Some Stampin' Up Playing

Some Stampin' Up playing with the Beauty Abounds Bundle, including the big butterfly die!

As always, I went to Pinterest and got lost for several hours but did make three cards, two of them were almost direct copies.

For the first one, I just went with it from the die cuts

I cut the bottom layer in blue card Pacific Point

It required a shim but came out OK

I then cut the top from Glimmer Paper - Pink

Layering one on top of the other gives wonderful depth and then

I laid them on top of a piece of card that had been used to mop up 

Brusho's leftovers and which was in the stash.

Mmmm, that looked OK too.

Once I decided which part of the background, I cut it to mount on a square card blank

 and added a ruler border and some sequins.

Looks quite specky and does not need a sentiment on the outside

The I made two more for a party I hosted here

In fact my guest and I made them together!

The first one used a part of the big die and stamps from the set

The second one is just stamps and an accompanying punch

The rectangle is from the latest Rectangle die's and the background paper is from a freebie from Sale-a-bration Botanical Butterfly. Too late now to get that one.

I coloured the butterflies with the watercolour pencils. 

The colour combo in this one is Flirty Flamingo and Soft Sea Foam

and I used a Close to Cocoa ink for the flourish.

The flowers and greenery were coloured with the pencils again.

If you are interested in making any of these, let me know

I can come to you or you can come here. 

Cheers, Susan!

How Krazy can those Kritters Be?

Hello Peeps and welcome to anyone who has survived Google Plus and come back to us!

“Keeper of the Night”

Cape Bruny lighthouse under our Milky Way on Bruny Island.
A truly spectacular photo by Chasing Light - Photography by James Stone. James won an award in the prestigious David Malin Awards for Australian Astrophotography for his time lapse nightscapes at Cape Bruny Lighthouse, and this image was shortlisted for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

This is one of mine of the same lighthouse during the day

Taken in 2017

Yeah - chalk and cheese, I know......

Over at Unstampabelles, it is time to swing into 

Challenge#88: Krazy for Kritters 

TWIST Bokeh Backgrounds

What is a bokeh background, you ask?

It is a technique. 

Bokeh BOH-kay — also sometimes pronounced as BOH-kə,

The term comes from the Japanese word boke, which means "blur" or "haze", or boke-aji, the "blur quality". The Japanese term boke is also used in the sense of a mental haze or senility. That's often me - very BOKE today! 

The term bokashi is related, meaning intentional blurring or gradation.

So we want you to Bokashi your background so you get a Bokeh look to it. 

Most people do it with light colours or white but that is not necessary as long

as the background is obscured or blurred.

If you Google Bokeh Background images you get some amazing ideas!

I love this one - raindrops on a window with lights behind it.....
If you look again to James Stone's photo of the lighthouse (above), the sky is almost bokeh too there.

Having said that I did use white for my piece today

I decorated a small pizza box (made by Stampin' Up and in the current catty)

I used my Dylusions paints as I had them out for another project and I might as well used them before I put them back, right?

So careless smooching with a smudger to add some blue and green for ground and sky.

I wasn't quite sure until I started which side to use - there is a matte and a shiney side.

I ended up colouring the matte side

By then I wasn't sure either which way would be the top of the box, so I did both top and bottom!

Then I folded it up and checked.....

....before I added my sun with rays

When I came to use the white for the bokeh effect, I watered it down a bit and so I looks less blurred and more snowflakes!!!!!

I would have been better to have added some bigger circles and blurred it all a bit more.

When it was all dry I decorated it.

The 'Happy' was an old rub on that refused to rub on without great difficulty. I ended up having to lift it off the plastic and carefully place each letter.....

'Easter' was cut out of a decorative egg design die

My bunny is a little Krazy Kritter - a die I have had for ages and haven't used before I think.

He is sparkly like one of the eggs!

The pizza box open - it would take some folded notes, a gift card or 

some small sweets or a small gift of some kind

Hope you like my Kritter

You have a few weeks to create one yourself

It does not have to be for Easter

See you at Unstampabelles where there are some more pieces from the DT to inspire you!

Final Week in March for Unstampabelles

Welcome to the last week of March

and welcome to Autumn in the Southern climes!

Grove | @katypotaty77/Instagram

Over at Unstampabelles the last week of the current challenge is beginning

I decorated a gift bag from some empheria I had from D'Lish

I would be great for a boy who was getting some sports shoes!

Firstly I arranged the bits on a sheet of black card made to fit the size of the reused carry bag.

Once I was happy with the placement it was just a matter of gluing it all down

The basketball hat is on dimensionals.

I even used a ready-made tag from D'Lish to tie to the handles.

All closed with a PEG

The TWIST at Unstampabelles  this month is to use a peg or staples

You have five more days to enter - Happy Crafting!

Just to let you know as well I have been accepted as a Design Team Member at



So excited to get started!
See you soon!

Week Three of the March Challenge at Unstampabelles

What can one say - last evening a terrible thing happened in our family. Our Nation's family. It was perpetrated by someone who is apparently an Australian. Against others from our family across the Tasman Sea.

I will not name him

I will not give him the satisfaction of that.

I will just show this and say that the rest of the 'family' are not like him.

Thank you to Brisbane illustrator Rebel Challenger for allowing us to share her work with you all. | ABC Brisbane

My condolences to the people of New Zealand

Unstampabelles

Week Three at Unstampabelles means it is half way through the month - and it is getting a bit Autumnal here. We had some drizzly rain a few days ago and there were rainbows popping up everywhere!

WOW… a very rare early evening double rainbow at Cockle Creek, in Tassie’s far south, thanks to Salty Summits.

www.instagram.com/saltysummits

For the Design Team this week I made a card.

I used the old Umbrella Man die from Sizzix and a newish die from Crafter's Companion for the sentiment on the side

The Awesome Classic was computer generated and attached to strip of gold spotty card from a chocolate box!

I can see a brother receiving this!!!

You still have two weeks to go at Unstampabelles

Go for it!

One for the Rooster's Today!

What is that saying? "One day a Rooster, the next a feather duster!"

Let's hope these chooks get a better run - they certainly seem to be ahead of the game already! 

Not sure how much better their run could be with that view!

Margot Kelly, on location, at Sheffield.

Margot says: “Former dairy farmers, Phil and Angela Glover, now run 3400 hyline brown hens on pasture for eggs. It takes three hours a day to harvest the eggs by hand.
Last year the standard for 'free range eggs' was changed to be 10,000 birds per hectare.
This niche operation stocks 1,000 hens per hectare.
I was amazed to see the girls spread out across the entire paddock they were given.
🥚🥚🥚🥚🍳🍳🍳🥚🥚🥚 I was more amazed by how friendly they were! I had them running between my legs and stepping on my boots! 

www.instagram.com/margotkelly123

The Rooster's today are the Men and boys from our lives

It always seems harder to craft for them but really it is not - if you just  plan your colours

I did this by picking a sheet of patterned paper first and building around it. 

After finding a great quote, I then decided to make a wallet for a present of money.

Most kids like money these days as a present and it makes life easier but it always seems to be to be a bit impersonal so this was a way to make it more personal!

My green peg made a great closure

The sentiment (quote) on the front was obviously hand written

I could hold quite a few notes - this is Australian currency for those unfamiliar....

we are up to the 4th series of polymer notes and they are very colourful

I added another sentiment inside to go with the quote!

This is the back of the wallet.....

This is the wallet standing up - can you  see where it fell over and got crinkled?

I made this for Unstampabelle's 

where the challenge is to make something for Boys or Men 

TWIST is to add a staple or a peg (or both)

You have three weeks to enter

I will be entering this in the following:

Dare2BArtzy : Anything Goes

The Corrosive Challenge: Anything Goes

Send a Smile 4 Kids: Male cards

A Little Stampin' Up Play Time

I gained a lovely stamp set during Sale-a-Bration (which closes on 30th March) which contains a chook (slang in Australia for chicken). I'm always partial to a chook. This big boy is a rooster!

Al products used in these cards are Stampin' Up

I used the Stampasorus to stamp and then mask the rooter to stamp the foliage.

They were coloured with the alcohol markers

The embossing folder is an older one

A closer look at one

Inside I attached a note page,stamped with a big stamp

To match the sentiment on the front

I did 6, added some envelopes and tied them up with a ribbon.

They were gifted to a friend. 

A Little wine, anyone?

Hello Peeps!

Wish I could photograph as well as Angela!

Isn't this a magnificent bird!

A native Taswegian

'In motion'
Wedge-Tailed eagle
www.instagram.com/angelasiejka

I made a couple of wine bottle tags for the March challenge at Unstampabelles

It is a 

 Makes for Men and Boys 

TWIST Use a Staple or a Peg

Male focused items. I always need these.

 $15 Gift Voucher 

(via PayPal or direct to on-line store, whichever suits)

I made two different ones from one sheet of A4 card

They can be used for a variety of reasons for an adult male

One has staples holding on the message

and the other is held by a peg!

Here they are without the bottles of wine

The hole was cut with a die for the bottle neck - it could have been a bit smaller

The message is hand written on the top one

This one uses sparkly stickers

You an go to Unstampabelles and see what others have created for the first week