Aargh, its a pirate

Tomorrow is my Grandson's birthday, and I have sent his a card in his parcel - he is 5,so the theme of the card was Pirates! It uses die cuts, and a bit of paper piecing, so I will enter it into Little Paper Shops challenge LPSC#94.

Happy Birthday Jack. 

I used black SU card, and spare scrap card through the bug and a Disney die called Pirates Ahoy.  The Happy Birthday is from a Martha Stewart big punch, and there are some rub-ons.

Stamps: None!

Paper and Card: SU Whisper White and black, plus some scrap colours; white shimmer card

Ink: None

Other: Disney Die; Martha Stewart punch, rub-on's; red twine

RECYCLE and GLITTER IT

Let's Ink It Up has a challenge on at present to recycle it in your card or item at the moment.  So I have another one where I use the holographic EP and an image cut from one of last year's Christmas cards.  It is not the focus image of course - that is the City of David embossed onto the gold card, and the sentiment also embossed in white. 

Stamps: Florishes City of David; WMS Compliments of the Season

Paper and Card: Gold commercial blank card; white shimmer card

Ink: Versamark; Brilliance White

Other: Stamp It Holographic EP; White EP; scrap ribbon

A couple of digi images for Christmas

Little Paper Shop has a sketch challenge #91 going at the moment, and I had a free digi image from them ready to colour up with the copics, so that's what happened! Delightful Challenges also allows two entries into their current challenge if you use an image from them, and they had this funny winter flamingo as a freebie this month, so again, I coloured it up with copics!

The flamingo is mounted on pink scrap card, and then on a piece of SU Whisper White which was folded into a card, and then one side had been put through the bug embossing folder with snowflakes. A scrap of ribbon tied through a button from Memory Keeper, and the WSM sentiment stamp in black completed this. 

This sketch #91 from LPS suited the image, which I had printed off and then put through a nestabilities square, and embossed.  I coloured the image with Copics, and then masked it and sponged it with blue ink lightly.  I used some glitter on the image to look like ice as well. The image called 'Katie Skating' was mounted on a scrap of Co'ordinations and then put between two pieces of Kaiser paper, on a background of pink card.  I used some paper ribbon on the bottom for the sentiment. 

Worked for four hours today - enjoyed it greatly.  

Butterflies and birthdays....

This is a challenge card - Little Paper Shop #89: Colour challenge - blue, chocolate and yellow

The flower/butterfly are from Prima flowers, the background has been embossed using the bug, and the swirl was made with Gold Liquid Pearls and some brown and cream pearls.  The backing card is brown and the flag with the sentiment - stamped with gold ink and embossed, using a sentiment from WMS Basket Additions. Yes, it is sewed around the edges  - spent several fraught minutes wrestling with my little Elna sewing machine to get it to work, and then to actually sew around the card - so please excuse the poor effort there. The whole lot is attached to a piece of yellow bazzil card. 

That's it folks - DH had given me a G and T, and I can hear the dinner being prepared upstairs, so had better stop and go and be sociable.  Isn't he a gem!!

It Rained!

Finally! We got over three and a half inches or 8.8 cm of rain over 36 hours.  It is sunny now, however, and not too cold, with the occasional shower - and the bay is full of brown water from the run-off because the ground was so dry it couldn't soak in for a while, BUT we got enought to finally do some good and people on tanks got them full and much more. Almost no rain for one and a half months in winter is not fun.

I made this card for the following challenges:
Little Paper Shop - LPSC#80, a sketch challenge
Aud Sentiment Challenge #8 - use the word 'relax' in a card!

I sponged the edges with the ink, and pricked out the edging.  The word is added with letter sickers. Annabelle Stamps gave me a packet of Sprinkles and they just suited it, so they got added at the last moment. The image is coloured with Copics. I used the following to make it:

Card:  SU Mellow Moss

Stamp: Image - Thereshegoes: By the Sea; Sentiment - Inky Antics

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa

Other: ribbon, Annabelle Stamps Sprinkles; DP scraps; letter stickers Lettraset

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!

Platypus in the River.....

We went to Ross on Wednesday.  It is a small country town in the centre of Tasmania, an area know imaginatively as 'the Midlands'. We were meeting friends who had flown into northern Tassie to visit family, and Ross was halfway between the two of us.  It was a lovely day - I call them blue winter days - the temperature was about 13 at the highest, but there was no wind, and we got to see out friends and enjoy a lovely meal at the Ross pub. Before we met with them, John and I stopped at the Ross bridge - 'constructed by convict labour in 1836, it is the third oldest bridge still in use in Australia. Commissioned by Lieutenant-Governor Arthur, the bridge was designed by architect John Lee Archer, with the convict work team including two stonemasons, James Colbeck and Daniel Herbert, the latter being credited with the intricate carvings along both sides of the bridge' (Wikipedia).  In other words - its lovely.

While taking these pictures I saw a small animal with its back to me in the water at the edge of the river.  It was nosing into the mud and fissicking around.  It took my mind several seconds to recognise it, and when I did I was so suprised I let out a noise and scared it into the river, where it swam off - it was a platypus!  Took me a few seconds to raise the camera and get some shots off. It is not often you see them in daylight and in civilisation - really topped off my day.

Now, to the card - I have made a card for two challenges this afternoon, while listening to Hawthorn nearly beating Geelong at footy - I combined the two challenges into one card.

Little Paper Shop Colour Challenge - LPSC#75:  orchid, razzleberry, olive
Mojo Monday Sketch - MOJO146

The green bazzil card as a base, some SU Lovely Lilac, some DP from DCWV Pocket full of Posies stack, green ribbon purchased yesterday from the craft fair, and an image from Thereshegoes - Treemendous (sentiment too), and stamped in SU Old Olive.  Kaiser bling added.  An interesting combination of colours - not something I would have chosen to go together before this. Darn, Hawthrorn have lost by two points!

Dream Time

Well, it has been a busy time lately but I have put together a quick card for the Little Paper Shop weekly challenge.  This time it is a colour challenge LSPC61.

I was playing around with a technique that shows reflections, but the card I was casing had used a flat surface stamp and I didn't have anything similar or suitable.  I did have a fairy stamp, so used that and then coloured it in to make it solid.  My reflection was not well thought out and I then tried to fix it several times - it has sat on my desk and gets more layers of colours and stamps and sponging everytime I spend an hour at my desk.  Thought I should stop so layered it up in yellow and brown and attached it to a craft card.  I used a sentiment stamp from My Stamps and brown ink. I added some bling in the corners.  It looks good at a distance but not too good close up.

I have also been busy watching my granddaughter in the Australian National Band Championships which are currently being held in Hobart.  She is playing cornet in the Glenorchy City Community Band and a Junior Band from the same group.  She was so nervous in the junior band as she was first trumpet and they were all following her lead. They came second in their division.  In the community band it is not as bad as she is one of quite a few trumpets. Anyway, this group had their marching test today, and so had to march through the city one after another and be scored on it. The junior bands don't march.  Many brass bands from inter-state had smart uniforms but Glenorchy is just a small band and has a limited amount of money for such things. They wore their tops and grey pants, but the grey ranged over a variety of shades!  Anyway, here are some piccies - getting ready for inspection, inspection and beginning to march. Hettie is the second row from the left - third player back. The little one!

OMG, I won a competition for one of my cards!

I am in shock!  I was doing my usual "I cannot be bothered starting anything new, (including housework or dinner) so I will just take a look at all my favourite sites on the puter, including Little Paper Shop, and guess what - when I got there, my card was staring me in the face - I had won the challenge on producing a distressed card. My heart nearly left my body and I am still shaking 10 minutes later. WOW. Mmmm, does that mean I cannot enter the next colour challenge?  Am not sure what the 'netiquette' is here.........

Anyway, I have had a busy week - HUB and I are planning on a kitchen renovation sometime in the middle future (as opposed to next month) so were looking at whitegoods for one day, and as I have auditioned as a reader for a local radio station for the print handicapped and have been accepted, I had to go to a learning session on another day - had to get up early as well!  In addition, I took an afternoon relief teaching session (would you  believe DANCE) and so I have not had as much time in the workspace.  Have made a couple of cards, but have handed them out already without taking a photo, and have got two new ones left.  Here they are.

Somewhere I was shopping I found a packet of vellum butterfliesby Cre8tive and thought they looked sweet; they were cheap so I bought them and put them in my stash.  The other day I took two out of the packet and wondered how I could make them look more than a simple white vellum butterfly.  I looked in the cupboard and saw my little collection of mica paint daubers by Moonglow (Lindy's Stamp Gang), so got out the blue and the green ones and then the pink and the orange one.  I daubed one with blue and one with green.  I used the orange or the pink to gently touch the outside of the wings of the butterfly, rather then really smash it on.  As they dried they began to look quite pretty but I thought some gold would be good, so I sprayed them with Moonglow Gossamer Gold mica mist, and then while still wet sprinkled it with fine glitter. When they dried, they looked very fragile and pretty. I used deep pink pearls for the body of the green one and blue jewels for this one (see close up below). The hardest thing was trying to get the scalloped rectangle cut out, as I do not have a nestie for this, so I used my SU scallop punch and tried to line it up.  The background paper is a piece of SU DP Patterns in Pacific Point. The blue lace was purchased off a street stall in Euchua in northern Victoria, while on holiday last year.  (I got a couple of metres each of about 6 different colours. Always keep your eyes open for stash!). The blue checked ribbon is from Joanne Craft Essentials (USA). The rub-on is a Cre8tive one. The pale blue background paper is Franchville  but I don't know its name.

The other card is an idea from a picture I had cut out of a old magazine a while ago, where these little tags were used with rub-ons to create en embellishment.  I rubbed on the words and then walked away for a few days before coming back and changing my mind about how I would use them.   I ended up by cutting circles out on the Cuttelbug using Nestabilities Classic Small Circles, cutting them up  and arranged them on a card blank (this blank has a slightly raised embossed surface); and then found my dusty collection of eyelets (had to relearn how to place these as I tend to use brads instead nowdays).  After getting out my pretty little hammer and bashing away, I remembered I had a collection of little charms from Heidi Grace Pocket Scraps somewhere and after finding them  I tied one on with yellow string. I then had to cover up the eyelet holes on the back inside of the card, so decorated it with the left over Franchville Green Swirl.

Little Paper Shop Challenge

Another colour challenge from the Little Paper Shop.  This one is red, white and black and could include Valentine's Cards if wanted.  I chose to do a Birthday Card. It is inspired from a card seen in the UK magazine Cards - January 2010, although the colours have been changed and I gave it more of a amateur feel!  I now notice my stamping is well off-centre with the small flower as well - didn't think it was too bad while I was putting it all together! Anyway, here it is...........

I used a SU stamp set called Think Happy Thoughts and SU Whisper White paper, SU Black paper, SU Riding Hood Red paper and ink.  The red glitter on the cake is a cheap rought chopped glitter and the and the ribbon is ......ribbon! Background Paper was from a DCWV  All dressed Up matstack.  Red Kaiser pearls and and SU Circle Scallop punch outlined with black marker makes the flowers, and the base was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder Swiss Dots. The cake and the flowers were also embossed with a Hearts folder from Cuttlebug. That's the advertising! 


I also made a card for my eldest grandchild's 17th birthday yesterday - how old does that make me feel! I used a SugarNellie stamp  - Lola with Gift - I have had for a few months but not yet inked up - it is for winter rather than summer but the little girl is cute, so I went with it anyway  (don't you love the way these stamps from Sugar Nellie come with an Adoption Certificate??!) Pink of course  - she is a pink and purple girl - and I tried to keep it simple. I used my SU markers to colour her in and the SU set Congrats for the sentiment. It was completed with a large Prima Flower Embellisment. Papers were from the scrap section of the stash - and the foam numbers were Thickers. It was all based onto a  SU Pink Pirouette card.  That's it today folks - my HUB is waiting for me to create the stirfry for dinner, so had better shake those tail feathers!