Birthday Trio.

Last year I gave all the girls in our little craft group a clock for their birthdays. This year I was stumped until I came up with the idea of covering a box in the same papers as their clocks. The idea floated around in my head for a few weeks because I was trying to get out of using Mod Podge. In the meantime, I was going through some 3d's I had, when I discovered one that was exactly like the flowers on the Webster's Pages that had been used for Heather's clock. So that was the card and gift for her birthday this year taken care of. Then for my birthday, Jean sent me a calendar easel card which I loved. So having a pack of these little calendars myself, I immediately thought, right, I'll do each of the girls a calendar easel card using the same papers as were used for their clocks. One way of using up the little calendars.
The pictures below show the results of all my exhausting labour of the mind. rofl

The card uses a basic sketch just so I could highlight the papers and the 3d in the centre.
For the Calendar easel card I used a sketch I found here. I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

The box, well it's not very good I'm afraid, but at least I avoided using Mod Podge, which seems to get all over me and all over the paper and then makes a heck of a mess.
I didn't have a clue how to decorate it, I only knew that I wanted to use the same flowers as I had used on the matching clock. So together with not a lot of imagination I'm afraid, some velvet flowers, leaves, punched butterflies, pearl swirls and lace here is the finished box.
Hmmmm maybe I'll improve with practise as I have three more to do over the coming year...BUT joy oh joy, NO Mod Podge. lol
I see my OH is about to mow, so I'm off to get the clothes off the line.
Thanks for visiting and hope you like my latest efforts.

My Last Clock!!

Here it is, my last clock. This one was made for a friend of mine who wanted a gift for her Mum. This is the result. Anna Griffin papers which are just gorgeous and Prima flowers mixed with flowers from my stash. Some charms and punched butterflies finished it off.
I'm off to Sarina soon for a craft get together with the girls. Thanks for taking the time to visit.

Second English Rose 'Case'.

These are the other two cards I cased using a card by Debbie Olsen, same sketch, different papers. I did use the same nesties in the centre because they looked exactly right. The only thing I didn't do is the stitching around the edge. I do hope Debbie takes my 'casing' as a compliment, her work is beautiful. I certainly cannot do it justice.

With regard to Cyclone Yasi, well Mackay and further south like us here at Koumala, hardly a thing. There certainly wasn't the rain that we were expecting and the wind wasn't as bad as Ului. We didn't lose power, my brother did at Andergrove but as he's had a generator for years now, there wasn't a problem.
Actually we had more wind the next day than the lead up. Today there's been heavy rain on and off all day, one minute sun is out the next it's pouring. Strange thing the weather.
Right off to cook tea.
Thanks for visiting once again.

A 'Case' in English Rose

I'm loving the English Rose papers from Kaisercraft. I 'cased' these cards from this card by Debbie Olson. The papers are different but the sketch is exactly the same. The simplicity of Debbie's card took my eye.
The flourishes look quite good I think but dear me, a bit fiddley to work with. There must be an easier way but I don't know it. lol
For some reason I feel the cards are missing something but I'm not sure what and yet, if there was anymore on them, I feel they would look over done. Mmmmm.....oh well.

Keeping an eye on the updates for Cyclone Anthony. It's probable that we'll get some rain.
Hope you like my cards and thanks for visiting today.

Versatile Christmas Cocoa

I love using these Stamp It Yesteryear images. Stampin' Up's Soft Suede matches perfectly. My Christmas Cocoa dsp was still unopened mainly because I couldn't bear to use it but I was brave!!!!! I cut into it to make this male birthday card using the Yesteryear truck image.
I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I started out with a sketch but the finished card is nothing like the sketch. Oh well. The greeting is from the current SU set Curly Cute.
Thanks for visiting and hope you all have a wonderful day or night as the case may be.

Pyramid Boxes

These are the Christmas pyramid boxes that I made for some of my Christmas gifts this year.
Here is where I found the directions to make these boxes. Very easy to follow.
I just used some SU Christmas dp from a Scrapping Kit that I had in my stash. I had cut the triangles before I realised that the stripes may not line up but the recipients didn't seem to mind.
It's been showering here as well as the sun being out so a mixed up sort of day.
Thinking of everyone affected by the devastating floods.
Thanks for visiting.

Oops...Coal Everywhere!!!

We have two coal carrying companies in this area, one is Queensland Rail National who my OH (Charlie) works for driving coal trains and the other new comer to the scene is Pacific National.

Lateish on Christmas Eve PN had a little derailment. Charlie counted 15/16 wagons off when we went past on Christmas morning on our way to his parent's place for breakfast.
Of course being the opposing team, so to speak, we had to take some photos. These are all that we could manage on my camera before the battery went flat. Charlie got more on his camera.
Still it gives you an idea of the mess.


These two photos show the front of the train. You can see a loco after the last two wagons, well that's about the middle of the whole train. This part wasn't derailed.

Here is the beginning of the mess. That metal pole you can see that has fallen across the first wagon is what is supposed to hold the overhead power lines up to run the trains. We understand this wagon was empty (which it shouldn't of been) and had derailed further back up the line.
Where this derailment happened there is a set of points so when the derailed wagon hit these points, it's caused wagons behind it to derail too.

Three photos of middle of mess!!

Getting towards end of derailment.

The beginning of the end of the train that didn't derail. The Pacific National sign is very visible isn't it????? It made a change for them to be spotlighted by the media for once.

It was raining and overcast when these photos were taken, about 7am Christmas morning.

We weren't the only sightseers either, locals and tourists were stopping for a gawk like us. rofl

They didn't start cleaning it up until Boxing day because of the rain.

OK that's it from me for today. I have some Christmas projects to show so will put them up in the next couple of days.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and all the very best for the New Year.

Webster's Pages Christmas Cards

Here are a few Christmas cards that I made using last year's papers by Webster's Pages. They are pretty self explanatory and yes, very simple but effective I think. Webster's Pages have gorgeous papers that are so easy to use for cards in this way. The I felt the two 'Believe' cards didn't need a greeting on the front, the paper saying it all. Rather than a 'Merry Christmas' on the pink silk card I really liked the 'Christmas Spirit' sentiment which seemed to blend with the paper, if you know what I mean.
It's been a relatively fine day here after all the rain we've had. Very very humid. Thank goodness for air conditioning.
I hope to have another clock finished for friend of mine by Wednesday afternoon. It's all catching up with me too fast, Christmas that is.
Hope everyone is well and thanks for visiting.

Snow Globe Ornament Cards

These cards were made to accomodate the Yuletide Snow Globe stickers by K & Co and Vicki Burdick had the perfect card on her blog for me to case. I've kept to her sketch but have changed the punches, papers and colours. Please excuse the quality of the photos, I was in a tearing hurry this morning and had to get them photographed quickly. Two of these cards were orders and the girls bought the other two on the spot, so all four are gone. They were absolutely rapt with them because of the dual use, card and ornament.

The snowflakes were cut with different MS punches out of glitter cardstock.
Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla and the retired Ruby Red Stampin' Up cardstocks were perfect with these papers. The green cardstock is Bazzill.
The gold cord is unfortunately retired Stampin Up as well. I thought the bling added a bit of glitz to match the shimmer in the snow globes. Love that Petals-A-Plenty SU embossing folder.
I'm really chuffed with these cards and thank Vicki for her inspiration. Hope you like them too. Thanks for visiting.

Judi's birthday clock

Yep, another clock, this time for my friend Judi. All the girls in our little craft group are getting clocks this year. Judi's is the last one. This time, instead of rubons, I used the stamps that Kaisercraft have out now. These stamps are the sayings that they used to have in rubons. I'm a little disappointed with how faint they look compared to rubons but I think that my Stazon black inkpad needs reinking. The papers are Websters Pages with flowers, charms and other embellishments from my stash.
Today should see the end of my other off the page projects so will get them on here as soon as I can.
Thanks once again for visiting.