Dragonflies second one for August

Hi everyone - sorry this is sooo late. 

I have had some sad news about the health of not one, but two girlfriends and life has been thrown into a bit of chaos.

This post is for the second of the new challenges at the revamped 

Crafting with Dragonflies

The challenge is 

Make it Floral

I hate cancer - don't you?

This card is for Gimy - may you always fly in the sunshine, and sparkle. 

I used a Memory Box die called English Rose

I die cut several pieces - green and pink and an extra white

I then die cut the image from the front of my card

I added some jac paper (sticky paper) to the inside front of the card and carefully reinserted the framework of the die I had just cut from it back into the cut out - press into jac paper to hold.

The I carefully took out the leaves and added them, and then the bits of the roses and added them

The photo above shows me half way through the process

I had to use glue to glue on two flowers inside the cluster

I also lost one piece of pink so had to recut some of the die to get that piece again

Make sure if you are doing this that you save all the small bits!

 I agonized over my sentiment - is it too sentimental, too 'teachy', too wrong....

Settled on this for the front

I added the dragonfly die cut because I could!

The inside says 

"life doesn't have to be perfect to be OK".  

Winner's Post for July at the 'Belles

I made another Christmas card for this week over at Unstampabelles Challenge #49

 Before I talk about the card I will talk about the dump of snow we in Tasmania got over the last weekend. We don't get snow that often, and when we do it is on top of the mountain, not in our backyard. This week that changed. It's been 36 years since that happened here - and then it was a much heavier drop than this one, but this one was all over the island and sent the photographers among us into a frenzy! I took this one driving along our street, and you can see snow on the hills around the river. We didn't get any at our place however. 

Other photographers did get some special shots - too many to show (thank goodness, I hear you say!) them all but here are a few:

This one was taken in South Hobart by Greg Faull

The  Cascade Brewery building - burnt in the 1967 bushfires but the facade was restored and it is still used now as the admin section of the brewery. This is not far above sea level in the foothills of the mountain. 

This was the other side of the mountain, down the Huon River at Franklin, looking back - this view is called the view of the Sleeping Beauty - can you see her?

And finally, our young surfer - 

her father took this shot and it has gone viral - this is at Clifton Beach; snow on the sand.

Enough I hear you cry!

OK

Unstampabelle's August Challenge is 

White on White

and the TWIST is to use only

one other colour

There is a prize (as always) and this is it:

Lace - some of it is quite wide - but very elegant

This is what I did:

I used a Memory Box die for the frost and the bauble and the tie

I cut out the bauble and then placed a piece of glitter card behind it, and carefully replaced the bauble back into it's hole!

It's flush with the card now - the front panel is lifted from the card with dimensionals

I could stamp a sentiment (not for Unstampabelles, though) or add a die cut one or a peeloff............or leave it as it is

Well, there we are - white on white with a touch of ONE colour

Your turn!

You can enter here for a chance to win. 

Unstampabelles Challenge#49 in August

Wow, August again. That came around fast. 

Today I have made a card for a wedding

Not sure whose wedding at this stage

Perhaps it can be a congrat's card for an engagement.......

Why?

Well, Unstampabelle's August Challenge is 

White on White

and the TWIST is to use only

one other colour

There is a prize (as always) and this is it:

Lace - some of it is quite wide - but very elegant

I used quite a few dies (Spellbinders mostly) and pearls

I rolled my own white roses, and used seam binding ribbon

My TWIST colour is gold - could you guess?

My sentiment will be inside the card when I decide what it is to be used for.....

It is just a lot of layering and sticky fingers and glueing and using dimensionals and trying to keep it white and not get marked with dirty fingers.......

Hope you like it. You can go to

UNSTAMPABELLES

and see what some of the other DT members have created.

You have a month to enter the competition. 

Remember - NO STAMPS PLEASE

Eclectic Ellapu - August

Not that happy Jan........

I made this card for the DT (late, as per usual) and had been planning it in my head for ages......but it is not what I wanted at all so will probably change it over the next few days! For the sake of the Challenge for the Purple Team in August, for Eclectic Ellapu,  I have put it in now - advice please!

The brief is: 3 dies, 2 stencils, 1 sentiment!

Mmmm, I have thousands of dies (not quite but in the hundreds I reckon)  and quite a few stencils, and some new Dylusions paints..........play time, I thought!

I did have fun creating a background - but I had a limited palette so had to stick to reds and oranges and yellows. (More paints arriving soon!) I also used two stencils on the painted background - I painted with baby wipes (clean ones!) and it was FUN. My stencils were used with more paints and I now have red and black stencils - the paints stains.

The Tim Holtz Angry Birds had not had a whirl since arriving (apart from one card when they first arrived) I wanted to use one of them......and I coloured one with my TH Distress Inks, and fussy cut it out.

The it was the time for the dies! So, I cheated and combined my sentiment with the die - another new one - and so only had to find two more dies to use.  My little birds seemed appropriate and the feather die as a given.  However, not sure they work now - perhaps I will either glitter the feathers or die cut some new gold ones.......

.....what do you think?

Dragonflies are flying again this month!

Hello Peeps - great news! Crafting with Dragonflies Challenge blog is restarting! Out chief Dragonfly, Hilde is feeling much more like her old self  and we are going to resume the blog and the challenge, but there will not be any prize at this stage, just honour and glory!

Well, that suits me and I hope it suits you all too - to know your work has been chosen by the DT gives one a real sense of pride and satisfaction.

The first challenge is ........ BUTTERFLIES!

I used my Stampin' Up supplies and tried a few things I had seen on the famous Pinterest.

The stamp set Butterfly Basics and the die set that goes with it was used for both cards.

Gold embossing on vellum

SU DS paper

Then I went to another level and decided to half die cut the butterflies out

Then I tried to carefully stamp over them - should have used the Stamp-a-ma-jig!

Stamped a second butterfly and fussy cut it, and placed on top

The folded back front of the card against the inside panel

Sentiment stamped inside

I was pleased with the outcome - I would do this again. As it was a straight copy of another crafter's work I will not enter this one into any challenges, but the first one was my take on a technique, so I will enter that one into challenges.

I will enter these in the following:
Crafting with Friends: Happy Birthday card - anything goes
Simply Papercraft: Anything goes - HB card
Outlaws: Monday Greetings
Southern Girls: anything goes

Roll up, roll up......

 ......for Unstampabelles Challenge#48: Bunch of Flowers, for July! remember, the twist is to make a garden!

Who else has dies for roll up flowers and doesn't use them often? 

I see so many beautiful roses out there made by clever hands, and think - "I can do that"!

Then discover they are not as easy as it looks!

I made this rolled up daisy with scrap sparkly red card - it is very loose and the centre was a big gaping hole so I filled it with glue and yellow seed beads.  I think it needed to be a bit tighter!

The smaller pink roses were better but the sparkly card was too thick to roll easily, and again I ended up adding seed beads to the centre - but it was tighter and better looking I thought than the first one.

Then this one was three die cuts (plus a leaf or two) and the instructions were on the back (who knew) so I tried to follow them, and think they were OK but I needed to have cut all three dies and perhaps sprayed them with water to soften them??? I got glue everywhere as well!

I had a beautiful scrap piece of DS card from SU, with flowers on it growing in a garden, so I used the top bit to add my flowers, and some extra leaves as well.  

The sentiment is die cut also - a TH die was used for this. 

Then hubby asked how it was posted? I can see what he means.......

So I made a quick box for it but have not decorated it yet!

So, another card - yes I now, boring, but I am getting old you know!

Why not go over to Unstampabelles, and see what else is there, and there is still time to get something made and into the challenge before the end on Friday!

It finishes on the 31st at midnight AEST

See you there!

News from Basel and the 3rd Week of Unstampabelles

Hello Peeps, welcome to Monday. It's been cold and it's been hot - depends on where you live I guess. Apparently it is hot in Basel. How do I know? My gorgeous second granddaughter (aged 19 - all three are gorgeous, you know) Hettie Adams is there, performing in the Tattoo, with the New Zealand Army Band. She plays horn and sings, and plays cornet. She comes from Tasmania, but is currently a member of that organisation. This photo is courtesy of © Benno Hunziker — at Kaserne Basel Tattoo.

 

She loves that microphone!

Just a tenny-weeny bit proud of her.....

On to the current Challenge#48 at Unstampabelles:

Grab a Bunch - of Flowers!  

Get creative and make some flowers - in fact the twist is to make a garden!

Prize

An embossing folder of flowers

I have so many Spellbinder dies of flowers and other dies of flowers, and why I picked this one to make I do not know....it is an old one, a single plate of metal with the dies cut our of it, so you can cut more than one sheet of card at a time. It makes six single flower cuts in total, and you are supposed to layer them for effect. I did this and didn't really like the effect too much so I threw them in the old pizza box I use to spray stuff, and gave them several bursts of gold spray - they changed colour!! But they did look a bit more interesting so I used them over a lattice die cut, to create the effect of climbing plants I hoped......

Here is the colour change!

This is it in the sunshine with the petals put into place

The pale pink went sort-of goldy green

I used a rub-on for the sentiment

Voila, a card!

I am glad I have at least used this die once now! I purchased it off eBay about two years ago. 

Now it's your turn to create a bunch of flowers, and/or a garden scene if you are doing the twist too

See you on Unstampabelles

Crazy Birds

Have any of you seen the stamp set by Tim Holtz called Bird Crazy (I call it Crazy Birds)?

I don't want to be an enabler here, but it is just sooooooo cute!

If you go to Pinterest and see what people have made with them - stunning and so funny!

Couldn't resist could I and after hanging out for over 6 months, I got 'em.

I worked on watercolour paper and used the TH Distress pens and a water brush

I added the hat and a balloon

and I made a card for our DIL

It was late arriving but hopefully it is there now - if not, it will be soon!

Happy Bird-day Bea!

From one crazy bird to another........