Final Week for the 'Belles Feb Challenge #54

That's right - three weeks have just flown by, and we are entering the last week for the current challenge. It ends at midnight on Friday night. 

I have had quite a busy month - and have had a bit of a difficulty putting things together as both hubby and I care having issues with our mobility - his leg and (possibly) back and my old back problem - so it takes longer to do things. As I am writing this, I am standing at the desk, the the keyboard perched on top of a box so that I do not have to sit, as just at the moment it's either stand or lay flat!! I have found out I can be quite ingenious though.......there is an operation in the wings but I don't have a date as yet so more on that later. Seems the medical industry here needs my dollars on a regular basis - this will be three operations in four years!!

On the good side I went to Melbourne and bought some goodies, some clothes and went to the Edinburgh Tattoo as well as caught up with family. The Tattoo was amazing - especially as our middle Granddaughter was performing with the NZ Army Band. She popped out the front and sang at one stage and the rest of the time she blew on her horn! It was so amazing to see her live!

So, I did this for Unstampabelles

Actually I did it for my brother's birthday and was the card I did eventually give him as I felt the other one I made was a bit too funky for him - he is a bit of a staid one!

I used the die cuts from Ultimate Crafts - the Australian dies - and did a bit of paper piecing with them a well, but I stuffed up the placement of the bird and then the ute, and so it looks a bit wonky!

My background is the trees embossing folder, and then embossing the raised areas with white embossing powder. I then used TH sprays to create the background, cleaning off the ink from the trunks with baby wipes.

The window is the window in the ute

The theme is in the idea of a birthday, when you are looking forward to your future, but the card is drawing you back to the time of the old ute.

I hand wrote the sentiment and added it as a conversation bubble.

Yes, my brother is an Aussie Classic!

Anyway, I hope you can gain some inspiration from this and see how you can create a card (with NO STAMPS PLEASE)  and enter it into the Challenge #54.

Scratch Paper technique for Dragonflies!

The newest challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies #51 is to create a Birthday Card!

How simple is that!

Whew, the last one was soooo huge!

Wonder if this one will be as well........

Anyway, a FB group I am a member of has just had a craze on using 'scratch' paper in a variety of ways, and one way is to emboss it and then scratch off the black surface on the raised embossing - or scratch it all off and die cut it. 

I did both

I got my scratch boards from my favorite art shop - it was in the kids section

This is the result after I (carefully) scratched off the top - the embossing folder is called Fubu - and I stamped my sentiment using a Kaleidacolor stamp pad to mimic the rainbow of colours revealed by scratching!

The colours are quite bright - here are the two die cut butterflies where I tried to remove all the black.  I cut these from the scraps and didn't have any idea what colours they would be until I began to remove the black surface. Up close you can see where bits were scratched off where they shouldn't have been - it's a bit had to control.

The sentiment is from a new SU set - Suite Sayings

I mounted it onto some yellow and the a blue card blank, added the sentiment to a small tag and the butterflies to the top and it was done - it is such an easy card to make once you have cleaned up the black covering from the places you want it to be removed - it comes off places where you don't want it to very easily and where you do want it to,it can be  bit difficult......

So bright and cheerful

This is a sheet of black with a sort of silver/mother of pearl shimmer under it - I embossed that one first, and began to sand the black off - big error; it scratched off everywhere! It took me a long time to go back over the bits where I wanted to remove it and carefully scrap off the black.

I turned it into a Valentine's card!

Please go to Crafting with Dragonflies and see what the rest of the design Team have come up with, and leave them a comment if you feel inclined, and then enter the challenge!

Crafty Bob to the Rescue!

It is time for another inspiration for the Challenge #54 over at Unstampabelles

I am a little busy at the moment (more to tell later)

so I have resorted to using one of those Crafty Bob kits!

You know, purchase on-line, they send you the files and you print them off, and follow the instructions (as if) and create a masterpiece!

It uses decoupage - and I am not that clever with this due to not having the requisite number of fingers, but we manage.

I cut the windows out with a craft knife.

As you can see there is a scene outside the window and a vase of flowers (daffodils) inside

The design calls for you to create a fold between the two layers - helps if you don't change the size of the images before you  print them off - on two different sheets......however, they eventually did fit, sorta......

There is a box at the front beneath the window for the flowers to sit on and this helps the balance of the card - you write on the back

There is even a template for the envelope and the whole thing folds flat for posting - clever, eh?

So, my twist is there - the theme is: looking forward to a change of season and looking out the window, and looking back at all the seasons past - memories of Spring!

I like the yellow as well.

It wasn't s quick to make as I thought it would be but I am pleased with it. 

Why not think what you are going to do and make it, and enter it at Unstampabelles

Challenge #54 Looking Forward, Looking Back!

Using a Kit for a Challenge

Today Peeps, I am sharing another card made for the challenge at 

Unstampabelle's February 2016 

In this I used part of a kit I got from D'Lish - so happy with the outcome as it was quick and easy

Challenge #54

Looking forward, Looking back - TWIST a window or mirror

This month we are challenging you to take a look towards or into the future, and at the same time, reference looking back to the past.

The Prize - random number draw

There are two Couture Creation Dies - small - up for grabs this month

I have several brother's - yes, I know, I survived! 

I have two sister's as well - big family,  long story......

My eldest brother recently had a birthday - I might add he is MUCH older than me.......at least 15 years older

I made this card for him - he is a real sweetie

The kit I mentioned had a wooden sentiment  that had the word handsome in it, but I swapped that out (he would not have liked it) and used some other wooden words I had - they were sprayed with white paint (TH) and then with a red spray - I wanted the red to be there but not be too bright.

The rest of the card mostly uses some of the stuff that came in the kit - and the word bubble with the sentiment in it was one of these but I cut around the speech bubble, and layered it onto some blue spotty background paper I had (old SU DP) - on looking at the photo I realised I should have run a black line around the edge - oh well......

This button came with the kit - cute eh! The washi tape also and I added it to the bottom of the photo thingy......

The bow was super cute too - in felt

This little flag as well - there were several but I only used one here so I have a few others to use later

 So, here is the card in it's glory!

The slide frame is the window as is the lens of the mythical camera, looking forward to my brother, who is looking back at the card (camera) - get it? Having his photo taken........

Sometimes using a kit is the way to go - and you can swap things in and out and use bits as you like. 

D'Lish make a card/scrap kit a month and they are very popular. They usually have such delicious things in them - stuff you would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else too. No, I don't work for them but I do sometimes buy from them!

That's it - the challenge is over at Unstampabelle's 

This was my take on it this week for the DT

You will have until the 26th February to enter this challenge, and your entry can be anything involving paper craft EXCEPT stamping or using a digi stamp 

I will enter this in the following:

Crafting with Dragonfllies takes off for a new year!

Hilde and the team are back! So, watch out! New challenges every two weeks, and only cards to be made unless otherwise clearly stated in the challenge. Stamps, digitals, dies, paint, ink, stencils - whatever you wish to use - as long as it follows the challenge theme for Crafting with Dragonflies.

What is the first Challenge?

Why, everyone's favourite!

#50 Anything Goes

I decided to play around with some of the many sprays I have acquired lately - particularly the TH Distress Sprays in this instance.  I also wanted to thank all the Peeps who have left lovely comments lately and all my various Teamies as well, and my two fearless leaders - Hilde and Elaine for keeping the faith!

So I used a stencil on watercolour card, and put the card inside a pizza box - trust me, it was clean, no left over pizza - and taped the stencil to the card, before spraying various inks onto the whole. Before I removed the stencil, I laid a piece of white card over the top of the stencil, and carefully pressed it down into said stencil covered with wet inks. Allowing a bit of time for the card to absorb the inks, I then lifted it off as cleanly as I could, and I got a negative image! I still had under the stencil a clean image, where the white pieces on this card below were sprayed with ink and the coloured parts of this card below were white! I will use this later for something.

I had been quite generous with the spray, and the colours were a little murky, rather than bright as they had melded together, but I liked the overall effect. When it was dry I embossed it with an Embossing folder to add some extra texture. 

The embellies came in a small pack from D-Lish a few months ago, and this was what was left over from another project. I love the little crocheted heart. The bright green doily was part of a freebie pack attached to a magazine, and I layered this over another white doily inside the stencil markings.

The My Favorite Things stamp and matching die were just what I was looking for - indeed, it took me 10 minutes to look for them! Obviously I had carefully placed the die in a storage set that I thought suited at some time but just as obviously didn't suit - must begin to catalogue my dies - getting too many now - but DON'T tell me husband I said that!

It is mounted on a black card

I flirted with the iea of adding a butterfly over the top left one, but left it s I thought it might be a bit too busy then - what do you think?

So, please go over to 

Crafting with Dragonflies

and read the blog, view the other DT pieces of work

and then enter your own piece of work at 

Challenge #50: Anything goes

A New Challenge at Eclectic Ellapu for 2016

The first (and therefore newest) challenge for the Purple Team over at Eclectic Ellapu  for 2016 is

Make and/or Decorate a Gift Bag/Box

I have been playing around with ColorBurst Powders in the last few days

People who look at my blog might have seen the image I created doing this and stencilling with Dylusions black paint.

Here is a reprise of the creation of the image:

The left hand side one is stencilled in black Dylusion ink and then this was sprayed with a matt spray to ensure the ink did not run when I added the powders 

I added the powders and spritzed the watercolor paper with water and this is the effect I got - nice!

What to do with my creation, I thought, and so I added some works - again through a stencil, and using a Versamark pen, and black Ebony sparkly EP

It looked pretty amazing still...............

.....so I added a card base.......and it became a bit pedestrian..........

...even with some ribbon and bling....

I showed my husband and asked him - he suggested a plastic sheet over the top.......mmmmm.......and perhaps make a box...........

I grabbed some black card and make a quick rectangle simple box with lid (15 x 20 cm), with a 3 cm edge all around.......chop flaps on one side top and bottom and glue into inside the box - done!

Then I made several tops from acetate sheets until I got one to fit properly over my black box top........

I also cut off the back of the 'card' and added the whole to the top of said black box.........the shiny surface of the acetate sheet top  really lifted the whole thing again to another level

I also put a thin strip of double sided tape around the side of the paper top, under the acetate, to hold it in place, and disguised this with a strip of red ribbon all around the box.

This box will now hold some lovely soft silky things, or a photo frame or chocolates/similar goodies; a DVD or even a set of cards. Some tissue paper inside the box first - perhaps red?

So, a gift box is created!

Please go over to Electic Ellapu

and see what others on the DT have created and then 

make your own piece and add it through the Linky to our new Challenge!

I will enter this in the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations: anything goes with a twist of Valentines

We Love to Create: anything creative/mixed media

The Paper Players: TicTackToe - Yellow, bling, ribbon

First Challenge in 2016 for Unstampabelles

Challenge #54: Unstampabelles

Looking Forward, Looking Back......

The TWIST is to use either a window or a mirror in your work

......but firstly.....

I personally am looking forward to a time when there are no fires and floods in Tassie and looking back at the extraordinary work our wonder Firefighters and SES people have done

along with the work of the various crews from the other states in Australia 

and the crew from New Zealand!

Thank You for your help

Now, on to the Challenge!

This is the Prize being offered

It runs until the 26th February, and you can enter any paper crafting project EXCEPT one using stamps or digital stamps

A young friend of mine has made a move from the city to the country, and purchased her own home. She has several horses now, and lots of cats, a house and a daughter

I wanted to make her a Welcome to you New Home card  - looking forward; with reference to something from the past so I added the cats. There is also a window to it the TWIST!

I used some material I have had for years - I am not sure what it is but it is sort of hairy and loose but is stuck together - I have a square of it, and used some of it for grass, as when they first moved in there was lots of long grass to be cleared away from the house to begin with - and this stuff looks like unmoved grass!

I made the fence by hand cutting it out, and using some old wooded image paper. 

She has a lot of cats...... I put more inside with another bird or two......

My window frame was die cut out, then sanded to bring out the colour underneath, and reinserted into the gap left from the diecut. Some diecut flowers and trees/shrubs and it was one. 

Please go to Unstampabelles and see the other work from the other Design Team Members, and then get cracking making a project to match this theme!

I will enter this in the following challenges:

Crafting from the Heart: anything goes

Craft Your Passion: anything goes

Our Crafty Corner: anything goes