Well, survived my first week back at work full-time in almost 6 years so rewarded myself with a little crafting time!

There are a couple of challenge blogs that I currently take part in {sporadically..} and one of them had a colour combo as their theme and the other one had the word "liquid" - and am sure they don't mean pour yourself a glass of wine before you get crafty!

So for Creative Corner Challenges it was "brown and pink" which was the easy part, for 365 Card Challenge I decided to use an ink and marble technique that I learnt a few weeks ago at Keryn's - I really liked the effect it produces, great for male cards I feel, but with the right colours it worked well for my sister-in-law's birthday card.

The flower was die-cut with a Tim Holtz Bigz folder {Tattered Florals from memory) and finished simply with a rhinestone as it's centre, and a little butterfly adds a little balance hovering over the greeting.  I really really wanted to add a dash of green but restrained myself just in time LOL!

I ignored the sinkful of dirty dishes this morning and decided to get creating again, this time it is for a couple of challenges, 365 Cards and Creative Corner Challenges.  365 Cards asked for 3 buttons, 3 flowers and 3 ribbons for their day challenge, and Creative Corner asked for the theme to be "Sorry".   I used this sentiment from SU which says "I"m so sorry" but I'm never quite sure whether I'm saying sorry 'cause I've been bad or I'm saying sorry for another person's sorrow!

Anyway, I used up lots of things I had on my desk, the only new things are the sentiment and the leaves, everything else was from my 'leftover' box - very handy!

Well, this is embarrassing:  it's been so long since I've posted on my blog that I couldn't remember how to do it!! I kept landing on it as a visitor but finally went to blogger.com and am backed logged in, sad really :>

There is a new challenge blog that I wanted to submit a card for; the challenge at Creative Corner Challenges this week is "cute as a button" and I took this opportunity to ink up a brand new set I purchased during the SU Clearance Sale which is "Party This Way" - I actually bought it for the images of the balloon, candle, arrow and greeting and yet I find myself using the banner piece, but am quite happy with how it turned out.

It is middle of summer here at the moment but today is dreary and rainy so the colours in the card are rather muted I'm afraid, no sunlight to make it all sing along nicely.

Bye for now, hope to be back soon{ish}!

A scrappy card

I really love to create using bits and pieces I have lying around on my desk - and it's not that messy either, really!

This card started out quite different, I stamped the Eiffel Tower and the big circle from Artistic Etchings by Stampin' Up! and started playing around with them but somehow other things started to creep onto the card and in the end the Eiffel Tower and circle got up and left in disgust LOL!  (I used the circle in my scrapbook page here, the Eiffel Tower is still waiting on my desk :< )

The only 'new' element is the sun, I had the circle left over from diecutting letters, found a snippet of the same yellow in the wastepaper basket and a few snips and drops of glue later the sun came out - right in front of the clouds which I find rather odd somehow hehehe...

A scrapbook page - I made it back finally!

Wow, that's a long time without posting anything!  In the meantime I notice Blogger is all changed so hope I can find all the usual stuff I need to compose a post....

 It all started when my camera broke, then I got a new one for my birthday a couple of months later but somehow my 'oomph' had deserted me by then.  Now that my little boy has started school I'm trying to get back into some papercrafting because I really find it relaxes me when I finally have a go!

To get myself back on the horse, so to speak, I chose a sketch from 365 Cards but rather than making a card I decided to make it as a 6x6 scrapbook page...

We took this photo the week before he started school when we went to check out the school playground [the most important part of a school for any 5 year old, right!?] and thought the photo would work really well with the circle theme.  The little circles dotted around were surplus to my marathon of die-cutting up lots and lots of scraps into letters with my Cuttlebug, they are all the centres from the o's, a's, p's, g's etc LOL!  Waste not, want not I say hehehe....

I will add some  journalling later, but here is the main image.

Orange blossom

I've seen this punched flower on many cards but had never made one until now.  

This card started out with a stamped image I had sitting on my desk, a small bouquet already coloured in orange and green.  I made up the background card with scraps and bits and pieces but then I felt the stamped image just didn't work and that I needed something bolder - and then I thought of making this flower.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.

365 Cards day 311 - Pretty Pairs "Damask + Pink"

And another bird-day card ready for posting off!

This one is for 365 Cards Pretty Pairs challenge which asked for "Damask and Pink".

I must say this is about the only 'damask' patterned paper in the whole of my stash so I was so lucky it was pink too!  I added a wee bird {love those pearls for eyes} plus a couple of die cut leaves, a couple of flowers, a sprinkling of glitter.  I used a retired SU stamp set called Alphabits for the greetings, that way I can make it any language I want - very versatile!  I've often thought of selling this set but I think I will keep it for a while longer, it is a little fiddly to cut and glue all the letters, but I like the slightly crooked effect they usually end up in hehehe... the first time I used the letters I punched them out with a 1/4" circle punch - never again!!