Cheer Up, this is my 101 blogging.....

Painter's here today again.  The tiler has gone and he has left behind a wonderful job.  So pleased with his work. Meanwhile, it is cold again (snow at low lying areas today and tonight) and we are restricted to the craft room and the workshop - so sad (not!).

This is for a challenge with Auld Sentiments  - Challenge #11 "Cheer Up" and for Digital Delights "Make it Sparkle" (there are three pearls shining away there!).

I used a digital image from Digital Delight's (Lenny the Lion), and coloured it with Copics before I used a Cuttlebug and Nestabilities Labels 4.  The sentiment is from WMS ( Sayings) and the card used is from SU (Melon Mambo and Chocolate Chip).  There are also some Kaiser pearls. The base card is a piece of shiny Bazzil in an off white colour.

Sue (Tillymint) at A Consuming Passion issued a bit of a challenge the other day - using 3D decoupage from and gave this link here to find the images.  This is what  I created. The image is by Beci Brindley 2009. Again I used an embossing folder in the Cuttlebug, some bling and some scrap ribbon but the flower is printed on shiny white card and then fussy cut and layered up.  The whole is layered onto some SU Pacific Blue card and put onto a commercial blank. I loved Sue's card - hope this one is OK, Sue?

It's Raining!

There is even talk of snow on the mountain! WOW - finally, after all it is winter!

One card - two Challenges today:

Little Paper Shop   LSPC#79

Mojo Monday 150 Contest - MOJO150

I used the colours from LPS of Bright Blue, Chocolate and Bright Pink with the sketch from Mojo to create this.  I have so many bits of stash laying around that I decided to use scraps of paper to complete this so spent the next hour searching for the correct bits of paper and card to match up.  I then used the SU stamping set Happy Thoughts for the sentiment and I used a Martha Stewart edge punch Doily for the scalloped bottom of the lips card, by Elsie called Claire First Kiss. I bought this origionally to make a card for my eldest granddaughter when she turned 16! The Chocolate chip is behind the striped paper which also has brown on it, and there are brown spots on the spotty paper as well. The whole lot is on a white card blank.  I used the SU scalloped circle punch and the big circle punch from SU for the centre. Some ribbon and two pink brads to complete.

                                      

I also made a card using the free flower stamp from Craft Stamper last month by Innovative Stamp Creations (love it) and stamped with black ink (Memento) onto red card that had been through a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I then took a piece of Whisper White and stamped three flowers onto that at a regular interval.  I then photocopied this and cut out the flowers on the photocopy to create masks for the flowers, and once they were in place, overstamped the sheet with a large script background stamp using SU Riding Hood Red ink. After sponging the edges with more of this ink, it was mounted onto black card. I added the red flowers with glittery brads. The background paper for this card did not have its name on it but has distressed multi-coloured stripes on the back - its a great paper. The whole was put onto a red folded card and is quite tall.  I also like the grungy look of the flowers and the not quite perfect stamping fades a bit.

I have been painting with acrylic paint - this is my first attempt! (Not complete yet I may add).  I have been learning to get a reflection on the water - very interesting.  Hopeless artist of course, but I do enjoy it!

It's beginning to look like Christmas......

Well, after being shocked by seeing all the Christmas cards being made by crafters and posted up, and then going into one of my favourite shops in the city and catching them putting up their Christmas deco's I eventually got into the swing myself and made some Christmas cards! You can blame Michelle Zindorff - she started me on this road to using my ink pads as a paint pallette and practicing brayering.  I really like this style.  The stained glass effect on the Christmas trees was done using peeloffs stuck on vellum, coloured with either gel pens or my SU markers, and then I turned them over and used an embossing tool on the back to create a 'puffed up' look (description courtesy of the nearly 14 year old granddaughter).  I then painstakingly fussy cut them and this took the longest time as my hands are not as good as they were doing this type of work.

I then grabbed the inkpads - mainly SU ones - and my brayer and began to either layer on the ink using successive layers of different colours (while I had my Michelle Zindorff file open on the computer, reading about how she did each thing and trying to replicate a similar look!) or swiping the pad directly onto the SU whisper white card or using ink sponged on with foam to add another dimention.  I used the punched out circle idea from a sticky pad, and the torn out hill shape to brayer over also to create the appearance of a moon and hills at night.  I then either embossed with clear or gold or silver embossing powder, or direct stamped various stamps from Snowflack Spot, Baroque Motifs, Snow Flurries, Many Merry Messages, and Merry, Merry.  Didn't realise I had so many until I started this! I also used gold peel-offs on some for the message.

Here are a few examples!

I had some stained-glass trees left over, and so used them on a piece of paper I had first embossed in my Cuttlebug with a folder called Snowflakes. They looked OK as well. I used either peel-offs or rub-ons for the message.

I have made some others as well, but will leave these for later.

What else have I been doing?  Nothing much but it seems I was always busy - went to a fantastic version of Miss Siagon last Friday night at our lovely old Theatre Royal in Hobart.  All the girls went with us, and we all thought it was excellent.  We were sitting right up front and the singing and music was loud, but so good - and the helicopter! I made my tummy rumble! Wow - what an excellent presentation of the events.  I can remember the storming of the gates by the Viet Kong and the images beamed around the world of it all; the people left behind - crying and begging and falling of the skids of the last helicopter out....... and when John and I were in Ho Chi Min city last year we were there on the grounds of the palace  as well.  It bought it all back to me then and to see the production it just came alive for me again.  We were so anti the Vietnam War in those days, and so the scenes were both good and bad - mixed memories that were represented well in this piece of theatre. Amazing how one's perception of something can be so influenced by experience and so different to someone elses. The granddaughters were intrigued by the love story and the universality of it,  and the music of course.

Well, that's enough - thanks for reading!