my ramblings

catching up

Hope you had a happy, relaxing Easter.

I finally have the RAK winners (from a couple of posts ago). I've made up 10 little bags of ribbon with an Easter ribbon and three co-ordinating ribbons.

The winners are:

• Leone
• Sandra Mason
• Kerry Murray
• Sarah Latham
• Rachael Merrick
• Manuela
• Amie Taylor
• Lisa Jamerson
• Narelle
• Georgie

Email me your postal addresses ladies (please don't leave your addresses here in a comment). If you have a preference of colour, let me know, I'll try to accommodate.

Now, I did have a question about my cupcake bead from Lovelinks (again mentioned a few posts ago). I can't seem to find it on their website, so I've scanned the page from their print catalogue. The cupcake bead code is TT183. I'm not sure how recent this catalogue is, but my friend who sells these beads at Castlecrag was able to order this one in for me. If you want any beads from Lovelinks or Bacio, my friend (who happens to be another Fiona Carter) owns It Started with a Kiss. She operates out of Sally's Bookshop in Castlecrag. If you live on the lower north shore and you'd like her details/opening hours, let me know and I'll email them to you.

I've been busy adding some new ribbons to Ribbons Galore recently.

Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs and Elephants:

Cakes:

Jacquards:

Butterflies:

That's about all for now.

Have a good Sunday.

Fiona x

Easter craft project #1 {and a RAK}

Easter is just over three weeks away, so its time to start some Easter craft. Though I'd share some of our Easter projects here on the blog over the next few weeks.

Project: Decorating Easter Eggs

I've used the white foam eggs you can buy from craft stores as I'm not very good at the blown eggs which are traditionally used at Easter time. I've used two mediums to colour the eggs, paints and inks, before decorating them. Here's the steps...

1.  Collect supplies. Polystyrene (white foam) egg shapes, Ranger Distress Crackle Paints and Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks, acrylic paint and toothpicks.

2.  To make handling the eggs easier while painting, stick a toothpick in the base of the foam egg.

Using paints to colour the eggs

1.  Paint the egg with acrylic paint. Let dry.

2.  Once thoroughly dry, paint the egg with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint.

3.  Once completely covered leave to dry, again.

4.  It's dry and the paint has crackled. On this egg I've used a fuchsia acrylic paint under a lighter pink crackle paint. At this point you could use a clear sealer to add a little gloss to the egg if you wanted.

5.  Now decorate. Tie a ribbon around the egg and tie a double knot.

6.  Tie a bow. If you need to secure your bow, use pins to hold the ribbon in position. Try to hide the pins in layers under the bow.

And it's finished.

 

Tip: I painted an egg with the distress paint (with no acrylic paint undercoat) and as the crackle paint dried, it peeled off the egg. It seems necessary to paint the foam eggs with acrylic paint or gesso first before painting with the distress paint.

Using inks to colour the eggs

1.  Dab the Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink onto the surface of the egg. Leave to dry.

2.  While you have your inks out, you can colour some old clear buttons which you can use to decorate the eggs later.

Dab the ink onto the top of the buttons and leave them to dry.

3.  Cut short lengths of fine gauge wire (I used some scrapbooking wire that I'd had in my stash for ages).

4.  Thread the wire through the holes in the button.

5.  Apply a small dob of glue to the egg where you will place the button.

6. Pierce the egg with the wire and push the button in place. Continue around the egg until a row of buttons is formed.

This one is finished too.

Another way to decorate an egg is to wrap with ribbon, form a loop (bow) and top with a flower held in place with a pin. This little crocheted flower is a new one from Maya Road.

 

The gingham ribbons used on these eggs are new in store at Ribbon Galore.

And now for the RAK

I'd love to see any of your egg-y creations that you make for Easter, either following my steps above or your own. Leave a comment to this post with a link to your creation. I'll draw out a name to win an Easter RAK next week some time.

Thanks for visiting, hope you're having a great week.

Cheers

Fiona

RAK winners and some Christmas projects

Thank you ladies for sharing your Christmas traditions in my last post. I've loved reading what everyone does for Christmas... there are lots of different festive activities, but we all seem to enjoy this time with family and friends.

Not a lot to share from me this time. I've been making these little Christmas cards with Maya Road ribbon and felt, sewn onto small cards.

I had a couple of projects in the latest Scrapbooking Memories. First one is the layout below using Piggy Tales papers, Maya Road sheer letters and Autumn Leaves stamps.

 

The second project in SM was a card using Urban Lily Oh So Merry paper and a stamp from Autumn Leaves.

 

The gingerbread for the gingerbread houses has been made. I did share my recipe last year... Robyn S who left me a comment reminded me of this fact. Thanks Robyn. The recipe can be found HERE, along with the icing to hold the house together. The Nordicware Gingerbread House Mold which I use to make the pieces for the house can be found at Alfresco Emporium.

Now, onto the RAK winners of the little Maya Road people keychains (drawn randomly, in no particular order)....

Trace G: "My favorite tradition is driving an hour and a half to go find the perfect Christmas tree and then cut it down ourselves. The day also includes a sleigh ride, hot chocolate, and some cookies. Those reindeer are beyond adorable.
Happy holidays"

Julia: "My favourite tradition is decorating our Christmas tree while watching Carols by Candlelight and all singing along at the top of our voices."

Robyn S: "I love everything about Christmas. I now make gingerbread thanks to your gingerbread recipe you posted last year. This is a tradition I am starting. Thank you, love you blog."

Yvette: "Our favourite tradition is having the kid's photo taken with Santa. Not such a big deal, except the *children* involved are now 23, 20 and nearly 17! We are off to see the big fella tomorrow night and the kids are so excited!"

Thanks again to everyone who left me a comment.

Hope you're all having a festive week.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona

x

graduation and other things, including a RAK

Emily's year 6 graduation dinner was held the other night. A lot of work went into the coordination of this night. There was a decorating committee, a food committee, a 'security' committee and even a cupcake committee. The school hall was transformed into a fabulous venue for the kids. The theme of the evening was 'Reach for the Stars', so we did out best to make it as starry as possible. Here's the hall when we'd finished decorating...

I made the centre pieces for the tables. They were terracotta pots painted black with silver glitter on them. The pots were filled with sand to hold the mini balloons, then black crepe paper was crumpled on the top to hide the sand.

The cupcakes looked fantastic. Fondant starry shapes were placed on top of the iced cakes.

Emily looked beautiful. She was soooo excited about the evening.

All the kids had a fantastic night. Their only complaint... their evening was too short. I think they could have kept dancing for another couple of hours!

With the graduation dinner behind us now, it's time to relax... not. Christmas shopping was officially started on Tuesday, still quite a bit to do there. And we still have to make our gingerbread houses, which I'll be starting very soon.

I made these ribbon baubles yesterday for a few friends. They are clear plastic baubles which I found in my local art store (and have also seen them at Spotlight). I've bought them in past years and filled them with lollies for kids Christmas gifts, but this year I thought they'd look pretty with ribbon in them. There's also a sneak of some new ribbons coming the Ribbons Galore very soon.

 

Our latest design team project for Maya Road was to create a winter project. I don't really have many snowy photos in my album (in fact I only have a few photos of snow from my Europe trip in the 1990's). So I used the Maya Road Sheer Snowflake album to create these little guys: They'll be back later in 2008 after their publication.

The backs were covered with Urban Lily Oh So Merry papers and stamped with the new Maya Road Postcard clear stamps.

I have written out the instructions to create these little guys for your personal use: ETA: the instructions have been removed as the reindeers have been accected for publication.

Download fiona carters reindeer decorations.pdf (US letter size format)

Download fiona carters reindeer decorations.pdf (A4 size format)

And lastly, I think we have enough time for a very quick RAK before Christmas. I have some of these little sets from Maya Road which I'd like to send you.

Leave a comment before Sunday telling me your favourite holiday tradition (or just leave your name in a comment), and I'll put the names in a hat and pick a few out.

That's about all for this week. Hope you're all having a great week.

Bye for now.

Fiona

x

overdue RAK photos

Well, back to school has been busier than expected, and these photos are long overdue.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has left a comment in my post below. I've loved reading where everyone who reads my blog comes from. And I've appreciated your lovely comments. Thank you. (my typepad comments have stopped being emailed to me, so if you've asked a question, I'll answer that some other way soon)

So on to the RAK photos. {I haven't drawn the names yet, these are just pictures of the RAKS}.

Yesterday I left Phoebe in charge of choosing a few things from my scrapping stuff to add to the RAK. It seems she liked the bottles of Prima flowers and has distributed them into 7 little bags. It actually turns out that she wanted the bottles for herself, so decided it was the flowers that had to go! Anyway, we worked to put a few more things together, she cut up rick rack, choose some chipboard things. We've added some of the flowers from the lace I was talking out in the last post. And this is what we've packed...

There are five of the above little bags, which I'll give away to people who have left a comment.

And Phoebe and I have put together two of the packs below which we'll give to the first two names that we draw out of the "hat".

I've included a couple of the Maya Road Chipboard scrolls and a shimmer tag and card which are new from Paper Salon. There might be some extra bits that we add too.

And I've been crocheting, so the two big packs have a few of my little crochet flowers.

So when the girls are home this afternoon, we'll do the draw and I'll get post the winners.

This week Caroline from Maya Road celebrated her birthday. Each of the DT members made her a little tag for her birthday and there's a post over on the DT blog showing them all. All the tags will be put together onto one large ring for her to keep. This is the little tag I made using a chipboard MR tag (one from a coaster book), painted with Ranger acrylic paint dabbers (stream - the blue colour), then the front was painted over with Ranger distress crackle paint (shabby shutters - the lovely green colour). New Maya Road scalloped rick rack, little letter rub-ons and the journaling stamp image and the acrylic flowers.

   

I did a class last week with Rachel Greig, where we were using Ranger Alcohol Inks on different surfaces. The MR acrylic flowers above were just some of the surfaces I managed to cover with this fabulous medium.

Hope you're all having a good day.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

Holiday catch up and a RAK

School holidays are over. All's quiet in the house today. We've seen several movies, caught up with friends, been out and about our beautiful Sydney and had a relaxing break up the coast last week to finish off.

We walked the Balmoral Beach to Chowder Bay track again. I've mentioned this before, but it is such a nice way to spend some time around Sydney (and you get some of the best views of Sydney Harbour too, in my opinion). The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is opening up some of the best land located around Sydney Harbour to the public. The photo below is taken from George's Heights looking across the harbour to South Head.

Since our last visit to this area, Ripples Cafe and AquaMine have opened. Ripples Cafe is a great cafe located just under the Sydney Harbour Bridge at North Sydney Pool which has been operating for several years now, and now they have opened up in one of the restored buildings at Chowder Bay.

And up the coast, this is the view we enjoyed for a few days. The girls and I went away with friends to Hawks Nest. It was so lovely up there.

Emily was in charge of breakfast one morning while we were away. She made a stack of her fabulous pancakes. She says she knows the recipe off by heart now, and in this case, how to double the mixture!

And there were several morning and afternoon tea opportunities. Nicole's Cafe over at Tea Gardens is a favourite, they have the best cakes and they serve real Chai Tea (with tea leaves in a tea pot - not the powdered variety). I love the presentation of their cakes, this one was almost too good to eat (almost!)...

Just thought I'd throw this photo below into the post. Phoebe loves getting hold of my camera and takes all sorts of photos. It's usually when I clear my memory card that I discover what she's taken. This was one that I really liked...

We started the holidays off a couple of weeks back with a weekend of music. Emily was one of 20 kids to be selected to play in the Primary division of the annual Billy Hyde Drummer's Playoff. It was such a fantastic experience for her (and very, very loud for us). She played on a fantastic kit up on stage at the Institute of Music in Surry Hills and had a great time.

She wanted to wear a t-shirt for her performance that said "girl drummers rock", which of course we couldn't find anywhere in the shops, so we made one. We screen printed the words onto a white t-shirt and she was very pleased with the result!

I've also been doing a little bit of sewing. I have several bags cut out ready to be made, which I'll be placing in the Ribbons Galore store as they are finished.

I think now it's time for a RAK. I haven't done one for a while, so if you've actually read (or just scrolled) to the bottom of this post, leave me a comment and tell me (if you want to) where you live (state and/or country is fine). {I love knowing where readers of my blog are coming from} You will have the opportunity to win a RAK from me.

I've been collecting all sorts of things lately. The latest find is a daisy lace runner which I think would look great cut up and used on some projects. I've also been collecting lots of old buttons. I'll pack in some ribbons, (maybe a few little bits and pieces from my DT companies). So I'll put a RAK pack together. It'll be a mixture of old and new things... leave a comment if you're interested in receiving one (I'll post worldwide too). I'll post a photo later, when I've put it together.

Thanks for visiting, and reading. Hope you have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona x

RAK draw and other stuff

If you've visited my blog before, you will know my girls like to make videos of the RAK draws I do here. And that's what they were going to do this time.

Well, the script had been written, the bunnies had been trained and all your comments/names were printed out and cut up. This one was going to be BIG, a hit!! The only thing was, most afternoons this week, the girls have not been home at the same time, together, to be able to make their video. So unfortunately, that idea has been shelved for the next RAK I do.

Emily is on her way, as I type, to her band camp for the weekend. So that left Phoebe and I to draw some winners this afternoon. So here we go....

The first name out was Regina, from Sweden. Congratulations, Regina you win the following pack of Maya Road goodies (thanks to Maya Road):

Because there were so many gorgeous comments from you, I've decided to have three other little packs of Maya Road goodies, which I'll put together over the weekend and send out to the following girls:

Just in case you can't read the names.... congratulations to Jen from Canada, Paula C and Marlou from Northern Ireland.

I'll email you over the weekend girls, but if you pass by before that, can you email me your mailing addresses.

I'd just like to thank everyone for visiting my blog and leaving your comments. I'm slowing trying to visit your blogs too, if you have them. I enjoy seeing everyone's work.

To end the week, I thought I'd share a few favourite photos from this week.

The girls have recently discovered my old typewriter. It's quite funny, they sit there typing their stories on it, because they say they like the old looking type. I haven't the heart to tell them they can get the same look on the computer using a font like GF Halda. This was actually my second typewriter I owned through my college days. I look at it now and can't believe I typed all my college assignments. Oh, to have computers in the olden days! Here's Phoebe typing one of her novels:

Mother's Day cake. It may have been small, but it was rich and delicious:

Phoebe playing the euphonium with her band. It was the band's first official performance this week at Education Day. They played so well together in front of the school (that's over 700 children) and the officials and teachers who attended the day:

i Love photographing kids craft and art. This is Phoebe's Moroccan inspired puppet on display in her classroom this week for Education Day:

 

And for all you felt lovers out there, I'll leave you with this little image:

Thick wool felt flowers. They are about 5mm thick and gorgeous. I visited a fabulous local store which I love this morning and found these in a little bowl. Of course, I couldn't decide what colour or size to buy, so bought myself a good variety of them all :-))

I hope you have a great weekend.

Tonight I'm on parent duty at the band camp - the kids are having a trivia night... mmm, I hope they aren't relying on me to help, I'm hopeless at trivia. Then the duty parents have to try to settle the kids and convince them to go to sleep. Apparently duty parents are not allowed to leave the camp until there has been silence in the cabins for at least half an hour. Wish me luck, I'd really like to be home before midnight.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona

x

it's RAK time

As promised earlier in the week, its RAK time.

I have a pack of Maya Road goodies looking for a good home.

All you have to do is leave me a comment to THIS POST. You have until Monday night to leave your comment. On Tuesday I'll put all the names in a draw, and pick one out - easy!

I'd just like to thank you for your lovely comments you've been leaving about my last post and Phoebe's competition project. I'm glad I shared it, as I think it showed there's a lot that our kids can take from scrapbooking for their school work.

Hope you have a great weekend. And I'll be back early next week with a winner.

Cheers

Fiona

x

Bunny Business

Hope you have all had a lovely Easter weekend.

Thank you for all your lovely comments and Easter wishes. We (that's me and my girls) have enjoyed reading through all the comments you have left here on my blog over the last week.

Now onto bunny business, as Mel called it. I had over 50 names to pop in the draw, so I decided to make another bunny, to give you two chances of winning a mini moopy!

And now, here we have the official draw. My two lovely assistants were more than willing to help choose the new owners of the bunnies.

{Here's the link to the video in case you can't view it direct from the blog}

Big CONGRATULATIONS to Tara and Nikky Dalton. A mini moopy bunny will be hopping it's way to your house very soon. Girls, could you please email me your postal addresses.

Thank you again for joining in the bunny fun here on my blog. I really do wish I could have made enough for everyone to share the bunny love.

Hope you have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona xx

mini moopy bunnies and a RAK

Thank you to everyone who has left gorgeous comments about the felt mini moopy bunnies I have made in the post below. I have read them all, and appreciate you taking the time to leave a message.

I also mentioned that my bunny making partner was Melissa Goodsell. I'm please to say Mel has now completed a couple of her bunnies and you can see them over on her blog.

Soooo, to spread the bunny love around, Melissa Goodsell and I (well it was Mel's idea originally) have decided to each give one of our bunnies away as RAKs. I'll make one up over the weekend, so not sure what the colour combination it will be, but I'll have one similar to the bunnies below.

All you have to do is leave a comment, either here or on the post below, and I'll put everyone's name in a hat on Sunday night and pull out a winner. If you've already posted a comment, no need to leave another comment, your name is already entered.

Don't forget to pop over to Melissa's blog and leave a comment too. That way you'll double your chances of winning a bunny!

Also, a few people have emailed me regarding the mini moopy bunny pattern. The pattern was originally available on the Nest Studio blog. It doesn't seem to be there anymore. This is not my pattern and not my original design and, therefore, I'm not in a position to distribute. I hope you understand. All I can suggest is you contact the talented people at Nest Studio with any questions you have about the mini moopy bunny.

Edited 5 April 2007: Carly from the Nest Studio blog has updated information about the Mini Moopy Bunny Pattern. She has it available through her Etsy store, see her blog for details.

Good luck and thank again for visiting my blog.

Fiona x