Flowers and other die cuts

I have not been able to do much this week - firstly because I was too upset about what has happened to poor Christchurch in New Zealand (keep remembering our lovely holiday in that beautiful city); and secondly going to see my second granddaughter get her Blazer presented at her school for her position on the SRC.  Also saw her and two other girls sing a Missy Higgins song in unison - very impressive. she looked very contained, proper and upright in her blazer, but I know that inside she was a bundle of nerves, and just containing the giggles!

Because I could not get my head around making a card for a few days, when I was in the craft space I decided to use some new die cuts and make a few flowers. I had picked up a Marianne Design Creatable die cut of two flower shapes and a flourish leaf. They are thin metal dies and so it is difficult to get the paper or card out of them but I got quite adept in the end! I used up ends and bits of card and paper that were laying on the desk, and then decided to tidy up further, and use some other dies to get rid of my growing mound of scrap card, so I have cut out many labels, tags, hearts and shapes using dies and the Cuttlebug or some of my many punches. (Also managed to cut a hole into my rubber embossing mat - don't ask, I cannot believe I was so stupid!).  I have then put these diecuts into plastic bags and now have a store of many different colours to draw on if and when needed!  Be prepared to see lots of these on cards in the future. Here are the flowers and leaves and a card made from the pink ones!

 This card uses DP from DCWV's All Dressed Up cardstock, and the flowers have a SU brad in the centre.  I have included a label cut using a Nestability Label 4, some pretty ribbon, some leaves die cut and a heart shape punchout, as well as SU Mambo Melon ink, with clear EP.  It is all assembled with dimentionals and double sided tape, and put onto SU Pretty in Pink folded into a card shape. 

The flowers have three levels - one of card, and two of paper.  I used the ball on the end of a stylus to gently make the petals sit up, and tried to get the petals to sit properly but they keep moving back into place.  I think I should glue them next time. 

My next lot of cards were for the Creative Cottage Challenge - Fabulous Florals. Again,  I mixed the flowers I made with other die cuts and various DP and SU card. In the first one, the negative from the piece of paper where I had cut out the swirls was too intriguing to throw away, so I incorporated it in this card. Two punches of the heart swirl (in blue), and a Verve stamp, stamped in SU ink, a lace doily and a blue circle diecut, and a scrap of blue ribbon. 

This one used an image on the DP of the green bird (I added a black crystal for the eye) and three other pieces of bling.  The sentiment is a Verve stamp and I backed it on a blue card on a blue card - tried to be subtle. 

This one I used the WMS label's 14 stamp set and a Label 14 Nestability to create the label, and a WSM stamp for the sentiment, stamped in SU inks (Soft Suede and Moss green).  The small Kaiser brads make the centre of the flowers in this one, and the backing DP is a piece of scrap from a long time ago - no idea what is is. 

Blog Candy from Claudia!

Claudia had just joined me as a follower so being curious I went to see what her blog was about -  WOW: you should go and see!  She has also got the most amazing collection of blog candy to give away at the moment.  Welcome Claudia - I only hope my efforts begin to come close to yours!

Mellow Yellow

Annabelle stamps says - do it in yellow, so I did.  A double shot if you followed February's sketch (which I did) and I used an Annabelle stamp (All Things Grow), which I will put into the Gallery and get another shot at the prize!

I was playing with the Cuttlebug and making lots of stock pieces from the various card scraps, so used two of those from my Spellbinders Tags, a piece of yellow card embossed with hearts folder and the flower is a Martha Stewart punch (six times) and then layered with a button.  The background stamp behind the flower is the grass from "All Things Grow" and that is where the butterfly comes from, stamped on the sentiment tag and onto vellum and then fussy cut, using SU Suede ink.  The green vines come from a Marianne Creatables flower die.  

Got to go and watch the Lake Eyre show - sounds fascinating! Then on to the Miss Marple mystery - love Sunday night viewing on the ABC!

MOJO Sketch #178

I used the MOJO #178 sketch this week to construct the first card, and also the colour combo from the ThereSheGoes Stamps Colour Challenge #94 - kraft, cream and pink.

I kept it simple and used the background embossed card to tell its own story. The stamps are from Verve and the circle from the Nellie Snellen frames.  SU's inks, ribbons and card in Melon Mambo.  I added the tiny pearls for balance but don't know where they came from.

As I needed some birthday cards I thought I would finally use this image whcih as been laying around for over a year.  I created it from a picture in a magazine, covered with packing tape and then immersed in water to softer the paper and transfer the image to the sticky back of the tape. The image is from a tourism advert for the East Coast of Tasmania, and the image of the land inside the bottle (it's wine country) appealed to me.  I backed this onto some puce card and then onto a commercial yellow blank.  The pearl flourish was laid over the top and the quote layered onto the bottom of the card.  Inside has another suitable quote:

The inside

Then I started to see what else I could remove from the pile of  "this might be useful sometime in the future" that has been gradually getting bigger and bigger on my desk.  I found two '$20 notes' which are in fact applications to enter some competition. They arrived in the paper or a magazine sometime last year.  I know I have a strange sense of humour so I don't know if others will see this as amusing or not - here it is and the inside sentiment, which is also computer generated.  (The candle image is taken from an old birthday card, and the text circle is made with scraps, the black back is from the pearl flourish used in the last card.  Waste not, want not!)

Waltzing Mouses - I am entering the rodent challenge!

Some of you may know of the dancing rodent -aka Waltzing Mouse - and she now has a challenge blog that I have not got around to entering yet - until today! I love her stamps and the ways she designs to fit the Spellbinders Nestabilities so well.


Now, I know it is not Easter yet but I have started on creating a card for this season. I used the colour challenge at CR84FN #15 - teal, green and yellow

I used some Co'ordination card (obviously green) and dry embossed it on one side with the heart folder in the bug and lightly sanded to bring out the hearts.  I then stamped and embossed the egg from WMS in teal ink and clear EP.  After adding some bling in green and deep yellow, and making the banner using a sentiment from another WMS set, I also added a corner die cut embossed in white ink and clear EP.

Stamps:  WMS - Sweethearts; Nestie Eggs

Paper and Card:  Co'ordination Green card; Stampinback white card; SU Whisper White scrap

Ink:  SU Taken with Teak; Craft White

Other:  Clear EP; corner die cut Laser cut (Crafty Originals); Annabelle's sprinkles and Kaiser bling; double sided tape

One down, only a few more to go!

.

Red, black and pink....oh, and mauve!

That is Colour Thowdown's colour Challenge #128 - is speaks obviously of passion! And I have just noted that Let's Ink It Up has one on romance also, so here goes."

While doing a bit of a hop around tonight, I found a Challenge site, the StampMan, where hearts on your project were required, so I entered it! As well, I have entered this card into Paper Pretties Challenge - anything to do with Valentines. 

Papercraft Star have a sketch Challenge #32 but it closed before I got this entry in! Pity.  Some of these Challenges are so short in time; only two or three actual days to make and enter. Life is a bit busier in my neck of the woods. Anyway, enough about whining.

I stamped the heart circle, cut it out and sponged the centre before I removed the die cutter. I stamped the word and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I dry embossed the red card and cut an fancy edge with the MS edge punch. The wrapped around the ribbon and lace, and layered it all onto the black and white DP before attaching to the folded card. Lastly I added a lilac heart puffy sticker. 

Stamps:  Waltzing Mouse Lit'l Buddies; Kaiser - Loved

Paper and Card:  Commercial red card blank; Kaiser DP - Tiffany range; SU Whisper White; Ruby Red

Ink:  SU Pink Passion; 

Other:  EP clear; lace, ribbon; Martha Stewart edge punch; Cuttlebug and Nestability circle, Embossing folder (Tim Holtz) ; Heart stickers

Seize the Day, or cupcake.....

It has been an absolutely beautiful day here today - not too hot, blue skies and no wind.  It's the fourth day for the Wooden Boat Festival and  I am sure they relished it! It is Regatta Day today as well, and so fireworks this evening to close the proceedings.  State Schools start tomorrow as well, and so everything must come to an end including the Summer holiday and it will end with a bang! 

Made a card this afternoon - and decided to enter it into the Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #95, and the Lollipop Ladies Challenge #13 - mint and chocolate, plus polka-dots!  Annabelle Stamps is also saying - say it with polka-dots and as I added some buttons to my card, I decided to enter it into Tuesday Throwdown's Challenge - add buttons!

There She Goes had an Inspiration Challenge #92 which I used to co-ordinate my colours and decide to use a square (sort-of) for the text rather than a circle as in the sketch (I was too late to enter that one!). Here it is!

The cupcake was stamped several times (Carpe Cupcake set by Verve for both images and text), coloured up using Copics and Smooch, and then added to the card topper with dimentionals to lift it off the surface. The icing was stamped onto orange DP and fussycut and added to the top of the cake.  The text is placed into a Labels 17 Nestability in the Cuttlebug, and the buttons are antique with the shanks cut off. I used SU Close to Cocoa to edge some of the papers card and for the text label, and the DP is  from the KaiserCraft Lush Collection of 6" pads. The brown card is from Bazzill scraps, as is the backing card for the brown card (scrap, that is and Bazzill)! The text label and the cupcake rectangle are SU cream card. The folded green card is from a piece of Bazzill card 12 x 12.

The photo below shows a close-up of the Cupcake and candle. 

Wooden Boat Festival and a Challenge!

I completed a card as well:  so decided to put it up for a challenge! It's for the Creative Cottage #32 - words of love but no image! I didn't use an image but did use a heart shaped doily! Aud Sentiments wanted corny Valentine's sayings, so I will enter that as well and CR84FN had these colours as their choice for the challenge, but I think I missed that one!

The doily was edged with SU Melon Mambo ink, the stamped letters (Kaiser) were embossed with clear EP after being stamped in the same ink and then cut out and coloured lightly with a Copic; the word love was randomly stamped on the doily with the ink using a stamp from Kaiser as well. I added some chipboard letters in brown and some little pink flowers and put the lot on a background paper from SEI called Lovebirds! All that was then attached to a commercial white card blank. 

Well, DH got his wish and we went to the Wooden Boat Festival - twice! Once on Friday, when it opened and the weather was not too crash hot, and the second time on Saturday, after lunch and a trip around the Salamanca Market - and the weather was brighter and warmer.

The following views are of various scenes around the dock area of Hobart, and the Festival, over the two days but it doesn't begin to describe the scenes and boats that were here for it. Hundreds and hundreds of wooden vessels from luxury yachts, racing yachts, fishing boats and piners - and most were still in survey and being used! We also had the 'Young Endeavour', the' One and All'  and several local tall ships, and two naval boats!

A steam boat belonging to a friend of ours

Waiting to get into Constitution Dock (also crowded with boats)

A line-up of old D's (small racing class) on the finger jetties - you can see the vast number of boats in here from the forest of masts in the background

The Granny Smith! In need of some care but basically sound!

The James Craig - down from Sydney - she was originally from here and was a coastal trading vessel but founded and was a burnt out wreck in the waters off the shore at Southport - a small town way down South of Hobart for years and years. She sat on the sand in water up to her gunnels for such a long time. Eventually someone with vision (and money) came along and she was pulled off the sands and towed North to Sydney where they did a fantastic job restoring her - she is over 70 metres long and a beautiful ship. 

There were vessels of all sizes and shapes, including this shed which had a band playing on the veranda!

A visiting Japanese vessel (old)

Another steam boat tootling along past an old rowing boat - the oldest wooden boat in Tasmania! Don't you  love our harbour.

A different kind of boat!

A whole flotilla of 18ths.....

I have entered this in the Tuesday Throwdown Contest, as it requies pockets, and I have put a pocket in the inside of this card.

Wheeeew, it's busy around here! My eldest granddaughter was 18 yesterday, and her BF is 18 tomorrow; there is a PARTY (several parties - including a '71st' for a father (50) and daughter (21) combination, which requires a fancy dress-up organised for people) for each of the girls and then another one on Saturday night for the 71st!  We are only going to one party but some of the people around us are going to all three! Then there is the Hobart Cup on Sunday (where the girls and their young men are going to, now that they are legal), the Wooden Boat Festival starting today in Hobart and running for three days that the DH desperately wants to get to, the houseful of visitors for one of the parties, normal activities and Regatta day on Monday! AND we spent a lot of time at MONA yesterday!  If you are thinking of getting here to go to that DO SO! Fantastic place and a very eclectic collection of art on display at the moment.

Somewhere in there I made a couple of cards for the 18th's! The selected colour theme for the granddaughter's party is blue and black! So, the card had to be in those colours didn't it! The 18 is embossed with UTEE and the tag is cut out of Co'ordination paper and sanded back to get the blue showing through.  A brad, some ribbon and lace, a rub-on, some Prima flowers and a charm all attached to a piece of shiny bazzill layered onto a folded black card.  

The inside had some lovely heavy shiny white paper and some of the blue used to form a bit of a pocket, and the circle cut out with the Cuttelbug and then embossed and sanded, added to create a container for a cheque. Because this card was a bit lumpy-bumpy I made a box envelope for it - had three tries until I got one that was big enough!  I used one of the boxes then for B's card as well!

The card below was thrown together from a variety of scraps for C's Best Friend's birthday! The stamped image is by Sparkle and coloured with Copics and Smooch.  I coloured up the white satin ribbon as well and the numbers using Copic pens and then added Stardust Stickles to everything that seemed appropriate to make it sparkle!

Here it is in the boxed envelope. 

Now we are off to the Boat Festival and then home for dinner before the party! Guess who will sleep well tonight!

Clouds

Towards the end of last week we had some strange weather - probably as a result of Cyclone Yasi - down here in little old Tassie! Part of it was that it rained hard for part of each day for a few days.  One of those days DH and I were sitting down to lunch and I noticed this strange cloud formation in the sky - it looked as if there was a mini hurricane in the clouds! So I took a photo of it!  UFO's do you think?

It was moving pretty quickly .

And was driven by some pretty high winds by the look of it - it moved out of view fairly quickly.

Anyway, to cards:  I made this for a friend who has just been on a surfing holiday to Papua New Guinea - we missed his actual birthday, but will celebrate it with him anyway!  I followed the Annabelle Stamp Challenge #34 layout for February and the colours for this week!  I used scraps and a stamped image and sentiment from I Brake for Stamps - Humours Seniors.  Oh, and Annabelle's sprinkles. 

Aged one.....

I made another card using the DP from Bohemia (My Mind's Eye) in the same colours as yesterday.  Again, there is no stamp used here - just the papers, some ink to sponge around and a tag cut using the Cuttlebug, the sentiment inside made with a die cut and the 'bug, a rub-on .... along with a flower I made using folded  circles as petals, and a big brad from Kaiser. Oh, yes and some red  and turquoise bazzill. It is not entered in anything.  I cut the big circle using my SU circle cutter.

I love that butterfly and would love to have a stamp like that - but it is too big, so was hard to use.

To the One I Love

Thank you for the comments and positive thoughts - my family and friends are all shaken but OK as the result of Yasi.  I think it will take a long time for the state of Queensland to recover for these double blows of massive floods in the SE and cyclone/tsunami in the far north.

I have been busy and have not posted for a few days - I had intended to enter the CR84FN colour challenge - red, turquoise and brown - and had a card plotted in my head and then half completed for a few days, but today was so lovely, and there is rain threatening for the weekend, so I have been out for lunch with friends and visiting other friends rather than sit indoors and crafting today. However, I got home and it was calling to me from downstairs, like a baby calling for its mother really, and I am weak! So, here it is, for better of worse:

I found this Bohemia DP in my stash and knew that I wanted to use it for this challenge.  It took a while for the idea to emerge as to how I could use it, and after several trials, this view was chosen and cut out - once committed it came together quite easily. The edges of the DP and the circle tag have been sponged with brown ink, and the butterfly attached with dimentional magic. The inside is blank for a personal message.

Stamps:  None!

Paper and Card:  SU Ruby Red; My Mind's Eye - Bliss "Make a Wish" DP

Ink:  SU Chocolate

Other:   a metal butterfly; Cuttlebug Label die cuts; brown brad; rub-on from Letrapress; dimensionals and double sided tape

Sending Positive Thoughts to North Queensland

Just a quick post asking people to think many positive thoughts towards the thousands of people in North Queensland tonight who are hunkered down waiting for Cyclone Yasi to strike - the biggest storm front to hit Australia in a century. Keep safe, and be aware that many of us are thinking of you tonight and tomorrow and the next tomorrows that follow when the clean up and scale of the disaster is known. In particular, please think positively towards my nephew and his friends in Cairns,  and my next door neighbour's daughter and her family (including the ducks in the bath!) also in Cairns.

Let's Get Sketchy

...with OWL#38 Challenge. particularly those in Queensland who are now having to deal with a Tornado bearing down on the coastline hell bent on destruction and mayhem. My thoughts are definitely with you and I hope you are all OK and will all be OK.

One layer, one single piece of folded card, and no embellishments - just stamps.  I used two different stamp sets and my SU Markers to colour up the cling stamps so that I could get a different colour on different parts of the stamp.  It was quick and easy.

Stamps:  SU Upsy Daisy; Inkadinkado - Pretty Flowers

Paper and Card:  bank white card - commercial variety

Ink:  SU markers - Kiwi Kiss, Pear Pizzazz, Mellow Moss, Garden Green, Ruby Red, Poppy Parade, Summer Sun

Other:  

The skater

They are so elegant and pure when you see them performing their stuff! This  one was picked up at a beautiful craft shop in Blackburn, Melbourne, just before Christmas.  I decided to enter Colour Throwdown's Challenge #126 - to use Early Expresso, Kiwi Kiss, Marina Mist and Old Olive in a card.  I am trying to use up my stash and not just use the newer stuff all the time, so I went through the huge stack of DP to find the one to use as my background - as I saw it, the memory of the skater flashed across the surface of my mind and I was able to grab the idea before it drifted off somewhere, and immediately knew how this card would be made.

I inked the sentiment die cuts with Marina Mist and Old Olive, and the skater with a Timber Brown ink.  I then lightly ran my Smooch inks over them in appropriate colours to give them some glamour! They do have a lovely sparkle.  The DP and the backing card have been inked with Kiwi Kiss as well, and the card is apiece of Old Olive cardstock, folded in two.  Inside I have used the brown ink for the sentiments. The DP and the die cuts made the card very easy. 

Stamps:  Shirely's2Girls - Out of this World

Paper and Card:   DP was a freebie from a Scrapbooking magazine; brown Bazzill scraps; SU Old Olive

Ink:  SU Old Olive, Kiwi Kiss, Marina Mist; Stay'sOn Timber Brown

Other:   Smooch - blue, green and Molasses; Annabelle's Sprinkles; Scrap FX Embellishments; dimentionals and double-sided tape.

This is inside the card

Many people have kindly commented on my work over the last few weeks, and when I go to their blogs and see their work I am so impressed with their work and so pleased that they took the time to comment on mine.  Many of them have been selected for recognition for their work (like Sue W (Tillymint) whose gallery at SCS has been selected this week to be in the spotlight - Congratulations Sue) so I was particularly pleased when the lovely people at Mad for Markers picked my work to comment on in a positive way. Thanks.