Playing with Paper

Hope Your Birthday is Simply Wonderful

2012-02-12T09:11:00.000+10:00

Good morning! Hope that you are enjoying a relaxing and peaceful Sunday in your corner of the world :)

I thought I would share a card I've made with one of my recent Simon Says Stamp purchases...

I used the Polka Dot Greetings stamp and die set by My Favorite Things to make this card. I stamped the polka dot label in Turquoise Versacolor ink after cutting Smooth white cardstock from AnnaBelle Stamps in my Bigshot. Stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink - so easy to get it right - love these die/stamp combos!

I layered a turquoise patterned American Crafts ribbon over white transluscent ribbon and wrapped around another piece of the white cardstock trimmed to size. I used foam dots to pop up the label and adhered the whole thing to a 4x4 cardbase (same white cardstock).

Well I might go and see what else I can create with this fabulous die and stamp set!

Thanks for taking a peek! :)

In my heart

2012-02-10T11:00:00.027+10:00

So happy it's Friday today! I hope everyone has lots of great plans for the weekend... I don't have much going on which is the way I like it! :) I do plan on getting up to date with Google Reader though... I'm so behind on all my commenting it's not funny!

I love Fridays for two reasons - firstly, the weekend is just around the corner and secondly, I get to share another AnnaBelle Stamps challenge with you! This week we want you to use the colours Red, Black and White on your cards.

To keep the hearts straight I drew a line in pencil. I used one of the hearts from AnnaBelle Stamps' Love Birds set and stamped it repeatedly along the line, once with Scarlet Versacolor ink and then around it with Versafine Onyx Black ink. The card itself is my favourite size - 4" x 3" - to fit inside the mini envelopes that I have in my stash.

The sentiment is also from the Love Birds set. The whole sentiment is 'in my heart forever' (which I used on this card) but I masked the 'forever' with post-its and stamped the 'in my heart' part above the row of hearts with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

I really hope you feel inspired by the colours and play along with us! To see the gorgeous creations by the rest of the DT please use the links below:

Marion
Sue K
Therese
Sue W
Andrea
Kylie
Patti
See you next time!

About our challenges:

We post our challenges every Friday at 12:00pm AEST (AEDT during Daylight Savings).
Each challenge runs for a week, and will close on the Friday 10.00am so that we can announce and showcase our weekly winners prior to the next challenge.
Each weeks winner will receive our special blinkie to display on their blog and a $10.00 Gift Voucher to spend in store at AnnaBelle Stamps (or something equivalent).

How To Play Along:

Copy and save our challenge banner and include it and a link back to the ABS blog in your post.
Please link directly to your entry not just to your blog.
Please don't link to postings made prior to the date of our current challenge. All projects submitted must be new.
A maximum of 7 challenges may be combined including this one.
You may enter any of our challenges several times as long as each submission is with a new creation.
We would love you to use AnnaBelle Stamps and embellishments, but you can play along without using them, it’s all about sharing ideas :)

Because I Love You

2012-02-03T15:26:00.000+10:00

Happy Friday! So happy that this week is almost over. I am really looking forward to the weekend, how about you?

Before I show you this week's challenge from AnnaBelle Stamps I would like to announce our new social site called Stamp Embellish Create! We hope you will love to come and visit...often! We'll start a new regular Tuesday feature from next week! We'll include all sorts of things like tutorials, hints, cards start to finish, and anything we can fit in! We want to build a community of shared ideas and a catalogue of answers to anything "How to..." in the stamping world, and with your help I know we can!
You can set up your very own page and customise it how you like. Add your photos (any crafty photos using any products - not restricted to ABS) and share them with others.
Sign up today! Invite your friends! Membership is free, so why not!!

And here is the AnnaBelle Stamps challenge for this week:

I have been making so many cards with white bases lately which was getting kind of same-y, so I went for red this time around.

I love red and white for Valentine's Day/love themed cards don't you? For this card I used a 4x3 red Bazzill cardbase upon which I stamped a sentiment and a heart (repeated three times) from the Love Birds set by AnnaBelle Stamps with Versamark ink and then embossed with Ultra Fine White embossing powder from Hero Arts.

And that's it. So easy!

I hope you get time to play along with us this week, and if you need inspiration why not take a look at what the other Belles have created:

Marion
Sue K
Therese
Sue W
Andrea
Kylie
Patti Hope you have a simply awesome day!

About our challenges:

We post our challenges every Friday at 12:00pm AEST (AEDT during Daylight Savings).
Each challenge runs for a week, and will close on the Friday 10.00am so that we can announce and showcase our weekly winners prior to the next challenge.
Each weeks winner will receive our special blinkie to display on their blog and a $10.00 Gift Voucher to spend in store at AnnaBelle Stamps (or something equivalent).

How To Play Along:

Copy and save our challenge banner and include it and a link back to the ABS blog in your post.
Please link directly to your entry not just to your blog.
Please don't link to postings made prior to the date of our current challenge. All projects submitted must be new.
A maximum of 7 challenges may be combined including this one.
You may enter any of our challenges several times as long as each submission is with a new creation.
We would love you to use AnnaBelle Stamps and embellishments, but you can play along without using them, it’s all about sharing ideas :)

Winner!

2012-01-30T18:19:00.000+10:00

I opened up my email to read my comments at 3am this morning (don't ask!) and was surprised to discover that Marion (my fellow DT member of AnnaBelle Stamps) was the first to comment AND she guessed correctly - my influence for this card was the amazingly talented Jennifer McGuire. I was doing the Inspiration Showcase class at the time.

Marion I've emailed you! Thanks to everyone who commented, it means alot :)

Have a great evening,

You are so special + giveaway!

2012-01-29T21:41:00.002+10:00

I hope everyone is enjoying a lovely and relaxing Sunday wherever they are! Here in Brisbane it's been raining for the past week but I think it's finally stopped!

I haven't been very productive in the craft room lately... so I thought I would share a card that I created for a magazine call that wasn't picked up...

I embossed the quilt pattern from the V&A Museum stamp set called 'Cornfield' with Ultra Fine embossing powder from Hero Arts on some white cardstock. I stamped one of the greetings from the Essential Messages set by Hero Arts on a strip of white cardstock in Onyx Black Versafine ink. The background panel and the sentiment strip were matted with Mi Tientes cardstock in 'Dawn Pink'.
I assembled the flower using white and pink paper flowers I found in my stash along with some sewing thread and a cardstock button cut with one of the buttons from the Buttons Quartet die set from Die-Namics using the Dawn Pink cardstock.
I think it's pretty obvious who I was influenced by when I made this card, but I thought it would make a fun giveaway question... so the first person to guess right in my comments will win a brand new jar of this fantastic stuff which I used on the above card:

I'll draw a random winner on Thursday 2nd Feb at 7pm (AEST) if nobody answers correctly before then.

Edited to add: This giveaway is open to everyone, everywhere, no matter where you are in the world ;)
Further edited to add: Embossing powder has been won - Marion was the first to comment and guessed it right in one!! - Jennifer McGuire was the correct answer ;)

Good luck and hope you have a great day!

In my Heart Forever

2012-01-27T11:00:00.023+10:00

Hello again! Today I'm here to share this week's AnnaBelle Stamps challenge. It's a very clean and simple sketch today - right up my alley!

Here's my take on it:

I used the birdhouse stamp from the Love Birds set by AnnaBelle Stamps stamped in Versafine Black Onyx ink on a white cardstock circle which I die cut using my Bigshot with a circle nestability. The heart from the same set was stamped in Scarlet Versacolor ink and cut out freehand. I popped it up with a foam dot for dimension.

The sentiment is from the same set, stamped in Versafine Black Onyx ink on a 6x4 top folding white card. The ribbon is from Kaisercraft.

I hope you get time to play along with us this week, and if you need inspiration why not take a look at what the other Belles have created:

Marion
Sue K
Therese
Sue W
Andrea
Kylie
Patti
Cath (Guest Belle)
Have a great day!

About our challenges:

We post our challenges every Friday at 12:00pm AEST (AEDT during Daylight Savings).
Each challenge runs for a week, and will close on the Friday 10.00am so that we can announce and showcase our weekly winners prior to the next challenge.
Each weeks winner will receive our special blinkie to display on their blog and a $10.00 Gift Voucher to spend in store at AnnaBelle Stamps (or something equivalent).

How To Play Along:

Copy and save our challenge banner and include it and a link back to the ABS blog in your post.
Please link directly to your entry not just to your blog.
Please don't link to postings made prior to the date of our current challenge. All projects submitted must be new.
A maximum of 7 challenges may be combined including this one.
You may enter any of our challenges several times as long as each submission is with a new creation.
We would love you to use AnnaBelle Stamps and embellishments, but you can play along without using them, it’s all about sharing ideas :)

Hugs & Kisses

2012-01-26T10:19:00.000+10:00

Happy Australia Day! Today most folk get together and celebrate the day with a BBQ, but we are just hanging out at home, enjoying the lovely day off work.

I'm here to share a card I made a short time ago while playing around with the new releases by AnnaBelle Stamps. This one came together so easily with a few bits and pieces that were sitting on my craft table.

The cardbase is Canson Vivaldi (4x4). I adhered the square panel (Crumbcake from Stampin' Up) which I white embossed with the Gingham background stamp from BBD7 by AnnaBelle Stamps. I adhered the sentiment strip (also Crumbcake) over it which I had also white embossed with a sentiment from the Fanciful Flowers set by AnnaBelle Stamps.

The scribbly heart is from the Love Birds set which I cut out freehand and popped up on the card using foam dots.

Hope you enjoyed taking a look! I will be back tomorrow with this week's AnnaBelle Stamps challenge.

Hello Friend

2012-01-20T11:00:00.034+10:00

So glad that it's Friday today...I can't wait for the weekend, how about you?

I'm here to share this week's AnnaBelle Stamps challenge with you.

This is a great colour combination... so bright and cheerful!

I used the new Garden Silhouettes set by AnnaBelle Stamps for this card. I stamped the large branch image three times in Versacolor inks Canary and Turquoise inks as well as Kaiser ink in Splice.

I used my Bigshot and Square Nestabilities to cut out the windows (took a few goes to get everything centered and straight... I recommend using an electronic die cutter if you have one!) and arranged the coloured branches behind them. I stamped the sentiment from the same set using Versafine Onyx Black ink and adhered the panel to the cardbase (4"x4") using foam dots.

I hope you get time to play along with us this week, and if you need inspiration why not take a look at what the other Belles have created:
Marion
Sue K
Therese
Sue W
Andrea
Kylie
Patti
Cath (Guest Belle)
Have a great day!

About our challenges:

We post our challenges every Friday at 12:00pm AEST (AEDT during Daylight Savings).
Each challenge runs for a week, and will close on the Friday 10.00am so that we can announce and showcase our weekly winners prior to the next challenge.
Each weeks winner will receive our special blinkie to display on their blog and a $10.00 Gift Voucher to spend in store at AnnaBelle Stamps (or something equivalent).

How To Play Along:

Copy and save our challenge banner and include it and a link back to the ABS blog in your post.
Please link directly to your entry not just to your blog.
Please don't link to postings made prior to the date of our current challenge. All projects submitted must be new.
A maximum of 7 challenges may be combined including this one.
You may enter any of our challenges several times as long as each submission is with a new creation.
We would love you to use AnnaBelle Stamps and embellishments, but you can play along without using them, it’s all about sharing ideas :)

For You

2012-01-18T21:21:00.000+10:00

This is just a quick one as it's nearly bedtime and the CAS-ual Fridays challenge for this week ends in a couple of hours! Really pushing it this time!

I actually created this on the weekend but typical me, I have to wait until the last minute to post...

The challenge is to use scallops. I used my Fiskars scallop punch on a piece of cardstock that I coloured with Scarlet Versacolor ink (please ignore the 'rough' look that the scallops have, I did sand them, but obviously not well enough!). The sentiment is from Fanciful Flowers by AnnaBelle Stamps stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

I stamped the heart with the smaller gingham pattern from BBD7 by AnnaBelle Stamps in Scarlet Versacolor ink and punched it out with a large heart punch by Sullivans. I adhered it to a piece of white cardstock (same as the cardbase) and cut around it leaving a thin border with my Cutterbee scissors. Popped it up with foam dots to complete the card.

Well that's it from me (told you I would be quick!). Thanks for looking and have a fabulous day!

For You (again) + AnnaBelle Stamps release!

2012-01-14T12:18:00.000+10:00

It's such a pleasant day today (the clouds have come along to give some reprieve from the hot, Summer sun) that I want to be outside but before I go and tackle the errant rosemary I thought I would share another card I made for AnnaBelle Stamps' latest challenge but opted for the one in this post.

I simply didn't like it when I first stamped it - maybe because of the stem being black - too much black, perhaps? However, my liking for it increased with a second viewing (when I found it in the pile of paper and bits that I was about to chuck away) and I like the black more now than when I first stamped it. Anyway, what do you think?

I stamped the flower with Hyacinth Versacolor ink. The stem and sentiment are stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink. The cardbase is 4" x 6" top folding using Bazzil cardstock for texture.

And the new sets by AnnaBelle Stamps have been released today (including the one I used for the card above - Fanciful Flowers). Andrea from AnnaBelle stamps is also giving away the following set:

Garden Silhouettes

Go to the AnnaBelle Stamps blog for more info on the new release, and to enter for a chance to win the above set.

Okay, now I'm off to have some fun in the garden. Hope you're enjoying lovely weather wherever you are in the world ;)

For You

2012-01-13T11:00:00.046+10:00

I'm back again to share another AnnaBelle Stamps challenge with you. This week is Anything Goes which means you can let your creativity go wherever it wants to take you!

I am showing a sneak peek of another beautiful new set from AnnaBelle stamps called 'Fanciful Flowers'. It has loads of beautiful sentiments and silhouette flowers and stems - my favourite things!

I stamped the sentiment first on a 4x4 white cardbase using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I then stamped the flowers in Ash Rose and Petal Pink Versacolor ink. The stems were stamped last using Kaiser ink in Splice.

Super simple card! I think the hardest thing was working out which colours to use ;)

The new sets will be released on the 14th of January so make sure to check the AnnaBelle Stamps blog then for the big reveal! In the meantime check out the rest of the beautiful creations by the Belles:

Marion
Sue K
Therese
Sue W
Andrea
Kylie
Patti
Cath (Guest Belle)
Hope you have a wonderful day!

About our challenges:

We post our challenges every Friday at 12:00pm AEST (AEDT during Daylight Savings).
Each challenge runs for a week, and will close on the Friday 10.00am so that we can announce and showcase our weekly winners prior to the next challenge.
Each weeks winner will receive our special blinkie to display on their blog and a $10.00 Gift Voucher to spend in store at AnnaBelle Stamps (or something equivalent).

How To Play Along:

Copy and save our challenge banner and include it and a link back to the ABS blog in your post.
Please link directly to your entry not just to your blog.
Please don't link to postings made prior to the date of our current challenge. All projects submitted must be new.
A maximum of 7 challenges may be combined including this one.
You may enter any of our challenges several times as long as each submission is with a new creation.
We would love you to use AnnaBelle Stamps and embellishments, but you can play along without using them, it’s all about sharing ideas :)

Baby mini cards

2012-01-09T23:32:00.000+10:00

Boy was it hot today! It was absolutely awful. I had a really lazy day today for obvious reasons, but managed to get into the craft room for a bit.

I wanted to play along with Wee Memories since the challenges are ending soon. Have absolutely loved their challenges (I think I may even have had an honourable mention there once or twice) and I am sad to see them go...

This week they (Wee Memories) are challenging us to make mini cards. Well I seem to only ever make mini cards these days (except for a couple of exceptions here and there) but I did something a bit different (for me)- no sentiment! And coloured pencil on coloured cardstock!

I used stamps from two Fiskars sets - on the card above I used one of the stamps from the 'Baby Shower' stamp set. The elephant is from the 'Baby Announcement' set.

I stamped both in Versafine Onyx Black ink on Bazzil cardstock (cut and scored to make 3x3 cards) and coloured with White Prismacolor pencil. My tip when colouring something with Prismacolor pencils that has black outlines - go around afterwards with a black Prismacolor pencil on any lines that get that telltale 'wax bloom'.

So that's all I have to share... Hope you have a wonderful day!

Congratulations + Exciting news!

2012-01-06T11:00:00.104+10:00

I've been keeping this piece of news under my hat for a while but I'm so glad that I can tell you now - I consider myself very honoured to have been asked by Andrea to join the AnnaBelle Stamps design team!

So this is my first post as a member of the AnnaBelle Stamps DT and I'm showing a sneak peek of a set that will be released later this month as well as playing along with this week's challenge...

AnnaBelle Stamps Blog

I stamped the largest heart using Versacolor 'Silver' ink on grey Bazzill cardstock to add some shine and texture and embossed the smaller heart with Hero Arts embossing powder (ultra fine) in White on the same grey bazzil cardstock. Cut both hearts out with scissors.

I adhered both hearts to the front of a 3.5" x 3.5" white card, popping the smaller heart up on a foam dot for some dimension. I stamped the sentiment using Versafine 'Onyx Black' ink. Since the sentiment is just one word I thought I would play along with the Less Is More 'Just One Word' challenge this week.

So that's it from me! I hope you've enjoyed taking a peek at one of the new sets which will be released on the 14th of January on the AnnaBelle Stamps blog. Click through to the blog now to see what the other DT Belle's have created - you will not be disappointed!

Oh and before I forget - the AnnaBelle Stamps 12 Days of Christmas sale ends today (6th of Jan) so hurry to the shop to get 20% off stamps and sprinkles.

Take care!

About our challenges:

We post our challenges every Friday at 12:00pm AEST (AEDT during Daylight Savings).
Each challenge runs for a week, and will close on the Friday 10.00am so that we can announce and showcase our weekly winners prior to the next challenge.
Each weeks winner will receive our special blinkie to display on their blog and a $10.00 Gift Voucher to spend in store at AnnaBelle Stamps (or something equivalent).

How To Play Along:

Copy and save our challenge banner and include it and a link back to the ABS blog in your post.
Please link directly to your entry not just to your blog.
Please don't link to postings made prior to the date of our current challenge. All projects submitted must be new.
A maximum of 7 challenges may be combined including this one.
You may enter any of our challenges several times as long as each submission is with a new creation.
We would love you to use AnnaBelle Stamps and embellishments, but you can play along without using them, it’s all about sharing ideas :)

With Love

2012-01-04T21:36:00.000+10:00

I think my crafting mojo has returned with a vengeance! I created the card I am sharing today for AnnaBelle Stamps' current sketch challenge in no time at all. Don't you love it when inspiration hits right when you need it? :)

Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on it:

I used silhouette stamps from both All Things Grow and the Squared Mother's Day sets from AnnaBelle Stamps. (Love how these two sets go together!)

I stamped both silhouette stamps using Chateau Grey Versacolor ink and the sentiment (from All Things Grow) with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I cut the circles using Nestabilities in my Bigshot. The left hand circle as well as the sentiment strip are popped up with foam dots to give some dimension. The pearls are from Kaisercraft and the cardfront measures 6"x4" (top folding).

That's it from me, I think it's bedtime :)

PS - I'll be back on Friday with some exciting news... :)

Happy Birthday

2012-01-02T13:55:00.000+10:00

Good day to you! I don't know about you, but the New Year is off to a great start for me. I was able to spend some quality time in my craft room during the Christmas/New Year break (which ends today, sadly) and so I have a card to share with you today.

One of my nieces turns two this month so this little 3x3 card is for her. I'm also playing along with the latest CAS-ual Fridays challenge - to use kraft and twine.

I don't have any bakers twine in pink (something I really should rectify!) so I used Caribbean Blue from The Twinery.

I tried my hand at using coloured pencils on kraft which Dorcas always does so well and I've always admired but never tried. I stamped the little flower stamp from Sophie's Sentiments by Lawn Fawn in Versamark ink. I then coloured each flower with Prismacolor pencils. I used White first, over that some Light Aqua, then Kelly Green in the centres because it didn't match the twine quite right, and then added a little bit of Aquamarine here and there for a bit of contrast.

I do love the effect of coloured pencil on kraft and will have to use the technique again soon! I just realised that this can qualify for this week's Wee Memories challenge - to try something new (in this case, a new technique!).

I stamped the sentiment (also from Sophie's Sentiments by Lawn Fawn) in Versacolor Black Onyx ink and attached the twine to the card with a double knot. Now all that's left to do is make an envelope to match!

Thanks so much for taking a look. Hope you have a great day! :)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T16:39:00.000+10:00

Hi all! It's been a little while since I've posted... again...

I've seen lots of people do posts of their favourite cards for 2011 so I thought I'd do the same. I haven't posted much this year (42 as opposed to 134 in 2010!)

Here they are in no particular order (click on the image to see the original entry):

I really enjoyed going through my posts and selecting these, and I hope you enjoyed looking at them too!

I don't know about anyone else, but I am looking forward to seeing what 2012 holds. It's going to be awesome, I can feel it! :)

Season's Greetings (tags)

2011-12-20T21:57:00.002+10:00

I hope everyone's Christmas preparations are going well! Only a few days to go until Christmas Day... doesn't the time fly?

Every year my husband and I bake yummy things to give to our work colleagues and family members for Christmas. I must admit that I don't really do much of the baking - I get to do the extremely important taste-test of course, but my main task is putting together the packaging of said baked goods. These were for our colleagues:

It's a bit of a mixed bag this year (literally!) last year we just had the pebber nodder biscuits in the bags but this year I went a bit crazy with the chocolates and filled up the bags with those as well. I could have put more biscuits in and less chocolates but this way there's more biscuits for us right?? :) Here's the link to the recipe for the biscuits I shared last year, though we roll ours flat and cut shapes out rather than rolling into a log and pinching off small amounts.

The tags were made using the snowflake and sentiment from the Round for Christmas stamp set by AnnaBelle Stamps stamped in Versacolor 'Silver' and Brilliance 'Pearl Lavender' ink. The sentiment from the set was stamped in Versafine Black Onyx ink. I also used the snowflake strip from the 'Merriest Wishes' set from Hero Arts stamped in Versacolor 'Cement' ink for the background.

That's it from me this evening! Take care and thanks for looking!

Season's Greetings

2011-12-11T21:17:00.001+10:00

Sorry I've been away for so long! I have been keeping away from the computer at home lately, just to let my hands recover. I'm now going to physio which is making such an improvement! I'm still taking things slow though...

Oh - before I forget - thanks to everyone who requested a Christmas card and wanted to send me one as well! I've received two so far (Betty and Maria!) and can't wait for the rest to arrive!

We're getting a bit festive over here... The Christmas cards are on display, we put our Christmas tree and lights up this weekend, including some solar ones out on the fence, and we've been baking every weekend for Christmas gifts for work colleagues and family. Fun!

I managed to fit in some crafty time today though, amongst it all. Here are three versions of the same idea using the Round for Christmas set from AnnaBelle Stamps... I'm not sure which I like best:

I think I like the sentiment in the middle best - but of course some inks just won't allow this because of the clash factor (don't ask how I know this).

Inks used are Versacolor 'Petal Pink', Kaiser 'Antique Blue' and 'Splice' as well as Versacolor Onyx Black for the sentiment of course.

That's it from me, thanks for looking, and have a wonderful day!

With Love

2011-11-16T11:23:00.001+10:00

Boy oh boy is it heating up! This has to be the most unpleasant time of year in the 'Great' South East... it's 30 degrees celsius up here in my craft room and it's only 11am. Yuck!

I'm sharing a card I created earlier this week for AnnaBelle Stamps' latest challenge - Say it in Lime, Black and White. It's such a fantastic colour combo (though I don't think I did it proud) I just had to play along...

As a standalone stamp, this background chevron style pattern from Backgrounds by Design 3 rocks! I'm going to use this one similarly again, I'm sure of it. I stamped it using Kaiser pigment ink in 'Splice'.

The buttons are cheap white ones I found at a bargain shop, coated with Versamark to make them sticky, then covered with the Splice ink, dipped in clear embossing powder and finally heat set to seal. I left the bigger button overnight after coating it with the pigment ink and rubbed off the excess in the morning to make it a lighter shade. I got the idea when the pigment ink stained my clear stamp a lovely shade of green. ;)

I used some embroidery floss to finish off the buttons and adhered them to the front of the card using mini and micro glue dots.

The sentiment is from the Squared Mother's Day set from Annabelle stamps using Versafine Onyx Black ink.

Don't forget to email me your address so that I can send you a Christmas card! I'll be taking names and addresses until the 5th of December.

That's all for now. I'm going to go downstairs now and cool off under the fan :)

Christmas cards

2011-11-13T21:08:00.000+10:00

Hello there! I hope everyone had an awesome weekend - it was quite hot here in Sunny Queensland as we are unfortunately heading into Summer...

I don't have a card to share today, but I just wanted to drop in and ask if any of my readers would like to receive a Christmas card from me this year. Handmade by me of course!

If so, please send an email with your name and address. If you want to return the favour let me know in the email and I'll send you my address.

It takes a while for things to get from here to America etc, so I'll take names and addresses until the 5th of December just to be on the safe side :)

Hope to hear from you soon, and have a great day!

Wishing You the Peace and Joy of Christmas

2011-11-09T20:48:00.001+10:00

Good evening! Just checking in to say that I'm still alive and well, though it's frustrating to say the least that I can't craft or get out in the garden the way that I want to right now. I just have to keep telling myself that a bit of rest now means I will heal and be able to do the things I want to later. But I'm impatient so that hasn't been a whole lot of consolation unfortunately.

I've been watching lots of movies lately. Bad '80s ones. Does anyone have any suggestions as to occupations which will keep me busy without using my hands?

I can sort of craft - as long as there isn't much wrist work involved, and if I'm careful. I have created the following card for AnnaBelle Stamps' Say it with Sentiments challenge, and CAS-ual Fridays want us to go over the edge, so I did!

Sorry this isn't going to be too descriptive. I'll just leave you with a list of supplies:

Background by Design 3 - Annabelle Stamps
Christmas Wish - Annabelle Stamps
Kraft cardstock, ribbon, Helmar glue runner twine.

Thanks for looking, and have a fantastic day!

Guest Designer post at Lilypad Cards!

2011-11-01T23:58:00.000+10:00

I'm still resting these troublesome hands of mine - my left hand wanted to get in on the action too so I'm trying to use the computer as little as possible as moving the mouse seems to be the real culprit!

I just had to share this though - I was selected to be a guest designer for Lilypad Cards! You can read my post here.

Hopefully I'll be back up and running (well, typing really) very soon. Thanks to everyone who left comments on my last post. You guys are wonderful :)

Have an awesome day!

Welcome little one

2011-10-26T21:03:00.002+10:00

Sorry I've been MIA lately - not just from blogging but I have fallen way behind in my post reading and commenting as well. I've just been trying to rest my hands as much as possible due to a flare-up of a previous injury in my right hand from my previous job. I've been overdoing it a bit lately so I think my body was saying slow down! So I've been avoiding the computer as much as possible and I've only started making cards again in the past couple of days because stamping seemed to make the pain worse.

I had a bit of a play last night and to help my hand out I created the card I'm sharing for three challenges in one. AnnaBelle Stamps challenged us to make a card in pink, green and kraft and CAS-ual Fridays wants us to just add colour. Wee Memories is having a free for all so that makes three.

The dotted background is from Background by Design 3 from AnnaBelle Stamps stamped with Petal Pink Versacolor ink.
The Backgrounds by Design line of stamps is what drew me to AnnaBelle Stamps in the first place - I do love background stamps. What I didn't know until I bought this set is what makes them the best background stamps ever is how easy they are to line up - I mean, if I can do it, anyone can! :)

I coloured the umbrella from the 'Baby Shower' set by Fiskars in Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage distress inks with a paintbrush and some water added. I used a grey marker to colour the bit of the umbrella you hold onto (what is that actually called? - the handle maybe?) and to add a bit of a shadow to the umbrella trim.

I used watercolour paper for all of the layers except for the cardbase (Kraft).

Well I'm going to stop typing now as the pain is starting to come back - gonna go put on a heatpack I think.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you have a good one!

Wishing you the peace and joy of Christmas

2011-10-20T12:28:00.001+10:00

Hello there! I'm writing this entry during my lunch break at work as I created my entry for the AnnaBelle Stamps' current challenge - Say It With...Embellished Corners late last night and felt so sleepy after that I had to go straight to bed!
Embellishing the corners is a tricky one because I'm a clean and simple kinda gal, but I think my card below manages to fit the challenge and be CAS at the same time:

I received my first order of AnnaBelle Stamps earlier this week (I ordered so much stuff, I couldn't help it, I love the designs - especially the backgrounds) and had to play straightaway. I'll have some more cards to share in the coming days that I created with the stamps I ordered.

I stamped the large sentiment from the 'Christmas Wish' set in Onyx Black Versafine ink on Canson Vivaldi cardstock.

I stamped the star from the sentiment again with Gold Versacolor ink but it wasn't sparkly enough so I rubbed on some gold Pearlex powder and set it with Matte Fixative spray. Cut out the star and fixed it onto the card with a tiny foam dot.
The corners were pierced and sewn by hand with gold embroidery floss.

Thanks for taking a look! I suppose I'd better get back to work. :(
Have a good one!

Winter Wishes

2011-10-17T20:23:00.000+10:00

Let me preface today's entry by saying that I know it's a little bit weird creating a card with 'Winter Wishes' for the sentiment in spring (down under), and I also acknowledge that creating a card with images of snowflakes on it when I live in a subtropical climate where we never get frost, much less snow, is odd. But I can't help myself - I love winter and I wish we got snow here :)

I couldn't resist the Textured to Perfection challenge from Moxie Fab World so I created a card using embossed resist! And I had to add a little bling so I'm entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Presents a Bling Challenge from Lily Pad cards.

By accident I used matte photo paper that was lurking in my scrap pile for the blue panel with the snowflakes - I have found in the past that embossing powders don't stick to it as the ink seeps in and dries too quickly - a great quality in a photo paper, not so much for embossing! However, this turned out to be a good thing in this instance as the patchy embossing adds to the overall distressed/dreamy effect.

The below image shows the card base itself is embossed as well - with the 'Cornfield' stamp by Docrafts for the V&A Museum quilts exhibition.

I clear embossed the snowflakes (Winter's Butterfly - Hero Arts) with Versamark ink and Ultra Fine embossing powder from Hero Arts. Swiped Tumbled Glass distress ink using the direct to paper method and wiped off the excess.

Scattered some Kaisercraft rhinestones amongst the snowflakes and affixed the sentiment (from 'Tis the Season by Fiskars) panel using foam dots.

That's it from me, I hope you get a chance to play along with the challenge too - it's so much fun adding texture!

Have a good one!

Hello Friend

2011-10-16T10:36:00.000+10:00

I've spent lots of time at my craft desk this weekend. I made a couple of cards, but I was mainly sorting out new stamp sets into the A5 binders I use to store them. I have so many Hero Arts stamps now that I've had to buy another binder so that I can divide them between 'Clear' and 'Cling'.

Speaking of Hero Arts, I used some on the card in today's entry which is based on the inspiration photo from Scrapbook Boutique's latest challenge:

I took in the flower and the tiny silver balls and created the following card:

The daisy-like flowers are Tattered Florals by Tim Holtz. Stamped Chateau Grey Versacolor ink with Hero Arts Dotted Pattern on one daisy.

Stamped metal brad with Chateau Grey ink and dipped in Ultra Fine embossing powder (Hero Arts). Heat set it and covered with glossy accents for a bit of shine.

Assembled the flower on Canson Mi-Tientes textured cardstock (I believe this colour is 'Stone' but I can't be sure!) which I paper pierced the top and bottom of. Stamped the sentiment (All Occasion Messages by Hero Arts) with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

Thanks for taking a look! I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Sunday which looks to be a beautiful one!

Catch you later,

Thank you

2011-10-15T16:00:00.000+10:00

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post with ideas on how to be more creative during the week. It makes sense to create on the weekend and then stagger the posts throughout the week. I might try that and see how it goes.

For the past couple of days I've tried to make several cards based on Clean and Simple's FTL 161 but nothing worked until I caught this post by Aimes and I instantly knew what to do...

This size of card is my favourite at the moment - the Canson Vivaldi card is cut 4" x 6" and scored at 3". The fern from the Leaf Print set by Hero Arts fits perfectly in the ATC sized panel (2.5" x 3.5"). Used Bamboo and Brown versacolor ink.

The wooden button is from Heart Supplies. It's the same kind used on this card but coloured with a copic marker (Chamois). Stamped the sentiment from the Leaf Prints set with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

That's it from me. Thanks for taking a look, and I hope you are having a wonderful and creative weekend!

Thinking of you

2011-10-12T22:06:00.000+10:00

I'm so jealous of crafters who post more than twice a week! How do you do it?? I find myself so wiped out after work most nights that it's difficult to get the creative juices flowing. What gets you crafting after a long day at work? I'd love to know!

Having said that - I made a card this afternoon/evening after work to enter the Annabelle Stamps Say It In...Yellow, Lime & Chocolate challenge.

My yellow and choc don't quite match the colour sample, but the three papers I chose complement each other quite well which is the most important thing for a CAS card! The 'yellow' paper is from the 'Peachy Keen' collection by Kaisercraft, while the 'choc' and 'lime' papers are from the 'Hey Birdie' collection (also Kaisercraft).

The flower was created using the Tattered Florals die by Tim Holtz. I also cut up one of the flowers from the die to make the leaves (Jennifer McGuire is right - a flower doesn't look finished until you add leaves!)

The wooden button is from Heart Supplies and the sentiment is Hero Arts (All Occasion Messages).

Thanks so much for looking, and have a great day!

You make me smile

2011-10-09T13:57:00.000+10:00

I lost my two front baby teeth at the same time when I was 6 or so. I dislodged them by accidentally banging my head against on a pine beam at the playground at school... ouch. I was only a kid, but I still remember feeling self-conscious about my smile.

The card I'm sharing today is my entry for the Operation Julie's Smile challenge from CAS-ual Fridays -

I used the saying above as the inspiration for my card:

I used Canson Vivaldi cardstock for the card bases as well as the blue layer and the cut out bird layer.

The blue layer is Tumbled Glass distress ink with a bit of Cyan Versacolor for contrast.

I coloured the birds ('Best Friends' by Inkadinkado) with Lyra Polycolor pencils and blended using Zest-it. The sentiment is from the 'All Occasion Messages' set by Hero Arts.

Thanks for taking a look, and I hope you find something to smile about today. Me? I'm smiling at my cat snuggled up in his bed next to me :)

Mini card set

2011-10-08T09:39:00.000+10:00

Happy Saturday to you! This morning we woke up to the sound of rumbling thunder which became a full-on storm by 8am and now it's pouring with rain - such crazy weather - I can't remember the last time it stormed in the morning! I was going to go do some gardening today but I definitely won't be now.

So - I thought I would finally write this entry instead! I originally created this little mini card set well before the CAS-ual Fridays deadline but I didn't take photos and post on time because I'm silly and a little bit time poor at the moment :(

I thought I'd share anyway because I would like to enter this into the Jay Gee's Nook challenge this month using the following inspiration photo:

I'm also taking a shot at Hero Arts' October contest. Can you tell which sketch I used?

These cards fit the mini envelopes I have. The cards themselves measure 4 x 6" unfolded (4 x 3" folded). I used papers from the Christmas Carnival collection (Kaisercraft) and the yellow dotted pattern is from the Lilac Avenue collection (also Kaisercraft) and coloured white ribbon with copics to make the banners.

I did the unthinkable and cut up a couple of my Hero Arts clear stamps - 'Feel Better Soon' from the 'All Occasion Messages' set and 'Enjoy Today to the Fullest' from the 'Wonderful Birthday' stamp set. It was much easier to stamp them that way and they can always be put back together.

I cut out all of the circles with my Spellbinders dies and mixed and matched the coloured ribbon with the patterns to create each individual card.

That's it from me today, I hope everyone has a wonderful, crafty Saturday!

You are so special to me

2011-10-02T17:44:00.001+10:00

Happy Cardmaking Day for yesterday! I made this card card yesterday which was more of a happy accident than something I planned.

I printed a photo to hang on the wall yesterday using this canvas photo paper I found at my local Officeworks. It's slightly glossy and has a really lovely texture. This is the photo I printed and framed. I have a thing for roses but I can't keep them alive to save my life. Plastering them all over the walls is my compromise. :)

Later on I used the offcuts from printing the photo to create this card. I started with a Very Vanilla cardbase stamped in Vanilla Versacolor ink with the Envelope Pattern by Hero Arts.

I used the inkpad to paper technique (more Jennifer McGuire) to colour the canvas paper with Bundled Sage distress ink. I stamped the flower from Fiskars' "Petals from Scratch" set (which I think looks kind of like a coneflower) once on the green layer and then again in StazOn ink on an uninked piece of the canvas paper. I used the colours of coneflowers as my inspiration -

Picture found here- and blended Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick distress inks to colour the flower. I then swiped a little bit of Soft Peach shadow ink in the centre of the flower which blended by itself beautifully.

I created a banner which I then stamped with the sentiment (All Occasion Messages by Hero Arts) and popped it up on foam dots to complete the card.

Because the graduating colour effect using the blender tool is my favourite technique (at the moment!) I think it fitting that I enter this card into this week's Wee Memories challenge (to use your favourite technique)

I couldn't resist adding this one to the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge.

Have a good one!

Just a note

2011-09-29T20:02:00.002+10:00

Happy Thursday! I don't know about anyone else, but I really can't wait 'til Friday this week! Is it just me or did this week crawl by? Hmm, maybe it was just me :)

I'm here to share a card that's been sitting in my head ever since I saw this Moxie Fab World Trigger image:

I love that cute fabric envelope! It's so dainty and sweet! I just had to recreate it for the challenge, so here goes:

For the background I used a plaid pattern out of the 'Isn't it Romantic' 6x6 paper pad by Inque Boutique. I really wish I had a plaid stamp so that I could have made the card more monochromatic (like the inspiration image) but then I couldn't have also entered this card into the Wee Memories challenge for this week - to use patterned paper. Just for extra fun I'll enter this into the Simon Says Stamp challenge for this week which is Anything Goes!

The rolled rose was made out of a circle cut from the same paper as the background (using a technique demonstrated by the awesome Jennifer McGuire in her Inspiration Showcase!). I glued it down with glossy accents and popped a little half pearl in the centre of the rose.

I distressed the edges of the white stitched layer to make it look a little worn and uneven - like fabric! I stamped the sentiment with Versafine Black Onyx ink using a sentiment from Kaisercraft's mini stamp set called 'Thinking of you'.
Thanks for taking a peek! I'm sure I'll be back on the weekend (yay, can't wait!)

Thanks

2011-09-24T00:59:00.000+10:00

Happy Friday to you! I haven't been near my craft desk all week, so it was great to just sit down and play the time away, a luxury I don't normally get on a weeknight because usually it's a case of having dinner, then a shower, then going to bed!

So anyway, on with the card as that's why you're really here, right? :)

This week's Wee Memories challenge is to NOT use patterned paper. I'm kind of patterned-papered-out after the last card I made, so this was great timing!

I've been taking Jennifer McGuire's Technique Showcase, an online card class - which is full of so many techniques that I'm going to try out in the weeks to come. The flower on this card wasn't made using of the techniques from the class, but I felt inspired by the class to experiment and see what happened!

For the flower ("Flowers" cling set by Hero Arts) I used watercolour cardstock with Turquoise Versacolor (pigment ink). After cleaning the ink off the stamp with a baby wipe I used the ink as a colour wash by swiping the baby wipe across the stamped image.

The background was created by painting the teeny tiny flower stamp from the 'Just wanted to say" set by Hero Arts with some "Heavenly" Twinkling H20s and stamping it randomly around a piece of watercolour cardstock.

I painted the flowers with "Heavenly" Twinkling H2Os and glued the flower together using glue dots. The sentiment is from the "Just wanted to say" set by Hero Arts.

Here's one more picture to show the shimmer:

Well that's it from me, I'm beat! I hope everyone has a lovely and relaxing weekend - I know I will be!

Your Kindness is Truly Appreciated

2011-09-18T20:49:00.000+10:00

I'm happy to report that the garden is looking better since I gave it a bit of attention this weekend, but I'm aching all over right now because of it :( And boy was it hot! If this is a preview of Summer I don't want it!

I did have a chance to make another card this weekend. I have to admit I spent alot of time on this (I think I got up and walked away about five times). I decided to play along with the sketch challenge at Lily Pad Cards and combine it with with the Easy Craft Projects challenge - to use 6 patterned papers on a project.

Here's the sketch from Lily Pad Cards:

Inspired by the sketch, I used four strips of patterned paper from the Secret Bird Society collection 6x6 paper pad by Kaisercraft (my favourite set, but I've rarely used it!) cut a circle with a Spellbinder's die (5), and the bird and leaves are cut out of one of the papers, so that makes 6 patterned papers on one card! Phew :) Choosing the papers and arranging the strips was the hardest part of creating this card. I went with the most complimentary patterns that aren't overly busy.

I stamped the sentiment from the biggest sentiments set I own - Truly Appreciated by Hero Arts.

I popped the little birdy up with foam dots to make him jump off the page a little, and the leaves wanted to curl up a bit by themselves which is always a nice look.

So are multiple patterned papers your thing? If you are like me and you think two patterned papers on a card is plenty, perhaps you should take up the challenge by Easy Craft Projects as well, you never know where it will take you!

Thanks for taking a look, and have a great day!

Hello + Work in Progress!

2011-09-17T14:40:00.001+10:00

A simple one-layer mini card to make it just under the wire for this week's Wee Memories challenge to make a one layer card. Susan from Simplicity wants us to colour our one-layer cards, and I'm also playing along with CAS-ual Friday's challenge this week to create a mini card.

I'm all about the mini cards these days and I love one-layer cards, so these two challenges were made to be combined in my opinion! Here is what I came up with:

I printed the flower from Mujka Chic's Contemporary Design Elements from myGrafico on thick lightly textured cardstock (I can't remember the brand) that measured 4" x 6". I eyeballed it to come up with the correct placement of the flower on the cardstock and ran it through my printer.

I stamped the sentiment from Simple Messages by Hero Arts in Versafine Black Onyx ink before doing any colouring just in case I had a mishap (it happens rather often unfortunately...)

I then coloured the flower using a combination of Prismacolor pencils (Lilac, Lavender, Salmon Pink, Parma Violet, Canary Yellow, Spanish Orange and Burnt Ochre) as well as Light Orange to accent the polleny bits in the center of the flower. For blending I used a stump sponged with Zest-it blending medium. I took pictures as I went (fun!) and put them together in a collage:

Click on the picture above to see it a bit closer!

Thanks for looking, and I hope you've found some inspiration in this week's challenges! I might go and brave the heat outside and tidy up the garden a little bit.

Enjoy your day!

love u

2011-09-16T19:58:00.000+10:00

My husband doesn't like using emoticons, or text-speak such as 'c u l8r'. He writes his SMSs [texts] with perfect spelling, grammar and punctuation, whereas he's lucky to get one from me with a capital letter in sight. He's a punctuation- and grammar-phile, so the cards I make with the stamps in the Notched Tag Die and Stamp set by My Favorite things will drive him absolutely crazy [I mean crazy in a good way of course :)] Not a capital in sight and lots of text-speak. he he he.

I created a pattern down on one side of my ATC-sized card using the dotted background stamp in the set (these stamps are so cute and little, perfect for little mini cards as well as tags!) in Versacolor Raspberry ink and laid a white ribbon around the card and tied it into a bow.

I stamped the sentiment and then die-cut two little hearts from the coordinating set of dies. I sponged them with Versacolor Raspberry and fixed them to the card. I adhered the panel to a card (front panel measures 4 x 3") and that was it!

Thanks for looking, and I hope you have a great day!

One of a Kind

2011-09-14T20:56:00.000+10:00

Happy Wednesday to you! I'm so glad that the week is half over - I can't wait for the weekend!

I was quite productive and crafty over my holiday - most of the cards I will be sharing within the next little while will be those I created during that time. Here's one I created just for fun - no challenges or occasion in mind.

I started out with a piece of cardstock from a watercolour pad cut at 2.5 x 3.5 inches that I was going to use to make an ATC (Artist Trading Card). I stamped a background using the leaves from Inkadinkado's 'Leaves' set in Vanilla Versacolor ink.
I think it sat on my craft desk like that for about 2 weeks. Last week while at my craft desk working on something else inspiration hit and I finally knew what to do with it (as you can tell from the photo above I abandoned the ATC idea). I stamped the leaves again a piece of watercolour card (same kind as the ATC) using Pinecone, Umber and Sand Beige Versacolor ink and I cut out them out using my new Cutterbee scissors (great tool I should add). I arranged them how I wanted them to appear on the card and taped them together on the back. I wrapped a piece of twine a few times around the stems of the leaves and taped the ends to the back of the ATC layer. I popped the arrangement of leaves up with foam dots to give the card some dimension and then stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts' 'All Occasion Messages' set in Pinecone Versacolor ink.

The last thing I did was adhere the ATC to the card which measures 4 x 6 inches (scored on the longest side at 3 inches). It's my new favourite size card - it's easy for me to remember when cutting up cardstock, it fits the ATC with a nice mat and I have envelopes that it fits into perfectly - win, win, win!

I used Canson cardstock for the card base, and watercolour card from a pad for the ATC and leaves. I think the different card types add alot of interest and texture and once I got going it was such a fun and easy card to make that I made another one using another abandoned ATC which I will post tomorrow!

Hi There

2011-09-13T20:14:00.000+10:00

I was in two minds as to whether or not I should share the following card on my blog. On the one hand, I want to share it because I like it and I think it's cute. On the other hand it shows how silly my husband and I are about our cats which I think some people might find a bit odd. Obviously the first hand won out, otherwise you would be reading about another (less weird) card right now.

Backstory: My husband (Mark) and I don't have kids (and won't be having any in the future either) so we give all of our love and attention and absolutely dote on our cats (okay, maybe me more so than Mark). For years now, as a joke, we have gotten each other Mother's and Father's Day gifts 'from the cats', usually accompanied by a funny email or note that the cats made us write, etc. (Do you see where I'm going with this yet?)

So the Sunday before last was Father's Day and the cats commissioned this card:

I printed the kitty from the 'Be Mine' digi by Softpencil (retired) twice onto Canson cardstock and I coloured them in with a warm grey Copic marker. If you've seen the photos I've posted of Abby before you will note that I left a diamond shape white on the right hand kitty's forehead as well as her paws to represent her markings. Toby (on the left) is completely grey so he didn't get any white spots, though he does have a few white hairs growing here and there these days - a kitty version of going grey I suppose.

I attached a strip of Bazzil cardstock to the front of the card (Canson) and used foam dots to pop the cats on top of the strip to make it look like they're peeking over a wall. I then stamped the sentiment from Sophie's Sentiments by Lawn Fawn in Versafine Black Onyx ink.

Thanks so much for looking, and for reading the little story behind the card. I'll be back tomorrow with another one!

Just Because

2011-09-12T19:47:00.000+10:00

First day back at work today, and boy was it hard to go back! And the work never stops so I have some catching up to do. ::sigh::

On a more positive note, I have a card I created for the Scrapbook Boutique's monthly challenge for September. The inspiration photo is below:

The challenge is to use berry, pink, aqua and a touch of pearl to a project. Here's what I came up with:

I used 3 different mediums for the bloom in the center - paper flowers from Kaisercraft, designer paper from Kaisercraft (Be Mine collection) and Bazzil cardstock (both of which were cut using the Tattered Florals die from Tim Holtz. I coloured a white pearl brad with a light pink copic marker and folded the prongs of the brad to hold the flower together.

I created a 6 x 4 top folding card using Canson cardstock in white. I then went through my extensive ribbon collection, hummed and hawed, then finally decided on some aqua grosgrain that I had received as a bonus gift with a purchase. As it wasn't quite working as it was, I took some twill and stamped a stitch stamp from a set by Papercraft (which I never ever use but is the first stamp set I bought, go figure) in Turquoise Versacolor ink. I glued the twill strip to the middle of the aqua grosgrain ribbon and adhered to the front of the card.

I attached the flower to the center of the twill ribbon using glue dots and finished the card by stamping the '... just because' sentiment from the All Year Greetings set by Fiskars in Versafine Black Onyx.

Thanks so much for taking a look!

Just wanted to say...

2011-09-11T10:47:00.001+10:00

Hello again! Luckily today is a much nicer (read: less windy) day so I might be able to go out and potter in the garden later! It's the last day of our holidays today which is a pity, but I suppose we have to go back so that we can get paid which means more stamps and supplies, right? :)

I created the following card based on three, yes that's right, three challenges!

Hero Arts' September Challenge - Create a window cardAnnabelle Stamps Birthday Celebration Challenge 2 to use a flower/bloom on a project
Jay Gee's Nook's Challenge 11 using the below photo inspiration

Without further ado, here is the card I created:

I used lots of Hero Arts for this card. I used the flowery coasters in the middle of Jay Gee's inspiration photo as my inspiration when selecting stamps and chose the second largest flower of the 'Flowers' cling set from Hero Arts. I coloured it using a Marvy marker in Yellow and stamped it inside the window I created using my Spellbinders circle die in the Bigshot. I stamped the 'just wanted to say...' part of the sentiment from the 'Just Wanted' set from Hero Arts, and the 'Thanks very much' part is from 'Simple Messages' (also Hero Arts!) in Versafine Black Onyx ink.
I then tied a knot in yellow Kaisercraft ribbon to go above the sentiment and used a small glue dot to affix a white button to the center of the flower.

Thanks for looking. I'm going to go downstairs and make sure there hasn't been any casualties in the garden from the wind yesterday. Wish me luck! :)

Birthday Medley

2011-09-10T15:15:00.000+10:00

Good afternoon and Happy Saturday! It's a VERY windy day here in Brisbane so I haven't ventured outside at all except to collect debris from around the yard and pick up overturned pots. It's awful, but at least it's making the washing dry really fast! Being inside though has meant I am 'forced' to craft up in my newly organised craft room (hehe) so here is a card I created for the "Simply Sentiments" challenge from Wee Memories.

The challenge is to make the sentiment the focal point so I used Birthday Medley, one of my digital sentiments available at Squigglefly and printed it onto Bazzil aqua cardstock. I then ran it through my Bigshot with the Jumbo Scallops die from Die-namics. I masked off the sentiment portion as well as the scallops with a couple of post-its and stamped the Hero Arts Dotted Background cling stamp in Versamark ink over the cardstock. I then chose some pale green Bazzil cardstock to complement the aqua (who says blue and green should never be seen??) and cut off a couple of strips which I used to disguise the depression above the scallops left by the dienamics die (I think because my sandwich was a bit too tight - should have made a test cut first!)

I then created a top folding 6 x 4 inch card in the same pale green as the strips used on the aqua panel and then glued the aqua panel down to the front of the card.

Before I go, I thought I would share this photo I just took of Abby - she has a plethora of soft places around the house and in this room where she can lie in the sun (including the carpeted floor!) but she chooses to sit on the most uncomfortable thing she can find. I guess I should be flattered though because the set of drawers she is lying on is the closest thing to me :)

Well that's it from me today, but I'll be back tomorrow with another card I created whilst waiting for the wind to die down :)

Enjoy your day!

Feel better soon!

2011-09-05T21:34:00.000+10:00

I haven't been making many cards lately because my craft room is still getting organised which has been eating into my spare crafty time. I'm on holidays for this whole week so I'm going to make sure that I fit in lots of organising as well as crafting, yay!

So on with the card. I made this one for my niece who recently had an ear infection which led to some unpleasantness with her eardrum. Not fun! She lives in North Queensland so I made this card to send up to her:

First I masked the bottom strip of the card with a post-it and stamped all over it with the bird flourish from the Flourishes set by Inkadinkado in Versafine Black Onyx ink. I took the post-it off and drew two lines using a black fine-tip marker and stamped the sentiment from Fiskars' All Year Greetings set in Versafine Black Onyx again.

I coloured the birds using my new Lyra Polycolor pencils. I recently bought a 24 set of these off ebay to try out after reading Dorcas' Prismas vs Lyras post, and I have to say, I love my Prismacolors but Lyras offer something different - absolutely effortless blending! I laid down a couple of different yellows just on the bottom bits (for want of a better word) of each bird and used a blending stump dipped in my Zest-it sponge to smooth out the colour and you can see the results for yourself - I don't think I reapplied the Zest-it to my stump once, which was nice. On top of the blendability, as these pencils are oil-based they don't put a translucent sheen of wax on the lines of the stamped image like Prismacolors do. The waxy sheen is the thing I like about my Prismas least, but as I have invested so much money in them and they are more readily available to me I'll still be using them for a while yet. To counteract the waxiness usually I go around the lines with a black pencil. I was pleased to be able to miss that step this time around!

I also added some 10% grey as shading around the bases of the birds and some of the tendrils (Prismas this time - the grey in my Lyra set was far too dark) to give the card some dimension since it was a completely flat one-layer card (for posting).

So that's it from me - time to get on with some more organising (It's getting there, phew) and thanks for looking :)

Love Always

2011-08-31T20:10:00.001+10:00

Happy Wednesday! Just popping in to share a card I made to enter into this week's CAS-ual Friday challenge - Stuck on You. The idea is to use a sticker so this is what I created:

I know I seem obsessed with white/clear embossing at the moment! I can't help it though, it's one of my new favourites. I'm also entering this one into Lily Pad Card's Emboss Resist challenge.

I clear embossed the Roses stamp from Inkadinkado's 'Flourishes' on a sheet of labels by Avery. I used the ink blender tool to swipe on some Spun Sugar distress ink and then some Milled Lavender over that to make it a bit less pink so that I could come in with Worn Lipstick and a paintbrush to paint the roses. I gave the same treatment to the leaves using Shabby Shutters. I blotted excess ink off with a tissue and then adhered the labels on to the front of the card with great care to get them lined up evenly.
I then wrapped some white cotton string to the front of the card, tied a bow and stamped a sentiment from Hero Arts 'All Occasion Messages' in Worn Lipstick. To give the Worn Lipstick a more muted effect I stamped it once on some scrap paper and then on the card front.

This card was extremely hard to photograph - I think mostly because of the pale colours but also the awkward placement of the bow - the ends sat awkwardly when I stood the card up so I had to lay the card flat to get a better shot.

Also a question - does anyone find my photos of poor quality/ hard to see details / too light / too dark or...? I find that photos look better on my home computer (which I have edited them on) and on the odd occasion I've looked on my computer at work I find they look darker and less eye-catching. It's hard to please all monitors I know, but any feedback (whether positive or negative!) would be appreciated!

Thanks for taking a peek! :)

Happy for you!

2011-08-23T20:21:00.001+10:00

Hello there! I left work on time today for the first time in ages (it's been crazy busy lately so I have been working lots of extra hours) so that I could have a bit of a potter in my garden while there were still remnants of daylight left, and also, so that I could complete the following card I made for this week's CAS-ual challenge which is to use an embossing technique.

Here's what I came up with:

I made the flower panel last night before I went to bed by clear embossing on watercolour card the biggest flower from the "Petals from Scratch" set by Fiskars (I know I keep using this set, but I love it!) which I stamped with Versamark ink. I then used a drop of Spun Sugar Distress Ink reinker on an acrylic block with a little bit of water to colour the petals. For the flower centers I used Soft Peach shadow ink on the acrylic block with no water added.

This afternoon I created the tag using one of the sentiments from the above set clear embossed on the same watercolour card and coloured it with Spun Sugar and water. I punched out the tag with an old Carl tag punch and tied it on to the ribbon using white cotton string. The ribbon is from Kaisercraft and the button is from a cheap pack I bought from a discount shop.

Thank you for looking and have a fantastic day (or night)! ;)

Thinking of you + new craft space

2011-08-17T17:01:00.000+10:00

I'm happy to have the day off work today as it's a mid-week public holiday! I set myself two tasks...

1. Clean up my craft table which is still a mess from two or three projects ago. I have the horrible habit of getting up and going off to do something else after I've finished a project and when I sit down again to start another I just sweep all of the materials to one side. It irritates me but I'm powerless against it. BTW, still haven't done it! Ha! I'm writing this entry instead. See what I mean??

2. Make a card for a work colleague who has suffered a recent personal tragedy. I used the CAS-ual Friday's challenge which was to use the Clean and Simple FTL for this week.

I used the above sketch to create the following card:

It's a really little card to fit these cute mini envelopes I have in my envelope stash. The cardstock is watercolouring card from an A5 pad. I used Black Onyx Versafine for all of the stamping. For the colouring I used a green marker on the flower stem which I cut out and attached using my Quickie glue pen, and the flower was coloured using prismacolor pencils.

The stamp sets I used were "Petals from Scratch" by Fiskars and "Classic Sentiments" by Hero Arts.

If you want to play along in the CAS-ual challenge too you can check it out here. The challenge is to use the FTL sketch from Clean&Simple here.

I thought I would also share a photo of my new craft space which is looking MUCH neater in the photo than it does presently:

It's still a work in progress, I need to figure out more storage and better ways to organise the things that I reach for most like ink pads and scrap paper...

Note the little brown cat bed... my cats LOVE looking out of windows so I have to oblige them by putting beds next to every window possible. It's really the cats' house, we just pay the mortgage ;)

Thanks for looking, and have a wonderful day!

Have a wonderful birthday + free sentiment!

2011-08-09T21:54:00.000+10:00

Hello again :) I've got a card to share as well as the sentiment I used which I'm giving away as a freebie.

To save, right click on the above image and choose 'save target as...'.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 171kb
Full dimensions: 25cm x 11cm
Fonts: I wish I knew! My old computer died and I have yet to reinstall all of my fonts...

All of my free digital sentiments can be found on the "Free Digital Sentiments" tab at the top of every page of this blog, or by clicking here. I'd love to hear from you if you use them! Please leave a comment or drop me a line: jess@lennonforever.net.

And here is the above sentiment in action:

After printing the card (see template below) on white cardstock I used a strip of Mask-It film sheet - a temporary low-tack adhesive plastic - to create an invisible border above and below my sentiment. I then stamped some of the flowers from 'Petals from Scratch' by Fiskars with Black Onyx Versafine ink. After pulling off the masking film I took out Versacolor cubes in Boysenberry, Grape and Raspberry (yummm) and diluted them with a spritz of water on a stamping block and used a paintbrush to colour the flowers. As you can see from the photo above I went for a very loose and watercoloury effect which goes well with the loosely drawn flowers.

It can take a bit of trial and error to get the sentiment placed just right on the cardfront but to make the process even easier I've done the hard part for you by making up a word document with the sentiment already in the right spot and the page dimensions to print a 4x8" (score at 4") card - all you need to do is print it out and stamp/embellish/whatever!
You can download the word document I used for the above card here. Please let me know via comments or email if you have any problems accessing the file.

Thanks again for looking at my cards, and for leaving such lovely comments. :)

Hope this day is as special as you are

2011-08-03T19:48:00.001+10:00

Back again with the card I created last night. It isn't challenge-based... I was just flipping through my Kaisercraft stamp collection and felt inspired. Isn't it lovely when that happens!

Everything is Kaisercraft except for the cardstock which is Stampin' Up's Very Vanilla. The bird and leafy branch is from the 'Peachy Keen' stamp set and the sentiment is from the 'Birthday' mini stamp set. I love the birds in the Peachy Keen stamp set - actually they're the reason why I bought the set in the first place, but I haven't used either of them until now.

The inks I used were Versacolor 'Pinecone' and 'Bamboo'.

Thanks for looking and have a lovely day!

I'm back!

2011-08-02T20:53:00.001+10:00

It's been so long since I've even looked at my blog (the end of March apparently) that I even forgot the url! (Turns out it isn't http://paper-play.blogspot.com... hmm)

I've been really busy moving house, taking care of a sick kitty, unpacking, more taking care of a sick kitty, gardening, rearranging my new craft room about a zillion times, and finally settled in fully about a week ago. I haven't gone near my crafting supplies since I stopped blogging (except for a couple of little projects here and there) as I haven't felt motivated or inspired.

I thought this week's CAS-ual challenge would help me get back in the groove, and it did!

Here's what I created:

I printed the gorgeous butterflies this digital kit from Hero Arts on bleedproof paper (as per advice from Melz!) and embossed the digital butterflies with embossing powder straight out of the printer so that I wouldn't get any smudges when I used my blending tool on them. I used Turquoise and Marigold versa color inks with the blending tool on the butterflies and then used Turquoise again on the cardfront for the text ('Cursive Script' clear stamp from Kaisercraft). This was a bit 'meh' so I edged the card with the leftover ink from my blending tool and when that was not enough I used the blending tool and streaked it all over the cursive script to smudge it. I then adhered the butterflies on top, added some antennae with a sharpie and stamped the sentiment (from 'Wedding' mini clear stamp set by Kaisercraft) to finish it off.

I'm going to enter this card in this month's Hero Arts contest to fit within the digital category for 'Creatures'. Wish me luck! :) Details of the comp are here.

Thanks for reading and I will be back to share another card real soon! :)

Taking a break!

2011-03-27T15:40:00.002+10:00

Just a quick one to tell you I'm taking a bit of a bloggy/cardmaking break. I'm not sure when exactly I'll be back, but hopefully it will be very soon! :)

Happy Birthday

2011-03-13T15:00:00.001+10:00

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm sitting here on the couch writing this using my husband's laptop as my computer is currently on the fritz. Abby has taken the opportunity to sit on me in the hopes that I'll give her more food, making typing this post extremely difficult!

Anyway, on to this week's Sentimental Sundays challenge! This week the challenge is:

Go Green (colour or recycling) + a sentiment

I went with the recycling type of 'green':

Here's another view:

I used a strip of paper that I made myself using scraps blended into pulp and dried on a mesh frame that my husband made for me. I tore the edges along a ruler to make them straight(ish). The rest of the card is made of kraft (recycled brown cardstock) which I sponged around the edges with Walnut Stain and Old Paper distress inks to give it an aged appearance. I used Old Paper distress ink on the edges of my homemade paper to soften the edges and help it blend in with the kraft background.

I stamped the sentiment using Versamark ink which gives it that tone on tone look that I love.

You can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Homemade paper, Kraft recycled brown cardstock
Stamp - Kaisercraft birthday sentiments mini stamp set
Ink - Walnut Stain, Old Paper distress inks, Versamark
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, scissors, foam dots, Helmar glue runner

Thanks for looking, I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!

Wherever you go, go with all your heart

2011-03-06T15:00:00.001+10:00

I'm back! I realised just now that I haven't posted for 2 months... eek! I've been working long hours at work (and at home) which has done absolutely nothing for my cardmaking mojo... but things at work have settled down a bit now so I'm creating again... yippee!

Are you ready for another Sentimental Sundays challenge? This week we are challenging you to create an item with Pearls and Lace (as well as a sentiment!)

Here's my creation:

Here's another view:

The offset sentiment started out as kind of a mistake but I went with it and discovered a layout that I think I'll use again. Don't you love it when that happens?

The strip of patterned paper is a bit that I found in my scrap drawer, and the lace is also.

You can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Canson textured card (white), Kaisercraft 'English Rose'
Stamp - I Heart You Sentiment Set by Raindrop Echo Designs at Whimsy Stamps
Ink - Printer
Extra - Lace, Kaisercraft pearls
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, scissors, Pixma printer, Helmar glue runner

forever & always

2011-01-29T14:08:00.001+10:00

Back again to share my card inspired by this week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World: Sweets for the Sweet. Here's the trigger:

And here's what I created:

I used the colours as my main source of inspiration, and it's very faint, but I made a stamped background with a paisley/damask-style stamp using Versamark ink to imitate the pattern on the wrapping of the box.

I've fallen head-over-heels with the sewing on cards craze that everyone seems to be doing right now, but I can't sew using the machine to save my life! The secret to my success is that the edge of the top layer as well as the middle of the hearts were hand-sewn using a piercing tool, ruler and then needle and thread. Was time-consuming but therapeutic at the same time :)

The sentiment is a from the new Wedding mini clear stamp set by Kaisercraft. I love it!

Size of card: 5 1/2" x 6 7/8" (to fit in 11b envelope)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Stampin' Up Very Vanilla cardstock, Bazzill cardstock
Stamp - Wedding mini stamp set by Kaisercraft, Prima floral stamp
Ink - Versamark, Raspberry Versacolor cube
Extra - white sewing thread
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, foam dots, needle, piercing tool, Sullivan's heart punch

You turn cloudy days sunny

2011-01-23T15:00:00.005+10:00

I'm here to share another Sentimental Sundays challenge - this week we have a colour combination for you:

If you don't have those exact colours just do what I did, and improvise! Here's my card:

It isn't my usual style at all is it? I think the bright cardbase is the most 'non-me' thing about it, but I wanted to illustrate the 'sunny' part of the sentiment so there it is.

I used a sheet out of Kaisercraft's Peachy Keen collection paper pad to imitate Poppy Parade, and also some of their grosgrain ribbon which looks like Handsome Hunter. I created the dotted background in Paint Shop Pro and used the colour swatch to match it to the Old Olive colour. I popped it up on some foam dots to give it some interest. The cardbase is a sheet from the Cre8tive textured cardstock pad which looks alot more like Summer Sun in real life.

I also (sort of) used the Clean and Simple Stamping FTL124 for the layout of this card.

You can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Cre8tive textured cardstock, Matte photo paper, Kaisercraft Peachy Keen paper pad
Stamp - Love Sentiments by Raindrop Echo Designs at Whimsy Stamps
Ink - Printer
Extra - Kaisercraft grosgrain ribbon
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, foam dots, Bigshot, Labels Four, scissors

Happy Birthday

2011-01-13T21:33:00.000+10:00

Just a quick post tonight - I'm nursing a bit of a cold and probably should go to bed!
I've been wanting to play along with the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger for a while but haven't had the time, till now. Since I've been forced to stay home from work since Tuesday (see this article for the reason) I've had some spare time up my sleeve.

Here is the trigger image for this week:

And here's what I came up with:

The trigger image looks like someone's having a party, maybe for a birthday? So I made it a birthday card. I took inspiration from the garlands hanging from the ceiling and punched circles out of similarly coloured cardstock. I then took out my old mini sewing machine and messy stitched across the length of the card to connect them. This was my first go at stitching on a card - I envy the straight edges that others are able to achieve! I need heaps of practice... but please believe me that the stitches on this card are wiggly on purpose, I'm not really that bad at it I promise! Though I have to confess, it took me about half an hour just to thread the silly thing properly (note to self: keep the manual to the sewing machine somewhere handy and actually refer to it when threading the machine!)

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill textured cardstock, Quill white cardstock
Stamp - 'Birthday' mini stamp set by Kaisercraft
Ink - Versafine 'Black Onyx'
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Carl 1 1/4" round punch, sewing machine

Challenge: Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger: Bright Spot

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Card Swap!

2011-01-11T10:00:00.018+10:00

Good morning, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day so far. I'm here to share with you an idea I had recently that I hope you will all want to be a part of!

Originally my idea was to ask you all for your addresses and send Christmas cards, but then I thought, why not make it a swap so that we can all share in the handmade card goodness?! :)

If you don't want to swap cards but still want to receive one from me please feel free to send me your snail mail address anyways!

So if you want to join in on the fun here's what to do. Email me at jess@lennonforever.net. Include your name, snail mail address and let me know if you want me to send you a card too, in which case I'll email you back with mine.

That's it, easy peasy!

Let me know if you have any questions :)

Happy Birthday

2011-01-09T15:00:00.000+10:00

Happy Sunday everyone! This week's theme at Sentimental Sundays is Anything with Wings (+ a sentiment). Think birds, planes, butterflies... you name it!

I have a thing for dragonflies so I made this one:

Here's another view:

I was inspired by a technique by Jennifer McGuire for this one - on a sheet of acetate I combined a couple of drops of Milled Lavender distress ink with a generous blob of Platinum Liquid Pearls like what she did in this video. She's probably done this as well but I don't remember seeing it - I used a sponge applicator to sponge the resulting 'ink' (well, it's more like a paint really) onto the stamp and stamped it on watercolour paper. It has the most beautiful, subtle shimmer in real life that I just love, but it is quite hard to capture with the camera. You'll just have to trust me :)

I stamped the sentiment using 'Ash Rose' versacolor ink (an almost dead ringer for Milled Lavender!) on a tag using the same watercolour paper and traced over the letters with my clear Spica Atyou pen for some more sparkle.

You can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill textured cardstock, watercolour paper
Stamp - 'Birthday Sentiments' by My Sentiments Exactly, Dragonfly from 'Garden Delight' by Inkadinkado
Ink - 'Milled Lavender' distress ink, 'Ash Rose' Versacolor
Extra - Platinum Liquid Pearls, Clear Spica Atyou pen, ribbon, crochet cotton
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, scissors, Helmar glue runner, Carl tag punch, sponge

Thanks for looking! Enjoy your Sunday :)

Happy Birthday + Memento for Android

2011-01-04T22:27:00.002+10:00

A mid-week post from me? I know I'm shocked as well! I just wanted to share the card I made for my sister-in-law to give to her daughter who is turning 1 this month.

Here's a side on view to show the wonderful dimension and sparkle:

Oh Glossy Accents - how I love thee. This effect was VERY trial and error but was salvagable in the end. And I took pictures of the process!

See at first I just had the balloons (from this set by Goodness & Fun on MyGrafico) printed on the cardfront. I showed my husband (as I always do) and he hemmed and hawwed and said it needed a little something. I seethed a little inside (as I always do when he doesn't exclaim and declare it the most beautiful! card! in the universe! immediately) but then thought a little bit of sparkle would do the trick. I used my clear atyou spica pen (which I also love) which made the balloons sparkle but looked awful and blotchy whenever looking at it from a non-sparkly angle (see image below) - I think because the 'clear' pen is really a sort of light greyish colour. Back to the drawing board.

I then thought STICKLES. Gosh I'm clever. So I squeezed a blob of Frosted Lace onto some acetate and painted away with a fine little paintbrush I have just for these types of jobs. Hmm. My husband declared it 'better'. However they just looked sharp and pointy to me, not balloon-like at all (see below and click on it to see it up closer!)

Then I had another lightbulb moment - GLOSSY ACCENTS. I usually make a hash of it so I was very careful - I applied it over the large areas first and then moved or dotted more Glossy Accents into the teeny tiny areas using my little paintbrush. I left each balloon to dry quite a bit before moving onto the next as Glossy Accents has a habit of spreading if you join two circles for instance.

So that's the wonderful journey that this card took me on. I enjoyed sharing the mistakes today, as I read other blogs that do this and always like seeing the 'before' and 'afters'.

Size of card: 11b (5 1/2 x 3 7/8)

Card: Matte photo paper, Bazzil cardstock
Ink: Printer
Stamp: Birthday Girl stamps by Goodness & Fun on MyGrafico
Tools: Pixma printer, Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, clear Spica atyou pen, Glossy Accents, Frosted Lace Stickles, paintbrush

Oh and the second thing I wanted to talk about was Memento for Android. I recently got an android phone which uses Google's operating system for mobiles (it's a Samsung Galaxy S i9000 in case you were wondering). I'm not really big into the whole application thing - I have my mail and my internet and that's about all I need, however I discovered a fantastic database app called Memento which people normally use to catalogue their dvd collections.

I thought it would solve the problem I have with remembering which Prismacolor pencils I currently have in my collection, as I have to admit I've come home from the art shop more than once to discover one of the colours I bought is already sitting in my pencil caddy - usually still unused. So now when I go to the art shop I can bring out my phone and check the pencil I'm holding against my collection.

And tonight I made a database for my meagre collection of Copic Ciao markers. I really don't want to buy duplicates of those because they aren't cheap! At least with the Prismacolors while it might be annoying to buy duplicates, it isn't an expensive mistake - they only cost a couple of dollars each.

I buy the majority of my markers at my local craft shop so this database will come in handy there too.

Here are a few images of my device and database in action:

It's a very easy to use application and versatile too - you can catalogue just about anything you want! I've just started one for my custom card sizes to fit certain envelopes because I kept losing the little bits of paper I had lying around with the measurements on them.

Another great thing is that you can sync with Google Docs which means that you can never lose your database if something happens to your phone or memory card.

Find out all about it at the developer's website: Luckydroid

I hope I haven't bored you silly with this extra long post! I promise to do better next time!

If friends were flowers I'd pick you

2011-01-02T15:02:00.002+10:00

Happy Sunday everyone! It's time for another Sentimental Sundays challenge - and this week we are being sponsored by Deedee's Digis (check them out, you won't be disappointed!)

This week's theme is Celebrate Friendship

I used the image from the following set for my card:

Here's what I came up with:

I used my beloved Prismacolor pencils to colour the flowers and the red parts of the ladybugs. I had only just bought Enamel Accents the day before - they were perfect to make the ladybugs black parts shiny! I love the dimension that the black enamel gives as well.

Here's a close up to show the dimension:

I used a toothpick coated in the enamel to dot on the ladybug spots. To make the 'grass' I used Paint Shop Pro to make a green rectangle and added the text in white using a cute font (LD Cotton Candy to be exact) and printed it. I cut the 'grass' using scissors and wound some cotton around it.

So that's it from me, but you can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to use at Deedee's Digis as well as two (2) digital stamp sets from Raindrop Echo Designs!

Size of card: 4" square
Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, matte photo paper
Stamp - Ladybug Hugs from Deedee's Digis
Ink - printer
Extra - Prismacolor pencils (Grass green, Kelly Green, Blue Slate, Lt Cerulean Blue, Cream, Jasmine, Canary Yellow, Raw Umber, Crimson Red)
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Pixma printer, scissors, Helmar glue runner, Ranger Enamel Accents, Zest-it blending solvent, blending stump

Thanks for looking, have a wonderful day!

Welcome Baby

2010-12-26T15:00:00.014+10:00

Welcome to another Sentimental Sundays challenge! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. Usually our Christmasses here in Brisbane are sweltering hot, but this year it wasn't too bad, apparently due to wind direction or something. Thank goodness! I hate the heat :(

Now on with the challenge!

This week's theme is Baby + a sentiment.

I opened the Framed Circle Swirls shape from Raindrop Echo Designs in Paint Shop Pro and coloured it to match the ruffled (ruched?) lace. I created the sentiment using the same program, layered it onto the frame and printed the image onto white Canson textured card. I don't have a die matching this shape (I plan on rectifying this very soon) so I cut it by hand.

I used tacky glue for the lace it was so thick it kept popping off. Nothing's going to shift it now though! I stuck the frame on top of it using foam tape above and below the lace.

So that's it from me, but you can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Canson textured cardstock (white)
Stamp - Framed Circle Swirls from Whimsy Stamps
Ink - printer
Extra - ruffled lace
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Pixma printer, scissors, tacky glue, Helmar glue runner, foam tape

A short break, and Merry Christmas!

2010-12-19T15:00:00.003+10:00

There won't be a Sentimental Sundays post from me this week I'm afraid... the past week or so has been far too hectic and I just want to relax :)

This is what my husband and I have been up to:

I made the tags, he wrapped the gifts. It works for us as I'm the sloppiest present-wrapper in existence!

I used Colorbox Queue chalk inks (Christmas) on the tags that we used for our nieces' and nephew's gifts (as above) to make them bright and cheerful. The stamp set I used was "Winter Butterfly" by Hero Arts.

And here's what else we've been doing:

Baking! We make these every year - they're Pebber Nodder biscuits, which are Danish apparently, and they are just delightful. Here's a recipe if you want to try them yourself!

Once again, I made the tags, and my husband baked the biscuits. I was in charge of the presentation of these though as I'm the resident 'expert' raffia-bow-tyer! I used Versacolor 'Gold' on these little ones and stamped the top part of a Christmas tree from "Merriest Wishes" by Hero Arts. I find that the Versacolor metallic inks do not dry on most surfaces so I always seal with a matte fixative to stop it from rubbing off all over the place.

My husband took both of the photos above - in case you were wondering why the photos on my blog suddenly looked SO much better and more professional than usual ;)

I'll be back on Boxing Day though, to share next week's Sentimental Sundays challenge with you, I promise! In the meantime, check out the Sentimental Sundays blog to see the beautiful creations the DT has come up with for this week's theme - Inspired by Song - and play along yourself to have a chance to win beautiful Raindrop Echo Design digital stamps!

Merry Christmas everyone - hope Santa brings you everything you asked for ;)

May Joy Fill Your Home

2010-12-12T14:20:00.001+10:00

It's time for another Sentimental Sundays challenge!

This time the challenge is Let it Snow + a sentiment.

Here is my card:

The background is a piece of fabric my MIL gave me the other day that is super sparkly on one side (too sparkly for my needs I'm afraid) but only slightly sparkly on the other. I used the slightly sparkled side, and stamped over it with a Hero Arts snowflake in Cement Versacolor ink.

Here's a bit of a closeup to show some of the sparkle:

I drew over the snowflake in the sentiment with my clear spica pen. I also sponged around the sentiment layer with the Cement Versacolor just to make it stand out a bit.

I am entering this into the Wee Memories CASE Your Favourite challenge for this week - my muse is the ever/uber/amazingly talented Joy Taylor (who for some reason subscribes to this little blog of mine so I hope she reads this and is flattered, not aghast! ;))

I also would like to enter it into the Moxie Fab Glitter is Glam challenge!

So that's it from me, but you can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Canson textured cardstock (white)
Stamp - Season's Greetings Sentiments set from Whimsy Stamps, Hero Arts "Winter's Butterfly" set
Ink - printer, Cement versacolor
Extra - American crafts ribbon, Clear Spica Atyou pen, glitter fabric
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Pixma printer, scissors, Helmar glue runner, JAC adhesive sheet, foam dots

Challenge: Moxie Fab World - Glitter is Glam

Thanks for looking, I hope you have a lovely day!

You make life beautiful

2010-12-05T15:00:00.016+10:00

Hello! It's Sunday, so it's time for another Sentimental Sundays challenge!

This time the challenge is Happy Anniversary + a sentiment.

I think my fellow design team members have gone all out for this one - so many lovely creations on one page - check it out (link is in the last paragraph of this entry), you won't be disappointed!

Here's my little card:

And here's another angle:

Both the sentiment and the background it is printed on are digital. The gorgeous sentiment is one from Raindrop Echo Designs called "Marriage Sentiments".
The background pattern is from a Christmas release from MyGrafico by Jazzy Patterns called "Christmas Time". It's such a beautiful pack - lots of damask (you know how I love damask!) and in sort-of-traditional Christmas colours - perfect for non-Christmas cards!

So that's it from me, but you can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Canson textured cardstock (white), Kodak matte photo paper
Stamp - Marriage Sentiments set from Whimsy Stamps, Christmas Time by Jazzy Patterns on MyGrafico
Ink - printer
Extra - Natural coloured crochet yarn, Twill
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Pixma printer, scissors, Helmar glue runner

Thanks for looking, I hope everyone has a lovely day!

Home Sweet Home

2010-12-04T20:58:00.000+10:00

This was a slightly belated housewarming card for a former colleague who recently bought a house.

Here's a slightly different angle:

The sentiment was released this weekend at Squigglefly [click here to get it!]

I think I unconsciously used Clean and Simple's sketch 108 (sort of) for this card, but I only realised it because I happened to glance at the handy PDF of sketches 96-108 I have pinned up on my bulletin board today. Weird! Great sketch though ;)

I used versamark to stamp the houses (one stamp, repeated). I've found that if you want a darker impression just press the stamp down for longer. I'm not sure whether I've shared this tip before, so if I have my apologies. :)

Size of card: approx 4" round(ish)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Matte photo paper, Utopia collection by Kaisercraft, Cre8tive textured cardstock
Stamps - "Home Sweet Home" from Squigglefly (by me!), Inque Boutique "Memoirs"
Ink - Versamark
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Pixma printer, Bigshot, Big Scallop nestabilities, Circle nestabilities

And I just thought I'd share another picture of my girl Abby - this time showing where she likes to sleep while I craft.

I swear she has that 'oh you've just gotten up so you're going to feed me' look on her face that she wears so often ;)

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a lovely day!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours

2010-11-28T15:00:00.003+10:00

It's time for another Sentimental Sundays challenge! This time we're challenging you to follow a recipe:

3 DP, 3 buttons, ribbon

It's not for the faint of heart if you're a CAS gal like me, but I think what I came up with is relatively CAS:

I got out my Christmas Carnival 6x6 pad by Kaisercraft and punched out squares from several different pages before deciding upon the three I used. I adhered some ribbon on them and then stuck down the buttons already tied with Copic-dyed sewing thread. I ran the card through my printer using Word to get the sentiment right where I wanted it after colouring it pink using Paint Shop Pro to match the Christmas Carnival paper.

The sentiment is from the "Christmas Sentiments" set by Raindrop Echo Designs at Whimsy Stamps which will be released December 1st.

So that's it from me, but you can see how the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have followed the recipe at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: 10cm x 15cm (6" x 4")

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Christmas Carnival collection from Kaisercraft - 6x6 pad
Stamp - Christmas Sentiments set from Whimsy Stamps (will be released December 1st!)
Ink - printer
Extra - ribbon, sewing thread, Copics (Cool Shadow, Pale Pink, Pale Cobolt Green)
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Pixma printer, Sullivan's punch, Papercraft adhesive tape, foam dots

Thanks so much for looking, hope you have a lovely day!

Welcome Little One

2010-11-28T11:53:00.000+10:00

I just love this sketch from Clean and Simple! Here's another card I have made using it:

Here's a slightly different angle:

The sentiment was released last weekend at Squigglefly [click here to get it!], and the little rattle is from the Baby Stamps set by Tainted Sweets on MyGrafico - love that set!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Matte photo paper, Inque Boutique 'Isn't it Romantic' 6x6 pad
Stamps - Welcome little one from Squigglefly (by me!), Baby Stamps by Tainted Sweets
Ink - printer
Extra - Prismacolor pencils, Kaisercraft grosgrain ribbon
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Pixma printer, EK Success large corner rounder, Papercraft adhesive tape, foam dots, Bigshot, Big Scallop nestabilities, Carl 1 1/4 inch round punch

Thanks so much for looking, hope you have a lovely day!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

2010-11-21T15:00:00.033+10:00

Hi everyone! I've got another Sentimental Sundays challenge for you today - this week's theme is 'Thoroughly Thankful' which can be for Thanksgiving or just to say thanks - it's your choice. Being that we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia I went with 'Thanks'!

I used the Gratitude digital sentiments set from Whimsy Stamps, and broke out my brand new Ranger ink blending tool to go around the edges with Old Paper distress ink. That tool is just so cool - if you've never used it, seriously, put down that makeup sponge and go buy one, you won't regret it! Because of my newfound love I think there's going to be a lot more distressing from me in the future :)

Just in case you want to know, here's the link to a previous post where I explained how I construct these 'window' type cards with my nestabilities. The only difference with this card was that I didn't pop the upper layer up with any foam dots. This way it'll be good to go in the mail!

So that's it from me, but you can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: 10cm x 15cm (6" x 4")

Supplies:
Card/paper - Recycled cardstock, Devonshire collection from Kaisercraft - Clarabelle
Stamp - Gratitude Sentiments set from Whimsy Stamps
Ink - Old Paper distress ink, printer
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Pixma printer, Ranger ink blending tool, Nestabilities labels 8, Bigshot

Thanks so much for looking, hope you have a lovely day!

Merriest Wishes

2010-11-15T19:25:00.000+10:00

Hello again! Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend :) Bet nobody expected a post from me on a Monday of all days hey?

This is my entry into this week's Wee Memories' Dust off that patterned paper challenge. I wonder if my entry still counts - since my patterned paper collection is quite well-used. hmm..:) Anyway here it is:

I used paper from the 'Countdown' collection by Kaisercraft - this one is 'Tinsel'. The sentiment is from the 'Merriest Wishes' set by Hero Arts from last year. An oldie but a goodie!

I think this would be an easy one to reproduce - the only fiddly thing is the ribbon! :)

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Cre8tive textured cardstock, 'Tinsel' by Kaisercraft
Stamp - 'Merriest Wishes' by Hero Arts
Ink - Versamagic Cloud White
Extra - Hat Box ribbon
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, foam dotsscissors

Thanks for looking!

A new hand to hold...

2010-11-14T15:00:00.050+10:00

Happy Sunday everyone! (well, not so happy because I have to go to work tomorrow, boo!)

I'm actually here to share this week's Sentimental Sundays challenge with you all, not to have a whinge I assure you ;) The theme for this week is 'childhood', and I have put a different spin on it because I need a baby card for a co-worker whose wife just had a little girl.

I have combined challenges again because I couldn't resist the beautiful card by Heather Pulvirenti, this month's muse for CASE Study challenges blog. Here is her inspirational card for challenge #14:

As you can see I mostly took inspiration from the colour combination (not the same pinks and blues though!) and the polka-dotted background (LOVE my Hero Arts dotted background stamp - I should really pull it out more often!)

To get the soft colours on the hearts and flowers I touched the tip of my colorless blender to the tip of the marker I wanted to take colour from and then applied it to the image. I just retouched the tip whenever the colour ran out.

So that's it from me, but you can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry if you decide to play along, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: 5" x 4"

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Kodak matte photo card
Stamp - Bundle of Joy Sentiments set from Whimsy Stamps, Hero Arts dotted background cling stamp
Ink - Versamark, printer
Extra - Pale Pink and Colorless blender Copics, Bic Mark-it, ribbon from American Crafts
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, foam dots, Pixma printer, scissors

Thanks so much for looking, hope you have a lovely day!

Merry Christmas

2010-11-14T00:21:00.000+10:00

Just a quick little post to share these tags I've made to put up for sale in my Madeit shop:

I used my own sentiment (available at Squigglefly here!) and three of the snowflakes from this set by Lil Ellaboudy design at MyGrafico.

The twine is from Jay Gee's Nook that I will probably regret only getting small amounts of ;) The colours I've used are Peapod (green and white), Maraschino (red and white) and Caribbean (teal and white).

I've left them blank on the other side for the message as sometimes I think 'To' and 'From' is a little bit limiting, don't you think?

Thanks for looking! :)

Sent with much love

2010-11-07T15:01:00.048+10:00

I'm back to share another challenge from Sentimental Sundays. This week's challenge is a sketch!
So here's the sketch (by lovely teamster Dorcas):

And here is my interpretation:

Here's a close-up of the flower:

This card started out so different to what it ended up being! I originally had it as a C6 card (A5 folded in half), then shortened it until it was some weird size that would have been difficult to find an envelope for, and then finally gave up to the inevitable and made it the usual 4" square.

I needed something on the flower (made by cutting notches into big scalloped nestabilities) to match the strip of fabric tape (given to me in a swap by the lovely and super-talented Karen Baker!) and thought thread would be the answer, but I didn't have any of the right colour. So I ran some ordinary white sewing cotton along my Peach copic marker which matched the colour of the fabric tape exactly!

So that's it from me, but you can see what the rest of the Sentimental Sundays team have created this week at the Sentimental Sundays challenge blog. You have until next Sunday to submit your entry, and the random winner will receive four individual sets of digital sentiments from Raindrop Echo Designs Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection, and a custom watermark from the Custom Designs at Whimsy Stamps!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill cardstock, Kodak matte photo card
Stamp - Love You Sayings set from Whimsy Stamps
Ink - printer
Extra - button, sewing thread, Peach copic marker, fabric tape
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, foam dots, Pixma printer, Bigshot, Big scalloped circle nestabilities

Thanks so much for looking, have a lovely day!

Sweet wonderful you + free sentiment

2010-11-05T21:07:00.003+10:00

Hallelujah, it's the weekend!

When I saw the below picture from Jay Gee's Nook's Monthly Challenge:

I was immediately drawn to the wrapping paper on the left. It reminded me of damask which made me think of the latest challenge at Moxie's Fab World - Diggin' On Damask. I was so inspired I had to blend the two challenges!

Wee Memories are hosting an 'Anything Goes' challenge, so I'm going to sneak this into that as well ;)

Here is my card:

I can't stamp damask patterns (or anything that's supposed to line up really, even clear stamps!) to save my life, so I quit while I was ahead and created the pattern digitally. I used one of the stamps from a lovely Mujka Chic set I bought on sale a while ago called Decorative Design Elements.

I tried something different with the ribbon for this card - I burnt the ends using a small tealight candle, which is how I stop my bookmark ribbons from fraying as well. It sure beats wrapping it around the card!

It was easy for me to change the colour of one of the words in this sentiment because I had the 'raw' file to work with, but there's nothing stopping you from changing the colours of the sentiments you have in .png format. Just use the 'Flood fill' option in your picture editing software (I think most have some form of this - it usually looks like a paint can) and coat each letter with the colour of your choice.

And here's the free sentiment I promised in the title of this post:

Right click on the above image and select the 'Save target as...' option.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 66.2kb
Full dimensions: 22cm x 4cm
Font: LD Cotton Candy, Vrinda

See my terms of use here.

Size of card: A5 folded in half (C6)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Epson matte photo paper
Stamps - Decorative Design Elements by Mujka Chic on MyGrafico, Sentiment - freebie from me (see above!)
Ink - Printer
Extra - American Crafts ribbon
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Pixma printer, fabric scissors, tealight candle

Challenges: Diggin' On Damask / Jay Gee's Nook's Monthly Challenge / Wee Memories Anything Goes!

And before I go, I just thought I'd share a picture of my darling girl Abby that mysteriously found its way into my blog photos folder:

That's where she hangs out almost every night - behind me in my craft room, hoping I'll get up and feed her some more food! Well I might go and give her a cuddle - I'll be back on Sunday with next week's Sentimental Sundays challenge!

Just for you

2010-10-31T15:00:00.003+10:00

How exciting! This is my first post as part of the Sentimental Sundays design team. This week's theme is Birthdays, and I have a card to show you that would be a great birthday card for a guy!

I used the 'Just for you' sentiment from the Garden Bun Bun Fairy digital set by Raindrop Echo Designs which is available at Whimsy Stamps.

I paired it with patterned paper by my favourite company - Kaisercraft - from my rather large stash that I should use far more often than I do. The collection of papers is 'Thrill Seeker' and the paper I used is 'Discover'. The whole collection of papers are available from Scrapping Essentials at half price!

I'm sharing a picture of how I construct these cards so that you don't think I print directly onto the card front... how fiddly would that be? I cheat! See the picture below for the evidence of my crime:

(sorry about the PJs but this is how I do my best work ;))

So as you can hopefully see, I have my card front (blank), the sentiment printed and cut out just larger than the circle (I print a bunch off at once to save time and paper and I have a little file I keep my cutouts in to use later). I die cut the circle using my bigshot and nestabilities, and wrapped some natural raffia on the left hand side to give the card some interest.

To line everything up when adhering I cover the back of the top layer with foam dots (I cut mine in half to save using so many) including quite close to the circle to prop it up nicely. I stick the sentiment on first and adjust it so that it's centred under the circle (trimming off any excess from the sentiment layer that pokes out the sides) and then stick the whole thing down to the cardfront.

Hope that made enough sense! I should have taken some photos of other steps in the process so that you don't have to rely on my below-par explanations! Just let me know if you have any questions?

Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Sentimental Sunday design team have been up to!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Recycled brown cardstock, 'Discover' from the Thrill Seeker collection by Kaisercraft
Stamp - Garden Bun Bun Fairy set from Whimsy Stamps
Ink - printer
Extra - Natural raffia from bargain shop
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, foam dots, Pixma printer, Bigshot, Circle nestability

Take care!

Happy Birthday

2010-10-29T23:50:00.002+10:00

MyGrafico challenge #72 wants everyone to add some sparkle - so I did!

The sparkle is actually not at all noticeable in the above photo, so how about another one?

Can you see it? The flower on the bottom left corner shows it the best. I love the subtleness of the spica atyou pen, but hate the unphotogenic-ness of it. This was the best photo of the sparkle I took... the hit and miss method I used was constantly tilting and angling it around, trying to find the sparkle and taking a shot every now and then. I used naked light [a cool daylight energy saver bulb from my lamp], don't try doing it from inside a light tent - trust me, it's a lesson in futility!
The flowers are my old favourites from MyGrafico - from the Contemporary Design Elements set by Mujka Chic. I didn't use a proper sentiment on this one - it's just printed directly from typing it out in word.

I coloured the flowers using my Prismacolor pencils as well as a blending stump dipped in baby oil. I've just recently bought some Zest-it which is an actual artist's blending solvent made from oranges (I think!) that isn't toxic and has a nice citrusy odour - it blends SO much better than the baby oil - I'll show a card that I've used it on soon!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock
Stamp - Contemporary Design Elements from Mujka Chic (MyGrafico)
Ink - printer
Extra - Prismacolor pencils in Lilac and Lavender, blending stump, baby oil
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, scissors, Pixma printer

Challenge: MyGrafico #72

Thanks for looking, and I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Squigglefly Sentiments

2010-10-26T20:41:00.000+10:00

Just a little post to show off the Squigglefly design teams creations using my sentiments!

Jane from Millie's Marvels used one of this week's new releases - 'Tis the Season on this card. I just love that cute little Santa she paired it with! Click on the image to see the blog post.

And Holly from Hogs Wild About Stamping used the Birthday Wishes sentiment from a previous release for the below card:

Isn't that a creative way of framing the flower? I'll have to try that for myself sometime! Click on the image above to see the blog post.

Well that's it from me tonight - I have to stop procrastinating and get on with some projects!

:)

Exciting news!

2010-10-25T13:01:00.000+10:00

I've been holding onto this piece of news for a couple of days but now I'm going to just blurt it out because I can't hold it in much longer!

I've been chosen to be one of the new Design Team members for Sentimental Sundays! You all know how much I love my sentiments, and it's great because the team comprises of such a lovely group of ladies.

So you can expect to see more sentimentality on this blog in the future! (Bad joke, I know!)

Bye for now!

Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge - giveaway!

2010-10-24T08:40:00.000+10:00

Wee Memories - one of my favourite challenge blogs - is giving away some awesome stuff! Click on the button below to get the details:

Happy Sunday everyone! I will be back with some exciting news of my own to share very soon!! :)

Have a Hoppy Day + free sentiment!

2010-10-23T14:05:00.001+10:00

I just love this week's sketch from Clean and Simple! Here's another card I have made using it:

Here's a slightly different angle:

How adorable is that little frog? He's from Pink Cat Studios (as is the little owl from yesterday's post).

And because I know how much everyone loves freebies, I'm going to add the sentiment used on this card to my growing pile of them! :)

Right click on the below image and select 'save target as...'.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 66.2kb
Full dimensions: 22cm x 4cm
Font: LD Cotton Candy, Vrinda

Enjoy!! Don't forget to give credit where it is due, and let me know when you use it so that I can take a look!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Textured cardstock, Kodak photo card,
Stamps - Frog from Pink Cat Studios, Sentiment - freebie from me (see above!)
Ink - Printer
Extra - satin ribbon, Prismacolor pencils
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Big Shot, Big Scallops nestability, Pixma printer, fabric scissors, EK Success large corner rounder, Foam dots (to pop up scallop layer), Carl 1 1/4" circle punch

Congradulations + sneak peek!

2010-10-21T22:54:00.002+10:00

Happy Thursday! I'm happy because I'm having a long weekend (Friday - Monday) so I can stay up late tonight and create!

The sentiment I used for this card is one I have had in my head for a while but I didn't have anything to pair it with until I found this cute little graduating owl at Pink Cat Studios last weekend. I found him so easy to colour (especially at the size he is - small enough to fit comfortably inside a 1 1/4 inch circle punch!)

I couldn't resist some more word-play which I just love to do, and if you like the sentiment you will be able to purchase it from Squigglefly this coming Saturday.
Edited to add: It's now available on Squigglefly - Click here to download.

I followed the Clean and Simple sketch for this week, and I love it so much I have many, many more cards planned out in my head inspired by it! I'll show you another one I've made tomorrow.

I'm also entering this one into this week's Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge which is all about celebrating - and graduation is definitely something that is celebrated!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Textured cardstock, Kodak photo card,
Stamps - Owl Graduate, Congradulations from Squigglefly (by me!)
Ink - Printer
Extra - Christina Re satin ribbon, Prismacolor pencils
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Big Shot, Big Scallops nestability, Pixma printer, fabric scissors, EK Success large corner rounder, Foam dots (to pop up scallop layer), Carl 1 1/4" circle punch

Thanks so much for taking a peek - catch you again soon!

be merry + free sentiment!

2010-10-17T16:52:00.001+10:00

Even though I'm selling my sentiments over at Squigglefly these days, I still would like to offer the occasional freebie here, as I can see from my stats that they are pretty popular!

Here is my take on the scraplifting challenge over at Cardvaarks:

And here's the design team member's card that I scraplifted (Ashley's):

I can't get SRM stickers here in Aussieland (at least I don't think I can, honestly haven't looked that hard, but I'll bet they're expensive!) so I decided to make a digital sentiment in the same sort of style.

If you want it you can have it by right clicking on the below image and choosing 'save target as...'

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 100kb
Full dimensions: 20cm x 20cm
Font: LD Cotton Candy

If you use the freebie I only ask a teeny tiny favour - that if you blog about it please credit me and link back here so that others can download their own. Oh wait, actually I want two favours - send me an email or leave a comment telling me you've used it so that I can take a looksee!

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded in half)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Recycled brown cardstock, white cartridge paper
Stamps - "Be Merry" Digi stamp by me (see above!)
Ink - Printer
Extra - Bow Tie grosgrain ribbon in red
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Big Shot, circle nestability, Pixma printer, fabric scissors

Challenge: Caardvarks Sensational Stickers

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone had a lovely relaxing Sunday. Back to work tomorrow. *sigh*

Congratulations

2010-10-11T20:08:00.000+10:00

I haven't taken part in the One-Layer-Wednesday challenges lately, but something made me want to join this week's challenge though - the theme is Heavy Metal!

Here's my card:

And here's a view of it opened up:

I used a combination of Fiskars stamps for this card - the dress is from the China and Glass set and the sentiment is from the All Year Greetings set. You can't really tell from the photo but I stamped both using Silver Versacolor ink.

The card itself is a precut/scored one I got in a 5 pack from my local bargain shop ages ago and sat neglected until now.

And as I have so little supplies and have them all listed in the text above, I call this entry done!

Thanks for looking ;)

Happy Birthday

2010-10-10T15:44:00.001+10:00

I have such fun playing along with the CASE Study challenges! Here's my entry for this week, inspired by the lovely card by Barbara Anders.

My card:

And here's Barbara's card:

As you can see I didn't deviate from Barbara's layout too much. I stamped the background using the 'stamping off' method - inking up the stamps, stamping first onto scrap paper, and then onto the project. It was time-consuming but it gave me the muted look that I wanted. After I finished stamping I found that I didn't have a ribbon to match the green that I used (Olive Versacolor) so I used my Marine Green Prismacolor pencil to make the stems and leaves a bit darker and tend toward the yellower side of green.

After I added the vintage brass-toned brad to the centre of the tissue paper flower I realised that the background flowers needed the same treatment - so I got out my Dark Umber Prismacolor pencil and filled all of the centres in.

This was also my first foray in the world of Distress Ink. I think I have to learn to be a bit more free and easy with it though, as I put the tiniest little bit on my sponge and had to keep going back to the stamp pad.

Size of card: 6 x 4 (top folding)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Bazzill cardstock "Pine Needle"
Stamps - Flower: Tiffanys - We R Memory Keepers, Stem: Basic Grey mini stamp set - Thanks, Hero Arts "Classic Sentiments"
Ink - Distress Ink "Old Paper", Versacolor cubes in Scarlet, Olive and Bamboo
Extra - Kaisercraft green grosgrain ribbon, Prismacolor pencil: Marine Green, Tissue Paper Flower [see tutorial here], Paper Studio brad.
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, scissors, glue dot, decorative scissors

Challenge: CASE Study Challenge No. 9

Thanks for looking!

Another Squigglefly Release!

2010-10-10T12:44:00.000+10:00

More of my digital sentiments have been released at Squigglefly! Click here to see all of my sentiments for sale: http://www.squigglefly.com/shop/artist/35. The design team for Squigglefly have been using them, and I'm loving what they are making! Here is Holly's card with the 'Love is like a butterfly' sentiment:

I absolutely adore the colouring on the butterflies, and the way they match the hearts in the background. Gorgeous! Click here to see the full blog post. The sentiment is available from Squigglefly here.

Next up, Tracey used the 'A book is like a garden' sentiment:

I love how she has framed the sentiment with the scalloped nestie - it just sets it off so beautifully against the patterned paper she used for the background. Click here to see the full blog post. The sentiment is available from Squigglefly here.

Millie used one of my 'punny' sentiments - 'Owl Miss You' for the below card:

Isn't that owl just the cutest? I love the two patterns together - they go really well, and the popout circle with the same pattern as the background is eye-catching. Click here to see the full blog post. The sentiment is available from Squigglefly here.

Hope you enjoyed this little showcase - I'll be back with a card made by me! :)

Just Saying Hello

2010-10-06T20:31:00.000+10:00

A mid-week post from me? I know, it's shocking right? :) This is just a quick one for a card I made on the weekend for FTL #110:

Here's the sketch:

As you can see I turned the sketch around a bit. I made a digital banner using Paint Shop Pro X2 and coloured it to match the background paper (by Kaisercraft).

Size of card: A5 folded in half (C6)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Cre8tive textured cardstock, Kaisercraft Little Miss "Angelic", Epson matte photo paper
Extra - Pupcat font
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Paint Shop Pro, Printer

Birdies on a branch

2010-10-03T11:58:00.000+10:00

I have a thing about birds. When I was young I went through a succession of poor little budgies who never survived very long (not sure what was up with that) and I wanted to be an ornithologist when I grew up. I eventually nixed that idea - I think having all those birds die on me was a bit of a turn-off, and now I just print them out and colour them in :)

I used this digital stamp from TLC creations (it isn't a fixed price, you donate what you think it is worth).

I also combined challenges again today - using the colour swatches from Embellish Magazine's latest challenge: Background stamping:

And the lovely card by Mariana Grigsby for CASE Study Challenge No. 8 was the inspiration for the layout:

I stamped the background using one of the new background stamps from Kaisercraft simply called 'Script'. I stamped vertically across the card instead of horizontally for the simple reason that the stamp wasn't long enough to go horizontally! To get a graduating effect I inked it up using my Chateau Gray Versacolour cube and stamped it on the far left side of the card, then without inking it up again I lined it up with the first impression and stamped. I did this again and got the faintest of impressions toward the right hand side of the card.

I used a makeup sponge with the Chateau Gray again and sponged around the edges of the card, as well as the circle with the birdies which I coloured using prismacolor pencils.

Oh and the grey ribbon and button I used came from an item of clothing I bought last weekend. I don't use the little ribbon bits they sew onto the shoulders for hanging so I always cut them off, though I think this is the first card I've ever actually used them on a card - I've really got to do that more often, after all, it's free ribbon!

Size of card: A5 folded in half (C6)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Cre8tive textured cardstock, Eraldo di Paolo drawing cartridge paper
Stamps - Kaisercraft clear stamp - Script, "Ruffle your feathers" by TLC Creations
Ink - Versacolor cube "Chateau Gray"
Extra - Kaisercraft white grosgrain ribbon, Grey ribbon and button, Prismacolor pencils: Jasmine, Cream, Warm Gray 10%, 30% and 90%, DMC thread (for sewing button)
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, needle, makeup sponge, Bigshot and nestabilities (Big Scallops and Circles)

Challenges: Embellish Magazine: Background Stamping / CASE Study Challenge No. 8

I'm an artist!

2010-10-02T16:36:00.000+10:00

I've been keeping this news under my hat for over a week now, and have almost been bursting at the seams! You see, the lovely Ashley of Squigglefly Digital Stamps responded to a tentative email I sent her early last week asking her if I could sell my sentiments on her store with a very enthusiastic yes! I am so flattered by this, you have no idea! I don't know if I'm alone in feeling like this, but sometimes I get a bit disheartened and don't think I'm very good at this craft, but then something like this happens and I think, perhaps I have something to offer after all!

You can find my artist page on Squigglefly here. All new images are released on Saturdays and they have an amazingly wide range of images and sentiments which are perfect for any card you wish to create!

I came across one of the Squigglefly design team members - Hog Wild about Stamping - who has already made a card with one of my sentiments, check it out:

You can read the blog post about it here. And of course, you can get the digital sentiment itself here for $1.00 (USD).

You don't have to have a Squigglefly account to buy the digital images (via Paypal), but I should mention that if you join My Squigglefly you can track your spending and every $15 you spend gets you a free digital image. I don't know about anyone else, but I love getting freebies!

Thanks for reading, and go check out Squigglefly, you won't be disappointed!

Just Saying Hello

2010-09-27T19:38:00.001+10:00

I recently discovered CASE Study - a challenge blog where the challenge is to make a card inspired by a particular card. Well I was certainly inspired by the inspirational card this week - it's a beauty. This is it:

And here is my card (which pales in comparison!):

How serendipitous was it that I had just been playing around with my Twinkling H2os on this oil canvas paper? I love this paper as it has such a marvellous texture. The colour I was experimenting with - "Blue Zircon" - happens to be the same colour as the butterfly that Mariana coloured, but her butterfly is much, MUCH prettier than my flowers!
I stamped the flowers on top of the dried T.H2os with versacolor and left them overnight to dry. In the morning they still wasn't completely dry so I sprayed them with 2 coats of matte fixative to stop the ink from smudging/transferring. Next time I'll try versafine instead and see if that gives better results.

I stamped the background on the kraft using versamark ink. The trick I've found is to leave it pressed down for about 5 seconds. This seems to leave a much more defined 'watermark'.

And I have to say, this is the first truly Hero Arts card I've made for a long time! I took a bit of a hiatus there because I've been doing the digital thang alot lately, but every so often my meagre stash of Hero Arts stamps calls to me and I have to obey!

Size of card: C6 (A5 folded in half)

Supplies:
Card/paper - kraft cardstock, Quill black paper, Eraldo di Paolo Oil Sketch Pad
Stamps - Hero Arts "Blossoms", Hero Arts "Truly Appreciated"
Ink - Versacolor "Black", Versamark
Extra - Twinkling H2o "Blue Zircon"
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, scissors, Eraldo di Paolo matte fixative, paintbrush, Fiskars scallop punch

Challenge: CASE Study Challenge #7

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday

2010-09-26T16:09:00.000+10:00

I love the beautiful flowers in the Contemporary Design Elements set by Mujka Chic on MyGrafico and use them all the time! I paired the flower with leaves from the Hand Drawn Floral Stamps by Lil Ellaboudy on MyGrafico.

This is a card I've had in my head for a while now. The spotty background on the petals was originally what I had planned for this card, but decided to go with the beautifully textured Canson Mi-Teintes instead.

It's also another mostly digital card - everything was created and/or manipulated in PSPX2 except for the sentiment. I would have done that digitally too except I didn't think of having a sentiment until after I printed it and thought it needed something in the corner to balance it out. Now looking at it I think I could have stamped it a little bit further away from the corner... oh well.

The flower and leaves are paper pieced, not printed straight onto the frame as I love the dimension this brings!

I also used Glossy Accents to accent the middle bits of the flowers. It's my new favourite extra!

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Kodak matte photo card, Epson matte photo paper
Stamp - Contemporary Design Elements from Mujka Chic (MyGrafico), Hand Drawn Floral Stamps by Lil Ellaboudy (MyGrafico), Chic Jessica paper (spotted backgrounds) by Woofy World (MyGrafico), My Sentiments Exactly "Birthday Sentiments"
Ink - printer, Versacolor "Black"
Extra - Glossy Accents
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, scissors

Challenges: MyGrafico Challenge #67 - Paper Piecing / Caardvarks Clean & Simple Challenge / Wee Memories CAS challenge

Thanks for looking!

We'll Miss You and Good Luck!

2010-09-25T12:53:00.000+10:00

I made these cards a few weeks ago for two of my lovely colleagues who left to go on to bigger and better things. Their last day was Friday (*sob*) and they received their cards so now I can post them.

I had to make these big so that everyone could write in them (they're 5" square), and I received quite a few compliments on how pretty the cards were, but I didn't tell many people I made them - I don't like to blow my own trumpet! Pretty silly I know.

So here they are:

Inside it says:

And here's a close up of the Black spica pen I used to accent the flowers:

Click on it to look at it a bit closer - it looks like gold dust! Pretty hey? :)

Size of card: 5" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Canson Mi-Teintes in Azure, Cream and Orchid
Stamp - Contemporary Design Elements from Mujka Chic (MyGrafico)
Ink - printer
Extra - "Black" Spica pen
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, scissors, Tombow mono multi liquid glue

And here is the second card - for a girl who loves green:

Inside it says:

The second card is completely digital, printed using matte photo card from Kodak. Everything prints so beautifully on it, but it isn't cheap so I save it for special projects :)

Size of card: 5" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Kodak matte photo card
Ink - printer
Stamps - Stylish Butterflies by Cheri Wenger (MyGrafico), Carolina paper (recoloured) by Lilly Bimble (MyGrafico)
Extra - Kaisercraft rhinestones - light green and silver
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner

That's it from me for now - I hope everyone has a lovely crafty weekend! :)

Wishing you everything wonderful + free digital sentiment

2010-09-18T20:14:00.000+10:00

Good evening! I've been busy making my entry for the latest Embellish magazine challenge:

Here is my entry:

I had a really hard time paper-piecing all of these leaves... it was painstaking and I think this was the 3rd attempt... if I'd had to start from scratch one more time I think I would have given up in disgust! The main trouble was adhering the little bitty leaves - I used my Tombow mono glue fine applicator for the bigger ones alright, but the glue would ooze out from under the smaller leaves, even though I used barely any. Very annoying! In the end I got a bamboo skewer and applied the glue VERY sparingly to the backs of the leaves with no further tearing out of the hair. Thank goodness!

The sentiment I used is another of my creations which I provide free below, for anyone who wishes to take it! The only thing I ask is that you give me credit and link back to this blog.

To save, right click on the above image and choose 'save target as...'.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 109kb
Full dimensions: 14cm x 8cm
Fonts: Gentium Basic and Windsong

All of my free digital sentiments can be found on the "Free Digital Sentiments" tab at the top of every page of this blog, or by clicking here. I'd love to hear from you if you use them! Please leave a comment or drop me an line: jess@lennonforever.net.

Size of card: 4 3/4" (120cm) square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Epson matte photo paper, Bazzill "Capers", Stampin' Up (not sure what colour - was a sample), Lexel kraft paper
Ink - printer
Extra - Prismacolor pencil "Canary Yellow", Kaisercraft ribbon
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Bigshot, Nestabilities (SM and LG circles), scissors, Tombow mono multi liquid glue

Happy Birthday

2010-09-14T19:07:00.000+10:00

This is a bit of a joke card - a friend at work asked me to make a card from their cat to her husband for his birthday. I instantly thought of the gorgeous little Michu from Softpencil and had to use him again (I cut him out of this image).

Softpencil is actually having a sale at the moment - buy one image and get one free. Bargain!

Here's a closer look:

I paper pieced the kitty - but now thinking about it I didn't have to, I could have just printed it straight on to the layer that I have the 'Happy Birthday' on, but I always like doing things the hard way! I used the same digital paper that I used for Michu but in green to make grass... I love the little scene that it creates!

Looking at it today though, I think I should have put the sentiment down lower, just above the top of the grass, and Michu should have been standing a little bit below the top of the grass, but oh well, I can always make another one!

Oh and I used my favourite font - Pupcat - for the sentiment.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Epson matte photo paper
Stamps - Michu by Softpencil, Chic Jessica by Woofy World at MyGrafico
Ink - printer
Extra - DMC thread
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Papercraft foam dots, Canon Pixma printer, Scissors

Thanks for looking!

Cup Tags

2010-09-12T17:48:00.001+10:00

These have been brewing in my mind for a while now (brewing, get it?!) and I've finally gone and made them, and they turned out great!

What are they? Well I don't know about anyone else, but I always have a hard time remembering how much sugar Mark's Mum has in her tea, or how many spoonfuls of coffee she likes. The same goes for any of our guests really. So I made little tags like these ages ago (just using a punch and writing with a white gel pen) and they have worked really well. I just thought recently that they needed a bit of jazzing up, so I made them up in Paint Shop Pro X2 and printed them out on recycled brown card for durability. I sprayed them with matte fixative as well to keep the ink from running in case there's a spill.

I've got a customisable set available in my Madeit shop if you would like a set of your own!

Thanks for looking :)

Happy Birthday

2010-09-11T17:08:00.000+10:00

Here's another special request card I made recently - for my Mother-in-law to give to a grand-nephew who is turning 7.

Not having spent much time with boys of 7 I have NO idea what they like so I googled 'gifts for 7 year old boy'. Apparently they like cars, Ben 10 (whatever that is), Toy Story, trains, the list goes on! A quick phone call to my husband's Mum confirmed that the little boy likes cars, so I used one from the Boy Toys Elements set from Cupcake Cutiies along with a sentiment I typed in word using the Pupcat font (via Fontsquirrel).

Size of card: 4 1/2" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Rosie's 6x6 paper pad "Boys", Cre8tive textured cardstock, Lexel textured paper
Ink - printer
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Canon Pixma printer, Scissors

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends - I know I am!

Congratulations and 100 posts!

2010-09-10T20:04:00.000+10:00

I can't believe this is my 100th post! Yay for me - I've never blogged this much about anything before!

I made a few cards this week by special request - two of which are baby shower cards that simply say 'Congratulations'.

One was to be unisex (sex unknown):

And because I lack originality I made the second card, for a girl, similar to the first:

I made the 'quilt' squares using my 1" punch. By gluing the squares down to a piece of cardstock matching the base card, I was able to line the squares up without worrying about the quilt sitting perfectly in the middle of the base. I then glued the quilt down to the base card once I was happy with it. I love to cheat in these little ways... it keeps me sane!

The faux stitching just makes these cards - they really look stitched to me. It was my first attempt too... Love it!

I printed out the sentiments using my printer as I don't have any "Congratulations" sentiments small like this (one of the main reasons I love going digital) using the "Blackjack" font. I used my fake word window technique to finish them off.

Size of cards: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Stampin' Up Very Vanilla (unisex card) Quill white cardstock (girl card), Kaisercraft Peek-a-Boo "New Born" and Kaisercraft Peek-a-Boo "Lullaby" (unisex card) Kaisercraft Child's Play "Hopscotch" (girl card)
Ink - printer
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Sullivan's 1" square punch, Uniball Signo white gel pen, Canon Pixma printer, 5/8 circle (for fake word window)

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Anenome Photo Puzzle

2010-09-05T20:43:00.000+10:00

Try saying 'anenome' 5 times fast - I dare you! I actually have alot of trouble saying anything with 'm's and 'n's close together - like 'anonymity' or 'femininity'. My tongue just doesn't behave itself around those words!

I love the flower kind of anenome and earlier in the year I ordered a huge pile of bulbs from Tesselaars for my Mother-in-law to plant since she has a huge garden full of sun. I unfortunately have the poorest excuse for a little side garden so can't grow beautiful bulbs like she can, but luckily she shares the flowers with us so that we can take photos of them!

I've wanted to make a photo puzzle card as described on All in an Inch for a while (see the post I'm talking about here). As the current Embellish Magazine challenge is sponsored by Inchie Arts (and you have to use squares) I thought I would give the photo puzzle a go.

Here are the swatches:

And here is what I came up with:

The original flower wasn't true to the purple swatch, nor was the background to the green, so I 'shopped it. Here's the original photograph:

I enjoyed making this card, but I think the most fiddly thing was getting the black mats to measure correctly without the appropriate size punch. I think if I was going to make another photo puzzle I would invest in a 1 1/8" square punch.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Canon matte photo paper
Extras - Kaisercraft grosgrain ribbon
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Snow block, Sullivan's 1" square punch, papercraft foam dots

Challenge: Embellish Magazine - Use Squares

Thanks for looking!

I've been busy!

2010-09-03T15:21:00.000+10:00

I just saw that I haven't posted in a week! I think that's a new record for me. I've been busy though. My patterned paper was a mess, I had about a zillion new ribbons to add to my ribbon ring, and I just needed to spend some time in my Craft Zone re-inventing my storage situation.

I've also been adding lots of items to my Madeit shop - including the paper flowers that I make, as well as little fabric flowers made out of scraps of material my MIL gave me.

I do have a card to share though:

And here's a view from the top to show that the butterfly does line up with the hole:

I found the bright stripy paper in my patterned paper stash while organising it. I grouped my Kaisercraft papers into collections and then grouped them by type (florals, vintage, masculine, etc) and I noticed that there were a few papers that didn't fit into any of the general categories - this paper included (Pina Colada - Swizzle Stick and Sugar Syrup. They aren't usually something I would buy anyway (who knows why I did - perhaps they were on sale?) so I'm going to try to use these up soon.

I do like sentiment-less cards - they were the type I always bought before I started making my own cards, but I rarely make any that don't have a sentiment on them! Go figure!

Size of card: C6, top folding

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Kaisercraft Pina Colada - Swizzle Stick and Sugar Syrup
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Sullivans 1" circle punch, Carl 1 1/8" punch

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend ;)

A little birdie told me + free digital sentiment

2010-08-28T09:20:00.000+10:00

After I made this card for my little niece I thought it would be a cute sentiment to wrap around a circle. So here it is:

As with all of my other digital sentiments, it's free for the taking (just click right click on the image above and choose 'save target as'). All I ask is that you credit me and provide a link back to this blog.

Sentiment info:
File type: PNG (can be dropped into MS Word, background is transparent)
File size: 277kb
Full dimensions: 25cm x 26cm
Font: Walkway

And here's a card I made using this sentiment:

I used the same little birdie that I used in my neice's card, and paper pieced it with my favourite textured paper - Mi-Teintes by Canson.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock, Canson Mi-Teintes in Azure and Lily
Stamps - Digital sentiment by me (see above), Chatter Birds by JW Illustrations on MyGrafico
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Canon Pixma printer, Big Shot, Nestabilities Circles and Big Scallops, Helmar glue runner

Welcome Kitty

2010-08-24T18:34:00.000+10:00

My supervisor at work just adopted a young cat from the local RSPCA shelter and since my cats have a zillion toys that they've never used I thought I'd give some to her [well the kitty really] as a little present. And you can't give a present without a card, right?

So here we are:

I love the colours and the theme for this month's Embellish Magazine challenge - Quirky, Cutesy, Clean Style, so I just had to use them for this cutesy card. I used brown as my additional neutral colour, as when I printed the sentiment and kitty in black it just looked far too stark against the softish pastels of the rest of the card.

I had to print the sentiment out in Word as for some strange reason nobody's made a 'Welcome Kitty' stamp yet (can you believe it?) and the kitty is a gorgeous digital stamp from Softpencil. This one to be exact. I cut him out and popped him up on some foam dots. The way he's positioned is kind of like he's popping up to say hello! Very cute :)

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Kraft cardstock, Kaisercraft Secret Bird Society 6x6 paper pad [seafoam scallop strip], Chatterbox designer paper [peach layer], "Lily" Canson Mi-Teintes [for kitty and sentiment layer]
Stamps - "Be Mine" digital stamp from Softpencil
Ink - Printer, "Peach" copic ciao marker [for ears]
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Tonic scissors, Canon Pixma printer, Helmar tape runner, Papercraft foam dots, Fiskars scallop punch

Challenges: Embellish Magazine - Quirky, Cutesy, Clean style / Stamp Something - August Digi Day

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Frangipanis - Card #4

2010-08-22T12:40:00.001+10:00

Okay so in my last post I was mistaken - THIS card is my final card from the Frangipani pack from Scrapping Essentials. I just forgot all about it! It wasn't until I was flicking through my card stash in my quest to organise them better that I found it and realised I hadn't posted it!

So here it is:

The frangipani vellum shows up really nicely on the diamond bazzill bling - this is the only card I managed to make with just that cardstock, which is beautiful IRL I must add. So shimmery!

Size of card: C6 (top folding)

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Frangipani A4 vellum
Extras - Kaisercraft Birthday Cards rubon, ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Helmar glue runner, Provocraft bone folder (for rubon), Scotch Vellum Tape

Thanks for looking! :)

Scrapping Essentials Designer Pack - Frangipanis - Card #3

2010-08-21T16:51:00.000+10:00

Technically this should be 'cards #3' because I'm posting twin cards but I thought that looked weird so I'll just leave it at that.

So here it is... the final instalment of the Frangipani pack from Scrapping Essentials. I have really enjoyed working with these vellum packs as they got me crafting outside my comfort zone, and experimenting with new and innovative ways of layering.

Without further ado, here are the final cards I made with the pack:

These cards really only happened because I had small scraps of the Diamond bazzill bling left. They were just enough to make 3" square notecards with. They are sentiment-less because I've also pretty much run out of rubons from the pack, but I like these cards as they are. Wouldn't one of these look nice on top of a gift, or perhaps left on someone's keyboard as a little surprise? I love doing that - it's my favourite way to give my cards out at work. What's your favourite way to give a card?

Size of cards: 3" (7.5cm) square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Bazzill Bling cardstock, Frangipani A4 vellum
Extras - Ribbon
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Scotch Vellum Tape, Papercraft foam dots, Helmar glue runner

Happy Birthday

2010-08-21T11:06:00.000+10:00

This is the final card I will be entering into the Helping Hudson challenges, as it is nearly the end of the fundraiser! Good news though - the team have raised enough for Hudson to get his walker! It's such a lovely feeling to be involved in something (however tenuously!) that will bring such joy to people I don't even know! That's charity for you I suppose :)

So here's my card for the final technique challenge - embossing and sponging. I went through alot of different ideas before I hit upon this one. Nothing was working! Luckily inspiration hit late last night and I created this:

Technically it's 'debossing', but I'm sure it still counts! I sponged around the edges of the patterned paper layers with my "Sand" versacolor cube to give them a bit of definition.

And that isn't a word window punch I used for the sentiment - I faked it! To make your own word window (which has the added advantage of being as long as you need it to be - think of the possibilities!) I cut a strip of paper a touch thinner than my 3/8" circle punch. I then slid one end in from the back side of the punch. I stamped the sentiment and then did the same to the other end. I thought I had a page bookmarked that showed this technique but I don't, so I've modelled it for you below:

I think the strip of paper I used was slightly too thin to make the perfect rounded edges, but you get the idea.

Size of card: 4" square

Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill black cardstock, Chatterbox Designer Paper "Botanico Garden"
Stamps - Hero Arts "Classic Messages"
Ink - Versafine "Onyx Black", Versacolor "Sand"
Tools - Carl rotary trimmer, Big Shot, Big Scallop nestabilities, Circle nestabilities, Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" folder, Helmar tape runner, Papercraft foam dots, Sullivan's 3/8" circle punch

Challenge: Helping Hudson Challenge 8 - Technique