Sunday 31 May 2015

More Masking and new stamps!

I'm spending time this long weekend with friends at the beach house in Mangawhai and have bought some supplies along... minimal (although that's not what hubby said of my rather full small suitcase and shopping bag full of supplies) but I did bring along some new Hero Arts goodies...

http://onlinecardclasses.com/maskerade/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/MSK_participant.png 

I am taking this online card class so got to watch Day 3, 4 and 5 videos all in one go. Day 3 used liquid masking (sadly not in the supplies I brought with me) and Day 4 used Freezer paper, something I've never seen here in NZ - but I believe I might be able to get at Spotlight in the quilting area- still remains to be seen.  Anywhoo that left me with Day 5 - using clear embossing for my mask - or really as I know it, resist.  However it's not just stamping and embossing bold stamps, but also using embossing ink via a pen to cover your entire line art stamps once you've coloured them.  Now embossing ink/pen I DO have.


I stamped the Hero Arts Night and Flower flower and coloured with Copics.  Once done, I used my Versamark pen to cover the flower and clear embossed.  I then sponged over with some blue Distress Ink.  Added the sentiment from Quietfire Design.
Entered into the Any Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp

I also did some masking yesterday with Post It tape -




This is using a new Hero Arts set (Baby Animals).  I masked and coloured these but haven't made it up to be a card yet.

And other of yesterday's offerings



This one uses the new Hero Arts Colour Layering Bird.  I spend a bit of time trying out different colour combinations before making this one.  My colours:
base ~ HA Stone Wash blue, 2nd layer~Chipped Sapphire distress and 3rd layer HA Wet Cement.  Did not quite get the branch in the right place and my sentiment is rather drunkenly added to the card!  Not quite sure how that happened.   I trimmed my card down - a bit much as it turned out, so used some ombre ink to stamp Hero Arts Deco Flower background to add to the side.   Finished with splatters of the inks.

If you are interested in getting any of the Hero Arts stamps and dies and stencils be sure to check out A2Z Scrapbooking (this is where I get my Hero Arts goodies) and if you are spending over $25 in store, use my code Dawn15 to get a discount of 15%.

thanks for stopping by.  Your visits are much appreciated as a your comments. If you like what I've done, please let me know!

Friday 29 May 2015

Mask-erade class

http://onlinecardclasses.com/maskerade/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/MSK_participant.png 
I'm taking part in the latest Online Card Class and although I have watched the first three days class, I did manage only a sample from the first two day... still lots of ideas from each day to try out!

Day 1:
 this technique is to use both the positive and negative masks.  I used some Eclipse masking paper to make my masks.  I start by using the the negative part and using some pink ink to sponge onto the card.  I then used the positive mask to cover the heart and stamped the flowers from a WPlu9 set and the leaves from a Hero Arts set.  Had a bit of a failure, as the red ink seeped through the masking paper... but I decided to just go with it... I added the little trio of dots in various colours to match my flowers.  The sentiment is one from a Hero Arts set.  I love my MISTI tool for stamping these sorts of sentiments.  It did take around 4 times to get it really black.  So easy with the MISTI.  Used some scraps of card and PP to add to a red base. 

Day 2:
This is a one layer card inspired by Jennifer McGuire's card.  I made my mask by die cutting a butterfly - Tristan by Memory Box.  I then used tiny stamps from a Hero Arts set and some from a Simon Says Stamp set.  I embossed them with Liquid Platinum powder.  Finished with a Hero Arts sentiment.

I'm away for the weekend.  I have a case full of crafty goodies as lots of new stamps arrived in my mailbox this week.  It's Queen's Birthday weekend so we get Monday off so three days to play.  I'm typing this while the others are watching The Hobbit - The Unexpected Journey.   

Take care and have a great weekend. 

Saturday 23 May 2015

Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)

This is a technique I saw in a magazine and have wanted to try for a while... and this cold, wet and dark Saturday seemed like just the right time to get a bit inky....


This uses lots of inky goodness - Distress inks in Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot.  My silhouette stamp is from a set by Sheena Douglas as is the sentiment.

As I child I lived down the south of the South Island and often we saw the Aurora Australis (know as the Southern Lights) and the colours were amazing.  I now live too far north to get a view of these.

I am entering this into the latest challenge at City Crafter Challenge - Inky-nes"S",  I certainly got a little messy with this one!  Need a bit more practise but not bad for the first go.

Hope it's warmer and drier where you live.  This is our first wintery storm so far.

Friday 22 May 2015

Get Well Soon

Today is my day on A2Z Scrapbooking and the card I'm sharing today is for one of my team mates Lisa Haines.   Lisa is currently starting Chemo for a brain tumor... but is so up beat and positive that she will beat this.


Lisa is a LOVER of purple.  Her blog is The Purple Place.  Do hop over and visit her.

My PP is from Kaisercraft over stamped with Hero Arts Old French Writing (discontinued) The sentiment is from Hero Arts Messages with Flourish 
I embossed the sentiment.  The feather die is by Hot of The Press and came with a magazine.  I die cut from grey card and edged it with Golden Glitz ink and clear embossed. The card base is actually a purple, but looks more blue in my photo.



Remember if you are in need of any items from the a2z Scrapbooking store  you can use code Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. (before tax and shipping)  And don’t forget that we are on TwitterInstagram and Facebook.  Follow us on these different social media outlets so you won’t miss out on any fun promotions!   Also, the a2z Store now has the 2015 Hero Arts release in stock. So now there’s even more reason to go shopping!!!!!!

I'm entering this into the NEW challenge at A Blog Named Hero as the sentiment is a new stamp I got just recently.

Thursday 21 May 2015

Add a bow....

Latest challenge is now up at Creative Craft Cottage  and our theme is to use a Bow on your creation.

Our sponsor is Ppinkydolls


I  used a lovely image 


I printed it out and used some pencils to lightly colour.  I used a Spellbinders oval die and the Floral oval die to cut the image.  I edged with a gold pen.  I added a Cheery Lynn bow die cut in bright pink for a pop of colour.  My base card was embossed with Swiss dots folder.

We would love to have you join us this fortnight. 

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Pocket Tags

The May technique challenge at my NZ forum is to make a Pocket Card.  I struggled a little... did some Googling and visiting You Tube and Pinterest.    And then ended up doing something very simple.

I also made one for my friend Suna for her swap as she is away for 6 weeks. 





I started with a tall tag by Prima which I scored and folded.  I then took a Pretty Pink Posh die and another tag and made a little tag.  I stamped the Kaisercraft sentiment and clear embossed it.  I trimmed a rose from one of the tag and added it to the smaller tag on my pink pocket tag and for my brown tag, I die cut a Memory Box butterfly.  I took some heavy weight black card and traced around a stand I have to make a stand for the tags to sit on.    They have been sent off to their recipients. 

On Friday 22nd I will have spend 20 years working at the Inland Revenue office in Takapuna and today my manager, Anna, provided a couple of cakes... one Carrot Cake and one Lemon Maderia, to celebrate.  She made a nice speech and gave me a lovely card.  Tomorrow my current work area and I are going out for lunch.  I can't believe where the last 20 years has gone!  Scary stuff.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday 17 May 2015

70th birthday card in a box

The card in a box projects I've been making are turning out to be very popular with my work collegaues.  I seem to be getting order after order.

This week's request was for a 70 year old lady.  The request was flowers and butterflies.  As I was OVER making the roses ones, so came up with another idea.  After using Marisa's Petite Petals Stampin' Up! stamps and punch, I went and ordered it.  So that was the basis of my card in a box


I stamped the petals onto watercolour paper using distress inks and used a water brush to paint the ink onto them.   Once I had them punched out, I die cut the Hero Arts Spring Branch.  I added some acetate to the back of the die cut and added the flowers.  I added some Cheery Lynn flourish die cuts. The butterflies are Peelcraft stuck onto spotted vellum and fussy cut.    My sentiment is from Whimsy Stamps and was a freebie with a magazine.  I layered it onto a Spellbinders die.  The PP I used to cover my box is from Kaisercraft.   I used a Mama Elephant alpha and numeric die to make the name and number.

Here's a close up:



Didn't get much crafting done today as we went for a little road trip - a 45 mins north to take a look at a Regional Park bach - bach nice, but the beach wasn't great..not good for swimming so back to the internet to look for somewhere else.  Plus as we want it around Christmas time so a bit harder to find somewhere.  Enjoy the drive though, and ended up at the Puhoi pub for a late lunch of burgers and chips.

I took this photo of the autumnal colours on our way back,


hope your weekend is going well.


Thursday 14 May 2015

Retro Flowers

I got a commission request for a card in a box for an 18 year old.  I have just finished doing five using the Hero Arts roses (similar to this one) - perfect for Mother's Day but maybe not for an 18 year old... so I looked through my stamps and found an awesome Hero Arts/Sizzix set that would be perfect...It's an older set and no longer available but can be found here on Amazon 


Bold Pop Designs
Product Details 


I used a variety of distress inks to stamp.  I used my MISTI which mean I could stamp each one a couple of times to get a good coverage of ink.    I added the girl's name with some die cut letters.   I used some flourish die cuts and a Hero Arts Spring Branch die as well. 


I had fun doing this one.

Entering into the challenge at City Crafter Challenge.  

If you are interested in buying some Hero Arts products you can go to a2z Scrapbooking and by using Dawn15 at checkout you'll receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more.

Sunday 10 May 2015

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all of those of you who are Mums are having a good day.  My day has been delightful.

I started by calling my Mum who lives on the Gold Coast in Australia.  It was good to talk to her and my Dad.  Then we went over to our son's place to share a Mother's Day lunch with him and his fiancée, her sister and her partner and their parents.





A beautifully set table for 12.  We had roast beef, chicken, roast veggies, a lovely pasta salad, fresh buns.


And this was my contribution to the day.  Pecan pies, Feijoa and Banana cake, and white and milk chocolates that I made.  A big thank you to Kieran and Melissa, Brooke and Dave.  You did good!

Friday 8 May 2015

April CCC reveal...

my goodness I'd forgotten to share my card from April's CCC... getting the reminder for May made me remember.

My card headed off to La Von.  Silly me forgot to take a photo before sending it off... reason being I'd made this card thinking it was the sketch for March...so had it sitting round waiting for the recipient...but La Von was kind enough to take a photo for me.

I took the easy option and went with Friendship.  I used PP and pre-printed dies - just stamping a Kaisercraft sentiment and adding a butterfly embossed and die cut from PP as well. 

Now the rush for Mother's Day cards is over, I'm going to be spending time just playing with some new stamps - some Hero Arts ones, and some free stamps and dies from several magazines.   Wintery weather expected over the weekend, so good time to stay cozy inside crafting.

Thursday 7 May 2015

Time for lots of challenges....

It's never rains but it pours... Two of my Design Teams have new challenges starting today and I still haven't shared my example for Die Cut Divas from the 1st.... where have the days gone...  So a photo heavy post today.

First up Die Cut Divas-  Something Yummy to Eat or Drink
Our sponsor is Doodle Pantry and I used both patterned paper and fruit for my card.


I did some editing in Word with the PP and the image.  I then coloured with Copics. 

Now on to Southern Girls Challenge ~ Animal Crackers.
The sponsor this time are Oak Pond Creations and Polka Doodles.  I used an Oak Pond Creations image called Trash Cats


Aren't they just adorable.  I used some PP from Kaisercraft for my background and the little sentiment is also from the same pack.  The kitty's were coloured with Copics

Next up is Creative Craft Cottage - All that glitters
Our sponsor is All Dressed Up and I chose to use these three cute little ladies...


A very cute image that I had fun colouring with my Copics and adding lots of glitter to their dresses and bows, as well as around the sentiment. 

and finally I have a card I created for Chalk'n'Stock this month.  An Anything Goes challenge as usual, as long as you use chalk on your project...

A Bugaboo image coloured with Copics and chalks used to colour the grass and the sky.  Happy Birthday is stamped with Winnie & Walter stamps.

Thanks so much for persevering and getting to the end of this post... hope something here inspires you and if you'd like to join us for any of these challenges, we'd love to see your creations.

Birds on a Branch

Hi there.  It's my first post for A2Z Scrapbooking today.  I am super excited to be on the team and to share my first sample.

Our challenge this month is "Anything Goes"  Nice and easy for me to throw myself into.  My new Hero Arts goodies have not arrived.... so I pulled out some older ones to have a play.  Here's a little peak...

Hop over to the blog post to see the full reveal.

Remember if you go shopping at A2Z Scrapbook Etsy Store be sure to use code Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. And don’t forget that we are on TwitterInstagram and Facebook.  Follow us on these different social media outlets so you won’t miss out on any fun promotions!

Tuesday 5 May 2015

Saturday Stamp Day....

Our little stamp group finally got together on Saturday.  Only 5 of us, but  we had a great time.

  
Sandie

Untitled
Marisa

Lei had a design she wanted to make (saw it on Pinterest)  She borrowed a Spellbinders edge die of mine to make her card.  So we all designed to give the  design to a go... So in the end, there were about 7 totally different cards using a similar design.


Here is my own.  I borrowed a Stampin' Up! set from Marisa to make my flowers.  I stamped them with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink and used the matching punch to cut them out.  The PP is cut with the Spellbinders die.  Sentiment is a die cut from Winnie & Walter together with the sentiment.

I also got some DT work done, another two box cards for Mother's Day orders and an engagement card for my niece.


A simple little card.  Embossed background, Heart die cut from Spellbinders and a fussy cut and stamped banner from Winnie & Walter.  Love my new MISTI which helped curve the sentiment. 

Pop back in a few days to see my first post for A2Z Scrapbooking... and if you visit the Esty store you can use my code  Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more.

Monday 4 May 2015

National Scrapbook Day Weekend Blog Hop

Happy NSD all!  We are totally excited that you’ve joined us this weekend for this extra special blog hop.  SpiegelMom Scraps and the Southern Girls Challenge Blog owners and Design Teams have united and are aspiring to inspire YOU!  This hop has such wide variety of paper crafting styles and media being used that it’s sure to knock your socks off.   Jody Spiegelhoff, owns SpiegelMom Scraps! And one of her lovely Design Team Sparklers, Louise is an owner of the Southern Girls Challenge Blog.  Louise and Jody thought having their Design Teams join forces for this weekend would rock! I think they are right :-)
 
So, it’s time to grab your favourite beverage (depending on the time of day where you live), a yummy treat and get ready to click & scroll your way to some fabulous inspiration! 

You should have arrived here from SpiegelMom Scraps! blog. If you came here by chance be sure to head over to SpiegelMom Scraps for a list of the hop participants.  

Here is my project to inspire you....


I started by covering canvas with Tim Holtz tissue paper.  Next added a layer of gesso.   When this dried I added some Tim Holtz paints.  I used a technique I saw Vicky Papaioannou use... to smear the paint with a damp baby wipe.  I painted the doily with paint in the same way.  The cork corners, were painted with gesso and then yellow and blue paints.   The sentiment was stamped and then clear embossed.  It is from Stamp-It, an Australian company who has their business in Perth.  I got this set when I was there last June.  My butterfly is a Tim Holtz one that was embossed onto vellum and then coloured on the reverse with Copics.  I also randomly stamped parts of the butterfly and another Stamp-It stamp around the edges.   Added some washi tape. Cut a leaf die from some Kaisercraft PP and added some Prima mini roses.  You can purchase the cork chevron's, washi tape and doilies from SpiegelMom Scraps!

Next, I’m sending you over to Julie Blakeman!  Get ready for some beautiful paper crafting!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day
Papaioannou
Papaioannou