Owl Bookmark

After a very busy few weeks at work it has finally settled down and I can finally start to unwind at the weekend whilst leaving work where it belongs:  at work!

We had a nice quiet day today which meant I had my first chance to have a real good look at some SU goodies I purchased a couple of weeks ago {I think I'm safe to say this as am sure my hubby does not check my blog!}

Anyway, even though I do have a lot of crafting stuff I was lacking inspiration so treated myself to a pack of card of the latest InColours {or InColors} PLUS the matching 5 ink pads PLUUUS a pack of DSP that matched those colours, namely Patio Party.

And just as an extra bonus I also bought the Owl punch which I have always found adorable and which is featured here today.

The other totally practical thing I bought (I thought I'd better make the most of it and purchase enough to get me a Sale-A-Bration freebie...) was those sectioned plastic 12x12 scrapbook pages, like you see on Project Life, and had lots of fun today seeing if they fitted into an existing album I had - yes they did fit but once I'd loaded them all and closed it all up again I realised of course that some of them were in upside down..... I'll pull the album apart another day and fix that error of placement!

Enough rambling:  my project today was designed after I saw the Challenge over at Creative Corner Challenges which asked for "Designer Paper" and even though I could have used my brand new stuff I opted from some I have still from a couple of years ago from Stampin' Up!    Had sooo much fun putting the wee owl together, though I kept loosing his 'pupils' as they are so tiny - but in the end he came together nicely - with all colours matching the DSP I used of course LOL!

Other challenges entered are:
Stamping the with Dragon - Anything goes
Divas by Design - Anything goes



It is not a card {I tried to find 'rules and regulations' on Creative Corner blog but there was nothing obvious that says it has to be a card} instead this time I have made a bookmark for my son who loves reading - and loves to mark the pages with a bookmark!  I'm hoping to get it laminated so it lasts a bit longer that it would as it currently stands.

Patchwork + Brad

Going a bit silly here at the moment, at least I managed to get some crafting done this morning for a couple of challenges:  365 Cards asked for Patchwork and Creative Corner Challenges asked for Brads or Eyelets - I don't actually possess any eyelets (and wouldn't know what to do with them if I did have some!) but I do have a pack or 6 of brads.  I used a single one in the centre of the flower, and made up a patchwork background with 1-inch squares of pink and green papers.  In true patchwork fashion the edges are slightly wonky but as quilters will soon tell you, you are not meant to make your patchwork perfect as only God is perfect!  So that saying has saved my bacon today LOL!

The background card is Certainly Celery, a nice soft green from Stampin' Up! and I've always loved these little house stamps - thought it went quite well with the greeting.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the day, I may go for another walk up the hill as we did last weeekend (then again I may just stay home and do housework, arghhhh)

Christmas Card Challenge

Yep, I know it is a bit early - even for me - to be making Christmas cards but nothing like a blog challenge to get you all inspired :>

Over at Keryn's Card there is a weekly NZ challenge to make a Christmas card inspired by one that she creates and this week it is a quilted top note card.  Seeing as I've never actually made one of these 'quilted' cards I thought I'd just do a very similar one to the one Keryn made.  I managed to find three pieces of Christmas paper in my stash and as I don't have a square punch I cut them into 1-inch pieces.  I also felt I needed a bit more variety so made up my own 'pretty paper' with some vanilla cardstock and Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler ink.

In hindsight I shouldn't have run it through with the embossing folder as it opened up the 'seams' a little, but nothing a bit of ribbon won't cover!

I am also entering this card in a couple of other challenges:
365 Cards which asked for a colour combo of green, dark red and dark purple (which I have not used - sorry!)
Charisma Cardz Challenges - Anything goes.

Remember to click on a photo if you want a closeup view.

And after I finished the card the kids and I went out for a walk, enjoying the lovely weather we had today!

Colour like Crazy! {well, not really :>}

I bought this baby stamp from the SU Clearance Rack a few weeks ago and stamped and coloured in the image but never got any further, so when I saw that 365 Card Challenges asked for 'Colour like Crazy' I thought it was the perfect chance to give it a home, ie finish the card!

Of course it hardly was coloured like crazy, just a couple of soft colours were used, but still, colouring in is colouring in!

And of course I forgot to put the memory card in the camera so now will have to wait until tomorrow to take another photo and load it up.....oh well :>

But on the bright side I've rediscovered how to link specific posts to challenges - I was forgetting to add a title to my posts!

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}!