I have been looking forward to this blog hop for weeks and so excited that it has finally arrived. If you haven't heard of Pretty Pink Posh you need to visit Paulina's store immediately!! She has the most amazing array of sequins and embellishments, you will love them all. She has organised this blog hop with just Sequin Shaker Cards with some incredible sponsors. There are prizes to win and so many gorgeous cards to look at, you will be blown away! I've been sick this past week so luckily I had already designed my card (and even cut everything out!) so could make my card quickly this afternoon.
I really wanted to do a pretty girly card so I could give this to my daughter Phoebe. I have been keeping this particular flowery paper aside for ages, waiting for the perfect occasion. Can imagine this card will be shaken for many weeks to come!
The papers are from American Crafts 'My Girl'. The sequins are a mix from different Teresa Collins sets and the gold heart sequins are from The Warehouse. The gold Hello was cut with a metal die from The Crafters Workshop.
I'm looking forward to visiting many of the blogs on the hop to see all the wonderful designs. And hopefully I will be back to making cards this week.
My final post for the day, can smell the roast chicken FINALLY cooking in the kitchen. How nice to have Dave cooking for the family tonight. I have made dessert though (White Chocolate Cheesecake) as I wouldn't let him loose with my cake mixer!!
I've never actually been to a wedding where you throw confetti but now know what it would be like having to cut out all your confetti at home...what a mess!
I had circles of paper EVERYWHERE! And unfortunately realised that my small hole punch is no where near sharp enough, so wouldn't cut out the circles cleanly. Since my table and floor was covered in confetti, I decided to show that in my card, with someone tipping out their vellum envelope full of confetti goodness.
The confetti was cut from all sorts of scrap pieces of paper and the sentiment is from Kaisercraft 'True Friendship'. The blue enamel dots are from Papervine.
If you get a chance to have a look at the Curtain Call Challenge please do. There is confetti in all sorts of different shapes, sizes and colours...the cards are amazing!!!
I'm taking the night off from card making tonight. Will hopefully be able to go to bed early with a good book and a large hollow easter egg. What a lovely way to end Easter Sunday.
Its been a busy day here today with mounds of chocolate, getting caught in rain and then 2 hours at the skatepark (where I finally skateboarded..yippee!!). Hopefully we will all sleep quietly tonight.
These are such beautiful, subtle colours this week I just couldn't help but play along. They always have the most gorgeous colour combo's each week at Colour Me....! Challenge, must be so much fun choosing the colour mix each week. I did struggle to find the right colours in my papers but think I've found as close as I can.
I really liked these colours together and thought my mum would too, so that's why it became a Mother's Day card. It took a while to find the right dark coral paper but found light and dark coral in the Carta Bella 'Hello Again' collection. I thought this graphic pattern in the background would stand out but also be softened by the light green and pink. I popped up the green and sentiment banner with foam tape to give it a variety of layers. The pale green and pale pink (hearts) are both from Echo Park 'Dots and Stripes'. The sentiment is from Rosie's Studio. Its 6.31pm and Dave has been trying to cook our large chicken for dinner since just after 4pm. I have been having problems with the temperature gauge in our oven not heating up enough and he didn't believe me.....he believes me now! I'm not expecting a moist, tender chicken but its just nice to have Dave cook for the family. Will chew away with a smile on my face...... Take care Shona
Happy Easter everyone! The kids didn't get up till 8am this morning (yay!) to look for their eggs. I must have looked so funny early this morning (around 1am) creeping thru their rooms trying to hide all the eggs. I didn't count them all so hopefully they have all been found...
I was only going to make one card last night but got carried away and made three, so have a few posts today.
What a gorgeous little easter party photo this is! So colourful and the cupcakes look so good. Wish I had been invited!! The colours that stood out for me were the stripes on the small glass bottles and on the roof of the white birdhouse. There is also a hint of gold glitter on the end of a spoon that's just poking into the photo in the bottom left. Perfect time to use my gold glitter washi!!
Found it hard to find the right shade of colours for the stripes but thankfully I did have some gorgeous enamel dots to match. And I'm just in-love with my glitter washi, wish I could use it on every card. And I thought this sticker was great to show the 'happy' word in the very back of the photo. The papers are from Echo Park 'Dots and Stripes'. The glitter washi tape and enamel dots are from Papervine. And I came across this sticker in my Carta Bella 'Hello Again' collection. Just tried taking dogs for walk with the kids and came back absolutely drenched, it poured down on us. Kids just had a bath and now the sun is out. Talk about bad timing!! Take care Shona
I'm not usually so inspired that I end up with 2 cards for a challenge but couldn't help myself with this one!
The inspiration for this challenge at CAS on Sunday Challenge #31 was to make a birthday card using at least one die-cut. I had a few glittery hearts left-over from my first card, so decided to put them to work.
I'm hoping this will still pass as a 'CAS' card. I really wanted to pair the silver glitter with black and white but not go over the top. The black/white polka dot paper is from Lawn Fawn 'Peace Joy Love' and the black/white diagonal paper from Teresa Collins 'You are my Happy'. The silver and gold glitter washi tape is from Papervine and the sentiment is Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments'. So nice to use some paper (as I have so much of it!!!). I sat down last night to try and make some other paper layered cards but my brain just won't come up with any ideas. I always seem to come back to a CAS design. Maybe my brain is telling me something...... Take care Shona
Has been rather a slow week for me. I'm still recovering from being sick and with this week being very wet and a short one, I was rather overwhelmed with life. So decided to let some of my challenges pass me by and come back to them when I feel ready. So, last Sunday the CAS on Sunday Challenge was posted and its for a birthday card using one or more die-cuts. I looked at this last night and thought this would be the perfect time to try out my new glitter washi tape.
This one couldn't be more CAS if I tried!! I used the Heart die from CAS-ual Fridays on two pieces of cardstock with gold and silver glitter tape adhered to. I then inlayed them into the card, stamped a sentiment and voila, my die-cut birthday card! I wish you could see this glitter washi in real life. Its so sparkly and so smooth. It doesn't come off the tape at all, its amazing! I'm definitely going to order some more from Lowri at Papervine, and this time I will include some of the other colours in my order. The sentiment is from Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments'. I also saw the latest post from the CASE Study Challenge #187 where this is their inspiration photo:
I thought with all that gorgeous gold glitter that I might be able to join this challenge as well! Have one more card to post and then that's me for the night (although I do have one card to make tonight). Kids are getting excited about the Easter Bunny coming tonight, which means a very late night for me waiting for them to fall asleep, so I can hide their eggs. Maybe I will get more cards made tonight than I thought....... Take care Shona
Its freezing cold here. Have just lit the fire and closed all the curtains, so its all nice and snuggly. Now I just need to work out what to give everyone for dinner and then my night is free.
I really struggled with this one. I don't know why but my brain just couldn't put these colours together. Other participants in the Colour Me...! Challenge # 15 certainly had no problems, their cards are stunning!
I'll be honest and say I'm not 100% sold on this card (won't tell you what my husband said about it....). I do like these colours but putting them together gave me 'card makers block'. I love this yellow paper and wanted the direction of the leaves to follow the sentiment space but I didn't want alot of turquoise, so that's where the thin strips came from. Its not my worst card and not my best but I think its always good too play outside my comfort zone. The yellow paper is from Lori Whitlock 'Here and Now' and the turquoise from Echo Park 'Everyday Eclectic'. The sentiment is Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments'. Enamel dots from Papervine. One more card to post today from my card making extravaganza last night. Might have the night off tonight but I'm already thinking about the next challenge.....I think I'm a wee bit addicted to card making...... Take care Shona
I really enjoy doing challenges where there is a 'word' as inspiration because people come up with the most amazing ideas, things I didn't even think of but seem so perfect.
This week's word REALLY had me thinking as I rummaged through my stamps and papers. I didn't have anything that was obvious i.e. ducks, boats etc, so once again I had to come up with something myself.
I found the cloud stamp but didn't have any raindrops and also found the sentiment stamp which was perfect. So thought that maybe I could do tiny hearts for raindrops and have some of them turn into 'happy red' heart raindrops. So that's what happened and it came out just like the picture in my head. Love it! Its a total CAS card with only the two enamel dots as embellishment. I used Wink of Stella and then some Glossy Accents on the red hearts to make them stand out. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft 'You!'. The heart is from Lawn Fawn 'Into the Woods' and unfortunately I don't know where the cloud stamp is from as it was purchased second hand. The enamel dots are from Papervine. I'm off now to do a gardening job to earn some more craft money. Would really love a heat gun to do some embossing but also have my eyes on new stamps and papers and ink pads and and and......my list is pretty huge. Better get digging!!! Take care Shona
What a fantastic time I had last night! Dave took Phoebe, Max and Phoebe's best friend Ella to house-sit at a farm yesterday after lunch. They only just got back at 11.30am, so I had the house to myself for nearly 24hrs.....bliss!
So I really got stuck into a few card challenges and caught up on some movies I had been waiting to watch.
Another gorgeous photo for inspiration this week. Such lovely, soft pastel colours in all my favourite shades. It was hard to know where to start!
I absolutely love the way the drawers are painted and how the handles aren't all square. So tried to show my inspiration with paper pieces in similar colours and angles. The triangle paper underneath was inspired by the gorgeous pillow on the white chair. I also spotted the gold tip of the shoes (on the floor) so reflected these with my gold hearts.
Such a different card for me but I absolutely love it! The sentiment is from Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments'. The triangle paper is from Teresa Collins 'Family Stories'. The yellow paper from My Minds Eye 'Happy Day'. The pale green and duck egg blue paper from Carta Bella 'So Noted' and the pink paper from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date'. The gold hearts are from The Warehouse.
I hope you do have a go at the Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge #12. The photos each week are so beautiful and so are the cards created by the other participants. Can see this becoming a very popular challenge in the future!!
The house is back to its usual loudness and filled with giggles and laughter, just as it should be. I really enjoy spending a bit of time alone but the best part is seeing my family again, it makes me love them even more.
Still a miserable, rainy day here today and goes perfectly with how I'm feeling. Its been so nice to have the rain but 4 days in a row?? My house is beginning to look like a laundromat. Supposed to rain for another 5 days, so wish me luck!!
I have struggled a bit with this one as I don't have any stamps of bikes, cars etc, so had to think outside the box (again..).
I just realised that I also went with the same colour theme as the code word picture above!!
Thinking about wheels (and looking at my small amount of stamps....) I realised I had some clock stamps. Clocks are round, the hands move forward and backwards and they have wheels inside them to make the parts move....let's go with clocks!!
The clock stamp is from Hero Arts and the heart stamps from Lawn Fawn. I covered the hearts with a little Wink of Stella and also some Glossy Accents.
A very simple card but anything else I added just didn't look right. So decided to leave it be. Also my nose won't stop running so got sick of leaning over the card with my tissues at the ready!
Will link up now to Addicted to CAS and marvel over the other cards. Some people have done the most amazing colouring on their designs. I want to give Copics a try but wasn't good at colouring when I was a kid, don't think I would be much better now!
Blenheim is a very small town in New Zealand (maybe around 40,000 people) and our town was chosen to hold a celebration marking 100 years since the First World War. This coincided with the Prince and Princess visiting NZ, so they visited our war memorial today, met with Veterans and then talked with the public. Unfortunately I was too sick to attend but will be fun watching the news tonight to see all the people I know. Exciting stuff!!! And I woke up to the news this morning that I was one of the Top 3 from CASE Study #185. OMG!!!!
There are some fantastic paint splotch stamps out at the moment and you can see a lot of people used them at CAS(E) this Sketch. They look so good and so real (really looks like someone dropped their paintbrush!!). Unfortunately I don't own any of those stamps so had to think outside the box.
My poor gorgeous 6x6 paper pads seem to be left in the dust these days. Have really gotten stuck into the CAS way of doing cards. Has made a big difference having some colour ink pads and learned so much from the last Online Card Class. Would never have attempted a layered card like this before now! The 'smile' stamp is from Lawn Fawn 'Into the Woods' and the sentiment is from Kaisercraft 'You!'. The little clear rhinestones are from Kaisercraft too. Feeling a little better since yesterday. Have two challenges that I want to make cards for, so fingers crossed for rain tomorrow!! Take care Shona
I don't usually get to make cards during the day but feel so horrible, the rest of my housework can wait!! It will still be waiting for me tomorrow I'm sure.
This card is so beautiful and simple, I really don't think I can make one to rival it. And people have submitted the most beautiful cards at CASE Study #185, especially ones with stunning flowers that are coloured so perfectly. I don't own any flower stamps at the moment so had another idea.
The red colour really stood out for me from the inspiration card, so wanted to try and use only that. So with that idea arose my lovely bunch of balloons where some of them are escaping! I thought I would have the balloons traveling up the right hand side like the flowers. And then just a simple sentiment. I thought of putting it along the bottom (like the inspiration card) but didn't want to stamp over my balloons. I don't know if this is how the balloon stamp works but I love how they have stamped darker on one side than the other, almost as if they have a highlight on them. Makes them seem more round to me than just a flat red balloon shape. Very cool! I was going to cover them all with Wink of Stella but didn't want to ruin the shading.
The balloon stamp is from Simon Says Stamps 'Only have eyes for you' and the sentiment is from Kaisercraft 'You!' set. I just hand drew the balloon strings with my black gel pen and the 3 enamel dots are also from Kaisercraft.
I'm also going to link this card to a new challenge I found Addicted to Stamps. Their challenge #89 is for a 'CAS' card and I think this one will fit the bill. Back to snuffling and nose blowing now. Homemade pizzas for dinner, nice and easy and then hopefully off to bed early. Funny how when the kids or my husband are sick they just go off to bed but when I'm sick, I still have to look after everyone else first before I can do that..how does that work?! Take care Shona
Kids back at school and now I don't feel well. At least I only have to look after myself today!!
Simon Says Stamps: Wednesday Challenge is celebrating 5 years of challenges and offering a $100 voucher to win. That would be fantastic as my list of their products I would love to buy is huge!!
The only rule they had was to do a birthday card, so I thought it was a perfect time to go crazy with my sequins!
This didn't take as long to put together as I thought it would. The fiddly part was gluing them all down. Really need to buy one of those sticky pen things, would have been perfect for this job. The sequins are from The Warehouse and the sentiment is from CAS-ual Fridays 'Shenanigans' set. I didn't want to add anything else to the card as the sequin picture was sparkly enough. My kids and even my husband absolutely love this, so can imagine I will have a few cards like this to make for them. Have a big pile of ironing calling my name and a bucket of apples to peel and stew. Its trying to rain here (FINALLY), its cold and yucky (like me!) so will make an apple crumble for after dinner. This will warm up everyone's tummy's!! Take care Shona
Have Phoebe and Max home today with bad colds. This means I can't get alot done but I can also fit in a few cards while watching movies with them.
Isn't this picture gorgeous??!! I thought it was a caterpillar until Darnell mentioned in her blog that it was a row of birds....wish I had beautiful coloured birds like this in my backyard! Have struggled for the past 24 hours trying to think of a card for this one. Don't know why it was so hard but FINALLY came up with an idea in the shower this morning.
Tried to match the colours as best I could and think I need to work on my straight lines when stamping but think it looks pretty good!! The stamp is from Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments', blue die-cut paper is Echo Park 'Everyday Eclectics', olive green paper from Carta Bella 'Noted' and enamel dots from Papervine. Trying to think of new ways to use my stamps, especially for backgrounds. Think I might need to spend some time on Pinterest to get some ideas. And there are certainly a lot of amazing cards linked to this challenge at Colour Throwdown #286. Back to my sick kids and here's to a nice, quiet, tissue-filled day! Take care Shona
Keep promising my husband that I will take all my craft stuff off the dining room table so we can eat at it but everytime I go to do it, I end up finding another card challenge I want to create for....will move it tomorrow...promise....
This is one of my favourite challenges because I love the photos that are used for inspiration.
There are so many gorgeous colours in the photo but of course the blue and teal colours grabbed hold of me first. I decided this week to try something different and try to include other colours from the photo. One of the other things that caught my eye was on the left-hand side (above the lamp) is a pink heart on canvas. I knew I had a stamp somewhere similar to that, so my idea became a reality.
I love this part, where I put my photo in below the inspiration photo and I can actually see where my card fits in. There are a lot of frames on the wall so decided to have my papers over to the side to show like a frame around the top of each one. I stamped with my heart all over the place and then placed a frame die-cut on foam stickers with a happy sentiment.
The frame is very similar to the bedhead and the pink and black frames on the wall. Very bright card for me and I love it!!! The teal paper is from Echo Park 'Everyday Eclectic'. The heart stamp is from Simon Says Stamps and I used my Mama Elephant 'Ocean', 'Sunshine' and 'Lollipop' ink pads. The 'Happy' sentiment is from Kaisercraft 'You' set.
The teal enamel dots are a new product stocked by Papervine. They are such a good price and in so many shades and colours. I just saw Lowri this morning at a local Craft Fair and she has so many new goodies. She has just started selling Studio Calico Sequins and they are just divine. If you have a chance, please have a look at her store, she does post internationally and is such a lovely woman. Nice to support someone from our little town.
Off to rescue my poor roast potatoes. Why I try to cook and blog at the same time I will never know......
Another new challenge I came across on another blog. There are so many of them out there to keep my brain ticking along!
My Mum would laugh at this challenge as she knows that sewing is not my thing at all. If I have anything that needs a button fixed or pants to be shortened etc, Mum is my 'go-to' person for sewing needs. I did take Home Economics at school but failed dismally in the sewing part.
So, there was certainly no way I was going to attempt to sew on my card so I had to find another way.....
Luckily back in January I purchased a set of Simon Says Stamps that had this sewing sentiment and little stitched hearts....perfect!! I die cut the pattern paper from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date' and inlay-ed it into the front of the card. I then used my black gel pen to add stitching around it. And of course I used some Wink of Stella on the solid heart stamps. I did this card last night and wasn't sure if it was okay. I had used my black gel pen to add stitching around the edges of the card as well and realised halfway thru that my lines weren't very straight. I decided to sleep on it but it looked just as terrible this morning. So, I made it again. Will get this linked and then will be off to do some gardening. Don't you just love the weekends!!!!! Take care Shona
Have found a great new challenge to try out, they have fantastic sketches and so much inspiration from the participants.
This is the brilliant sketch for this week. I decided to be a bit tricky and turn the sketch to the left so the flower is in the top left-hand corner. Have never moved a sketch around before, so I'm treading in uncharted territory.
I've been dying to use this hot-air-balloon stamp for ages and thought this would be the perfect time. I spent ages fiddling with how I wanted the clouds and I'm really pleased with the end result. Unfortunately I have no idea where the hot-air-balloon and double cloud stamps come from. They are part of a small set I purchased off Trade Me a long time ago and they didn't come in any original packaging. If anyone recognises it, could you please let me know?? The solid clouds are from Lawn Fawn 'Into the Woods' and sequins from Teresa Collins. I have a third card to link today but I had to sleep overnight and re-look at it this morning, as I wasn't sure about it last night. I still don't like it so will have to re-do it. Luckily today being Saturday, I don't have a busy day ahead (just gardening and taking Max to the skate park), so can take my time. Take care Shona
What a lovely time I had last night making cards at 7.30pm at night! To most people this would probably be normal but usually around this time I'm hanging out with the kids and I finally sit down around 10pm.
Both kids were very lucky last night to go to Zirka Circus. They have no animals and have mainly acrobatic type acts. So Dave and I had the house to ourselves for the first time in 9 years! And what did we do???? I watched 'Alien' and made cards and Dave went to bed early. How sad are we!!!
I loved the sketch for this week and decided once again to slip in some clear acetate for something different......
I thought if I used circle shapes I could hide the foam squares holding up the clear acetate as the middle strip. I think it turned out pretty well.
The polka dot paper is from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date' and circles are also from Teresa Collins 'Daily Stories.The sentiment is from my favourite set Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments'.
I really do enjoy doing this challenge as I love the sketches. However, I'm a bit confused about whether there are any winners for not?? There used to be and the last 'Shout Out' I could find at Retro Sketches was for challenge #102 back on the 1st March but there is nothing after that. I'm obviously a bit thick and missing something. If anyone knows where I should be looking, please let me know!!! Off to post another card. Another beautiful day here today but its been 2 weeks since we had any rain. My garden needs another sprinkler session I think!! Take care Shona
Well, this card turned out to be so different to my normal cards and my very first 'masculine' card.
This sketch did have me kind of stumped. I don't own a square die-cut so knew that wouldn't happen and I don't have any 'scene' stamps or could think of how to make a scene with the one's I have. I was thinking about using a sticker of some sort and found the perfect one!
No colour and no Wink of Stella but I really love it! I couldn't do the next smaller size die for the frame because the 'man' would have been squashed, so hopefully the challenge people will let me away with it.... And boy was it hard to cut the tiny pieces of foam tape for behind the glasses...what a nightmare! I think it worked out though having the frame flat and the 'man' popped up a little. I think he is quite handsome! The striped background paper is from Teresa Collins 'You are my Happy' 6x6 pad, the sentiment from Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments' and the sticker 'man' is from October Afternoon 'Midway' Collection. Was quite nice to do a more 'manly' card but so hard not to add a pop of colour here and there. Although, when you have a look at all the other cards linked to the challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch #70, they are all so colourful. My card might be standing out AGAIN for all the wrong reasons....... Take care Shona
On Sunday morning I left the three cards I had created the night before, on the dining table. I was outside for a while hanging out washing etc and came back in to find Phoebe and her best friend Ella creating cards.
Phoebe LOVED the shaker card I had created for the Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge #10 and wanted to make her own. I helped her to find and cut the acetate but she did everything else.
And then yesterday after school, she wanted me to show her how to make the glitter card I had made for the Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challengewhere the theme was 'Glitter It' (I'm no. 227). Once again all I did was help with the double-sided tape and the rest she did herself.
Aren't these cards amazing for a 9yr old??!!! She was so happy with them and I told her they were so good, that I would put them on my blog. Well, you could have heard her squealing from space!!!
So, this is my very fabulous 'Craft Apprentice' with her creations and I can't wait to see what designs she comes up with next. I'm sure she will have a lot to teach me! Take care Shona
I seem to be getting a little obsessed with clear acetate at the moment and trying to think of new ways to slip it into my designs. I was also desperate to use my new Teresa Collins 'You make me Happy' 6x6 pad to do ANYTHING as I love the papers so much.
This is such a pretty card and I had a few ideas but not the products so had to think outside the box.
Unfortunately I had to get 'handsy' with this card as I couldn't think of a way to keep the card together without getting paper clips marks etc on the cardstock and needed to show what the card 'window' would look like. Basically I created a window for my greeting so that its stamped on the inside of the card.
So, I got my wish!! I used the Teresa Collins papers I wanted (as well as the sequins from the same collection) and some acetate.
I really wanted to use the warm gold sequins but had nothing to link them too and the gold cardstock I have is too yellow. So thats when I decided to slice up the 12x12 paper from this collection that has gold circles and used strips of them as accents.
I like this card a lot and Phoebe does too. Can imagine we will be crafting after school today as we did yesterday. So nice to have a hobby to do together!
Better link this up to the CASE Study Challenge while I have a moment. I'm in the middle of baking 2 batches of chocolate chip cookies for Max to take to his school 'overnight' visit to a Marae this Thursday. He is so excited (thank goodness) and I know he won't be very scared. I will probably sleep worse than he does that night..... Take care Shona
