Using wine labels for Eclectic Ellapu!

I think I have mentioned my fascination for wine labels before - matches my fascination for wine perhaps? I love a good red but cannot drink them (allergic - yes, I know, also to chocolate!)) and I quite like a touch of a good dry white. Tasmania makes lovely wines and I have tasted some beauties. However, my friends and family also know of my fascination with wine labels and they 'donate' to the cause as well - I have too many so decided to use some up with some of my older stamp sets for my DT work at Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes challenge for September. 

Here are three of them...

This one was perfect for a camera stamp set from Darkroom Door. 

The image is just cut from the label and inserted into the card!

I used a die cut photo strip as well

This one was more difficult

I love the kids clinging to the horse and it reminded me of my own childhood riding on the back of the old horse - all three of us - until he got sick of us and went under the lower branch of the apple tree and brushed us off! Our little legs were not long enough to wrap around his round belly and stuck out like match sticks either side! No saddle and a halter instead of a bridle operated by whoever had fought their way to the front seat!

I decided to use that old favorite from SU Lovely as a Tree as a background

A bit of gold embossing for the sentiment and it was done

The girl on the scooter was obviously french even if the wine was not!

A background stamp from SU and some onion bag for texture!

The sentiment is a Suzy Stamps one. 

I have many more labels to use but have not the mojo at the moment to continue so this will have to do! I am sure you get the idea!

Why not join in the fun at Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes!

Repurposing an old box.......for Unstampabelles Challenge #84!

The current challenge at Unstampabelles is

 Emboss, emboss, emboss........

The TWIST is to make it for a male!

The Random Number Draw prize will be Stampin' Up's 

GARDEN TRELLIS TEXTURED IMPRESSIONS EMBOSSING FOLDER

Remember - NO STAMPS PLEASE!

I had an idea in my head for such a long time and finally got to make it but I don't really have the ideal inks to do this stuff - I need more alcohol inks, I think. However, I made do with the TH Black Soot ink refill ink to get my black look.....

...warning, lots of photos

I used a sheet of Whisper White and a roll of Flashing Tape purchased for hardware store (Bunnings)

I added strips of tape to the white card

It is hard to get straight an at times it wrapped over the edge

Next I fossicked in my stash and found a cardboard box - small

It used to contain product from SU I think - looks like a small, fat pizza box

It is about 8.5 cm high and similar squareish

As I had to use the white card to let me emboss the tape, I then had to try and cut the pieces to fit and then stick them to the box rather than just sticking the tape directly to the box....

I used a Tim Holtz EF to get the top and top sides

I just left the rest as the tape has texture anyway

Once I had it (mostly) stuck down, I began to add some inks and metallic paints.

As I said before I used TH ink refill (Black Soot) and also Starlight Metalic Paints - pink and aqua/teal colours over the bronze

The ink was rubbed over last

When it was dry I buffed it with a tissue

I used two small EF's with sentiments on them to add the Happy Birthday strip and the For You tag

Hopefully this tickles your fancy!!!

You can enter your creation in our challenge HERE at Unstampabelles

We have had an exciting week - hubby wrote off his car on Tuesday (he is fine and so is the poor man who ran into his car; thank goodness for insurance!) so we went looking for a new one on Friday. We were only looking, not buying......however, we found a new Honda HRV with a great deal so it looks like we have purchased that! I will be doing the majority of the driving from now on so hopefully he will not damage it too much in the short term!

However, I feel a bit like our friend here - I want to roll up into a ball and keep everyone away with my spikes for a while!!!

A gorgeous young Echidna having a forage around the southeastern Tasmanian coastline.
www.instagram.com/danielvandphoto

Tag - You're It!

Another item for the DT for Week 3 at Unstampabelles - where the challenge is to Emboss, Emboss, Emboss!

Only a few entries

So lots of chance to win the prize in the random number draw

Before I begin - how is this for a sign of Spring?

In my back garden on a warm, sunny winter's day......yes, WINTER'S DAY

I love it when the wattle comes out but this one was in full flower in early August!

Little balls of sunshine.......

Here is the tag for a male

I used a piece of card I has left over from before when I made the card in Week 1 for the bottom part of the tag

I used a die to emboss the sentiment onto the top 

SU now have an embossing set for the Big Shot to allow us to use all our dies for embossing as well as die-cutting

The black card has had Starlight Metallic ink - blue smeared with a finger all over it.

It has a beautiful sheen

I backed them with some Bashful Blue card and they are mounted on black card. The top of the tag's was done with the SU Tag Punch.

That's all from me - and my little Weasley!

Note the claws are OUT!

A Male Card for Crafting with Dragonflies!

Hello Peeps!

How are you all travelling? I am as well as can be expected of someone my age and disposition, thanks. The weather makes it easy today - we have just had two days of good rain and today was warm, sunny and quiet. Everything is topsy-turvy: spring seems to be here already. My tulip bulbs got flooded yesterday and I had to tip the water off and bore holes into the sides of the tub to drain it better. I hope they all survive and don't rot!

My orchids are all in flower -some with two spikes or more. 

I divided them last year and now they have gone berserk!

I have given two plants away to friends already now I know what the flower are on them -every year I think I will label the containers but then I don't!

What I don't know is why one flower only here has a red tongue?

A quick snap of the afternoon in the bay.... the jasmine smells divine. 

Hilde wants us to make a male card - for Father's Day (in early September) or just for a male

I made a card for a friend's birthday but forgot to photograph it before I gave it to him!

Who else does that?

Anyhooo....I made another one similar to it. The interesting thing about the card was that I used an image off a wine bottle label - and it turns out I  had two of the same image. I have been playing with cutting up the labels lately and combining them with my stamps and stuff and I have had fun doing that. This card used a stamp that uses a quote from Christopher Columbus. The stamp is from LOTV: Life's Journey set. My friend is about to skipper a yacht home from Sydney and the weather forecast is not that good.......on the nose the whole way and heave-ho expected! An horizon would be good...

The background is from an SU stamp set Love What You Do  and I used TH Distress Oxide ink for that while the sentiment is in Momento Black. 

I added three little brown dots for interest and ran the ink pad around the edges of the card to delineate the mount. The image is popped up in dimensionals

Then it was added to a white card blank.

There you go - the original one has some blue twine on it as well so I must have made that one a tad bigger as there as no space for it on here!

Off now to Crafting with Dragonflies and see what else the team have devised for your enjoyment and then dive into the craft room and start creating up a storm!

Remember - it must be a card!

Frame It Up!

Today I have a frame to showcase - it is for Unstampabelles and the current challenge of

Challenge#84: Emboss, emboss, emboss........

The TWIST is to make it for a male!

The Random Number Draw prize will be Stampin' Up's 

GARDEN TRELLIS TEXTURED IMPRESSIONS EMBOSSING FOLDER

Remember - NO STAMPS PLEASE!

Here is something I framed earlier.....

I take the little one for a walk most days (or he takes me) and this day he was determined to catch the little finches in the tree. Rest assured I would not let him (and the birds know it) but there is no reason to tell him that and spoil his fun! He was so determined he climbed the tree with his lead on but he got stuck so this was him asking me to help him get out of the situation!

On with the frame - I created a frame for an image I have had from Darkroom Door for some time. I used a cardboard frame I purchased from a craft space bargain box (I got two) for $2 each.

Apparently it was over $6 before....

Unfortunately it was too big to go through my Big Shot so I had to cut it in half to get the embossing done. Although you can see it in the final piece, I think is was a good solution anyway.

Here it is embossed

The embossing folder was an M-Bossabilities one

Getting a sandwich that would work was tricky.......

I added some gold gilding paste with my finger and then smooched some TH Distress Faded Jeans ink around the frame.

I then took to the frame with the Versamark - you can see I am about due for a new one .....

and then wet embossed with clear EP.

I added the image to the inside sheet that came with the frame

I then added a sentiment to the top corner - not sure I should have added that but it is glued down so cannot remove it now.

The frame and image is definitely of male interest - my hubby immediately commented on it when it was finished. I think it was the Sunderland he was enamored with........

There is my Emboss inspiration for you......

The clear DP gives it more of a metallic look

You have three weeks to enter this challenge at 

Unstampabelles

Double Embossing - wet and dry!

Hello Peeps,

Today is the first day of the new challenge over at Unstampabelles: I think you can guess what the challenge is about! I made a card but remember, you don't have to restrict yourself to a card.

The Challenge #82 

Emboss, emboss, emboss.......
Twist - make this for a male

I used one of my spellbinder's 3D M-Bossabilities folders called Tweets and Twigs to begin and embossed it onto black card but before I put it through the machine I smooched some blue ink onto the higher side of the folder - TH Distress Oxide China Blue.Ihad some trouble getting the sandwich right and so my blue is a bit hit and miss but I had already spoiled two other pieces of card so it had to do!

I then smoothed some Versa Mark over the top of the raised sections on the card and added some embossing powder - Stampendous Frantage - Aged Marine. You can see the outcome above -it looked good but was a little dark so I then smooched some gold Gilding Polish on top. It is hard to get this on only a little bit with the sponge so I ended up covering over the deep blue EP quite a bit. You can see above - but I still have great texture. 

I punched out a bird and branch using my old SU punch and painted the bird blue first. 

Then I used the old shaving brush to give a stipple effect using Starlight Topaz metallic paint.

The branch was just painted with the Topaz as is.......

Mounted on some gold and then onto a blank black card, I added some words (TH) and that was it!

I feel this card is one that is suitable for both a male and a female!

There you have it

A month to enter and we would love to see your work

Just remember, NO STAMPS please. 

I hear it has been pretty hot this summer in the northern hemisphere and winter has been quite mild here as well - today is a good example. It is about17 degrees, sunny with little wind and it feels more like Spring than the last month of winter!!!

This is the view from my craftroom window this afternoon.

The sun is streaming in te window as I key up this blog.

Spring flowers up and flowering already!

Gate Fold Card for Challenge#110: Crafting with Dragonflies!

Hi everyone!

Glad to see you here - the newest challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies is to make a gate fold card. Pinterest has lots of ideas and instructions if needed!

Here is mine (made in a hurry as I was running late - surprise again!)

Hit by a sunbeam as the sun was setting!

Just in ordinary light

Up close!

Why not go over to 

Crafting with Dragonflies and see what else has been done

by the amazing Design Team. 

Making Things for Others

Hello Peeps, welcome to August!

I hope the last few weeks have not been too stressful and for those of you suffering from heat stroke, this might cool you down! Tasmania has many mountains and central Tasmania is quite high - thus it gets snow in winter. If you walk the Overland Track in winter this is what you might encounter! Last week it was more likely to be this than the sunny day we had today! As long as there is no wind or rain it can be quite exhilarating!

Some days on the Overland Track trail the sun shines and the birds sing. Other days you get caught in a blizzard and ice sticks to the side of tree trunks 🤷

www.instagram.com/wanderer_rachel

On days like this it can be quite a challenge but I assume that is why people do it

-  for the challenge!

Talking of challenges, we have a new challenge opening at Eclectic Ellapu and it is:

Friends from Afar

Anything crafty you have made and sent to a friend

in the past 12 months or plan to send in the next few months

Now I am full of good intentions but bad at actually completing the actions. 

I have many things half done ready for sending off and then I move onto something else and don't get back to complete the task.

Today I did complete something but it was in lieu of something else that is half done for this challenge - perhaps it might see the light of day one other time......

I have every intention of making lots of small bags and decorating them, filling them with Tassie goodies and posting them off! Another ambition. 

I saw somewhere someone cleverer than me had embossed the bags, and so I had a go as well.

I discovered that you need sturdy card to make these and emboss. They are not that big but they will take a few items

This embossing folder is a new one from SU

I just used it on the front panel

The sentiment is from a card pack from SU - Delightfully Detailed

The card that goes with it is made using some other items from this card pack

Very quick to put together

I will probably pop in some labels - similar to these made from another SU kit

Tags for presents are always needed, not only at Christmas time.

So, there you have it.

What do you post overseas or over land to friends who happen to be a bit far away?

We have family on the mainland and I have been known to put a handmade card in an envelope and then put it in a postbag to protect it!

Later I will share with you some of the things I have received from friends away over the past few weeks! You now who you are who have sent me stuff - I really appreciate them and enjoy the warm feelings that they inspire!

Don't forget to show us what you have done and share it for the challenge at 

Eclectic Ellapu!