18th Birthday Cards

Another run of 18th Birthday parties for Matt. He has just finished off assessment tasks for all his Year 12 subjects and although the HSC trials are only a couple of weeks away, he feels that a little pressure has lifted. One of his mates who left school in Year 11 is turning 18 and Jack is a bit of a surfer, so the above card seemed appropriate.

This card is for one of the girls in his group. He has a really nice group of friends and this card I thought was girly yet grown up and stylish.

Canberra Extravaganza

I went to Canberra last weekend to do a "mini" extravaganza with my sister. The above photos were our projects. Narelle demonstrated the "Lovely as a Tree" card and the Acetate box filled with chocies. I demonstrated the "Artistic Etchings" card and the Top Note handbag and notelets. We had a great time as did all Narelle's lovely ladies.

This handbag I made up and filled with chocolates as our lucky door prize. The handbag design is from Becky Roberts a demonstrator in the USA. You can buy her designs of her blog www.inkingidaho.blogspot.com She has some great patterns.

Now this photo is of our youngest attendee at our "mini" extravaganza. Little Grace is 4 years old and he she is holding up her Acetate Box beautifully made. I have trouble with this project but now I've made about 6 I'm getting the hang of it. Grace just went about her business and made it perfect first time. Grace also made the 2 cards and the top note handbag. She was also the lucky winner of the Lucky Door prize.

Thanks for having me Narelle, it was a great weekend. Will try and get down to the "Nations Capital" more often.

50th Birthday Cards

I was asked by my work to make a 50th Birthday card for the Doctor who owns the practice. This I had trouble with, kind of lost my "mojo". The card with the jumbo eyelets was my first attempt. I wasn't really happy with it so I got this week's Inkspirations Challenge up on my laptop and decided I could do something with that. The first card in this post is what I ended up being happy with. I've used "Sense of Time", "Teeny Tiny Sentiments" and "Bring on the Cake" stamps sets and a push bike stamp I have in my stash (the doctor is a keen cyclist). The SU Colour Coach helped me with the colour combination, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake and Riding Hood Red. I made the inside of the card pop up with the "Sense of Time" clock. I'm now going to up load this card to the Inkspirations Challenge for this week.

Bear Hugs Waterfall Card by Olivia

Here is Olivia's waterfall card that she made at Janine's craft day. How cute is it. Olivia had so much fun making it and colouring bits in, just quietly I think she was quite proud of herself with the end result (and so she should be) it is such a cute card. Thanks Janine for a lovely day.

Craft Day with Friends

On Wednesday, Olivia and I went to a lovely crafty day. I had forgotten it was going to be school holidays when I made the arrangment. Janine very kindly let Olivia come along. These are the 2 cards that I made. "Bear Hugs to You" pop up card. I made this card about 11 years ago when I went to a few "Crafty Kids" parties, I had forgotten about this technique so it was great to revisit it. The second card is a fun denim pocket card. We had a lovely day with friends. The next post I will show you the card Olivia made.

Adelaide - a bit of sightseeing

"Team MacCabe" enjoying lunch in Adelaide.

We took a tram ride from Glenelg to the Convention Centre in Adelaide then back to Rundle Mall.

Haigh's Chocolate Factory - if you want to do the tour you need to book in advance!!! (Memories of the Cadbury Factory in Tasmania!)

Berenberg Jam Factory at Hahndorf - yummy jams and chutneys. Hahndorf is a lovely little town similar to Berrima and Bowral in NSW. Weather wasn't that great, we even experienced hail at Mt Lofty as well as gale force winds and temps of 5 degrees.

Looking foward to going back to Adelaide with Matt in March 2012 for Open Nationals - Olympic trials selection.

Adelaide Open Nationals Swim Meet

As most of you are aware I was in Adelaide last weekend with Matt who was swimming at the Open Nationals Swim Championships. Above is the brand new SA Aquactic complex at Marion where the championships were held. Wonderful complex.

Memories of Sydney Olympics with how high up we were in the grandstand to watch the events. There are 2 50m pools which for short course championships they move the "moveable" wall and divide the pool to 25m = short course.

Matt swam really well in his 3 events, "pbing" in 2 of them. Here he is behind land 3 (3rd person from left ready for his 100m backstroke event.

Matt with a couple of his mates from short course championships. For those not of the swimming world on the left is Geof Heugall and on the right is Eamon Sullivan (or for those who really don't know the swimming world - Eamon was winner of Celebrity Masterchef and is Cleo Bachelor of the Year).

As Matt posted on his Facebook - "the disappointing moment when you walk out with Skippy Heugall and all the young kids run to Skip for his autograph"!!!!!