Happy Birthday

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

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

You turn cloudy days sunny

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

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 :)

If friends were flowers I'd pick you

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

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

May Joy Fill Your Home

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

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!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours

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!

Sent with much love

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!

Just for you

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! 

Exciting news!

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!