Greazefest

Hi, Today we had our first family day out since Alyssa's been sick. We went to Greazefest; which is a weekend full of rockabilly bands, custom cars, and so many amazing people dressed like they still live in the 50's. The weather was perfect - so hot it almost felt like summer. And although we had to cut it short (as it all got a bit much for her), we had a fantastic time together.

This was Alyssa's favourite car - purple of course.

She insisted I take a photo inside as well.

This "Munster" car was amazing.

Another Munster wagon - the artwork on this was incredible - and it came complete with a coffin in the back.

This is definitely how I DON'T want to see either of my sons' cars looking, although Josh and Chris thought it was a laugh. Can you believe this was actually for sale - "rust is free" said the sign LOL.

Here are just a few of our favourite hotrods...

Remember the window trays from "Happy Days".

They also had old caravans, complete with the kitchen in the back.

This van was in mint condition - full of 50's gear inside.

As well as old motorbikes...

And check out this bicycle...

Finally - I found a pink car too...

Look at this interior - complete with the pink fluffy dice LOL.

I have recently recovered from a severe respiratory infection, followed by a four-day migraine this week, so today was truly a wonderful day for all of us.

Thanks so much for checking in.
Luv, Tereesa.

Say Cheese

Hi, My eldest son, Joshua, loves every aspect of photography - from taking the photos, trying different effects with exposures, to then creating different masterpieces using the computer.  As I like to match a card to the person, this is what I came up with for his birthday earlier this year.

When it stands up to reveal the sentiment, you notice the little mouse peering out.

All the images are from Create A Critter. I've painted over the black cardstock with silver shimmer paint, and acetate has been used for the "glass" lens.

These are a few of Josh's favourite photos tucked in behind the camera.

How cute are these little mice ???

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Till next time, Luv, Tereesa.

Just a Sneak Peak ...

Hi, Just a quick post today to give you a sneak peak at some cards being featured at Scrappy-Go-Lucky today. Can you guess the theme???

If you get a chance, head over to have a peak!

I'll be back tomorrow to show you an easel card I made for my son's birthday.

See you then,
Tereesa.

Card - Elegent Evening

Hi, This is one of my favourite cards, and was featured recently at Scrappy-Go-Lucky. It makes me think of days gone by – a time when men were gentlemen – a time of elegance.

The dress is coloured using watercolour crayons, and the man’s suit is heat embossed in black. The stamp is from Graphic 45.

For the background, I embossed the Core’dinations Whitewash with cuttlebug folder Jamara, then sanded the top layer to reveal the pattern. This is very effective, and can be achieved particularly well with the Whitewash collection. The lace is cut from Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art.

The cream doiley in the background is from Paper Lace.

These flowers are from Stretch Your Imagination sized at 1 1/4″, 1 1/2″, and 1 3/4″. They’ve been coated in black glitter, layered, and a pearl added to the centre.

This card was for the Printblocks Creative Block in May, and only certain products could be used. I’m really happy with the end result. Hope you like it too.

And to whet your appetite a little more, here's a sneak peak of a super cute card being featured at Scrappy-Go-Lucky today. If you get a chance, head on over to check it out.

Till next time,
Luv Tereesa.

Frosty Cupcakes!!

Hi Everyone, Sorry my blog posts have been a bit sporadic lately, but things finally seem to settling into a routine now, so I hope to be again posting regularly.

I made this birthday card for a very special friend, Shelley (whose favourite colour is also pink). I was having fun experimenting with the new Imagine cartridges,  and for this card I chose to use "Imagine Yummy” - check out the gorgeous colours and swirls of the images on this card.

I have used only the Core-dinations white cardstock for all the images below. This card prints and cuts beautifully with the Imagine. Isn’t the “happy birthday” paper gorgeous?

I’d also like to show you this really cool technique I heard about last year with SU. To achieve a look of real frosting on the cupcake, simply cover the area with Tombow multi liquid glue, leaving uneven swirls as you go.

Liberally cover the glue with embossing powder. You could use any colour, eg brown for chocolate frosting, but because my image was already pink, I used clear powder with some glitter mixed in.

You then heat emboss until it bubbles up, let the bubbles settle, and heat again. You may need to repeat this a few times until all the glue has dried.

Real frosting…. What do you think?

I added my two layers to the base image using foam dots to add extra dimension.

These flourishes and gifts were all cut at 1″ – and glittered accordingly.

And the sentiment was also cut at 1″, base image only, with a little bling added.

I hope you have found this useful – and enjoy making some yummy frosting.

And now that I've whet your appetite, Mandy at Scrappy-Go-Lucky has 30% off all Imagine cartridges for 2 days only. Don't miss out.

The Scrappy-Go-Lucky Blog is now up and running again. Here is a sneak peak at what I have featured there tomorrow. Make sure you check it out.

Thanks for stopping by.
Till next time, Luv Tereesa.

The Cats Have Come To Play

Hi, Just a quick post tonight, so I thought I'd show you a couple of cards I made last year with the Lite cartridge, "Meow". It's a fun cartridge with playful cats getting themselves in all sorts of trouble. I love this one tied up in a ball of wool.

All my boys love cats, so this cartridge is used a lot. How cute is this one hanging out with the socks...

I hope you're all having a great week.

Till next time,

Luv, Tereesa

Sneak Peak

Hi, Here's a quick sneak peak of a card being featured at Scrappy-Go-Lucky today - I've used Copics markers together with some Cricut cuts to make a dimensional frame.

Be sure to check it out ..... I hope you like it!

Till next time,
Luv, Tereesa

Update on Alyssa - April/May

Hi Friends, Sorry I've been MIA for a while - we've had houseguests 5 weekends in a row, numerous trips to hospital, and normal everyday stuff in between. Mandy's been over from Perth and we had fun at the Copics Projects Course in April, and the Printblocks Creative Block with Tracey earlier this month.

Here's our "Chief Delegator" Mandy enjoying the nightlife in Brisbane .....

while Tracey and I were busy working ...

On my last post, we were waiting for a rescheduled date for Alyssa's surgery. Originally the surgery was to insert a line into her tummy (for the Peritoneal Dialysis (or PD), and remove the catheter going into her heart (used for the Haemodialysis (HD). Unfortunately, a few days after the cancelled surgery, Alyssa had to start back on the Haemodialysis. This meant that they now couldn't remove the original catheter until the PD had started - which therefore meant two surgeries instead of one.

Anyway, we got a date for the first surgery - Tuesday 19 April. The day before, we spent the day as usual in hospital with Alyssa having her dialysis, but then she started to feel quite nauseous on the way home. By 7.30 that night, she was vomiting so violently that she popped a rib. Then her urine turned bright red again, and she was so sick she asked for an Ambulance to take her to hospital. We rushed her in and had 3 doctors immediately attending to her. Their first thoughts were perhaps a blocked bowel, an infection in the line leading to her heart, or perhaps a urinary infection.

Thankfully it was none of those things, so tests were then done on her liver and gallbladder. Also, something weird was happening with her blood - a number of blood tests were taken, but they were unable to conclusively get any results. Obviously the surgery was cancelled for Tuesday.

The vomiting finally stopped Wednesday morning, and as all tests had so far come back clear, they decided to go ahead with the surgery on the Thursday. It went well although the poor darling was in extreme pain (they called me down to recovery to help comfort her). They gave her plenty of painkillers, so much so that she was also on oxygen for a while. Then on Friday during dialysis, her line completely clotted off which automatically stops the machine. They tried to give her some medications through the canula in her arm, but unbelievably that had clotted off too. I was then obviously concerned about any clots going directly into her heart through the line, and about 1.30am on the Friday night she started having chest pains. The pain seemed to be more in her lungs than her heart, but they organised an ECG and chest x-rays to be sure. They also tested for the return of the Goodpastures Syndrome, as if she gets it back, it will be in her lungs.

It would have been one of the worst weeks we have had, and in the end, they couldn't find anything. No diagnosis for all these things. Good - but frustrating. We came home late on Saturday night, and she then recovered quite quickly.

While she was in hospital, Alyssa received a visit from two Easter Bunnies - one very suave...

the other very cheeky...

I love this photo of Alyssa with her Dad.

And here she is getting her Easter basket ready on the night we got home.

Since then, we've had a few intensive days of training for  Peritoneal Dialysis, had 2 pallets of boxes delivered to the house, and I am now doing the dialysis myself - 10 hours a night - scary. We've also been able to bring her blood pressure down (finally) with a new medication. There are a few unwanted side-effects, but we can live with these.

We now wait for a date for her next surgery (to remove the catheter), then the next step is meeting the transplant team. Although transplant is not possible before January, we want to be as ready as possible before then.

The year seems to be going so quickly on one hand - but really dragging on the other. If only there were more hours in the day. It's strange how your life can completely change - and a funny example happened when Mandy was recently staying with us, and we were all sitting around the dinner table. Now, normal dinner conversation would be - "How was your day?" "What did you do at school today?" etc. etc. But this was us - "What was her blood pressure this afternoon?" "How were her levels at the hospital today?" "Have you had all your tablets?" It didn't occur to me until I looked at us through Mandy's eyes, and thought it was absolutely hilarious.

Anyway, we're all getting there, and thankful every day we're all still together. My eldest celebrated his 17th birthday on Thursday (I can't believe it), and we all had a wonderful day.

Alyssa and I whipped up a "cookies & cream" cake ...

And we enjoyed a special birthday dinner at a steakhouse ...

Stay tuned for the next update which will outline all the fun we're having with the PD - not to mention what we've done to the machine.

Thanks for checking in.
Till next time,
Tereesa & Alyssa