Saturday, December 31, 2011

Paris, oh la la...

One thing on my 'bucket list' is to find myself in Paris one day!  I was saving up for it and then found out I was pregnant so that dream was postponed for the moment... hopefully I can start saving again soon - maybe I'll get there for my 50th birthday!

Anyway, over at 365 Cards they were asking for LANDMARKS and there's nothing more romantic than the Eiffel Tower....

I had punched out the polka dot background card ages ago when I first got the MS loop punch, and now it has found a fitting home.  The ribbon was from a sale bin at Kmart, excess Christmas stock as usual!

I love this stamp set, bought it specially to make my daughter's 21st birthday day (the plan was that we were both going to Paris, so she's still waiting for that too LOL!) - her card is at the end of the post.




Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Another recycled card!

Following on from yesterday's post today I made another card from the other pisco package.

I don't usually work with dark green so went to Color Lab to get a colour combination and it suggested More Mustard and Cherry Cobler and I do like how they go together.

I added some tiny silver brads to the greeting to tie in with the silver on the condor graphic, a bit of sponging in Soft Suede all over plus a bronze buckle I've had for ages and it was pretty much done.

We showed it to one of my sister-in-laws over Skype this morning and she immediately recognized the "Alto del Carmen" so that was good!



Another Christmas medallion

I was tidying up my craft desk this afternoon and I finally found the front picture I had cut out ages ago so thought I'd better 'make hay while the sun shines' as they say!  The frill is the crepe paper I had cut out for this challenge but then didn't like it so it has finally found a fitting place.  I quite like how it turned out, it is rather large though, but is the best [ie most even] of the three medallions I've made this year.  They are still hanging on the Christmas tree as I write this, I think the tree will be coming down in the next couple of years - back in the attic it will go.

Another go at recycling, the image was cut from a card my aunt and uncle sent me for Christmas 2001!

This is the one I made today

This was the one I made a while ago.


Recycling is the name of the game

I'm always on the lookout for interesting graphics on packaging which I can recycle into cards!  I was about to through out a couple of boxes which contained bottles of Pisco when I thought I'd 're-purpose' them instead - I know a couple of guys who would perhaps appreciate the humour of my creations!

A couple of weeks ago I was 'parent-help' at my son's kindergarten and in a spare moment I did some painting!  I couldn't resist the pots of metallic paint set out by the teacher for the children and randomly painted a piece of card with stripes of metallic blue, green, purple, red and gold.  I cut out some letters with my latest purchase, a Tim Holtz alphabet die [Vintage Market] and then of course couldn't bear to through out the scraps so I used them as a border.

Alphabet dies are perfect when you need to write messages in other languages!





Monday, December 19, 2011

Put on your sunglasses!

Well, this must be one of the brightest cards I've ever made!  The background paper came in a magazine I bought a couple of weeks ago and it is rather bright, but nice I think.

I wanted to try making an angel out of punched shapes again and here is the result.  I haven't put a greeting on it as it struck me it wasn't necessarily for Christmas, could be a birthday card too.

I made this for a couple of challenges:

365 Cards - "Touchy Feely"use three textures:  corrugated cardboard, rhinestones and ribbon
Flutterby Wednesday - open challenge as long as it has an angel, a fairy or a butterfly.


Thursday, December 15, 2011

Not so sure about this one...

The challenge over at 365 Cards was to make your own flower.... sounds easy enough and after trying to make one out of crepe paper and failing dismally I should have taken the easy way out and punched out some shapes and got it done but NO!  I had to decide to be different and make a ribbon flower, something I've never attempted before.  And in retrospect if I hadn't chosen GOLD ric rac to make my 'flower' I would have probably had more options as far as cards go - so another Christmas card it is then - with a very shiny gold flower for a tree topper.



A Christmas Present card

{Woohoo!  I have one follower - how cool is that!}

Still have a few cards to make and enjoying every creative moment of it!

This one here will be going to Dunedin to Sister Mary - hope she enjoys it.  (not a very religious card but I'm banking on her crafty side to enjoy this one hehehe!)

The challenge at 365 Cards was to 'change the base' in other words bypass the usual cardstock.  Now I have to admit there is some cardstock in this card hidden away, otherwise the whole thing would colapse!

But I covered some 'you-know-what' in fabric, added the ribbons and sewed all round the edge to make it nice and secure.  I'm very happy with how it turned out though it took me all morning to make, what with setting up the ironing board, getting the sewing machine set up, etc etc....And I love how the 'tag' turned out all glittery and gold - indulging my taste for glitter once again.




And on the subject of red and shiny, here is a pic of my little boy dressed up for his Christmas party yesterday, I made his kings' cape with shiny red satin and gold ric-rac ribbon - there was some leftover too so no doubt you'll see some gold ric-rac in a card soon.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Teal birthday

Have been rather busy these last few days but today managed to make this card for the 365 Cards challenge, "Feeling blue-green".

When my mum was visiting she bought a DCWV stack and I got lucky and grabbed a couple off her before she left - lighten the luggage so to speak!

And actually it's her birthday next month so I might just send it to her!  Love that paper with all the glitter on it.


Sunday, December 4, 2011

Some Christmas Medallion fun..

The other day I found myself down in our local library looking for some "War of Thrones" books and ended up coming out with a couple of Christmas crafts books instead - isn't that always the case hehehe!

The one that really caught my eye was a Vintage Christmas book and I was fascinated by a medallion in it and thought I'd try to recreate it.  I tend to keep the Christmas cards we receive year after year and thought this was the perfect project to use some of them.

These are the two that I made today.

The book that inspired me!
Project in the book

My first attempt - see how uneven the frill is!!??

This is the reverse side with a punched stocking decorating it.

Second attempt, frill much more even this time :>

I used the inside of the card for the backing so I still know who sent it originally.

A birthday card

Now I'm getting daring, combining two challenges!  


As per usual I've taken up the challenge across at 365 Cards and followed a "recipe" to make a card.  The "ingredients" were: 5x5 card, 3 patterned Papers, 6 rhinestones or pearls, 1 stamp, 1 sentiment.


I also happened across another challenge at Flutterby Wednesday who were asking for: the color blue (on my paper lace), lace (made of paper), 3 or more flowers (lots on the stamped branch), at least one butterfly.  




Saturday, December 3, 2011

Just for the fun of it - a bush Christmas!

When I cut out the base tag for this project I didn't realise that there were two pieces of cardstock stuck together so there I was, with two tag bases when I only really needed the one...

I also had the green paper diecut sitting on my desk and it all started from there really!  The paper is of the New Zealand Ferntree, a great dinosaur of a thing, when I first saw them almost 30 years ago I was spellbound by their beauty, it was like being transported into the past....

This is when the kiwi theme started, the vehicle out in the bush, with a big fern frond on the back, the red diecuts reminded me a little of Maori carvings - it was so much fun to put together.  Of course I couldn't have an empty vehicle so rummaged around 'till I found a suitable photo of my little boy - he was tickled pink when I showed him the finished tag and told him he was driving a pick-up truck!



A real fern tree [in the grounds of Newlands College]

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Black and White plus a dash of orange!

Found this [old] challenge over at the Play Date Cafe this morning, to use black and white with a splash of orange - and combined with the divide and conquer challenge over at 365 Cards this is the result!

As I don't have any black and white patterned paper, I decided to make my own using a cute wee set from SU! called Good Neighbours.


Baby wipe background technique - what fun!

I've been meaning to try the 'baby wipe' technique that can create such lovely backgrounds.  I had found a piece of card that looked semi-glossy to me so thought I'd give it a try - I used a couple of Stampin' Up! reinkers in Riding Hood Red and Chocolate Chip and my white card turned into a sunset...

Added Dasher looking over his shoulder at the silver comet, he looks rather peaceful just standing there which was the cue for my sentiment!

I also wanted to play along with the latest sketch at 365 Cards and I found it sooo hard!  So when the inspiration of a upwards tail added to the star finally struck I was on my way LOL!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Keeping it simple

I think I may have used a little too much on my card now that I've checked back with 365 Cards - if you consider the 'sentiment' to be the whole thing not just the words then I'm okay!


Sunday, November 27, 2011

A little tag - Spin me a Yarn challenge

I think I'm going to start working on gift tags now as I have enough Christmas cards [I think}... so here are some I made today for 365 Cards which asked for "Spin me a Yarn".

Very simple to make, this technique called Spirelli was the tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers this week so thought I'd give it a go - I found the the gold cord was rather bulky to work with, the other two are made with crochet yarn which was much easier.  Also, you don't have to limit yourself to circles, just as long as you have the little grooves made by the scallops to wrap your yarn around it should work okay.











Autumn Tag

I've often seen tags on blogs and had thought of making one and now I finally have.  I was a bit unsure as to what you'd use them for, but I guess they can be used to adorn scrapbook pages, or even as greeting cards with the message written on the back - for this one I once again used my leaf stamp [I love leaves!] as the theme over at 365 Cards was to make a "Fall/Harvest Tag".

Oh yes - the little bee is for all the lovely honey we get to harvest to see us through the winter!!

The tag measures 3" x 5" and I cut off the top corners to create the tag shape.  Lots of fun embossing, sponging, cutting out and putting it all back together again!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Out of my comfort zone with Grunge..

I was a bit worried when I saw the Grunge challenge yesterday at 365 Cards as it's not something I've ever attempted before though I'm a big fan of Tim Holtz and his work.

I purchased one of his sets ages ago and the first time I used it I just couldn't get the ink to 'stick' properly to the stamps and was really disappointed but yesterday I used some Stampin' Up! inks and they worked just fine!  Maybe the stamps were too new the first time, I can't really remember what ink I used back then.

Anyway here is the card I made yesterday, I quite enjoyed making it so think I'll be putting that stamp set to good use from now on, it is great for male cards.  I'd love to do something similar but with a wee bit more red in it for a bit of omph.

I tried googling 'grunge cards' to get ideas but didn't have much luck, I think grunge refers to a lot of distressing, paper tearing, staining, knocking your cup of tea over it, you get the picture!



.....................and the next day..........................

I had another play around with the card above as I really wanted to add a hint more red and here is the result, including a gift tag that I made just because!  [well, I was making some Christmas gift tags and thought:  why not make a grunge one too?!]

The string on the gift tag came off a bag of flour I opened a couple of weeks ago [my mother {and probably my grandmother, my great-grandmother, etc}] always used to save string and I think it rubbed off on me LOL!  It was rather white so I rolled it over a SU Crumb Cake inkpad and it took on a nicely distressed/dirty look - just perfect!




Thursday, November 17, 2011

Floral Pro-Fusion all the way!

I love a Sizzlets die I have called "Floral Fusion", and today I went all out in a pro-Fusion of blooms!



It is for a colour challenge over at 365 Cards - pink, green, burgandy, brown and blue, hope I didn't miss any out!

Another Christmas card!

I keep thinking I must do a tally of all the Christmas cards I've made so far... last year I sent out around 50 so I'd better get crafting!

This is for the 365 Cards Technique Challenge - to Spotlight one part of your card.  I chose to colour in the scarf and hat of one of the wee snowmen, my son thought it looked rather cute.

For the first time in years I feel it is OKAY to have snowmen on my cards after the 3 days of snow we had in August - yeah!!

With a bit of masking, and bit of glitter and a spot of sponging this card came together last night.



14th August 2011 - SNOW!!!!!!!!!!