Merry and Bright at Eclectic Ellapu

Don't you love that this year Spring was sort of air-brushed out by nature and summer swung in with a bang! Hot days and nights in November? Whoduthunk!

Something to look at?

We know it is undignified to boast so we won't say anything about this snap. We won't mention how warm it is in Tassie right now or how this water is so incredibly crisp and clean and how it really is true that you can find a beach and have it nearly all to yourself. Nope, we shall remain humbly quiet and just keep it all to ourselves 😉
Image: www.instagram.com/carmelboyd_

This month at Eclectic Ellapu, we are asking that you get your creative on for:

Christmas - can be a gift or anything festive

Well, that opens a lot of doors - I am sure you can all get your teeth into that one! Are you like me, knee deep in Christmas cards or are you someone who has made yours all earlier in the year and can now relax? I made a card of course - another one for the pile - in fact I made two of these and may make more!

They fold flat for postage and I can get two out of one sheet of A4

The circle cut from them can then be used for a tag!

A die cut, some vellum and a bit of judicious stamping - oh, and a strip of washi!

I like the fact that I can put a light behind them too

They make up quick - and I will as I said make some more and put them into a gift pack

I will include the small candles too

So, what are you waiting for?

Get creative!!!

Birthday Present Tag

Well, we have been home a week since our little trip away and we have had settled weather with blue skies and 30 degrees every day. Garden is getting a little frizzles but it rained overnight so I don't need to water today, thank goodness.

This is one of my photo's taken last week at a place known as The Gardens on the East Coast of the island. It was blowing quite strongly from the north - unusual for that time of year. This place is the bottom of the Bay of Fires.  It is all so beautiful there. 

On to the challenge at Unstampabelles

I made a very quick tag for the birthday present and to fit the current challenge at Unstampbelles. It still has five days to run so you have five days to get into it - only two entries to date and a grand prize!

 It's all about the cake.... 

TWIST use mainly the primary colours 

RED, YELLOW and BLUE!

This is the random number prize - an embossing folder

Cheerio!

It's all about the cake.......

....not, apparently, over at Unstampabelles, where we are currently midway through and there are no entries, despite there being a good prize. It seems that the crafters are all too knee deep in Christmas cards perhaps or that there are no layouts with cakes or no cards with cakes or no multi-media stuff featuring cakes or indeed - anything else that might have a cake on it!

It might be the twist - to use mainly Primary Colours - but you can get around that pretty easy I have found.

I freehand cut the icing shapes but I found the idea for this on Pinterest so it is not my original idea.

I used a variety of embossing folders to give the icing some texture and depth....and the cherry has been covered with Crystal Effects. It too was hand made. 

The card is a gift card - so not that big

and it has a bit of acetate, also embossed with a wood embossing pattern to give the impression of a cup cake pattie

A gift tag for a birthday present.

I went away for a few days on a driving holiday with hubby. We went up the East Coast of Tassie and across to a small seaside town called Bridport. We had one night at Bicheno, on the East Coast.

In the early morning, when I was sitting on the deck of our accommodation enjoying my first coffee of the day, I had a visitor. 

One young kookaburra (or kingfisher)

Playing again.....

This time I saw where someone had used multiple diecutting to create layered effects without bulk. I liked it so had a go at it - mine is a little clumsy and I need to workout how I am going to cause the diecut to stick without getting a thick die cut or glue everywhere....think I finally got it sorted, more on that later.

I used the same colour way as the example - gold and purple - but different dies as I did not have the one they used. I also used scraps to try and clean up the workspace!!

SU provided the sentiment stamps

Different look depending on the light bouncing off the page

This one was the first one and the bird was a surprise cut!

I didn't realise I would get a border.....

My 'greenery' is really green icicles...

The flowers were used after the event to try in fix some problems!

It's a good technique but I need to practice it more. 

Crafting with Dragonflies - 2nd November Challenge

Hello Peeps - hope life is serene enough for you.......

A beautiful shot of the river near the historic Clarendon Estate.

For more info, see:
http://heritagehighway.com.au/nile/
Image: instagram.com/camdenfishing

I went travelling this week - away for a few days with the hubby - here is one of my photo's; perhaps not as serene as camdenfishing's photo....

...but the white wine was lovely, and so was the candied fig and vanilla icecream!

Overlooking the Hazards at Coles Bay, East Coast Tasmania

Back to crafting and 

What is happening at Crafting with Dragonflies lately?

Firstly, who else is knee deep in Christmas cards -  or have you all give it away now and use you mobile phone and messenger instead? 

I prefer the postal method but it does cost a bit these days!

I have forsaken posting large cards and keep them for the hand out variety instead.

Hilde wants us to make a Christmas card in non-traditional colours.

Mine is a small card that fits folded into a small envelope for posting. 

How is navy, light blue and deep pink? 

Non-traditional enough for you?

This card was the result of a freebie set of dies and stamps and a magazine photo for inspiration

It was an attempt at a Frame-shaped z-fold card.

My shape is not the same one they used - I adapted the idea 

Mine is a bit smaller than the frame used in the magazine

WARNING:

You have to cut through three layers of white card at the beginning in some areas and that is a bit difficult - required extra shim pressure (using bubble wrap) and multiple wind-throughs the Big Shot to get it done. 

I also should have measured the three layers and made my middle layer narrower but thems the breaks when you are copying a photograph rather than following the recipe. 

It was fun to make and quite quick really.

You can enter your non-traditional card over at 

Crafting with Dragonflies

Second week for Unstampabelles

The challenge this month at Unstampabelles is to

 It's all about the cake.... 

TWIST use mainly the primary colours 

(RED, YELLOW and BLUE!)

So, anything with a cake is OK for the challenge, 

and then you can see how primary you can go with your colours! 

It really is not that difficult. 

My card (again) this week is a Wedding Card, I think......or maybe a Congratulation card...

It has lots of sequins and bits and bobs from my scrap pile......

My yellow is gold (well, that's yellow)

My scraps were all red - including the bits I dyed as well with ink refills and sprays

It's a wonky cake - wouldn't want to carry it across the dance floor......

Taken out of direct sunlight....

Finally, a photograph taken from from the front/back garden - the front door is on the other side of the house but this looks out across the bay so is the front of the house....if you know what I mean...

It's only taken 15 yeas to get the arch covered. The top is a little thin still but that is because the possom's eat the new shoots off it all the time!!!

11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month.......

Playing......

Saw it in a magazine, thought "that's nice"; made it

I used my Promarkers -not that impressed -just big Texta's

Die cut is a freebie

Do love shakers.......so much fun to make.

Challenge#74 at Unstampabelles begins

....and it is ALL ABOUT CAKE!

This month I have lots of birthdays and so I have lots of cards to create along with the usual number of Christmas cards. So, when I decided to make a Christmas card with cake for this challenge.....

Mmmmm.......I'm just made that way I guess: contrary!

Still, I eat Christmas cake - don't you?

The TWIST this month is to use only the primary colours

RED, BLUE and YELLOW

Don't do what I did initially and think GREEN was one of them!!

You will probably pick my error but I did make a hasty correction.

I love a good shaker card, don't you?

Christmas cake/tree/cake???

You can go over to UNSTAMPABELLES  and see the details and entry

Nature seems to work in the primary colours too:

Red skies, blue skies and yellow crops.......

Feast your eyes on this dazzling scene of a canola field beneath an oh so pretty sunset. Cam Blake describes feeling utterly compelled to keep photographing these gorgeous fields located in Tasmania’s Midlands - Discover the Heritage Highway and how hard it was to wait for the sunset ...your patience was well worth it Cam 😍🙌
Image: www.instagram.com/camblakephotography

Crafting with Dragonflies - first November challenge

Hello Peeps - and a special hello too to the newest ones!

It is time for the challenge blog Crafting with Dragonflies to issue their new challenge and it is to

Use Your Stash with Bling!!!!

This challenge is always a card challenge unless otherwise stated.

I used only materials that were on the desk around me but I did open a new packet of bling.

I am glad when my stash is depleted somewhat - 

and I don't have to make that decision to throw or keep!

I had been pretty good and not purchased any magazines for a while but I saw this one (Papercraft UK) and had to have it as it had a lovely corner die and a cute stamp set too as give-aways.

This card is a copy of one made by Tracy Evans but there are a few changes.

I liked it because it hitched it up a few notches.

The hydrangea heads were made by repeat stamping the small flower and then fussy cutting them out

- all 20 of them!!!! I used TH inks and stamped off as well to get colour vibrations.

The stems are wire - Tracy used silver wire but I had some purple wire so used that

The flower pot was hand-drawn and then I die-cut the corner piece and glued it to the pot.

My background was Dylusions paint and it was rolled on with a small roller - lots of other pieces created as well to mop up the waste paint so look for blue backgrounds!

I added some purple bling and a purple mount.

The card is a 6 x 6 blank.

Happy Crafting!

Table Cape Tulip Farm in full bloom thanks to Nic Betts Media.

The purple are iris

www.instagram.com/nic_betts_media