Hero Arts Turns one

Happy Blogversary..... I had so much inspiration from the blog and the through the Flickr HA group since I started stamping and card making this time last year. For a long time I was a reader and watcher till I finally plucked up courage in January to start posting my cards to Flickr and the HA Group. Since then I think ( no - I know) I have improved my skills.... have spend a heap but had a great time with HA stamps. I have corresponded with some lovely ladies through the group, made comments on some awesome creations and generally had a great time. I love reading all the discussion threads, love looking at the blog and the wonderful design team and their themes for the week and the super card ideas. technique tutorials etc.

I have just done a card that will do for both the HA challenge single layer and Raspberry Suite Colour challenge #2

The teal is not as "teally" as I thought... but will have to do. I stamped the butterfly first and then masked it. Stamped the Flower wood background in white.... (should have embossed it as well) added the flower and button and the sentiment. Put some kindyglitz on the wings to give it a bit of a lift.
used:
HA C4725 Monarch Butterfly
HA S5142 Flower Wood Background
Penny Black 2049E Happy Birthday

The brown card stock was a Bazzil scalloped edged card in choc brown.

Mouse trouble

No not computer mouse trouble.... but one of the real things!!! I was sitting here checking out blogs and sites when I hear some rustling down the hall. I went out and look and could see the cat sitting by the coat rack at the door and jumping up at it.... well, I'd had a mouse there before...so call hubby and said "I think there's a mouse".... turned round and hi-tailed back to my space...."where do you think you're going!" he say..."get back here, if there's a mouse I need some one to corral it" - yea right..haha... so he carefully starts to take the coats off the rack.... "yeap" he says " there's a mouse" with that the cat leaps 2 feet into the air, up the coat rack, grabs the mouse in his mouth and takes off down the hall with me chasing it.... under the dining table goes the cat and mouse... over to the door goes I.... then back to chase them both out the door....whew.... raced round and closed all the doors and windows - don't want that thing in here again.....

Well... now the heart has stopped racing ( I HATE mice) I'm back to looking at the web and trying to decide what card to do for Dawn McVeys colour challenge #2. Brown, Teal, white and Celery/Moss. I don't have any brown card stock but do have a lovely green piece of Bazzil that can to as the base card.... but what to do...... really struggling at the moment for inspiration. Oh well I suppose I can't do a card every day. Will run out of people to give them to although saying that I see from my calender that there are 4 birthdays and Easter in April, 6 plus Mother's Day in May and 4 in June... so I should start stocking up...

Made this one a couple of weeks ago, for early April for a neice. I got the idea for this one from an English magazine Papercraft Essentials issue 37. I had some Tatty Teddy jpeg's on my computer so just printed them out and cut round them. Use a bit of kindyglitz on the flowers. Background is embossed with my Cuttlebug and I stamped the sentiment onto a tiny tag cut by my Cuttlebug as well. I was pleased with the colours on this one. Nice and easy.

Well that's it for today... TV time in about 10 mins. two hours of it... oh why do they always put all the good programmes on the same night. Makes for a tired Dawn on a Tues after watching CSI followed by Brother's and Sister's.

two challenges

It's been a busy few days. Friday morning I took my SIL to have a pedicure. A very relaxing hour sitting in massage chairs having our feet and legs massages and our toes painted. In the afternoon more family arrived. John (BIL) his wife Mary, their daughter Nicola and her son Nathan. MIL was really pleased to see them all, especially her great grandson. Nathan is 8 months old and an adorable little thing. Then it was off to Emma's place for pre-dinner drinks and then down to Devonport to Graham ( yet another BIL) and Denise's place for dinner. Needless to say by 9.00 June was shattered.

Saturday morning was a bit of a sleep in then off to watch Kieran (son) played rugby. Talk about "the silly season" - standing on the sideline watching rugby in shorts and jandels. One lot of friends were off to watch their other son play cricket... Peter took the inlaws off to the airport to head back down the island while I caught up on the house work.

Haven't felt too creative this week, but this afternoon decided to do a card that would do for two challenges. One being HA windows and one KWernerdeigns Colour Inspiration
As I don't have any Stampin Up card or inks I had to use what I had that matched. I used some Berger paint samples for my tango and shaffron colours- layering them and then cutting out the window with nestibilites. I cut a nestie square out of the white card for the window. Stamp is HA F5132 Black and white flowers - stamped in a Fawn colour Impress ink ( darkest brown colour I had) Sentiment inside from Inkadinkadoo 96614 Expressions stamped inside the card together with an portion of the flowers stamp.

Also here is the card I made for Di to give my daughter. Just a little one using my favourite HA 4 dolls stamp.
Well that's all for today. Go check out the HA Flickr group for all the wonderful window cards

Quick cards

Family arrived safely yesterday - MIL looking really good. Today Hubby took them out shopping and then we had a lovely barbeque - steak and salad-dinner. Made two little cards for Diane and June to give to Emma with housewarming gifts. Didn't get round to photographing again. One was using HA 4 dolls and the other one used an Inkadinkadoo flourish on it. Pleased with them both. Will take a pic tomorrow and post. I'm having the day off to entertain... might go have a pedicure.

Nice Surprise

In yesterday's post I received a lovely envelope of paper edgings from Monika in Germany. I have been corresponding on Flickr email with her and we exchanged some edgings. I have the Fiskars Threading water punch and she has the Martha Stewart doily punch so we sent each other some. M0nika also sent me two lovely cards. thank you Monika.


Tonight I have thinking about what card I can make for a friends 50th - we are going to the party on Saturday night so have a day or two to think about it. Although saying that the next few days will be busy and I might not get a chance to craft as my mother in law and sister in law are arriving tomorrow to stay a few days. June - my MIL- has been quite ill... (cancer diagnosed late last year) but is now feeling much better. She and Diane (SIL) are coming from Levin by train tomorrow and flying back to Palmerston North on Saturday afternoon.

I have decided to enter Dawn McVey's colour challenge with Sunday's Gerbera Card- will edit my blog with it. Love the colour choices and I think the gerberas are just the right colours.

Doddle Challenge

Here is my Easter card finished. I doddled round the edge so will be entering it in the Penny Black Saturday challenge # 41
I used 2561H Bunny Talk. The background card is pale lilac and the yellow corner is where I made a "boo boo". I doddled round the whole card and the corner
Sentiment is computer printed and doddled with white gel pen.
small flower is from Hero Arts Nautral flowers.

Today has been a great day. I've been going to the gym for 6 weeks now and had my first reassessment..... I've lost 3.7kgs in 6 weeks and my BP is down a bit (still a bit high- but working on that) I was rapt. I had some health issues in Oct last year, ending up in hospital with blood clots in my lungs... but now have lost nearly 12kgs - just through portion control and exercise...

Tonight I'm catching up with looking at all the lovely creations on Flickr Hero Arts pool and checking on my blog list to see who's updated.... Then going to watch my two favourite shows on TV. CSI and Brothers and Sisters.

Week one completed

Well I've been blogging for a week now. It's been a good week. Hubby is feeling better and the rest of the family are well. We are enjoying a late summer with nice weather the last few days. Emma (my daughter) came round for dinner and to pick up a few cards and some of my craft supplies for a project she is working on.

I finished off my Easter card - will photo and post tomorrow. And managed a couple of note cards. One of my new stamps was a Penny Black saying which I have over stamped on a photo of some gerberas, The photo was taken from Microsoft Clip Art.

I did this one with a red matt and the other one was a green matt on a cream card.

PS. Decided that this card will be great to enter in Dawn McVeys' colour challenge so have updated this post.

saturday again

Well I had a great time on Thurs night - came home covered in dye ink... thank goodness for Jiff, it got it all off in one hit. The class was fun - just two of us and the instructor so got real one-on-one tutoring. The night was about playing with the Jumbo roller and trying things out. We did get two cards made and one partially done.

Last night just messed around finishing off these two cards and starting some water colouring of a new Pennyblack Bunny stamp I've just got. One of my stamp shops was having a 30% off sale so I just had to finish work early to visit them on the way home. Got quite a bit of stuff including a new Stampendous set called Purse-nally Yours Can't wait to start creating with it.

Today I managed to get a couple of cards done.... after doing the grocery shopping, and doing the vaccumming and dusting ( wasn't I good) plus a visit to K-Mart to get some bits and peices.
I got the card made for my daughter and did a quick card for the Hero Arts Spring challenge


see my Flickr pages for details on the recipes for the cards.
Have just been surfing the net and checking on the blogs. Love seeing what other people are up to and what they are creating.

Thursday's play day

Had a quiet night last night as I love watching "Cold Case" on TV. Did make a very quick get well card for one the members of my "Family Group" ( a church group we belong to) but didn't get time to photo it before having to send it off.

Tonight I am off to Stampzone for a class on using a Jumbo Roller. It will be interesting to see what exactly you can use it for. Looking forward to having a play.

My daughter rang me today and wants me to make a card for her partner's birthday next week, so we had quite a chat about what she wants...... lucky I have my examples on Flickr as she was able to tell me which one... with amendments of course. So I have some work to do.

Tuesdays Challenge

I decided that I would spend Monday night adding blogs to my list... and surfed the net to see what was about..... boy are there heaps. I checked Hero Arts Blog and then looked at the Flickr Group and found a lot of blogs there.

My hubby has been sick this week. He has been using a cream on his skin cancers and after one course and half way through the second, he has had an allergic reaction and is covered in an itchy rash. The doctor has given him something else to take but it has made him very tired and drowsy ( still at least while he is sleeping, he is not itching)

So I've settled him in front of TV and have decided to try some of the challenges I found on the 'net. I have been working on the Penny Black Saturday Challenge
Here is my take on the challenge.
I used 2568F Hope your Easter sentiment on my scallop circle.
Instead of flowers I used 3 Easter eggs which I put Kindyglitz on.
I used Fiskars punch to punch each edge of a pink and white striped paper by Grants Archival and 4 flower gems in each corner.
Just have to work out how to put it on their blog....

It just a little card being 11cm x 9cm ( not sure how I didn't get it square - never mind.)

Now I'm just waiting to see what KWerner's colour challenge will be this week so I can have a go at that.

Cards this weekend

So to start - this weekend has been busy for me making cards. One of my local stores (Stamp'n'Create) holds a stamp club day every 2nd Sat of the month. Here we take our work and share ideas, stamps etc. It is a wonderful group of like minded stampers/card makers.
Here are my creations for this weekend.




to see descriptions see my Flickr pages
http://www.flickr.com/photos/turleyfamily/

I also spent some time using my Cuttlebug to make scallops and circles for Monika in Germany who I have met through Hero Arts Group on Flickr.

Welcome to My world

Hi. I have just joined the blogging world as I thought I'd introduce myself.

My name is Dawn Turley and I live in Murrays Bay Auckland New Zealand.
I am in my early 50's - live with my spouse and one of my two children.

I am a crafter from way back having done many types of craft work - cross stitch, fabric painting, decoupage, teddy bear making and now have a passion for stamping and card making.

So lots of my posts will be about the cards I am making.