Seeing the Stars at Lollipop Ladies!

The latest challenge at the Lollipop Ladies is

 Number #73 - Stars and Sparkle

Here is the inspiration photo - look at all those primary colours!

Sparkle is easy to find and so are stars - what are you waiting for!

I have created a card by first playing and creating quite a mess! I decided to have a bit of a play with the bottles of Time Holtz Distress ink that you use to swipe and splat and generally paint card and stuff with, and with the bottles that have that little dropper like the medicine bottles used to have, and where the ink is all thick, syrupy and juicy! I have a mixture of colours and types that have somehow multiplied in the dark in the bottom of the cupboard! Might have to get a spray to stop that!

Firstly I splatted, then I dropped and then I dragged a stick through and then I found it took over 24 hours to dry!I did this on a sheet of white shiny SU card. I stamped the sentiment using a MFT stamp and TH Distress Ink Salty Ocean. 

I scrounged through my box of stars and found two that suited - the light blue one has a bit of sparkle on it, and the dark blue one is shiny and sparkly. I added some bling randomly (that is sooooo hard for me to do) and then add one more - so now I have an even number, against the rules - but in a different colour! The whole lot is mounted onto SU Pacific Blue card, and white bazzil folded into a card shape.

I have decided you could repeat this in red, or green or yellow if you wanted.........but I am done.

Your turn to make a card and enter it - remember

Guest DT spots are able to be won each fortnight

and our sponsor this fortnight is: Mad for Markers*

(thanks to Sammi).

A choice of 3 of her M4M digi stamps.

* Prize will only be offered if 7 or more entries partake in the challenge.

I will enter this in the following challenges:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #: Monocromatic

Inkspirational Challenge #31:  Anything Goes

The Male Room Challenge#1: Anything Goes

CASED cards and other things!

Hi there

I have had a bit of a break from my DT duties with two of my team blogs for the Northern summer holidays, so I have been able to have a play.

I am a terrible buyer of card making magazines and buy lots! (My husband thinks I buy too many craft things full stop lol!) These mags get read over a coffee and then placed on the floor of the craft room under one of my tables/desks. Over the last few months this pile has grown to rather enormous proportions.  Normally they sit there for a few weeks and then I get time to re-read them, cut them up and discard those sections I don't want and paste the inspirational stuff (for me -we all have our own tastes) and the potential challenges along with templates or instructions on how to for a technique or idea..........into a scrapbook.  I now have four of these and do find it a great way to get my mojo flowing when I need an idea.

But, as said the pile has grown large. So, I tackled it over the weekend and reduced it to a much smaller pile of torn and cut up paper, which is yet to be pasted in. However, I did extract from this smaller pile a few (OK, about 10) photo's of cards or ideas that I would like to try straight away, and yesterday afternoon I made five cards! Most of these are straight CASEd cards - the original producer of this card may recognise their genius, and I thank them for their inspiration. However, I have not named these as I don't have the names of the creators any more - its all cut up and thrown away!

A bit edgy - I coloured a small white tag with my highlighter; sentiment is from a new SU set called Really Good Greetings and they are! Paper is Cosmo Cricket -DeLovely; tag is commercial; ink is SU Mambo Melon. Button is Basic Gray Lauderdale Stitched Brads. 

This one just sang to me - isn't it pretty! And the bonus is that you use up some of those paper flowers you have, Susan!  I got to use the Perfect Pearls dots too but not that well.  My sentiment is hand done. The original one was all white on the pale blue background but I added the touch of pink. I got some Whitewash Co'Ordination card in pale blue and drew a heart onto it using one of my SU Heart dies. Then it was a matter of laying the flowers on to fit the shape, and then added some SU pearls. The tie is a piece of cord off  a tag on a new piece of furniture. All this is layered onto a card blank.

Another slightly more edgy one - this time I gaily went to the stamp collection (MFT) to get the old typewriter stamp and then realised it was too big for what I wanted to do, so I thought I would get a digi, but then just went to the images on Google and go a manual typewriter - reduced it in size and printed it off onto some card and fussy cut it out. Another commercial tag, a small peg from stash as is the heart slide; some washi tape; a piece of ledger paper from the stash aged with TH Antique Linen ink and die cut with a Die-namics die to get the holes along the top! I used an SU edge punch for the border and the sentiment came from a MFT set called My Type. 

On a roll, I thought, and so had a go at one that was even more edgier. Didn't work for me though - mailnly because I am an idiot. A piece of card from the stash (unknown) folded into a card. Wasi tape holds the image - firstly I used a mask to sponge on ink into the rectangle onto SU Whisper White; the stamped with Memento Black onto the re with a stamp that is a freebie from Artistic Stamper. Now, you may notice that the male figure looks a little blocky - I thought oh well, that's a bit disappointing as the female one is so crisp, and went on with the rest of the card.  There are rub-ons for the sentiment and a small punched heart. It wasn't until several hours later whilst tidying up that I discovered that I had the male stamp around the wrong way on the stamp block! Duh! apart from silly behaviour, this card was very quick! 

Then I made this one - it is an original, not CASEd. 

I used one of the free digi's Hilde is giving away on her challenge blog Crafting with Dragonflies where I am on the DT. The sentiment is from SU's new one Pursuit of Happiness. 

Sunflowers coloured up with Copics and the SU Marine Mist blue card is embossed with the clouds. I have used a punch for the sentiment and mounted it and the blue on some SU Daffodil Delight.  The card is a commercial blank. There is some Atya Spiker pen on the flowers too but it is a bit difficult to see it in the late afternoon light. Can you see the small ladybird? 

I will enter this one in the following challenges:

365 Cards: two colours/tones - mine are yellow and blue

Card Mania: Summer blooms

Make it Monday: Anything goes

Outlawz: must have sentiment/Summer flowers

Wedding Blog Hop

We're going on a Blog Hop, We're going to have some fun, It's a beautiful day...........etc (apologies to Michael Rosen)  It's all about WEDDINGS!

If you haven't got a cuppa by now, perhaps you should go and get one - lots to read and see!

If you came here from Tania's amazing creation and have completed the rest of the hop for the wonderful team at  Crafting with Dragonflies, you are in the right place! If you have come here because you are a follower of mine or you just lucked in, and you want to do the hop, just turn right around and go back to Crafting with Dragonflies and begin the Hop. It is well worth the effort because there are some fabulous prizes available, one on each of the seven team blogs and one on the main blog. 

Our theme is WEDDINGS and we have a little game running. It's a guessing game and involves a small rhyme about weddings that you will have heard of or already know.  You will get a clue for each word on the team's individual blogs - one blog , one word - and when put together they make up the rhyme.

My card for this challenge is a WEDDING card (surprise) and the image I have used on this is a Kenny K image called Wedding Garter. This image is a digi and KK have given this to us to give away, so some lovely person who leaves me some love on this blog by making a comment will get the image sent to them. How good is that!

  (Remember you need to be a follower of Crafting with Dragonflies to be eligible for prizes - and if you want to, you can be a follower of my blog as well but it is not contingent on winning).

I guess you have heard a lot about weddings on your hop so far - all those traditions and their possible origins. My little lady here is wearing a garter, and it has blue on it. This is supposed to be one of the oldest traditions of the lot, and comes from the superstition that a piece of the clothing worn by the bride would bring good luck to someone.  So, one tale is that people tended to pile into the bedchamber of the new couple and try to rip off the said garment in an attempt to get a piece of luck and happiness - nice!

In the 14th Century the wedding couple were accompanied to the bridal chamber, escorted in, undressed and as part of the deal, consummation was watched for and checked (especially if the girl was a virgin) by some of the guests - lovely! 

Another explanation for the toss of the garter is that wedding guests (men) would during this time play a game of tossing the stockings of the bride as they were removed.  The man who threw the stocking closest to the nose of the groom was the next to marry apparently! Later on, it developed that throwing them the smaller garter to fight over alleviated the bride (and groom) being left bruised and/or embarrassed and probably also explains why in some places it is the groom who removes it first! Protector of the innocent bride, he will throw this toward the eligible men to distract them while his new bride would throw her bouquet at the eligible women for the same reason. Possibly this would also allow them to slam the door of the bridal chamber while the crowd was distracted! It all sounds a bit barbaric to me! 

Silver was used as currency in the past, and a silver coin is a sign of wealth (luck) - if the bride was given some silver it was indeed very lucky for her if she was poor! Some women now have a silver coin - usually a sixpence - either in a purse in their dress, or sewn into the lining or worn around the neck or in the bouquet or in their shoe! Sometimes the groom gets to have the coin in the shoe instead - lucky man. I think this little girl has the silver sixpence in her garter!

My own wedding was a little out of the norm - it was in a church, but the reception was just a party at home for two hours, and there was definitely no garter throwing! I did have a bouquet - a small spray of Singaporean orchids - but I didn't have the frou-frou wedding dress.  I had a nice silk shift in a beautiful pale coffee colour.  I cannot believe how slim I was or how dark!  I am certain all the old biddies in the area were counting on their fingers to see if a small packet was delivered six or seven months later but I liked the dress, it suited me and while it didn't cost sixpence it was cheap! Our whole wedding was catered for by ourselves and my Mum made the cake. I got it decorated very plainly with just white icing and we laid a spray of orchids across it. We had two witnesses (friends who signed the certificate) and went to dinner with family later before sailing off for a two week honeymoon on our small yacht - such bliss! Oh well, each to their own. 

Now, your turn!

Somewhere in my blog is a word to add to the rhyme. Add it to the others.

Go to the comments section and leave some love - you might win the KK image!

When you have done that return to Crafting with Dragonflies

blog and leave a comment there as well.  

Did you work out the rhyme? Good - email me with it, putting WEDDING BLOG HOP in the subject line. My email address is on the main blog.  Please DO NOT put the rhyme in the comments section. 

Oh, and well done if you got this far!

Raining fit to Bust - but NO Leaks Yet!

All day long it has been raining - so unusual! Thankfully the windows downstairs have chosen not to leak yet today so no wet carpet or windowsill in the Craft space and no wet towels to dry! Hubby is mystified by this - why it leaks sometimes and not others - and has recently been out with the hose to try and make it leak:  but no luck.

Anyway, as it was raining I crafted a bit, tidied up the craft space a bit; played a bit; made a card or two......

A while ago when I was visiting the craft shop a pack of Art Deco Papermania somehow just fell into my basket and I found it when I got home (it was paid for, I promise!) ........ and I looked at it for about three months and admired it before today.  When I went to use it, thinking this should be something light and easy to get me back into the swing of things, do you think I could get it together! Eventually this is what I came up with..........................for Unstampabelles challenge - to create a Birthday card with no stamps of any kind! There is still a week to go for this challenge so why not have a go!

A card and a matching gift box

I was given a pack of chipboard shapes and one of them was this ribbon thing - not sure what they are called - and I decided to play with the pack of faux gold leaf I have to see what it looked like.  I go glue and gold leaf and ink all over myself and the desk, but it was OK ...sort of.... a lot of trouble for a slide. It was the start of the card though, as I went with the gold and black theme.  I had to find some gold card and that took a moment or too - it gets used up so quickly. I need some mirror card  so must add that to my shopping list!

Love the colour of her dress in this topper, layered on gold and then black card.  Stars are punched out.

The box was a template already cut and ready to go - you just have to figure out how to put the bottom part together! I strengthened this with a small bit of white card as I don't know yet what I will put in it. A tag punch, some ribbon and a sentiment from the pack as well as another smaller image of the head of the girl in the topper were added, and I threaded some ribbon through the tag before I stuck it to the side of the box.  The box has three stars on the top too but they don't actually show in these images. 

The inside of the card

Taken in a different light - too wet to go outside and this is in the kitchen!

Cold Weather? No - Beautiful Days!

This week we have had the pleasure of the company of Lily and Jack from Canberra, and their Dad. It's school holidays there so time to visit the Grandparents!

We have had a few adventures - Lily and Jack have been to Port Arthur and returned safely without being locked up! We have played Putt Putt golf (Llo - Grandfather - won) and the kids went swimming this morning at the pool.  We have been to the Newseum (New Refurbished Museum), watched a lot of videos, went to Llo's club for dinner and ate a lot of special treats!

We also crafted but you will see that later. Lily (10) has also made a card!

This is using a digi from Digital Delights and the cookies and sentiment come from a collection of digis's called Help for Katie. This has been coloured with pencils and SU markers. There is a Marianne heart die cut and the cards are SU Pink Passion and Lucky Limeaide. SU markers were used to colour the sentiment.

We are entering this in the following challenges:
C.R.A.F.T Challenge: photo inspiration - its pink, blue and green and warm and so is the Flamingo in her lovely scarf!
CanYouDigiIt: about your pets (she says she would love to have a Flamigo and be able to dance with it - I just got a demo! Definitely NOT ballet - dag style!)

I made a card too - mine has a window with acetate and uses a new Marianne die cut I have acquired. 

White bazzil card folded for the base; some flowers from the stash; some die cuts and a ribbon with a bit of bling!

Working out how to cut the card was interesting, and then I stuck in the acetate window but I forgot to cut the card for the inside front (not shown but there is a patterned paper over the acetate edges to hide it inside) and had to then work out my place to cut very, very carefully! Duh!

This sentiment is from SU's new set Pursuit of Happiness - I outlined the word happy with red SU pen. The red card is SU Poppy Parade. The red flowers have been hanging around in the stash for ages. The star die cut is from Memory Box.

I will enter this in the following:

ART Card Challenges: I turned the sketch sideways

Paper Pretties: sentiment as focal point.

Tuesday Throwdown: Anything Goes

Beautiful Tree's for Gingerloft

The challenge at Gingerloft this challenge is to create a card using Trees - Tami has a few images to work with that are stunning but I really like the one I used called Tree On Hill - self explanatory - as it is so sedate and cool and elegant.

The inside has a text sentiment from Gingerloft too - I just swiped a Copic pen across in two colours.  It is mounted on some SU Grey and distressed around the edges.

The image was printed off onto XPress Blending card and lightly coloured up with the Copic pens. I layered this onto SU Grey, and distressed the edges of both pieces of card. The card underneath is the new SU Summer Sky colour.

Again I distressed the edges and added an SU vintage brad and some string,  I stamped the sentiment with Momento Tuxedo Black ink and used an SU stamp from the new set Happy Day. 

The card blank was made from some SU Cherry Cobbler, and I add a little bit of bling. 

I have two Grandchildren and their father from Canberra visiting for a week - starting from today - and time is short! 

I will enter this in the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments: Sentiment that is two words - yep!

Charisma Cards: No DP used

Daring Do and Pirate Adventures!

Over at the Lollipop Ladies we have a challenge #72 running for the month over July (normally they are each fortnight) and this month the theme is Pirates and the twist is WATER.

This is the inspirational photo

Here is my Tri-fold card using the theme of Pirates:

digi Pirate Johnny - by Meljen - coloured with Copics and Stickles added; frame die cut and ink sponged around

a Bugaboo Digi, with treasure chest too, but the map was on a website about Pirate sayings, printed off and fussy-cut out. Stickles on the sabre!

This is from Meljen too. I sponged ink across top of water and added a sky with the sun out!

The flag is from my die cut stash. The background papers from the stack of left-over papers laying on the table. 

The poem is from the website on Pirate sayings, printed off and ink sponged around. 

I used a few dimentionals to lift up the boy pirate and the sun. My rock is my own drawing! All coloured in with Copics. 

The sentiments come from a freebie stamp off a Craft magazine. The card is SU Tempting Turquoise and the DP with the ships is from SU as well. 

It is kinda cute! Great for a little boy's birthday! There is a story there too if you can read it.

Please enter this challenge - at the moment there is only one entry! 

I will enter this in the following challenges:

Creative Corner: Anything Goes

Delicious Doodles: Create some scenery - yep, underwater and above water!

Just Add Ink: Water! Yes, behind Pirate Johnny and in the sea!

Southern Girls:  No Spoolin! Nope, none here....

Just had to say......

*wink*

for me Pirates!

Unusual Fold for Crafting with Dragonflies

We are up to Challenge #6 for Crafting with Dragonflies and the Dragonflies are asking you to create a card with an unusual fold but NOT AN EASEL CARD........

...................in fact, anything but an Easel Card

As an added twist, either give instructions on making it  OR  a link to where you got the idea. 

Our generous sponsors for this challenge are Delicious Doodles

4 Digis of winners choice

and

 and Di's Digi Designs (a $10 gift voucher)

Wow, how generous are they - thanks people!

I made a Bendifold -  but I will probably make a different shape because I am not very happy with it. I saw this on Splitcoaststampers and loved the one that was created by Bibiana, and foolishly thought I would have a go - here is one of hers:

It's gorgeous! Obviously way above my skill level however as I discovered when making mine!

Here is mine: what do you think?

A garden scene, using Hilde's freebie flowers for a focus!

I started off OK and had no problems following the instructions to make the base card - the tags to hold the curves need to be carefully made and remade as you add things to the front (and back) of the bends - I chose not to add to the back of my bends as I was already a bit overloaded on the front. 

You can see the tags here

This is a back view 

I printed out three copies of the digi's and coloured them up with Copics.  I then masked them and sponged over some Memento Summer Sky and New Sprout ink to take the brightness of the white card away.

I used a lot of dies - mostly Memory Box, but not all. I cut the flowers out in white card and then coloured them straight with no blending using the Copics. The snail by MB was in grey card and I added the eye but it got covered with glue - I tried to erase it with my glue eraser but the marks still show.

The cat is MB too - isn't it cute - no glue here.  Murphy's law says where it doesn't show it would be!! The fence is from Cheery Lyn and I glued some wood paper to some kraft, and then die cut it out - I was please with this effect. 

The vine is Die-namics and the tree is is Spellbinders. The clouds are Whimsy.

The salutation is from SU - Apothecary Art

So - a Bendicard fold...........it was fun to make I must admit.

I will enter this in the following challenges:
Can You Digi It: Summer theme
Paper Minutes: Anything Goes
Shopping our Stash:  Summer colours - yep!