Tag You're it!

Ok, so this fortnight the theme at Southern Girls  is for all all you crafters that like to see tags! Another easy challenge with a great chance to win some amazing prizes from our wonderful sponsors... and speaking of sponsors.. look who we have this round..

Iva Nova Chest

Stampotique Originals

with a yummy $30 gift cert

Marianne Design

I love these quirky images from Stampotique Originals. This one is called Best Buds 

and the sentiment on the tag is Dream Definition

Now head on over to the challenge blog and check out all the DT creations!

Don & Daisy

Just thought I'd quickly share a card I made as a guest designer for the Don & Daisy challenge blog last month...yep I know LAST month, but I blame Tracy for not telling me when it was being used! LMAO!

A circle card with a sentiment in a circle...easy peasy lemon squeezy, and all Marianne Design Dies used and yes they cut so nicely when your C plate hasn't wandered off somewhere (it was having a holiday down behind my desk....must've been the cat's fault cos it wouldn't be mine, I'm so tidy and organised...NOT!)

Bling it

Hello, hopefully you are back into the swing of things and are happily joining us here at Southern Girls. For those of you that have kids, I hope it all went well on their first day back at school.

Ok, so this fortnight the theme is for all all you crafters that like to see lots of "bling".

This round we have 2 lovely sponsors

Scrap of Bull with a great prize pack

AND

Marianne Design 

I had a play this time with my Distress Ink markers that I've had for a wee while ( like over a year!LOL!) and never really touched them. Took a bit of getting used to but I think I love them! Just have to remind myself "don't overwet the paper or everything bleeds" .....!!!! 

I used a couple of different dies to embellish my card but had trouble cos I lost my C plate for my cuttlebug!!!!!!  Yep, found it the next day after it was TOOOOOOO late. Anyway the dies are Marianne Creatables LR0156 & LR0017.

And for a different take on bling, I used nail polish on my large chipboard butterfly thanks to a suggestion by a fellow crafter (clever Amanda) and it looks very cool IRL!!!!! 

A morning at the beach

We're having such glorious weather, it was time for an outing to the beach for the Brodsta and his friends.

Brodie decided to chase seagulls, Solly followed for a wee way then SENSIBLY turned back. Sir Dork however went backwards and forwards after the birdies that just kept flying away. Who would've guessed?

You think I should try again Mum? There's another birdie out there........

It must be Love!

Hi everyone and welcome to another week and another theme at Make it Crafty.

 With the gorgeous new Geeky Love wedding images available at MIC what better than to showcase love and  weddings….and I’ve tried to follow the colour challenge as well which is to colour white.

The MIC products I have used are

Geeky Love getting married digi stamp

Wedding Church Digi stamp

Love Heart Swirls chipboard

I’ve  coloured this with copics and finished off with polychromo pencils ( which I didn’t write down!!)

Dress: T0, T1 E51 ( and some diamond stickles on the veil) 

Her hair: E51, E53, E55

His Hair: E23, E25, E29

His suit: B34, B37, B39

Church E40, E41, E42, Y28

Roof R05, R07, R39

Skin E000, E00, E11, E21 R02

Bushes: G82 G85

New Beginnings

Its a blog hop for the New Year , the Make it Crafty Inspiration hop, and we are welcoming our new DT members ! Yay! Though it is sad to see some of our friends leaving....we'll miss you guys!

You should have arrived from the talented  Amanda but  if you  have just joined us you may like to start HERE. 

I've used the MIC image called Slimy House and gorgeous chipboard leaf branches, and  delicate corners.

The flowers I made from resin, coloured with pearlex in the molds. The paper is BG Marjolaine.

Now next stop for you is the wonderful Kasey HERE 

Southern Girls- Thank You Kindly

Hello, welcome back to our very first 2013 challenge here at Southern Girls. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years with your family and friends.. hopefully you are all well rested and rearing to get into another year of creating with us here at Southern Girls Challenges

Ok, so this fortnight after all the yummy unexpected gifts you may have received over the last month from crafty friends, family and friends we want you to create a project that says "thanks".

This round we have 3 lovely sponsors:

Marianne Design

A Day for Daisies

Louise Delore (Retail Girl)

My card is made using the " A day For Daisies" image called Lady Bug Buddy,
a Marianne Design Butterfly die, and the gorgeous pearl border and pearl button from Retail Girl.

Check out the rest of the DT and see what they have made HERE

Happy New Year!!

No crafting to share, I've been lazy, its been so warm and I've enjoyed just mooching!   Just want to wish everyone a happy New Year.

We had a quiet Christmas, just us and dogs and friends. Brodie had a play with his best buddy on boxing day, the two of them in and out of the paddling pool. They exchanged pressies of course!

New Years Eve was quiet, went to bed as usual, I'm not a late night person I'm afraid. Woke up to fireworks at midnight, then to an earthquake just after 3am.  Hope it's not a sign of things to come for this year!

Thought I'd share a pic of the finished shed/man cave/ cottage that G built this year. It blends in nicely now that its been stained.
And yes, that is Brodie's paddling pool there, a dog has to keep cool somehow......

                           The Pohutukawa trees ( aka NZ Christmas trees) are really  blooming at the moment. Aren't they gorgeous?

Happy New Year !!!!

How many now?

There's only 8 days til Christmas!

The MiC gang and our Special Guests thought it would be fun to have a 'grown up' advent calendar as we count down the days til Christmas full of inspiration just for us creative minds!

Each day a sneak peek will be revealed on the MiC store blog with a link for you to follow "to open the door".

All you have to do is stop by the store blog each day to open the next door!

PLUS Zoe has Christmas Candy full of lots of crafty goodies that you don't want to miss out on!

AND THERE'S MORE GIFTS

But what's even more exciting is that you will have a chance to win the Make it Crafty goodies that I have played with today!!

By leaving a comment on this post you could win

Chipboard Circle Flourish frame 

The comments will stay open until the 31st of December and the winners will be announced in the New Year on the MiC store blog. You can join us for all 24 days - giving you 24 chances to win some MiC goodies! If you join us late,  simply go back to the start and catch up!

This is what I have created with my MiC goodies!

Don't forget to leave a comment below before December 31st and stop by the Make it Crafty Store blog to 'open the door' to 24 other inspirational projects!

Thank you so much for joining us and we wish you and your loved ones a wonderful loving Christmas.

We've been exploring again

We had a family get-together  last weekend in a  remote, rugged part of the country, with no cell-phone reception.....no internet....but it was fun!

 Ever heard of Ngawi?  Cape Palliser?  It's on the Wairarapa coast, overlooking the Cook Strait and can be a pretty wild place when the weather blows in, but luckily we had a great weekend for our trip.   We saw the lighthouse at Cape Palliser but didn't climb up to it ( did that about 20 years ago....)   got up close and personal with some NZ fur seals ( a lot more there these days, they're making a real comeback after being decimated by the early settlers ) , but didn't see any penguins though the signs everywhere said to look out for them.

One seal wanted to join us for lunch in the van, then another tried to block us from leaving by lying in a puddle behind us!  We did ask it to move nicely, but it swore lots then decided to let us through!

 Around past the seal colony is the lighthouse, with a long climb up the stairs to it.

 The fishing boats at Ngawi are launched straight off the beach using bulldozers!!!!  And what a collection there are sitting there . Some had names, some had faces, the pink one had a collection box to raise money for a new paint job! LOL!

And where we were staying , we had a great view of this old truck! I remember my uncle having one of these when I was a kid, and I loved sitting on the back.......

And we stayed at " More Beer Lodge".  yep , G's cuzzy has bought it and guess what he likes to drink......

4 weeks to go

That’s right, 4 weeks till Christmas! Woohooo!   There are all those gorgeous MIC christmas images ready and waiting, and even a dog fairy that I’m going to have to colour when I find a spare minute….hehehehe . So, no excuses for not getting some gorgeous christmas cards made!

I used the  front door wreath for a quick card , its a classic image and perfect for a background or a focal image if you want.

And I just LOVE this chipboard holly border!!!!! I coloured with copics and added highlights with a white gel pen.  Added a bit of glittery netting, a diecut star covered with stickles, some DP from Pink Paislee, and that’s it.

MIC products used

Front Door Wreath Digi stamp

Christmas borders chipboard

Pink & Brown

Welcome back to another challenge at Southern Girls. 

Ok, so this fortnight we want you to use pink and brown on your projects.

This round we have 3 lovely sponsors

Marianne Design 

Dtsart

LOTV

I've used Don & Daisy 3318 from Marianne design

Fence Die Marianne D Creatables

Leaves Marianne D Creatables Classic LR0133

The paper is a mixture of scraps, flowers and ribbon from my stash.

I'm enetring this in Papertake Weekly- use ribbon and pearls

Now its a beautiful day today and I have lots to do....but first, a coffee in the morning sunshine. Ahhhh, bliss!\

Getting closer

In fact, it's only 6 weeks till Christmas and I really need to start thinking about it!  Luckily , Zoe has just released all these gorgeous Christmas characters and backgrounds so we have plenty to play with!  There is even a cute dog fairy waiting to be coloured up! Hehehe!  

I got the chance to be the first to play with this adorable Christmas Town Digi, I just love its wonky houses.  This is coloured with copics and I ended up sponging the night sky with distress inks as I just couldn't get it even enough with my pens.

 The chipboard  santa sleigh and snowflakes I just stickled . The paper is Kaisercraft, the flower embelly from my stash. 

Make it Crafty Products:

Christmas Town Digi

Winter Sleigh Scene Chipboard

Snowflakes Chipboard

I'm entering this in Joanna Sheen Challenge- Cold and Frosty

Quirky Crafts- Layer it Up and Let it snow!

A drop of rain

Had a wee dash of rain this afternoon.....and my lovely boy decided to do some excavating around the new garden shed/cottage/man cave  below......

Dirt + Rain

= Yukky Brodie!

Nice!  He can have cuddles with his dad now.......!!!!!

Yum! Gingerbread!

Hi everyone!    Time for me to play with some goodies I've had for quite some time ( like a year or more)  and never quite got around to playing with....the Base chipboard house and the Gingerbread decoration kit. Zoe has done a wonderful job creating these chipboard 3D kits and I certainly wouldn't want to make one from scratch!  Eeek! Too much like hard work!

The directions are great too, I  found it so easy to follow, no chance of left over bits or things going wonky! LOL

First I put together the basic house and painted the whole thing with gesso. I use this in preference to acrylic paint as it gives good coverage and dries heaps faster and I'm impatient.  The roof additions from the Gingerbread house kit were painted the same way and then plastered with Aleene's Glitter snow , its gives a great textured effect.

The base of the house I painted with a bronze acrylic paint as it was all I had that was in the right shade.....I think it turned out to be quite a good choice in the end too! A lucky accident...hehehehe.

Once I had this together I added the  snowy bits (technical terms here people...) and some more glitter snow to the roof cos this is a snowy scene of course.  Now time to decorate.

I made a base our of card and covered it with paper, stuck the house on it and added the painted fence, some buttons for colour then printed and coloured a tree and some dancing gingerbread men. These are attached using some acetate, to make them stand.

 Now I'm thinking, where is the snow on the ground?!!!!!!! Hmmmmmmmmm........

Make it Crafty Products

Base House Chipboard

Gingerbread Decorations Kit 

Gingerbread Man Dance Digi

Gingerbread Dancing Digi

Large Pine Tree Digi

Animal Crackers

Ok, so this fortnight at Southern Girls we are going Animal Crackers.. yep we want to see those four legged,  winged... any type of animal project

This round we have 3 lovely sponsors:

Marianne Design 

 Meljen Design

 The Paper Shelter

This was my excuse to get another Christmas card done, as I've been really slack lately, no inspiration , can't be bothered, blah, blah, blah......!But its spring and we finally have some nice spring weather and I'm feeling much more inspired....hope it lasts! LOL

So I've use Prancer from Meljen Designs, and in case you son't know who Prancer is, he's one of Rudolph's buddies! Looks like there is a sale on over at Meljens, 20% till the end of October, so why not check out some gorgeous digital images.  

The paper is Pink Paislee I think, the poinsettia and christmas tree dies are from one of our other fab sponsors, Marianne Designs

I'm entering this in Fab'n'Funky Challenge- Animals

Perfect Sentiment- Christmas critters

How many sleeps?

Well I don't know , but I do know that Christmas is creeping ever closer so what a great time to get started on some chrissy cards. And it just so happens that Zoe has some great new steampunk santa images just released !  And the new chipboard coming out is to die for....gotta get my paws on some of that!! LOL

Now he's kind of untraditional so I've gone for some untraditional colours, to match the Bo Bunny paper I've used.

I used some Glitter snow  on the edges and the snowflakes,  and some gilders paste on the mini decorations. They're actually nice and shiny IRL.

MIC products used

Christmas Eve Countdown Digi Stamp

Christmas mini decorations chipboard

Snowflakes chipboard

I'm entering this in Digital Tuesday- Steampunk

and Ooh La La Creations-Santa

Time for some FLY!

Had a great time on Sunday helping out at the Flygility tournament our club held on Sunday, down in Wanganui .  I was official photographer and managed to get quite a few very cool shots. Its a crazy sport and the dogs LOVE it! They run a course of obstacles ( jumps, tunnels etc)  hit the box at the end that releases the tennis ball, catch the ball and race back over the obstacles to the start/finish line. And what makes it more exciting is that they seem to know they are racing another dog in the lane beside them  and  can get quite hyped up, while the owner is shouting at them to GOOOOOO!!!!

                Nie doing her seal impression, go little girl!

Toonie on the turn...even little dogs can go fast!

Shaylar hoofing it out of the tunnel

Ted E about to inhale the ball!

My lot don't do this however....Vinnie has no teeth to catch a ball, Riley WON'T catch a ball in case Brodie tries to take it off him, and Brodie....well Brodie has started fly training, but hasn't yet progressed past the       " Cheat and miss most of the jumps , steal the ball and run away" stage...hehehehe.....