Oh I do like to be beside the seaside........

 One thing people always think of when they think of Australia is BEACHES!

Sun and sand and Lifesavers and such....

Indeed, I think the most famous beach in Australia is Bondi Beach, Sydney (above)

But perhaps one of the most beautiful and lesser known ones is called 

WINE GLASS BAY (Tasmania)

Can you see that small boat? On the RHS?  I have been in that spot or near that spot in a yacht on a number of occasions, and swam in those beautiful waters. I have also once (in my youth) been on top of that line of hills above the beach on the southern side, and later been back there and walked that beach with a pack and a group of school kids for the start of a week's camping in the National Park.

 A bit less crowded than Bondi.

Over at Unstampabelles we have asked you to make a project that reflects something of your country 

February Challenge #44 National Symbols

The twist is to use your country's flag colours in your creation

Just don't use stamps!

The Prize is this collection of new material (value approx $20 Aus) 

Well, my card is about the beach

In Tasmania, the water remains cold right up to December, and it takes a brave person to swim regularly before then without protection ie wet suit. In summer, the briskness of the water is a great counterpoint to the hot days.  Beware sunburn though - we have an hole in the ozone layer over us thanks to the rest of the world, and we burn too readily as a result!

We have to take slip, slop and slap very seriously - slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen, and slap on a hat!

Graphic 45: By the Sea Collection is the go here - and some SU card - Night of Navy - plus three white starfish shapes of bling!

Only a week to go to enter this - actually, it closes on the 27th AEST so less than that

You need to get your entry in asap

There are some great ones there already!

Men's cards.....and other things

Hello everyone - and welcome to the newest followers

I have been trying to clean up my workspace and trying to make sense of all the stash. You know how you accumulate stuff - particularly the freebies from magazines - and other stuff you purchased for a specific idea, and then had some leftovers to deal with?

Well, I have been trying to use up all this stuff or pack it up to give away or throw it out  - relax, little has actually been thrown out!

This male card was one result - the image and sentiment is from Acid Drops and Whatknots. I purchased several sheets of images and sayings - especially Christmas ones - and I may have also got a sheet or two of non-Christmas ones too because they made me laugh.......that's my excuse....and this image is from one such sheet. I really like to others, but the sentiment going with this one was not what I would use, so I fussy cut the young man out and just used that. Also while trawling through the internet I saw a card with the die cut edge and suitable papers underneath - it was a very girly card - and I thought it would work with any colour combo. So, SU Soft Suede card,and paper from my stash, plus a button and some string and some bling. All on a black commercial card blank from Regal Craft. Took me about 10 minutes to make!

I will enter this in the following:

Sister Act: Anything Goes

Scrap and Craft: Anything Goes

The following two are me just showing off as they are very accurately CASed from the magazine where I got the freebie stamp from - Craft Stamper.

A Project Life postcard, SU stamp (Good Greetings) and a black card blank. Washi tape is used for the flags. I paper pieced the camera and added some gloss to the heart and some bling to the flags.I did create some shadow with a Copic grey pen.

The second card is so copied but it looks so good, I thought I would show it off anyway. A die cut film strip, the stamp coloured with Copics and an SU sentiment stamp (Happy Day - masked) and while the original used green acyrlic paint smeared across, I used a Gelato crayon. I used a corner punch to round the corners of the card too. The lens on the camera is glossed with SU Crystal Effects. 

Starry, starry night

I was mulling over what I was going to do next for my Unstampabelles inspiration for week 3, when someone mentioned the bright stars in Tasmanian skies at night. Mmmmm - Southern Cross!

Do any of you remember the poem "The Australian Sunrise" by J L Cuthbertson?

It has a line in it which is

.....the Cross hung low to the sea......

Every time I see the Southern Cross from the carport at night, I repeat that line, learnt when I was in Grade 7 at Dunalley State School. It is such a distinctive constellation. 

Not only that, but the stars are so clear and crisp in our skies.  When we have had oversea's visitors staying with us they always comment on that fact. 

In addition..... the Southern Cross is on our National Flag!

So, armed with all these ideas seething around in my brainbox, I went to Pinterest for some inspiration regarding stars, and after looking at so many beautiful pieces of work, shut down the computer and decided to just do my own thing! Still, I do detect some influences in what was created!

I firstly got my largest  SU Stars die and traced around it onto a piece of SU Whisper White card. I found a patterned EF (Darice Flur de Lie) and embossed over the image. I used my Gelato's and smeared some red and then blue over the raised sections of the star and fussy-cut the shape out. 

The I cut another piece of SU WW card to fit the front of a commercial square card from Regal Craft, and die cut another star from this.  I attached it to the card front with small dimensionals and carefully inserted the coloured star into the space and glued it down. 

I then punched 3 small blue stars with my small SU punch, and found 3 red pearl stars from my stash, and placed them on the front. I remembered I had the button somewhere in the stash, and found that, and attached it to the banner, and used a puffy stick-on for the sentiment

I am not sure if it needs something else.

I will be honest - I got so engrossed in the making I forgot the rule for Unstampabelles - no stamps -and stamped out a sentiment banner.  It wasn't until I was about to write this up that I realised what I had done! Maybe if I add some ink to the inside of the outside star??? Does that actually make sense?

You know, just wiped some ink into the star to delineate it a bit........

Anyway - it will do!

Why don't you go and have a look at the Unstampbelles blog and check out the prize and the other entries and the inspiration, and then have a go yourself!

Oh, here is the first one!

Wattl'it be then?

I made this card for the Winners Post at Unstampabelles, and I am quite chuffed about it because it is almost one of the only ones I planned in my head that looks a bit like my plan! They usually turn out to be a real dog's body!

The current February challenge is to make something that represents a National Symbol and uses the colours of the flag of your country! So, I used the internet to look at the various National Symbols for Australia and found this

Wattle Sprigs!

Always the symbol of Spring in the middle of the coldest part of winter, and always making me smile (and sneeze!)

Then I though of the twist - and immediately this came to mind

The boxing kangaroo is the unofficial sporting flag of Australia and can be easily purchased everywhere, especially when there is an international sporting event on involving us Aussies!

So, I made this using a new die I had recently purchased

made by Die-Versions (Sweet Frames)

I was so happy with the result 

A Cheery Lyn leaf flourish, and then some gold Pearl dots and a bit of bling - if you look at the painting of the wattle in the Coat of Arms, it has little blue bits in it, and that's what gave me the idea! Of course, I took a bit of poetic licence as well!

I used SU card  - Hello Honey and Gumball Green - and a commercial card blank from Regal Press

I will enter this in the following challenges:

Sunday CAS Challenge at the Outlaws - you need to be a member to log in

CAS on Sunday: Flowers

Southern Girls: sparkle and shine (from the gold and the bling)

Sister Act Card Challenge: anything goes

Challenge #44 for Unstampabelles

Hello to all my followers! Nice to see you peeping in here again. I hope you enjoy what you see (and read!). This post is to tell you about the card I made for Challenge #44 at Unstampbelles.

National Symbols - what country are you from? 

Incorporate a national symbol from your country into your work.

The twist is to use your country's flag colours

The Prize is this collection of new material (value approx $20 Aus)

Well, I ran out of time to be really inventive - what is it about time? One minute you have lots of it,and the next it has all gone and you are pushing to get stuff completed! I think there must be a time thief out there, and he/she has targeted me!

Anyway, this is what I came up with - bloody obvious, I know!

I used an old (very, very old) sheet of images from CatNip(?) I purchased for Scrapbooking and I had used one image from it.

For the speech bubble, I created the text on the computer and then die cut it out - edged it with a red marker

The image itself has a 3D look about it

 and while  I didn't exactly fussy cut it, it made it look even more 3D!

See what I mean?

Jut a simple Hello style card

Well,that's it - obvious and all I know!

Why not head over to Challenge #44 at Unstampbelles, and see the other DT lady's work

Then get those thinking caps on and show us what you can make!

First card for the Purple Team!

As mentioned late in 2014, I am now on the Purple Team for Eclectic Ellapu! We had January off, but the first challenge for 2015 starts on the 1st February! My team's theme is

Hearts and Roses

Now I don't personally celebrate Valentine's Day (nor does the Hubby) as it is not part of our traditions but I do love to see the work's of art created, and it is certainly now becoming a definite part of our marketing world, and therefore of the younger people.

So, I threw myself into the challenge!

I was influenced greatly by the work of Joanne Allison in Craft Stamper (Feb 2015) - the Big Reveal

In this technique (which Joanne says she saw in Splitcoast Stampers) there is a reveal where you take away the top paint layer to reveal what lies beneath in a mixed-media technique

I added an overprint with a mask into the wet paint as well

Firstly, I took a piece of white SU (Whisper White) card and stamped it using StaYZon black ink with a script stamp I have had for 5 years called EK Success - Image Tree.  I then used TH Brick Red distress ink and and covered the card with this over the ink. I then painted it over with Modge Podge and let it dry in the sun.  Yes, it was sunny - finally!

I die cut out some letters to spell the word,and put them on the card.Then I mixed up some green, white and gold acyrlic paints, and painted a layer reasonably thickly over the Modge Podge and the letters.  Again I let it dry in the sun! The gold paint gives it a shimmer.

Using an old plastic stencil of a heart, and some Dettol Instant Hand Sanatizer - in otherwise alcohol - and a tissue I wiped away the paint showing through the stencil. I probably rubbed it a bit hard - try to do it gently to keep the shine of the previous layer intact. I could have done this with the letters also except they were green anyway, so they got a final layer at the end in Wink of Stella - red. 

While the paint was a bit tacky, I laid a stencil on top and used a sheet of paper and a brayer to lightly press this into the paint. It was a Crafters Workshop mini piechart one.

The edges of the heart are not straight which is what I wanted - and the colour and writing show through. The texture from the stencil looks good too. I highlighted some of this later with some gold  Perfect Pearls. 

I used an SU stamp set called Happy Wanderer with TH black soot ink for the sentiment and an SU heart embossing folder for the base - SU card too. The card base is a commercial blank from Regal Press. The roses are from Prima, and the die cut is a freebie from a magazine. The reveal card is layered up also on some red card and gold mirror card. 

So why not go and see what is happening over at Electic Ellapu and start thinking creatively. 

You have a month to get an entry in!