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Friday, December 23, 2016

Digi Topiary

Welcome

Firstly I would like to wish all who visit a blessed and joyful Christmas

I have need of numerous' thinking of you' cards at the moment, having just heard of two more extended family members who have been hit with serious illnesses.  I HATE CANCER!!


The image I used was a freebie from Ginny Maxam,  here at her blog


I coloured it with chalks/pastels, distressed and sponged the edges of the panels. 
 

The floral part of the image was initially pink, but then I realised that the butterfly was also pink, so I added a layer of purple...


 then masked the floral part of the image and sprayed it with a silver glimmer mist.  It can be seen in the above photo, and also the fact that I coloured the butterflies with metallic pens.  The finishing detail was the lace at the bottom of the card.

I used this as a class card to demonstrate how digi images can be re-sized, as the class images were smaller, and I also encouraged the class to colour and mount the images as they wanted too, so each card was different.

I am linking this to:


Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed
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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Negative Smile

Welcome

Needless to say after I taught the class how to use die cuts in a back ground, there were lots of negative 'smiles' left around, and I was able to use these two as the feature on a card.


I also tried my hand at a shaker card, using layers of card for the 'walls' of the shaker box, rather than tape. It worked, albeit a fiddly exercise on this card, as some of the margins were very narrow.


I could not find my packet of gold sequins, so I sat and fiddled and picked out the gold ones from a mixture of odds and ends that I have on hand, then added some gold glitter and gold micro beads, which has made a really nice mix.

The sentiment was designed and computer generated by moi.

I am linking this to:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed.
Any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated.
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Monday, December 19, 2016

A Poppy, Bees and Beads

Welcome

At the class I ran last week I taught how to use a die cut as a background.  I saw this technique used on a card in a blog that I follow, but cannot find the post now to give credit to the  artist . If anyone recognizes it, please let me know.

I altered the word and placed it on an angle in the background, offsetting each row.


After some thoughts, and watching how someone else modified their card, I added some wee bees to the flower and background, (all fancied up with some Kindy Glitz on their wings), and some beads to the centre of the flower (an old one {10 years or so} from Hero Arts). What cannot be seen in the photo is that I also painted the flower with WOS.


Here is a photo of the finished card, with an embossed sentiment on a hand cut banner.


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Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed.
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Friday, December 16, 2016

CAS Masculine Birthday

Welcome

This card was made for one of three birthdays I have on one day in December!! 
It was made for a man who can only be described as a minimalist - he hates clutter and anything "fancy shamancy"!!


The kraft card was embossed with a shadow diamond folder after gold (heat) embossing the simple sentiment


The kraft panel was cut on an angle, and then I die cut and adhered some gears in a blue/green card to the orange base, tucking them under the panel as needed. 

I tucked a gift card into the card and voila, one birthday done and dusted!!

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Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Die Cut Sparkles

Welcome

I made this card for an elderly friend recently, using  NBUS die set by Ultimate Crafts


I die cut all the pieces in silver glitter paper, and adhered it to a matt green piece of patterned paper


I stamped and silver embossed the sentiment on a snippet of grey card, the same as the card base, sponged the edges with London Fog Memento ink, and added a bow in silver cord.


I was able to capture some of the glitter in these photographs


Unfortunately the green paper still shows as gray.
The recipient loved it and thanked me numerous time for it.
Note to self: next time use a firmer card for the die cut as the frame is very narrow and hard to get straight.

I am linking this to:


Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed
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Thursday, December 8, 2016

Lighthouse Birthday

Welcome

My 'invisible' new follower is Sue, of Sue's Card Craft - do pop over and have a look at her wonderful cards.  Thank you for following me Sue.

This card was made for a family member who loves lighthouses


I started with the main stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs set Keep My Lamp Burning, and stamped it in Memento London Fog ink on a grey recycled paper from my local printer.  I stamped using my Misti, thankfully, as it needed several applications, but even then it is not perfect - I should have been more patient.


This was mounted over a striped paper, which also has a clear sparkling stripe in it. I used my vertical birthday greeting, embossing it in a nautical blue ep.


The silver cord was knotted and adhered and three brads placed in the wide end of the cord. 


The brads were initially 'gold', but I tapped them onto my versamark ink pad, then into the blue ep, then heat set it - I repeated this several times.  I love the results.

I am linking this to:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed
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Monday, December 5, 2016

This Year's Christmas Card

Welcome.

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to my latest follower - I cannot see a new photo, but the total number has gone up one.  If you would like to introduce yourself, that would be wonderful.


When Our Daily Bread Designs introduced their Christmas dies back in October I feel in love with them immediately, and bought this nativity set, and the word Peace.


I started the card by loosely painting the background with Rich Cobalt, Ocean Wave and Sunflower Twinkling H2O's, then masked the bottom of the card and sprayed it with Lindy's Blue Hawaiian Blue mica spray.


The word, star and angel were cut from gold paper and the nativity from thin black card and glued onto the base. 


This shot gives an idea of the sparkle this has. 


I made two prototype cards, and DH decided which one he would prefer.  This alternate one has just a sprayed background, which looked quite 'arty farty'. To be honest it was my favourite, but as his name is on the cards, I chose to honour his choice.

I am linking this to:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed
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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Update - Fledged!!

Welcome

After several days of  chatting to the wee starling in the box, and it would sit there and chat back, this morning it fledged.


I saw it several times on the back lawn, and you could see it getting stronger and stronger with each attempt at flight, although its navigation needed quite a lot of improvement, even when I took this photo a few moments before he disappeared.

We have not see it since mid-morning, but are so glad that we got to see him fledge.

Thank you for your pleasure in these 'nature' posts
May your day be blessed
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Saturday, November 26, 2016

Growing up

Welcome

It is late spring here in the Antipodes and we have had a starling box in the back yard for several years now - this year the pair started early, and hatched two chicks.

Of late we have seen more and more of the chicks sitting looking out of the hole, and one chick will let me get quite close before they duck back in.

I took these photos from a distance on full zoom, to be sure the chick would not hide, and unfortunately one is a bit fuzzy.


The marks around the hole are from the parents feathers when they hold onto the edge of the hole to feed the chicks


I think it will not be long before the chicks fledge, and then the back yard will be very quiet!!
The neighbours have two boxes, but their birds were much later to breed, so we will still have some starlings around, amongst the other birds.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed.
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Friday, November 25, 2016

Folded Butterfly

Welcome

I wanted to use a background stamping technique recently, and not only did I create a reasonable background, I also used a folded butterfly shape I have recently learned.


To stamp the background you start with the darkest colour first and the boldest motive, followed by a medium colour and a more delicate motif, then the lightest colour and a background stamp.


I stamped the piece of copy paper that I was using for the butterfly with a co-ordinating colour and motif - it did not contrast enough, so I sponged the edges with the ink I used to stamp it with, then assembled the card.


The sentiment was stamped in a red ink, then embossed with a red ep, trimmed to a banner shape, then mounted over a matching red cardstock.


I was still not happy with the card as a whole so it sat on my desk for some days, then I added the red gemstones, and still not happy, picked up a sponge that had some delicata gold ink on and gently tapped it over the butterfly, putting paper under the edges to prevent smudging.  I then masked the butterfly and sprayed with perfect pearls perfect red spray, and was finally happy with it. 

I am linking this to:

First vertical line - Sentiment, flowers, gemstones.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed
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Thursday, November 24, 2016

A Question

Welcome

Can anybody tell me how to get another page header to show on my blog's home page?? 

 I do have a third page, but the tag does not show up, and I cannot figure out how to get it to show.... even less now that blogger has it's "new and improved" layout which I find totally frustrating!

Thanks in advance for all your help

Edited

Thank you all for your help - it's all fixed and functioning 😀


Monday, November 21, 2016

Water Colours and Leaves

Welcome

These past few weeks a have been very busy, and this week is shaping up to be the same...
I made this card earlier in the month as a demo for my stamp class


I started by loosely painting the background with watercolours, then when that was dry,  the branches embossing folder was inked on the raised image side of the folder using a brayer, then embossed the image on the background.


To tie the whole design together I stamped the Friends stamp (by Hastings Rubber Stamps) using the same ink, on the same card stock as the base  (a grey recycled card from a local printer). 


The final detail was to sponge all the edges with the same Espresso ink before assembling the card, and add some white flat back pearls.

I am linking this to:

The stamp, paints and folder were all some of my early purchases, stash from way back! 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - May your day be blessed
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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Spotty Thanks

Welcome

We have had the most wonderful family filled weekend - we had 19 people around the table for one meal 😃.

I made this card a few days ago for a local woman who blessed us with a gift of fudge, made by her mother and couriered up from Wellington!!  The card was loved, and is now enroute to Wellington to the fudge maker.


I started with the lemon yellow base, and embossed it with a Swiss Dots folder, and added a page from a Prima journaling page.


The sentiment panel started as an experiment - the technique I was trying did not 'work' as it was supposed to, so I dropped water onto the distress inked panel and then dried it off, then sprayed it with a silver spray.  I was still not that happy, so die cut the sentiment from a snippet of matching cardstock and inserted it into the panel.   I then embossed another part sentiment after masking off the end of the stamp to have just the part of it that I wanted.


The finishing details were the rhinestones and the washi tape.

I am linking this to:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed.
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Thursday, November 10, 2016

Golden Card

Welcome

I made this card for a friend who has become a superannuitant, and here in New Zealand you are given a gold card for special 'seniors discounts', hence my theme of a golden card, and lots of gold in the card.
  

I loosely followed the sketch over at STAMPlorations November Challenge,



starting with the tag shape, which I cut from a piece of Prima journaling card.


The (Simons Says Single Rose Die) roses were cut from a piece of dark pink paper that I had smooshed with Orchid and Lavender pearlscent inks to tone in with the tag.



The sentiment was cut with a S/B die, the top layer was sponged with gold delicata ink, and layered over pink card stock, attached on an angle across the base of the card.


I used some eyelashes yarn to thread through the top of the tag - carefully cut to have just three colours showing.


The final detail after everything was mounted onto the gold background paper (from a Botanicals pad by Trim Craft) and then onto the pink base, was the two groups of three pink pearls.

We had news recently that my beloved husband has an un-treatable cancer, so if I am not around much in blogland in the coming months, please understand that I am otherwise occupied - I will be here when I can, and comment when I can, but my first priority is him.

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Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog - may your day be blessed
Any comments you may leave are deeply appreciated
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