Greyscale Mae with a pop of Pink

{{Scroll down for my 5 year BLOG-a-versary BLOG CANDY post}}

I have been CRAFTING again FINALLY just lately... before then I was colouring and stopping! lol! So anyways... here is  something I've made.. I was fired up by the NEW SOG Forum and so had to play along in their challenges there... this one is Greyscale with a pop of colour from their colours... I chose PINK (well purple was not an option lol).

I thought that as it was Greyscale I might use a Grey ink.. so I stamped up Sweet Thinking Mae in "London Fog" ....

 

I do like Greyscale... but it shows up my mistakes more too... and makes me even more critical of my colouring lol! Oh well.... I popped her on a card and into the forum gallery anyways :) I quite like having the lighter grey for the outline rather than BLACK... so methinks I will be using that colour ink again! It's been sitting in my stash since the last time I was at Paperific I think.. or maybe it was actually from the 1st one I went to Oh well!

If you have not checked out the Some Odd Girl Forum yet then hop on over and if you like you can even mention I sent you... I think there's  a post there somewhere you can do that on! lol! Anyways.. Have a good arvo, night, morning whereever you are... I'm off to colour a Red dress and swelter a little more... It's rather HOT here and having the aircon on creates dramas so this option is today's choice! 

 

5 years of blogging

Good morning! I can't believe really that this blog has been going for 5 years now! WOW!

I have had a lot of fun along the way as I've met many beautiful people from all over the world and made some amazing friends! I have (I believe) grown in my crafting/ colouring along the way and yet still have lots to learn!! :D I want to say a HUGE THANKS to all of you who've followed along or passed in and out over that time and especially to those who keep coming back!!

NEW LOOK I thought it was time for a newish blog look so have updated my blog style and am still working on what will be on the main page, ie. sidebar ... and might still edit some of the tabs.. but would love to know your thoughts .. what else does it need? What things should I or shouldn't I clutter the sidebar with this time??

CELEBRATING  with Party Hardy  - I made this card using Party Hardy... a sweet Saturated Canary stamp :) Isn't she scrummy!!! :D I normally don't go for so many colours at once but I  thought something different would be fun! :)

BLOG CANDY INFO...
HERE is a piccy of the candy I've got together to celebrate 5 years of blogging .. some of my FAVOURITE stamps/ companies, a set of B91,B93,B95, B97 sketch markers AND a little texturising pack (blender and different rags) and the card pictured above!!

To enter read the terms in the Linky below and link yourself up :) I will draw a winner on the last night of this month ... Jan 31.

More Mermaids...

Morning :)

so I managed to salvage the mermaids ATCs... they are still a little warped but they are not too bad!! And the uncoloured ones dried ok... again just a little warped... so I managed to get some colour on them ....

Mmm... I thought I had written this in my post the other day but then I also don't know how it became a draft after I had published it... so there may be gremlins! lol!!

An ATC for those who don't know is an ARTISTS TRADING CARD... a mini artwork sized 2.5" x 3.5" :)

I thought it would be fun to have a little TRADE - so I am going to do a new set of ATCs .... which will be ones to swap - anyone keen to do a little ATC swapsies???

Mermaids!!!

Good afternoon!! I've been having a bit of fun with Mermaids..  tee hee!! When I was looking at new apps to download on the ipad I saw this Mermaid game and downloaded it just for lols... and then my OCDness kicked in and I wanted to get all the different mermaids! Haha... It's a bit of a time waster... but sometimes they are good.. something to zone out to that does not need any brain! 

Anyway I guess it inspired me to go off and draw some Mermaids.. I did a couple on A5 paper and then I decided to go with a little series of ATCs .. so I sketched them up....

Inked them...

and coloured them with my COPICS a Molotow White pen and a number of Multiliners!!

There were 2 more ... but as I reached for a new marker I knocked over a glass of water ... Disaster... as sitting there were not only my ATCs .. coloured and ones waiting to get coloured BUT also my Imac, Ipad, Iphone and case of Copic markers. :( :(

 

Party Hardy

Good morning!! I was thrilled when the Little Darlings Saturated Canary stamps arrived just before Christmas and I've been enjoying colouring them up :)

Here is a card I made using Party Hardy.. She's too cute!

Today I'm trying to blog from an iPad so this is a bit of an experiment I guess :)

Hugs
Sammi
xoxo

Anything But a Card :: JANUARY

Hi there!! It's time for a NEW Challenge at Anything But a Card... and this time I've done a SMASH page... I do love doing pages in these books .. and actually I think this is my fav so far.... it's  in my Mini!!

My Mini Smash will have an image on each page that I colour with Copics as well as other bits and pieces about me/ my life etc.... so this one is all about my love of photos and Instagram and my Instax  too! I used my little Instaxia girl whom I drew up last year... she's available now on Hatter's Hope as a FREE image!! 

Thanks for stopping by ... please do go check out the AWESOMENESS at ABAC!!!

Happy New Year!!

I hope that you all have an AWESOME New Year!! May it be filled with LOVE and JOY!! It's been a quiet recovery day here.. after yesterday's mammoth effort of CLEANING the house top to bottom... and then entertaining 4 families here! I LOVE that we can have that many people at our place now.. although it was a little hard on MIL so it will not be too common an occurrence!!

We sat out on our balcony in the fresh air/ breeze today... it was lovely.. although there were MANY
low flying planes.... Here's a couple I caught on Instagram....

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what this year brings.... I was wondering about Resolutions.. but you know we make them and never keep them... I was thinking I should resolve to be more faithful ----  in keeping up with people, in my blogging and more importantly in my Bible reading... I was hoping to be better at cleaning this place... well keeping it tidy I  suppose ... I was thinking I really should lose weight and be healthier?! There are many resolutions I could make.. and I will.. However instead of something huge for the whole year I think I'll make them every day.. and no doubt sometimes I will succeed and sometimes I will fail... I'll keep plodding along!

I'm not sure what this year will bring.. (besides undoubtably more planes) I know that for the time being I'll be wrapping up the M4M store (except for a few resource-y things) and that I will be living here and looking after my MIL still .. I will have dreams and goals... although I'm not sure EXACTLY what they all will be at this point in time...
I will remember though that...

Proverbs 16:9  The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. 

I pray that whatever I do and plan that God would make me more like his son this year .. that he would make me more THANKFUL and more JOYFUL and a LIGHT for Him!! :D

I'll be back a little later with a creation for Anything But a Card... I just have to try and figure out the time difference again lol... I am pretty bad at that!!

     

My Favourite Creations of 2012 :D

Good morning!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and some lovely celebrations! I hope also that you enjoy celebrating a new year! We have some families coming here this afternoon and we'll have a BBQ together ... which is perfect for today's HOT weather! lol! Should be good to see these people (most of whom) we see only once or twice a year.. it's always fun to see how much their children have grown since the last time! :D I still have a bit of cleaning up to do first ahh.. so I should stop babbling on and get to the point of my post! I like to look back on the year and see what I've done and remember and share my favourite creations of the year gone by .. and Kellie is once again having her .. Top 10 Linky party :)

I have gone AWOL from my Top 10 (and added 2 more in) again this year as I like to choose a favourite creation for each month of the year... HERE they are ... I've linked them to the original postings if you want to see more about them :) I've done a few new thing this year... CARDmaking yes... some off the page, some more Art journaling and canvases and I sorta picked up that Smashbook bug too... so there's a range of different things below!! 

JANUARY

I love The Greeting Farm and how you can swap and change the different stamps to merge them into a new creation... It makes me want to buy them all (even though I have to do that anyway) to get not one more but numerous more possibilities! I  had  a lot of fun making these Miss Anya's look like the Baby Sitter's Club girls :) 

FEBRUARY

I was thrilled to be a Guest for Sweet November at the start of the year. I just love Amy's creations so was glad to play along with her CUTE little Shrooms... I still LOVE this canvas I created. This is sitting on the bookcase in our study!!

MARCH

I created a little mini album for Guy to celebrate 10 years of marriage! I still am pretty pleased with how these versions of us turned out! :D

APRIL

More altering for TGF... I was pretty stoked (BIG dream always to design for TGF) to be a Guest for the Farm during the year!! I love the colours and my colouring on this one!! 

MAY

Ahhh... cute little Spesch Stamps troll.. I love this one!! 

JUNE

I got (I still BLAME EMMA ;) tee hee) into Smashing and this was my second and still favourite Smash page so far!! My problem with Smashing is the pages are never as good as I want them to be!

JULY

A pixie creation! Still love Kathy's gorgeous Pixies.. I love how the hair came out on this one!!

AUGUST

More Smashing... and More drawing... I have DRAWN a lot more images this year.. I think these Manga Mob are my favs!!

SEPTEMBER

LOVE this Sunflower girl drawn by Ardith/ As the Crow Flies!! I love my COPICS as this girl was yellow and blue but I didn't like it so she became yellow and orange!! :)

OCTOBER

I was thrilled to be part of Kristy's bloggy party celebrations this year!! It was LOADS of fun.. and I love the journal I made for it!! 

NOVEMBER

YES I LOVE Saturated Canary!! I LOVE PURPLE... and PINK and so I do LOVE this card!!!

DECEMBER

Another art canvas... These characters are all my drawings for the new stamps I designed this year... Before I decided to stop my shop - Mad for Markers I set up Hatter's Hope... Not sure yet what I'll do with HH!! Anyway I had a LOT of fun with these characters and this tree! I used a few SOG stamps in there too!! :D 

Thanks for stopping by... I'll be back NEXT year for more blogging of creations and LIFE :D

I might do another post in the new year on reflections of the year just gone (we'll see)!

Christmas and NEW year

Isaiah 9:6

uFor to us a child is born,

to us va son is given;

wand the government shall be xupon1 his shoulder,

and his name shall be called2

Wonderful yCounselor, zMighty God,

aEverlasting bFather, Prince of cPeace.

I just love that passage! Such an amazing child born!! Such a Fantastic God! I am always amazed at his LOVE for us in sending Jesus....His only Son to earth to live and die that we might live! It just blows me away... Its hard to fathom such sacrifice... such mercy and love! Thank you Jesus!

(my production line for cards before Christmas .. I still didn't get them ALL out! ahhh)

I hope everyone had a Wonderful Christmas!! We had a pretty good day...  we went to church in the morning.. not our usual one we went to my in-laws church with M-I-L ... it was a great morning of Singing carols and a Great talk on how wonderful Jesus is ... with a challenge about how we respond to him.. Are we hostile (and violent) like the King Herod , do we hear and do nothing like the Scribes? or do we have exceeding joy and worship him like the Wise Men? I know I can be more joyful in Christ than I  always am... I get caught up in the everyday difficulties and forget to focus on what Jesus did for me and where I am headed long term.

I've not blogged for a bit... life's been a little crazy leading up to Christmas and with trying to sell off my Mad for Markers stock.. now I'm having a little break before re-opening the webstore in Jan for one last BIG sale! I'm a little sad about stopping the M4M store.. but I really do not have the headspace for it at the moment and need a bit of a break... caring for someone with alzheimers can be quite draining so I need a bit of "recharge" time! Hopefully this will mean I get a bit more time to craft and blog again too (we'll see - no promises just yet - lol).

I have managed to do some Instagram posts tho... LOVE that app... so quick and easy and a great record of memories and quirky things seen in the everyday LIFE adventure! Are you on Instagram?? Here's mine .... 
  

 

I will be back later this year to show my top projects of the year .... might be pushing it a bit for some months I think anyway it wil be an interesting exercise!

New challenge at Hatter's Hope

The latest challenge is to use SPARKLES!!!! Here's what I did....

 .... coloured up Fairy LilyRose in Copics and Spica pens :) I stamped her in a light ink so it does not have the harsh outline! Love this effect!!

Check out Hatter's Hope for more inspiration and to enter!!!


 

Hatter's HOPE Magical Tree release

Today is the Hatter's Hope Magical Tree release with images I drew inspired by The Magic Faraway Tree! I decided to make a canvas this time to include all the characters in the one ART canvas... so here it is...

I hope you like it.. I certainly had fun creating it!!

And GREAT NEWS today... I'm thrilled that Guy came home with a box that had the stamps I had made with images I drew!!! So the Fairies are now here! YAY!!!

Here's what the minsized Fairies look like .... so cute!!!

Thanks for stopping by.. I've been madly closing up M4M Copic/ stamp shop and still a few things to do before Christmas! How are you going?? Hope it's not TOO busy!!!

 

a Hol-ODD-day hop with SOG

Good morning!!! Today I  am popping on to LINK up and also to head you all on over the Some Odd Girl holiday Blog hop HERE!!! I've been a bit busy and slow at the moment and so there's not that much time left on the hop.. but enough to get hopping and even whip up a little holiday project too if you are keen!!!

Now about my creation... I got some sentiment stamps this week from Kellie HERE as I LOVE the Aussie Christmas theme to them... I've always loved that old Jingle Bells song.. um yes the Aussie Christmas one tee hee!! So I used them!

I found my Rusty Holden ute pic from a couple of years ago and cleaned it up a bit... mmm.. you might see that going free at Hatter's Hope later this week! :D and then piled in the Holiday Oddies...  Photo Kaylee, Gingerbread Kaylee, Hey Kaylee, Mermaid Mae is the driver and her passengers are Gingerbread peeps lol! Angel Mae is on the top of the bonnet and Deer Mae is on the front! Don't forget the gorgeous little Elves Tia and Tobie.. who just begged to wear the glasses from Preppy pups! :)

Thanks for stopping by.. now wondering what I should do with this masterpiece... :) It's  standing up on our kitchen counter for now as a decoration!! :D 

Anything But a Card :: December Daily

Good morning!! I am pretty excited that December is here... This year I decided to do a December Daily album.. documenting special memories and happenings in this busy season.. the idea and inspiration for December Dailies comes from Ali Edwards .. and she has a great post on this here!  which seems to be quite popular and I loved the idea of premaking the journal then adding stories and photos and more bits and pieces each day!!

Here is a preview of my COVER and each page... although small you can sort of see what I've done... just coloured pages with numbers for each day and some lovely G45 paper!! 

Now... to keep up with RECORDING the days!!

December 1 is a NEW challenge at Anything But a Card so I thought my December Daily pics would be GREAT inspiration for this challenge! I hope you are inspired to create something OTHER than a card and come and enter ABAC this fortnight :)

 

Check out Hatter's Hope ....