Happy Birthday to my Boy

Last week my son had his birthday... his first as a Dad... a special time for him

He came around for a barbeque this weekend with the family and I gave him the card I made.

I used my MFT Hightop sneakers die.  I found this bright masculine looking paper in my stash and added the sneaker.   This is the second time I've used this sneaker so I had learnt a few tricks and tips..... like using Stick It paper when die cutting the little circles.    My son loves wearing white sneakers and loved the card.

This weekend we had an overseas visitor.... Our daughter's Father in Law - Alan was transiting on his way from Perth to Houston.  There's a 13 hour layover, so Alan came a day earlier and spend almost all of the weekend with us.  He arrived at 6.00am Saturday and his flight left at 7.30 tonight.  We had a lovely day with him, playing tourists in our own town.  We visited Cornwall Park and walked up One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie) - It's a 182-metre (597 ft) volcanic peak in Auckland.  The summit provides views across the Auckland area, and allows visitors to see both of Auckland's harbours.  Luckily it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the trek up to the Memorial and the view from the top. 

We then had lunch at the Cornwall Park Bistro and before coming home to to let Alan have a rest before the barbeque. 

I did get a little time in the craft room and will share in a few days. 

WWC#247 Marsha's "All About Ocassions" challenge

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Marsha  is our hostess this week with "All About Ocassions" challenge.

My little Christmas card uses a sweet Santa that was in a freebie set of stamps from several years ago.  I coloured him up a couple of weeks ago while I was away for a long weekend at the beach.   I took some stamping supplies and when I got there I realised I hadn't added my colouring pencils or markers.  So luckily the local stationery store in Mangawhai Heads had some pencils and markers.  Both are from a company called Jasart.  The pencils coloured well and I was happy with the results I got.  I had some patterned papers with me so managed to put it all together quickly.

Come and join the fun.  Check out the projects that the other artists at Watercooler Wednesday

Challenge have created.  Then take our challenge ant link your creation to the challenge post.  We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 11.00am NZ time ) to link up your project.

 

It's Snowing at Christmas Kickstart

I had fun making a card for the Christmas Kickstart challenge - theme SNOW.

I used a design I have used before.

While I was at the Craft Fair a couple of weekends ago, I got a tree stamp by Montarga Stamps - a New Zealand based stamp company.  I love the way it has very light trees in the background and darker in the front.  I used some Catherine Pooler Eucalyptus ink to stamp my trees.  I used a Yellow alcohol marker from Altenew to colour the sky - somewhat different.  I added splatter of dilute white acrylic paint to make my snow and added to the ground and the trees.  I die cut a circle out of the front panel and stamped it around the hole with holly leaves and added some snowflakes in Iceberg Altenew inks.    The holly, snowflakes and the sentiment are from a freebie set.   I stamped and fussy cut the holly and berries from Sunny Studio's called Christmas Trimmings.

Also entering this into the Anything Goes challenge at Addicted to Stamps

Perfectly CAS - Birthday

Hi I'm back to enter the Perfectly CAS challenge - this time the theme is "Birthday"

This CAS challenge asks you to only use a third or less on your card.   I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the Top Picks for the first challenge.. so had to join in again.

Once again I chose to do the bottom third of my card for my focal point.  I used a stamp set that was a freebie with a magazine. (note to self:  write the magazine it came from on the back of the stamp set!) I decided to leave it black and white and only add the pop of colour with the bright pink Happy Birthday die from Elizabeth Craft Designs.   Really happy how it turned out.  I added a scored line all around but not other embellishments.

I am also enter this into the Addicted to CAS - code word "Birthday" 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope the weekend was fun for you.  I did get a bit of stamping in and on Sunday did a 6 garden, Garden Ramble in Coatesville (about a 25 min drive from our place in the countryside)  It did rain a bit, but we saw some beautiful gardens from a sweet "Bumpkin" garden to "Mincher" a very elegant and large, well know garden.  Had a great time.  And got to see our little princess on the way home.  She was 6 months old yesterday

This is so typically "her" - full of smiles.  The last 6 months have simply flown by.

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Make your own background

It's time for another challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge and our theme this week is "Make Your Own Background"

My background was made with a Bubble Stencil (from an NZ based company called Faith Pocock Designs) I used Altenew inks - Vanilla Cream. Pink Pearl and Wisteria to blend with some makeup brushes.  Love the soft look I achieved.  Next I stamped the big flower from Altenew's Hello Gorgeous set.  To colour the flowers I used Altenew Alcohol makers in soft yellow, light pink and light purple to give a multi hue look to them.  I fussy cut it out, cutting right up to the edge of the stamping.   I silver embossed the sentiment from the same set onto some shimmery dark grey card and trimmed it to a thin strip.    I added a touch of Spectrum Noir sparkle pen to the stamen.

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' Challenge this week.

I am entering this one into The Flower Challenge - Add spots or stripes...

Coffee lovers 2019 Fall/Winter Blog Hop

Hi there I'm a bit late to the party here... blog hop finishes in less than 20 minutes!

Here's my card

I used Super Sponsor's Graciellie Designs image called Christmas Cheer.    I printed it onto so some 200gm watercolour paper and use Altenew Watercolour pans to colour it in.  When I printed the image I changed the colour of the sentiment to a red colour.  I added some Spectrum Noir sparkle pen to the coffee.

Edited:  My entry is 1257th...lucky last!. so if you arrived here from the blog hop... thanks so much.

WWC #246 - Tristan's Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Tristan is our hostess this week with a Feminine Anything Goes challenge, 

 For my card today I have used a stamp from Rosie's Studio.  This is a New Zealand company who have some very reasonable price.  This set is from the their Indigo Mist suite.  I used Altenew inks - Rouge, Crimson and Velvet to layer up the main flower with a touch of Firebrick for the centre.  I used an aqua brush to colour up the bud and the leaves were coloured with Sweet Leaf and Just Green inks.  The branch was coloured with the Firebrick ink.  I added some splatters of Rouge ink and a sentiment from Altenew's Beautiful Day stamp set.

Come and join the fun.  Check out the projects that the other artists at Watercooler Wednesday

Challenge have created.  Then take our challenge ant link your creation to the challenge post.  We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 12.00 noon NZ time ) to link up your project.

Thanks for visiting me today.

CCC October Reveal

My October CCC card has made it's way to Tina in Slovenia.    If you haven't heard about the Card Chain Challenge (CCC) do hop over to the blog and find out all about it.  If you love sending and receiving a card from anywhere in the world... this is the challenge to join.

I chose the Theme of Leaves...

I used Catherine Pooler's Leaf Motifs set  for my card.  I used some Zig Markers and Spectrum Noir Aqua markers.  I add some splattering of the markers to the background and stamped the sentiment to finish. 

Do take a peek at the challenge and sign up - still a couple of days for the November challenge.