Magical Dragonflies Challenge

Hello Peeps!

Over at 

Crafting with Dragonflies 

there is a new challenge

Something Magical

There are many magical moments in our lives, from a sunrise to a birth to something one of the kids do to faeries at the bottom of the garden to things in nature.........lots of things fit under this theme....

This little girl has not had any love lately - she is a fairy from the LOTV family from a while ago

I coloured her with Copics

Another LOTV stamp set for the sentiment

As this card is for a young girl, I made it very bright and used up some plastic button flowers from my stash in doing so

Her wings have lots of sparkle and she has a bit of Wink of Stella applied to various pieces to for a subtle sheen in places.

I will enter her at the following challenges:

The Pencil Case: Bright - she is coloured with Copics

Artbymiran: Anything goes

Really Reasonable Ribbon: things with wings and ribbon

Apropos of nothing.......

I am posting today several things which will explain why I have been a bit quiet lately and why the posts that should of happened didn't happen as well as they should......

The expert and I went to the mainland, like all good islanders, by boat. We took the car and drove to the other end of the state and caught the night ferry to Victoria (Melbourne) and I send him by taxi to his sisters, and took myself off to Paperific at the Showgrounds. I was booked into a multi-media course there which took over 3 hours, and left me little time to shop, but I did manage to buy some things........

The stash....

I made a multi-media canvas pretty (already given away to my 12 yo Granddaughter Lily)

There is lots of painting, stenciling, layering and painting, stenciling and layering on here...

It was a big class, taken by Limor from Canada, a multi-media expert......

Yes, that is me on the right, er, I mean left.......I need a haircut badly......

We went on from this day, to spend several days with family, including one where we went to this at Ripponlea.....if you were wondering was this worth it - YES!

 Later in the week we drove up to Canberra stopping one night in Wodonga to visit friends. We arrived in Canberra to fine warmish weather, and got to see the exhibition Bare at the National Gallery........

The David Walsh painting was in the Archibald and acquired by the gallery- aren't you glad I cut off the bottom of the photo....

....... and the WW1 Australian Life at the National Museum....

I love the angles in the buildings in Canberra

In between we celebrated the 12 years of Lily with a Maltesa cake - definitely look it up on Pinterest - a bit dry, would take some liqueur or some cream or both but yummy! 

I made the card for Lily the morning we left Tassie - many things had interrupted that week and lots of things ran very late indeed, but I will not touch on them here except to say I lost two friends that week to cancer before we left on Friday morning......

I do love Tim Holtz's crazy birds!

Suited me really - a crazy few weeks!

A highlight of this trip was being able to purchase a DRESS for the 12 yo - not worn one since she was 6.....but she wanted to wear one for her piano recital. She picked it out and wore it with her mothers tights, hightops and a hoddie! Still, it was a dress. White too....the piano recital was excellent and the pianist looked a picture. She went on to play a game of netball, and piano practice, and then home and we went off after the recital to watch Mr 9 play hockey! In the afternoon - more shopping! I was exhausted! We came home today (Friday) after returning to Melbourne for some more time with family and friends there.

I will sleep well tonight, I assure you! 

New September Challenge #50 for Unstampabelles

So sorry I am late with this folks -long story, one for next time...

What is the Unstampabelles challenge #50 for September? 

Boyz will be Boyz!

Boys and Men: create a perfect card for the male in your life. What do you think is essential to make a card a male card? The twist this month is to ponder this question and provide some thoughts in your blog!

There are quite a few sticker sheets and decoupage sheets being provided for this challenge as the prize.

What do I think makes a male card a male card?

Simplicity usually - take an idea and apply the KISS principle

(Keep It Simple Stupid)

A bit of scruffiness works too - so making it a bit punk or distressed or aged......

I like to go to my stuff from Tim Holtz....he is always good for ideas and his various bits and pieces of ephemera are very useful for male cards. My card today is very Tim Holtz - stickers and die cuts and such.....

I have a couple of vintage brothers who are having birthdays in the latter part of the year......

The background papers are over 6 years old and are from Basic Grey - I added some ink and a bit of roughly drawn lines, some cogs and the vintage car, and a bit of bling

I hope that you have some ideas about creating a male card to add to the ones we have over at Unstampabelles: remember, we have until the last Friday in the month to enter.

What is Hidden in Your Stash?

Do you know what is hidden in your stash?

I think I am too scared to make a full inventory!

Over at Eclectic Ellapu the PURPLE TEAM is challenging us to use stash that is 

6 months or older! 

About three years ago I purchased a Kaiser wooden kit to make a recipe box

I had ideas of making a Christmas present or two.....

This is what I think it looks like in the raw, although mine is a bit squarer

About six months ago I found it in the midst of looking for something else, and dragged it out, painted it with three coats of white gesso and left it sitting on my table - obviously to mature!

It has not been sanded or anything - and my painting had left it difficult to put together easily, so I had to call in the expert to assist

The expert put it together and then we realised it was backward, and so we had to take out two sides and replug them back in.......

Can you see the vise on the bottom right? 

It was given to said expert when he turned 15 by his father

Expert is in his 81st year.....

He used it to put the sides in tight!

Plus the wooden mallet of course.....yes, he is a left-hander....

Lid goes on last

Finished and together (with only a few little gaps)

I used SU Designer Paper and some bits of ephemera, and a Prima flower - most well over 6 months in the stash

Such pretty paper - I know somewhere in my stash I have some nibs: do you think I can find them!!!!!

I used the SU dies for file edges to create dividers, with a double glued together pieces of card

A stationary box - or to keep cards in - or to just store "stuff"!

What stash do you have that is over 6 months old?  

Time to get it out and use it!

You can enter at 

Eclectic Ellaspu

don't forget to scroll down to the Purple team link-up

Holy Fishers - I'm late!

Over  at Crafting  with  Dragonflies  we are having a new challenge   

Under the Sea. 

You have to think of all or lots of things that live under the sea, not above it - pirate treasure, sea creatures  et al - even perhaps sharks!

This is what I found in my stamps stash! The background is done using my Copic pens, to try and create an illusion of light streaming into the underwater world. I drew my poor little worm.....I forgot to make him bend in the middle and droop over the hook

There are lots of Wink of Stella pen work on the fish and the bubbles,and IRL they do stand out!

My fish, and the shell have been stamped, fussy cut after colouring with Copics and added with dimensionals to give some texture and more of a 3D look to the scene.

Let's see what you can come up with!

Layers and layers and then some ribbon.....

Hello Peeps - and welcome to my newest followers

This is my fourth project for the Challenge #49 at Unstampabelles - White on White - and I have reverted to making a card again. I have a lot of dies - "My name is Susan,and I am a Craftaholic....."
 - so I thought I should use some of them for this project. Again, they are  Spellbinders, Decorative  Labels 28. The sentiment is from Die-versions. The card is from Stampin' Up. The rest is from my stash. the embossing folder is probably SU or it could be Sizzix.

The challenge is White on White but the twist is to use one other colour - guess what colour mine is?

Love seam binding......

It could be a birthday, christening, conformation, engagement, wedding, anniversary..........

Hope you like it.

This is the prize for the random winner

You can enter the challenge 

HERE

until the midnight on the 28th - remember

NO STAMPS please.

Oh Deer, Oh Deer.......

That's right - two of 'em!

What is this about?

 Unstampabelles is Midway through Challenge #49: White on White + twist of adding ONE colour.

My added touch of colour for this project was GOLD

As always there is a random number prize

The widest lace is 14 cm approx

and a DT Favourite to be found.

I started with two brown paper mache small deer, similar to this

I got mine at Riot in Melbourne last Christmas - it has taken me this long to do anything with 'em!

I first painted them with white gesso - it took three coats to get a good coverage.

Some parts I didn't do!

I then simply took to them with my gold pens - the SU one and a sparkly Touch of Stella one.

I zentangled

Not that well but I was happy with the effect it created.

I added a ribbon

They are about the size of a small hair brush

They will become my newest Christmas deco's, I think - if I don't give them away.

Simple to create - all the hard work of making the deer has been done!

I think they look quite effective

Why not go on over to Unstampabelles and see what else has been made - you will be stunning at the creativity of the Design Team girls.

Then you can have a go!

By the way, this one is NOT a deer! Kangaroo at Bonorong Park last week!