.love a challenge. June 8, 2012

I love online craft challenges, even if I only seem to do perhaps 1 in 20 that I come across! 

The current Embellish Magazine Collage Color Trends Challenge is very pretty, and perfect for the 6 year old girl’s birthday card I need for my son to give to a school friend. 

He is very excited about going to this party because some of his mates will be there – what I don’t think he fully realises is that it is a fairy party and he may have to wear wings or something else equally repulsive to him!!  He is such a boy…although he does get a sheepish grin on his face when we ask him if he likes the sweet girl in his class who has written him several love letters.

He is feeling a bit grown up at the moment, as he has his first “big” tooth…the only problem is that the baby tooth it’s meant to be replacing hasn’t fallen out yet or even become loose!  I’d never seen it before, but I’ve been assured it’s not that uncommon and doesn’t necessarily stop teeth from straightening up eventually.  Off to the dentist next week for us, then!

Love Ruth x

.mon amie. July 12, 2011

I have been inspired by a sweet card design using a doily as a tablecloth.  Here it is:

(Made by Tina Fussell and featured in Stamp It! Cards Magazine)

It gave me the idea to use a doily as a skirt on a card:

(Made for Moxie Fab World’s Tuesday Trigger)

I only wish I had a useful light box and good photography skills! 

Happy week ahead, my friends.

Ruth x

.happy rainbow. July 7, 2011

Rainbows always manage to make me smile…they are so unexpected and downright beautiful.  (When I say unexpected, well, I know they come after the rain, but sometimes they just seem to appear before your eyes, and often fade while you are staring at them).  Having children around when they do appear is one of my life’s little pleasures.  My boys get so excited, jump up and down, and say delightful fairytale-like things, such as (5 year old:) “Oh Mummy, it’s so beautiful, isn’t it?!” (followed by 2 year old echo:) “Bootiful, isn’t it?”

Even though I do love rainbows, I don’t normally go for them in design or decor.  But the current Embellish Magazine Colour Challenge with Rainbows is just too pretty not to play along with.

(Image byTina Fussell of Flying House Studios, via Embellish Magazine blog).

So, inspired by these lovely images and the creations of the Embellish team, here is my card:

There was even some sunshine today to photograph it by…Tasmanian sunny winter days are fantastic!

Love Ruth x

.lovely mothers. May 7, 2011

I have lovely mothers.  One is my own.  The other is borrowed from my husband.  They are both exceptional ladies, great supports to me and our family, and two people I trust with my ups and downs, especially the mum-related stuff!  I admire them greatly; I’d like to be like both of them in lots of ways.  And I particularly like that they don’t expect me to be like them, they seem to like me for being me. (o:

So happy Mothers Day, Mum and Julie.  I love you both lots, Ruth xo

P.S. Here are their Mothers Day cards…I hope they like!

For Mum

For Mum(-in-law)

 

Note of Love card entered in Embellish Magazine current challenge: Square Cards Color Trends Challenge

Such beautiful inspiration as always!

.beautiful inspiration. March 14, 2011

I love this Tuesday Trigger image from Moxie Fab World…a combination of some of my favourite colours, which I think look so beautiful together.    

So, a card has emerged featuring these colours with a simple heart flower that I have been making a bit lately.

I’ve been trying to keep my designs simpler and less busy lately, mainly just because it is not so time-consuming!  But also because I have a tendency to over-clutter, so it’s a personal challenge that I would like to rub off into my home, where paper and clutter follows me around the house like children to the Pied Piper. (o:  This is more obvious because I share a home with a minimalistic-loving {neat freak} husband!  But that also has its perks – he vacuums often, tidies up before visitors arrive, and cleans out the fridge on a regular basis.  Nice!!

If you’re just coming to the end of a long weekend like me, I hope you made the most of it and got to enjoy all the sun that seems to have returned!

Love Ruth x

.lovely owls. February 15, 2011

It always amazes me how much I like birds and what a woos I am when it actually comes to the real thing.  Like this morning – a partly grown starling flew into our glass sliding doors in a very unforgiving manner.  Poor little thing, I didn’t hold a lot of hope for it.  It sat on our back deck huffing & puffing for quite some time, beak open.  I ummed and ahhed about whether I should head out to move it out of harm’s ways from the local cats (I had locked my cat inside as soon as I saw it).  But the thought of somehow picking it up & putting it somewhere else made me a little anxious, so I thought I’d give it a few more minutes to recover. 

After about 10 mins, it went very still and stayed that way for a while.  During this time, I thought maybe it had died with its eyes open.  I started to get a tad (disproportionately) sad, as I do when anything dies. 

But as I watched from the other side of the glass doors, it finally blinked an eye, and then moved its head to watch me as I moved from one side to the other.  Yay, good sign!

So, as part of my constant conversation with God, I asked that it could regain its strength and fly away without having to go through the ordeal of me squealing and jumping as I tried to “rescue” it, and putting it into any more shock than it already was. 

I took a quick shower and came back tentatively to an empty back deck - good for you, little birdie!  (Don’t even try to suggest that a cat came by after all!!)  I’m so very glad I didn’t have to intervene. (o:  Like I said, such a woos.

Well, I’m much more comfortable with the paper kind of birds, and these little owls graced a recent Valentine’s Day card that I made…got the idea from the delightful My Owl Barn blog, and had fun creating this one.  

If you celebrated St. Valentine’s lovey-dovey day, I hope you had a great one! 

Love Ruth x

EDITED TO ADD: Silly me, totally forgot to mention that I’m playing along with the Embellish Magazine Colour Trends Challenge with Hearts, which I adore!  The gorgeous images are by talented Tina a.k.a. Traveling Mama.

.fun & cute/clean & graphic. August 2, 2010

Recently I discovered there are official “styles” in cardmarking…fun and cute, and clean and graphic are two that are highlighted in the current issue of Cardstyle Magazine, and as both of them are not styles that come naturally to me, I thought I should definitely try them out.

CLEAN & GRAPHIC

FUN & CUTE

It’s funny how when something is not your natural style, it doesn’t come easily, and you spend a lot more time playing with it, still not to be 100% happy in the end.  But I enjoyed playing with them anyhow! 

Shabby/vintage seems to be more my thing – as you can see in this post from a few days ago.

So, if you’re looking for a challenge when it comes to whatever your craft may be, have a look at what different styles are out there and give yourself some time to experiment, even if you turn out some duds.  Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right!?

Ruth x

Fun & Cute and Clean & Graphic cards designed for Moxie Fab World’s  special Cardstyle Magazine challenges.

.everything. July 21, 2010

Everything is not perfect.  Everything is not running smoothly.  My life is messy, disorganised, frustrating, tiring and somedays completely mad.  But everything is good.  Even the bad often turns out good, or fades into something else that is good.  Good doesn’t mean always happy, always on top of the world or always simple.  But it means I am able to smile to myself in the midst of it all because I know that God instigated “good” with creation and hasn’t stopped since, even in my rather ignorant and often average life.  That’s very good news to me.   

Recently, I found a devoted craft blogger named Pam who has decided to offer a card challenge for 365 days in a row…so there’s always a new point of inspiration on her blog, 365 Cards.  I found one from a few days ago called Create Your Own , which had options to choose from from 4 different lists:

     List A – Pick a Pattern

     List B – Color Trio

     List C – Embellishment and

     List D – Shape

      So the card shown above is my buttoned paisley heart card in pink, lavender and blue!

     Love Ruth x

.in need of flowers. July 6, 2010

It’s one of those winter days where the fog barely lifts.  You need x-ray vision for driving, at least in some parts of town (my street, for example), and you just can’t seem to get your toes warm.  So in the midst of the winter fog, I am in need of some flowers, and a card is the perfect way to get some quickly and easily!

Hope you find a way to get some brightness into your day also.

Love Ruth

 

Card designed for Moxie Fab World Layout Inspiration Challenge and Just Add Ink Sketch Challenge #24

I have taken inspiration from the button flowers in the semi-circle on the RHS of the MFW Scrapbook Layout, and from the simplicity of the JAI Sketch.

               

.no baby blues. July 1, 2010

Well, I have attempted baby card number three – for a boy, once again featuring the Embellish Magazine’s colour challenge, and it was tricky!  But I avoided using baby blue as the feature, as I always do for boys, and only added one tiny little blue button just for the cuteness of it!

Tell me honestly – too girlie?   I am kind of thinking yes, but still like it anyway.  What do you think…?

Only one more to go and then it will be time to say goodbye to this challenge, as fun as it’s been.

Love Ruth x