Our First Fan Favourite!

Congratulations Teresa on being voted in as our very first Fan Favourite!

Teresa's mashup idea is...

1. Create a project using the colors: Turquoise, Red & Black.
2. Create a project using Hand Made Flowers.
3. or "Mash it Up!" and create a project using Handmade Flowers with Turquoise, Red and Black!
   

I went a little overboard with my hand made flowers! Not sure that it works by throwing the red satin ribbon roses in with the punched white and turquoise flowers, but what the heck....lol

I stamped Bella Toile in Tenpting Turquoise on Whisper White then following some flower making tutorials from Valita using the Blossom Punch, I punched out the petals and created these flowers.  I made the ribbon roses using a tutorial I came across.  

I've used the double rectangle punch to punch a strip of holes along the black cardstock and then threadded red satin ribbon weaving its way along the punched holes.  I've also used the scalloped edge punch to put an edge around the black spritzed oval backing for the sentiment then topped that off with a red satin bow and a turquoise rhinestone.

I think it's just a tad overdone!  But I had fun making it.  

Stop press:  Sorry to those of you who are seeing my posts on Google Reader.  I've had to delete the first one because I forgot to schedule it and published it instead on the 5th July instead of scheduling it to the 29th.  


Take Care, 
Cheers,

~ in Oz

Challenge Time!

It feels pretty good to be back participating in challenges aside from my DT work for the Friday Mashup.  Here is a creation that I really struggled with, why? you might well ask, but me and CAS designs don't go well together at all!  It's all anguish and resisting the urge to embellish more!

This card is for the following challenges

SU Only  - Get Well

Less is More - Buttons and Bows

Picture Perfect Creations - # 66 - Night of Navy, Crumb Cake and Whipser White

Ohhh an Award! Thank you

Thank you Michele, what a lovely surprise to recieve this award from you.  I love butterflies.

The rules of this award are simple, to pass it on to FIVE blogging friends, and to share FIVE things about yourself. 

1.  I LOVE Butterflies and Bling!

2.  I no longer dye my hair, I'm going gray gracefully.

3.  My music collection goes from classical to heavy rock!
4.  I grew up living on tropical Magnetic Island!
5.  I love burning essential oils while I work, so soothing. Yes I'm an aging hippy!

Now I'd LOVE to give this award to 5 Fabulous blogs that I visit frequently.  I hope you will stop by all of their blogs for a visit.  Their creations are amazing and inspiring.


Bron ~ Bron's Creations
Monique ~ Stamping with Monique
Lynne ~ Cards from Lynne's Loft
Ashlee ~ Ashlee's Creations
Jules ~ Always with a Heart 

 

Waiting for Fairies!

I've been a member of The Colour Room for a while now and every now and then when I get my email I'm inspired to create using their colour combo or sketch, this time I actually used both and created a new scrapbook page, I haven't done that for ages! So thank you Colour Room for your inspiration.

Waiting for Fairies has been waiting for a while to be created, I have had these photos printed out for ages and I'm so happy with this page using the colours. 

 My mother had a bushy plant at the side of the garden path and Danielle loved to sit in it, almost hiding, she said she was 'Waiting for Fairies' and would sit very still and close her eyes hoping the fairies would show up.

I used Grunge Paper for the first time, it's amazing stuff, I LOVE it.  Is it just me or does it smell like leather?  I've cut the grunge paper with the Sizzix Tim Holtz Tattered Florals to make the flowers, cut them from grunge paper and then sponged SUs Melon Mambo lightly on the large one, then darker on the other one.  The two other flowers in the big stacks are sponged with a mix of Champagne Shimmer Mist and Sahara Sand, both SU products.

The photos are backed with Soft Suede of course it's been sprayed with shimmer paint, I've stamped a script text in Soft Suede and then spritzed it with markers in Pretty in Pink, Soft Suede and Sahara Sand then a random spritz of shimmer paint.  I'm really happy with the effect.

Ocean Adventure

Can you believe it?  This project also won at the City Crafters Challenge Blog!  Thanks you for selecting my project, I'm very proud of it and when I gave it to my daughter today she was blown away by it.

Thank you Hand Stamped Sentiments for chosing my project among the Artist Picks winners for your challenge #76  

I found a small Tim Holtz configurations box at the local craft shop and just had to grab it.  All sorts of ideas were racing around in my head and I finally settled on an Ocean theme and decided to make it for my beautiful daughter.  She lives at the beach and loves shells, fishing & camping and all that stuff.  It also happens that this fits a couple of themes for challenges as well so I'm entering this project into those.  I have been inspired to make a project like this from the moment I first saw the amazing Encouragement Emporium over at Neelz Expressions.  So here is my first effort at one of these wonderous creations.

I warn you though, this is a long post so grab a cuppa and settle back in for a long scroll.

 This pic was taken without the window sheet in, to prevent reflection in the photo.  

 This is the configurations box without the lid, you can clearly see all the little boxes inside now.

The next pics are all closeups of each of the boxes so you can see them in more detail.

All the boxes are lined with some ocean themed papers I found on holiday in Cairns months ago,  I inked the shell paper with Antique Linen distress ink and the edges of the box have been inked as well.  Included in the back is a little glass bottle filled with gold leaf, (sorry about the glare in the photo)  Next is a resin treasure chest and star fish and a of couse the obligatory gold dubloon...OK not a real one.  I aslo added a stamped shell image from a SU retired Stippled shells set behind the treasure chest.  The netting in the top of this box is a deep brown with gold highlights and seemed to suit the whole theme so I added some.

This one is lined with a beautiful foil paper is inked with faded jeans distress ink and the whole box is loaded up with charms laid on a bed of gold and champagne micro beads from my stash. ( I wondered when I'd get round to using them)  I couldn't really make the amazing books that Neil created so just made up some covers...Moby Dick and a whale stamped on the cover!

Compartment number 3 has some gold netting an anchor and a series of fish, tyres and whatnot caught with a home made fishing rod....a cut down toothpick and a gold safety pin!  Loved making that one.

Compartment number 4 is the largest at about 7cm square, the note in the bottle says HELP!.  more microbeads and a coiled rope and a starfish charm along with the large silver starfish and the gold net this one has a picture of my granddaughter and my daughter on the beach and a copy of Treasure Island.

Compartment 5 has a double sailors knot tied out of glittery elastic and adhered to the side wall of the box, again some charms and this time some antique copper buttons and a pretty little dragonfly.  This box was inked in Weathered Wood distress ink.

More microbeads, this time in a little glass bottle in compartment 6.  There is a silver dragonfly on the wall and three mini photos of family on the beach. on the other side wall and this time a copy of Robinson Crusoe.

 

I love compartment 7 because I've used two buttons to make the fishing reel and yes it has actual fishing line on it!  I've wrapped some jute around the glass bottle, hoping for it to look like some rum....maybe I should have put some strong tea in it...LOL.  Silver charms were added to this box.

Now we come to the wrecked pirate ship and the treasure map which of couse would lead you to the treasure chest up in box one if you're clever enough to follow the clues!  Oh don't you just love the skull and crossbones button?  More microbeads and an anchor and starfish complete this little box.

Finally, my own little pirate....this is a photo of my grandson at about 5 or 6 years old riding his Hardly Davidson motor bike on the beach.  More microbeads and some netting,  I had to add this amazing glitzy blue card on the base of this box, it is just gorgeous.

I hope you've enjoyed viewing my little Configurations Ocean Adventure as much as I enjoyed making it.  Congratulations if you've made it this far!

I am entering this project into the following challenges.

City Crafter Challenge Blog ~ It's a Shore Thing

Hand Stamped Sentiments ~ Summer Theme

Birthday wishes

It's Kim's birthday and to celebrate over at the Friday Mashup we're having a birthday party for Kim so make up your fabulous birthday projects if you want you can use Kim's colour challenge as well and post your entries to be in the running for Rock Star and Glamette picks.

I've done a shameless CASE of a card I saw that the lovely Chrissy had done called Shades of Blue, I loved it so much that I just had to copy it, I make a few changes though to add my style to her beautiful idea.  I've made it a bit more vintage as that's the way it seemed to go for me.

Head on over to the Friday Mashup blog to see what other fabulous creations are awaiting your viewing pleasure!

Cheers,

 ~ in Oz

Friday Mashup # 15!

Where does the time go?  We are at challenge number 15 already!  Welcome along to another great Friday Mashup Challenge.

I have to say this colour combo is just off the scale for me, I really struggled to fit all these in, for me there is something wrong about putting pink and red together in the same project they just don't work well together... then added to that.... I'm not a big fan of putting red and green together either, it's ok for Christmas cards as they are traditional Christmas colours but I really struggle with them.

Anyway in the spirit of challenges and making myself step outside the square, I worked with Lesley's choice of colours the best way I could.  Not entirely happy with the end result, but I am pleased that I managed to fit them all in so....here it is...This is my take on Lesley's sketch and colour combo challenge.

I chose to make the medallion card front open at the edge to reveal the Early Expresso DSP which has been stamped with the medallion in Early Expresso.  I inked up the stamp in Expresso and Olive for a mottled appearance.  Here's a little shot of the inside of the card.

Hop on over to the Friday Mashup Challenge Blog and check out what the DT has made for your inspiration.  I'm curious to see what you create using this challenge.

Just a note.  Please forgive me if I don't get to comment on your entries this week.  I'm moving house and that means no internet while the lines are transferred over to the new address.  As soon as I'm back on line, I'll stop by to check all the entries out and leave some comments.

Cheers,

~ in Oz

Vintage Flowers!

Oh this is such a wonderful Friday Mashup challenge this week, thank you so much Kathy, it's right up my alley using two of my favourite things Vintage and Flowers!  Oh and isn't the inspiration photo just divine?

So for me I started out using my newly accquired distressing kit and inked, distressed, tore, sanded and then inked some more.  Then I got out a stash of flowers that well, aren't SU but I just couldn't resist using them here.  I sponged Cherry Cobbler onto some lightly and then more heavily to give several shades of Red on the finished flowers.  I'm really happy with the end result.

There was also the urge to use some retired hodgepodge hardware, this is aged copper and the ribbon just seemed to call out for this design, yes I know I'm loosing it!  But you do know what I mean, sometimes things just fall into place.

The colours I've used here are Sahara Sand, Early Expresso and Cherry Cobbler, with Vanilla satin ribbon and more aged copper brads and buckle over the Early Expresso DSP which has also been inked and distressed.

Hope this card inspires you to get vintage and floral, head on over to the Friday Mashup Challenge blog and check out what the DT girls have made for you.


Cheers,

~ in Oz

Patriotic and/or Red White and Blue

Well it just so happens that the flag colours for several countries happen to be Red White and Blue --- Australia, New Zealand, England and USA to name the first four that come to mind.  So it fits in quite nicely with the Patriotic theme, of course it's the 4th July celebrations for the US players, however we don't celebrate that date here in Australia, patriotism here seems to be a bit more understated except when it comes to sport!  I've actually not mashed up my card this week and done just the colour combo.

This card is actually an A4 sheet folded in half, my manager is moving on to a new role and we are having a farewell for her, she's one of the best managers I've had the pleasure and priviledge to work to and I've learnt so much from her.  Still, nothing stays the same and we all need to move on to grow.  

 My inside flowers pictured above were helped out a little by the micro beads I found amongst my stash, perfect colour for this project and it adds just the bling I was looking for, dimension and shine but not too much sparkle.

Lisa is a bright and vibrant woman so the rich red of Cherry Cobbler complimented by the Navy and White was perfect for her.  I know I am among the many who will miss her smiling face around the office, but as she's still working for the same organisation, we will get to catch up from time to time.

Here is an inside shot of my card, I've used the Greenhouse Garden stamp set on the front of the card along with the shooting star from the SaB set  So Happy for You.

So I hope you have been inspried by my creation and if patriotism is more your thing, head on over to the Friday Mashup blog and check out what the other DT members have created for your viewing pleasure.  Can't wait to see what you all come up with.

Cheers,

Kasey ~ in Oz