Have a wonderful Christmas Everyone

may you be Blessed :)

Salt - John 3:16

This fortnight at

Salt it's Esthers turn to set the challenge and she chose,

The verse John 3:16 'For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, that whoever believed in him shall not perish but have everlasting life'

I really enjoyed this theme, immediately thought of a piece of religious icon art

so I found this one on google images, & printed it off,

I love the way the Baby Jesus has His hands open and inviting,

ready to give the perfect gift.

So after I printed off my image, I glued it onto another piece of card, added all the little dots, then using a lead pencil drew ontop of all the lines (giving a sort of embossed look)then I went over all of those lines with a black pigment pen. Next I cut around the shape, then using embossing powder I double embossed the paper image, so now I had a lovely shiney durable piece of embossed paper. Next step was to tape it to two layers of felt, which I then stitched on my sewing machine and trimmed. Sewed the ribbon onto the back at the top and bottom, and threaded the star onto the ribbon (the star is a Vintage Brass Star from a Military Uniform)

Anyway, make sure you pop on over to the SALT blog and see what the other girls have done with this Challenge, they are all so beautiful!

And we'd love to see what you create too :)

mummy dear

Remember my question about the

Vintage Optical Lens...

Well.......... Ta Da!!!
Thankyou all for your wonderful ideas, it was

Ann Lederhose

who first suggested using a Watch Crystal, in my comments so Ann can you email me your address and I'll post you a little vintage optical lens to create with, I'm sure you'll come up with something wonderful, If you haven't ever been to Ann's blog pop on over she Makes the most Gorgeous Scrapbook Layouts :)

Thankyou all so much for your ideas, I'm sure you not only inspired me with your thoughts on how to seal the back of this little lens, but inspired one another too

This picy shows how I finished off the back with the watch crystal like Ann suggested.

Oh and that sweet little image is from

The Stamping Queen

it's a Collections Ephemera Photographs card

Stay tuned, I've just gotten some slightly different lens

So I might need a little help with them after Christmas ;)

have a happy day, I know I will cause I've got myself a new necklace :)

A Most Spendid Blog

I just have to share the most Splendid Blog with you all

You really must go and look, and enjoy Sandra's Blog

It is So Delightful, and if you have little ones, show them too

Sandra Evertson

Enjoy :)

DCM weekly dare - inside & out

At Daring Cardmakers this week

it's my turn to dare you all

I dare you to take the design of your card to the inside as well as the outside.

Add a little finishing touch to match the theme on the outside, or Surprise the receiver with a flap, foldout, decorated journal block to write on,or one of those pop-out delights.... It really adds so much to a card when there is attention to detail on the inside as well as the outside. I know some of you are finished your Christmas cards already so this week it's Any theme, Christmas or not But make the inside count too :)

My freind Jo, had a little baby girl this week

**** Jamali ****

and I made this card to celebrate her birth

I carried the Vintage Imagery through to the inside, along with a touch of gold.

Bits used are - Basic Grey PP from SAW, Collections Ephemera Photographs & German Scrap from TSQ Collections Rusty Word, key charm, brads, string,Distress Ink, and my sewing machine.

So have you DARED to DARE yet?

Come on I DARE YOU!

freedom has no key

the lovely theme this week at

Gothic Arches

is sparkling wings

so I made this arch for it :)

the wings are quite glittery, the photo doesn't really show them to their best.

Freedom has no key, so fly...... fly away.....

When I Daydream.....

You may remember last week I made the cover for

'My Dream Book'

a little DT project I'm working on

for The Stamping Queen

Well today I made the 1st page

using more of my scrummy DT supplies

This page is stuck onto the back of the front cover

Once again I used a page torn from an old book that I distressed with 'walnut stain' Distress ink, Then I used that delightful Designs Galore image (vintage children 010), Collections words, German Scraps (GS-LFB) all from TSQ . Other bits I added from my stash are Maria George Crystals, and American Crafts Minimarks rub-ons.

I'm really enjoying reading all of the ideas in your comments about the Optical Lens,

thankyou to all who are coming up with ideas :O)

You're all so clever,

You are still able to add your ideas in the post below

(infact I'd love you to add to the ideas)

as I haven't started my creation yet.

Gillx

a little help please.....

I'm just after a little bit of advice....

I have these super cool Very Vintage Optical Lenses

and I would so love to make myself a cool piece of Altered Art Jewelry

Now I've got the most charming image I want to put behind it

But my problem is, I don't know how?

Ofcourse I could just stick it on there, but the paper would be exposed at the back, and well you know what jewelry is like it turns over doesn't it..

I can improvise I guess,

I thought of sticking a big button over the back,

or a cool old penny

I'd just love to know what others do...

What do you do?

Oh yes, I have a spare!

if I use your idea

and it's first on the list

then I'll post you a lens

for sharing your idea

Gillx

DCM weekly dare - candy stripes

This week at

Daring Cardmakers

It was ourSaffa who set the dare!

I love the stripey candy sticks that are around at this time of year so inspired by this I challenge you all to create a card featuring stripes of some kind, the occasion is up to you but you must use some form of stripes on your card. Maybe stamps, or paper, or ribbon...

So maybe I took Saffa's dare a little bit too literally

But my kids love it :)

and all want me to give it to them for Christmas, lol!

Make sure you pop on over to the main dare blog

to see what the other DT have come up with for this

SWEET DARE ;o)

So have you dared to DARE yet?

Come on I dare you!

EDIT 8th Dec 8:49am

thankyou all for your lovely comments,

I just wanted to add, that the Candy Cane isn't an original idea of mine

I've seen it used before like this, only I used a real candy cane :)

The newest challenge on

SALT

is set by Casey

We all love celebrating Christmas because it is a time for us to stop, remember and praise God for the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. HE IS the true meaning of Christmas.

Not presents, not parties, not decorations, etc. JUST JESUS!!!

I made another 'skinny' page for Georgia,

to reflect this theme

The words I have on my skinny are

Jesus, light of the world

Shine through the darkness bright as the day

Jesus light of the world

Shine in our hearts and show us the way tonight

Who is this Child in the manger?

Kings bow down and angels sing

The Lord of the universe has come here to save us

A precious offering

All the heavens above and the earth below

Are filled with the light of Your love

This is part of a song written by Mark Lee and the Music is by Third Day

the song is

Jesus,Light of the World

from Third Day's Christmas album

THIRD DAY

CHRISTMAS OFFERING

my first Skinny Page

This is my first contribution for

Skinny Saturday

the theme this week is

Beauty

So I've decided this will be the first of many little skinny pages

as I loved making it sooooo much :)

I've used 'lily' once more from Karen O's beautiful range of collage sheets, Hero Arts wildflower stamps,Autumn Leaves flourish stamps, making memories alpha stickers, little sticky pearls and some maria george crystals.

My Georgia has already claimed this one,

and has asked for a 'whole' book of skinny's now that she knows what they are :)

DCM little extra - buttons & bows

this weeks little extra at

Daring Cardmakers

is another Santa's Little Helper themed
"Buttons and Bows"

Just in case you're one of those super-efficient types who've made all the cards they need already, you can still join in with a non-Christmas card for this one.

So here's mine, I chose Luke 2:11 as my inspiration

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you

He is Christ the Lord

my card is a bit symbolic

the fleur de lis represents the trinity

the crown, the birth of the King

the red, the cross the path of the King

the music, Joy of Christmas

So it's a busy time isn't it, but too busy to make a card...

NEVER!

come and play along with us at DCM

I DARE YOU!

White Christmas

I made this arch for this weeks

Gothic Arches theme of Winter

Seems so strange thinking about Winter in Australia at this time of the year, I've always loved the thought of having a White Christmas, and that's how my arch came about.

that lovely image is another from Karen Owen's delightful vintage images

I really enjoyed this theme :O)

My Dream Book - Front Cover

This is a little Design Team Project
I am making with some of my scrummy bits from
The Stamping Queen
It is a little Altered Art Book
and this is the Front Cover
I hope to have some spare time over the next couple of weeks to keep working on this and show you as I make the following pages
The following are all bits out of my DT supplies and all available from TSQ
Collections C0387 Chipboard house & frames, C0806 Ephemera Photo's small & C0841 Vintage Ladies, Collections C0405 Strip words, Stamp-it Laura Koh 003LK stamp, latch & hook Fancy Oval H19, for the BG of this house I tore a page from an old book and destressed it with Distress Ink. My plan is to make a series of little 'house pages' for a sweet keepsake.

Ode to Christmas

This is a set of Large Chipboard Tags
I made and are in the current issue of
Australian Paper Crafts
issue 71
the words on the tags read
A song was heard at Christmas
To wake the midnight sky
A saviour's birth and peace on earth
And praise to God on high
The angels sang a Christmas
With all the hosts above
And still we sing
the newborn King
His glory and His love
-Timothy Dudley Smith

Play Time

This week I received an order from Karen Owen for the most delightful Collage Sheets

This is Molly, from one of these sheets

Isn't she Gorgeous!

anway, I loved creating this little ATC with her

I used a 1930 Calendar Page (from Lythan she gave me some delicious Vintage Papers and bits for my B'day and I've been dying to use some of them) I thought it made a cool BG.

I added a collection word & Photo Turn from TSQ

some rubons from American Crafts, a sticker, brads and my sewing machine

I hope you get to have a little 'Play Time' today

DCM weekly dare - Song without words

This week at

Daring Cardmakers
Lythan chose to dare this cool dare

Song without words
I would like you to create a card inspired by a song or a carol - it could be for Christmas or not! (you may have got all your Christmas cards done by now...) BUT there is a twist. the words of the song are NOT to be seen on the front of the card. You could leave it to us to guess! Have fun!

I chose one of my fav Christmas Carols for my card, using some lovely papers that my sweet friend Kim sent me **waves Kim**, she sent me the most lovely collage papers, so I had fun using some of them, along with this image from a vintage 'Golden Book' (I found this image on 'google images') and had to use it.....

So have you guessed my favourite carol yet......

ofcourse you have, it's

We Three Kings

So have you Dared to DARE yet?....Come on I dare you!

Make sure you have a lookie at the DCM blog for more inspiration, the girls have made some SCRUMMY cards :)

Salt - Light

This week at SALT

The theme Ruth has chosen is

LIGHT

It is mentioned so many times in the Bible,

and has many facets of meaning and symbolism.

I am the LIGHT of the World...

The people walking in darkness haveseen a great LIGHT ...

The LIGHT shines in the darkness, but thedarkness has not understood it...In the same way, let your LIGHT shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Once again I've headed to the Psalms, I'm starting to think it's my favourite book in the bible

So I've made this little 'gothic arch'

and I wanted my 'light' to be symbolised by this 'hanging lamp' the kind that would have had oil in it hanging from a ceiling, filling the room with the warmth and reasurance of light.

Isn't it amazing how a childs fear of the dark, can be eased simply by turning on the light...

Well that's been the same in my life really,

So many fears and hangups, eased simply by

'TURNING ON THE LIGHT'

Santa's Key

This is another little project I have created with some of my

Christmas Stamps I received in my DT pack from

The Stamping Queen

I used this lovely Crafty Individuals Stamp {CI-162}

It has these 4 lovely images on one plate, anyway I stamped it onto some Calico this time for a little change using StazOn ink, I made it into a little quilt using some wadding and patchwork fabric and quilted it on my machine, trimmed and frayed the edges. Then I added some little 'vintage picture frame hangers' also available at TSQ, some chain, vintage glass buttons & vintage lace and a Gorgeous Rusty old key...oh and a little 'jingle bells charm'.......

A little Christmas Tree Ornament

I received this adorable little 'Crafty Individuals' Santa stamp in my latest Design Team Pack from

The Stamping Queen

and I do love using Memory Glass Frames (also from TSQ)

so decided the first thing I would make with this lovely stamp was an ornament.

I added a Vintage Photo Hanger from TSQ, to the top of the memory frame with a crystal brad, just to give the frame a slightly different look.

Onto other things, mums out of hospital now, thankyou all for your prayers & well wishes

movement is slow & difficult and it fills a lot of my day chatting with her & caring for her, She is coping so well, it's lovely to have here staying with us, I reckon I might even get her into a bit of cardmaking ;o)

GOTHIC ARCHES

**** SQUEEEEEEAAALLLL****

Nancy asked me to be the Hostess this week on her most delightful challenge blog

Gothic Arches

I just can't wait to see what everyone does with the theme

TEXT

one of my personal favs :O)

little bits I used on my arch are

Paper Artsy Stamp(from TSQ), Laughing Moon Gears Stamp, Stamp-It memories stamp (that's the flourishes you can see on the side), Basic Grey PP, Splatters of ink, computer generated words, sewing machine, a jewelry finding cut in half (at the top), brads, sewing machine, jewelry wire,

and a GORGEOUS old skeleton key :)

Meet Clancy & Clarice

and all of their friends
Just thought you'd like to see some of the beautiful

Rainbow Lorrikets

we have come for a bit of tucka on our back deck

each and every day

Unfortunately in these photo's they are all a little wet as it's been raining here for a good week and they have all popped in out of the rain.

Lots happening at our home at the moment, I have my mum & dad with us, Mum is currently in hosipital here she had an pretty big opperation this week, and will be in hospital till early to mid next week, when she gets out of hospital Mum will be living here with us for a while till she is more able to get around. So in all thats been going on this week, I haven't had a chance to do my DCM or SALT contributions, but do pop over and check out what everyone has done, I do hope to have a little time this weekend to create and hope you do too

Take care everyone :O)

DCM little extra- snowflakes & snowman

for this weeks Little Exta at Daring Cardmakers

we'd like you to make and share cards on a theme of
Snowmen and Snowflakes

So I called on my years of being an infants student, And made a paper snowflake for my card. I used to love making 'snowflakes' when I was a kid, it was the closest thing you got to snow in Inverell, altho It did snow one day in 1984 when I was at highschool, but it didn't settle on the ground, but it was sooooo pretty.

I've been tagged by Sephi.

Thanks Sephi, if you haven't checked out Sephi's blog, do yourself a creative favour!

So I am terrible usually at tags, have wonderful intentions of getting them done, but somehow they just don't happen.... so I'm going to do this one! I've done this one before, so coming up with something new...hmmm... lets see lol!

Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird
1. I dream vividly and creatively, and sometimes horribly

2. I have an super sensitive sense of smell (yes I'm the one who always smells smoke)

3. I am VERY silly when it comes to playing with my kids *-}

4. I love candles and we have candle lite dinners often

5. I need to write lists, but hate being tied down to lists, instead it gets all muddled up in my head and I get stressed, so I am trying to learn to write lists..lol!

6. Day trips with my family are my {sweet times}

7. I actually am doing 7... (I reckon that can be a fact..lol!!!)

Boho Christmas

This little set of cards I made are in the current issue of

Australian Paper Crafts

Issue 70, 2007

(if you go to the APC link above, you can actually download a virtal copy of the mag... cool hey)
I bought a kit of My Minds Eye Papers, it had all these cool tags in it,

I just added a bit of stamping and some bling.

It was actually from Last years 'Bohemia Christmas' range, I love the 'grungy quality' the printed paper has, it was cool in the mag they titled my feature 'Boho Christmas'

made me giggle...

This week at DCM

Bea from Ribbon Oasis is sponsoring a challenge to use her fabbylicious range of Christmassy ribbons on our cards. So Lucky Us - we all received an envelope full of ribbons to play with and below you'll find the cards we've made (so far!) So this week we'd love you to join in and make Christmas cards using lots and lots of fabby, yummy ribbon - now that shouldn't be too hard, after all we all love ribbon, don't we? Don't forget that you can replenish and expand your ribbon supply easily by visiting the Ribbon Oasis website - you'll find so much of the gorgeous twirly stuff there you'll be spoilt for choice - we guarantee it!
Now then, just in case you need a bit more enticement to join in our dare:
Wrap it in Ribbon for Christmashere's a little sweetener:

Bea is giving a ribbonful prize to one lucky darer this week.

There is still time to join in on the dare, so come on

I DARE YOU!!!!!

Salt - Jesus is Lord

This week's theme at Salt is
JESUS IS LORD!

Kimberly chose this because this is the start of our journey with God, acknowledging Jesus as our Lord and becoming born again! The wonderful thing is that it is so easy to join God's kingdom!If you confess with your mouth, JESUS IS LORD and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with the mouth that you confess and are saved.

Romans 10:9-10
This is my little piece, It's a 'Memory Glass' project
the size is 2x2"
When I saw Kimberly's choice of topic I immediately thought of 'Sunday School'
Such a Valuable ministry in our churches.
The verse from Proverbs 22:6 came to mind
"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it"
so I have made this little treasure for my sweet friend who co-ordinates our churches Sunday School.
Supplies - Memory Glass Frame, Glass & Vintage Image available from
The Stamping Queen,
computer journaling,page from old dictionary, American Crafts Minimarks Rub-on, and lace.
We'd love to have you come and join us at SALT

Enjoy!

I am OVER THE MOON to be Guest Designing for

Pencil Lines

This week as they Celebrate their birthday! Happy Birthday Girls xxx

You can check out my sketch over at the PL blog

I'd love to see what you do with it ;o)

Toodles, Gillxxx

a little LO to share

Just so I still qualify as a Scrapbooker, thought I better put another LO on my blog LOL!

My little miss G xxx

DCM little extra- Template

For this weeks little extra at DCM Kathy came up with a cool little sketch

Pop on over and have a peek, this is the card I made using the sketch.

Make sure you join in on our Anniversary Dare, for your chance to win,

see the blog for more details.
Here's a closeup, I cut little 1"squares from my old dictionary, glued them onto a piece of dark brown cardstock, then stitched them, next was gesso, I brushed it roughly over everything, cut and stuck some of these cool 'collection' words from TSQ in each square, then I dipped a lid in some acrylic paint and used it as a stamp to get the circles, then I rubbed some more paint around the outside edge of the square, sewed it onto the card and well there you have it!

So Have you Dared to DARE? Come on I DARE YOU!!!!

Happy Birthday DCM xxx

The group of friends who got together to form the
Daring Cardmakers
back in October 2006 has developed and grown into a huge circle of crafting and blogging friends who come together from all over the world to share their inspiration and their talents so enthusiastically, and are always so supportive of each other's cardmaking. In honour of all of you who've helped make this blog so successful, and such a friendly place to "play" we've decided to revisit our very first dare for this our first anniversary, but with a twist. The subject is, as in our original dare "friends", but this time the title is
CIRCLE of FRIENDS
and we'd like you to incorporate at least one circle into your card.It would make it a very special occasion if for this dare you'd make a card just for the DCM rather than doubling up with other challenges.Please join in and celebrate our first anniversary with us,without all of you - our wonderful extended "Team of Darers" and of course all those who've joined us as Guest Designers over the last year it wouldn't be half as much fun.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARING CARDMAKERS ALL

I decided to make a Gothic Arch Card to Celebrate our DCM birthday!
and this little vintage image from a collage sheet I received in my TSQ dt pack was just perfect for the circle of friends theme!
****************************************************************
Well not only has October been a busy month in our home with reno's happening, Annual leave, School Holidays, A new puppy, day trips, Visitors, etc....
But we Celebrated 2 Birthdays, mine early in October and Jacobs was on Tues.
anyway, I wanted to share with you all the beautiful Handmade cards I have received...
and to say thankyou to you sweet girls, I love them all!!!!

Made By Kathy
Made by Rhi & Lythan
Made By Beth
Made By Robin & Sandie
Made by Jenny & my niece MJ xxx
Aren't they all GORGEOUS!!!!!