Just a note

I'm so glad it's Friday! Even though it's been a short week at work this week due to the public holiday on Wednesday (Anzac Day) I will be over the moon when this week is over ;)

And because it's Friday I have another AnnaBelle Stamps challenge for you!

I used the placement of the shapes in the sketch for the elements in my card below:

I inked up the gorgeous dandelion image from Garden Silhouettes first with Broken China Distress ink and then around the edges with Stormy Sky Distress ink. I stamped it on smooth white cardstock cut to 3.5x3.5" (folded).

The sentiment is from Fanciful Flowers stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink. The rhinestones beside the sentiment are 'Ice Blue' from Kaisercraft. I created the scallop border with my Fiskars Scallop Sentiment punch.

If you want to look at some more inspiration for this wonderful sketch please click on the links below to visit the rest of the DT gals' blogs. You will not be disappointed! :)


Marion
Sue K
Therese
Sue W
Andrea
Kylie
Patti
Danielle

That's it from me, take care and have a fantastic weekend!




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 :)

Birthday Wishes - Birthday Blog Hop for Lilypad Cards!

Welcome to the Lilypad Cards First Birthday blog hop! You should have just been at Ashley's blog.

There are three prize packages with a total retail value of over $300! These prizes will be awarded by random draw. There are two ways to be eligible for the prize drawings. You can “like” us on Facebook, but if you do not have a Facebook account, you can also be eligible for the drawings by leaving a comment on the Lily Pad Cards blog. To better your chances even more, leave comments on the other blogs participating in the hop. For each comment you leave, you'll get your name entered again! (but only one comment per blog, please.) You have a whole week to get hopping - make sure you leave all your comments by the deadline - Sunday, April 8 at 12pm EST.

To make this celebratory card I used some scraps from the Inque Boutique 'Isn't it Romantic'  6x6 paper pad. I cut the green layer about an 1/8" wider than the paisley hearts layer. After adhering the paisley panel to the green layer I poked holes along the edges using my ruler and piercing tool.

I then used a white gel pen between the holes to give the illusion of stitching. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft's 'Birthday' mini stamp set which was stamped in Worn Lipstick distress ink.

Thanks for stopping by! The next stop on the hop is Vera!

Remember, if you hit a bad link, you can always go back to Lily Pad to view the master list of blog links. Please report any bad links to aris@inlinkz.com.

Hope you get a change to hop along!
Bye for now!

Thinking of You

Hello again! Welcome to another challenge from AnnaBelle Stamps! This week we have a sketch challenge for you:

I'm currently taking Tim Holtz's current online class (Creative Chemistry 101) which inspired me to pull out the distress inks and have a play with embossed resist. Here's what I came up with:

I white embossed the flourishy stamp from Love Birds onto plain white cardstock which I had already cut into a hoop using circle nestabilities. I blended Stormy Sky and Tumbled Glass distress inks on the surface of the hoop. The white embossing resisted the ink which is such a cool effect.

I had some aqua/teal Kaisercraft ribbon but it wasn't quite in the right shade to match the hoop, so I ran my blending tool preloaded with Tumbled Glass over it to give the colour a nudge in the right direction :)

The sentiment from Fanciful Flowers was stamped on another circle of plain white cardstock with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I then used foam dots to pop up the hoop and more foam dots to pop that up on top of the ribbon which I adhered to the cardbase (after allowing it to dry of course!)

Exciting news to share this week as well - the AnnaBelle Stamps DT have a new addition - Danielle Daws! Danielle has a gorgeous, clean and graphic style and I love every card she makes. I'm sure she will create some jaw-dropping cards with AnnaBelle Stamps!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Belles to get some inspiration for this week's challenge:


Marion
Sue K
Therese
Sue W
Andrea
Kylie
Patti
That's it for now - have an awesome weekend!




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 :)

Birthday Wishes

Happy Friday to you all! I hope that you're gearing up for the weekend wherever you may be in the world - it's nearly here! :)

I'm here to share another Annabelle Stamps challenge with you...

Brown, olive and mustard are terrific earthy colours to use for a masculine card... but that's not what I've got to show you today! I went girly for mine...

The cardbase is lovely brown Bazzill, cut to 3x3" for a cute little notecard. I stamped one of the sweet little sentiments from Garden Silhouettes on a strip of the Bazzill cardstock with Versafine Onyx Black ink and used a square punch to notch the end (ala Julie Ebersole.

The focal silhouette image is also from Garden Silhouettes, stamped on paper from the Kaisercraft Hey Birdie paper pad. It stamped way too light so I used some prismacolor pencils to give it some definition.
Punched a butterfly using a Sullivans punch with Kaisercraft Lilac Avenue paper and popped a couple of Kaisercraft pearls (coloured with Chamois copic) in the centre.

Click on the links below to see how the other Belles were inspired by the colours:


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 + 200th post!

Hiya! Are you ready for the weekend? I sure am! I also just noticed on my blogger dashboard that this will be post number 200 for this little blog. Just thought I'd share :)

Well the weekend is nearly here so that means it's Friday and time for another AnnaBelle Stamps challenge. This week we have a super simple sketch for you:

I used the sketch as a starting off point and created the card below:

I used BBD5 on the white cardbase (4" square) with Versacolor ink in Cement.

I tied a bow around a smaller piece of the same white cardstock with satin Christina Re ribbon and stamped the sentiment from Love Birds in Versafine Onyx Black ink. The pearls are from Kaisercraft. The sentiment and ribbon layer of cardstock is attached to the cardbase using foam dots for a bit of dimension.

You are going to love how the other team members have interpreted the sketch so please click on the links below to visit their blogs:

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 :)

In my Heart Forever

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 :)

Winter Wishes

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!

Thinking of you

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!

Mini card set

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!

Just a note

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!)

Your Kindness is Truly Appreciated

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!

Just wanted to say...

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! :)