Oh Alice ... CHAPTER 41 :: Off with their heads

`Let's go on with the game,' the Queen said to Alice; and Alice was too much frightened to say a word, but slowly followed her back to the croquet-ground.

The other guests had taken advantage of the Queen's absence, and were resting in the shade: however, the moment they saw her, they hurried back to the game, the Queen merely remarking that a moment's delay would cost them their lives.

All the time they were playing the Queen never left off quarrelling with the other players, and shouting `Off with his head!' or `Off with her head!' Those whom she sentenced were taken into custody by the soldiers, who of course had to leave off being arches to do this, so that by the end of half an hour or so there were no arches left, and all the players, except the King, the Queen, and Alice, were in custody and under sentence of execution.

So Welcome back to the land of wonder and where the saying, 'Off with her head' is a regular statement! Well here in wonderland this week, that is exactly what we want you to do. This week we want you to take your stamps and yep you guessed it,'Off with their heads'. So we are asking you to alter your stamps and mix it up a little by giving them a new head or body. Ohhh this is going to be sooo much fun seeing what you come up with!!!

Pop on over to Oh Alice blog and see the wonderous beheading from the DT!!

For my card I have stamps from The Greeting Farm - I used the head of Rock the Farm Anya with the body of Cheeky Mate :) I think she turned out quite cute!

I stamped the images in Rich Cocoa Memento ink and coloured her with Copics.. I like the softness of the brown ink.
Copics used:
Skin - E000, E00, E11, boots - W1, 3, 5, 7, chocolate spica, hair: E21, 23(custom), 25,27,29, reds: R24, 27,79,59, garnet spica, Blues - B91, 93, 95,97, grey ground: multiliner 0.2, c1, c3, c5, shadow - B60

Farm Fresh Friday :: December previews in a sketch

Good afternoon!! It's FRIDAY so time for Farm Fresh Friday at The Greeting Farm .. yipee!!
Today you are in for a real treat... we are previewing the December Critters.. and boy are they cute... 4 adorable images by Marina this month!

FFF is a beautiful sketch by Mercy and I am using Timmy and Penny present!!

Hop on over to the Greeting Farm blog to see the rest of the team's gorgeous creations (There is a fun new Sprout being previewed by the Farmers and Club Anya girls) and why not play along.. it is a FUN sketch :)

You can also check out the Critter crew previews on their blogs as follows:

Heather Schlatter

Jacqueline Nordaune

Jennifer Royal

Kristine Reynolds

Margie Cortina

Sammi Betbeder {Me}

Shaela Odd

Tangii Crain

Thanks for stopping by! Take care,

New rubbah coming to Spesch

Whoo hoo ... Great news today at SPESCH STAMPS ... There is some new rubbah on it's way across to us here in Oz... some GORGEOUS unicorn stamps!! You won't want to miss these as they are so lovely! Here's a sneaky peak at a card (part of it) that I made with one of the images...

Tracey is celebrating with a preorder of these two stamps (check out the Spesch Stamps blog to see both images) They will be on a special preorder price of $8US. Find them in the store HERE and HERE!

Happy birthday Shell :D

I made this card for my big sis ... it was her birthday on Tuesday and we went out for yummy Thai to celebrate!! I thought this Lil Lolita - Ivy (from Tickled Pink stamps) looks a little like her... and she wears similar funky dresses and boots... so perfect!!!

The colours I used are: E000, E00, E11, B12, 14, 16, BV02, 04, 08, C1,3,5,7,10 + White gel pen

Thanks for stopping by... It's so crazy at the moment isn't it... lots going on... Am hoping to get some blog reading/ hopping/ commenting done this weekend! Wish me luck :D

the Lollipop Ladies :: Chocolate cupcakes

Time for another Lollipop Ladies Challenge and this time we would love for you to use this gorgeous chocolate cupcake image as your inspiration and we'd also like to see some swirls on your project!

So here is mine..

I have used a gorgeous Stamping Bella stamp that I got from Marcia earlier in the year (THANKS hun) and also a sweet little swirly cupcake from Hero Arts. I've used some more beautiful paper from my Mariposa DCWV stack and coloured the images with Copics, adding swirly doodling with my Chocolate spica pen! I stamped the image in rich Cocoa... I think I like the softer look so might have to do some more of those.

Hop on over to The Lollipop Ladies to see the wonderfully scrummy DT creations!!


Colours used:
E0000, E000, E00, E11, R000, R11, R12, E23(custom-made), E25, E27, E29, E71, 74, 77, 79
ink - Memento Ink- Rich Cocoa

Oh Alice ... Chapter 40 :: Hooka are you??

"Who are YOU?" said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, "I--I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,Chapter 5

Welcome to the mad world of Wonderland! Once again we are here to inspire you to create great things! The Caterpillar (Absalom) was the wisest creature in Wonderland. At least he thought so, and so did most of the others.

He is a fascinating character because of his wisdom, and his lack of understanding metamorphosis. Kind of a weird oxymoron, don't you think? Our challenge this week is to use either a caterpillar or a butterfly in your project. If you'd like to go one step farther, use a definition or dictionary paper in your design (any subject is fine).

If you are fortunate, you may find yourself wisely winning your choice of three 4x6 reprints from our sponsor, Maigan Lynn Beaudoin Shaw. FanTASTic!! Maigan is such a delightful artist, and the team appreciates the chance to work with one of her images! Here's my inspiration using Maigan Lynn's Mad Fancy image

Remember, you have all week to play this challenge! Link your project to the Oh Alice! Challenge blog and HAVE FUN! You have until Friday Nov. 26th at 11:59 CST to get inky and enter to win! Happy creating!!

Alicia Rose 19/11/09 - 25/11/09

{Please scroll down for my Farm Fresh Friday post}

I made this card for a gorgeous friend of mine, Kaz and her hubby, Dave... I have not met her but we chat often on facebook and she has been a great support to me in the past year with the rollercoaster journey of IVF etc... Some of the friends I made through the IVF friends forum have become wonderful friends and I am so thankful for their love and support. I want to share with you some of their story... and help to raise some awareness of CDH* (Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia)

This beautiful couple had been trying to conceive for a number of years and when they tried IVF it was successful and they were blessed with a gorgeous baby daughter - Alicia Rose.
Sadly this little princess was diagnosed with CDH and born prematurely ... "Alicia suffered the more severe case of CDH. Her left side wasn't attached to her ribs at all, she had a large gaping hole, causing her vital organs to leak through. Thus causing problems her lungs couldn't grow properly. She had one decentish lung and one smaller lung. She was battling it hard with that and prematurity diseases too"... Devastatingly Alicia was taken from this earth but lives on in the hearts and minds of family and friends.. she has touched the hearts of many!!

Today was Alicia's first "angel-versary" and a day to celebrate her life - remembering and giving thanks for her. I know it's been a hard day for her parents and my heart and prayers have been with them. Please remember Kaz and Dave (and other children and families affected by CDH) in your thoughts and prayers too!!

*"Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) occurs in approximately 1 in every 2,500 births (1,600 cases in the U.S. each year). The cause of CDH is not yet known. The diaphragm is formed in the first trimester of pregnancy and controls the lungs' ability to inhale and exhale. CDH occurs when the diaphragm fails to form or to close totally and an opening allows abdominal organs into the chest cavity. This inhibits lung growth. 1 in 2500 babies is diagnosed with CDH. With a 50% survival rate, 800 of those babies will die.Today, and every day, at least 4 families will be devastated with the news of CDH".
WEBSITE - CHERUBS



-Quotes are from Kaz's facebook site in honour of Alicia!

Farm Fresh Friday :: A Sparkly Birthday

Good Afternoon... I'm sorry I am LATE with todays post.. didn't think I would be out all day and thought I'd get a chance to post but not :( Anyway .. It's time for a Farm Fresh Friday with The Greeting Farm and the challenge this week is to create a SPARKLY BIRTHDAY card!


I used the gorgeous Pinto Pony for my card today .. coloured with Copics AND LOTS of SPICA to make her sparkle!! It's hard to photograph sparkles.. but they are showing up here with the flash on :D

Pop on over to The Greeting Farm BLOG to see all the info YOU need to play along with us!! And don't forget to check out the rest of the Design teams - Critter Crew + Farmer resplendant creations ..

CRITTER CREW:

Heather Schlatter

Jacqueline Nordaune

Jennifer Royal

Kristine Reynolds

Margie Cortina

Sammi Betbeder {Me}

Shaela Odd

Tangii Crain

FARMERS:

Melyssa Connolly

Mercy Kerin

Randi Wall

Tammy Maxvill

Emma Eads-November Guest Farmer

Jessica Diedrich

Anya gets sketchy on the background

Hi everyone,

This card is JUST for fun... does not happen too much these days but I have managed to do one! LOL! I followed the beautiful Jen's sketch from Club Anya and Friends - HERE
and I also finally managed to give Anna Maria's background masking a go.. OOPS I stamped my music notes (thanks Em for those!!) upside down! lol

Here's my card! I think this Miss Anya is still one of my favs :D

Thanks for stopping by!


Colours used: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R11, Hat/ shoes, Shirt: V12, 15, 17, BG000, 11, 13, 15, R81, 83, 85, Pants: B91, 93, 97, Hair: E13, 15, 17, 18

Miss Anya Lounge trials thick Neenah

I'm sharing a single layer card that I made with some Neenah cardstock I am trying out...
It does feather out a little more than my favourite paper (X Press blending card) so you need to have a much lighter hand and not work the colour too hard BUT what I love is that because it's thicker you can have a single layer card and the colour will not bleed through all the way to the back as it does on thinner card.


I used Miss Anya Lounge (The Greeting Farm) whom I bought through Marcia at The Stamp Spot :D

Wondering if any of my overseas friends have used the thicker Neenah card and what you think???

I'm an Inkette - Yipee

{{This is my 2nd post today .. scroll down for my Spesch Stamps - Harry Potter new release post!}}

Wow - I got a nice surprise today!! I made the team for the New Inspirational Inkettes - how exciting!! The rest of the team members are as follows ...
Marley
Tanya
Annette
Lorraine
Joey
Giovanna
Guest DT Members:
Vicki
Sonya (Flati)
Ria
Sandie
Alberto
I Can't wait to work with you all and also to work with the gorgeous Inky stamps!!

In celebration I thought I'd share a card I made with 'Lili's cleaning day'... Thanks to Annette for stamping her up for me :D

The Boy who Lived!!

Good morning!! Spesch Stamps have a very special release for you today! in honour of the soon to be released movie we have some Harry Potter inspired stamps designed by the very talented Eirini!
I think they are just awesome and so had to make a few creations!

the first is a set of 4 bookmarks!

Then I used the same images but blew them up larger and cropped just their heads as I wanted to see them a little better and I picked out some quotes/ captions appropriate for the characters.

Harry was known as "the boy who lived"

Ron saying "Accio brain" For any muggles out there... Accio is the summoning spell

and Hermione on her little quest to help the house elves with her
Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare

There are a couple more images too... there were the three main characters "on the run" hence the stubble .. I printed them off quite large too - so not a lot of room for much else on the card (the size is A5) :D There is also a baddies stamp (but I have not used that one!)

Pop on over to Spesch Stamps to see all the other AWESOME creations from the DT who joined in and the fabulous Debbie P who returned to join us in these previews!

Have a great day!

Oh Alice ... CHAPTER 39 :: Nothin' but Tea and Time ...

"Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. `I don't quite understand you,' she said, as politely as she could.

`The Dormouse is asleep again,' said the Hatter, and he poured a little hot tea upon its nose.

The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without opening its eyes, `Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself.'

`Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.

`No, I give it up,' Alice replied: `what's the answer?'

`I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter.

`Nor I,' said the March Hare.

Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better with the time,' she said, `than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.'

`If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you wouldn't talk about wasting IT. It's HIM.'

`I don't know what you mean,' said Alice.

`Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. `I dare say you never even spoke to Time!'"

Greetings friends in Wonderland!

Today we have a fun challenge for you based on a lovely inspiration piece that the Mad Hatter herself just might "need" one of these days!

But first, a BIG warm WONDERLAND welcome to Tracy Evans, our November/December Guest! Tracy has wow'd us with her projects for a while and we are thrilled to have her here at our Twisted Table.

This week, we have an inspiration piece, again from one of Jess's favorite designers, Tarina Tarantino (Shown above).

It LOOKS like a watch, but in this case, the face of "Father Time" is the Mad Hatter himself. We can just see him, shouting out from this beautiful piece and startling it's owner "YOU HAVEN'T EVEN MET TIME!". Boy, it sure feels like that some days..time simply moves TOO QUICKLY to catch!

Here is my card.. using the Mad Hatter by Mo Manning ...

Have a bedazzler of a time this week, creating after this piece! Until next week...

Please check out all the wonderful DT creations on the Oh Alice! challenge blog :)

Recipe:
image - Hatter by Mo Manning
cardstock: Xpress It, Creative Memories, DCWV
embellishments: stickers (CM)
coloured with Copics as below -
Skin: E000, E00, E33, E30
Hair: E13, E15
Purples: V09, V12, 15, 17,
Yellows: Y21, 28, 38
Reds: R24, 27, 29, 89
BGs: BG05, 07, 09
+ C1, C3, C5, C7, E33, E35, R81, R83, R85, W3, W5, B000, B0000

Farm Fresh Friday :: Scrapbook Sketch

Good afternoon! It's Friday yay .. and so time for a Farm Fresh Friday Scrapbook challenge
at The Greeting Farm!

There is a lovely sketch to follow.. this was pretty hard for me who is really not that used to scrapping these days.. funny from someone who used to be a Creative Memories demonstrator but that's how it goes... anyway.. here is my take on the sketch.. I have used an older Critter image .. this is Toby Painting :)

and a close up...

Pop on over to The Greeting Farm blog and join in the challenge.. the Prize this week is
I <3 Sweaters .. so well worth it. Also please go and check out the rest of the Design Teams creations...

The Critter Crew:
Heather Schlatter
Jacquie Nordaune
Jenn Royal
Kristine Reynolds
Linda Muhr
Shaela Odd
Tangii Crain
Margie Cortina

The Farmers:
Jessica Diedrich
Mary Giles
Melyssa Connolly
Mercy Kerin
Randi Wall
Tammy Maxvill
Emma Eads (Nov guest)

I've been doing some cleaning...

The last couple of days I have been full on cleaning this unit... mostly the bedrooms.. although the living area also got cleaned up too... Had to find the spare room for people to stay in! hehe!

Also I have been thinking for some time of how to contain my craft area better.. so moved some furniture around.. and this is what we are left with... I have one wall of our bedroom (although don't ask about the craft stuff that is still in the spare room)!

It's still a bit of a mess as I have to sort through the boxes and bags on the left.. but at least it's mostly all together now!



Here's a closer look at my desk... which of course will NEVER look that clean again (until another BIG Spring clean) hehe!

The Lollipop Ladies Challenge #8 :: Jellybeans

Today at The Lollipop Ladies we have announced the new candy stripes.....
We are so pleased to have these ladies on board our team and they are pretty excited too!

Our new candy stripes are...
Michelle, Mel P and Andrea (from Annabelle Stamps) :D

Now... Are you ready for a really big sugar hit??

the inspiration picture this week is of a lovely jar of jellybeans ... and we would also like you to add some gloss

Here is my project...I was inspired by the shapes, the colours AND jellybeans and decided to make a set of mini cards using the beautiful Kei from Spesch Stamps

Here are a couple of close ups to show the glossy accents I used for the GLOSS ...

We would LOVE for you to join us this time... pop on over to The Lollipop Ladies blog to see all the wonderful DT creations and to enter yourself!!

We are excited to have another wonderful Australian business sponsoring us this fortnight ...

Spesch Stamps Christmas release No.2 blog hop...

Welcome to the Spesch Designer Stamps second Christmas release blog hop.
This time around it is the fabulous Max who has designed these gorgeous Christmas
stamps for us. There are five designs to chose from - Surfing Santa, Santa Max, Xmas Tree,
Snowman and Reindeer Kid.

If you have come from The gorgeous Tracey's blog then you are in the right place. If not then please start at the Spesch Stamps blog!!

Today I have used Santa Max and Xmas Tree on my cards - aren't they both fabulous stamps!

Santa Max

Xmas Tree

Your Next stop is the lovely Renkata!

Enjoy the ride. We are giving away some more stamps from this release so please share the love
as your comment may be the lucky one along the hop.

Oh Alice ... CHAPTER 38 :: Tickets Please!

`Tickets, please!' said the Guard, putting his head in at the window. In a moment everybody was holding out a ticket: they were about the same size as the people, and quite seemed to fill the carriage.

`Now then! Show your ticket, child!' the Guard went on, looking angrily at Alice. And a great many voices all said together (`like the chorus of a song,' thought Alice), `Don't keep him waiting, child! Why, his time is worth a thousand pounds a minute!

`I'm afraid I haven't got one,' Alice said in a frightened tone: `there wasn't a ticket-office where I came from." And again the chorus of voices went on. `There wasn't room for one where she came from. The land there is worth a thousand pounds an inch!'

-- Chapter 3, Through the Looking Glass

Greetings friends in Wonderland! We are FULL STEAM AHEAD into November and today's challenge is JUST the ticket! Our ride this week is sponsored by our own Tasha who is generously donating a $15 gift certificate to Stamping Bella (in honor of their cute new Alice stamp) which will be awarded to one randomly selected winning traveler!

But before we get started, there are some changes at our twisted tea party table! We are bidding farewell to longtime design team members Jen and Suzi, so please leave them some extra love as you visit their last Oh, Alice! DT posts. We will really miss their superb talents! Donna, our amazing October guest designer, is stepping up to the table so we are back to our twisted thirteen. Welcome Donna, we are so glad you are staying where it's always time for tea! Be sure to check back next week for to find out who our guest designer will be for the holiday season!

So, do you have YOUR ticket ready for a ride on the Wonderland Express? Our twisted sis Lynne is the conductor this week and she says you can't travel with Oh, Alice! if you don't show us your ticket! You can make a ticket, use a ticket stamp, use a real ticket. Use one ticket or a whole row of tickets! So hop on it and get YOUR ticket ready to take a journey through Wonderland!

Check out all my lovely twisted sisters cards on the Oh, Alice blog!!
Here is my card...
I used the GORGEOUS DCWV Mariposa stack I got from the Paper festival yesterday... one of those paper stacks I LOVE and can barely bear to use! hehe!
Alice is a Mo Manning image.. so sweet isn't she (coloured with E000, E00, E11, R11, E 30, 31, 33, B000, B91, B93, C1) .. and the ticket I made up on my computer - using one of the original Alice images... the one that goes with this piece of text from the story.

Here's a larger version of my ticket and please feel free to take it for yourselves to use :D Just click on it to make it bigger and save to your computer! Would love to see what you use it on!


It's time for you to get those tickets ready so you can travel with us on the Wonderland Express! You don't want to be left behind as this train leaves the station, so enter your new creations by 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 12 using the InLinkz tool below. Good luck, or maybe we should say Bon Voyage, as we can't wait to see where your creations will take us!

FFF :: All tied up!

Good afternoon!! It's time for a Farm Fresh Friday at The Greeting Farm blog - Yipee!!

This week's challenge is to use HEMP, FLOSS or RAFIA on your card!
The winner of the challenge this week will win the new beanie Anya - wow! Such a great prize - you better get crafting friends :D

Here is my sample card using the gorgeous little chipmunk munching on a candycane.. I used Rafia on my card!


Pop on over to The Greeting Farm blog to see all the fabulous creations from The Critter Crew and Farmers this week!!

Thanks for stopping by, sorry I have not been around much this week.. not feeling 100%

The Stamp Spots ning group challenges...

Marcia has started a Ning Group for The Stamp Spot .. a little community with a gallery (great for those who don't have blogs but want to share their scrapping, cards with others... Pretty fun! Well ... she is running some monthly challenges there. And I have made a few cards for inspiration on a couple of the challenges. The first is a colour challenge!

Mmm... this one was VERY hard for me... Greens (Olive, Kiwi) and Blue and White ... ahhh, Not my colours at all and I have not done a lot of green colouring at all... but I found some papers and then I coloured my images to match as close to the colour challenge as I could.. Here are my attempts...

I have used Creeper Thursday .. I really LOVE these Creepers from The Greeting Farm. In case you do not know .. Marcia stocks them in her store - for you fellow aussies :D

The second card I used The sweet boy .. or is he Toxic.. not sure.. anyway, he is from the Sweet & Toxic set (also TGF) This time I went for Green hair :D Tried to keep it fairly simple otherwise.. I always struggle with what Sentiments to include on cards for challenges etc but Guy was most helpful and came up with them for me!!

The last card used Miss Anya lounge (my favourite TGF set just now) and wow! More out of the comfort zone colouring! These are so not my colours haha.. but they had to match the paper I picked out from the DT pack /stack Marcia sent me :D LOL ... this card follows the monthly sketch on the ning group. Pop on over there if you want to join in this fun new community!