to try a tag using this technique.
I used 3 shades of green Distress Ink Pads, Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive & Peeled Paint. Using a blending tool I randomly added the 3 colours. You have to make sure the ink has dried before the next step, either use a heat gun or leave for ½ hour to air dry. The next step is to use versamark ink to stamp your images and then brush over Perfect Pearls powder. I used bronze. The sentiment was heat embossed but you could use Perfect Pearls again. I used a little bit of wet glitter around the edges and some red wet glitter for berries. I love the effect but unfortunately the beautiful shimmer doesn’t show up very well in the photo.
Bye for now,
Here is another project from our latest craft day –
A different type of card with quite a bit of measuring, cutting and folding but great fun.
The green triangle in the middle is for your message. Using different papers would completely change the look of the card. I’m thinking that light blue and white could look very pretty.
If you are interested in a tutorial just let me know and I’ll post the instructions.
Bye for now,
Yesterday was our monthly (or thereabouts) craft day so over the next few days I should have some posts for you. I have been very quiet lately but hopefully I will rectify that.
One of the projects was some lollypop halloween goodies.
Very easy little project but could be very handy to have some on hand in case you have some little trick or treaters visit on the 31st October .
I tried to make the photo a bit eerie, I think it works. 😯
The spiders were very popular yesterday. Which is your favourite?
Bye for now,
In Australia it is Father’s Day today. We were having morning tea together but apart from that we had no big plans. As it turns out DH had a great day. 2 of the grandchildren and their dad came out to our home to fly some kites which we had bought in Japan. It was a windy and sunny spring day, just perfect for kites. There is plenty of room around us uninterrupted with power lines or other hazards. Unfortunately I didn’t think to take photos 😦 . The next bit of news I did think to take photos.
The GS asked if they could all go fishing in our dam. Next thing I know GS is calling out that he had caught a “whopper”. GS being only 4, I wasn’t sure how big a “whopper” was, but it really was huge.
A beautiful Rainbow Trout and SIL was very happy with it, but GD doesn’t look too thrilled does she. She thought it was a bit “yucky” I think.
Now usually this story would have a very happy ending with everyone enjoying a delicious meal but not this time. Our dear old dog (who hardly gets off her bed nowadays) found the fish and ran off with it and buried it for later when she was hungry. 😦 . There weren’t any tears but they were close. Luckily I had taken some photos so they still have bragging rights.
Bye for now,
I’m back from 3 days visiting my son and his children. It was a lovely long weekend. The weather was a glorious 24 – 26°C.
We went to the football at the Metricon Stadium and were very impressed with the stadium and fans. For a new club they are doing well.
Here are the Sun’s players doing their stretches before the game. A young team.
Wow this is what you want to see – encouraging fans right from babies (just some of the very keen fans). Does that look like a pie? 😆
Here is my granddaughter with Suns team t-shirt and red and gold hair 🙂
It was fun watching my grandson showing his tricks on his skate board and scooter.
It was so relaxing just sitting on the deck watching all the birds in the trees. Butcher birds, varieties of parrots, magpies, finches, and nasty miners are some of the birds which live in the trees around their home. Bats flying in at dusk were a bit disconcerting at first.
Sorry this photo is not terribly sharp. This parrot was about 30 cm (1′) long and such a vivid colour (King Parrot – perhaps). It was eating the fruit off the trees. Are they figs? (I’ve been told that it is a Loquat tree)
The only sad thing about this visit was that when we got back down south to our home the temperature was 11°C and raining. Brrrr.
Bye for now,
I’ve been playing this afternoon, and I really shouldn’t be 😦 but I couldn’t help myself 🙂 . I had just bought a new paper pad and have wanted to try my version of a bookmark I had seen on Pinterest.
I think I will add some glossy accents to the books because it is a bit dull now. I might also do some distressing.
Now onto some other news.
Click here → Butterfly collage to see a card class I will be taking at Kaisercraft in Ballarat. I hope some of my crafty friends might be interested to come along. For more information contact Chez at Kaisercraft Ballarat.
Bye for now,
I have been spending a lot of time recently looking at pretty pictures and videos “researching” mixed media and distress ink techniques. 🙂 My purchases lately have been sprays, stencils, paints etc. so that I could try some of the techniques. I’ve been attempting tags and I must tell you that I went through quite a few before coming up with one which I was even a little pleased with.
I wish you could see this tag in real life, it has such a pretty sheen to it which unfortunately doesn’t show up in the photos.
I’ve used distress inks, perfect pearls (which I’ve had in my stash for years and never used – now I’m wondering why I haven’t used them before), embossing powder for the sentiment and die-cut stars.
I’m trying to show you the sheen but it is difficult to get the overall effect.
I’ve had a lot of fun with this but if I do another, and I’m sure I will, there are things I would definitely change. The sentiment colour for one.
Bye for now,
Over at Cuddly Buddly this month the theme is “Thank You”. Here is my answer to the theme –
Yes there is a secret gift inside 🙂
Three Ferrero Rocher fit perfectly inside.
If you would like to make one of these cute “Cotton Reel” gift holders for yourself then head over to the Cuddly Buddly website for the full instructions.
Bye for now,
Last Saturday was our regular craft get-together and we all had a lovely relaxing day. This is what we made –
There were 10 of us but I’m afraid I didn’t take photos of everyone. In fact I didn’t take these photos either, one of the other women noticed that I had forgotten to take photos again and snapped a couple for me. I’ll have to catch up with the others next time.
Thank you Pam for showing us your gorgeous project.
Bye for now,
A few weeks ago I was asked if I would provide a tutorial for this tri-fold card. Well I’ve finally ticked it off my “to do” list.
Here is a quick tutorial –
- Cut a piece of patterned paper (thicker quality) 10 cm X 30 cm
- Score at 10 cm and 20 cm
- Fold on the score lines
- Score diagonally on the first and last square from left bottom corner to top right corner
- With the side of the paper you want as your front face up, fold the diagonal score lines
- Using double-sided tape adhere the triangles you have created to the back
- Adhere the triangle on your right to the centre of the card using a strip of double-sided tape along the bottom edge
- Cut 2 pieces of coordinating card to fit into pocket and the other onto the back of the front of the card
- Cut 2 pieces of coordinating patterned paper slightly smaller than the card
- Cut 1 piece of white thick paper slightly smaller
- Layer these sets together
- Slip the 3 piece set into the pocket
- Using double sided tape attach the 2 piece set to the back of the left triangle
- Decorate the front of the card
Hope this is clear. Let me know if anything needs clarification.
Bye for now,
Cards & Co
Cards & Co 