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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

The 3 Bs ... a bit of a boo-boo!

Well, as usual I was over at 365 Cards and saw a challenge for 3 Bs and I looked at the featured card and thought "oh yes, bird must be one of them... that should be easy with the bird punch"

Of course I've just checked back to upload my card and saw that the 3 Bs referred to "Brass + Blue + B of choice" and nowhere was the word 'bird' mentioned!  Lucky for me then that I just happened to choose to use the leftover Baja Breeze from a previous challenge as my background, phew - I just managed to comply with requirements thanks to that!

Anyway, making this card I yet again realised why we do this for love, not money.  It took me about 3 hours on and off to get it finalized, but in ENJOYED every minute of the crafting hehehe...

My B of choice was the bees and butterflies stamped on the background, plus a couple of brass brads just in case.