You light up my life

Jay Gees Nook Blog has a beautiful inspiration challenge this month (June) and I drew inspiration from the lamp shades and colours to produce this card. I have used the sketch from Sweet Stop Sketches #110 - I have flipped it on its side.

I have used Jillibean Soup 'blossom soup' papers and the stamps are Unity Stamp Company 'shine on!' stamps. I love this set but don't use it too often!
Thanks for looking.

Reindeer Xmas

Woo Hoo technically my first christmas card for the year (I don't count my recent xmas card submissions to mags!) and this was the challenge over at Designed 2 Delight with an added extra of paper piecing. I have followed the sketch #117 from Card Patterns I turned the sketch on its' side for this card.

I have used Echo Park 'Everybody loves Christmas' papers and Ferngully Stamps 'stocking reindeer' stamp. I have stamped the stocking socks and scarf on 4 different papers and fussy cut them, I then applied glossy accents to them to give them a little shine.
Thanks for lookign.

Happy Birthday

Secret Crafter had a great challenge this week - #136 Clean and Simple. I like this style of cardmaking and most of the time I manage the clean but not quite the simple and tend to make things a little complicated for myself! But alas I did manage to do this card in 30mins and off the 30mins - 10mins was devoted to looking for the 'bracket and striped paper' piece as I put it down and then couldn't find it - here I was cursing and talking to myself trying to find where I had put it - I lifted up absolutely everything - the cutting mat, all the scrap paper, stamp packs, ink pads, boxes, anything and everything that I thought it would be under ... is this sounding familiar? ... guess where it was? ... under my pair of scissors - it was small enough to hide under the handle part and of course that was one thing I didn't move thinking it wouldn't be under there!

I have used a combo of scrap Basic Grey and Daisy Bucket papers, the stamps are from Annabelle Stamps and Verve.

Thanks for looking.

Go Green

Thought I would try something completely different today! Following the sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches and the challenge over at Designed 2 Delight (white with one) I made a wall hanging.

and a close up

As you can see my colour is green! The stamps are from Autumn Leaves - who cares? and obviously the theme is 'green'. They are an eclectic group of stamps with things like owls, 'mother nature' conserve, a tap etc. I love the set but haven't used it very much! So the challenge for me was to dig down deep into my paper stack for green and also to find 8 different shades of green ink ... but I managed! I also managed to used recycled chipboard (it was part of some packaging) to make the frame.

I decided to do this to hang up on the wall in my craft corner as it was looking a little bare - there is only some much blank yellow wall (yes that is the colour of my walls - and it is a bright yellow!) you can look at. I enjoyed making it ... but I made one hell of a mess doing it - I heat embossed and now everything feels like it has little grains on it!

Thanks for looking.

Guest Designer @ Annabelle Stamps Blog

Hi Bloggers
I am super excited this month to be the Guest Designer at Annabelle Stamps Blog.
I stumbled across this blog and associated online stamp store (fabulous stamps there!) last year and regularly participate in their weekly 'say it with ...' challenges and also their monthly sketch.
To kick the month of they have their traditional Annabelle Bling Sketch Challenge #038 where you try to keep to the sketch as much as possible and also include bling!
Here it is ...

and here is my example of this sketch - I have rotated the sketch left and 90 degrees.

I have used the following materials:

Card - Bazzill Walnut and Green Tea

Paper - Pink Paislee and Basic Grey

Stamps - Annabelle stamps - Daisy Delight, Background by Design 2 and Party Animals 1 ('hello').

Ink - Versa color opera pink, scarlet, topaz, Brilliance coffee bean

Other - My Favourite things scalloped edge die and Kaisercraft rhinestones.
Instructions -

1. Fold a Walnut 220mm x 140mm card in half.

2. Cut a pink paper measuring 135mm x 105mm, attach to card, cut a Pink Paislee dot paper measuring 133mm x 50 and attach to top half of pink paper leaving a 1mm border top and sides.

3. Using opera pink ink stamp the dot background onto the pink area under the Pink Paislee paper, repeat again for the bottom but substitute the top row of the dots for coffee bean ink and the other 2 opera pink ink. Attach green rhinestones to the open dots on the coffee bean ink row.

4. Die cut an open scalloped strip out of Walnut card and attach to bottom of Pink Paislee paper.

5. Stamp the large, medium and small Daisy delight flowers on pink paper using the 3 different versa color inks, fussy cut the images, layer them and trim the bottom part so that only the top half is revealed on the card, attach to card as shown. Stamp the large leaf twice on green tea card, fussy cut and secure around flower.

6. Using coffee bean ink stamp 'hello' on green tea card, trim and mount onto pink paper, trim and attach as shown.

7. Add green rhinestones either side of title and to the flower center.
Annabelle stamps blog has a Design team that is incredibly talented and diverse - you can check out links to their blogs by clicking here

Well that is all folks and I hope to see you here next week with the first of the June 'say it with ...' - you are going to love the challenge!

Happy Stamping!

Yo Bro!

You can never have to many birthday cards and I made the one below inspired from the challenge at Simon Says - stars and stripes. I followed the sketch from Sketch Saturday and turned it into a boy card.

While making this I had my nephew in mind - the Yo Bro! is so him! The papers are from Cosmo Cricket pixie-licious and Basic Grey - Lime Ricky, the So cool stamp is Autumn Leaves - taking in circles (boy), Yo Bro! and Happy Birthday are from Darkroom Door Stamps - Robot Vol.2 and the stars are from Queen Kat Designs.

I like the colours of blue and green - so boyish isn't it!!!

Thanks for looking.

Feel Better Soon

Here is a card I made this afternoon using the sketch from Mojo #192. Following the challenge set down by Crafty Creations I made a get well card. And I thought I would also submit it to 'anything goes' at Creative Card.

I have used Cosmo Cricket pixie-licious papers, the little pig is from Ferngully stamps, the nurses hat and title are from Inky Antics - Millie mousie and the doodled frame is from Kaisercraft - Doodled frames.

I love the colours of this card - purple, green and pinky orange.

Thanks for looking.

Precious Gift

Normally I don't do 'vintage' only because I can't seem to pull it off!!! But I will always give it a try whenever it is set as a challenge. Lollipop Ladies this fortnight had the challenge of banana custard and vintage. So I have used some very old Basic Grey paper and drew inspiration from the colour of bananas - yellow. I have added a little lace and a doily to give it a more vintage feel to it!

I have used the sketch from Diecut Dreams #90. The large cherry blossom and title are stamps from Kazzazz and the little robin stamp is from Grant Archival - Grace Taylor. The doily is from Paper Inklings.

Thanks for looking.

You're the Best

I love to do a little paper tearing!!! so much that I was thrilled to see that it was a challenge at one of my regular challenge blogs - Kaboodle Doodles. Funny enough I just finished a set of budget cards using this technique that I might submit to C,S&P.

I have used the sketch from Card Positioning System #216 - I think I went a bit off the sketch but the tree represents the oval and the grass and ribbon represent the strips under the oval on the sketch (I hope I haven't deviated to far from the sketch!). I have also incorporated hand made flowers for the challenge from Magic in the air with Paper Cupcakes.

To paper tear circles I have used coins and buttons as my templates and for the straight lines I have used a metal ruler.

I have used all sorts of papers mainly because of their colours but they include My little shoebox - farmers market, Jillibean Soup - blossom soup and 3 bugs in a rug - lazy summer.

thanks for looking.

Celebrate

I am loving kraft cardstock at the moment! I stumbled across a technique of colouring on kraft cardstock with colouring pencils so I thought I would give this technique a go. There were 2 challenge blogs that I regularly participate in that had the same challenge so I thought I would use the sketch from Card Patterns #116 and also incorporate lace and pearls from both Southern Girls blog and Birthday Sundaes blog.

and a close up of the colouring in!

I just used normal crayola pencils to colour in the image from Penny Blacks 'for you' stamps. Colouring in using pencils is a little different to copics and blending pens. I found it easier to use several shades of one colour to get the 'gradual' effect, for example, the petals I used blue for the entire petal and then a darker blue for the base of each petal to darken the area, same with the leaf. I like the effect of the pencils on kraft colour cardstock.

I have also used paper from my fav range at the moment and that is MME Stella and Rose - Gertie papers. The lace part of the card is a doily from Paper Inlings 'colour me doilys' where I inked it with versa color 'old rose'. the pearls are Kaisercraft champagne pearl strips.

This is a slightly different style of card that I normally do and I definitely hardly use lace but I love a challenge and I was excited about doing this card.

Happy Birthday

Hi there bloggers -building my birthday card stash with this one. I have followed the sketch from Sweet Stop Sketches and this week they have a spin to it - 'masculine'. My inspiration comes from Wee Memories and this week their challenge is to 'stamp it' so I have used stamps from Verve - Up Up & Away and with an added extra I managed to slip in the challenge from Paper Sundaes and that was to 'pop it up' so I paper toled the hot air balloon!

I am really chuffed with the colours and how the card came out in general. I have used papers from Jillibean Soup - blossom soup collection, stamps are Verve - Up Up & Away and also 'happy birthday' came from Annabelle Stamps - Party Animals 1, the dots are white liquid pearls.

Just for You

Hello bloggers - just the one card this afternoon - thought I would try something very 3D and probably not suited to Australia Post - I can imagine the machine jamming with this one!!!

I have made this card following the sketch from Secret Crafter.

There are a few aspects to this card as I have combined challenges together. The small rosette flowers are from the challenge over at Designed 2 Delight (hand made flowers), the image of the birdhouse is from Cupcake Craft whose theme is 'in the garden' and last but not least Kaboodle Doodles had a fantastic challenge of 'tic tac toe' where you chose a combination of 3 things to go on the card and I chose ribbon, diecut and brads.

I liked how the card turned out and I really love the MME Stella & Rose Gertie papers they are absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks for looking.

Another year another wrinkle!

Hello bloggers - here is a card I made following the sketch from the Sketch Saturday challenge blog.

I have also made it a birthday card for the challenge over at Paper Sundaes - hence the title 'another year another wrinkle'.

I have used 3 bugs in a rug 'lazy summer' papers. Scrapbook Boutique have posted their challenge for the month of may and that was stitching so I have incorporated some hand sewn zig zag stitching -now that was tough for me but although it was time consuming (I am an amateur sewer!) I loved the end result.

The cow stamp is from Ferngully stamps which is one of my all time favourite stamps!

Thanks for looking.

Neils' birthday card

Woo hoo Neil turns 52 this Saturday and although we are not big celebraters of anything I do insist on making cards for any celebration rather than gifts - although he has asked for collapsible bowls as his birthday present!
So here is his card - since we are both cyclists and we have recently returned from cycle touring with the dog in tow I decided to make a card from both Kouta and I.

LOL - the image of a bike and me and Kouta was fun to create. Kouta and I came from Stampin' Up All in the Family stamp set - basically you have arms, legs, different head with hairstyles, dresses and pants and tops and then a variety of legs with different shoes and also a set of glasses, dog, cat and a combo of babies - it is a great set and you pick and choose to make your characters - so I made me and then kouta, masked us and then stamped a bike. The clouds are from Verve up up & away and the 'happy birthday' and 'from both of us' is from Annabelle Stamps party animals 1 stamp set. They are small titles that are great for cards. The 'from both of us' has been stamped on shrink it and shrunk so it fits on the card. (fabulous product that shrink it!).

I have made this card following the sketch from Card Patterns. I have made Neils name from Stickers for the challenge over at Wee Memories - the stickers are Bo Bunny A gift of love winter gems alpha (I have had them for ages and stubbled across them in my draw of alphabet stickers). Inspiration comes from Birthday Sundaes challenge blog which was to incorporate at least 3 circles. So I made a circle banner out of the letters of Neils name, the shrink it is cut from circle dies and shrunk and the big white circle with which everything is on. The card itself is from Spellbinders petite scalloped circle dies.

Thanks for looking.

Miles Apart

It is a grey gloomy day here in Melbourne so after taking the dog for a bike ride this morning I planted myself in my craft room to do some cards this afternoon ... but this card took me all afternoon to make. In fact the ribbon part took up most of the time - sometimes a ribbon and bow just fall into place and sometimes you tie a bow, don't like it so you retie again and again and again ... sound familiar! In the end I ended up cheating and just made a lazy bow!

here is a close up of the 3D flowers

I have seen these little flowers on everyones cards so I thought I would have a go and I like the result and so easy just cut a spiral within a circle and then roll, let it unravel a bit and then glue the base and pop a pearl in the middle - I won't tell you how many times I practiced this before I got something resembling a flower!!!

So this card has been made following 3 challenge blogs. The first is the sketch #108 from Sweet Stop Sketches. The colours is from Annabelle Stamps Blog where it is 'say it in monochromatic' and green is my colour choice. Inspiration for this card comes from Lets Ink It Up challenge blog and this fortnight you have to include a focal sentiment and 3D flower.

The sentiment is from Annabelle Stamps 'Ballerina Rose' stamps and the back ground stamp also comes from Annabelle Stamps 'Background By Design 2' stamps. I have used Kaisercraft 'Country Grove' papers, Sizzix leaf and stem die' Bazzill Fern cardstock, Spellbinders labels 4 dies, ribbon, button, Stazon Olive Green ink and Kaisercraft pearls.

Thanks for looking.

Birthday wishes

May is a big month for birthdays in my family there are 2 females and 2 males (1 is very early June) so this is the last of the female ones before I begin on the male ones!

I have this large window stamp (I have no idea where is was made!) and love using it and the sketch from over at Card Positioning Systems #217 was perfect for this stamp. I have used Cosmo Cricket Pixie-Licious papers, Annabelle Stamps stemmed flowers and a Carl pot plant punch to make this card.

The inspiration for the flowers came from the challenge over at Creative Cards - May Flowers and I have stamped them on patterned paper, fussy cut them and applied glossy accents to them, once dry I have lifted the petals to give them a curl. I am also putting this card in for challenge from Crafty Creations which is 'anything goes' (noice and easy!).

I have cut the windows out of the window stamp and put acetate behind it so it is like looking through a window.

Thanks for looking.

Just Peachy

It is absolutely freezing and rainy here in Melbourne today so I spent the day in the craft room! I made this circle card for Lollipop Ladies challenge blog with inspiration coming from fruit salad. The papers are from Basic Grey Lime Rickey which definitely has a tutti fruity colour range to it! I have followed the sketch from Sketch Saturday and have made many layers for the challenge from Kaboodle Doodles.

The peach image is from an Inkadinkadoo stamp and the saying is from I brake for stamps. This is my first circle card and I actually liked how this card turned out.

Thanks for looking.

In Sunshine and Showers

Here is a card I made that is rather girly (at least the colors are!) it is a little different to what I normally do but I like the end result.

I have used sketch #114 from Inspirational Card Sketches and have followed the challenge from Cupcake Crafts - gingham and roses.

The paper is from Rebecca Erikson (now that is really old!) and the roses are from Annabelle Stamps - Ballerina Rose.

Thanks for looking.

Bee Happy Coz U R 40

I made this card for my sisters partner who is turning 40 in 2 weeks - now it is a big thing for her to be turning 40 and she has been counting down to it for the past 100 days on facebook. She is going on a cruise as part of her 40th celebrations ... now one of my sisters turned 40 last year and she also celebrated it in a big way ... I turn 40 at the beginning of next year ... and they were all disappointed when I said that it doesn't bother me at all and I don't feel the need to celebrate it in a big way ... in fact they can't get over the fact that neither Neil or I
celebrate anything at all! aren't we terrible! Here is her card

and a close up of the handmade shrink it buttons

I have followed the sketch from Mojo Mondays #190. Inspiration comes from 2 blog challenges - Totally Stampalicious where this weeks challenge was to use bugs and off course I love my Be Happy stamp set from Hero Arts so I used that - I even made shrink it buttons with the bee images. The other challenge blog was Simon Says and their challenge was one of my favourite techniques and that is paper piecing. The Be Happy stamp set is perfect for this with lots of fussy cutting of bees, flowers and grass. I have used glossy accents on the paper that has been stamped, fussy cut and attached to create a scene - this gives it a more 3D feel to the card. I have used MME Stella & Rose Gertie papers.

Thanks for looking.

Birthday wishes

I started out making this card with great ideas for it but as the work progressed the card got a little messy and complicated and I kept adding bits here and there! so I am not too sure about it in the end.

I made it for 2 challenge blogs - the first for Paper Sundaes who had a magical/mythical theme this week and all I could find in my stamp collection was this stamp of an angel bear from Ferngully Stamps. The 2nd blog is for Birthday Sundaes who had the theme of birthday card with a recipe of 3 different embellishments (bling, eyelets and handmade shrink it star embellishments) and 2 patterned papers (Sassafras Lass Serendipity and Kaiser Imagine papers)

I think it would make a nice card for a little girl ... now to find one to give it to!

Thanks for looking.

Shrink It Bracelet

The challenge over at Southern Girls Challenge blog was 'all things girly' ... now I really struggle with girly cards so I decided to do something a little bit different and make something 'girly'. Now I love to use Shrink It to make embellishments for cards so I had a go at making a bracelet out of it and also a matching small gift card.

here is just the bracelet

basically I cut 7 45mm x 45mm squares, stamped butterflies and swirls on them, coloured in the images with colouring pencils, punched 1/8" holes, shrunk them (they are now 22mm x 22mm), embellished them with kindy glitz and then linked them up with 7mm split rings and a clasp at the end.
I think in hind site I should have corner punched each corner before shrinking them as the corners are quite sharp when you where them. Next one I make I will try circles!
Thanks for looking.

hello

Just a nice quick card following a sketch from Card Patterns #114. I like the simplicity of the sketch and I was delighted with how it turned out.

I have used Prima 'paisley road' papers, foam alphas and flower stems stamps from Annabelle Stamps.

I got the idea of putting a flower on the letter 'l' from google! they had put a flower on their 'l' and I thought ... 'i can do that'!

Thanks for looking.

happy birthday squares

I enjoyed making this card, I based it on the weekly challenge from Annabelle Stamps blog - say it with squares. So I stamped Ballerina Rose stamp (Annabelles stamps) on to white card stock and then portioned it into 1" squares - inchies!

I have used the sketch #107 from Sweet Stop Sketches. I have also made this card for the Wee Memories blog whose theme this week is CRAFTS (colour, ribbon, acrylic, floral, twine, stamps) where you could use all or just one and I chose colour (orange, teal and white), floral and stamps! I have used something old for the challenge from Secret Crafter and that is Sassafras Lass papers - Lifes beautiful - fawned of you collection papers - I have a few sheets of this range and love the shade of orange used - it is almost orange pink - beautiful!
Thanks for looking.

happy birthday

One can never have too many birthday cards in your stash! so today I used the challenges from Birthday Sundaes (a fab blog I found that is devoted to birthday card challenges!) and Theres' Magic in the Air blog which both had birthday cards as their challenge. The image was inspired from the challenge over at Cupcake Craft where you to use something starting with the letter 'C' (I didn't think that an actual 'C'ard would qualify - so I have used an image of a mouse holding a 'C'ake with 'C'andles and circles.
The sketch comes from Card Positioning Systems #216.

I have used some very old paper from Daisy Bucket 'Sweet Marabella' francesca papers, the stamps are from Annabelle Stamps 'Party Animals 1' - a fabulous set. I have pleated a grossgrain ribbon and attached it to the back of a circle. I have faux stitched around the edges and I have to admit that I did make a mistake in the bottom right corner of the card where the pen I was using grazed across the corner so after doing alot of cursing I had to do it to the rest of the corners! I think it turned out ok in the end!
Thanks for looking.

Mother

My last card for today - I seem to be on a roll today! this one is a mothers card for the challenge from Creative Cards. I have followed the sketch from Sweet Stop Sketches #106. The inspiration comes from the May challenge from Jay Gees Nook Blog where I was inspired by the theme of dressmaking.

I have used Kraft cardstock, MME Stella & Rose Gertie papers and Kaiser taupe paper flowers. I am not sure where I got the stamp from - more than likely some craft show that had baskets and baskets of unmounted stamps for sale! I liked how the card turned out and I really like the colours of kraft, blue and yellow!

Thanks for looking.

Birdhouse birthday card

My sister skyped me the other day telling me that the handmade cards box, that my family have, is lacking birthday cards - they are all gone! so could I make a birthday card for her as she is the family representative at my ex brother in laws - fathers' 80th birthday! and if I could do something with birds as he likes birds. What a challenge that was as I didn't think I could do a male card with birds without making it too feminine! anyway I racked by brains and came up with a birdhouse shape card and then once I did a little digging around I found some bird stamps, rubons and paper (here I was telling her that I don't have any bird stuff and I find at least 4 bird stamps that were suitable and a range of papers with birds that I hadn't used!).

and the inside

I based the card on the sketch 037 from Annabelle Stamps blog - I rotated it 90 degrees and added bling.

I have used Paper Inklings 'family collection' reverse dad and grandfather papers and rubons. The title 'happy birthday' and 'from all of us' is from Annabelle Stamps 'Party Animals 1' stamp collection. I received this in the post yesterday and I was so happy with the stamps as they are small (but not too fiddly that they are difficult to handle!) and suitable for cards. They also have lots of words with it and most are individual so you can make up little phrases and since this was
a card from the entire family I was able to stamp 'from all of us'.
I enjoyed making this card and thanks for looking.

Whats' Up?

Totally Stampalicous has a great challenge this week and that is to use a stamp that you haven't used in 6 months! I thought this was a very refreshing challenge and I do have quite a few stamps that fit into that category (come to think of it I think I could also do the challenge if it was to use a stamp that you haven't used for 3 years or even longer!!!). So I dug around and as per usual tried to combine it with other challenge blogs and I came up with this card.

The bee stamp is from Studio G and this is the stamp that I haven't used for at least 6 months and also the title is part of this set so that too hasn't been used for an even longer time!
I have used Jillibean Soup 'Blossom Soup' collection papers. I have used the sketch from Mojo Mondays #189 sketch and have incorporated Bling on the card as part of the Kaboodle Doodles challenge where you have to use embellishments starting with the letter 'b'. And I have also made the card for Scrappy Frogs blog where there is a nice and easy challenge of 'anything goes'!!!
Thanks for looking.

Miss You

I was so happy how this card below came out. I based it on challenge #116 from Crafty Creations where you had to incorporate the concept of 'space'. I like the simplicity of that concept.
I have used Hero Arts 'be happy' stamps and have stamped on patterned paper (cosmo crickets pixie licious papers) and fussy cut the flower and bees did a little bit of paper piecing based on challenge #54 from Wee Memories and created this little scene.

here is a close up of the flower - I decided to take on the challenge from Lets Ink It Up and I have embellished the flower center with bling and also the border with random bling. The flower and bees have been further embellished with one of my favourite products and that is glossy accents.

Thanks for looking.