Happy Birthday

Hi all - well my christmas card list is now finished and now I am moving onto birthday cards.  There is a run of birthdays in my family over the Christmas - January period.  So the first birthday card is for my mother who will be 73 years old on Boxing Day! 
I love making bright cards and I am especially fond of Yellow and since it is summer down here I made a very summery card following the sketch from Mojo Monday #218.

I have used a very old stamp - it is 10 years old from Stampendous 'garden sampler' - I remember buying it and falling in love with the sun part of the stamp but once I bought it I hardly used it!  Here is a close up - I have stamped the sun serveral times on various papers/card and fussy cut out the images and relayed them to give it a more 3D feel to it ...
 
Materials - Core 'Dinations tulip and harborside card, AC buttersctoch card; Echo Park 'country drive' papers; Stampendous 'garden sampler' stamp, AnnaBelle Stamps 'party animals 1' stamps (happy birthday title); Stazon black ink; MFT little open scalloped edge die; Francheville black journalling pen; Kaisercraft rhinestones; Derivan kindy glitz - cyrstallina.
Thanks for looking.

You're an Angel

Hi All
I am so happy to be back home after a 4 week cycle ride up in the Wimmera/Mallee area of Victoria Australia - a beautiful place if you like flat, dry and farming areas!  Mind you anywhere is lovely as long as I am riding my bike.  But first I would like to share with you one of the down sides of the cycle touring ... the awful suntan line...

I also have a short sleeve tan line on the arms - I look shocking in a swim suit and people look at me when I am at the local swimming pool!
Anyway glad to be home and in my little craft room.
This morning I am finishing off my christmas card list and I have wanted to use this Angel digital stamp from Paper Pretties.  I made this card for one of my sisters' who just loves Angels.

and a close up of the angel which I used kindy glitz on here hemline and wings.
 
and the inside of the card is nice and simple.
 
materials - AC mint, Core 'Dinations poinsettia and white cardstock; Cosmo Cricket 'mitten weather' papers; Paper Pretties 'angel' digital stamp; Kaisercraft 'merry christmas' stamp; Color Palette  magenta ink; MFT little open scalloped edge die; Crayola pencils; Twinery twine; button; Striped ribbon; brad; Derivan kindy glits 'crystallina'; Ranger white opal liquid pearls.

I have made this card for the following challenges -
Card Patterns sketch #144 - I have rotated the sketch on its' side.  The colours are inspired from the challenges from Kaboodle Doodles (use christmas colours),  Paper Sundaes (use 2 of the following - red, diecuts, stripes or stitching).  The theme is inspired by the challenge over at Party Time Tuesdays (holiday greetings) and I would like to submit it also for Wee Memories (whose theme this week is 'free for all').

Well that is all for now - it is time to sort of the christmas cards to decide who gets what and to see if I have enough!

there's nothing like home

Okay just one more card before we head off - I started this card late Sunday afternoon and managed to finish it off between packing.  Jay Gees Nook challenge this month is a fab one - use holiday stamps to make a non holiday card!  funny that since quite a few challenges lately have been reversed (use non holiday stamps to make a holiday card!). 
So I used Stampendous 'holiday home' christmas stamp set to make a house warming card.  I used the 2 houses in the set, did a bit of masking and randomly stamped the houses.  I also used part of one of the titles from the set to make the title on the circle tag.

and a close up - I have used a button for the middle of my bow for the challenge over at Wee Memories - brads, buttons or bows.
 
materials used - Kraft cardstock, Core 'dinations harlequin cardstock, Cosmo Cricket 'mitten weather' papers; Stampendous 'holiday home' stamps, Sassafras Lass 'stitched borders' stamps, Kaisercraft 'wedding' mini stamps; Stazon timber brown ink; Provocraft circle dies; Crayola colouring pencils; 15mm satin ribbon trim; purple button; 10mm split ring.
Thanks for looking and for the next 6 or so weeks I am off again to resume my cycling - the back is better!

Just bee-cause

I really enjoyed my cardmaking this afternoon and I especially love making this fun card for Wee Memories - brads, buttons or bows and I incorporated buttons in this card.  I also added a little kindy glitz crystallina glitter to my little bees for Totally Papercrafts - use glitter.

a close up of the little bees
 
but what I really like about this card is the title 'just bee-cause' - I love making up titles with a 'play on words'!
materials used - AC pacific, canary and white cardstock; Lily Bee 'this & that' papers; Hero Arts 'be happy' stamps; Stazon jet black ink; Spellbinders petite scalloped circles large nestabilities; MFT flat bottom clouds dies; Creative Memories circle cutters; Carolee Creations tiny whoopsy teal alphabet stickers; AC foam giggles thickers; Derivan crystallina kindy glitz; Ranger white opal liquid pearls; Assorted buttons
Hey thanks for looking and have a great week.

happy christmas

Hi all - I thought I would try a card without stamping this afternoon ... I have a serious case of bad hayfever today and I thought somehow my stamped images wouldn't come out right in the middle of a volley of sneezes!  can you imagine it?  you would have to look at it with some serious art interpretation! 
So I made this card a very touchy feely card for the challenge over at Moxie Fab - textured to perfection

I used a white and red chenille pipe cleaner as one of 2 forms of texture as well as dry embossing the background.  Here is the close up of the pipe cleaners which I used to make my christmas bauble ...
 
I have also followed the fabulous sketch from CAS-ual Fridays

 
materials used:  white, grey and silver cardstock; Chenille pipe cleaners; Creative Memories circle cutters; Provocraft circle dies; QuicKutz polka dots embossing folder; red gross grain; silver cord; Cosmo Cricket metallic rubons; Kaisercraft rhinestones; Sassafras Lass 'stitched borders' stamps; Stazon blazing red ink.
Thanks for looking and enjoy your weekend.

Stampendous October card challenge

Hi ya - thought I would do the Stampendous October Card Challenge this month - it is a nice easy one - a Clean & Simple holiday card.

I have used the Stampendous 'holiday home' christmas stamp set and the dot border is actually from Stampendous 'fancy flourish' stamp set (an old set I think!).
I like how this card turned out mainly because I love to use non traditional christmas colours!
materials - Bazzill piglet cardstock, American Crafts powder cardstock; Stampendous 'holiday home' and 'fancy flourish' stamps; Stazon jet black ink; Marvy pens - blender 0, dark brown 18, aqua grey 51, cherry 65, sky blue 75, scarlet 94; Kaisercraft light blue rhinestones.
Thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of your week.

wish you were here home for christmas

Hi ya all just a quick card I put together while I have time.  It is based on the sketch from Card Positioning Systems and inspired from one of the Hero Arts October challenges - use non-holiday stamps to make holiday cards!  I have used their Hero Arts stamps 'wish you were here' to make a christmas card! 
Now I live in Australia but my family live in NZ and I have looked each christmas season for christmas themed stamps that have christmas quotes that say something along the lines of 'wish we could be together this christmas' or 'wish you were here this christmas' or 'I'll miss you this christmas' ... etc.  I am sure I am not the only person that makes cards and would like to send a card to my family saying something like this!  So in the mean time I sort of put 2 sets of word titles together and mixed and matched to make this card ...

The main stamped image and 'wish you were here' are from Hero Arts while the 'home for christmas' is put together from Stampendous 'holiday home'.  I was pretty pleased with the way it comes out.  I really should invest in a very small alphabet stamp set - I have one but it is not quite small enough for cards and any title like the one above  would take up the bulk of the card!
materials - Bazzill river reed, red devil cardstock, American Crafts wine cardstock; Cosmo Cricket 'mitten weather' papers; Hero Arts 'wish you were here', Stampendous 'holiday home' stamps; Stazon jet black ink; Creative Memories circle cutters; Ranger white opal liquid pearls.
Thanks for looking.