'Just Scraps' are not just scraps!

I have just recieved a very nice email from Jean at 'Just Scraps' telling me to select a paper piecing package from http://www.paperandpiecings.com/ as I had been selected for this week's bounty!  YUM. Thanks Jean! I, of course, chose a frog! I use a lot of scraps in my work - I have three whole drawers full of paper and card scrap  I cannot throw anything away that might be useful one day!

 I have a couple of cards to put up as well, constructed over the weekend. The first one was a construction only as I had made all the bits a while ago - the girl is a digi image coloured with copics, when I was first learning to do this.  I masked her out after colouring her in and sponged green ink around the image.  She is printed up on SU Glossy White and I only had about 6 copics then, so colour choice was limited.  It is mounted on royal blue scrap and the ricrac matches the purple well.  The flower and leaves are from another digi from Fred She Said, coloured with copics as well and then with Dimentional Magic - just to see what happened! The leves and petals curled nicely and the shine is excellent. The card is a commercial blank from Regal Press.

The second card is also using SU Glossy White and sponging, but this time I sponged some SU inks (Old Olive, So Saffron, Melon Mambo and Apricot Appeal) on the card to start with and then stamped over this with a Memento London Fog ink. I used copics to put some additional colour onto the image and drew in the flight of birds in the top RHS.  The stamps are two sets - SU Lovely as a Tree and WMS Irish Blessings for both the house and the sentiment. I used my stamp positioner to line up the horizon on the two stamps to try and give an illusion of one big picture.  I cut the resulting image into three and mounted it on black and then again on SU Melon Mambo card. The sentiment is stamped with SU Close to Cocoa ink.

The third card again used the SU Lovely as a Tree - but this time it is on SU Whisper White and the stamp was coloured using SU markers. The sentiment is from SU Greetings Galore (no longer available). I mounted it on Chocolate Chip then Close to Cocoa card and used a piece of My Mind's Eye DP, Bohemia BH2158 as background and a piece of ribbon from Kaisercraft. The buttons came from my Mum's old button box - and it sent me back on a journey of memories as I sorted through the various colours and button there; took me about an hour to get the buttons because I was reliving old times. The card blank is Close to Cocoa.

Card number four is another cased idea, using the sentiment, which I created on the computer. Cut out and mounted on Lovely Lilac card, and sponged with Elegant Eggplant it looked OK. The stamp is one from Inky Antics, stamped onto Canson 250g paper, and coloured with Copics after stamping with Memento London Fog.  However, because it was not dark enough I then went over the outlines in black pen. The background is from a booklet of paper  - DCWV Pocket Full of Posies - and has sparkly bits on it as well! The card is a commercial blank from Regal Press.

The fifth card is a case using the SU Think Happy Thoughts stamp set, and it was meant to be quick and simple.  However, when I stamped the flowers onto the Bashful Blue card I didn't get them in the correct place, so they are not aligned; the sentiments are stamped in Melon Mambo and are OK, but the centre one was out of align and the flower in the middle wasn't in the middle (you cannot see it now because I used one of my delicious new flowers from Celebrations Wild Roses to cover that up); and I used some bling to disguise the other mess; and to top it all, I didn't like it once it was done either, so a revamp was necessary. I then mounted the Whisper White onto Melon Mambo card, added the flower and bling and decided it would do.

The inside has a white inset stamped with other sentiments and several flowers from the same set as before.

What's in a week?

Just scraps Challenge 9: I am going to enter two cards in this challenge - the second and forth card in this batch.

About seven days I think since I blogged last time - well, I have been busy socialising and yes, I have made some cards as well and tried to clean up my work space, but not my desk - and I have been doing some plain air painting with my friend Glenda, at her place at Wattle Grove. I was experimenting with an abstract, but it looked like a landscape gone wrong, but Rosemary, who was there in the afternoon, suggested I turned it on its side and hey presto! I have an abstract bunch of flowers! Oh, and I did four hours relief teaching on Monday. Now for the cards made..........

Well, card number one is one I did for a friend's birthday very quickly yesterday afternoon.  It uses SU products and the SU Always stamp set, and SU DP; and an old Stamp It sentiment stamp. I stamped the bird in Wasabe Green ink,  and coloured the flowers with the markers. I sponged Melon Mambo ink around the edges and glued it to a scrap of green card.  The I glued another scrap behind that, and added a piece of paper to allow me to write a message on that. Then I positioned the message on the RHS so that it was hidden behind the bird when the card was closed. The front of the card is just folded back at the half way point.  Here is inside it.

The second card also has a bird on it - from my TJ Designs - Song Birds.  The branch the nest is resting on is from my new WMS - Asian Gardens and the pink flowers are also from there.  I was practising using my stamp positioner to get the nest on the branch, the second brown bird on the branch and the flowers in the right place. I wrote the sentiment and the last line went up to the right a little! BAD GIRL!  I mounted it all on SU Close to Cocoa, and then on Melon Mambo.  I used my Martha Stewart punch for the Birds on a Wire at the top of the pink card! I then put all on a white commercial card blank, added a simple insert with the birds nest stamped in grey just on the bottom RHS.  I used the SU markers to colour the single bird and the nest, and sponged the edges of the card in Melon Mambo.  

Just Scraps Challenge 9 - first one:

Sorry the next bird card is out of focus, but it is not very good - I used pattern papers and drew up and cut out the birds and then glued them onto scrap red card.  I tied red string around them, and then wrote the two words in black pen.  I also outlined the birds in black marker. I mounted the red card on an aqua card before putting them onto the patterned paper scrap and then the whole lot again on a red card.  I needed to have made the birds smaller and to have put the string down lower on each square.  It could be a retirement card or a birthday one.......

This card is simple and a case from my ideas book using the SU stamp set Natural Beauty.  I randomly stamped the flower onto my base card with Close to Cocoa ink, stamping off once each time before stamping onto the card.  I then stamped the word square onto craft using the same ink and stamping off first again.  I then mounted the square on green scrap, and used a piece of the same card to place across the stamped card.  A piece of light green ribbon completed the card and I stamped the same flower image the same way (just once) onto the inset. 

Just Scraps Challenge 9 - No 2

This card was also quick and simple - and a cased idea - using a peel-off spider's web, asd well as a spider I had as an embellishment, and a drawn line to connect the two.  The word was stamped with a small letter set using black Stayzon, and the ribbon was threaded through a button and attached to a scrap of red stripy card on the RHS.  The whole lot was then put onto red card, with a white inset (blank).

The last card was me just deciding to use the coloured digi (when I was practising using copics) I had of an iris, and mounting it on scrap yellow and green card before I made a card blank from green bazzil. I again added a blank inset - there is no sentiment on this card and it can be used for a notelet or birthday or just to say hello. I made it when I was cleaning up the desk space - so far I have moved all the scrap I have collected in the last two weeks to one other desk and changed my base sheet on the desk.  I had better treat this seriously and get to cleaning before I disappear into the mess, never to be found again!

Paper Pieces Again

Another two cards today - one using paper piecing and another using a rub-on and torn paper. Both are male cards.

The first one was supposed to have the plane facing the other way but when I drew it, I forgot which side of my double sided paper I was going to use, so it ended up facing towards the left instead of the right.  This meant that the propeller and the nose of the plane is buried in the cloud instead of in the clear air.  However, it still looks "cool" I was told by the 17 year old! My clouds were free cut and then I drew around them with black pen, but when I put them on the card I realised that I needed to have waited until they were placed before I drew around them - silly me!  My plane has done a few loops and this was supposed to be over the clouds but because I am facing the wrong way the line of flight does not stand out as well against the darker background.  I pierced the paper with a needle to get the dotted line to stand out and then decided to touch each hole with a black pen to highlight them further but it still only just works. Next time! The papers used are a mixture of stash and SU DT papers, and some SU card scraps and Navy card.

This card used some paper from the stash, torn away and rubbed over with brown ink to age, and then the cream card smudged with brown ink as well.  The writing was on the computer.  The image was a rub-on from a Royal and Langnickel - Mens Collage set, put onto SU Cream card and then this was mounted onto firstly black card, and then craft. The whole lot is on a card made from SU Cream.

This is the inside of the card. 

Sunny Sunday

A post from a sunny day - this is the card I was putting together while Jessica was sailing in yesterday.  It is made from paper piecing and it was fun to make. I used some scraps to make it and the card was made from a piece of SU Always Artichoke green. 

The background paper was made several years ago when I was first playing with mica paints and sprays.  The green inked bottom was a left over from something else I was doing on a piece of SU Very Vanilla and I had used the spare paper to protect the desk from overspray, and then found that the effect was too good to throw away.  I took a bit of this and crumpled it, and then swiped it with the SU Chocolate Chip ink pad and then ironed it to make it lie flat on my card.  This was an attempt to make it look 'old'. The mica overspray is also glittery in gold and green and in the light has a shimmer that makes the card look modern also. The dinausaur was freecut following a picture in my ideas book, and I cut out his arm seperately, and his teeth.  I used my decorative scissors here and simply slipped the cut piece into the mouth of the beast.  Some black pen for his stripes and black and brown inks to dirty him up and he looked OK. I used dimentionals to lift him off the sheet a bit.  The sentiment is typed up on the computer onto Reflex paper and then coloured with a variety of Tim Holtz Distressed inks to make it look old and dirty.  This was layered onto a scrap of green card and the whole image was then layered onto Close to Cocoa. 

I then thought it needed to be completed by a further comment inside and used Reflex paper again.  I layered up the comment after dirtying it as before, and glued it into the centre of the sheet.  I stamped the bottom of the paper with three different stamps, two from SU Pocket Silhouettes stamped off in Old Olive and Close to Cocoa, and then a Verve stamp set (Love is???) in Chocolate Chip. I was trying to create ancient swamp idea! I did have fun making it though!

Jessica Watson's Day!

I have just watched young 16 year old (nearly 17)  Jessica Watson sail over the finish line in her boat Pink Lady  in Sydney Harbour in what is a glorious autumnal day, surrounded by hundreds of other boats and thousands of Australians cheering her on, and I was so suprised to find how moved I was when that hooter went off! She has just sailed solo around the world for 210 days, and after being at sea for seven months, how must she be feeling! Congratulations Jessica, and all concerned - an amazing and inspiring journey. 

She is nearly at the steps of the Opera House and I need to go and watch soon again - it is compelling television and I am glad she is home safe, but I worry for her welbeing in the next few months as she settles back into life at home.

So, I have some cards -  but they are sympathy cards!  They are cased from the ideas book of course - but there is one that is about teenagers and sort of connected to Jessica - here it is!

It is a sympathy card for parents of teenagers who are beginning to test the boundries!

It's an easel card and I used the computer to generate the wording.  The card is inked with SU Pink Pirorrette, and I have cut out the heart and the rose and stuck them over another heart on the front, and the rose next to the 'Hang in There' sign in the middle.  It amused me and I made it with scraps from a magazine, to see what it would look like.  Don't know if I would use it but can imagine a situation where someone might need to be given a 'hug'.

This card is made with three different stamp sets, one from Waltzing Mouse (the circles), one from SU (the swirl) and the Butterflies are from TJ Designs.  The origional had a big round patterned stamp which I do not have but thought this button circle from Faux Circles might work - I have added two other cirles from the same set to try and add to the depth of the circle pattern as well to replicate the look of the origional. The SU Baroque Motif swirl is always useful and the butterfly from TJ's Songbirds set has had a few outings. These are stamped on acetate with black StayzOn and coloured with Sakura JellyRoll pens, and then fussy cut and glued on with Dimentional Magic.  I tried to colour in with the Copics but they only picked up the black ink and would not stay on. The card is SU Confetti White (torn edges) and this always has a heavy blotting paper look I think, which suited the card,  and the ink is SU So Saffron.  This is layered on black and then again onto So Saffron card.  The sentiment was printed off the computer on the card before it was torn. Here is an upclose of the butterflies. Now realise I need to draw in the feelers on them! I will do that now.

The last two cards used the same sentiment but I printed off two copies of it using different fonts to see what the difference was - and I like them both, actually.  Again, I used SU Confetti White paper and stamped a Stamp World cloud image (Cloude) using versamark over the sentiments.  I then wiped the paper over with pale blue chalk, and put some SU Blue Bayou ink on the edge of the LHS one.  The tree is paper pieced together from bits cut from imaginisce Go for Baroque - Blue Blooded card. This was freehand cut, doing the trunk and the leaves seperately.  I tore off a bit from the bottom of brown and each one is layered up differently, one using a grene scrap and one a brown, and one is on SU brown card and one is SU Blue Bayou.

 You can see the clouds a bit better here. I do like the look of them.

Cheers, and happy card making!

THREE CARD DAY

Just Scraps Pink Challenge 7 and several others:  (The challenge card is the second one)

Well, perhaps three cards over two days really, but you get the idea..  I spent some time going through all my magazines on cards and on making cards, extracting various images from them with scissors and pasting them into my project book (number 3) of ideas.....and so these are all 'cased' from my ideas book number 3.  The card with the books is an almost straight take, and the other two are adapted to suit me, especially the first one.  BUT, someone else had the origional idea first - I merely reused it!

Paper:  all Dressed Up ministack - DCWV; SU Real Red; heavy vellum scrap

Other: two matches (long); ribbon; sequin waste; double sided tape

Here is an upclose of the wording on the bottom of the vellum, created on the computer:

Just Scraps  Pink Challenge 7:

This one uses scrap pieces of paper from my very full scrap drawer, and oval page pebbles. Again, its cased but shapes and patterns differ and the number of tiles, and the banner heading......so it is different but the same, if you get my drift! It is not all pink, but that is the main colour and I love this new one from SU. So vibrant! you could use this card for any event I guess, but I have stamped a birthday sentiment inside on an off-white inset.  I like to use these because it means the recipient can then either use another inset and resuse or just reuse by removing the first inset. A bit of double sided tape sticks it in and this is usually easily enough to remove. So, two for the price of one!

Paper:  SU Raspberry Ripple; Whisper White; blue scrap card, yellow paper and a yellow commercial card.

Other: Making Memories oval page pebbles; Life's Journey frame; rub-on; fibre; cuttlebug embossing folder Swiss Dots

The third one - books - is practically a straight case. It just amused me.

Paper: SU Cream card; Garden Green; Rose Red; So Saffron; spotted paper

Other: black pen; double sided tape; computer

My SIL and her hubby arrived in Athens safely and are off touring - heard from them today. So jealous - have I mentioned that before? Cheerio!

SPOTTY CHILD!

Well, apparently I am a child because I have MEASLES would you believe! Have had them for over a fortnight so no wonder I have been feeling a little off colour - probably picked them up in the airport or on the mainland somewhere - that's what you get for going off-island! Viruses and germs!  However, am feeling a bit better and managed to make some cards over the last few days, even if the brain was a little slower then normal!

Made this one a few weeks ago and just competed it - it is from scraps and used a digi image called Citris Topiary, coloured with Copics and a frame made from Nestabilities Label 1, a rub-on and a button.  It was origionally for a colour challenge that I didn't get to enter using yellow, brown and green.

Friends Having Fun - Colour Challenge Two

I have decided to enter this competition - using the three colours turquoise, yellow and terra cotta. There is a bit of terra cotta in the colouring on the bird image! Just peer really closely!

This one was intended for my MIL for Mother's Day (not sent yet). It containes images stamped from two different sets - the butterfly is from a TJ Designs - Song Birds set and the bird is a freebie stamp created by Elusive Images, and again coloured using Copics. I also used Dimentional Magic on the bird and the buttlerfly to make them shine.  The card is all SU card - Craft, Teal, Black, and Whisper White - and the punched edge is a Martha Stewart punch Doily Lace. Some ribbon, lace, flowers, SU crystal bling, and two pins completed it.

This one was created using the polished stone method - I stamped the images three times with Versamark ink and embossed with White Opals embossing powder, then over stamped with Versamark with the second stamp. I used two images from the SU set Oh, So Lovely. I spounged the shiny white card over with SU Elegant Eggplant ink and polished off the residue with a tissue.  I then cut the images into three panels and mounted them on white card that had been swiped with the ink around the sides. This was then all mounted again on a piece of Elegant Eggplant card.  I added a Tim Holtz tag and some ribbon. I used another SU stamp set for the sentiment on this ( Happy Moments).  Inside I put some purple paper I had floating around in the stash and a piece of white stamped with one image from the set in the same ink, and repeated the idea on the front of an envelope.  It was supposed to be for a challenge that I am too late to enter into now, but here it all is!

You can see inside a little better but the colour is not correct as it was taken at night under a poor light.

Now I am off to make some more as the itching has stopped and the steriods have started to work better (no, I will NOT be able to complete in the London Olympics now, so the Pole Vaulters can all take a sigh of relief!) and I have started to feel MOJO juices rising! Au Revoir to my sister-in-law and her husband as they leave today for five weeks touring in  Europe - soooooo jealous - and hope the ash and the Greek protests are all in the past and the Euro is not too bad for you!

Sunshine Blog Award

Claire Harrison has given me a Sunshine Blog Award.  Check out her blog as well, and find out all about it!

Thanks Claire!  I get really excited and silly when I find out someone has been looking at my blog!  I have just arrived home from Agfest (tell all tomorrow, but I got some stunning metal bits there for card making) and rushed to check my email - and that is why I am now blogging instead of unpacking and getting a meal ready!  Better go and feed to man, as he drove me there and back and walked round the grounds for 6 hours with me today!  However, I will be back tomorrow to 'share the love 'with some other blogs to link to and to share the sunshine award.

9.30:  I'm BACK!

Here are my recipients of the Sunshine Award - blogs I regularly follow for inspiration and to fire up the mojo.  These women are inspirational and full of energy - just what I need to keep me going!

Crafty Squirrel

Kim's Stamping Spot

Stamping Moments

Janeybell

Stampinkins

Helllooo ladies! Hope you are all well and creating craftily!

We have been to Canberra!

Have not posted for a while because my hubbie and I have been in Canberra, visiting family.  We had lovely weather, and played with the grandies for 4 days,  coming back to Melbourne and staying with other family and seeing MIL (96) before returning home. We had a week away, including being in Canberra for Anzac Day (Australia's day to remember our soldiers who fought in wars and are currently serving in the armed forces, representing Australia overseas - my dear old Dad, who died in 1983, was a Japanese POW on the infamous Burma Railway for four years during WWII).  This meant we could go the the dawn memorial service at the National War Memorial - along with some 20 000 others! We got up at 4.00 am, and were parked at the Russel Building's carpark by 4.45. We got a free shuttlebus from there up the Avenue to the War Memorial Building forecourt - we stood about six back from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It was a very moving, simple service and we were able to see our programs with the use of a little electrical candle - both given to us as we entered for a gold coin donation to the RSL. There were many young people there - an interesting development in modern times, and they were so respectful and quiet, and well behaved. It was cold but we listened to the dawn chorus of birds, including a kookaburra and white cockies, before the service began at 5.30.  The birds fell quiet during the service - spooky! We were home by 7.0 am! All this thanks to son Matthew, who drove us there and back, and provided hot coffee and snacks at the end of the bus ride back to the car. I took some photos but without flash so they are a bit murky.

This is looking back along the Avenue towards Parliament House - people were still arriving.

This was to the side - you can see the tiered seating set up but we stood.

Looking towards the Memorial Building and Museum, with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of us.

I even sang!  This song is such a dirge but it is traditional and wouldn't be ANZAC without it! 

LEST WE FORGET

As well we spent time going to the Tidbinbilla (?) National Park, and visiting with the natives, and to the Deep Space Tracking Station linked with NASA located near there. A very interesting excursion made more enjoyable by the children's interpretation of everything. Some images from this trip:

The main tracking device.

We stopped to admire a mob of kangaroos, much to the kid's delight! It was a big mob - this is only part of it.

My  grandson took this picture (aged 4) of an Emu (a flightless bird which stands nearly as tall as an adult) with my digital camera - he also took several pictures of me and his grandfather and of his face - nothing too recognisable!

Cute, aren't they!  Jack and Lily (aged 6). "We don't want you to go Nin!" - taken just before we left for the airport on Anzac Day.