I received my first blog award!!

I opened my emails this morning and discovered I had received my first blog award from the lovely Marsha!!

The eight things that I am to share

1.  I am a Christian - my faith is very much  part of who I am.

2. I am very happily married, and have been for nearly 37 years to a man who still thinks I am the best thing to happen to him.

3. I love my family - adult children and grandchildren, who are very dear to me.

4. I am owned by an 11 year old cat who adores me.

5. I have recently discovered paper crafting, specifically card making, and love it.

6. I am still a keen gardener, but it now takes a lower priority.

7. Another passion of mine is lace making.

8. I am proud to call myself a Kiwi i.e. a New Zealander.

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I am sending this award to:

Linda

MariLynn

Grace

Diana

Nina 

Cora

Gunn

Sylvie

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The rules for receiving this award are:

Thank and link back to the person who sent this to you. 

Share 8 things about yourself

Pass this award on to 8 bloggers

Contact those bloggers and tell them you sent them this award.

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This award came out of the blue and I so appreciate it.

May your day be richly blessed as mine has been.

Roses for a Birthday

Greetings to all my cyber friends - I trust you have all had a wonderful Christmas - as we have, rich with family and friends.

I made this card before we came on holiday for my dear SIL who has a birthday tomorrow.

I have had this stamp for a while now and took this opportunity to ink it up. I loved the way Nina Bracket from Crafting in Croatia used this stamp, Cottage Rose in a  pre-release design from Layers of Color.  I have discovered that although I 'cased' her card (from memory), mine turned out totally different - maybe my memory was not as accurate as I thought.

I also used the LOC brick wall stamp in the background of this card, embossing it in copper and lightly shading it with chalks.

The rose was also coloured with chalks and a wee bit if crystal Kindy Glitz added for some sparkle, and a sentiment stamped and embossed with gold.

Ribbon was added to look as though the stalks were tied together, and some rhinestones for a wee bit of bling.

The 'cased' element of the card was that part of the background of the stamp was cut away - this I did on the diagonal, and with the white on the black base gave the whole a sense of dimension.

I enjoyed making this card, and hope you have enjoyed your visit.

I am not linking this to any challenges as it is in the middle of the holiday season, and I had better not spend too much time on the computer while visiting.


Now I have returned home, I will link this to the following challenges:
Aly's Sunday Sketch # 32 - Anything Goes
Corrosive Challenge Blog #96 - Bling it on
I Did It Challenge #35 - Out with the old - In with the new
One Stitch at a Time Challenge #43 - Anything Goes
All Sorts Week 83
Crafty Emma Challenge #17 - Anything Goes
Sweet Stamping Challenge Blog - Celebrations
Totally Gorjuss Challenge #61 - Someone Special

Thank you again for visiting, and any comments you leave are treasured.

 May your day be blessed.

MMSC83 - Sympathy

Greetings once more to my cyber visitors.

I wanted to make a sympathy card for a neighbour, and unexpectedly had the time to do it this afternoon.

It was quite a quick card to make and I was pleased with the result.

Although the base card looks to be a light brown IRL it is gold with a delightful shimmer - not too much, just enough to be elegant.

The white layer was embossed using the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls folder, and  then the card was split diagonally and mounted on the gold.

The sentiment was embossed in gold, cut using a Spellbinders Nestability Classic Oval large (#4) and mounted on the matching scalloped oval.

This was deliberately mounted in this "cut off" manner to match the sketch challenge at  Midnight Madness.

The finishing touches were the ribbon and pearls.

I am linking this to 

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #83

Caardvarks final challenge - Monochrome

Creative card Crew - Anything Goes

Peachy Keen Stamps challenge - Embossing

Thanks for visiting, and I love it when you comment - all comments are very much appreciated.

May your day be blessed.

Flowers for Ashley and MMSC#82

Greetings to you all, and once again, I want to say how much I appreciate your visiting my blog. 

May I also take this opportunity to wish you all the best for Christmas and the New Year - may you know the peace of Jesus as you prepare for the festivities, and be blessed with family and friends to celebrate with.

This card was made with a dear Aunt in mind - my late mother's sister is the last of her immediate family, and was the closest of her family to us, so she is rather special to me.  Knowing that she loves her garden was a starting point for this card.

This flower was one of a packet that I bought recently, and 'fitted' the colour scheme beautifully... I wanted to draw the eye to it, but not dominate the whole, so used the rhinestones as an accent in the centre, which is just above the main panel.

I wanted the stamped image to take centre stage, so simply embossed the silver panel using the cuttlebug folder fantastic flowers. 

 The main panel was stamped using two images from the Layers of Color set Merci Bouquet.  The flowers were stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black,  then masked and the vase was stamped with Brilliance Pearlescent Olive ink.  Both images were then coloured with chalks.

Both the small panels were mounted on dark green card, before assembling the card as a whole.  

The dp is some from a pack I bought in Australia (at KMart) some two and a half years ago.  The lace is some that I have had on hand for a wee while now and have been itching to use, so with the the sketch challenge having scallops at the base, I grabbed it with great glee :-), then had to find ribbons that 'worked' with it!

I have since heard from my aunt that she loves the card.

This is being linked to:

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #82

Crafty Emma's Challenge #16 - Anything but a Christmas Card

Mami Doodles Challenge #16 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #142 - Flowers 

Delightful Challenges - Embossing

The Hodge Podge Shop Challenge Blog #5 - Birthday card

Thanks for calling - May your day be blessed.

Quick Card

Hi folks - just a quick post for what turned out to be a very quick card - it is a long time since I have had a card come together this quickly.

I printed off the image which is one from Cora at Digital Two For Tuesday.

I was inspired by a challenge to make a white card with a feature of red, but this ended up with a wee bit too much black, but that is not a problem as I wanted a masculine card.  I was also following a Midnight Madness sketch challenge (#84)

To add some interest to the black layers I embossed them with the diamond plate folder, and added just a wee bit of bling

And volia, here is my card!!

All ready to be written in and posted to the recipient!!


I am linking this to:
Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #84
Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown challenge #28 - Clean and Simple
Peachy Keen Stamps challenge #43 - Embossing

Thanks for calling by, and may you day be blessed.

Dragonfly Birthday - again

Greetings, and thank you for visiting this blog and reading my card-making ramblings.

I managed some more studio time yesterday, actually I had to, as I have three birthdays to acknowledge on Friday, and I had no cards made!! The first one is for one of the two male birthdays this week, and once again I went to Priscilla's dragonfly image (available here).

I coloured the image with chalks and then added a layer of Dimensional Glue which gives a wonderful sheen and curves the wings slightly.  I had printed and cut two images, and used just the wings from the second image to give dimension. 

The oval it is resting on was cut using a nestie and sponged with a turquoise  ink while still in the die. The sentiment is from Digital Design Divas and originally came in a circle form, but I altered it for the occasion.

The card design was inspired by the sketch challenge over at Our Daily Bread Designs Blog for this week.

The silver foil panel was embossed using the D'vine swirls folder, and it was mounted on green card.  The green panel (mounted on brown card) was stamped with Memento Cottage Ivy ink using the Layers of Color swirl from the Nature Walk stamp set.

The brown stripes had the edges pierced, which IRL looks makes them look like a leather strip.  I then balanced this with piercing in two corners. The final details were the Kaiser half pearls and the edges being sponged with Memento Sand ink.

This is being linked to the following challenges:

Our Daily Bread Designs SLC#40 - sketch 

The Crafty Pad Challenge #100 - Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time - Challenge #42 - Old stash (nesties) New Stash (Pearls)

Craft Your Days Away Challenge #9 - texture

Daring cardmakers - Turquoise (ink)

Delicious Doodles Challenge #3 - use a digi
Craft Your Passion - Challenge #35 - Anything Goes
Woodware USA Clear stamps Challegne #4 - Birthday

Thank you for calling - may your day be filled with many blessings.

Gift cover

Greetings - it is so great of you to visit!

I wanted to give a friend a wee gift recently and bought a bag of chocolates - not the easiest to wrap, so I thought I would use card and 'cover' it rather than wrapping it, and this is the result!

I started by cutting a sheet of card into two long strips, trimmed them to length and stenciled them with the Layers of Color Botanical Swirls stencil.

The flowers from the Natures Walk set by the same firm were stamped on scraps of card, embossed and then coloured with chalks.

The tag was stamped and embossed, then cut with a Spellbinders Ribbon Tag

I cut and embossed it, and lightly sponged the tag while still in the die.  I then rounded the corners of one end - the sentiment is from
 Kiwi Stamping 

The ribbon was threaded through a slot I cut to match the slot on the packet,

and the greeting tied to the ribbon with silver cord.

This final look was very effective, and the recipient was most appreciative of both the cover and the chocolates.

Thanks for calling by - I appreciate your visits and your comments make my day.

I am linking this to 

A Crafty Little Place Challenge #66 - Anything goes

Scrap creations - Anything Goes
Some Odd Girl - Make it Girlie
Alphabet Challenge - Letter F for Foliage
Maimi Doodles - Challenge #15 - gift item

May your day be blessed.