Gina's July Challenges

Gina gave us another colour and sketch challenge for the month of July. I must admit I found completing a card in just black and white for the colour challenge very difficult. I was very surprised to be the winner for the colour challenge for the month of June. It was the first challenge I had ever gone in and although there were only 4 cards to choose from, I was very humble to be the chosen one. Thanks Gina for my little prize of dazzling diamonds (a stampin up glitter product) and some other yummy treats. Gina has just advised us the winners for the July challenge below and I am very surprised to have won the colour challenge again, must be beginners luck!!! So here are my cards for the July challenges.

Sketch Challenge


Colour Challenge - use this cushion as inspiration to make a black and white card

Winter Warmer

I thought I might share my favourite winter recipe. I still can't believe I haven't made it this winter yet. I'll have to do something about that.

Yummy Lamb Shanks

Lamb Shanks (I usually use 4 but you could make this with as many as you like)
Onions (I think I use 1 or 2 chopped in wedges)
3 Cloves of Garlic
Chopped Carrots (about 3 or 4 cut in chunks)
1/2 cup Pearl Barley
1 cup Red Wine
1 cup Beef Stock (or a beef stock cube in 1 cup of water)
1 can Tomatoes
1/4 cup Tomato Paste
1 tablespoon Thyme (fresh if you have it)

Use a big heavy based saucepan. Brown lamb shanks in a little oil and remove. Then fry the onions and garlic cloves until soft in the same saucepan. Return the lamb shanks and then add the carrots, pearl barley, red wine, beef stock, tomatoes and tomato paste. Put the lid on and simmer for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours. About 15 mins before you are ready to serve chop in fresh thyme leaves. Serve with mash potatoes (mandatory) and other vegies if you wish.

I am unsure of the origin of this recipe as a lady from work gave it to me. Is very yummy, enjoy :)

K Werner Color Inspiration #17

Just a quick, simple card for the latest K Werner Colour Challenge. The colours are inspired by this very pretty vintage dress below. I am thinking about sending this card to my girlfriend Chris who lives in Brisbane. We don't see each other very often and she has been in my thoughts a lot lately for various reasons and I know she would love a card over an e-mail from me any day. The picture of the card was taken at night so I hope it is ok.

K Werner Color Inspiration #16

Once again I was unable to complete a card for the K Werner Colour Inspiration challenge (number 16) but I have decided to still post the inspiration shot here, as I want to come back and make a card in these colours as soon as I can. I have a baby shower to go to in August and I think these colours will make a great card for that occasion. The good news is I have made a card tonight for the latest challenge and will post it here shortly.

Campoven Roast

Our family has just enjoyed another glorious trip to our beloved Fraser Island home. We had so much fun relaxing, fishing and playing with the kids on the beach. The weather was perfect, the fish were biting and we had another fantastic campoven roast for tea on Sunday night. On our last few trips we have taken over a roast and cooked it in the campoven. They turn out great and are becoming a bit of a tradition for us.

We usually do a boneless pork. We just rub a bit of oil and salt over the skin to help create yummy crackle and throw it in the campoven on top of a trivet (so the bottom doesn't burn). We usually put about 1/3 of the coals on the bottom and 2/3 on top of the campoven and about 2hrs later, hey presto.

While the roast was cooking, our little princess was entertained by her dad with sparklers around the fire and got to try her first (second and third) toasted marshmallow (luckily she had already eaten dinner earlier).

What a Surprise

Well didn't I get a surprise the other morning. My beautiful friend Mel made this for me. Mel and I bought some ribbon together and she called around to give it to me the other night but we were out, so what a surprise I got when my hubby was leaving for work the next morning and found this little present at the front door. Mel has found a very clever idea for used formula tins...a ribbon organiser. I have since loaded mine up with the ribbon supplies I have and I'm loving having them all together in the one spot. Thanks Mel xxoo

Card Classes

My friend Gina holds card classes roughly once a month. So far I have been to two Stamp and Stack nights and one Technique class. At the first Stamp and Stack night we did boys and mens cards. A sample of the cards we made is showing in the bottom picture. At the first technique class, I learnt how to spotlight and the faux tear method. These techniques are shown in the middle photo. At the second Stamp and Stack night, the theme was Christmas in July. It was great making a start towards Christmas cards so early in the year. A sample of those cards is shown in the top photo. I am really enjoying having a children (and husband) free evening at Gina's classes and I'm looking forward to the next one.

K Werner Color Inspiration #15

This is the image for the latest K Werner colour challenge. Unfortunately, I have been a little too busy to make a card before the deadline, but I love these colours together and still might try and do a card at some stage soon. Gina has also issued her latest challenges and as her deadlines are a little more generous, I will try and complete a card for each of them. Stay tuned.

Three Cheers To The Starlight Children's Foundation

My little man and I had to spend last night in hospital. There are so many negative things I could go on about like having to move rooms during the night....let's not get me started, dinner....we won't go there either and trying to understand what the doctors are saying...that's always a favourite, but I won't bore you with all those details but one bright thing did happen. Two girls from the Starlight Children's Foundation visited the hospital and they did some lovely things for all the unwell kids there. One of the girls made a flower out of balloons for my boy and a butterfly to take home for his big sister. They played ukuleles and sung and did other activities like bead jewellery making. It was really lovely to see, so if I ever see them selling raffle tickets or fundraising, I'd only be too happy to help them out seeing what wonderful work they do.

There Must Be Something In The Water

Can you believe I currently have 13 friends who are pregnant and expecting before Christmas. What is doing there? So in anticipation, I have started making some cards. Via a friends blog, I found another blog of a lady who is a Stampin' Up demonstrator. She had some very clear instructions on how to make quite a simple tri-fold card. Here is the link if you would like the instructions. http://maecollins.blogspot.com/ So this afternoon during the rain, I attempted to make some of these cards. This is how they turned out. 3 are for a new baby girl and 1 is for a birthday. I still might do a bit more fiddling with them yet when I know who they are for, but until those babies arrive.....

My Little Man Has Cut His First Toothy Pegs

At the grand old age of 5 months, 1 week and 2 days, my little man cut his first tooth, the bottom left, on Thursday closely followed by the bottom right on Friday. As I am still breastfeeding, he will want to be on his best behaviour......

A Bit More About These Challenges

Now that I have the chance to sit down properly (the kids are resting), I will just explain the challenges a bit further. My lovely friend Gina, who is a Stampin' Up demonstrator, is largely responsible for getting me into making cards. Gina encouraged me to have a look at a great blog called K WERNER Design Blog, here is the link http://kwernerdesign.com/blog/color-inspiration/ who has colour challenges. Basically with a colour challenge you are given certain colours you need to use in making a card of your choice. There are no rules, you just need to use those colours. There are some fantastic cards made by contributors. Well worth a look.

Gina also has her own blogsite http://www.stampwithgina.blogspot.com/ and for the month of June she ran two challenges. A sketch challenge which requires you to make a card in a specific format and a colour challenge as well. That was the first challenge I had ever tried and my entry for both of those challenges are below. The images are scanned not photos however. I am still to read the manual for our camera!!! Well until next time, lots of smiles. Chook

Sketch Challenge

Colour Challenge

K Werner Color Inspiration #14

I have decided to create a blog as I am hoping to enter some card challenges and to do so, I need to upload pictures of my cards to a blogsite. Due to my limited time, I will come back and jazz this site up a bit later, but for now, I hope I can just sort out how to get my card posted. The graphic below shows the colours that were to be used in this challenge. I have used a brad in the flower to cover the colour river rock. Here goes......

And my card... it was a bit of a rushed job to beat the deadline