Friday 29 April 2011

Exciting Night

Friday night... first the New Zealand Breakers Basketball team playing in the final of the Australian NBL and then the Royal Wedding.....
Breakers WON!!!!!!!! whipped the Cairns Taipans by 21 points.... It was a three game series in which the Breakers won the first game here in NZ, then lost by 1 point in Cairns ~ after 2 extra time ~ so home for the final game.  Very Exciting... the first time a NZ team has won.

And now I'm watching the Royal Wedding.... it's 20 to 11 in London and the family are starting to arrive at the church.   Not long now..... The Queen is now on her way.. looking stunning in yellow... 

Oh well... I'm into serious watching mode now so signing off.... Hope you get a chance to see the Wedding.

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Easter Exchange

Over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group, Anita, one of our fabulous hostesses... organised a Spring/Easter exchange.  I got to send the lovely Lisa (aka Moonpie) in Texas.  I had fun doing this card for her
Easter Bunny- HA Group exchange

I have this cute Penny Black stamp and after cutting out a Spellbinders die, I stamped the image and before removing the die, distressed the edge with Shabby Shutters and Stormy Sky inks and then used more Distress inks to colour in the stamped image.    Some PP and a piece of yellow paper punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch and it was ready to go.

And then yesterday, I arrived home to find this beauty in my mailbox.
it was a miserable wet day, and to open this piece of sunshine was wonderful.  Thanks to you Mildred.  I also got a lovely letter too and this looks like becoming a wonderful new friendship.

A big thanks to Anita for organising this.  It is very exciting to receive a beautiful creation in the mail.

Had planned to attend a Stamp Camp this weekend, but due to the numbers it got moved and as I booked late, I didn't get in.... so will have a weekend at home to catch up with housework and some stamping of my own.  Sort of pleased, with having been away last weekend.

thanks for stopping by...
Dawn

Tuesday 26 April 2011

SSC challenge 20th April

Better late than never....  I went away on Thursday afternoon and got back this afternoon.... so didn't get a real chance to do much blogging.... and didn't get a chance to post my sample card for last weeks Simply Scrapping Crafts.  The challenge was a sketch
 and here's what I came up with.
Special thanks - SSC 20 April challenge

I went with a monochromatic theme following the the sketch fairly faithfully.
Card Recipe
Cardstock:  Rosie's Studio
Paper:  Patterned unknown
Stamps: Hero Arts "Messages" "Envelope Pattern"
Ink: Versafine Onyx black, Tim Holtz Distress ink "Antique Linen"
Dies: Spellbinders "Parisian Accents" "small circles"
Pearl: Kaisercraft (coloured with Copic
Other: Martha Stewart Punches "Lacy Edging"  "Three Butterflies"

thanks for visiting..... I really appreciate all the wonderful comments.
Dawn

Sunday 24 April 2011

Happy Easter one and all

Hi everyone.  Hope your Easter is going well.  I am enjoying spending time with my friends, Michael and Yvonne, at their bach ( holiday home).  I'm sneaking some time on the Internet while the other's are doing some work around the house.  The weather is coolish today but was rather warm overnight...  yesterday was lovely, enough for the others to swim ~ but too cold for me.  I'm such a wooss when it comes to swimming in the sea.

I've managed a card earlier in the week, for the Hostess Same Stamp challenge over on the Flickr Hero Arts Group.  The hostesses all have "Antique Engravings" and challenged each other and us, to use it .  I had popped into my LSS on Wednesday and saw a sample card from Jill on display and loved it so thought I'd recreated it as best I could.

EDITED:
REMOVED FROM THE BLOG AS THE LSS WAS OFFENDED THAT I RECREATED THEIR SAMPLE - PLEASE NOTE THAT WAS NEVER MY INTENTION AND I APOLOGISE FOR ANY OFFENCE CAUSED.


I did another one for my DT challenge for June... so you'll just have to keep guessing what it looks like till then.   It's hard to make cards so far in advance of the date I can share with you.  But I'm loving being on the team.  Please do join me at Simply Scrapping Crafts and join a few of the amazing groups there.

Well. I've been sprung.... so I better sign off and go help with doing some stuff round the house.  The guys are putting up some fascia on the garage and Yvonne is doing some work in the bedrooms.  Getting them ready for painting I think.  Enjoy the rest of your Easter weekend.

Dawn

Tuesday 19 April 2011

All things adorable.....

I've been working on some more Easter cards... another Mimi and one with some fabulous patterned paper I found in a magazine last Easter.   Both are so cute and adorable I have entered them into Wee Memories "all things adorable" challenge here

First off is the Mimi card... Mimi in her cute bunny suit.  The card was inspired by this one by Joy.
CAS Easter card~ inspired by Joy T

I CASE'd Joy's design as it is such a beautiful CAS.  I paper pieced Mimi and cut her out and then popped her onto the base card which I had used my computer to generate the sentiment ( Note to self: need Easter greetings stamps)  Added some PP and some hearts and pearls and a bit of glitter to her tail. 

This next one was a really quick card I made for Die Cut Diva's challenge ( here) Paula set a recipe.... ribbon, ink, die cut or embossing and 2 embellishments.   There are no stamps on this one...
DCD - challenge

so where's the ink you might ask!!!!  Well I distressed the edges of the card with some Spun Sugar distress ink.   The edging of the centre panel is cut with an Ezcut paper die ( made by Sullivans)   The paper is from a magazine from last Easter. Ribbon was given to me from a lady at work who cut all the bits of her clothes! and the two gems are my embellishment.  I cut out one of the bunny's and popped it up and then used some glossy accents on it's ears and the flowers.

I've been working on a card for my Mum for Mother's Day.  I'll share once she gets it in a week or two.    Wishing you all a good week and a great Easter.... God's blessing to those of you who celebrate  Easter and to those who don't, enjoy spending time with your families.


Dawn

Sunday 17 April 2011

Rainy Saturday

Yesterday was a Rainy Day here.... warm but very wet......so what better thing to do than bake biscuits ( cookies for my USA/Canada friends)  The latest Countdown  ( supermarket) magazine had a recipe for a basic dough that you split into 3 to make different varieties.  It is a big mixture using 250gms (1/4 lb) butter but made a number of biscuits.  The 3 varieties:
Choc chip cookies
Apricot Almond
Vanilla Hearts
I have frozen the Hearts and will take them with me for Easter.  I will be sandwiching them together with Passionfruit icing and dusting with Icing Sugar.  I have also frozen some of the others too.... but not all!!!!!!!!  Hubby insisted that some stay out for supper last night.

Got to make a couple of cards made too.... here is the first one.  Using some new Penny Black stamps I won over at Kathy's blog ( The Daily Marker)  I loved this Mimi stamp ~ dressed up in her bunny suit
Easter Mimi
I stamped her onto some Neenah Solar Paper and used Copics to colour her in. I added some liquid appliqué for her tail. I cut out with a Nestie oval and added some Spun sugar distress ink while the die was still in place. I had this lovely pink PP in my box so thought it went well enough to cover the background of the card. The label is a new one for me.. Grommet Tags from Spellbinder. Again sponged the ink while the die was in place and used a Sharpie fineliner to draw round the centre. Sentiment from Hero Arts. Added the bright pink flowers and it's ready to head off overseas.  Won't get there by Easter.... but the thought is there!!!!

Today is much nicer.... up to around 24 degrees this afternoon.  I've been out to get new cushions for my lounge suite and some lettuce plants for my little trough garden.  Now just to plant them out!!!!!

take care

Dawn

Friday 15 April 2011

Lilly Pad colour throw-down

This week over at Lily Pad Cards blog Kathy R had a colour throw-down challenge
Look at these stunning colours
and have a look here for the wonderful  for the wonderful samples from the DT and the entries for the challenge.  It has closed now....

I'm not that great at putting a lot of colours together when I have to... it sort of just comes together... but I thought I'd give this one a go.... I recently won some Penny Black stamps on Kathy's blog (The Daily Marker) so inked up one and came up with this.  

Colour Throw down at Lily Pad

I used a lot of Distress inks to colour in the image after I embossed it.   In fact I used 7 in total.  Think I got all the colours covered in some shade or another.  Such a sweet stamp and I finished it off with a Hero Arts sentiment.  I have also entered it into the Penny Black Flower challenge this week... there are two tiny flowers on it.... pushing the envelope a bit I think....

Had a surprise dinner out with some friends this evening... Hubby is on a boy's night out, and about 5.30 my friends Yvonne and Michael rang to invite us out... so I said yes please, beats eggs on toast any night!  We went to a local Italian place and I had some amazing Tortellini with a mushroom cream sauce.  Very yummy.  

Hope your weekend plans are exciting... Are you going to the do the Hero Arts 90 min scramble on Saturday?  It starts at 6.30am Sunday NZ time so I think I'll be fast asleep.  If you do join in... enjoy.

Take care
Dawn

Thursday 14 April 2011

I've got a new toy....

Yesterday I shouted myself a new toy.....
A Kobo E-reader.... so have been playing tonight to find some more books to read.... One of the guys at work gave me a pile of Kindle books he got for free and I have converted them and added them.... the entire Harry Porter series ( no I have not read them yet!) plus the latest Janet Evanovich, plus a couple of Lee Child books I haven't read yet.... So I have a good supply to take with me when I go to Mangawhai for Easter weekend.  Still learning how to use it.  But it looks like it will be an awesome addition to my library.   Now to buy the whole Jean Auel series.... including the new one!

Will share a card I made for Penny Black's Flower challenge tomorrow as I'm off to read the User Guide a bit more....
Dawn

Wednesday 13 April 2011

It's my turn to host the challenge at Simply Scrapping Crafts

Yea... my first time hosting the weekly challenge over at the CARD group at SSC.  See my post here.  The theme for this challenge is to create a "scene" on your card....  Now some of my Flickr friends are excellent at this.....so I browsed through some galleries to get some ideas.  Here's what I came up with... a little boutique

and this is what the inside is like

I used some scrummy papers from Inque Boutique ( Always in Bloom) Spellbinders dies (Parsian Accents and tags) stamps by Hero Arts, Fiskars and Stampendous. I layered the papers on the card base and then cut out the tags for the windows. Stamped the tables inside and embossed the bag and shoes and cut them out and added.

Do come and join me over at SSC and have some fun.  This months prize is from Bearydo Paperie Shoppe.   The delightful Clare has some wonderful seam binding or a lovely vintage pack up for grabs.


Thanks for stopping by... your visit is much appreciated.

Dawn

Monday 11 April 2011

A weekend of fun and friends.....

Have been so busy it's nearly a week since I last posted.... haven't done a lot of card making... life seems to have taken over.... plus haven't been too well this past week.  My back was so painful on Wednesday I ended up coming home after  2 hours at work.... just couldn't get comfortable so ended up lying on my side on the bed for most of the day... then on Friday I suffered a dizzy spell first thing... thought I was going to pass out in my shower.  What a scare.  I came right finally around mid morning which is just as well as we were going away for the weekend.   We have some friends who own a Kiwifruit orchard out of Te Puke ~ about 2 3/4 hrs drive south east of Auckland.  We have know Colleen and Mark for nearly 18 years now, having lived just round the corner from them when they lived in Auckland.  5 years ago they moved out to the country and bought the orchard.  It is always fun to go and visit them.  This time was no exception.  The weather was lovely on Saturday and as they had some WWOOFer's ( World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) we went to a local Waterfall.  The couple staying with them were a delightful couple from Columbus Ohio, Steve and Carly.  The Kaiate Falls were we went are amazing.  A series of cascades where the Kaiate Stream goes down a ravine.  We walked down to the bottom and back up again.  As usual I got a few photos to share.
Picnic lunch

The falls

Kaiate Falls

Me at the falls

Pool shadows
Looking towards the Mount

It was a tough walk back up from the bottom, but well worth it.

Sunday we had lunch with hubby's sister and her family, who live in Papamoa, about 1/2 hr from our friend's place.  Then home again... all in all, a very pleasant weekend.

Hope you enjoyed sharing this with me.  Wishing you all a great week... I'm off to try out some new stamps that arrived in my letterbox today, courtesy of the wonderful Kathy and Penny Black.  Thank you so much

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Funky Flowers

Hero Arts always have great challenges.... over a month they have different themes... this month themes are Masculine projects, a sketch challenge with 4 sketches

and a layered stamp technique ( see Shari's video)

I decided to try the stamp layered technique.... with a funky look.
Funky Flowers

I got the yellow and silver card in with my CCC card last month.  It seemed the perfect background for some whimsical funky flowers.  I stamped the largest flower from the Three Flower cling twice onto the yellow.   Then I stamped the flower onto two different papers from Rosie's Studio and cut out the flower and the centre and mixed and matched.  Finished off with a small Hero Arts sentiment.  I really liked the funky look I got.  Something a little bit different and fun.

Today the weather packed up.... yesterday as I left work the temperature on my car showed 25C, today 15C.... really cold.  Down in the South Island there was even a few skiffs of snow.... winter is coming...

Wishing you all a great week.
Dawn

Monday 4 April 2011

Penny Black Embossing Challenge

After my walk yesterday ( and the icecream I had on the way) I was feeling invigorated.... so decided to make a card for the Penny Black Challenge... embossing.  I pulled out my very first stamp... Penny Black's "Burst of Blue" ~ a really sweet Daisy.  I revisited an old card
Burst of blue

and came up with this

Pink Flowers

I change the colour scheme and background.  I used the HA Envelope pattern and then embossed the Music Background.   I tore the edge and added to the base card.  I embossed the flowers onto some white card and then painted them with Aged Mahogany Distress ink and spritzed with Gold Perfect Pearl mist.

Thanks for stopping by.... I appreciate all your lovely comments.  Have a great week


Dawn

Sunday 3 April 2011

Autumn walk

This afternoon hubby and I went for a walk.  It was a lovely autumn day, nice and warm.  So warm that hubby decided to have a swim while he was at the beach.  I took the camera with me and took some lovely photos of the changing season.
Autumn is hereturning leaves

Changing colour

Our beach ( Murrays Bay)


All my photos can be seen here.  It was such a nice walk and I had fun taking some great photos.  Little things that took my fancy.

Now I have a share.... a card I made last week for Create Challenge  and guess what~~~  Paige chose it to be on the blog.  I was excited to be amongst some wonderfully talented ladies like Virginia Lu, Amy Tusurata and Ivy Wong to name a few.  So here's my card
Grid card

I used a set of new inchies from Inkadinkado which I cut and coloured with watercolour pencils.  Sentiment is Hero Arts.  Lovely size font.

Time now to watch a movie on TV with my hubby.   Hope you had a great weekend.

Take care

Dawn

Saturday 2 April 2011

Last of the Summer Wine.

Well sort of anyway... Tonight is the end of NZ Daylight Saving Time so the end of Summer.  It certainly is getting darker in the morning and evenings.... but during the day the temperature is still very pleasant... in the early to mid 20's.  Even now at 8.00pm, I am sitting in the lounge with the kitchen door open and still wearing only a tee-shirt and shorts.  I hope this mild weather continues for a while yet.

Today I have a Purple card to share.... I LOVE purple.
Purple flowers

I got new stamps at the Craft Expo a couple of weeks ago and this Large Pattern Flower by Hero Arts was one of them.  I inked it with Dusty Concord Distress Ink... but instead of patting the ink on, I dragged the inkpad across the stamp.  This made a lovely texture when I stamped it.  I added some Dusty Concord Stickles to one of the flower centres.  The sentiment stamp is by Inkadinkado, picked up cheaply at my LSS.  I stamped it onto the white card and cut like a banner.  Matted onto the black and pop-dotted onto the base.

I have spend the day getting ahead with some of my DT samples... All done for April now so more sharing over the next few weeks.

As an aside.... did you see the reveal for March's CCC? ~ Deborah profiled it on her's and Vicky's new blog... Lily Pad Cards..... what an amazing group of card makers.  We really outdid ourselves this month.   And what a blog Lily Pad Cards is.... looks like it's going to be AWESOME~

Enjoy your weekends... hope you get a chance to get inky.

Dawn

Friday 1 April 2011

Simply Scrapping and Crafts Card Challenge March 30th

A bit late posting Wednesday's card for the Simply Scrapping Crafts weekly challenge ( here_) Clare has decided the challenge is "Anything Goes" but you can only enter this into this challenge.... no combining.    Now that doesn't count for me... as  a DT member we are not eligible for the prizes..so this card I've entered into Hero Arts Monthly challenge and Wee Memories weekly challenge.  So here it is....
I started by stamping the three Peeking Posies stamps onto white card.  It took a few times to get them right and then I saw there were smudge marks under them.... so decided to colour them in and cut them out and layer onto another card.... only to get the sentiment crooked!!!!  I used Distress Inks and an aqua pen to colour them in.  The background was smooched onto the acrylic block and heavily spritzed with water and brushed on.  Less water used on the other colours.    So a good save in the end.  

Would love to have you join me over at SSC.  It's free to join and there are lots of different groups to indulge your passion for paper crafting.  

Tonight I am feeling a tad pooped.... because I went skiing this afternoon.... Yeap skiing!!!!   Here at Snow Planet  It is NZ's only indoor snowdome.  We had a Grab a Deal.  $38 for entry, ski rental and a drink at the bar... so 5 of us from work took the afternoon off and had a ball.  My back was a little sore, but some painkillers fixed that... I really enjoyed about 2 1/2 hours of skiing.  I haven't been for a few years so it was pleasing to see I still managed to stay upright.... only 2 little spills.  Will have to do this again some time.  

Lots to do this weekend so off to catch up with some blogs and commenting on some wonderful creations out there in cyberspace.  Take care and enjoy the weekend.
Dawn