A weekend away

Hi there..  No cards to share today as last week I was working on a commission that I can't share till after the person who it's for has their birthday!  In a couple of weeks.   And this weekend we went down to Rotorua with our friends, Michael and Yvonne and their family to celebrate Michael's 60th.  Rotorua is about 3 hrs south of Auckland and is a Thermal area.  Smells like rotten eggs at times but wasn't too bad this weekend.  So here a a few pics of the weekend.

This was Saturday morning down by the Lakefront.  Our friends have twin grandchildren who are 2 1/2.  They had a ball enjoying the playground and having a pony ride.

Some of the animals and fish at Paradise Springs.  I didn't get any decent photos of the lions that they have there.

This morning we headed about 30kms out of Rotorua to some thermal springs at Waikite Valley Springs

The bottom row shows the water that boils up in the Spring.  It was amazing.  You could see the bubbling boiling water coming up and the steam spewing out.  The pools were beautifully warm at around 30 degrees after the spring water is cooled by running it over some shallow cascades.  After sharing lunch we headed home.  An awesome weekend with lovely winter weather. 

Black Eye Daisies

 

Photo from Joy Ott

I saw this today on Facebook.  It is just like the flowers I made for the Card in a Box I was asked to make.

The person who requested it, wanted her Mom's name ~ Sarah~ on the card so I die cut the letters (Hero Arts dies) and added them on acetate.  Used punches for the grass, flowers and the pale green vellum butterflies, and die cuts for the white flourishes and the green leaves.  The back is stamped with a Kaisercraft sentiment and an Inkadinkado flourish.   The sentiment is Die cut from a Britannia die and added to a Spellbinders label.  I did add some white pearls to the centre of my daisies.  Hoping she likes it.

CASE Study #200

It's the 200th challenge over at CASE Study Challenge blog and the Muse is the amazing Shari Carroll with a delightful card.

 

I decided to try and use a circle stencil and some blue ink to make my background

The stencil is one from The Crafter's Workshop and I used a blue distress ink.  I stamped the work Brilliant (by Heidi Swapp) onto some grey card and the rest of the sentiment from Winnie & Walter.  The PP was punched and I added the heart and a little star.  I added the strip of black card down one side 

Winter is making it's presence felt here with some cold and wet weather.  Perfect to spend some time crafting this weekend.  I've been asked to make another card in a box.... here is the work in progress

Still a bit of work to be done to finish.    I did get a few other cards done too...Some DT work and my July CCC card... will share that when Cat lets me know it's arrived.  

Card in a Box...

I take part in a local monthly swap here in NZ, where each month we try out a new technique and send our card to our partner.  This month's challenge is "Pop Up Cards"  I tried a few different types of pop up cards to no avail... My cutting wasn't great... so I went back to a simple card in a box as I KNOW it works!

 

My butterflies are on acetate and appear to be flying when the card is opened.  I used a template I found on the Penny Black blog (Here) by Cathy Andronicou.  I used some PP from Rosie's Studio.  Chevrons for the top and dots underneath.  My flowers were punched and then sponged with Fired Brick distress ink and the white stripes added with a gel pen.  The larger ones have a punched stamen and a black gem.  The flourishes are a Cherry Lynn die.  The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch.    My front panel is a Spellbinders labels die and the sentiment is cut with a Britannia Die.  

This is what it looks like closed and ready to post.  

 

The sentiment is from a free set by IndigoBlu that was with a magazine.  

I've entered this into the Die Cut Challenge at Virginia's View  

Thanks for visiting today.  I do appreciate that someone actually reads this blog!  Have an awesome weekend.

Monochromatic over at CCC Digi Creations

It's the middle of the month, so it time for another challenge over at CCC Digi Creations

Our sponsor this fortnight is Kathryne

 

I chose to use one of her little owls for my card.  And used browns for monochromatic colour.

I used a wood embossing folder for my dark brown background, some kraft for my background scallop oval.  The branch is part of a Memory Box die.  The sentiment is a bonus when you purchase this owl.

Would love to have you play along with us at CCC Digi Creations with our monochromatic challenge.

Stitched chervon from Pretty Pink Posh.

Have you heard of Pretty Pink Posh?  They have some amazing sequins and other embellishments on their site, but also a couple of really cool dies.  I was taken by the Stitched borders on, so decided to get it.  Really fast delivery time I must say too!

Anyway I had this idea in my head to do a series of die cuts in various colours with the chevron die so went with it...

 

I layered the stripes of colours to form a bit of a diamond pattern.  For the top of my card I cut the you from the Simon Says Stamp from the white space and again from red card and inlaid it.  The sentiment is from the matching stamp set,  The  butterfly is a Memory Box die.  Added a few sequins and all done.  It turned out exactly as I planned. 

Entering into the Die Cut Challenge at Virginia's View and the Word die cuts at Moxie Fab World.  

High Heel Glam

I had a very successful and fun day on Friday attending SENZ ~ NZ's biggest paper craft and scrapbooking expo and this year, it also had cake making and a cake decorating display and competition.  I didn't do any classes this year, but took my friend, Suna, along.  It was her first time to go to SENZ and she was stunned.  It was awesome this year, in a new venue and boy did we enjoy it.  We got there before the doors opened at 9.00am and left at 2.45pm.  I did have the joy of catching up with some FB friends - Tracey, Tash & Faith and a couple of ladies from a NZ online forum I belong to - Carol and Jude.

This is Tracey and Tash at Faith's stand at SENZ.

Amongst my purchases was this die from Tattered Lace.

 

And here is the card I made with it....

Totally all die cuts... the corner is a Spellbinders die and the sentiment is by Britannia Dies.  I did have trouble trying to photograph the card with all the silver mirror card and a the fact that the weather has been wet and windy for the last little while.  

And finally here are some photos of some of the cakes in the competition from the weekend.

Hello Friend

Another little Bugaboo card to share today.  As it's my month on the Die Cut Divas blog, I'll be sharing a few.

Are these little Teds just adorable.  You can get them HERE   I sized them to fit the openings in this little Spellbinders film strip die.  I kept my card CAS as is my want... just the bold sentiment from Winnie & Walter and of course, some mini buttons from Docrafts to fit our theme this month at Die Cut Divas blog.

Would love to have you join me there.  Buttons and/or bows plus using your Die cutting machine or embossing with your machine.

I am entering this into the Friendship challenge at Crafting When We Can 
and Die Cuts at Virginia's View