Pet Sympathy

First a quick note to thank my loyal crafty friends for checking my blog in hope of new posts which have not been forthcoming. Without wanting to burden you with too many details, I am not getting much time to craft at the moment. My husband has been unemployed for 4 months, after his previous job was made redundant. He did receive some funds to keep us going while he finds another job but to supplement these I have been working full-time since April and this has been a huge change for me. I had worked part-time in amongst kid-wrangling since 2006 but my "reason for being" was my son's care and everything else was scheduled around parenting. It's been good for my husband and son to spend more time together but I'm missing the time with my boy as well as time for me. I "take my hat off" to full-time working mothers - I don't know how you stay sane.

Anyway, it's not forever, just "for a season"! And one plus is that I've been doing some really interesting work in a new role. Great to use my brain after so many years away from my profession of food science.

So about this quick card which I made for a friend and like me, a true animal lover, when she lost her cat after a long time of togetherness. Being more a dog owner in later years, I haven't got many cat stamps in my collection. My hugely talented friend, Cookie, used some cat-themed paper so cleverly to make a set of cards which inspired the card above. I added some embossed card (zig-zag stitch) and brads but mostly, the decorative paper did all the design work.

I thought I would take this opportunity to share the story of the Rainbow Bridge:

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.

There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....
(Author unknown)

Thanks again for your patience and I'll be back as soon as I can be.

Love from Crafty Kim

Pink Ribbon Day 2009

Well it's a very significant day for me. This time six years ago, things were pretty ugly. Diagnosed with breast cancer, aged 34 years old, with a baby to care for. I think I cried to myself every day of 2003 after diagnosis on 27 February, I called it my shower therapy.

I am so very very happy to report that I am not just surviving, I'm thriving. As is my then baby, now 7 year old son. But I'm still in treatment and there are far too many doctors in my life (although I am grateful to them all). Breast cancer and its treatment is not a short journey.

I don't want this post to be sad though, I want to tell you about good things that have arisen from my breast cancer diagnosis. I found friends I never knew I had, and they will be my friends for life. There are many people who touched my life and I don't want to leave anyone out but today, one person in particular comes to mind. She shares my first name, I am KimT, she is KimM. She is also a breast cancer patient, diagnosed at a young age, with two daughters to raise. We met at a breast cancer support group in a treating hospital and have remained close ever since. I made the card above for her, I think I've used almost every piece of the Pretties Kit and it took me 2 hours of fussing to complete but I wanted it to be amongst my best work.

Diagnosis with a life threatening illness can be isolating. As much as family and friends want to help, they often can't relate to your turmoil. But KimM, she knows something of what it is like to be me. And her life, it continues to be a difficult path to tread too, hence the quote on the card:

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

But you know what else we share, we do craft together! She has taught me how to cross-stitch and I help her to learn paper-craft. I was so impressed when she won the third challenge from the Get Ready for Christmas Craft Day which was to use a non-Christmas stamp set to create a Christmas card. Here is her card:


This is a folding card which gives the images depth. It is called a stair-step-fold and you can learn how it is done here.

And I must not let the day pass without wishing my fellow patients, good health for the future. I am thinking of Louise Ryan in WA today, and her friend, Makeesha Byl who has done so much to raise awareness of and funds for the breast cancer cause. Thank you also to Beth Stewart and Jayne Mercer who held local Girls Night In functions to raise funds for breast cancer charities. And I know there are many more Stampin' Up! demonstrators who hosted "Pink" events. The parents at my son's school, Arden, held a morning tea fundraiser today as well. I really appreciate your efforts.

Before I sign off, can I please urge all women to self-examine their breasts on a regular basis? And if you find something of concern, make sure you get it checked out by mammogram AND ultrasound. Don't think you're overreacting and never let a doctor dismiss your concerns. I wish I had a dollar for every young woman who told me she found a lump but she didn't think it would be cancer or who told me their doctor didn't act straight-away. I'd have a sizeable collection of coins and there'd be more breast cancer survivors around today too. Plus your worst fears are unlikely to be realised. The survival rates from breast cancer are much improved according to new data reported in The Australian newspaper today (if you're interested to read, I was interviewed and photographed with my family for this article).

I also want to quickly pay tribute to Denise, Val and Kathy, all of whom live on in my memory but who lost their lives to this disease. I am thinking of your families today too, especially your children.

To all who support Pink Ribbon Day in whatever form,

*** THANK YOU***

Love from Crafty Kim

Lillian's Build-a-Roo Birthday Card

This is the card I made for a little girl who turned four recently. Thank you to Margaret Crawford who supplied a sheet of images from the stamp set, Build-a-Roo (page 56 of the main SU! catalogue). The images are water-coloured with SU! Markers and the smaller images (hearts, gift and joey) were cut and stuck over the top of the main image. I've used some retired paper and ribbon (it feels good to be using items from my stash). It never fails to amaze me how using decorative paper can add that something extra to a card which makes it a "stand-out". Notice the colour co-ordinated button? Firstly, it is sewn on. "So what?" I hear you say but given I can't sew and I made this card at about 1am in the morning with very tired eyes, I'm proud. It's a Clear Button (P. 151 of the main SU! catalogue) with a piece of coloured card stock behind them. Such a simple concept and it works well. I can't wait to use some of the new Designer Buttons.

I had the privilege of helping with the birthday party. Here is the birthday girl blowing out the candles on her enormous cup cake, baked and decorated by her Mum.


I love decorating kids' birthday cakes but unfortunately my last effort for Ashley's 7th birthday party got eaten by a VERY NORTY Beagle dog just before the party commenced (thankfully The Cheesecake Shop saved the day).

On Mother's Day, I was thrilled to receive this card from my own cherub:

The poem reads:

Mum, you've always been the best
A better mum than all the rest.
I'm thankful for all the things you do
I'm glad my mum is extra special you!

On Mother's Day, I want you to know
You're the greatest mum, and I love you so.
There's one more thing I want to say:
I wish you a Happy Mother's Day!

Aaaawwww...he had a bit of help from his school teacher, Mr C - pretty creative for a bloke don't you think? Okay better stop there before someone nabs me for sexual discrimination.

Love from Craft Kim

Happy Mother's Day & Alisa's Creation

(Creation and Photo Courtesy of the Very Talented Alisa Tilsner, with THANKS)

Firstly, Happy Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mums out there. I thought I'd leave aside the emotive motherhood quotes and try a few funny quotes about mothers:

A mother forgives us all our faults, not to mention one or two we don't even have ~Robert Brault

It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it ~ From the television show The Golden Girls

A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after ~ Peter De Vries

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly ~ Ambrose Bierce

Hope you got a smile from these.

Now onto the card above. Continuing on with the Convention-themed posts, this card I spied on Alisa Tilsner's bag not long after reaching Canberra. I had hoped to score one of her Convention swaps but alas, I was too late to trade. But luckily she posted this beautiful card on her website so for more details, please visit her there.

I have long admired Alisa's water-colouring. She is one of the most highly-regarded water-colouring artists in the paper-crafting realm. And she generously shared some of her skills with us at Convention in 2008. To view her water-colouring demonstration, please click here. Thanks again to Alisa for sharing her creativity and expertise.

The flower stamp above is from Fifth Avenue Florals which I have just ordered for my own collection so please stay tuned for more cards made using this set. At Convention, I also purchased an Umbrella featuring the stamp set, how cool is this:


A close up of the images follows:


Looking outside, I might even get a chance to use mine tomorrow.

Well that's it from me today. I'll be back to show you the card my son Ashley made for me for Mother's Day. But my life is very full of non-crafty distractions right now so thanks in advance for your patience.

Love from Crafty Kim

Simply Red

Here's a simple and fast card designed by Margaret Crawford who has been a good friend to me in the last two years. It uses Inspired by Nature and the Friendly Words jumbo wheel both stamped in Riding Hood Red ink.

I really like the sentiments on the Friendly Words wheel, for example:

True Friends,
are hard to find,
difficult to leave,
and impossible to forget.

and

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together. Woodrow Wilson (he is a former USA President).

It makes a lovely background on a card or scrapbook page.

And the main image, well, if you're looking for a stamp set you can do lots of techniques with, Inspired by Nature is the one. I hope to bring you more examples in the future to show case its versatility.

And there's that Eyelet Border Punch again, is it on your Wish List yet? Or more to the point, is it on your family's shopping list for Mother's Day? I'm here to help with gifts for the crafty mother in your life. Please get in contact with me soon to arrange.

It's about time I gave you a creative tip or technique demonstration but I think that is going to have to wait until next week because I'm off to Canberra this coming week for the annual Stampin' Up! Convention. Yes, there really is such a thing as stamping conference. I'll be stampin' and hanging out with other paper-craft tragics from Friday 1st until Sunday 3rd May. But it's not goodbye just yet, I'll be posting here before I go.

Hope your upcoming week starts well.

Love from Crafty Kim

Welcome Nathan James

It's been a busy few days but I finally got to making a baby card. My beautiful friend, Kathryn, has been blessed with a gorgeous boy, her third son. Big brothers Thomas and Benjamin are thrilled with their new brother. Ben, is especially proud to be a big brother for the first time after nearly five years of being the little brother.

In the words of Don Herold..."Babies are such a nice way to start people". I couldn't agree more.

The starting point for this card was Bashful Blue. I looked at my trusty Colour Wheel and found that it teams well with Brilliant Blue. I tried teaming the blues up with Barely Banana and it wasn't in any way offensive but it was hardly eye catching. All by myself, I came up with Pumpkin Pie instead (with apologies to Michelle Dyson who has an aversion to orange). But what else? I'm thinking green but what green? So I went for a visit to Stampin' Up! Colour Combos site and plugged in the colours in use. Back came Whisper White (obviously), Gable Green and Wild Wasabi. I do like Wild Wasabi but I love the soft freshness of Gable Green.

I was away...I love giraffes and have a few of them in my collection. I decided to use the little giraffe from Little Hellos and use the Spotlight Technique. I just coloured the giraffe with an orange pencil since Brilliant Blue smudges if you try to water colour or use a blender pen on the image. I used the corner rounder punch to create a scalloped edge and then the 1/8 inch circle punch to add the holes to the scallops. I love the new Silver Hodge Podge from the Spring Mini Catalogue so I framed the words "baby boy" from Everyday Flexible Phrases with silver. I couldn't leave my ribbon reel in its home so Pumpkin narrow grosgrain was threaded behind the silver frame. I used my favourite pad, Versamark, with Itty Bitty Backgrounds to stamp the Gable Green base card.

So, if you're ever faced with a colour dilemma, be sure to solve it by visiting the Colour Combo site. There's always a link to it on this web site, on the right under "Places I like to visit".

I have been working on a Christmas novelty item today and bought some Pascalls Columbines for the purpose. Unfortunately, I was unable to complete the project due to a shortage of the lollies. It seems the manufacturers put less in the bag than they once did ;)

So I'll be back right after I've re-stocked the Columbine supply.

Love from Crafty Kim

P.S. Note to my lovely friend Suzanne, also a recently appointed mother of three boys, if you're reading this. I know baby Matthew is older than baby Nathan and I still owe you a visit and a card. You're not forgotten. Thanks for your patience.

Happy Father's Day

Today we celebrated Father's Day. Fortunately the recent rain cleared and gave way to a sunny day here in Sydney.

Here's the card I made for my husband, Bryan, for this Father's Day. It was inspired by Cambria Turnbrow and I found it quick and easy to do.


I used some scraps of Jersey Shore Designer Series Paper that Karen Oliver donated to me (thank you Karen). This co-ordinates with the colours of Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi and Bashful Blue. I used one of the papers to fold and make the shirt. The buttons are Brilliant Blue Brads. I've used another of the papers to decorate the card base and added Wild Wasabi Double-Stitched Ribbon. I've stamped the circular sentiment "Hugs and Kisses" from Circle of Friendship on to Pumpkin Pie card stock, punched it out with the 1" circle punch and mounted it on Brilliant Blue card punched with the 1 1/4 " circle punch. The "Happy Father's Day" is from All Year Cheer II. All are mounted on Brilliant Blue and Wild Wasabi card stock. I think it works and a similar design could be used for a male birthday card.

Time for a quote. In keeping with all those Dads who today received a gift lovingly purchased at school Father's Days stalls around the country last week:

"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope." Bill Cosby

My son, Ashley, presented Bryan with chocolates (amongst other things) and proceeded to ask if he could have one. To which his Dad replied, "just one". This suited Ashley who then said "that's okay Dad because I don't like any others". While Bryan had an afternoon nap in front of the car races on television, Ashley and I made triple chocolate cookies for his afternoon tea. Pretty lucky Bryan woke up when he did or there may have been none left for him to enjoy. Is the love of chocolate genetic?

Hope all the Dads out there had a great day with their families. Thanks for visiting and please keep coming back, I've got lots to share this week.

Love from Crafty Kim

A Father's Day Card made with Decorative Paper

Want a quick and simple way to make a Father's Day card? Use Stampin' Up!® Designer Series Paper. This card, designed by Karen Oliver during our weekend away together, uses paper from the Outlaw 12 x 12 inch Designer Series Paper. When I first saw this paper I wasn't sure about the relevance of the Western / Cowboy style for Australia. But I love the colours that co-ordinate with this paper; Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Really Rust, Sage Shadow, Creamy Caramel and Very Vanilla. And along with the three co-ordinating Boho West stamp sets, it has proven very useful for male cards and scrapbook layouts. SU! paper is a bargain too, at $1 each for double-sided sheets.

To make this card interesting, textured card stock has been used for the base card. Textured card stock is new to SU! this year, and is available in variety packs for each of the four SU! colour families. Again, when I first saw the SU! Jumbo Eyelets, I thought to myself "how am I going to use these?" But I've found them great for embellishing cards for men. And don't be thinking they are hard to set. Not with the handy Crop-A-Dile. Finished with a greeting from Occasional Greetings stamp set, this card is ready for the 7 September.

Time for a Fatherhood quote from Mark Twain, perhaps to offer hope to parents of teenagers:

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

Enjoy creating something special for the Dads in your life.

Love from Crafty Kim

A New Craft Resource is Launched: My Blog

Hello World,

This is my first post on my own blog so bear with me please. A humble beginning I know but I'm planning on improvements as I go along. I will be posting regularly but to save you checking back frequently, please consider subscribing to my blog which results in an email being sent to you each time I update my blog. Please see the panel on the right to sign-up.

I'll be back soon with a craft-related post but in the interim, I want to let you know I've created this blog to share my stamping passion (some would say "addiction") with my craft friends.

Thanks to Cassandra Grambau and Marelle Taylor for their help in setting this blog up. I really appreciate your support. Thank you also to Teneale Williams for giving me the extra motivation I needed to finally create a blog. I'm fortunate to have these ladies as my friends.

I welcome your feedback on my posts and look forward to making new friends all over the world. I hope to convince some friends to make an appearance here via guest blogging. And please, share your paper-craft creations with me. There's nothing better than receiving a hand-made card in the post but an email with a picture of your latest creation, well that's almost as good. And please send me your requests too, if you've got a burning craft question, I'm here to answer if I can.

I'll share this funny stamping quote with you before I sign off:

"here I had been paying this guy sixty dollars twice a week, for five years and I was still depressed. So I quit analysis and started buying rubber stamps. Now every week I spend one hundred dollars a week on stamps and I have never been happier. If only I could get health insurance companies to rebate...."

With love from,

Crafty Kim