Pukeko!!

Greetings - I am so glad you choose to come and visit my blog.

The subject of this post is a New Zealand indigenous bird, the Pukeko, also known as a Swamp Hen in other parts of the world.

I love this stylized stamp of these birds which so captures their cheeky nature.

I ran the card through the Flourished Frame folder to emboss it, and stamped the birds inside the frame. 

The birds were then painted with watercolour crayons, mixing a deep blue and black, then to try and give the sheen on the coats that these birds have IRL, I then over-painted them with irridescent blue.

The sentiment was stamped off centre in Memento Tuxedo Black as the birds were the focus of this card.

I am linking this to:

Less is More - One layer card & birds

Crafty Cardmaker Challenge #59 - No Floral Embellishments

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge #129 - Bold and Bright - these birsd are both!

Lexi's Creations Challenge #56 - Anything Goes

Lollipop Crafts Challenge #63 - No Embellishments

Stamp and Create - January Challenge - Anything Goes

There She Goes - Challenge #139 -Back To Nature

Truely Madly Crafty January Challenge - Anything Goes

The Crazy Challenge - Tic Tac Toe - flourish, image, word

Thank you for call in -= May your day be blessed.

Black Magic and a Butterfly

Greetings - I was going to be more active here this year, only once again life has intervened - including an altercation with a knife while cutting pumpkin..

I spent some time early in the year experimenting with the technique called black magic, that was one of the first things I saw when I 'found' Splitcoast Stampers some four years ago.

This card was made from one of the results, the image being cut with a Spellbinders Nestabilities oval and mounted on a scalloped oval.

There are two dp's, both of which came in random packs from the local Warehouse (think K Mart in the USA).

The butterfly was cut using a Cuttlebug die and embossed in a matching folder. I used two layers to give the colour some 'strength' as the vellum is quite pale.

After mounting it I added pearls for more dimension and interest.

The sentiment was embossed directly to the dp, and more pearls to the top corner.

I am linking this to:

Incy Wincy designs Challenge #96 - Nature

KB Cute Monday - # 15 - Anything Goes

Oh La La Creations Challenge #81 - Happy Birthday

Stamp with Fun challenge #113 - In the Garden

Kenny K's Krafty Girlz Challenge #47 - Fabulous florals

Thanks for calling by - may your day be blessed.  

Mine is when I know you have visited and especially when you comment.

Sunflower Wishes

Greetings once more to my cyber-visitors - it is always wonderful to know you have been here.

I wanted a cheerful card to send to a friend who is a bit under the weather at the moment, added to the fact it is the end of autumn (fall) here and the weather is rather wet and cold!!

I chose a sunflower image from Rebecca of Beccy's Place and printed it off four times, and the joined leaves twice, painted them with water colours and Twinkling H2O's, then cut two of the flower images back to give some layers, adhering them with foam dots to increase the dimension.

I wanted the flowers on a blue backdrop, but the blue card I found was a wee bit small, so ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Rellie Rave folder to give it some texture.

The sentiment (from Layers of Color Happy Wishes Set) was stamped with blue ink and embossed.

And as I assembled the whole I added some hand made tatting and chocolate pearls for some final detail.

I am linking this to:

Southern Girls Challenge #19 - Frills and Polish - use lace and pearls

Bunny Zoe's Challenge #12 - Lace - hand made tatting

Craft Your Passion - #59 - Let it all hang out (over the edge)

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #46 - Embossing

Get Hippity With Ippity Challenge #2 - Flowers

House of Gilli - Flowers

Make it Monday #38 - Anything Goes

Stamps + Fun = Creativity challenge #48 - Flowers

Stamps R Us - Goin' digital

Woodware USA - Challenge #28 - Anything Goes

Anita Be Stampin challenge #21 - Pearls and Lace

Clear it Out Challenge - Colouring

Use It Tuesdays - Flowers and a stamp not previously inked - the 'get well' part of the sentiment

Thank you so much for visiting - may your day be blessed 

Masculine Blues

Welcome to my blog, and thank you for visiting.

Yes, I am back again -and I have gone masculine, again - it's starting to look like a theme, but I have a lot of men with birthdays around this time of year.

This card started with the sentiment, (from Our Daily Bread Designs - Scripture Collection 2 set) which I had already stamped on light grey card, silver embossed and then sponged over with dark gray ink to try and make it more defined.  

Initially this had been intended for a totally different card and was discarded - as was the sentiment and ribbon, which I found in my 'discard' box.

The main panel was mounted on a silver scalloped oval, the silver cord added, and then mounted on the blue which I had embossed with the cuttlebug argyle folder.

The sentiment is one from a local firm who are responsible for this stamping addiction - Kiwistamping

I finished the card with two more lengths of cord across the bottom of the card and a few clear rhinestones, and mounted everything on the black base card.

I am linking this to:

Cards for Men Challenge #10 - Someone Special - a brother

Crafty Cardmakers # 46 - Embossing

Creative Stamp Friends Challenge #25 - Favourite Colours

Incy Winsy Designs Challenge # 94 - Clean and Simple

Make it Mondays #37 - Anything Goes

The Shabby Tearoom Challenge #62 - Monochromatic.

Magic In The Air Magical Mondays - Embossing

Card Patterns Sketch 115

Our Daily Bread Designs Shine The Light Challenge #60 - recipe

Thanks for visiting today, and may your day be blessed.

Ball Games

Greetings to you all - thank you for visiting today.

I managed some studio time during the weekend, and although all did not go to plan I did manage to achieve some success, this being one of them.

This card came together very quickly for which I am thankful.  This image is one that was available at the web site Free Digital Stamps and was from an artist by the name of Sliekje

I coloured him with chalks with a wee bit of sparkling ink on the letters on his sweater.

The sentiment is from Kiwistamping and although I embossed it, the emobssing was absorbed by the hand made paper

The cream coloured panel was embossed using a cuttlebug embossing folder - which 9 year old boy is not fascinated by spiders!!

This is just a quick post as I started the day with a migraine and should not be on the computer....

I am linking this to

Card Cupids - no patterned paper

Corrosive Challenges - birthday

Creative cowgirls Challenge - Anything Goes

Emerald faires Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

One Stitch At A Time #62 - Anything Goes

Paper Sundaes Challenge #69 - Happy birthday

Pile It On - Boys and Girls Come Out To Play

Scrappy Frog Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting, may your day be blessed.

Framed - in pink!!

Yes, a second post in as many days!! 

Welcome back, and thank you for visiting. 

I have made various cards recently with specific challenges in mind, and have not posted them in time, hence this post.

The challenge that this has been made for is over at Lily Pad Cards, and is the dimensional challenge.

  For the first time, I have made a frame using two Labels 14 Spellbinders dies,  then ran it through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and sponged the edges with Whispers Plum ink.

Next I cut a matching piece of acetate, and stamped an image from the Granny's Jewellery  stamp set by Layers of Color in Staz On ink.  On an identical piece of white card I stamped the same image again.

The back of the acetate was painted with twinkling H2Os, and also the ribbon on the card image.  The flowers on the paper copy had rhinestones added for colour, which adds a real depth to the colours.

  

The frame was mounted on the card base, which had a piece of marbled mauve dp on it, using foam mounting dots.

The final details were pale mauve ribbon and pink rhinestones.

I am linking this to:

Lily Pad.- frames-dies-dimensions-challenge

Creative Craft Challenges - Embossing

Ladybugs Crafts Ink Challenge #24 - Anything Goes

Oldie but a Goodie Challenge #17 - a stamp over 6 months old

Sweet Stamps Challenge #17 - Frame It

Tuesday Taggers - upcycling (the actetate came off the end of an overhead projector actetate)

Thanks for visiting - May your day be blessed

Black and Silver

Greetings again - it is always great to know you have visited.

I needed to make a quick card the other day to go with a gift that was very late in being posted!!  The gift was packaged in a wee black box, which I had tied a silver/white ribbon around, which is what inspired the colour choice for the card.

The base is black - from my stash of card-stock that I bought from a local printer. I found I had only a sliver of silver shim left, so halved it to create a border for the white pearlised card, which I embossed with the Textile Texture folder by Cuttlebug.

This photo gives some idea of the sheen on the card.

The Dragonfly is a digi stamp from Priscillastyles Store - I love it, and enjoy just how versatile digi's can be.  It was printed it twice and just the wings  layered to give added dimension after painting it with iridescent blue Twinkling H2O paint

Don't you just love the detail on these wings!!

The card was finished with the sentiment silver embossed and the clear rhinestones added.  I must confess that after all the photographs were taken, I added three tiny rhinestones to the body of the dragonfly.

I am very happy with this result - I never thought even a couple of years ago that I would ever make a black card, but things change!!

I have used this layout on several cards recently and love how versatile it is.

I am linking this too :

Frosted Designs - Fabulous Friday Challenge - Use Bling

Fairy Knoll Challenge #44 - Whatever

Simply Create Challenge #40 - Do it yourself

Pixie Dust Studio Challenge #68 - Fluttering Wings

Digis with Attitude Challenge #20 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Week 13 - No printed backing papers

Stamp Something - Use something digital - the image

Tellens Place - Embossing

Thanks for calling.  May your day be blessed!!

Valentine Blues

Greetings to you all and thank you for calling by.

I recently made a quick Valentines card for my DH, and chose an image from Cora Harkins' site Digital Two for Tuesday  for the feature.  As we are not fussy folk the total card is actually quite simple in it's construction.

I trimmed the image and then sponged the sides with  Tsukineko Brilliance Mediterranean Blue ink, mounted that on striped dp that had the edges sponged with Vivid Cobblestone ink.

Before layering this onto the base I added a couple of vintage corners that I cut in mid blue card using the cuttlebug.

The sentiment from Layers of Colour Sent with Love set was stamped in the Mediterranean Blue ink, which was also used to sponge the edge of the base card.

  Some piercing was added to complete the card

I am linking this to:

Creative Crew - For a Loved One

Creative Card World - Love Card Challenge

Scrapbook Sisters Challenge #22 - My Valentine

Sisterhood of Crafters - In Love with Valentines

A Spoonful of Sugar - Challenge #138 - Lets see some love

Bearly Mine challenge #3 - For men or boys

Digital Tuesday Challenge #97 - From the Heart

Everybody Art challenge # 128 - Valentines

AIFactory - Valentines Day, Love

C.R.A.F.T. challenge #89 - Valentines

Dutch Dare Card challenges - Love is in the air

Sugar Creek Hollow - Non-traditional Valentines.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  May your day be blessed

MMSC 87 - Pretty Petals

Welcome to all my visitors -just a quick post this time as I post a card I have made for the Midnight Madness Challenge - I have taken some liberties with the sketch, but that is allowable as long as the basic sketch is recognizable.

I chose to work with stamps from Layers of Color, using the Nature Walk set, and chalks.  My lovely neighbour who has dabbled in art over the years gave me all her artist quality chalks the other day, so my colour range is quite amazing - a huge step up from what I previously had to work with!!

 I used pink for the base cardstock and wanting something subtle for the lower section as the dp is so quiet in its design,  I put it through the cuttlebug in the leafy branch embossing folder, which was just what was needed.

I then cut the dp to size and ran the edges over a lavender ink pad.  The flowers were stamped twice in the same lavender ink, once in the circle area that I wanted to use, and once again on some other card to cut out and mount over the original images, after  colouring.

Despite the colour the camera had picked up, the flowers are actually a strong purple colour with a cyclamen  accent.   The layered flowers were mounted with a thin dimensional adhesive, and the leaves with double sided sellotape.  The edge of the feature circle was rubbed over a red ink pad to give it definition, and the sentiment was stamped in the same ink.  The whole was them assembled and the the pearls added to complete the card.

For now I am only linking this to the 

Midnight Madness Challenge # 87

Thank you for visiting - may your day be blessed

Romance!!

Yes, I am starting the year off with romance - this is a card for a couple who will shortly be celebrating their anniversary.

I was a bit hesitant when I started this card as I was working to a sketch challenge, and the image was one that was given as a freebie to go with the challenge. Once I got going things seemed to come together quite well.

The image is coloured with glitter pens and coloured pencils. This was cut out with a Nestie  - the largest of the classic oval dies, embossed, pierced, and mounted on the largest of the scalloped oval dies, with the silver ribbon between the layers.

The offset oval to the sides, with the pearls on, was a slightly smaller oval from the same set, cut out of silver card stock and split in half to give the elongated appearance.

I matched these by cutting the corners of the same card stock, using the Cuttlebug Vintage Corners Die, and adding a matching pearl.

Although it shows as blue in the photo, the dp is actually a lovely lavender with very soft images of roses on it, which you can just see in the above photograph.

In the end I was very happy with this card, although it certainly challenged me in the making.

I am entering this in

Southern Girls challenge #9- Anything Goes

Woodware challenge #7- Anything Goes

Sew Many Cards - New things

Stamping Insanity Challenge #40 - sparkle

Catch The Bug Challenge - Anything Goes

Craft Your Day Away Challenge #10 - Punch it Out

Crafty Emma #17 - Anything Goes

Speedy The Cat's Friends Challenge - Use something new - silver cardstock

Thank you for visiting my blog, and I do pray that you all have a happy 2011, filled with joy, love and laughter, and that you will prosper in all you do.

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.

Christmas 2010

Greetings - it is lovely to have you visit again - I do enjoy it when you call by.

This year I have got all my Christmas cards made, but not yet ready to go.. I do need to get my overseas postings done before the 29th, or I will have to pay and arm and a leg to be sure to get them delivered before Christmas...

As I make them in bulk, I tend to do an assembly line production of a reasonably simple card - well that is what I try to do - the simple part does not always work!  The initial design was fine, but then as I worked I realised I had to adapt things along the way as the basic design did need a tweek, and then I started to run out of, or run short, of some of the materials.... and here is the final result, which was  'gussied up' a wee bit  as I adapted it slightly for the 

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #81

I borrowed the Embossing Folder I used on the white panel, and do not know name of it, but it depicts Christmas Ornaments.

The stamps is from Stamps Happen Inc, and it stamps and embosses well, with all the detail being picked up.

After gold embossing, I filled in the capital letters and star with a gold pen to give some emphasis to the stamping.

This panel was mounted over a couple of gold corners - cut from small square dies from the CB Vintage Corners.

The extra that I added for the challenge was the ribbon and the stars - which did seem to liven the design slightly, but I only had that one piece of ribbon, so this is the only card to have this treatment!!

I am linking this to the following challenges:

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #81

Our Daily Bread Designs SCL Challenge #38 - holidays

Lexi's Crations Challenge #27 - Traditional Christmas Colours

One Stitch at a Time Challenge #40 A Season or event

Scrappy Frogs Challenge - Christmas

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge 93 - Christmas

Thanks for visiting, and be assured, I treasure your comments.

May your day be blessed.