.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!

.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.

.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

.new babies. June 19, 2010

So many babies!  I know of four precious new little people who entered the world recently, and I am so excited for each of their parents – each one is the first child in the family!  So much celebration to be had. 

I went looking for a bit of quick inspiration for the first card and found I had an email waiting from Embellish Magazine with their latest challenge which is a colour challenge with a focus on babies!  Very timely.  Here’s the pic of inspiration:

I have always made baby cards using pink or blue, but these colours work so well together that I gave it a go.  Unfortunately, it’s a really dull time of year as far as light goes, even in the middle of the day with the lights on, so the pictures are a little dark…

This one is for a baby girl, so the next challenge is to do one using the same colours for a baby boy – not sure how I’ll go with that, but I’ll be sure to post it when it’s done.

 

Love Ruth x

P.S. Cards can always be viewed in closer detail by clicking on each image.

.wise or just really cute?. March 10, 2010

Owls seem to be everywhere in design at the moment.  Why the fascination, I wonder?  Apparently it’s not because they are wise, as is the typical association.  I read online at Big Site of Amazing Facts that for its size, the owl has a small brain, and is not as smart as geese, crows, and ravens!  Huh, disappointing.

Perhaps we have been fooled by the serious look on the owl’s face or those large, wide-awake eyes, and the ability to turn their entire head 180 degrees without moving any other body part!  Now that would be a very useful skill to have!!

So I have been caught up a little in the owl fascination, (in craft form, of course), and have my own little owl card to share.  This one will end up in the Embellish Magazine Colour Challenge with Borders.  I will have to make this one into a little felt hair accessory or brooch as well, I think!

 Embellish Magazine is a wonderful source of ideas and creativity.  I’ve been following their challenges for a while now, and am amazed at how they keep coming up with new ideas/combinations.  

One of my favourite bloggers, Tina Fussel (a.k.a. Traveling Mama) is part of the Embellish design team, and I’m stoked to see she commented on my last Embellish Mag challenge entry!!  Her blog was one of the inspirations for me starting my Molto Piccolo blog, so I have just LOVED having her visit every now and then!   {Thanks heaps, Tina!} 

Hope you are finding plenty of good ideas around you, and also finding the time to put them into action!  Don’t forget to let me know what you are up to, too…you know I love to hear about it all!

Love Ruth xx

.keep the colour coming. March 6, 2010

I have found one of the happiest mood boards I’ve seen in a while, and the colours have inspired a project or 3. 

Inspiration Board by Kelly Oshiro via Santa Barbara Chic

This image is the current Tuesday Trigger: Sweet on Spring at Moxie Fab World  submitted by Kim Wilson.

At the same time, I found the Colour Combination Just Add Ink Challenge #7, which has very similar colour themes.  Such a great blog with so many ideas to get excited about! 

So I am playing along with both challenges.

I also tried something new with these 3 cards…I made the second one from the offcuts of the first, and the third one from the offcuts of the second.  It is amazing to me how much use you can actually get out of paper scraps without too much effort!  I think my little experiment worked, however, it could go against me as my paper hoarding tendencies could rise to new levels now!

CARD #1

This was made at a Stampin’ Up! party a few nights ago, so all thanks to Anna Wilson, the SU! Consultant, for the wonderful design.

Embossing done using an amazing Cuttlebug machine

Punched & scrunched never looked so good!

Love those turquoise-y brads

CARD #2

There were so many beautiful scraps left over that I couldn’t throw them out, but instead, created this next design making the best use of them that I could.

The papers I punched the flower petals from (Card #1) become the feature

Letters from Rough Edges Alphabets (SU! set)

Left over embossed card & a simple knot of ribbon

CARD #3

So now, using up the little fiddly bits wasn’t hard with this layered and scalloped dress that I would surely wear, if only I get convert it into material!!  I added the peach colour so that I can include it in the Embellish Magazine Colour Challenge with Borders as well as the Moxie Fab’s Sweet on Spring Tuesday Trigger.

www.embellishmagazine.com

'Merci' card

Layers made using scallop-shaped scissors

Flower from tiny scraps; handmade wire coathanger

Love the green rhinestones

Now that I’ve gotten my molto piccolo (‘very tiny’ in Italian in case you didn’t realise!) fascination out of the way for the day, it’s off to two birthday parties & then dinner with friends.  Have a great long weekend, talk next week!

Love Ruth x

.embellish magazine colour challenge. February 15, 2010

I have tried out the www.embellishmagazine.com  Colour Challenge for the first time.  They often suggest colour combinations that I would never think to use.  The challenge can be found here: http://embellishmagazine.com/blog/2010/02/embellish-birthdays-color-challenge-sponsored-by-the-stamps-of-life/

Colours of the challenge: pink, brown, blue & green

Colour Challenge theme - Celebrate Birthdays

Stamp from Stampin' Up 'Pocket Silhouettes' stamp set

My friend Heather, also discovered the challenge and tried it out.  She emailed me a pic of her card inspired by Embellish Magazine, and here it is…

Happy Birthday card by Heather

Thanks Heather for sharing this with me!  If anyone joins in a challenge that I have recommended anytime, or you just want to share something you have made/decorated/designed etc., then please send it to me at ruth.morrison@becc.com.au as I’d love to see it.

Ruth xx