look who's 12

Hi All - I am in New Zealand at the moment and haven't been able to find time to do much cardmaking but I did manage to make this card this morning after helping my nephew make a card for this mother.
The card below is for the challenge at Scrapbook Boutique - their challenge is purple, green and white, the challenge from AnnaBelle Stamps blog is anything goes, the birthday challenge at Party Time Tuesdays and for Moxie Fab - Cool Tool Week - cutting and trimming - for this I have cut the number '12' away from the card edge.
I enjoyed making this card and I didn't bring any number stencils with me so I had to freehand draw the numbers on the edge of the card and cut the area around them leaving it uncut a certain points so that it stays attach to the card.  I have done this before and it is great to used chipboard letters as a stencil and cut away the cardboard around the letters to create a title.
This is a card for my nephew who turns 12 next month - I had made his birthday card for this year last year but I gave that to one of my sisters to give it to him.

materials - AC wine card stock; Cosmo Cricket 'mitten weather' papers; AnnaBelle Stamps 'lil monster' stamp, Grant Archival small birthday stamp set, MFT mini day banner alphabet; Staz On jet black ink; Marvy pens blender 0, dark brown 18, pale orange 13, pine green 72; kaisercraft pearls.
As I said at the start of this post I am visiting my family in NZ and during the first half of January my family has alot of birthdays to celebrate and the last is today for my youngest sister and typical of a 12 year old boy my nephew (Caleb) mentioned last night that he wanted to make a birthday card for his mother!  Now this is a typical 12 year old boy - into wrestling and boy stuff  and hassles me non stop about my 'crafting' as he calls it, so for him to say that I am to get out my craft things first thing tomorrow morning nearly caused me to fall off my seat.
So first thing this morning I got everything out and believe it or not he actually sat down for 30 mins to make a birthday card for his mother - he designed it, stamped it and coloured it (I did fussy cut the butterfly as I didn't trust him cutting it nicely - I reckon he would have cut the wings off!).  I was so happy that he actually sat down for 30mins to make this as he has an attention span of about oooooooooooooh 5 mins before he gets bored and then he tends to rush it and make a mess :) does this sound familiar?  So this is Calebs' card ...
 
Everybody loved it and now he is walking around the house with a 'bighead' bragging that he is better than me and I could learn a thing or 2 about 'crafting' from him :)
Thanks for looking.

With Love - monochromatic

Hi All, thought I would try a monchromatic card today - usually I struggle with these types of cards and can never match anything.  So I decided to keep it clean and simple with inspiration coming from a paint colour chart strip - you know the ones that are in the paint shop that show the darkest to lightest of a certain colour :)  Well I have to say I am very happy with this card!

I would like to enter it for the challenge over at Through the Craftroom Door and Pixie Dust Studio Challenges which both had monochromatic this week.  I actually stumbled across these 2 blogs accidently while checking out someones card on another blog :)
materials - Core 'dinations tranquil, harborside, aquarium and atoll aqua cardstock, white cardstock; Darkroom Door Stamps 'garden greetings' stamps; Versa Color turquoise, sky blue, celadon inks; Provocraft dot embossing folder; lace.
Thanks for looking.

Heartfelt thanks

The challenge over at AnnaBelle Stamps blog this week was to use black, white and silver which I thought was okay.  As soon as I saw the colour silver I knew I would have to dig out the good ole silver embossing powder and heat gun.
I made a frame using heat embossing tape and silver embossing powder, heat set it and then cut out the middle to frame the 3 silver flowers.  It is a very clean and simple card and I enjoyed making it.  I am also submittng it for Designed 2 Delight - flowers, Crafty Creations - heat embossing and CRAFT - a thankyou card.

materials - white card, silver paper and Bazzill black cardstock; AnnaBelle Stamps 'stemmed flowers' and 'ballerina rose' (title) stamps; Encore silver ink, StazOn jet black ink; Silver embossing powder; heat embossing tape; heat tool; Kaisercraft black pearls.
Thanks for looking.

I enjoy being with you

And here is my third card from today - this time following the challenge from Hero Arts - love, kisses and hugs ie. a valentines card.  I have used the sketch from Sketch Saturdays.

here is a close up of the heart and bees
 
I found the title in the Hero Arts 'be happy' set is way to big for this card sketch so I stamped it on shrinky dink and then shrunk it so it was small enough for the sketch.
 
materials - white cardstock, AC canary cardstock; Echo Park 'for the record' papers; Hero Arts 'be happy' stamps; Stazon blazing red; Provocraft heart and dot embossing folder; Sizzix heart #7 die; Aelenes shrinky dink plastic; twine; Kaisercraft pearls; Satin ribbon.
Thanks for looking.

sending sweet wishes

It has been a very productive cardmaking day today.  The first follows the challenges from CAS-ual Fridays - use chipboard  - I used  Words or Whatever butterflies and I loosely followed the sketch from Card Patterns - I flipped the sketch on its' side so the row of buttons (I used butterflies) is along the bottom of the card.

 
I loved working with chipboard and for this card I painted the butterflies and fussy cut patterned paper for the wings, applied rhinestones for the body and then covered the patterned paper with glossy accents.

here is a close up
 
materials - AC white, Core 'dinations montego bay cardstock; Lilly Bee 'this & that' papers; AnnaBelle Stamps 'party animals 1' stamps, Stampendous 'stitched borders' stamps; Versa Color turquoise ink; Words or Whatever butterfly lasercut chipboard; Provocraft circle dies; Kaisercraft rhinestones; Ranger Inkssentials glossy accents, Ranger white opal liquid pearls.
Thanks for looking.

Happy 'bowls'day ... again

I am loving the 'stylish bowler' digital stamp that I got from Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps and here is another card that I made - this time for my mother in law.  I kept it nice and simple and followed the sketch challenge from Inspirational Card Sketches where you could use any sketch we liked and I actually chose one of the older ICS sketches - #143.  Now I love bright solid colours so the challenge from Paper Sundaes - use saturated colours was perfect for me!  The Wee Memories challenge this week was 'mini' nothing over 4x4 so this card is 4x4 and it is a birthday card for the challenge at Birthday Sundaes.

materials - Bazzill just peachy and hopi, AC cricket cardstock; Jillibean Soup 'sweet and sour soup' papers; Stitchy Bear 'stylish bowler' digital stamp, AnnaBelle Stamps 'party animals 1' stamps, MFT 'mini banner day alphabet' stamps; Versa Colour lime ink; Crayola colouring pencils; Kaisercraft rhinestone.
Thanks for looking.

It's your day

I went online shopping before christmas at one particular store that was having a sale a day for 12 days and throughout the 12 days you just keep adding to your pile ... well one of the brands that was discounted was Jillibean Soup and I just went bezzzzerk on the 6x6 pads :) but before that shopping spree I just bought a another Jillibean Soup pad from another store and forgot all about it until it turned up here and then I realised that I had heaps of Jillibean Soup paper pads :) fortunately none of them were doubled up!  So I am doing a heap of cards using Jillibean Soup papers so forgive me if there is an overload of Jillibean!
Here is a CAS card following the sketch from Card Positioning Systems #249.

and a close up of the little cupcakes - I have used rhinestones as the 'cherry on top' and also kindy glitz on the cupcakes - this is for the challenge over at Southern Girls - sparkle.
 
The theme is for Quirky Crafts - food and I am also submitting it for Top Tip Tuesday - anything goes.
materials - Core 'dinations kiwi, AC coffee, white cardstock; Jillibean Soup 'spotted owl soup' papers; Grant Archival 'celebration' stamp set; Stazon timber brown, Versa Color lime inks; Crayola colouring pencils; Marvy sky blue (72) pen; Kaisercraft rhinestones; Ranger Inkssentials glossy accents; Derivan crystallina kindy glitz.
Thanks for looking.

Happy 'bowls'day

One thing I love about cardmaking is when you make a card for a person and it is 'orientated' towards them - like this card below ... I won a voucher to Stitchy Bear digital stamps shop and ended up coming across this stamp - 'stylish bowler' - now I know it is orientated more towards a tenpin bowler but as soon as I saw it I knew it would be perfect as a 'lawn bowler'.  Lawn bowling is very popular in NZ and Australia and both my eldest sister and my mother in law love playing the game so I really enjoyed making this birthday card for my eldest sister using the very bright colours from Jillibean Soup! ... and I know the first thing she will say - "my nose is not that big!" 

I sort of made a '1st place ribbon' out of a circle die and pleated ribbon and partially hid this behind the bowler ...
 
I have followed the sketch from Mojo Monday #222, made it a birthday card for the 'celebration' challenge over at Kaboodle Doodles and have used a new digital stamp for something new over at Party Time Tuesday and also for the new theme at Wee Memories.
materials - Core 'dinations klondike blue, Bazzill apricot; Jillibean Soup 'watermelon gazpacho' papers; Stitchy Bear 'stylish bowler' digital stamp, MFT mini banner day alphabet; Stazon azure ink; Crayola colouring pencils; AC prancer chipboard stickers; Kaisercraft rhinestones; Provocraft circle dies; ribbon
Thanks for looking.

A little something just for you

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope you celebrated responsibly.  The city of Melbourne had its' fireworks but I can never make it to midnight so we go to the childrens one at 9.30pm and I have come to the conclusion that everyone loves fireworks! 
It is stinking hot here today in Melbourne (our 4th day of very hot weather) and it is stiffling to go outside so I am in the craft room making cards! what a shame aye :) I will bear it!
The card below is following the sketch from AnnaBelle Stamps blog  and I also made it for the challenge over at Paper Sundaes - something old (paper - Echo Park 'for the record') and something new (Ranger buttercup liquid pearls ... mmmmm delicious!) from your stash.

I am a lover of liquid pearls and just before christmas I added a few more colours to my overused 'white opal' colour :) LOL
materials - Bazzill black cardstock; Echo Park 'for the record' papers; AnnaBelle Stamps 'squared posies' stamps; Stazon jet black ink; Crayola colouring pencils; Kaisercraft black rhinestones; Ranger 'buttercup' liquid pearls; 1/8" yellow eyelet; 16mm yellow grossgrain; 6mm yellow satin ribbon.
Have a great week.