Before I tell you about the latest challenge, I just wanted to congratulate my friend and fellow TIME OUT Design Team member Anita (of Anita in France) on being a Guest Designer for the latest Winnie and Walter Release Party and for being the May Leading Lady on their blog. This is huge and I'm so happy and excited for her. She will totally rock their products and I really encourage you to see what she creates for them!!!
Its the last day of April, good grief where has the time gone??? Its also the start of a new challenge at TIME OUT!! The theme for this challenge is:
HOME SWEET HOME
And we have this amazing photo of someone's bedroom to inspire some creativity:
I would love to wake up to all this colour every morning, wouldn't you?? Such a happy way to start the day! You can use any part of this photo to inspire your creation, its totally up to you!
Our Guest Designer for this challenge is the forever fabulous Joyce from Cards by the Sea. I'm such a huge fan of her designs and she seems to be able to make cards in any style or theme. I really recommend popping over to her blog to take a look!
I couldn't help but be inspired by that back wall. The dark pink flowers really jumped out at me and I really liked the large grey leaves with all their lines. I didn't have any leaf stamps that would work so came up with grey leaves another way:
I don't know why I continue to design such fiddly, time consuming cards but all my cursing was worth it! I spent quite a bit of time die-cutting three different types of leaves from grey paint chips. I also die-cut the rectangle panel and some flowers for embellishment. I put the panel on the card front and then tucked in the leaves, fiddling with them until I was happy with it. This is where my i-phone really comes in handy. I took a photo of the card so I would know where all the leaves went.
I stamped the sentiment in pink and glued on the flowers. Then came the fun part of gluing each of the leaves to the back of the panel. All I can say is thank goodness for the photo!! I then adhered the whole thing to the card front and voila!
The leaf and flower dies are from Paper Smooches. The stitched-rectangle die is from Pretty Pink Posh and the sentiment is from Reverse Confetti 'Colour Me Happy'.
You have two weeks to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge, so hopefully that's enough time for you to get your thinking caps on. As always the rest of the Design Team have prepared some cards to help with some inspiration, on the blog. So looking forward to seeing what you come up with!!
Just been for a walk with Phoebe and our dog Bella around the neighbourhood. Its Praying Mantis season and Phoebe keeps finding them everywhere. She picked up a huge one and had it on her hands and arms as she scooted along slowly beside me. That was until Bella noticed it and tried to sniff it. It got scared and ran up Phoebe's arm into her hair. You can imagine the squealing and 'Get it off, get it off' that was yelled. We left it on a fence to lay its eggs, probably very traumatised......
I cut a strip of light blue glitter paper and used a waffle die along the edge. I put another strip of patterned paper on the card front and layered the glitter paper over the edge. I die-cut the butterfly from pink patterned paper and also some small hearts. The sentiment was stamped in black ink and added the hearts as embellishment. So sweet, might have to save this one for Phoebe....
The stitched-waffle edge die is from Pretty Pink Posh. The Butterfly die is from Paper Smooches 'Butterfly Duo', as well as the hearts from the 'Tiny Hearts' set. The patterned paper is from Echo Park 'Everyday Eclectic', the glitter paper from DCWV 'Glitzy Pastels' and the sentiment from Paper Smooches 'Uplifters'.
I have five other challenges I would like to enter:
We all love Wednesday nights. Phoebe has gymnastics at 6.30pm so its a very simple dinner. Phoebe and I have dinner after practice together. They work pretty hard and she is sometimes too tired to eat, so better make her something now to keep her going. Better have something myself too!
Its finally stopped raining today and we woke up to a very chilly morning. Phoebe decided to cash in one of her 'No questions asked Mental Health Day from school' day. She has two this term as she didn't use one last term. She has spent the day watching Modern Family and chatting with me about all sorts of things. Kinda nice to have some company while I go about my domestic duties.....
I used to hate fussy cutting (and I'm still not that good at it) but now I have smaller, more pointy scissors I do it all the time. Good scissors make such a difference!
I stamped the houses on to four different pale pink patterned papers (try saying that fast 4x.....) and then cut them all out. I adhered a strip of wood panel patterned paper (as a lot of houses are wooden) to the card front. Each of the houses was then popped up on foam tape. I stamped the sentiment in black ink, which includes a heart. Luckily I had a pink die-cut heart that fitted over it perfectly. Ta-Dah!!
All of the patterned papers are from Dear Lizzy 'Serendipity'. The house stamps and sentiment are from Paper Smooches 'Bitty Bungalows' and the heart die is also Paper Smooches 'Tiny Hearts'.
Have to tear Phoebe away from the tv for half an hour so I can get Bella out for a walk. The fresh air will do everyone some good after being inside over the past few rainy days. And the sun is out, so best make a move!!
Its Wednesday so that means its time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps. For this weeks theme its the popular:
MAKE YOUR MARK
So get out those Copics, paintbrushes, pencils, blending tools etc and create a project where you colour it somewhere yourself. Our sponsor for this challenge is:
The winner of the challenge will receive a $12 gift certificate....yippee!! Can't wait to see what you all come up with! This challenge is always a bit tricky for me as I'm not the best with my colouring skills but I'm gradually getting more confident. I decided to have another go at water colouring as I had a new stamp I was dying to bring to life:
I love this little lion and I finally had the right Distress Ink colours to colour him in. I stamped him in Versafine Onyx Black on water colour paper. To be honest, I wasn't sure if it would bleed or not once it got wet but the ink stayed put. I coloured him using Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade. I also stamped and coloured his stand using Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar.
I adhered the strip of pink patterned paper to the card front and then layered the gold and black/white journal cards over top. After fussy cutting the stamps, I glued them to the front. I stamped the sentiment in black ink on a white CS banner and popped up with foam tape. A few pink and yellow sequins were a great finishing touch.
As you know this is so not my usual card style and yes, I kept asking myself 'what would Amy Tsuruta do?' but I really like how it turned out. Even my Mum was shocked when she saw this card but she loved it as well. Phew!
The pink patterned paper is from Dear Lizzy 'Serendipity'. The two journal cards are from My Minds Eye 'Fancy That'. The stamps are all from Reverse Confetti 'Leaping Lions' and the sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
You have one week to enter your projects for the Addicted to Stamps challenge and I hope you will pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team has created to inspire you. Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!
I've been wanting to join in with the monthly Altenew challenge ever since it started but was a little worried (to be honest) that my designs wouldn't be quite good enough. Some of the entries I've seen are really spectacular, so it was a little intimidating. However, I had a little talk to myself and decided that this is supposed to be fun, so pushed the creative part of my brain to give it a go!
This is a close up photo of a building in The Forbidden City, Beijing, China, that is the inspiration for this challenge. I really liked the colours used and was immediately drawn to the row of circle designs that have a gold spot and alternate from blue to jade. I thought the circular pattern was gorgeous so used that for my card:
I die-cut a large circle from a jade coloured paint chip and adhered it straight to the card front. I don't have many Altenew stamp sets but I thought that the painted rose outline would make a great pattern, heat embossed in gold. I did this with the larger rose with leaves in the centre on some navy CS and then smaller roses around the outside. I used a smaller circle die to cut the shape. This was popped up on foam tape. I stamped the sentiment in black ink on a small piece of white CS and used foam tape for this as well. A few enamel dots in red, to link with the photo and it was finished!!
The sentiment stamp is from Altenew 'Sohcahtoa' and the rose stamps from Altenew 'Painted Flowers'. The enamel dots are from Papervine.
I have three other challenges I would like to enter:
There is that wonderful phrase 'Two great minds think alike' and boy is that one I use a lot. Well, today its the only thing that comes to mind (along with embarassment) when I do this post.
I really loved the idea of doing an ombre coloured card for the CASology challenge this week. I was staying with my Mum when I saw the Cue Word on a friends blog post. Now, usually before I create a card for this challenge, I go to the blog and look at all the entries (and DT cards) to make sure I'm not repeating someone's idea. Being with my Mum, I just wandered along making my cards and forgot to look at anything.
So....when I was on the CASology blog post, copying the 'cue card', I had a quick look thru the DT cards and saw Tracey's card. This is where that phrase comes to play!!! I'm happy that I had the same idea as Tracey as her card designs are out of this world but now was in the position of do I link this card or not. I decided why not. Hopefully Tracey will be okay with this and it will serve me right for not checking beforehand. Won't be doing that again.....
I used three colours of Distress Ink and water-colour paper to create the ombre colouring. I then die-cut the butterfly from the middle of it. This was glued directly to the card front and then the sentiment stamped in black. Done!
I have six other challenges I would like to enter:
Its just after 11.30pm Monday night and I really want to go to bed but I only have a few hours to get my last two cards on my blog before the challenge closes. So please bear with me if my spelling and grammar goes a bit crazy....
Ombre really seems to be the technique of the moment and I'm gradually getting better at creating it, so it was great to see it as the cue word for CASology this week. I really pushed myself with my card this time, not only with ombre but stenciling as well and thankfully it all worked out:
This design was actually my second idea as the first was a complete failure, thank goodness for back-up plans! And it turned into a baby card which is something I usually find very hard to create.
I laid the stencil across the card front and masked off a strip with lots of washi tape. I used my mini blending tool and Distress Inks - Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick and Spun Sugar to create the ombre look. After removing the stencil I die-cut the word from the card. I then die-cut the 'sweet' from a pink paint chip and twice from white CS, gluing them all together. I adhered a piece of white CS behind where the word had been cut and inlaid the word with glue. The sentiment was stamped in pink and added a few pink sequins for bling.
The 'sweet' die is from The Crafters Workshop. The stencil is from Teresa Collins 'Basically Essentials'. The sentiment stamp is from Reverse Confetti 'Fancy Word Co-ordinates' and the sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
I have four other challenges I would like to enter:
On Saturday we attended a function for people remembering ANZAC day. Its a public holiday here in New Zealand to remember people lost at war and it is the 100th Anniversary of World War 1 and the battle at Gallipoli. Max started singing with the school choir this year and they were invited to sing. I was immensely proud of not only Max but all the children as they sang so well. And the hundreds of Returned Servicemen and families loved it. It will be something Max remembers doing for a very long time.
When I saw the colour combo and the graphic print for the Colour Me! challenge, I totally had to play!
I had an idea for some of my dies that I've wanted to try out for ages and I thought these colours would be a lot of fun:
I grabbed my trusty paint chips and die cut each of the houses. I then set to work die-cutting the circle from the card front and the stitched curved edge from some white CS. I adhered the curved edge first behind the circle. After cutting a piece of white CS for the background, I put it under the circle, glued the houses into position and then glued the panel to the back of the circle. I popped a banner, with the sentiment stamped in black, on some foam tape over the bottom of the circle, a couple of enamel dots and the scene was done.
The house dies are from Simon Says Stamp 'Village' and the stitched-curved edge die from Pretty Pink Posh. The circle die is from Couture Creations and the sentiment stamp from Paper Smooches 'Bitty Bungalows'. Enamel dots are from Papervine.
Think I will be spending tomorrow catching up on all my emails from the weekend and doing more blog posts. I only need to go gardening on Wednesday this week and if its raining, will go at the weekend. Its a short week as today (Monday) is a public holiday, so have to squeeze everything into 4 days. Why do short weeks always feel so much longer??????
What a wonderful weekend I've had with my Mum. I ended up staying with her on Sunday night as well (today, Monday, is a public holiday) as Phoebe was sleeping at a friends place and Dave and Max wanted a boys night at home. I made a HUGE pile of cards, watched lots of horror movies and chatted with Mum about all sorts of things. And no more earthquakes, thank goodness!! Although I do feel for the poor people of Nepal, so awful and so much devastation.
This is the spectacular card Marion gave us this week to CASE at Muse. Just loving all that white space and the butterfly die is so detailed. Of course I had to get out my favourite butterfly die of the moment (well, actually my only butterfly die.....) and join in:
Was quite tricky to photograph this one. The butterfly looks a little odd because of the shadowing across the vellum.
This was incredibly easy to put together. I used a white CS for the card base that has a linen look to it. I die-cut the circle from patterned paper and then the butterfly from the middle. After heat embossing the sentiment in white, I adhered the circle to the card front. I die-cut a butterfly from pale green, slightly marbled vellum and glued the body over the butterfly shape.
The butterfly die is from Paper Smooches 'Butterfly Duo'. The patterned paper is from Bella! 'Wild Thing' and the sentiment from Lil' Inker 'Rainbows and Clouds Sentiments'.
I have six other challenges I would like to enter:
I've really fallen in love with Paper Smooches, especially now that someone in New Zealand is stocking their products for amazing prices and gets all the new releases super quickly!! I actually just splashed out on four more dies and I can't wait for them to arrive...hopefully tomorrow....
This week for the Paper Smooches - Sparks Challenge there is the ever popular 'Anything Goes' theme. This will be my second entry as I just couldn't resist making a shaker card:
I haven't made a shaker card for ages and wanted to try out a different shape. I die-cut the shaker frame using two waffle-square dies with a black paint sample chip. I went to the hardware store at the weekend and pretended I was renovating our house and my Mum's. I had so many different colours, the salesperson must have been wondering what the colour scheme was going to be!!
I made a square card from white CS and adhered the striped patterned paper to the front. I worked out where the shaker window would be and stamped the sentiment in black. I added clear acetate across the window and a layer of foam tape on the back of the frame. I made a pile of black and yellow sequins over the sentiment and stuck the frame down. The 'thanks' was die-cut from yellow CS and also two from white CS, that were all stuck together. I glued this to the frame. Very bumble-bee-ish!
The waffle-square dies are from Couture Creations and the sequins from Papervine. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches 'Uplifters' and so is the 'thanks' die. The patterned paper is from American Crafts 'Serendipity'.
I'm off to my Mum's place now. So far no more earthquakes (touch wood....) so hopefully todays one was the last. We are off to watch Max sing with the school choir at the ANZAC Day ceremony tomorrow, honouring the 100th Anniversary of World War 1. Should be a very proud and moving experience, better take lots of tissues (and the camera......).
Well, two hours ago we had another big earthquake. The two yesterday were 4.5 and 5.0. Today's one was 6.2 and I didn't even feel it. Just like yesterday I was driving, so felt nothing. Phoebe and I were on our way to buy some underwear and Max stayed with Nana. When we got back Nana was terrified but okay and Max was relaxed. He had dived under the table straight away, so he's trained well. I had planned to spend the weekend with Mum anyway, so she is even more pleased she won't be on her own. Fingers crossed they don't get any bigger.......
I just love the Sparkle and Shine challenge. They always have fantastic inspiration and any chance to use lots of sequins is a bonus!!!
I spent quite a while fiddling around with this sketch and ended up changing my design completely! I really wanted to use some flowers and managed to make them the star of the card:
You know how much I love these flower dies. Haven't used them for a week or two just to give you a rest from constantly seeing them on my cards but was itching to get them out again!
I cut the strips of pink and yellow CS and adhered them to the card front. I then die-cut the waffle-edged square from white CS and then spent quite a while die-cutting all the pieces for the flowers. I put washi tape across the back of the flowers to keep the separate pieces together and then used double-sided tape to layer them in the corner. After stamping the sentiment in black, I popped the panel up on foam tape and added lots of colourful sequins. Such a happy, 'Spring-y' card!
The sentiment is from Paper Smooches 'Uplifters' and so are the flower dies. The waffle-edged square die is from Couture Creations. The coloured cardstock is from DCWV 'Brights and Pastels'. The yellow and pink sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh and the light blue from Avery Elle.
I have three other challenges I would like to enter:
Right, one more card to post and then I'm off to be with my Mum. Took all my craft stuff around this afternoon, so hopefully I can make a few cards while watching some dvd's. I won't have any access to my blog, so will catch up with you all early next week!!
