studio calico giveaway

No not me, over at Write Click Scrapbook go check it out, ends soon. While you are there check out the gorgeous layouts too.

TT challenge card-blue

Taken from the Twilight Tuesday blog:

Blue. Edward loves Bella in blue.

“That color blue looks lovely with your skin,” he said, watching me. I was surprised; I looked down, flushing, of course.” Bella Swan, Twilight, pg 148.
So this week the challenge is simple… create anything you want focusing on the color blue. Does it have to be Bella’s blue, no. Just blue. Twilight related? Well, hopefully, but that’s up to you.

Comment challenge… What’s your favorite color to wear and why? Are there any colors that you just hate wearing?


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Please join in and play along with us! If you do, here are a few guidelines to follow:

For posting to a blog: Please indicate that you are playing along with the Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge on Twilighttuesday.com and please provide a link back to our site.

For posting on another gallery, such as Splitcoast Stampers or Flickr: Please indicate that you are playing along with the Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge on Twilighttuesday.com and please provide a link back to our site. Please use the appropriate keywords for our challenges; an example is TTIC40 for challenge 40. No number signs (#) or spaces are needed in the keyword. You can also add in more general keywords for Splitcoast/Flickr (such as Twilight, Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge, etc.). Thank you for your help with this!

Comments/Posting your link: Please leave a comment with the link to your challenge piece to tell us that you played along with us! Then we can all visit you and leave lovely comments for you. (We are no longer using Mr. Linky as we were having quite a few spam issues and downtime.) We are big fans of comments around here! And don’t forget — leaving a comment on this post will get you entered into this month’s blog candy giveaway!

And as always, our Design Team has fantastic projects to display for this week’s challenge – please go and check them out!

Beth ~ Dani ~ Eve ~ Jen ~ Julie ~ Margie ~ Rebecca ~ Tonya

(Beth, Margie and Tonya are on break this week.)

with Guest Designers:

Alison ~ Donna ~Erica ~ Jacquie

Playing along with the Twilight Tuesday challenge once again. As you would have read above it's all about the colour blue. OK, so I cheated and added a little cream and brown to it, but hey, I don't mind if you don't ;-) not really sure how this one relates to Twilight, I suppose I could have added an appropriate Twilight message but I need to use the card for something else, or I could stretch my imagination and come up with something deep about butterflies,and their symbolism and how they would relate to the story but that's not really me, so it just is.

As to the comment portion on colours I like wearing, that one is easy. I mainly like more earthy and autumnal tones, especially in winter but that can change depending on my mood. I also tend to wear quite a bit of black or white, both such clean colours that compliment what ever you put them with and on the odd occasion I love to lash out with red. And of course you can never go past the old blue denim jeans, I think they are a fave with lots of people. A colour I will not wear is sage green, makes me look like I'm about to throw up or something, ewww, not that I don't like the colour, it just doesn't like me.

It's a little hard to photograph the pretty shimmer on the wings of the butterfly, they look a little washy.

Card-bazzill and scrapbooking Aust, stamp-hero arts and PTI Ink-stampin up Alcohol inks-Ranger Diecut-quickutz(label holder) Bling-Kaiser, Embossing folder-cuttlebug, Brads-FTI, flower and ribbon unknown

Cheers
Susy

these ones are for

Kathryn, hope you like your new brushes, now you just have to blog to use them ;-)

I hope when you move you are going to share a lot more of your scrappy goodness on your blog with us.

Will get them to you in the next couple of days XxRighto, the brush making fad is over, for a few days anyway, must go and finish a card I am half way through.

Excuse the photo but I worked it out.

I seriously need to get out and take some decent photos. I have been having issues with my 24-70mm lens and focus. I'm just not as happy with it as I was, think maybe it needs to go to the lens doctor. I know it will never like it as much as my prime lenses but it's just not fun aymore, like it when things work as they are supposed to. I did work out the size problem I had with this rounded corner action, played around a little and then had a der moment when I realised I could just pull the photo into place. Anyway, there you have it, an odd angled photo of my cat, slightly out of focus but at least it is the right size,lol.

cheers

Susy

Cathy Z's tutorial

Now I really have to go and do some housework...I had a go at Cathy Z's tutorial I linked to in the post below. Really happy I now know how to do this. I think I have learnt more in PS in the last few weeks that I have ever, just googling, playing, experimenting,reading, still have a loooong way to go put at least it doesn't scare me as much anymore. both photos are just snap shots, one with my little optio on the underwater setting and the one of Xman and me taken by my SIL at Christmas on her canon P&S. Xave looks a little unsure in this shot but seconds later he was giggling away, I would have put the giggling shot up but it was a shocker of me,yes even worse than this one, and when it comes ot a contest between a kid looking a little unsure and me looking like a witch...well there is no need to guess which one won,lol.

Cheers

Still playing

this time with an action from here Love the look of rounded corners on photos but didn't want to go to the bother of clipping masks etc, so much easier just to push a button,lol. I just have to work out how to make the area around the photo smaller, any ideas? Also found this cool tutorial on Cathy Zs blog about adding frames and test overlays. Can't wait to play with this one.

A little pressie for ya Don.

that I have to post here for you because for some reason it does not want to email to you, gets to 8% then stops. there is probably a way to do this for clever people but until I find out it's not gonna happen. Any way it's a new watermark brush, inspired by the ones I saw on Sam's blog here that she bought here. they are very cute, I did buy a couple but then decided to have a go at making my own. I made mine into brushes, basically because I am lazy and don't want to go to all the effort of opening up, moving and resizing another file, plus I like the fact that I can change the colour, size and opacity with little effort. so there you go Don,hope you like it (the apple reminded me of you, wonder why in the Twilight that would be) I will put it on a disk and bring it down with me on the 16th. I made one for myself with a little owl were the apple is, this could be very addictive. And I also played around with a template that came with a Jessica Sprague class I recently did(photo editing:good-to-great workflow). I love that I learnt so much doing this, and that I finally worked out clipping masks. I always got frustrated trying to use templates before, It's amazing what knowledge can do for you,lol.
there is nothing too special about this, I was just pottering and playing. I don't own many digital papers( just this freebie kit actually)so I was a little limited, luckily the photos were taken at Christmas, they some that my SIL and I had taken. I am having one of those very unmotivated days today, started making a card and totally lost interest in it around the 5 min mark, looked at my pile of photos to scrap and didn't even bother, went to edit some photos and didn't feel like that either so dabbling on here was about as good as it got, hopefully my mojo will be back tomorrow. could have done the mountains of housework that come with having four messy boys but I need motivation for that too ;-)Cheers
Susy

Scraperlicious challenge 1-Winter wonderland

So bright and early, too early for this night owl, I rephotographed the challenge layout. there are two shots of the whole of it as the transparency was really difficult to get a photo of. I had planned to hang it on the clothes line but it was full and it is quite windy here this morning, which will at least mean the washing that is on there will finally dry. the different lights almost make it look like two different layouts.
ETA, please don't read the journaling too close, I only just realised that there are several mistakes in it,lol.

A few close ups of the different elements

The writing across this was done with digital wordart stamps from
here . I layered several across my page then printed them onto PTI cardstock. I had not used these before but I can pretty well guarantee that it will not be the last time, I really like the look of them. Another new digi thing I did was to the shaped journaling in PS, I found this tut

here by googling, she explains it so well and in easy terms for people like me who need in dumbed down a little,lol. although I will never be a digital scrapbooker, love getting hands dirty too much, I am enjoying the added benefits that my computer can bring to scrapbooking.
I love these little snowflake charms, they are just the cutest. I bought a bundle of them just before last Christmas off eBay. I only have a few left now as I used them in a class I taught.

Cheers
Susy

A sneak peek

Haha, a little bit of my layout for the scraperlicious challenge just to prove that I have finished it. the reason there is no more shots is that after photographing it I changed my mind as to where some things should go and it now looks different. It was too late in the day by the time I had finished fiddling with it to take more photos so it will have to wait until tomorrow but the proof is there at least. And while we are on the subject of the scraperlicious challenge has any one checked out the first layout, done by the talented Coco, just gorgeous. She is normally a card maker(and what a card maker, her cards are divine and I consider myself lucky to own a few of her works of art) but because she is a pal and up for a challenge when I asked her to join in she jumped in with both feet and as you will see if you go over and look it's something she has a real flare for. Cheers and goodnight,
Susy

Naracoorte caves

Pretty formationThe bottom formation is actually a reflection in a pool, they call it the fairy castle.
And these they call the seven dwarfs, can you pick them out


The wedding cake, for obvious reasons



Seamus and Can admiring some of the unique formations.

Weekend before last Seamus and I played tourist with Donna and Cam and her friend Wendy and her two. The girls were heading down to Mt Gambier for a little R&R, or as much as you can get any way with three young uns in tow, and they stopped here for a cuppa, chat and visit to the caves. We also met up with Don's sister Cindy who drove down from Penola and her three, they amazed me at how much they have grown up, I used to see them quite often when Donna lived here but not often since.

Seamus and I couldn't remember the last time we went to the caves it had been that long. A holiday at home and catch up with friends is a good thing.

coffee anyone?

I know I have shared this shot before but I was playing with the newest B&W action from here and thought it pretty cool, even cooler is that all Rita's actions are free and most are for PS and PS elements. She is awesomely talented and extremely generous. My monitor is being a little off lately so I hope what you are seeing is what I am seeing ;-) Í am missing my computer and craft time but loving having my boys home for the holidays and the relaxed lifestyle that goes with a holiday at home.

Win $1,000 at TheCuttlebugSpot.com!

I have just discovered that The Cuttlebug Spot is having a contest - "The Journey to 1,000"! They are trying to reach 1,000 followers by the end of July and need your help. To enter all you have to do is go to their site, sign up as follower and complete a few easy steps and you could win a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops (www.CustomCrops.com)! GO NOW and check it out at www.TheCuttlebugSpot.com

Wow, now who wouldn't like that, what an awesome prize?

Exciting stuff

A couple of weeks ago(and a few posts down) I entered a challenge to make/alter a piece of home decor on the Sissy's scrap challenge blog... and I won...I'm so excited. Thank you to Margie and Sara for choosing my little birdhouses :-) I think challenges are good for me, makes me get of my butt and do something instead of just day dreaming about it,lol.
On another note I forgot to mention that the apple stamps used on the card below are by gelatin(I think anyway, they came in a little tin when i bought them so I'm thinking that might be right.)
Cheers
Susy

TT July sketch challenge

I'm blaming Donna for this, first the books, then the movie and now the challenge blog, it's all her fault you know, she has used some sort of evil hypnosis that causes these addictions... or maybe she just knows my tastes too well,lol. Any way I thought I would play once again in the Twilight Tuesday challenge, this week is a sketch, see below.

and my version of it, you could make anything you liked, card, scrap page, quilt, what ever your imagination stretched too, as you can see my imagination is on holidays with the kids at the moment so I went for the easy way out and did a simple card. The theme, well not so much a theme as the fact that every time I see a big red juicy apple now I think of the front cover of the first book so I went for apples. wish I had that bite me stamp, but because I don't I had to go for the nice senttiment instead ;-)
And for no other reason than he is cute I thought I'd share a photo from Christmas of my nephew Xavier. Just want to squeeze those cute little chubby chops, of course he is quite a bit bigger now and would probably not be impressed if I did.And I also wanted to say a big thank you to Maria for the yummiest minestrone soup ever ,Seamus and I ate it for lunch today, I have such nice friends.

Uselss trivia or interesting fact?

For a few months now I have been receiving a word-a-day email from here A mixture of the more commonly used words to quite obscure words. Today's interesting little fact comes not so much from the word itself, although it's not a word I had heard before but rather the reason for choosing it. I will copy and paste the newsletter below.

I've been alerted to an event that will take place later this week, something that happens once and only once over the course of history. Shortly after noon on July 8, comes the moment that can be called 12:34:56 7/8/9. To mark this momentous event, this week we'll feature words that have three consecutive letters in order, something that doesn't happen very often either (there are hundreds of everyday words, but we are talking here about unusual and interesting words).It's not exactly true that this sequence of time/date happens only once. If you follow the day/month/year convention, you can observe the same sequence next month, on August 7. And even though it appears to be a rare occurrence, such interesting patterns aren't that unusual. Consider these from the past:01:23:45 6/7/8912:34.56 7/8/9001:02:03 04/05/06In a couple of years we'll have 11:11:11 11/11/11. What other unusual patterns can you think of that are in the near future?

defenestrate

PRONUNCIATION:(dee-FEN-uh-strayt)
MEANING:verb tr.: To throw someone or something out of a window.
ETYMOLOGY:From Latin de- (out of) + fenestra (window).
NOTES:There have been many defenestrations over the course of history, but the most famous, and the one that inspired the word defenestration, was the Defenestration of Prague on May 23, 1618 . Two imperial regents and their secretary were thrown out of a window of the Prague Castle in a fight over religion. The men landed on a dung heap and survived. The Defenestration of Prague was a prelude to the Thirty Years' War.See a Lego sculpture of the Defenestration of Prague. Also, check out the defenestration of various articles of furniture in this unique San Francisco sculpture.


so there you have it, a second in time were all our numbers will line up from one to ten, pretty cool hey?

Donna's Twilight Tuesday Challenge

As most of you know Donna is a guest designer at Twilight Tuesday (One of the places Twilight addict hang out) this week it is her challenge. The challenge...Romance. I will include the details below but firstly let me tell you, as asked by Donna, a little about how romantic I am, or I should say we are, DH and I are a team package when it comes to romance...how does zip, zilch, zero go? We are one of the least romantic couples around, we forget anniversaries, even our 20th wasn't thought about until 11 that night, he doesn't buy me flowers, the only chocolates I buy him are the ones in packets from the supermarket, Valentines day gets passed over each year and there is definitely no frilly lingerie in my wardrobe BUT we are loving and affectionate. It has to be a stinkin' hot night for us not to go to sleep in one or the others embrace, we hold hands in public, "I love you" is a commonly spoken phrase in our house, kids included, and he supports me in almost everything I do, to me that is so much more important than lining the florists pocket anyway,lol. Now don't get me wrong I love a good romantic movie (wouldn't like Twilight otherwise would I now?)and need lots of tissues in the mushy scenes, much to my kids disgust, I even get emotional reading books, that doesn't cause disgust in my kids it incites riotous laughter, boys are so mean sometimes,lol.

So here are all the details as written by Donna


Ohhhh I hope you like this.....
This week's Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge is called



"A Little Romance"

And I'm hosting it!....Well... you know, I came up with the idea!

Warning.....If you haven't read Eclipse, there are spoilers ahead!


"If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn't love you as much as I do in a single day"
~ Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights

Yes, I admit it....I am a hopeless romantic! I am the one who sits in the back of the movie theatre and cry's her eye's out at the slightest inkling of a romantic, happy ending!....So it makes perfect sense (well, to me anyway) that one of the things I am constantly drawn to in the Twilight Saga is Edward's and Bella's unfailing, undeniable, intense and passionate love they have for each other. To many of us, it's what draws us back to reading the books over and over and over again!

My husband, (whom I love with all my heart) is NOT romantic in anyway, shape or form, and although I knew this when I married him I sometimes find myself craving for a little bit of romance...So apart from actually physically going out to find it, I turn to my bookshelf instead!

I love many of the romantic scenes in the 4 books...When Edward and Bella first start to get to know each other , the meadow, when they are reunited after being apart, even when Alice and Jasper meet at the airport after she gets back from Italy. But, the book I find myself regularly pulling out when I need a romantic hit is Eclipse. When Edward gives Bella his "hand me down" charm and then he finally gets her to agree to marry him...Along with a few other things!
I took a deep breath.

"Isabella Swan?" He looked up at me through his impossibly long lashes, his golden eyes soft but, somehow, still scorching. "I promise to love you forever - every single day of forever. Will you marry me?"

There were many things I wanted to say, some of them not nice at all, and others more disgustingly gooey and romantic than he probably dreamed I was capable of. Rather than embarrass myself with either, I whispered, "Yes."

"Thank you," he said simply. He took my left hand and kissed each of my fingertips before he kissed the ring that was now mine.

~ Bella Swan, Eclipse, pg. 460.


So here is my challenge to you...

Creative Portion:
Do you have a favourite Edward and Bella , Jacob and Bella or even an Alice and Jasper romantic moment? Create something that celebrates their love or how about creating something for that special person you love!

Comment Portion:
Tell us about your most romantic moment...Be it in the books or real life!

there you go, the challenge, and here is my interpretation of it. I believe it took Bella quite a while to believe herself as capable of being loved by Edward as much as she loved him so thought the quote quite appropriate
It took quite a bit of effort on my part not to line up those words with a ruler,he he, I am so linear sometimes, I just had to let it go.

thanks to Nat King Cole's Nature boy for the quote.

Cheers
Susy.