The making of a house.......for Unstampabelles

One day, I was looking through a craft magazine (as you do) when I spotted a page devoted to Die'sire Metal Dies, and was inspired by the creations there to make a house for my DT project at 

Unstampabelles

This is what I saw!

It just looked so cute

I had to start from scratch and create my own pattern, and use the bit's and dies that I had that might suit, so mine is not exactly like this one, but it is the inspiration for mine. 

I have a problem with making objects/projects that don't have an obvious use

I ask myself "Yes, but what is it for?"

If I cannot find a practical use I am reluctant to involve myself in the creation of the project, but this house just sang to me, and I found myself making something just for the enjoyment of making it, rather than as a useful thing, and I enjoyed it!

Here is my house

It stands about 20 cm's or just over 6 inches tall, and is a 7cm square (or 2.75 inches approx)

I made the top by trial and error, and it is part of the walls, folding the triangles to fit together at the top, and cutting out a bit either side to reduce the amount of card inside the structure.

I did make a box base to sit inside the house as extra security but it is not a container.

I don't have a door die (yet) but this ornate window stood in for me

I made the base structure and added panels of card which had been embossed and sanded to represent brickwork, and the door and window were cut out of these panels but not the base structure

The door knob is a bit of bling

My 'garden'  die you have seen before, as have you seen the the cats and the birds and the snail, but they fit the theme at Unstampabelles of Fauna and Flora

The roof is covered with a "creeper" created from a semi-circular die, cut to fit as it could

My lace curtains are stuck on the base structure and the window placed on top

I wrapped the top (the guttering) around - a sticky backed lace trim

The one I was copying had a ribbon bow on the front door, so I added one too!

I also added a snail at the front step!

The roof from above

A close-up of the sides 

 Over at Unstampabelles the Challenge is to create a paper project without using a stamp (digi or rubber) around the theme of Flora and Fauna - and it does not have to be a card! The twist is TEXTURE!

A Male Card for Crafting with Dragonflies

Hello Peeps.

Time for a new challenge over at Crafting with Dragonflies, where the challenge is to create a card for a male..........and style of card, for any male, young or old. Mine is a bog-standard male card for any age over 20 really.

I used the Sale-A-Bration stapa set Sky is the Limit, and a piece of watercolour card left over from playing with the texture paste a few weeks ago, which had been coloured with some paint powder.

This piece was about a 5th generation from the stencil but there was still quite a bit of texture on the card, and a lovely bit of sparkle. 

The stamp was fussy-cut and I added a circle of acetate with a brad as the propeller

The plane is popped up with some dimentionals

My clouds were a die cut and I coated them with some Kiddy glitz

This was before the sparkle was added to the clouds

This was after - which one do you prefer?

I ran a pen around the edge of the white card, and mounted it onto some brown and then onto a darker brown card . The string was from a parcel.

I thought it looked like a bit of a rainy day, and the sun was also our sparkling onto everything

After the rain, comes the sunshine!

Hope you like it

Please go to Crafting with Dragonflies and see the rest of the DT's work, 

and then enter the Challenge!

Cow Bombie!

At Unstampabelles we always like to do things  a little different, and this week is no different! 

My card uses a wine label from a winery in Margaret River, Western Australia, called I think Cow Bombie. However, the name has a different meaning to the one you assume when you see the image on the label - it is a surfing term and refers to a surfing beach in the Margaret River area  (more information re that here) and suffice to say it is about a VERY BIG wave.

(photo from Wikipedia)

This is the image on the label and yes, that is the right way up! No, that is not the spilled wine dribbling down the bottle, it is part of the label......

A friend of mine who can drink reds (I cannot, as I am allergic to them.....), often passes her interesting wine labels (bottle and all, empty unfortunately) on to me, and if I can remove the label and use it I will do so. 

This week my friend lost her only daughter at age 34 to cancer.

She still collected bottle labels for me

This was one of three interesting labels she gave me when I visited her

I made this card as a result

Because death does not have to defeat us -and her daughter was  beautiful, courageous, funny, vital, irreverent, different and a total delight

Vale Louise - may your star always shine bright

Obviously the cow is the fauna - and here is the flora

Sticky strip of sparkly stars - I cut the strip in half vertically

Please go across to Unstampabelles and see what other pieces have been created 

Then make a project to enter our challenge there - no stamps please.

What the? I am so late for Eclectic Ellapu!

The challenge for April at Eclectic Ellapu is 

Spring Flowers/April showers

Life has been a bit bleak for a while now, with one thing and another, 

and so I made this tag for my DT work

I sorta sums up my feelings about what is coming down at the moment!

(or not, if you live in Tassie like me!)

I love my raindrops stamp and I added some Crystal Effects to give them even more shine

The sentiment is from Tim Holtz.....

The mask at the back is of s water or similar splat, and I did this first with paint (not detailed enough) and then with texture paste with paint added (blue like liquid)

A TH Crazy Bird of course, die cut after I coloured him with TH Distress markers and water pen, and lifted him up slightly. The background of the manila tag is a mexture of sprays and paint, smooched over with a baby wipe.

The gumboots are from Stampin'-up

The umbrella is die cut using a Die-namics die and some scrap card

Ever been under an umbrella and someone or something manages to tip it over and all the water runs down your neck?

April brings a new Challenge.....

......at Unstampabelles

It is called 

Flora and Fauna 

TWIST add some extra texture!

This is the prize on offer

I used a variety of ways to create texture on my card this time 

Please remember it does not have to be a card - it can be anything paper related, as long as you don't use stamps or digital stamps. 

I die cut a butterfly from a scrap of card which had been painted with Dylusion's paint and stencilled - then I mounted the butterfly so it is lifted up off the page. 

Behind the flowers and the insect is a piece of card which I had used to protect my workspace when spraying some ink sprays around. It had a light coating of blue and pink and some yellow. Over this I added some textured paste with micro beads, and into this I had mixed a small puff of Color Burst - I wanted a paler blue than this but went with what I ended up with. I stencilled this onto the card but I had a bit left over, so was able to get about four different pieces of card by swiping and layering and spraying water around. They all look amazing so will be using them in the next few makes! It has a lovely shimmery sparkle. I die cut my sentiment and added that - the dafs are layered too and lifted up off the card, and I am quite pleased with it all. 

In the late sunlight - daylight saving has ended (last night) and it gets darker and colder earlier!

I think I am going through an unlucky patch - my email is playing up, my camera (good one) has ceased to work and my hubby is facing a probably hip replacement soon. Which one of these things annoys and frustrates me the most? The email!!!

I hope that the good fairy returns soon and starts to sprinkle that dust around a bit heavier so all my problems will disappear!!!!

Anyway, while we are happening for that - why not have a go at a project with the theme Flora and Fauna and a Twist of texture, and enter it on our challenge! 

 

Babies and April - Crafting with Dragonflies latest challenge

The latest challenge over at Crafting with Dragonflies is all about babies - baby cards, that is!

I have only a few baby stamp sets, but this one - called Baby, We're Grown, by SU - took my fancy and so I used the sentiment and owls from this one. The cards, string and inks are all from SU as well. 

Don't they look cute?

I cioloured them up with Copics.

Specially for those who either don't go for the traditional or are not sure of the baby's gender!

I made a second one just because when I saw something similar on Pinterest I had to have a go as well - it is nothing like the original now, though: do you find that happens? Go to Pinterest for inspiration, and then go sideways while you are making it?

Again, all SU card except for the onesie which is cut from a scrap of Bazzil. The sentiment comes from a very, very old SU set, and the plastic button was from a packet of el cheapo's I got from a $2 shop, and have NEVER USED until now! Must be at least 5 years old. 

So, hope you like them!

Don't forget to go over to Crafting with Dragonflies to see what else has been produced and enter your card into the challenge!

I will enter these into the following:

Creative Fingers: Anything Goes with the owl card

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards: Spring - owl card

Simply Papercraft: Anything Goes - owl card