This is the reason why I've been so quiet lately!

 My beautiful daughter got married on Australia Day!  Here is Rebecca and I just before we left her house, things got a bit emotional at times so my eyes were a tad red here.

 The wedding invitations I made for them.

 These are the bridal vehicles!  All decked out in netting and flowers
This is my grandson Blake with his cousin Danielle the flower girl, then came Whitey driving the beautiful bridesmaid Amber and Gary driving Becca.

It was a beach wedding, the storms and rain from Cyclone Oswald had passed a few days before and Saturday dawned with fairly clear blue skies, but sooooo darn hot and humid. 

Yes the boys wore thongs on their feet as did the bride and bridesmaid, it was a beach wedding after all.  Here they are giving the thumbs up.

 The wedding party on the beach, love the relaxed feel this beautiful wedding had.

Yep, she's a great catch.

Just goes to show you that you can have a beautiful romantic wedding on a budget of less than $3,000.  Congratulations to the Metcalfe family Shayne, Rebecca and Blake. 

 Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

All you need is love....

Hello and welcome to my new followers, thanks a bunch for choosing to follow my blog.  Sorry I've been a bit lax in my posts lately, lots going on but I hope it all settles down soon and I'll be back to posting each week or more.

Today, I have the Delicious Doodles challenge # 20 All you need is Love for you.  I thought these Seahorses looked so cute with their tails hooked together that this said Love to me as much as any other of Teri's gorgeous images would. 

Looks like I'm still in my green and purple phase, Love these colours together.  Lots of lovely techniques used here with the copic markers.  

The background is quite time consuming and done in several layers, firstly lots of dots and dabs with blues and blue greens scattered all over, I made it darker at the base fading up to lighter to give some depth to the card.  Then I just did lots of splodges of 0 on the dots, the card got quite wet as I had just juiced up the marker before I started.  Then I let that dry and started all over again with more dabbing of colour then splodges of 0.  The idea was to soften the edges of the dabs and dots to blend them out a little and fade the edges.  If you click on the picture you'll see a larger image.

The seahorses were coloured using Alyce from Kit and Clowder's Mermaid tail tutorial from Youtube.  I'm really happy how it translated to the seahorses and I think I will be trying this on a dragon image soon!  Teri has some amazing Dragons in her shop.

I've used the following copic markers 
Seahorses: V0000; 000;01; 04; 06; 09  BG 0000; 01; 05; 09 11; 13; 15; 18
Seaweed: YG61; 63; 67
Background:  B0000;00;02; BG0000; 00; 10; 11 and 0

Make it Crafty chipboard which has been embossed with Obsidian Teal, looks black but depending on the way the light hits it, you get teal highlights.  Inside the little circles is glue and teal glitter.
Rose and Heart charm are from Wild Orchid Crafts a the
Ribbon is Stampin' Up! 
Sentiment is Lily of the Valley.
I've used a Spellbinders embossing folder on the white background and added some glitter paper for some sparkle.
EK Success punch

If you want any more details, happy for you to contact me.

Cheers,

Kasey ~ in Oz

Oh so exciting!

Well the call went out and I ummed and ahed for ages then sent an email in to the lovely Zoe and took a chance at applying for a spot on her Design Team for Make it Crafty.

Well I nearly fell off my chair when Zoe emailed me to say I'd been selected.  I'm thrilled to be joining the talented girls in her team.  I am sure that there were very many talented artists who applied and it would have been a very difficult choice. 

Please visit the Make it Crafty store blog to see a list of all the Design Team.

The MiC Design Team participating in the New Beginnings blog hop are

 

Zoe

Trudie

Amanda

Viv

Kasey (you are here)

Babara

Jenn Dove

Åsa

Alyce

Rhea

Mary J
Aeryn

Kat

As the inspiration we are providing you with this week is New Beginnings, I selected Little Baby Fairy and this is what I came up with

A lovely new baby card, I kept it fairly simple as I wanted the image to shine, but of course I couldn't help but add a little bit of bling in the form of glittered up Ornate Swirls chipboard pieces.  I coloured them with G43 first, then coated the swirls with Crystal Lacquer and then sprinkled some light and mid green glitters on the wet glue and left it aside to dry before adding it to the card front.  I also coloured some clear rhinestones with G99, I've found gems need a darker copic ink to give the colour you need.

 Here is a closer look at the Little Baby Fairy, I think she's adorable, she was a pleasure to colour. 

I hope you're inspired to head on over to Make it Crafty and pick up some of Zoe's delightful images or her super fine chipboard pieces.

Copics used 
 Flower: RV00, 63, 66; YG61, 63, 67; Y000, 02. 06, 35 & 38
 Skin:  E0000, 000, 01; R 20
Hair:  E40, 43 Sand Spica, Clear Star Jelly Roll
Hat: E30, 31, 33 & 35
Blanket:  V0000 & 01
Nightshirt: B0000 & 0  
 Background:  B00


Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

Thank you kindly

At Southern Girls Challenge this fortnight, we're up for saying Thank You Kindly.  In an age where plain good manners seem to be going by the wayside, it's nice to say thank you to someone who has done something for you and what better way than with a Thank You card?

I chose the elegant Vintage Water Lily Dress image from A Day for Daisies for my card and coloured her in blue greens and blue violets, my all time favourite colour combinations.

I've used Marianne doily die and a matching edge, double layered the doily and spritzed it with Champagne Shimmer mist, love the sparkle this adds.

Hope you're inspired to join us for our

 Thank You Kindly challenge @ Southern Girls.

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

Sparkle and Shine

Hello to all my blog followers and welcome to my new friends!  Thank you for choosing to follow my creative journey.  If you're just visiting, welcome, I hope you enjoy your visit.

Happy New Year!  Wow!  How fast are the years flying by?  I am amazed how quickly time flies past as I get older.  It seems that we waited forever for special things like birthdays and Christmas when were were kids.  Probably not telling you anything new here.  

New beginnings for a new year, and at Delicious Doodles challenges this week we are asking you to Sparkle and Shine.  

For me, I can't think of a better way than using one of my all time favourite colour combinations AND butterflies!  Butterflies represent new beginnings for me as they are transformed from a caterpillars  into a thing of beauty, stunning colours and patterns on their wings. 

I've used Teri's gorgeous Butterfly image and lots of subtle glitter, as I've used my mica spray on the background and spica pens on the butterflies.  Glitter glue on the lace and of course bling. 

The backing paper for the sentiment was Lindy's Stamp Gang mica sprays on watercolour paper, the colours were perfect for this project.

I've used a spellbinders embossing folder and then lightly sponged the some SU Pool Party ink on them, the little flowers are coloured in BV0000 copic marker.

Colours used on the butterflies are BG11, 13, 15 and BV0000, 01, 11, E71, 74
Turquoise, Lilac and Clear spica pens.

I hope you will join us for this week's Sparkle and Shine challenge.

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

Stronger

Yes just one word 'Stronger'  That's my new year resolution and I am going to apply it to all aspects of my life.

For me, I find I give in or give up too easily, I say yes too often and overload myself, I avoid those difficult conversations and I forget to look after myself.

So for 2013 my key word is Stronger.  
I will be physically stronger by undertaking regular exercise.  
I will be mentally stronger by undertaking further education such as a short course at tafe or an online course.  
I will be emotionally stronger by looking after myself and my needs so I then have the strength to look after those around me
I will be financially stronger by really thinking Need versus Want before I shop! (yes good luck with that one where the craft stash is concerned!)
I will be a stronger friend by being in touch more regularly with my friends
I will be creatively stronger by trying new techniques and products (there goes the financial strength!!!)
I will be stronger in setting my goals and in my motivation to work towards them

I'm sure that I can come up with more, but this is the affirmation made publicly, here on my blog.  Now all I need to do is draw on my inner strength and build it so I can achieve all of this.  

It is only ONE word so I think I should be able to manage it, if there are some areas where the strength fails me temporarily, that's ok, cause I know there will be other areas where I'll surprise myself with the power of my strength.
 

What resolution are you making?

 Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz

Happy New Year!

Update:  This project was selected as a runner up at Eclectic Ellapu!  Thank you so much.

Hi everyone, I hope you managed to celebrate the arrival of 2013.  I spent a lovely time in my craft room just colouring images and popping them into my little A5 pocket folder along with the list of colours I used, ready for when I need a quick card made.

This little one however I decided to add to my smash book, I've been putting copic images in there to use when I want a colour combination inspiration.

 Here is a close up of Fairy Dahlia from Make it Crafty, she's super cute!  I tried a multi coloured dotty background and I think it really makes her pop on the page.

 I was also playing around with some dies, and cut out several La Rue Flourishes from Memory Box and then cut them up and made the corners and backing mat for the image.  I'm really happy with how it looks so delicate and of course I did add bling, actually the dies and the kraft page are spritzed with Champagne shimmer mist.  LOVE that stuff for shimmer.

Here is a pic of the two Pink Pages together.  These little beauties just look so adorable in pink!

I'm entering this smashbook page into the following challenges.

Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes
ABC Challenges - New Year Sparkle
Make it Monday - Anything Goes
Digi Makeover Challenge - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting, I wish you all the best 2013 has to offer you.  Make it a fabulous year.

Cheers,
Kasey ~ in Oz