Hello everyone!! long time again no posting.. starting to be a common occurrence... but I have lots to share :) There's a new release TODAY at Mad for Markers :)

Whilst at the Papercraft show at Penrith earlier this year I was speaking to a lady about my images and she said she didn't "do cute" and I should do some Steampunk images .. so I  got to studying and sketching .. and here's the result - Today's release... thing is I can't seem to not do cute so we have a couple of cute Steampunkers ...

Here are Taya, Rhys, Brianna and Ryan in their finest Steampunk gear....

and another with Steampunk Rhys AND the Silhouette cut cogs ... I have the silhouette cut file for those cogs ... if anyone wants it send me an email :)

Thanks for stopping by ... The steampunks are now at Mad for Markers HERE :D and I made some stencils too I'm selling in the store! :D

Guy's Birthday

Good morning!! I  hope you are all well.. I am a little tired but it's my own fault as I stayed up too late last night playing LOTRO again. Well I needed to spend some time with my gorgeous hubby who had been working and Synoding for his birthday ... and we couldn't go out so ... We had a birthday party online  :)

Anyways ... I thought I'd share the card I made for him.... Here is my pic of "young Guy" with the lovely fish he caught! Hopefully he'll be able to catch some of these IRL later in the year when we go on holidays :)

 

I won't share my attempt at making cake decorations but if you follow my Instagram you can see it there tee hee! yup ... think I WILL stock to papercrafts after all :D ... It was yummy though.

Enough babbling from me  - Thanks for stopping by ... I'm off to mow the lawn as it's getting rather long and it's quite a nice day for once :D 

what I've been doing recently ....

Well aside from just surviving life and CARING for MIL.... I have had NO Crafting MOJO.. I have a mess in my craft area and it's COLD too... so ...

I've been READING lots on my ipad

I've been DRAWING a little.... 

and otherwise I've been.... (yup a little geeky)

I am TRYING to get Mad for Markers Digi images happening... Hoping to get a little money out of this :D Also I do just LOVE seeing people create with my images... But I need to put more energy into working that all out ... I'm not sure if people actually like what I draw... I must confess I suffer from low self esteem here - thinking my pics aren't really good enough to sell ... Not sure if I've said it before here... but I blame the teacher in 1st Year Drawing at College who told me that my drawings were dirty marks on pieces of paper - Ha... well Here's a couple of cards I've created with some of those dirty marks....

some Winter-y images

Hello!! Wow - I've been a pretty bad blogger again right! Oh well.. thems the breaks... Have been busy with life... such as caring, resting, church, cleaning, washing, playing computer games and well I have done a little bit of craft in there.. and a bit of drawing in there... Have been working on something else too.... OK, so Here's some cards I  should have posted on Monday.... I have a set of Winter images just released at Mad for Markers HERE :D

Here's two of the cards I've made with Winter Taya and Archie :D

Thanks for stopping by... let's see if I can manage to post again this week lol :D


 

almost 1 month later....

Here I am ... I've not been blogging... Had a little break! Had some repite from full time care ... Guy had a bit of time off too which was nice :) We were both a little sick in the holiday and I was not as productive as I would have liked.. but oh well! :D I did NOT have a brak from Instagram lol... here are some snapshots at what I  have posted on there and you can see some of what I've gotten up to...

learnt to crochet... simply!
made my first ever Macarons... from a Zumbo packet mix :)
some colouring and a bit of other crafty bits n bobs
photographing Rainbows.... I think that shows we've had rather a lot of rain lol!
a bit of drawing.... WINTER images coming soon to Mad for Markers :)






I hope to share some cards on here in the next weeks :D

Red's gone pink

Good afternoon,

I have a card to share :D I wanted to colour my "Red" image up in a pink cloak and here's the result! I think Pink and Brown suits her don't you?? She's still free at the moment in the M4M store :) I'm feeling generous this week! tee hee!

I did think it would be kinda funny for a red riding hood-ish image to use this sentiment 

from Give-a-Girl a ....

We've managed to get some respite care booked in down the road for MIL so now I have a busy couple of days ahead and then a nice break where I'm hoping to get some more crafting done!! 

Have a great Wednesday!!!

RED

Hello everyone!!! I hope you had a great weekend!!

I have a shocking headache and not feeling great so I will keep this short...

I've been having fun with this image I drew some time ago but just turned into a Digi in the last week.... She is of course inspired by Little Red Riding Hood... and Rose Red fairytale characters!!! :D I have decided to try and do some more SCENES on A4 size paper... as it's quite fun... I'm still deciding if I  could be able to then sell some as Prints... we'll see :D

This image is available in the Mad for Markers store HERE today and tomorrow FREE :D

Distressed Pirates

Just popping on to share another PIRATE card... yup been on a Pirate Theme lol!! Yeah.. There's still about a day left to enter the current Desert Island Crafters challenge for a chance to win these my hearties :)

I've tried to do them in a Distressy coloured look.... these ones look a bit better in real life though.. shows me I need to get that light tent set up again properly!! :D 

Have a great night! tomorrow I plan to share some of my Origrami prints (Love them!!)

Sammi

Monday mumblings Arrr Matey

Morning! It's MONDAY!! Arrr a new week with new possibilities! So far today I have woken late.. worried that meant it was going to be a bad day as MIL gets worried if no one is up when she wakes... BUT Thanks be to God - SHE slept LONGER :)
2 coffees, breakfast, a nice walk, a completed card later we are sitting here listening to Andre Rieu
(a current favourite - seems music is good therapy for dementia patients :) ... MIL is snoozing and
I am finally blogging... 
It's been a while again... life seems to take over and seems that sickness sis becoming a theme too... I'm on the hunt for some good multivitamins this week as I think Winter is looking :P if the last few week's immunity (or lack of) is anything to go by! I'm also trying to decide what to do with what remains of Mad for Markers  ... should I keep up the resources, should I keep up the Digis ... so many questions ... and also where to take this blog ... How to make the most of my current life situation and use my time best! BIG THINGS ... What I struggle with most I think is comparing myself to others - so I am challenged to be ME and no one else! the question is Who am I really? (Me, no one else) Because I know God's love and Jesus' sacrifice for Me then I know that first and foremost I am a Child of God - living for HIM! After that ?!?!?!? That's the bit I'm still working out.... aside from the obvious bits of being a wife, carer, daughter, sister, grandaughter, aunt etc ... Anyway enough of my mumblings...

Now what's Arrr Matey about???
Here's the card I finished using my Pirate Jacky Hook that I  drew for Mad for Markers' sponsorship of Desert Island Crafters :) I'm having fun colouring up the Pirates in different ways... tomorrow I might share them coloured in a distressy style :)

Oh... The good news is that my MASSIVE clean up of my craft area is almost done... and there is SPARE desk space .... and I have found many coloured images READY to go on cards... so I should have lots of creations coming soon! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Frenchie Leon Friday

Good morning,
Just popping on to share a creation I made yesterday ... this is cute little French boy is Frenchie Leon from Make it Crafty ... I  printed him out at fainter so that the black lines wouldn't be showing... almost the "no lines" technique but not quite.

It is FRIDAY now yay!! looking forward to the weekend! Hope you all have a super weekend!!

Sammi

xoxo

a card and a revelation ...

First up I want to share a card I  made... I was practising the clouds (like Kristy did them) again on this image the other week and I wanted to pop her on a card!! It's a pretty simple one as I thought the image was the major focus... the image is from Saturated Canary.

Here's the card....

 

Now my revelation....

Although I can have the best intentions... I am most terrible at sending cards .... giving them to people I will be seeing a bit better .... I can "mostly"make them no problem... but then they sit around the place and pile up... when I need a card for someone's  birthday etc I have to make them a NEW one I just don't seem to be able to send them ones from the piles... as I feel like they deserve a NEW one made especially for them ... I feel like a bit of a cop out when I don't have the time or energy to make a new card and end up giving one from THE PILE (with that in mind I am way behind on making cards I really do want to send to people still - so tomorrow is CATCH up day) ... but back to THE PILE ... I am going to try and give them out from the pile... and I am working out how to try and sell them ... and I've just had a thought that I will write myself a list of DEFINITE people/ cards I need and then I can premake some .. My Nan used to have a Birthday book.. she would find cards for people throughout the year and then keep them in the book so when it came to the month of the birthday she would be PREPARED. My Nan was and still is THE BEST at sending cards for EVERYTHING ... and I would love to be like that! It shows people that you are thinking of them.. that you care! So I think I just found the PERFECT use for my Purple Pocket SMASH book!! I'm off to do some Birthday SMASH book planning! :D

And it will also mean that I can SCHEDULE cards for blogging too once they are made.. 'cos um there's no way I could show them on my blog before I gave them/ sent them is there!?! :)

Have a lovely Tuesday night!!

 

Mother's Day joys and sorrows

 

a.k.a ... Sammi's Mother's Day rant ...

Good morning everyone. I hope you are well and having a super Sunday! Here in Australia it's Mother's Day and I've just got off the phone from chatting to my lovely Mum :) I am thankful that my sister's and I have a Mum that loves us and has and does continue to care for all of us!!

HAPPY MOTHER's Day to all you Mum's out there... Thanking God for your selfless love and care for your children... I hope that you are having a lovely day! Thanking God for the blessing of children and the joy that comes from being a Mum. Children/ people out there with Mother's in your lives... don't wait for one day of the year to thank them... show them you appreciate them today and everyday!!

For many people Mother's Day is a very painful Day!!

For those who have lost their mothers it's often a painful reminder of grief and loss ... for those whose mothers have not been loving and cared for them as they should it could bring out anger and renew hurt ... for those who have known and lost their children somewhere along the way it's a terribly sad and painful reminder ... for those who have been through infant loss or miscarriage it's heartbreaking ... for those who have suffered infertility and want nothing more than to hold their children in their arms and see them grow up it's so incredibly raw and painful ... for those who are single it's often a reminder of what's so far from their grasp....

Please spare a thought and a prayer for those whom Mother's Day is a day of pain and sorrow... If that is you... I pray that the God of all comfort would surround you with his love and comfort today and fill your day with understanding friends and family!!!

For me Mother's Day is difficult as I wonder what would our little ones that never grew be like if they had of lived... what would we be doing with them today to celebrate the day... it's a stabbing reminder of what will never be! It's something that I live with everyday... I don't just have these thoughts today.. today they are just magnified by the focus on Mother's.

I thought I would give away some free images today ... one to honour Mothers out there and a Flower for all of you out there that will not be given any physical flowers today!

 

Congratulations card

Good morning! How are you all? I hope you are well! As for me... I've had a little bloggy break.. have been a bit out of sorts for a few different reasons... but the worst part is my THUMB which I thought was just infected from when the rose thorn went through my nail back in about February... although I was a little concerned there was something in there... so Dr put me on antibiotics... which turned out to be based on Lactose.. which I can't tolerate... and so I was a bit sick from that... went back.. new tablets ... still soaking thumb in hot water as suggested cutting the long gory story short turns out there was still part of the rose thorn in my thumb ... and now it's out but my thumb is still recovering.... which makes it HARD to do MUCH at all.. and very painful to colour :P


So I have an old creation to share.... and not a brilliant pic ... as it was taken on my phone before sending off ...  but you get the idea right :)  I made it for my beautiful friend Em who is going to be having a baby! Very excited for her little (or big;) family :)

So .... I drew the image and turned her into a digi.. now available here -  although I added the glasses and earrings in with a multiliner as I was colouring.... the "Love this Moment" sentiment is from Give a Girl a..... IN THIS April set Loving these sentiment sets!! Can't wait to use the latest one!!!

Sweet Blossom

Hello all!! I fell in Love with Sylvia's drawings when she was designing for my beautiful friend Tracey at Spesch Stamps!! And the other day I thought it would be fun to colour up one of her images Sweet Blossom... Available at Wee Stamps

I've tried the clouds (as The Odd Girl Kristy does them) and has a tutorial on again ... but in different colours this time.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Friday

Koala Hugs for Copic Australia's Koala Kids challenge

Good morning!! How are you going? Hope your week is going well! Just popping on to share a card I made as well as a FREEBIE Digi that I drew :D 

There is a card challenge being run right now by Copic Australia - HERE. The great news is that for every entry Copic Australia will donate $5 to Koala Kids :) Pretty cool huh! 

I thought that it would be fun to draw an image especially for the challenge and so that's what I've done... Here's a card I made (this one's not for the actual challenge... this is just for fun and to tell you about the challenge... my real entry will not be shown here tee hee!)

Now for something I  have not done for quite a while... I'm going to enter a few challenges (yay)! So they are:

Critter Challenge - to use flowers :)
The Cutie Pie Challenge - lots of layers :)
Artistic Inspirations - also lots of layers :)
Digital Tuesday Challenge - Distressing :)

Would you like to colour up this image?? I would love to know if you download it - so please do let me know :D And yup would love to see what you do with it too!! Oh ...And if you want to use it to enter the challenge then Go for it!! :D  

Just click on the image to make it bigger and then save to your computer. 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a lovely Wednesday!!!

In Stitches Tia for Odd Idol

Good afternoon,

I hope you are having a good Tuesday... I've been having a bit of a rest day ... oh and a trip to the Dr to get my sore thumb looked at... Gardening wars :P the rose thorn that hurt me months ago left a lasting infection and so now I'm on antibiotics ... YUKKO .. well hopefully it will fix it up and it will no longer be sore to colour, craft etc etc etc!!

I DID manage to get my Odd on today... to enter the Odd idol competition!! Yay!!! Here's my take on the sketch... using the Some Odd Girl "In Stitches Tia" set.. she's just too cute!! :D

 

I created my own PP using the buttons from the same set!! :)

Thanks for stopping by! have a lovely day!!

Monday Musings and a little Art journaling

Good morning! I hope you had a lovely weekend! Mine was pretty good... but full on and tiring lol... we went away with our church Growth Group... down the coast to a friend's wonderful holiday house ... so about 3 hours drive... but such a beautiful location and such wonderful weather, it was GLORIOUS! Great fun and fellowship with lovely brothers and sisters in Christ! We finished up The Course of your Life which we've been going through. It's been great looking at God's agenda for our lives :) A good challenge to think through my priorities - how I spend my time ... also a big thing for me and I'm also thinking through how this effects my blogging is that I am too concerned about other people's opinons of me... being liked, pleasing people... when that is not the most important thing.. I may have to think this through a bit more :)

This morning I just finished off an art journal page in my book of fairytales that I'm doing... so page #2 is now complete!! Not sure I  like it ... I struggle with the balance of messiness and order and when to stop and when to keep layering! But I've stopped and here it is :)

 

Apologies.. the pic is not brilliant as I  had to use my iphone!

Have a wonderful week!!

Gone a little ODD

Good morning!! I went a little ODD this morning lol... and I  created not one but TWO
Some Odd Girl Creations....

I finally got a chance this morning to watch Kristy's youtube tutorials on colouring Cloudy Sky and Grass, and I  got to have a play too!!

So first up is my card with the clouds.... I used Autumn Mae.. as it's been a cloudy Autumn and yet a summery sky Autumn too so far... much more windy today though..... anyway enough waffling... Here's my card...

I used Brads to mimic flowers and the little Ladybug brad too as there is currently a  Trash your Stash of Brads challenge going on at the SOG NING forum!!

The Rainbow is a chipboard one from 2Crafty that I coloured with Copics and then opaque white and gelatos!! With a nice dash of Kinderglitz on top! lol! The sentiment is from My Favourite Things!!

2nd card (below) is for the April Sketch challenge at Some Odd Girl and uses Mooey!!!

 Thanks for stopping by ... I hope you have a super Friday! and then a fun weekend!!!


 

The Girl who was on Fire

Good afternoon! I drew this image a while ago... after having a chat with Alyce ... we were thinking it would be fun to try and colour a dress to look like Katniss in her dress that was on fire from the Hunger games!! Had a bit of trouble finding an image we thought would be good for it and so I thought I'd just try and draw my own... well it seems that was the easy part... not as easy colouring it making it look like it was on fire... anyway here's an attempt! I'm Still waiting for Alyce to do her one (hint, hint :) are you reading this???? lol)

Want to give it a try?? This image is now at Mad for Markers with some other fun characters too!

Have a great arvo!!!

Paper dolls!!!

Oh I have been a big kid lately... reliving childhood memories of Paperdolls.. I thought it would be fun to make some.. so I've been designing and colouring and cutting and using my Cameo to cut for me and having all sorts of fun creating mixmatched characters!! I am selling them in a number of different ways on Mad for Markers ...  Anyway I wanted to share the gang with you....

this adorably rabble-y lot are:
Rhys, Pippi, Taya, Ryan, Archie and Brianna

 

OK so they are just paper dolls right.... kids would love them but no use for us crafters??? WRONG! lol.. look what I made by paper piecing Taya and one of the girl outfits ...

So much fun and so many different options.. and I  have so many more ideas for outfits for them too!! :) Oh and I am going to make up a bunch and sell them as all ready made paper dolls... like this example below of Taya.. she is just under A4 size tall :)

Thanks for stopping by!! Have a lovely day!!

Monday moments

Good afternoon :) I hope you are having a great Monday!! Mine going ok but it's been a long one!! Could do with a nana nap but not going to be so will just plod along lol!! It's been a productive day .. Highlights - Some cleaning, chatting over iphone messages and facebook and some home haircut hacking ... Mine and MILs .. Should have had a professional do hers I think ... O well... Was a bit of fun anyway!!

I just created this card .. I coloured this image up the other night in front of the tele... It happens quite a bit hehe .. Have to colour whilst watching!! Today I'm posting from my iPad .. Hope it comes out ok :)

The paper is Kaisercraft .. And the spotted paper totally inspired my colouring of the mushie ... love it!! The sentiment is from Give a Girl a ... ...I won this set and love it!!!! I did crop around the text though as the circle was slightly too big for my card :) and the cute lil Dragonfly chippy is from All about Scrapbooks here

Anyways have a lovely afternoon!
Sammi
Xoxo

It's FRIDAY!!!!

Ok.... I do love Friday!! Well really mostly because it means Saturday and Sunday come next .. I also love this Creeper from The Greeting Farm.... who is called Friday!! :) An oldie but a goodie :D She was one of the images I'd coloured for the show "tree display" and so the card was a nice easy one to make :D

The paper is a new 6 x 6 paper pad I  bought from All About Scrapbooks at the show ... I LOVE these small paper packs.. they are just perfect for cardmakers  :D Oh and did you see?? Emma, Alyce!! Anyone who cares lol.... I USED FLOWERS!!! tee hee!!! 

OK.... I've been working on something images, Silhouettey... and it should be lots of fun.. once I  work out why it won't cut in the RIGHT spot!! ahhhhhhhh!! 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!!!

Shows over ... I'm back

Good morning!! Last week I was preoccupied with a Papercrafts Show... I booked Mad for Markers in (pretty last minute) to have a stand and so I was rushing to get everything done.. and then of course I was at the show... and then I came home and crashed! But I'm feeling almost human again now lol and so I'm FINALLY blogging again...

Yesterday I  finished off an Art journal page I started a couple of months ago.... It was just waiting for inspiration which came via the Gelatos I purchased from All About Scrapbooks. Loving them so far!!

Ok so to the Art Journal... this is the FIRST page in a book I've altered to a journal... it's an old Kids Dictionary that I  picked up at the Stash and Treasure market ... I'm going to have a series of Fairy journal pages in it... yeah.. I still love Fairies... little kid in an adults shell here (in case you didn't know) tee hee! This page uses Love Fairy Venetia... I printed her very pale to do the no lines effect... once covered with gel glue she really popped off the page (bit harder to tell from the photo). In other exciting craft news I  received my new Silhouette cameo BLADE yesterday so I can cut again lol!

Here's  a picture of my Tree display from the show last weekend! The upside of the time it took to create is that all those leaves have coloured images on them which I can now turn into cards... which is particularly great for a QUICK card! so I should have some more creations to blog soon!!!

Thanks for stopping by!