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]