Wooo Hooo an award!

I've just been sent an email with an award in it. The award has come from a friend in Canberra the lovely Bron Refshauge at Bron's Creations. Apparently, the Leibster Blog (Love Blog) is awarded to new blogs to bring them into the spotlight, so thank you Bron for your award and your kind comments.

I blame this lady singlehandedly for sparking my interest in stamping and papercraft, I worked with her husband and visited for a social event when I met Bron and saw her studio, (gaping open mouthed and speechless was probably more like what happened)....what an amazingly talented artist this lady is. I stood in awe of her talent thinking I'd love to try it but I didn't think I'd ever be able to match the sort of projects she turned out. It really was about a year or more before I actually got the chance to play with some stamps and ink...the rest as they say is history. I've been blogging now for well over a year however Bron is relatively new to posting her work online. Drop by and have a look at her creations from time to time, you will find inspiration.

I've been accused of pretty much doing the same thing for a number of other friends, inspiring them to bring their creativity out into the light.

The following list are blogs that I visit and often gather inspiration from I'd like to send this award on to each of these talented artists.


Monique at Stamping with Monique

Christine at Happy Heart Cards

Julie at Paper Pleasing Ideas

Donna at Butternut Sage Designs

Andrea at EnchantINK

Please visit these blogs, leave a comment and show recognition for the amazing talent and artistry you see.

Nana's Pajama Princess

I've been a bit mojo-less for a few months now as far as scrapbooking pages go. But I've been taking lots of lovely photos of my beautiful little grand daughter Danielle.

She has a sleep over regularly and this series of pics was taken one morning when she put her dress up princess crown (tuelle and flowers circlet) on with her pajama's, couldn't resist this double page spread, the look on her face when I said I needed the flash on the camera was just priceless, she was trying to smile and avoid the flash at the same time! Hope you can see it in these pics.




I really love the way these pages turned out, maybe my scrapping days will come around more often now....LOL

Red and White

Oh How exciting! Ramdom winner on Southern Girls challenge.

With a post surgery enforced inactive and no work couple of weeks stretching ahead of me, I'm blurfing. What on earth is 'blurfing'? I hear you ask. It's blog surfing! and I'm slowly moving from the computer to the craft room to the couch and back again, still a bit sore and sorry and not able to settle in one spot for long....anyway it's all good, well on the road to recovery.

So while I was blurfing I found an Aussie/NZ site for challenges where this week's challenge is for dry embossing, so I decided to make a card for it, if you've been following my blog, you know I use dry embossing quite a lot in my cards. This sketch from Cute Card Thursday seemed to fit the bill also. When using dry embossing, I like to keep the colours simple and I don't usually use DSP with a lot of patterns or colours either as this seems to be overkill and muddy up the waters.

Here I've used textured cs for the white card and the first large panel of white. I've used SU embossing folders Vintage Wallpaper, Perfect Polker Dots and Square Lattice for the dry embossing, the square lattice can give this tapestry or cross stitch look to an image which adds a lovely touch.



I was playing around with the sentiment and decided to go with oval to match the scallope oval and then looked outside the norm for attaching this and the ribbon. Really happy with this as it is so different and I think it just looks fantastic and adds what we all look for in our creations a unique and unusual element to our designs. Of course no project of mine is complete without butterflies or bling so I added both! LOL

Thanks for stopping by, please take a moment to say Hi and leave a comment, these walls are going to drive me crazy pretty soon. Ok I'll admit, that is one very short drive!


Cute Card Thursday ~ Sketch

Southern Girls ~ Dry Embossing

Celebrate Chinese New Year!

This challenge caught my eye as I have this old SU set Artfully Asian which I just love. So out it came and I had done a card similar to this a few years ago so trotted out the techniques I used then to make this one today for the challenge. This time though, I've stamped the sentiment on the ribbon.



I've taken this photo on an angle so the embossing on the black shows up well. It is dazzling diamonds mixed with clear embossing powder and gives off this lovely shimmer of colour at different angles.


Sentimental Sundays ~ Celebrate Asia

Unscripted Sketches ~ Sketch

Black n White elegance

Just love the elegant look this card took on, I started with the sketch and thought black and white then it just grew from there, there is dry and heat embossing and lots of bling! In the photo above, you can just see a slight glimmer of the dazzling diamonds that I mixed with the clear embossing powder, I never use black embossing powder it's soooo unforgiving, I always stamp my image in black ink then clear emboss. Works a treat!





There is lots of texture in this card, I punched out 1 inch circles from embossed and shimmered whisper white and made the scalloped edge, then layered black which had been embossed and shimmered too, then why not add more bling wiht the square lattice embossed white on top! But wait, there's more.......bling for the accents on the butterflies and the bottom design element of the sketch.

Hope you like it as much as I do.

Crafty Creations ~ Heat embossing

Easy Craft Projects ~ Black and White (entry number 2)

Fussy and Fancy ~ Valentine - No red or pink (entry number 2)

Sweet Stampin ~ Sketch

Shabby Chic

Thank you to Stampin 411 for selecting this entry among the winners in Stampers Showcase #188 PLUS

This card also won at 4 Crafty Chicks in challenge #22

I did up this crumb cake embossed piece a few weeks ago and lost what I was going to do with it, so it's been sitting on my desk amongst the pile of UFOs (unfinished objects) and in looking at the challenges this week, I found the inspiration to use it.


I did have a little bit of a Oh No moment when trying to fit the green into the design as part of the colour challenge from 4 Crafty Chicks....lol I have just a tiny teenie bit peeking out from under the sentiment. whew! What I like most about this card is the Shabby Chic look.

This card seems to qualify for a number of challenges so here is the list...

4 Crafty Chicks ~ Colour Challenge

Crazy 4 Challenges ~ Shabby Chic

Paper Pal Arts ~ Bows

Pile It On ~ Love is in the Air

Some Odd Girl ~ Scallops Galore

Stampin 411 ~ Sketch

Bright and Sunny

Yay, a top pick on Just Add Ink challenge, thank you ladies, thrilled to be there again.

It's been a while since I've participated in a Just Add Ink challenge but this bright sunflower reminded me of a card I had made (you will have to scroll down a bit) using the wing from the two step bird punch, so I decided to do it again with a slightly different treatment and used Circle Circus and Embrace Life stamp sets. This time I sponged the edges of each petal with More Mustard for a softer look.

I've used Daffodil Delight, More Mustard and Whisper White.


Just Add Ink ~ Bright Burst of Colour

Back to blogging

Well it's only been a few days and I'm not sure how much I'll get done in the next two weeks, recouperating from surgery so I'm in the craft room for a short time, then on the couch then back to the craft room then bed. Just taking it easy really, as I feel better I'm sure I'll be creating and posting more.

This effort is for a few challenges.
Inkspirations Challenge ~ Sketch

Fussy and Fancy ~ Valentine with no red or pink

Play Date Cafe ~ Black White and Lilac or Purple (naturally I used both)

All a Flutter

This card is a case of a case! Leonie Schroder from ESAD did it in stunning Razzleberry and Orange all water coloured beautifully, she cased it from Ilina Crouse.

I've changed the stamps used and added the butterfly from Natural Beauty, a retired set, All A Flutter butterfly and then the Embosslit butterfly layered on the Bigz Die Beautiful Butterflies.




As you would know I'm a huge fan of using Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint on just about anything. I spritzed it on the Basic Gray and it looks stunning, of course the photo doesn't do it justice! I also used it on the Basic Gray butterfly center of the card, the shimmer is just beautiful. I took a close up under my craft light so you could see the lovely metallic shimmery effect.

You can also see the dazzling diamonds in the clear embossing powder that I used for the En Francais in this photo as well. Lots of shimmer! LOVE IT!




I was going to post this one on Stampin' Royalty but as usual my timing is just a tad off as the collection is closed. LOL better luck next time.

Three Little Words...

OMG! Such a wonderful surprise! Grand Creations Winner at Picture Perfect Creations #46. I'm so proud of this card and so pleased others loved it too. THANK YOU to the lovelies over at PPC.

Oh third place again at SU Only challenges! Yay, I love how this card turned out!

I'm on a roll with Valentine cards today...LOL pity there is no valentine to give them all to! But of course, this kind of card doesn't have to be limited to valentines it can be given to anyone that you love.



Features on this card are

Home made Brads---- little hearts punched from cardstock, glued in place then coated with Crystal Effects.

Woven Papers background----On Very Vanilla cs I stamped Bella Toile in Marina Mist and French Filagree in Bashful Blue, I also used the Designer Papers in Marina Mist and Bashful Blue and cut strips from all of these, I then wove the background mat and trimed the ends.

Hearts----Bella Toile stamped in Marina Mist and Cherry Cobbler, usning the large heart punch, I punched out two blue and one red heart I then sponged the edges. Using the embosslits heart I ran this through the big shot twice in Cherry Cobbler and once in Marina Mist. I then layerd the punched out heart shapes over the embosslit shapes and layered the three on top of each other topped three rhinestones on graduated from small to large.

Hand Stamped Sentiments ~ I {Heart} Hearts

Picture Perfect Creations ~ Colour Combo #46

SU Only Challenges ~ Valentine

Valentine

Happy 'Australia Day' everyone!

This is my twist on a valentine card and is being entered into FIVE challenges! I thought this masculine colour combo would work quite nicely for a valentine card.

The base is Crumb Cake, layers are Cajun Craze and Peach Parfit DSP from the level 1 hostess pack. Then Rich Razzleberry and the Rich Razzleberry DSP, next layer is Cajun Craze and Crumb Cake stamped with the swirl from Baroque Motifs in Cajun Craze ink. Then the Circle is backed with Rich Razzleberry and topped with Whisper White. Hearts are in Peach Parfit, Cajun Craze and Crumb Cake with a rich razzleberry brad in the middle. The stamp comes from Word Play and was inked up with Stampin' Write Markers.



Paper Take Weekly ~ Sketch

Hand Stamped Sentiments ~ I {Heart} Hearts

Colour Q - Colour Challenge

4 Crafty Chicks ~ Ribbon, Brads, Patterned Paper

SU Only Challenges ~ Valentine

Bright and Bubbly

The last few offerings while nice were very dark and murky in colour so I decided to brighten things up abit with this card.

Not much to it, just a whole lot of pink, shimmer mist and circle punches!

Hope it puts a smile on your face and inspires you to go create something out of the ordinary with your punches.

I know my friend Penny down in Canberra will just love this, not only for the simplicity of the idea but because it's PINK!


This card wasn't done for a challenge, nor for any particular purpose other than for the pure joy of creating!

Cheers,

Kasey

Princess Tilda

Copic colouring is new to me and I haven't had much inspiration lately, however the sketch over at Friday Sketches inspired this creation.



I've used Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant with the Presto speciality papers from SU! for the first two background layers then the smaller circle was done with En Francios background stamp clear embossed on white. I've sponged perfect plum over it for the writing to stand out.

I promise the next tilda will not be wearing a green dress! The only soft trio of colours that I have is green....the pinks I have are way too 'in your face' bright for a dress. I think some copic colouring classes are in order, I can find tutorials online to show me how to colour hair and skin, but to get the soft faded look on her dress...mine still seem to come out quite dark..so I'm either not using the right colours or technique! If you have tips then I'd love to hear them.


Friday Sketches ~ Sketch challenge


Thank you.

Kasey

Another Masculine effort

Another challenge that I found was titled Clear as Mud, which was for combining brown with any other colour. I've taken a little bit creative liberty here and used two browns.

I was heading down the road of pretty, until I started to sponge the Presto paper (white check) it didn't sponge as nicely as the other patterns so I used Early Expresso, Soft Suede and Sahara Sand inks to give it a mottled appearance then I got out the Grunge Rock stamp set and Extreme Elements and stamped a few images over the sponging, layering images roughly.

I think this grungy look contrasted beautifully with the shimmery soft suede scalloped mat and then I went looking for a sentiment.....I was going to break the rules and go for gold embossing powder but at the last minute decided on white, with a really messy look. Then I scrunched and tore the card to get this look and off set the matting behind it. It's not my normal style but I had fun trying it out.


Sweet Stampin ~ Clear As Mud

Totally Stampalicious - Masculine

Masculine

The theme of Masculine is not that much of a stretch, because while I tend to have a romantic feminine style I do quite like to do textures and monochrome on my cards. I am combining three challenges for this card.

The black card has been spritzed with Champagne Mist Shimmer paint which gives a rich sparkle without being to prissy for a 'boy person' card. Then I've layered textures added a bit of paper piercing and a double ribbon, taffeta over grosgrain to make it wide enough for the little buckle to fit, this also highlighted the white edges on the taffeta ribbon.



Totally Stampalicious ~ Masculine

Easy Craft Projects ~ Black and White

Unscripted Sketches ~ Sketch with a piggyback of Masculine

Thanks for stopping to view my art. Feel free to leave a comment.

Happy Crafting

Kasey

Pink.....Hearts.....Butterflies ......and....BLING!

Yay.....the lovely ladies over at Hand Stamped Sentiments have bestowed on this card the Artists Pick! Thank you very much. I'm still doing my little happy dance.

What could be better? Pinks, Hearts, Butterflies and Bling not necessarily in that order. I'm thrilled with this creation. It just came together for me as my interpretation of the Hand Stamped Sentiments sketch challenge this week.

I used the Colour challenge #83 from Scrapmasters Paradise as well to make this card.

I wanted the large scallops so I punched 3 circles and layed them side by side to form the first layer, then did it again in Crumb Cake to get that layered effect. I sponged Pink Pirouette ink over the white ribbon and tied a loose knot in it and coverd the join.



Next came the hearts, I used the embosslit die for the Regal Rose and Crumb Cake hearts. I used the large heart punch to punch out the Crumb Cake heart which removed the scallops, then I spritzed the Crumb Cake heart with.....LOL yep, you guessed it, champagne mist shimmer paint, I can't get enough of this stuff for that elegant shimmer and it comes up so beautifully on the Crumb Cake. The embossed Presto speciality paper was still on my desk from last night's card so I sponged it with Regal Rose to bring out the pattern and layered all three hearts over each other.

Now of course, you all know that no project is really complete without butterflies and bling. I've added a single rhinestone to each heart growing the size with each one.



Thank you for stopping by, I hope you love this card as much as I do.

Just for Me

Those of you who stop by often and those of you who know me well, will realise that I've not been using MY colours a lot lately, I've been letting myself be taken out of my comfort zone and have been participating in a lot of challenges. Well this afternoon I went into the craft room to unwind after a pretty hectic day at work and checked out the list of challenges that I'd printed out and nothing jumped out and said make me! make me!

Gosh, was my mojo taking a nose dive? ...Not at all, I'm very pleased to say.

I took a look around (at the rather large stash) and spotted the Presto Patterns Specialty papers (they are in the current Mini catalogue) and thought hmmmm I'll just have a little play with those, so I cut a large circle and went to work with some water colouring over the images, If you haven't seen these papers, they are white with white embossed images on them, I chose to sponge ink over the embossing after water colouring as this really made the pattern stand out.

I used Bella Toile background stamp on whisper white, as this matches the paper beautifully, I stamped the ink off twice so I ended up with the soft images again I sponged ink over the images to soften the whole look....it seemed to have this ole worlde look happening so one thing led to another and this is the finished card.



I have to say it is SOOOOOOO good using my pinks, plums & purples again.....*sigh* sheer bliss......and I love how this one turned out.

Thanks for stopping by to say hello.

Happy Crafting!

Cheers,
Kasey

Yep you guessed it....More Butterflies!

I have to say OPPS here, I had printed out the little swatch from Curtain Call and obviously my printer colours aren't accurate and with the writing being so small.....Real Red turned into Rose Red for my project! LOL so that's an Opps!

I've just spent a lovely hour in my craft room playing with butterflies and flowers and leaves to make this entry for this week's Curtain Call colour challenge. Don't you just love the theraputic value of crafting??? The stresses and tensions of the day just flow out when you're creating something beautiful.

I've got to say I have had some fun and didn't even bat an eyelid at using butterflies, no argument between Me and Myself (see this post), 'I' decided that it was Butterflies that were needed and that was all there was too it! LOL yes there is that tiny streak of insanity shining through, but then I ask you, Who wants to be normal? OR more to the point..... What IS normal????

I have this friend who has this really, really different way of looking at the world and we always say he's just not normal, but his response is "I'm the most normal person I know" so I suppose it's all to do with your perspective.

Anyway, back to this creation. I used the two step bird punch from SU for the leaves, then I've used the Blossom Party bigz die as well as the Birds and Blossom sizlits to make the flower out of DSP. I've put a little sparkle on the edges with stickles.



Beautiful Wings and Beautiful Butterflies dies and of course my favourite Champgne Mist shimmer paint and rubbing alcohol for a spritzer to make the Butterflies all shimmery.


Then I went looking for a sentiment and came up with this one from SU's Garden Whimsy, stamped straight onto the card itself. Hey presto all done!



Thanks for stopping by and thank you to those who take the time to leave a little comment, it is much appreciated.

Enjoy!

Curtain Call ~ Colour Challenge Act 65

Pearls and Flowers

I was collecting a few different challenges to see what inspiration might come out and Pearls and Ribbon challenge over at Paper Take Weekly caught my eye....I'll probably post a couple of cards there. I was also inspired by the Colour Q combination this week and then saw Pile It On challenge and decided that I was certainly doing that with the pearls for this creation!

Hope you enjoy.


Colour Q ~ Colour Challenge
Pile It On ~ Anything Goes
Paper Take Weekly - Ribbons and Pearls

Touch of Nature and Insanity

How lovely! This creation has been picked as a favourite on Colour Q despite the madness..... LOL. I'm very proud to say this is my second time as a courtier......I'm working on being the Queen one day.... What a thrill! A huge Thank you to the lovely ladies at Colour Q.

Once again, I seem to have reached for an SU retired stamp set, this time for the sentiment. Touch of Nature is one of my all time favourites.

The Colour Q challenge colours this week are so in your face! I had to sit and think a few mins before letting myself run riot.

I turned to butterflies once again, gee people might think I love butterflies, well you'd be right...it's a real quandry for me each time I go to use them because I have this little conversation going on in my head....Please tell me you all do this sort of thing.....LOL

Me: "You always use butterflies."
Myself: "Yes I know, but they're so pretty and I just Love them so much."
Me: "Go find some flowers for this project."
Myself: (goes looking for flowers....shuffles through the containers....grumbles at Me) "Nope, can't find any in the right colour."
Me: "I give Up!
Myself: he he he..."look at that, those butterflies are just the right touch for this card."

It's just as well that 'I' don't get involved in these conversations or Me might think we are ganging up!




Colour Q - Colour challenge 67

Early start to the day

I woke early today and the creative urge was still strong so I made a cuppa and headed off to the craft room! Yay lucky me, apart from some washing I have no urgent jobs waiting to be done the house got a spring clean a few days ago.... so I'm free for most of the day until I pick up my little cherub this afternoon. I think we'll go swimming, Danielle (my 2 1/2 year old grand daughter) LOVES the water, unfortunately we can all be shrivelled up like prunes and she doesn't want to get out so there is usually a lot of tears, a bit of squealing and a little bit of bribery!



This card is working to a sketch and a theme. I've used Going Grey CS (ret), Basic Black, Basic Grey, Whisper White. Riding Hood Red DSP from the christmas special pack and Riding Hood Red and Basic Grey Inks. I've clear embossed the heart to deepen the coulour. The stamps are Word Play, Always, Punch Potpourri. I've also added a ribbon and some bling which wasn't on the sketch but.....meh.....I took creative license!

Fussy and Fancy ~ Sketch
Our Creative Corner ~ Colour/Bird


Ohhhh, I think another cuppa is in order and oh gee.....I'm going to head on back into the Den of Creativity! I might just be back to post again today.

Final post today!

Once again, my creative binge has to come to an end. Vision starts to blur after a few hours of playing at night!

This is the 5th card for tonight and I have switched the aircon off in the craft room and put it on full in the bed room or I won't sleep at all. This heat is really draining my energy, but then things could be a lot worse, so I'll stop my complaining and get on with this post.

I was really taken with the sketch over at Stamp with Fun challenge blog so had another go at it. Believe it or not......the mini top note is an altered SU Top Note and I think it came together really well, of course there is a seam, so it's been covered with ribbon.


This card is entered in...

Play Date Cafe ~ Colour Challenge
Stamp with Fun ~ Sketch

Shabby flowers

I once again dragged a retired stamp set out and blew off some accumulated dust, Looks Like Spring is yet another old set that I just have to keep....I'm sure you know what I mean and if you've seen my craft room....you'd see how many stamps I just have to keep!

I inked the large flower up with Concord Crush then stamped it three times then I sprayed the flowers with Champagne Shimmer Mist and rubbing alcohol this had a different effect on each flower, the darker one go all shimmery, the middle one seemed to separate the pink and blue coluors that make up the purple it looks awesome! then the palest flower took on a very light shimmer, while the flowers were damp, I scrunched them up and then poked and prodded at the petals till they looked like a mess! I probably poked and prodded too much but it does look a bit better in the flesh.






Stampin' Royalty Colour Challenge #54

Thanks

WOW! This simple creation made it as a runner up on Picture Perfect Creations.
Thank you for that honour.....sooo chuffed!


















This colour combo was a bit hard for me, incorporating that wild wasabi was a bit tricky. I settled for a tiny row of scallops on each side of the main image and an L shaped border of Bravo Burgundy on the River Rock and mounted on Perfect Plum card.

This set is the level 2 hostess set Fast & Fabulous.


Sorry the picture seems to have the River Rock looking very dark.

This card is for

Perfect Picture Creations ~ Colour Challenge #45

Too Hot

I got home from work this afternoon and it's so darn hot up here that I switched on the airconditioner and shut myself away in my craft room and created some cards. Apart from trying to escape the heat, I didn't start our with that burning desire to get the ideas out into reality, which I'm sure you would agree is mostly what happens, you have these little moments of inspiration taht just have to become a reality.

I'd printed out a couple of pages of pictures of sketches and colour combos from various challenge sites, this sits on my desk and vaguely refer to it while creating hopefully at the end of the session the cards actually match up with one or more challenges...LOL

Here is the first of three just created.. I'm going to head back in there as the humidity is astounding tonight and just being here long enough to type the entry I have worked up a sweat.....ewww I hate that! Give me cold weather any day!

Complaining about the weather aside.....this card is a sort of remake of one I did a while ago for a Stampin' 411 Challenge this time I've used Bashful Blue, Night of Navy and Sahara Sand.



Challenges this card is entered into are...

Hand Stamped Sentiments ~ 'Use Punches'
Diva Coffee Break ~ Colour Challenge # 210

On to the next post before I melt!

Teddy Too Cute!

Thank you ladies at SU for selecting my Teddy Too Cute in third place.

Hello to you my blog visitor and friend, I've been busy doing a little remodeling.....I've revised my blog, new colours and layout etc. Plus I've also updated my speed dial (a mozilla firefox addon for sorting and storing your favourites) adding lots of challenge sites which I think might be interesting to play along. So, this Teddy Too Cute is going into three challenges.

SU Only Challenges ~ 'Welcome Baby'
Crafty Creations ~ New Beginnings
Stamp with Fun ~ Sketch

I dragged out an old set that I just can't part with, I seem to have quite a few of those! go check out my craft room link under lables and see for yourself!, anyway moving on.....'Favourite Teddy Bear' was chosen as it just seemed like the right set for a baby card. I've also used Curvy Verses as this set has such a sweet Welcome Baby sentiment.

Cheers,

Kasey

Back again!

Looks like another creative night! The watercolouring on this card was drying when I posted my last challenge card, it came together a bit more quickly than I expected so I'm back posting again tonight.

LOL ... The Mojo will dry up soon and it will be weeks between posts.

This card is an entry in Curtain Call's latest colour challenge Act 64. This one threw me a bit at first, I went with Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke for the flowers and had in mind Marina Mist taffeta ribbon in a bow....then as I was trying to figure out how to incorporate the Pacific Point, the border mat came to mind then threading the ribbon instead of a bow.....then there was bling, that HAD to be added.....LOL and of course a sentiment. I love the square lattice embossing folder and how it gives a tapestry effect to this stamp from the Elements of Style set.

Fabulous Flowers

I forgot how much I liked this Fabulous Flowers stamp set until I went looking for a set to use for the Easy Craft Projects challenge to use only your old stash. I thought a retired stamp set would fit that bill beautifully.

This card also uses the sketch from Card Pattern Sketch #97 and a colour challenge over at Crazy 4 Challenges.

I'd seen a turorial in a recent newsletter from Splitcoaststampers and thought I'd try that technique as well. So I've stamped the fabulous flower on Early Expresso three times in White Craft ink, then, because I'm just a tad impatient, I heat set the ink so I could get in there with the chalks and add come colour.

I also dragged out a not often used wheel that gives a marbled effect and ran that over the Pink Pirouette DSP to create this interesting back ground paper, I've also sponged the edges with Melon Mambo and Early Expresso then matted it on Sahara Sand

I've cut out the flower in three layers to give it some more dimension and taken some of the SU pearls and dabbed a hot pink copic over them to change the colour, which really makes them pop.

Enjoy and Happy Crafting!

Mojo Wedding

Last post for today, I've been very busy creating and am very happy with the end results.

This is the Mojo Monday sketch and I decided to do it in just two colours and highlight different textures by using embossing folders.  This card would be suitable for an engagement or wedding.

It doesn't show up very well in the photo, but I've spritzed Soft Suede with Champagne Shimmer Mist.....yeah I know what a surprise!  Then I've used the Sparkly soft suede to mat all of the embossed Very Vanilla.  The Sentiment is Soft Suede ink with Champagne shimmer paint daubed on the stamp, didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked.  The 'brads' are cut from the Shimmery Soft Suede with the cropadile and glued into place then I've added some Crystal Effects to give them a 3d effect and shine.  

Hope you like this entry.

It's been a creative day

Hello again, well I've really alowed myself the luxury of creating in the past 24 hours. This is another challenge entry. Truly Scrumptious challenges are new to me but I quite liked the sketch featured, here is my interpretation of that along with the colour challenge over at Colour Q this week.

I'm really very happy with how this card came to life, but sadly, it really is time for me to go do some other things :-(

Colour Lab Challenge

Ok, so this is the last post of the challenge cards I made last night and in the early hours of this morning when I woke at 3am and couldnt' get back to sleep......nice and quiet for crafting but not good for yor energy levels later in the day!  There are quite a few challenges this week which have featured So Saffron and Pear Pizzazz and I got to say Yellows and Greens are not my colours, or at least not the first ones I reach for, unless the green is a Teal!

This time it is a Colour Lab challenge # 23 that used up colours I wouldn't normally reach for... So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz and Marina Mist.

 

I love the punch pot pourri flowers, which have been stamped in So Saffron on So Saffron CS and embossed with clear to darken the images, I had some retired More Mustard brads so added them instead of bling, I'm proud of how restrained I was...LOL... not a bit of bling in sight on this card!

The Pear Pizzazz DSP is from the Level 1 Hostess pack on In Colour DSP and I've used two different patterns one for the leaves, which I've used the two step bird punch for.  This card has come out looking quite summery so thank you for the colour combo Colour Lab.

Just Add Ink Challenge

This JAI colour challenge this week was indeed a challenge for me, I was ok with the So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz and Elegant Eggplant, but throwing Riding Hood Red in there too? I mean that was a struggle to come up with a good combination, so I pretty much ignored the Red until I'd put most of the card together!

Decided to do a Valentine card and here is my entry.

I did lots of dry embossing here, with Perfect Polkadots, then Elegant Lines on so saffron, I went with the Square Lattice on Pear Pizzazz then when using the Scalloped Heart of Hearts embosslit it all came together.

The Heart punch works out beautifully cutting out the embossed heart and allows layering so you can have a scalloped border for the heart. I also used the Heart to Heart punch to punch out hearts from the embosslit hearts so they were embossed too! I've used the sentiment from Artistic Etchings and figure that it's not to feminine so it could be used for a guy....now all I have to do is find someone to give it to!!!

Blue seems to be the order of the day!

For the next challenge, guess what?  it's blue too although I have combined a colour challenge in there too,

This card goes into several challenges...

Friday Mashup - Sketch and add optional bling  (since when is bling optional?)

SU Only Challenges - Bling

Stampin' Royalty - Birthday theme

Crazy 4 Challenges - Celebrate theme

Curtain Call - Act 63 Colour Challenge

I have to say the colour challenge really threw me, but I think I managed to add the Cajun Craze and Chocolate Chip without overpowering the Blue.  The Always Artichoke altered topnote and the Whisper White butterflies are sprayed with Champagne Shimmer Mist (an alltime favourite of mine as are the butterflies) plus it provides a bit of subtle bling.

The year begins...

News Flash!:....... This card was chosen as an Artists Pick on Hand Stamped Sentiments. Thank you to the lovely ladies there for that honour....LOL Wheeeeee.


Hi everyone, the year not yet two weeks old and already it's shaping up to be hectic, even a little chaotic! I've finally made some time to do some challenges. I'll have to come back to post the others, here's the first of them

This entry is for the SU Only Challenge # 9 'Bling' and Hand Stamped Sentiments #49 Winter Blues.

I found this stunning dragonfly bling the other day and thought it would be great in a scrapbook page it's almost jewellry with the crystals and diamontes. Not sure that this pic does it justice cause it sure counts as Bling!

I've used Bashful Blue and Night of Navy card stock, Night of Navy ink, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, pinking hearts border punch sizzix ovals, Rhinestones and Marina Mist taffeta ribbon. The sentiment comes from a long retired hostess set.

I've had a request for the instructions for the border, so here goes....


1. The borders are pretty easy, cut your oval or circle and apply double sided tape around the edge you need to pleat it a bit to go round the edges.

Note: if you are using the oval or circle to stamp on, stamp your image prior to putting the tape on as it won't lay flat enough to stamp on after the tape or edge has been applied.

2. Next punch your border on the long side of a sheet of A4 Cardstock then trim it off leaving about 1/2 inch strip.

3. Snip along the strip towards your border evenly at every scallop or between the points on the pinking edge ( see picture below)

4. Peel off the backing paper, with the right side of the oval or circle facing you, begin at one end section of the border strip and stick that to the edge, slightly overlap the next section lining up the edge of the oval with the border and keep doing this until your border is around the oval.

Front view

Back view

The finished oval or circle will look something like this

Depending on the size of your oval or circle, you may find the edge doesn't meet neatly, put an embillishment over that and you're covered. Can you spot where this one meets???