Santa is coming to town, and we are off to Auckland

 The countdown is on!
Christmas is just around the corner, only 26 days until I put the tree up. We always do it the closest weekend to the first of December.

I will probably put the lights up earlier.  I will be enlisting the help of the child on uni break and the one on study leave for that job as there is no way I am getting up on the roof if I don't have to.

We are heading up to Auckland this weekend, there and back in a day, to pick up the Uni boy.
And in much excitement, we are going to visit Costco, Angus is a member as he wanted a membership for his birthday.

My card was pretty simple, the santa is a silhouette cut, the papers are all Stampin'up from years ago when I was a demo.  Yes they have been in my cupboard for a LONG time.  To be fair there are a couple of colours I have topped up.  But OMG have you seen the price of their stuff now?  I will probably just got to spotlight and see what I can find.

See you soon,
Lou

You're Awesome

Hi, you know how sometimes you just get really in the moment when you are making a card,  it just all comes together and everything just falls into place?

Well that was definitely not this card!  I actually made 2 of these at the same time, the only difference was the sentiment.
This was giving me problems from the start,  had to fussy cut the images after diecuting because the paper moved, then two of my copics, which had been neglected, decided to run dry half way through.

I was so frustrated!

But in the end it was all worth it because it came out fine.
( Other  than the animals looking a it wonky around the edges ) 

 The stamps are from Hello Bluebird, yet again they are discontinued ones.
The sentiment is a retired Stampin'up stamp set.

Hope you will drop by again soon
Lou

You're A Bit Sweet

 Now now for something completely different!

If you have followed me for a while you might be aware that I have a silhouette cameo.  I am talking an older original first gen machine.
I actually love her, I don't utilise her enough but she is very good to me when I do.

A month or so ago, hubby and youngest child headed to the big city to get a new lawn mower, a much needed purchase as our lawn is massive and our second hand refurb mower finally gave up on living.  Mind you it was approximately 28 years old and we had had it for around 15.

I was sitting in the house alone and wandered into my neglected craft room/office, well I say neglected, I was regularly visiting and looking at my supplies, still letting them know they are loved. Making the odd card here and there, but not really fully committed to starting the hobby again like I was making previously.
And I decided that I would make a card with my silhouette, I went hunting through my files and found the most adorable layered card.  It looked a bit daunting but I had the time.
And this is it all put together...

Super cute right?

So this is the card that began the thirst for cardmaking again.
Thank you cute peachy card :)

See you soon
Lou

Awwww - SO CUTE!

SO CUTE was a constant from my daughter not too long ago, something she said with a certain spin on it every day at least 10 times a day.  Luckily for her, and me, it was not the most annoying ear worm that has come home from school.
In fact even I picked up on it and found myself saying it.

So Cute, seems an apt description of this card.
The stampset is Hello Bluebird "Tree Neighbors"
which has unfortunately been discontinued I think, but if you pop over to their shop there are so many cute stamps that are in stock.

 I am on a no buy, we ave a son that is needing LOTS of ongoing dental work after a football (soccer) injury to his 3 front teeth.
So lots of the items used on my cards are quite old as I have only just got back into it on a regular basis. 
So you will just have to put up with my retro papers and stamps.

the papers on this card are from pink paislee, they are from the Fancy Free collection by Paige Evans, released in 2015!  See, totally retro.
The images are coloured with my copic markers.

See you soon
Lou

Stay Awesome Buddy!!!!

See, told you I would be back soon.
Hopefully this lasts and  manage to keep uo the crafting and the posting as life gets busier towards Christmas.
Although, because I have so much accumulated leave I am having to take some time off.
For the next month I have Thursdays off which makes my weekends 4 days long, pretty excited.
I know I am lucky to get 3 day weekends,  I work for a charity so I only do half days as we rely on funding to keep us going and seriously can't afford to do full days.

I was cleaning up for my destash as mentioned on my last post, and found some distress crayons I had purchased from someone elses destash.
I had a play, used some white embossing ink and a super old hero arts stamp.  At least I think it is hero arts, could be something else.
I made kind of a rainbow effect.

I have to say the crayons are not really my thing and will probably get destashed.
The stamp was definitely studio calico from a moons ago kit.
It actually says, Be Awesome, but I thought stay seemed a better sentiment.

So you stay awesome and I will be back soon

Lou

WOW - It's been a hot minute.

 Well, life aye?
I can not believe it has been so long since I made a post on here.
Nearly a year and a half.
Lots of changes, my oldest son is out in the work force, farming and loving it.  Great friends and has a pretty fun life.  Good work, life balance.
Son #2 is at University, doing a major brainbox degree.  He must get that from his dad I think.
Only daughter is still footballing, has now taken up hockey as well.... I am so glad summer is nearly here!  She is doing very well at school, has exams shortly then heads into her final year of highschool next year.
Son #3 is in second year of highschool this year, big year for him next year.  He has started a wee lawnmowing sidehustle and also working the odd evening at a takeaway shop in town.  Still his same sweet personality and wonderful sense of humor.
And Hubby and I - we are tracking well with life.  It is pretty great and we are incredibly blessed with our children, home and work.

As for crafting, after a long hiatus I am back into it.
Well the posting part.
I have still been papercrafting, just not posting. 

So, here are a couple of cards I made yesterday...

I was inspired by a card from quite sometime ago that I found on pintrest that was made by Darla at https://www.scraphappensherewithdarla.com/

I found some old SU dies in my cupboard and decided to have a play.
On that note, I am actually destashing some stuff.

If you are in New Zealand you can find my listings on 
TRADE ME 

or 
FACEBOOK NZ SCRAP & CARD STASH SALES GROUP

I will be back soon with some more crafty stuff

Lou x