Finally a card!

I don't know how Mum's find the time to craft!  Here I was thinking I would have all the time in the world, once I became a Mum, but clearly I wasn't thinking straight!  I now have two little munchkins and between them, part time work, full time running the house and managing renovations, I rarely seem to find alone, guilt free time in my craft room (unless it's late at night).

Anyway, here is my latest... and probably the only card I have created in months... for my mother in law for mother's day.

She is 'Heart of Spring' from Ching Chou Kuik and coloured in copics:
Skin: E000, 00, 11, 21, 04, R20
Eyes: BG09, 05, 01, G03, 00
Hair: Y21, 26, YR24, E25, 29
Birds/Dress/Flowers: BV08, 02, 00, BG09, 05, 01, 000, G07, 03, 02, 00, 000
Background: R22

Enjoy your day!

Arabella Chickie in Auckland

Fairy Wishes

I'm back with another Tiddly Inks image today ... Willow fairy, and it just so happens that the latest challenge on the Tiddly Inks blog is Fairy Fun!  Yay!

Here's my card using one of the adorable new fairies... Willow the Greeting Fairy :)

I love these new fairies of Christy's, just wish I had more time in the day to get them onto cards!  

Happy Monday!

Arabella Chickie

Look Mum, no lines!

Hello all... This is my first attempt at 'no lines' colouring using a Tiddly Inks stamp from the Beach Babe clear stamp set.  I used a Memento ink called Desert Sand and coloured with copics.

I'm not sure that my colours are spot on, but I would like to enter this card into the current Pop of Colour challenge at Tiddly Inks.

The papers are all scraps from my stash (Crate Paper I think) and the starfish and icecream cone are rub-ons.  The sentiment stamp is from LOTV.

That's pretty much it from me... life is trucking along nicely for us.  I'm about 7 months pregnant now and I feel absolutely huge... way bigger than last time. I'm not sure I can get any bigger and I still have a couple of months to go!   The bubba in my tummy is very active and keeps me awake at night... I hope that's not a sign of things to come!  Lilian continues to delight us and is sleeping really well thankfully (cross fingers and touch wood that continues).  Tyron is very busy with work.  We are sort of house hunting to accommodate our expanding family, but can't find anything we like that is within budget at the moment.  House prices in Auckland (and particularly on the Shore) are out of control!

Hope you are all well!

Arabella Chickie

Fairy happy Tuesday!

Oops so I haven't posted in a while... does anyone else find it takes quite a bit of time to upload photos and write a blog post or is it just me?  I have quite a few cards to post now, so I had better get posting!

Here's one I made recently for the current challenge on the SOG facebook page which is to use your favourite SOG image.  This week my favourite image is Giggle Fairy, next week it might change though... there are just so many fab images to choose from!

Isn't she sweet?  I'm sure she's got a fun secret... maybe she just made a cheeky birthday wish?

On another note, I finally located my copic opaque white only to find that it had completely dried up in the last year and a half and I had to throw it in the bin.  After a few aborted attempts to purchase the new copic opaque white with the brush, I finally decided to purchase a Molotow white pen (following a discussion on white pens on the Kit and Clowder facebook page) and I must say it is fabulous!  I'm very please with it.

Image coloured with copics, papers from my stash, sentiments are SRM stickers and the charm is from my stash.

Have a lovely week!

Arabella Chickie 

It's an itty bitty Tiddly kind of Friday...

Hello! I hope it's going to be a great weekend for everyone!  I'm finally recovering from a nasty sore throat and flu-like virus... so glad to be coming out the other side of it!  I'm just so relieved that Ty and Lilian didn't catch it.  Phew!

So I saw that the latest challenge up at Tiddly Inks is to make a tiny creation (or ATC) and I couldn't resist making some Tiddly-licious pendants...

Each pendant is 1 inch square... a little bit fiddly, but such fun to make!  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them now though :)  I have coloured them with copics and added a touch of glitter.   Super  fun cuteness!

Happy Friday all!

Arabella Chickie 

PS I was super excited to find today that I have two featured cards up at the moment... one at Tiddly Inks and one at Little Miss Muffet Stamps!  

Anything Goes at Little Miss Muffet Stamps

Hi there!  I hope everyone is having a great week!  We had a fine day today (not a common occurrence in Auckland in winter) and I was hoping to get lots of washing done, however my washing machine fizzled out on the second load... doh.  Thankfully my amazing husband fixed it this evening when he came home from work...  something to do with the drain pump I think.  I'm so relieved... the poor machine lives to wash another day!   I bet it just can't wait to wash the load of dirty nappies I have waiting for it!

Anyway, enough of my domestic lows and highs... I have another card to share today that I made for the current challenge at Little Miss Muffet Stamps which is Anything Goes.  I used Summer Monkey for my card today which is an oldie but a goodie from Barbara.  On a side note, have you seen how many amazing stamps there are in the LMM store now?  I was blown away when I had a look just now. Admittedly it has been a while since I looked, but there are just so many to choose from!

Here's my card:

Anyway, off to bed early for me... I feel so exhausted lately!  It could be because our little miss has suddenly started waking up really early, or it could be my pregnancy rhinitis keeping me awake at night or it could just be that general difficulty sleeping while pregnant thing... who knows?!  Hopefully a few early nights will cure it though.

Ciao!

Arabella

Things with wings and sticky markers...

Hello again!  Two posts in a week... I'm on a roll!

Lilian is about to wake up any minute, so I'll keep this one brief... Here's a card I made for the current Wings and things challenge on the Some Odd Girl Facebook page.  I can't find this gorgeous wee fairy in the shop at the moment, so I'm not sure if she has been retired or if I just had a boy look.  The bird is from a clear stamp set called Gwen in Bloom.

I had so much trouble with my skin colouring markers on this one... I totally ruined her arms and I'm so disappointed.  I just read on the Kit and Clowder Facebook group about some tips to stop that happening (eg wiping the sides of the brush nib before closing the cap), so I'm going to implement them in my colouring time tonight.  I also can't seem to find my copic opaque white anywhere, so no highlights on her eyes until I find it...

That's it from me... the munchkin is awake!

Ciao!

Arabella

A long absence...

Hello, it's been a looong time!  Lilian has been keeping me pretty busy and her bedroom is right next to my craft room so I have had very little time to make cards for the last couple of years.  I never realised how sacred nap times would be until I had a baby of my own and now another one on the way!  I finally decided I would have to just make little bits of time to do little bits of crafting... I do feel a bit like I've forgotten how to colour and make cards though, so bear with me.  Here's one of my first attempts using a Tiddly Inks image entitled Wryn and Mo - Love you Most for the current BFF challenge at Tiddly Inks.

Excuse the poor lighting... it is the middle of winter here and we have not had many sunny days at all.

And here are a couple of pics of me, the bump (21 weeks) and my munchkin...

Challenges:
Tiddly Inks Challenge #136 BFF

I hope everyone is well in blogland :)

Arabella Chickie in New Zealand

Baby Lilian is here!

Hello!  Long time no see.... sorry.  I have other priorities in my life right now.  Our little girl arrived two weeks early on 3.3.2013, a great date for a birthday!  She weighed 6lb 4oz, but has been feeding well and regained her birth weight in the first week.  

I had a relatively uneventful pregnancy (apart from the move from Greece back to NZ and the fixing up of our house after it had been rented out for 7 years) but the midwife was a bit worried about Lilian's growth rate, so I was getting ultrasounds every second week for the last few months.  It turns out that it was a good thing that she decided to come early as there was a true knot in her cord that had not yet pulled tight thankfully and my placenta was not very big.

Me ready to go in for the induction...

My husband and I decided to use hypnobirthing as our method of birthing and I am pleased to report that it worked out really well for us and I didn't have to have any pain relief in spite of having to have an induction (due to my waters breaking) and be on a syntocin drip all day on the Sunday.  

We are all doing really well and Lilian is eating and sleeping nicely and not crying much at all.  She seems like a very contented wee baby which is nice.

I haven't done any crafting since we have been back in NZ other than to make some adjustable width 'elephant ears' for Lilian's car seat capsule...

She loves having her head massaged for her bath...

and sleeping with her hands up by her face...

I hope all is well with everyone in blogland!  I do intend to get back to card making at some point, just not sure when yet!

Ciao!

Arabella Chickie in Auckland, NZ

Some of my projects from Created from Color Advanced Class

Hiya!  It's been a while, but my head is not really in the right space for blogging right now.  I am currently struggling through my final project for the Advanced Class I just took from Created From Color run by Melissa and Kristy so that I can finally start to pack up my craft desk... only 3 more weeks left in Greece!!!

The class was fantastic and I learned a lot of new skills.  I highly recommend it to anyone who has completed the Basic Course and wishes to move onto more advanced techniques like radial and single source light as well as reflections and colouring to show distance. I only wish I had devoted a bit more time to it and had been in the right frame of mind.

Here are a couple of my completed projects...

Single source light:

Radial light:

Alrighty then!  I had better stop procrastinating and get back to the job at hand!  

Ciao for now!

Arabella