A tribute to my Grandfather on ANZAC Day. Very briefly, my grandfather was an original ANZAC landing in Gallipoli in 1915. He survived and was awarded a Military Medal. He finally returned home, married and raised his family. He wouldn’t talk about his experiences and I don’t ever remember him watching a war movie. It must have been so, so horrible. We found out after he died how brave he had been. I’m very proud of him. Below is some information about one of the medals he was awarded and the badge he wore.
The History of ANZAC badge “A”
In November 1917, AIF orders authorised the wearing of a small badge in the form of the letter “A” on unit colour patches to denote that the wearer had taken part in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign. It was later prescribed that the badge would be a brass letter three-quarters inch high. A further order, in January 1918 extended the eligibility to service “on the islands of Lemnos, Imbros, and Tenedos, on the transports or hospital ships at or off Gallipoli or these islands or in the AIF line of communications units from Egypt”. It is interesting to note that this final addition embraced the work of the Australian Army Nursing Service so that both men and women were acknowledged as “the ANZACs”.
Military Medal
The British Government issued a medal for gallantry, available to all Commonwealth Troops. The Military Medal was issued to soldiers of the Commonwealth who displayed a degree of bravery which was worthy of an award. This medal was instituted in 1916, March. It was the medal to be the equivalent of the Officer’s medal, the Military Cross.
LEST WE FORGET.
Well I haven’t made a card for quite a while and I’ve definitely lost the knack at the moment. This is the card I’ve made for a dear friend of my mother.
“Not happy Jan” I think it is the plain pink card, not sure but it isn’t quite right. It will have to do otherwise I’ll be late for her birthday.
The fake handkerchief has worked well and the butterflies are cute – but still no….
I do like the inside of the card.
I’m thinking that I had better get some practice in and start entering some competitions again. Challenges always seem to make me work harder on a project. Today I’m going to try to get the house back into some sort of order and then I’ll look around for a challenge to “challenge” me.
Bye for now,
No I’m not going to bore you with more family photos but I do have a couple of photos of the poppies and medals I made for the family lunch to celebrate the ANZACs.
Firstly I made some poppies which were free on-line at tinyme.com.au (Facebook) –
I adhered them to the top of serviette rings.
I also made some quick and easy medals for my family 😕
These photos were taken at the end of the day, so they are a little worse for wear. I made them in 2 sizes, some for adults and some for kids.
While they were here dh took everyone up to see the pumpkins he has grown and are now ready to harvest.
This shot shows you a couple of different types of pumpkins – talk about the large and small of it. You can see from this photo that our hot weather has definitely left us and we are certainly well into Autumn.
Bye for now,
Months ago a well-known soft-drink manufacturer brought out a smaller can size. I bought one dozen. I haven’t seen them in the supermarket since and I can only assume that they weren’t popular so have been discontinued. They were such a cute size that I didn’t want to just put them in the recycling bin, surely I could use them for a project. Well here is what I came up with –
Are you laughing? Yes I’m probably crazy but I think they are cute. They are skittles for my grandchildren to play with.
I love their faces. Each one is slightly different. Just like us, they all have different reactions to the thought of being “bowled over”.
The one with its tongue poking out is my favourite. My family has a “gene” ? which makes some of us poke our tongue out when we are concentrating 🙄 – not saying who!
I’ve placed a bell in each can so when they fall they will jingle. Their hats are made from styrene balls which were cut in half.
The skittles will be tested on Sunday when 3 of the grandies come for lunch.
Bye for now,
Today I’ll show you a card which I made months ago but hadn’t put on the blog. I have someone who is going overseas in a few month’s time. They’re not going to Africa but I don’t think the destination matters so much as the wonderful experience of travelling.
Has anyone seen the bookmarks in the magazine I was talking about in the last post? If you have you might notice that I have used digital stamps from the same set on this card.
I “fussy cut” the ferns and both little cuties. This is one of my favourite techniques.
For the setting sun I just punched a circle from some scrap card and daubed orange and yellow ink over the hole. When it was dry I covered it with glitter. The effect is much prettier in “real life” I think.
Hope you enjoyed today’s card.
You might wonder why I haven’t been posting as often recently, well I’m working on a couple of small projects for my family. It is ANZAC day next week so this weekend our family are having an ANZAC lunch. I’ve been making a few decorations, etc. which I hope everyone will enjoy. When I have finished them I should be back to normal (?) with my blogging.
This has taken me a long time to post because I’m playing around with a new Photo Editing package. What do you think, does it make any difference? I’m not sure.
Bye for now,
I’m sooo excited and I just have to tell someone….. I’ve had some of my cards, well bookmarks in this case, PUBLISHED. This is the first time I’ve submitted some work to a magazine so I’m thrilled that they are finally in print.
The magazine is the Australian Cardmaking & Papercraft Vol 19 #5.
Here is a little sneak peek –
I used some cute stamps from Cuddly Buddly.
I hope it doesn’t sound as if I’m boasting, I just think I’m so lucky and the magazine has done such a lovely job of the layout. The magazine is available NOW 🙂
Well now I think I’d better take a seat and calm down.
Bye for now,
As I’ve mentioned before, I love making baby cards and I am so happy with this one I had to post it straight away, even before I have delivered it.
This card is for the grandparents of the baby boy. When they received the news that their first grandchild was on the way they were so thrilled and happy for their son and daughter-in-law and over-the-moon that they would soon have a dear grandson to spoil cuddle & kiss.
This style of card is just right for a doting grandparent don’t you think. Lacey, flowery and sweet. I thought a welcome to the “grandparent club” was in order so made this for them.
If you read my blog regularly you will have seen this beautiful digital stamp before. It is from Sugar Nellie “Bambino”. The card base is made from a Spellbinders die “Floral Ovals” and the scalloped frame is a die from Fancy that “Dotty Doily Duo”
a new baby
is like the beginning of all things:
wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities.
Bye for now,
I don’t have a card to show you today but I do have some cute Easter hunt photos of 3 of my grandchildren.
Do you notice the number of eggs in the baskets? It seems that the older you get the more eggs you find (I hate to think what size basket I would need to hold all the eggs I would collect for my age :lol:). From left to right their ages are 1½, 2½ and 3½. Happy little sweeties. I should assure you that they wouldn’t eat all the eggs themselves, parents and grandparents were more than happy to help out. Some of the eggs were plastic and had healthy treats inside and there were also fluffy chickens to help fill their baskets.
This basket has already been attacked and the result is pure joy.
The wonder of it all. I think that is number 10.
Am I missing any? I’d better keep looking.
See you soon with another baby card.
Bye for now,
Making baby cards is always great fun but when you are making them for a new member of your extended family it is just pure joy. Welcome dear baby boy.
Congrats to mum and dad.
I know that Nanna and Gramps are thrilled.
I’m not so sure how their “fur babies” are feeling about the interloper but I know they will still get plenty of love.
I have added a few little pearls since I took the photo (sometimes I’m just a bit to keen to take a photo and add a new post).
The lovely stamp is from Jane’s Doodles. The dp is from Authentique “Fresh”.
Bye for now,
It is my dm’s 90th birthday tomorrow 2 April. A great effort don’t you agree. It is difficult to buy something special enough for such a great age. She loves chocolate but we always bring a block (or 2) when we visit so I thought perhaps a nice/special card might help make the clothing present a little more interesting.
The exploding box I made is totally based on wonderful creations from this blog. I am in love with these beautiful little paper goodies, so don’t be surprised if you see more of them from me over the next few months.
Once you remove the lid this is what you find inside. I stamped, coloured, and attached butterflies to fine acetate strips. The butterflies seem to flutter when the box explodes open. Can’t really catch the prettiness with photos so you might have to make one for yourself :D.
Well I hope you didn’t eat too many chocolate eggs over the weekend but did enjoy the holiday with family/friends.
Bye for now,
As soon as I spotted this stamp I just knew that I had to buy it. I was already imagining the card I would make and who it would be for. A bit of an impulse buy but so pleased that I bought it.
The stamp is from Art Impressions “UM4102 – Happy Birthday to the Lawn Ranger”
It is a centre fold card. Click here if you would like to see another centre fold card I’ve made with links to tutorials.
We usually just give a block of chocolate or similar for birthday presents but I know they are trying not to eat chocolate at the moment so I had to think of a new idea. His favourite cake is “Madeira” so I made a couple of mini cakes. Had to test the first one because I hadn’t made this before. DH assured me it was nice – good, gift problem solved. I didn’t have to ice it because DH said that the “birthday boy” doesn’t like icing on it and that as children he would give my dh the icing off the cakes to eat.
I bought a plastic container to package it in – not very pretty so of course I had to decorate it.
Luckily the cake fitted perfectly. Here is the finished ensemble.
He seemed pleased with the card and cake. Hope he is enjoying it.
Happy Birthday dear Lawn Ranger, Happy Birthday to you. Hi ho silver power rider and away!
Bye for now,
One of my little grandchildren is coming out with “TA -DAH” now when he talks to me, I think it is so cute. So with that in mind here is my next batch of Easter carrot packaging TA-DAH –
I showed my dh the project without the tag and he had no idea what I was making but I’m pretty sure they look a bit like carrots 🙄
I made quite a few because they are not complicated. They are basically “sour cream” packets with green strips added at the top. Here is a video showing how to make the “sour cream” part. (There are lots of tutorials out there if you don’t like this one). Just remember to put your leaves in the top before you seal it. My leaves were made by folding some dp in half and cutting strips leaving 1 or 2 cm uncut at the bottom. As you can see in the photo I actually sewed the top together.
I think I will have 1 more post before Easter and then a couple of days break.
Bye for now,
Yesterday I received an email from a dear friend (through the blog). This is part of the email –
You posted a tutorial for making an easel card on your blog a little while ago, and I thought you’d like to see my first attempt at making one. The butterflies and background are all cut from the one sheet of paper.
Such a pretty card. I am so happy. Since I have started my blog I’ve been fortunate to get to know some terrific people and have been able to share and swap ideas, it definitely is my “happy place”.
If anyone else has some cards to share I would love to see them. I know there are some out there, but due to “technical difficulties” (darn computers and all their secrets :lol:) I am still in suspense (you know who you are ;)).
Any way enough talk and a big THANK YOU to Julie.
Bye for now,
When I went to my local scrapbooking store (the Imagination Factory) last week I noticed their class for Easter themed bits and bobs – for children and that reminded me I have several triangle box templates which have been offered free on the internet. So I have made 3 “carrots” to go along with the bunny card I made a few days ago.
I filled them with orange and white M&M’s. Cute hey!
Here are some photos along the production line –
I cut out the template using apricot Bazzill. Drew the template again on some dp from Basic Grey “Life of the Party” and cut it slightly smaller . I then ran the paper through my “crimper”.
I used some lovely lime Bazzill card to make the leaves of the carrot.
Here they are with the bunny card, I think they make a cute ensemble.
Here is where my free template came from so thank you Amber. CLICK HERE.
Bye for now,
I’ve found a new, for me, challenge blog “A Blog Named Hero”and I thought I would enter their current challenge. It is challenge # 22 and the theme is “Free Style“ – make something using Hero Arts. Here is my attempt –
The background is a Hero Arts cling stamp “Poinsettia Circle” which I’ve heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I then swirled 4 different Ranger Distress Inks over the embossing for a pretty background. The stamp would usually be used for Christmas cards but I think it worked well for a “spring” type card.
The bunny (I wish they looked a bit happier) and butterfly clear stamps are also from Hero art and the set is “Sending Happy Thoughts”. I’ve coloured them with Copics.
The fence punch is from Martha Stewart and the grass die is from The Cat’s Pajamas. The card base is made from Spellbinder dies. The sentiment is from A Muse stamps. It is times like this that I appreciate that I am a bit of a craft hoarder ‘cos I found the cute little flowers at the very bottom of my flower stash and they match the theme perfectly I think.
This card is for a family of 3 little girls, twins and their big sister. Keep watching over the next couple of days for the gift packaging I am making to go with the card.
Bye for now,
Cards & Co
Cards & Co 