Friday Smiles at Annie's

Hullo there everyone ..well it's Friday again :D but it is picture heavy ..

 A quick post... wanted to catch up for Annie's Friday's Smiles so sharing some smiles for you... from various sources.

YOU CAN DO THIS DAD!!!!

A friend posts a reminder every Friday on card group to which I belong, so am reminding myself here.. I have been better at it, since she has been doing it :D

Now wanted to share my garden today as Spring is well and truly here - and love it .. so very fragrant, and all! And I love my roses, so sharing them with you..

"Fiona's Wish", named after the lass who is youngest heart recipient at 14 years, and raises money for heart foundation. A very spicy sweet fragrance, one of the three new roses planted in late July... other two are in bud also. :D

"My Choice",  very fragrant sweet rose, I struck this bush from original plant which was brought from our old home town in early 1970's.

" Pink Queen Elizabeth" planted in early 1970's, and "Yoki San" is the fragrant white rose.

Very fragrant Sweetpeas, this is half of bunch I picked, my sister had the other half. A new bunch every three days, aren't they grand?

Bunch picked from garden yesterday .. too many varieties to name. if you wanted a strong yellow rose with fragrance in Australia the one here is great it is called, Dr Verhage.

 What better way to see the handiwork of our God than in flowers .. look at the beautiful robes they wear before us? as Jesus said in the gospels they are a reminder how God will care for us if we but ask Him. (see Matt 6:25->)

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Thanks so much every one for popping over for a peek as chat, may God bless your day wherever you may be!  Shaz in Oz.x

Christmas Card Duo from LOTV

Well, popping in with another quick post .. there are few challenges want to enter. 

It's the 25th of the month today so that is Sarn's Christmas challenge over here 

.. and over at Squirrel's, she is having a Penguin Challenge 

and Darnell has another *NBUS Challenge, I might just manage to sneak into! 

as well as Miss' playground of Snippets and Word Art Wednesday, wow think that is record for me!!

here is my humble offering... a LOTV Cute square set on my desk yesterday bought absolutely ages ago dont think they are made now. Called "Christmas Animals - decorations", and not used yet at all.

So here have inked up with ink dusters and ink the dies while still in the die, to give nice white outline. The lovely Bible verse is one of Karen who does the free Word Art Wednesday digi Bible verse each week and bought the Christmas digi set from her Etsy shop today, very cheaply at $4 for 10 digis. I like my Christmas cards to reflect the Real Reason for the Season and loved this verse in particular.
Used CB snowflake EF, Spellbinder dies, Scalloped Labels 1, and Labels 4, bling and ribbon on one of them also some glitter on both but you cant see that. The NBUS was the LOTV squares and snippets from silver.

So everyone two more cards ready for the 25th December, 2014 - so that has to be good!

Thanks so much every one for popping over for a peek as chat, may God bless your day wherever you may be!  Shaz in Oz.x 

*NBUS - is "Not Used Before Schtuff" according to Darnell :D

WOYWW + Spellbinders Tool in One - does it work?

Hullo there everyone, well another quick post to link over to WOYWW for those not in the know it is What is On Your workdesk Wednesday.. pop over to our Julia's desk at the Stamping Ground!

Now to my desk: 

Okay few things going on here .. and yes has been tidied, since then putting tools away in my wee drawers is big start. Most of this was left over as card making, but cant share it until after 26th of this month. Also finished last week's"Emily sleeps here" which can post after that as well.. on left middle are three digis of a lady golfer, which am going to make into a 80th card for my aunty, found the digi cartoon image on web. The dog with "Be Still and know that I am God" digi inserted in on Word doc. then printed is Nicecrane dog digi is a freebie (here) from Nicecrane over on Brenda's of "Floral Fantasies". 
Centre: LOTV images I have dug out from my Christmas bag. Cut one on die and coloured it some more to highlight. It is penguin image and saw Squirrel had a Penguin Challenge, plus it is Sarn's Rudolph day tomorrow so need to get into gear for that. The Memory Box dies were used on Emily's card and about to put them away. Had an idea of multiplying the Piestra tile border die and so cut out three in row (was very easy to line up) and going to try making it into oval like saw on Magpies blog last week, with different die admittedly.. see here. So watch this space.. :D

 Also on my desk is the Spellbinder's Tool in One.. now must say it works on non Spellbinder dies best so far.. 

For example that Memory Box Piestra Tile die next to it.. worked a real treat, just do into my little bin as did not buy pad that goes with it.

However the Fleur de Lis Labels 8 Spellbinder it was mostly just using pricking end and already had pricking tool. At least it is was not too expensive, otherwise it would still be not chez moi... still holding out on recommending it completely though - interested if anyone else has tried it yet?

This is a matchstick bromeliad, Aechmea gamosepala, I took this for the photo from Oz today because it shows the two stages of the flower.. when it first comes out which is the centre flower shoot, the ones on either side are it after it has been flowering for few months. "Its blooms are thick bristles of purplish-pink bracts tipped with iridescent blue bead-like flowers."The flower shoots last about four months or so.

Thanks so much every one for popping over for a peek as chat, may God bless your day wherever you may be!  Shaz in Oz.x 

Friday Smiles at Annie's

Hullo there everyone .. 

Well this is one ultra quick post... wanted to catch up for Annie's Friday's Smiles so sharing some smiles for you... from various sources.

 A tiny bit of Oz from my garden.. this begonia is totally neglected yet bountifully repay every year with such blooms, now that makes me smile.

May this be my goal each day that I am alive.." let your light so shine before men they they may see your good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven." our minister used to pray this at the of each service when I was a teenager, and it still sticks in my brain many many years later :D.

Sort and sweet that is all from me today ... 

Thanks so much every one for popping over for a peek as chat, may God bless your day wherever you may be!  Shaz in Oz.x

WOYWW with Zentangle + Calligraphy

Hullo there every one ... well it is desk day and today we have two desks for the price of one! For those not in the know .. the middle of the week is the world wide blog hop called WOYWW or What is On Your workdesk Wednesday.. pop over to our chief's desk for the link up, at Julia's Stamping Ground!

Desk one, yesterday: Am practising the words am going to put on the "Emily sleeps here" I am making ..these were not the ones ending up using but just doing a test run to see what I like. You can see printed sheet which was on my desk few weeks back, which was my guide.

DESK 2: Here is today's desk, and you can see have carefully hidden the work working on for Emily, as they look at my blog, or mummy does :D
Prismacolor pencils are being used on the image, which I am doing on the "Emily sleeps here", it has been inked in with my favourite ink.. and need to buy some more. It is for good work, Higgin's Eternal Black is the name of the ink for those vaguely interested. Favourite practise ink is Calli ink. You use different inks for different scripts too. I am working on a zentangle card on my desk too lower right and it has vellum flower on it as well.

Completed card with Imaginesce Summer flower clear stamp inked up, zentangles .. or whatever you like to call it! I simply did what I wanted, did not follow any books as found there are books on it .. what next, eh? then fussy cut out and laid on inked base card. This is for an Oriental Stamp Art Monthly Challenge to do zentangles, added a kanji lower right corner which is part of a Artneko daffodil atc stamp.

This a doodle which we called it at school - or a chook/ chicken. I did it when in third year at school. Here it is in my scrap book of those days. We had not ever heard of zentagling, nor the micro pens used for it. I did this  with a mapping pen (the finest one in those days) and India ink.

This is my first piece of calligraphy that I still have - the cover off my school folder, also from same period at school. It was also done with the same mapping pen and India ink. Also did one for each of my two sisters - the letters are 3 inches high. see more on my early calligraphy days here

The photos form Oz today are of our local creek where it rather amuses me most days to see this couple with their water loving dog.
"Okay Fetch, boy, fetch! good boy!" Note stick in dog's mouth, this couple throw the stick to their faithful hound, and yes, they throw it all that way into the water..

Thanks so much every one for popping over for a peek as chat, may God bless your day wherever you may be!  Shaz in Oz.x

Linking the card up to:

1. Di's Snippety challenge - Used  a number of snippets on card. http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com.au/

2..Word Art Wednesday - anything goes    http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com.au

Butterfly Challenge - Come to the Ugly Bug Ball!

Hullo everyone .. over at the Butterfly Challenge there is another new fortnightly challenge this week. Mrs A. asked me to be Guest Designer again. :D This challenge is in memory of her dear mother. The theme is the Ugly bug ball. To quote Mrs A. :

"One of my childhood memories is of Sunday afternoons. Once the dishes were washed up from lunch Mum would settle down in the lounge and play her records (no such thing as Cd's or cassettes in those days). One of her favourite artists was 'Burl Ives' and I used to sing along to all of the songs. We both loved one  in particular  'The Ugly Bug Ball'. 

 http://m.famousfix.com/p1691289/the-ugly-bug-ball/music-video

(see link above to hear it ... it made me reminisce, indeed!)

This song actually featured in a film with 'Hayley Mills' along with Burl Ives called Summer Magic 1963 and had an animation section of the film that involved all the bugs, bees, butterflies  and flying insects attending the  annual Ball."

To cut a long story short Mrs A. would like to see any type of insect on your project. The more the merrier but one will suffice (bugs,  beetles, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, grass hoppers, wasps, lady birds, etc. ) as long as it has wings it can attend the Ball!

so here is my humble offering ... or two!

This was a real combination card, a baby card. Used Memory Box Nottingham border die, paper pieced it .. (wow! was that tedious, have seen others do it) added bit of bling, the stencil by Kaisercraft, (ink colour and card match better in real life) and added the PB images were embossed, coloured and fussy cut from a "Wonderful Day stamp set" by Penny Black. Corners are filigree by Lala land dies, banner stamp and die by  Stampin' Up.

This extra one was an idea I had .. I love lady beetles but could not find a decent stamp or digi online.. so I cheated! Copied and made my own digi from the Stampin' Up "Bugs and Kisses" set. The greeting is done in Word, and the two wee butterfly were a stamp from and Inkadinkadoo set (97618), added rounded corners, ribbon with triple scoring for a CAS card.
Do flutter over to Mrs A.'s blog and join in this fortnight's Butterfly Challenge!

A very warm welcome to wonderful blogger.. a real newbie...please pop over to their blogs and encourage by joining and commenting on their blogs, Marilyn of Sharing Simple Things and  another Newbie and wonderful Encourager is Jana of Jana's Crafty Escape!
Thanks so much every one for popping over for a peek as chat, may God bless your day wherever you may be!  Shaz in Oz.x

Linking the card up to:

1. Di's Snippety challenge - Used  a number of snippets on card. http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com.au/

2..Word Art Wednesday - anything goes    http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com.au

WOYWW + Alcohol ink on Mirri Card + QuatreFoil Die

Hullo there everyone.. well, another "desky" share as it is Wednesday again!! and that means the great worldwide Blog-hop around desks of the world for WOYWW or What is On Your workdesk Wednesday.. pop over to our chief's desk for the link up, at Julia's Stamping Ground!

So here is my desk.. okay messy as usual, it has been tidied a tad since then. I seem sometimes to work with items all around me as like things to be handy.. or that is my excuse! and yes, monkeys always live there. At the back right just near monkeys is a lovely butterfly brass stencil - a prize won over at Mrs A's butterfly challenge. So I am chosen again this week to be Guest Designer over at the butterfly challenge which starts at 8am GMT today .. so will be posted very soon (see here). The two cards I did for it are at the very back with butterflies on them, but mostly hidden from view. To the right is the quatrefoil die which I show below too. At front is card working on last night, some alcohol re-inkers to colour some mirri card -> see larger blue sheet behind (used a a scrunched up piece of cling wrap which had been slightly moistened to spread the ink under the plastic and blended the colours). See complete card below. Glue stick is to attach unmounted stamp on ink block.

My latest crafty purchase was quatrefoil die from Papertrey in USA.. first time buying with them. I found they have their own dies at more reasonable prices. I have been wanting the Our Daily Bread Quatrefoil die for ages now .. but it's $US29.95 plus $12.00 post to Oz, so that is about $46 Aussie. Now this one though not as fancy is $US16.95 and $9.95 post cost.. so less $30 Aussie - much more reasonable than ODB by long shot. If you look on this Pinterest page of mine you will see plans for future cards and also see the difference between Papertrey and more detailed ODB die. Here on my desk last night I am making some Christmas card bases... with different papers.

This is card for OSA(Oriental Stamp Art) covering two in one. It's for a Tic Tac Toe Oriental mingle and also the OSA layout challenge. This week is this design, so did them together! The diamonds at top were to be done with 3/4" punch, as dont have one cut them by hand. It is mirri iridescent card inked with alcohol inks and when dry, embossed with Oriental cuttlebug folder. Distressed card to bring out silver shell pattern. Stamps are from Artneko, Woodcut Panda walking and kanji, the bamboo,a bought die cut. The three elements of Tic Tac Toe were Panda, Kanji, and Dragonfly... absentmindedly last night thought it was bamboo for last element, but thankfully this Hero Arts small dragonfly stamp came to the rescue.

As you know from last weeks post it is now spring in Oz... and this the front garden. This  Leptospermum Cardwell is magnificent...similar to NZ teatree bush. Next to it is Superb Grevillea. If you want to see (and hear) some more Aussie birds have two magnificent kingfishers or laughing kookaburras on Annie's Smiles post below. Gods creation is so wonderful!

I want to just quickly welcome a new Wonderful Encourager of this blog.. please pop over to Coleen in Ukraine ... and pray for peace that land, too (read this post for latest.. very concerning http://franksukraine.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/russian-invasion-by-jeff-franks.html).

Thanks so much every one for popping over for a peek and a chat, may God bless your day wherever you may be!  Shaz in Oz.x  

 Also want to join card over with:
1. Di's Snippety challenge - Used snippets on card.   http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com.au/
2.Word Art Wednesday - anything goes    http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com.au

Happy Fathers Day, Dad! + Annie's Friday Smiles.

Hullo there everyone.. well its is Father's Day on Sunday in Australia, and so made this card for my dear dad. I showed it on my desk on post below. I did two images but used the one on rough card for dad's .. coloured the digi with Ink dusters and dye inks, and  Prismacolor pencils. The Spellbinder is labels 8, one of my first dies and still a favourite. The spot paper is a digi one, free on my Pinterest, and I printed it off for another card and had some left. Greeting is also digi, on a snippet printed in word with old typewrite in free Dafont script.

As today is Friday am going to link over for Annie's Friday Smile, over here!

So here are your smiles folks.. first few are courtesy of facebook!

I totally loved this one being a school teacher...

 Then the next one is from my backyard... this is called colloquially the laughing Jackass or the Kookaburra.  If you want to know what their laugh is like .. listen here ...I tried to get these ones laughing but they weren't feeling territorial. They are of the kingfisher family, these are about thirty feet from the back door where I took this shot.

Gods handiwork is amazingly beautiful ... hope it brought some smiles to your face!

Happy Smiles day everyone!! 

and may God richly bless your day wherever you may,

Shaz in Oz.x

Linking the card up to:

1. Di's Snippety challenge - Used  a number of snippets on card. http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com.au/

2..Word Art Wednesday - anything goes    http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com.au

WOYWW, Blue Wrens and Spring is here!

Hullo everyone .. yes another middle of the week has whooshed into view! It seems to have come extra fast this week cos extra busy... for the uninitiated Wednesday means WOYWW ~ or What is On Your Workdesk Wednesday, over at world wide desk hostess Julia’s blog - here!

Okay working on three cards here... its Father's Day in Oz this weekend so the ship card is for dad.. It is is digi printed on two different card ... smooth and rough paper.. and definitely like the one on right which is rough. have put in clouds with the cloud mask there on centre left, used mainly ink brushes to colour the image, with some coloured pencils. On the right are some more digis (all these are free over at Ginny's blog here.. just scroll down)... The digi paper is on this week's post but the old fashioned rose frame and the ship are a few weeks back now. The butterflies at the back are on this weeks post as it s the little girl picking flowers.

 As nothing else is going on much will share some pickies from Oz, on my walk two days ago now. About 5 mins from here:

A windsurfer

Blue wren's birds eye view... this is the male of the species, they eat insects... and are really tiny taken on big zoom as they are very shy.

This is the female Fairy wren, also called a Jenny wren... they love it down here near the beach as there are low growing spiky bushes which they love to hide in. I took a great video of him playing "hide and seek" but have to relearn how to edit.. before sharing it.

The first bunch of flowers for spring on first day of spring .. 1.9.14. My first rose it is called Delores and always think of Cardarian when I see it, with lavender, sweetpeas, double white gerbera, with grevillea for greenery.

Thanks so much every one for popping over for a peek and a chat, may God bless your day wherever you may be!  Shaz in Oz.x