Friday 30 April 2010

More butterflies

As you know I LOVE butterflies... so when I got some new Distress ink this week - Vintage Photo, I decided to make another monochromatic card for Caardvarks challenge.  I know it doesn't have any core'dinations card... but I think that's okay.
For this one I started by stamping a script stamp over a white card - using the ink and second generation stamping so it was lighter. I then tore round the edge and distressed the whole sheet with the ink. I then inked up my Dandelion Frame and stamped it. I stamped the butterfly from the antique engravings onto the card and then twice onto scarp card. These two I distressed all over, cut out and double mounted with glue dots. Before putting the lot onto the cream card I distressed the card edges with the Vintage Photo ink as well. I added a little Kindyglitz gold glitter round the edges of the wings

Here is a close up... The glitter looks better in real life.

I am feeling a bit off colour today- woke with a bad headache ( luckily some Paracetamol has helped) but decided to sleep it off a bit... so now it is 11.15am and I have just gotten up to take the photo and blog this card.  I'll probably get some house work done as well as all weekend is Stamp Camp.... 2 FULL days of stamping and papercrafting... very exciting.  I can't believe a whole year has gone by since last one... but it has. 

Take care everyone and hope your weekend will be as exciting as mine!!!

Thursday 29 April 2010

Monochromatic Butterflies

Caardvarks current challenge is to use some Core'dinations card to make a monochromatic card. My LSS didn't have much available but I did find this Whitewash card, It is amazing when you put it through the Cuttlebug and sand it. The blue underneath colour comes through so well. I tore the edges to make the most of the two colours. The embossing folder was Jules Jewells and it is lovely. I put a small piece of the card through the Textile folder and punched out the butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch and added them to the card where the butterflies were on the base. Added the little sentiment at the bottom and all done.  Luckily this afternoon was fine and I was able to get outside to photograph the card.  We are still having an amazing run of weather.  Today was very warm and sunny even though it is getting darker earlier at nights and a bit cooler.
Thanks for stopping by

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Congrats to Dotty Jo - one year blogging

One of my newer Blog friends, Dotty Jo, is celebrating her one year blogging anniversary and to celebrate look what she is doing~~~~
She is  giving away this wonderful blog candy.  Aren't the Millie and Jake stamps so cute.  Go visit her wonderful blog, make a note on your blog and let her know and you could be lucky!!!.
Thanks Dotty Jo for a lovely blog, thanks for visiting mine and enjoy the next year of blogging!!!


Monday 26 April 2010

April CCC - card for Arlene


My partner for Deborah's CCC this month was Arlene.

When I first "meet" Arlene ( almost as soon as I joined the HA Group) these Asian Dolls were the rage.... so to celebrate our friendship via this medium, I chose to make a card that covered two to Deborah's themes... Asian influence and Friendship.
The pattered paper on the card base was given to me by my son and his girlfriend for Christmas.. it is a handmade paper from the Trade Aid shop, I stamped a blossom tree and then made the little Asian girl.... I used some Washi paper for her dress and added glossy accents to her hair to make it shine.

I had made a few cards for the challenge as I really didn't know what I wanted to do, so Arlene got another one as well....
This one started as a scrapling... using up a piece of card cut off a larger one to make a square card... I stamped the image and used Tombow markers to colour in the flower and frame. I coloured the ribbon with a Copic marker ( but it wasn't quite the right pink).  I embossed the pink background with a cuttlebug folder.

To see the lovely card I got pop back to this post.  Corey sent me this card all the way from Illinois.  So far during the monthly challenge, I have received cards from Pia in Denmark, Deirdre in Ireland, Nancy in California USA, Deborah in Indianapolis USA, Sanne in Denmark and Corey in Illinois USA.  Isn't that just amazing!!!!   I am so lucky to have the most amazing card from all round the world gracing the windowsill in my craft room.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my part of the world.  Enjoy your day and have fun!!!

Sunday 25 April 2010

Super Saturday and ANZAC day Sunday

Today is ANZAC day here in New Zealand and Australia.  It is the day we remember our ancestors who served and died at Gallipoli in Turkey during the First World War and all the other service men and women who have served in all the other wars.  This morning my hubby was up at 5.30 to go to the Dawn Service at our local cenotaph in Browns Bay.  He goes as his late Father served in World War II.   Me - I stay in bed and think about them.

Yesterday was a SUPER day... in the end there were only 4 of us stamping... but oh what fun.  We had plenty of room to spread out.  Must admit if everyone had made it, it would have been a bit cramped....We started just after 10.15am and finished round 4.30pm.  It was a lovely warm day so had the door to outside open, the sun was shinning in and we got to sit outside under the umbrella for our lunch.  Unfortunately no photos as my camera was playing up... ( blond moment and I didn't check the batteries till this morning!!!!)
I had a great day... finally finished the swap pins for Stamp Camp next weekend, got some more quilted pieces done and a card made with one, as well as an easel card - instructions from Sue.... then later in the evening got two more cards finished.

  The swap pins are a series of 4 stamps that I have done various colour schemes on, using a variety of colouring mediums - water colour pencils, aqua crayons and markers.
My teddy card used paper I had downloaded from Gina K's Peachy Keen collection available for free here. I coloured in the Teddy ( which was one the lovely Anne had sent me before I bought the stamp) with Distress ink - Walnut Stain and some peachy aqua crayon.  Welcome baby is a Stampin'Up stamp.

The easel card is made with a frame ( cut out with a nestie) and folded over the central image  I stamped on some of the left over Peachy Keen paper, with some Stampin'Up Pocket Silhouette stamps in Dusty Concord and Walnut Stain distress inks.  Sentiment also by Stampin'up.

Next was a quick card as I had the background already - I made it the other night when I was using my Impressibilities - used it as a stencil and sponged the Tattered Rose ink over it.  Made a flower ( a la Dawn McVey) with some computer paper inked with the Tattered Rose and cut out with a Dahlia die from Spellbinders and crumpled. Sentiment by Stamp-It ( this one is for SIL whose birthday is next week)  Plus entering into OCC challenge this week - Blossoms)

And finally - the last card is for The Play Date Cafe's latest challenge - colours to use: Silver or Gray, Clay, Cream and Turquoise.  Think it fits the bill.  I used my new Borderabilites to make the scallop, a new set of stamps from Fiskars for the flower ( coloured with water coloured pencil) sentiment from Stampin'Up ( stamped in Potters Clay ink from Momento) and ribbon from my stash ( not sure where it came from)

Whew!!!!  If you made it through that lot, thanks heaps~  I do appreciate my followers and commenters.  You make my day.
Hope you week is great.  Take care

Thursday 22 April 2010

Cream in our coffee..

I was so excited when I popped over to The Play Date Cafe today.  There was my name in the Cream in our Coffee list.... the first time I have ever been recognised in a challenge.  Very exciting for me!!!!!   A big thank you to team and to Nancy and Suzanne whose wonderful cards inspired me to join in.

And I have also found out this week that one of my cards will be in Sherri's column on Scrapstreet.com.  I can't wait....

Last night I was checking out Stamp TV ( Gina K's website) and this weeks video was about using Impressibilities by Spellbinders.  I have two plates, but don't use them as much as I should.... I tend to forget them.  So out I drag them  and CASE'd Gina's card.
The Impressibility I used was one I hadn't even opened.... bought it and never got around to using!!!!  Once I had embossed it, I used my Tim Holtz tool to rub Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade and Dusty Concord distress inks over it.  Gina had used one colour but I liked the idea of shades.  I used the same colours to ink up the big butterfly from HA Antique Engravings set.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo.  This has been entered into the OCC challenge on butterflies this week.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope the week has been going well.  I've moved into my new space.. ( much smaller :-( than what I had ...but oh well) and am doing lots of reading about the position.  All good!!!

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Overseas mail ....

I have taken part in Deborah's card chain challenge from the beginning.  I have received cards  from all over the world..... This month I received a delightful card from Corey in Urbana Illinois USA.. and delightful it was.......
 Believe it or not, Corey tells me the green stripe is packing tape.... it is so shiny ( doesn't show up well in this photo)  Unfortunately my postie dropped it on the ground ( or it fell out of my letter box) and got rained on.... but I managed to get it dried out okay.  It is just adorable.  Thanks Corey.  As yet I haven't heard if Arlene has received my card so I'll post about that when she does.

Yesterday I picked up the latest addition of Australian Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft -  It had a great article on Quilted cards.... using strips of tonal papers but me being me, had to try something different.  This is what I came up with
I used contrasting strips to make my quilting.   When I had finished the 120cm square piece I cut it smaller--- but forgot that the quilting was centred.... but it worked out okay as it meant that you got to see more of the quilting.  The image is one by Meljen Designs that I coloured with water-colour pencils.  I cut out the image with a circle nestie and then matted on a scallop cut from a paint chip.  I wanted the pastel colour to go with the quilt as it reminded me of a baby's quilt.  Added the ribbon and bow and the sentiment from Stampin'Up!  

Hope the week is going well for you all.  Take care.

Sunday 18 April 2010

Butterflies galore....

I love butterflies.... I have so many different butterfly stamps but couldn't resist just one more!!!!  Hero Arts Antique Engravings was just in at Stamp'n'create...so I had to have it!!!!  I had resisted for a while... but the urge was too great.... so now it's here and I've used it a couple of times...  While at the store, they also had some new papers.... now I'm NOT a scrapbooker... but I just don't seem to be able to resist lovely papers either.  They had just received some lovely Websters Pages and this one really took my fancy.
It is a lovely pale green background.  I thought that it would be useful on cards as each of the four corners could be used....  so when I saw Our Creative Corner challenge was Beautiful butterflies I knew exactly what I wanted to do..... and here is the result.
 
 I used the left hand corner of the paper and cut it slightly smaller than the card base.  I rubbed Walnut stain distress ink around it and used my fingernail to distress it further.  I stamped the butterfly from the Antique Engravings set onto the pp directly and then onto a the piece I'd sliced of the side ( I cut the pp into  6 x 6 pieces).  I coloured it with some aqua crayons and then added to the card.  I used a glue got on the body and a pop dot under the wings to give some dimension.  My main focus though was the awesome paper and the words in the corner....  

Now off to enjoy the lovely autumnal weather we are having.  Still round 20 degrees Celsius - but cooler in the mornings and evenings..... still to be sitting outside in shorts and a tee shirt, mid April is great.  
PS - thought I'd pop this picture in as well.  The pine trees behind our house are dropping their cones at the moment and I can across this one today.  Love that it looks like a rose...
thanks for stopping by.  Take care and enjoy your Sunday.

Saturday 17 April 2010

Play Date Cafe Challenge #25

Today I visited Nancy's blog and saw she had entered the Play Date Cafe challenge #25. 
 This weeks challenge is to use Black and White and a splash of Orange.  I was inspired by Nancy's card and also the lovely Suzz - who is host designer for the week.  I thought about what I could do and straight away I thought of my darkroom door stamps and one in particular - so here's what I came up with

I stamped the Daisies ( darkroom door - Viva La Flora Vol 2) onto the white card in Versafine Black and then water coloured the petals with Orange aqua crayons. I doodled round the edge of the image and then put it onto the black card matted onto the white base. Added the sentiment ( Inkadinkadoo) embossed in detail white EP.  I added the tiniest bit of grey on the steams of the flowers to tone down the stark whiteness. I am quite pleased how this turned out.  It was a super quick card - 20 mins from the time I thought of what to do till I was outside photographing it.  The longest bit was waiting for the water colouring to dry so I could mat it!!!!

Hope the weekend is great for you all.  Thanks for stopping by.

The end of an era.....

Friday was a bit of a sad day for me.... it was my last day as a team leader - 8 years I have been one... now I think it will be strange to have to report to someone else and not be the one to make the decisions... still as one door closes an other opens.
And it was also the day we said Farewell to Sue.... a very emotional funeral. She had worked in my workplace for 30 years so was a very respected and loved lady. As so many of us wanted to go say our goodbyes the company put on a bus to take us to the service. It was a very moving ceremony. Sue was one of twins ( identical) so it seemed surreal to see Joan, her sister, standing there looking just like her.

However the day ended nicely with me having a beauty treatment,.... facial and toes painted and then out to a lovely dinner with a group of friends to celebrate Warren's birthday... not that he let us know that it was until half way through the meal!!!!

No cards to share today as I have been flat tack making my swap pins for Stamp Camp in two weeks. Once I finish I'll share...

I got another new stamp set this week as well..... Antique Engravings... I know; more butterflies - but hey who could resist!!!! As I have a number of family birthdays coming up in May, I'm sure it will get some use....

Well the weather here is cooling down and it's time to go buy new slippers.... my feet are starting to get cold. Take care and a happy weekend to everyone

Tuesday 13 April 2010

RIP my dear Friend....


Yesterday morning at 8.00am my very dear friend, Sue, succumbed to her illness and passed away. She was only 66 – way too young to die. Just over 18 months ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a breast removed, last October her cancer was back, this time in her brain. She had to give up work and progressive over the past few months has detoriated. I will miss her wonderful being. She was so serene and peaceful and like a Mum to many at work. Nothing was too difficult for Sue, she was always there... with a ready ear to listen, with a special smile and just being a great friend to many. She will be sadly missed.

I have made this card to send to her family to let them know I am thinking of them.  Inside it says " May you find comfort in knowing Sue touched the lives of everyone is met and our lives have been enriched for having known her"  She really was special.

Although her favourite flower was the Daisy, I'm sure this lovely Dogwood will remind the family of Sue's love of nature.  

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Sunday 11 April 2010

Dogwood Daze...

I got the Hero Arts Dogwood stamp on Friday so took it to Stamp Group with me on Saturday.  I had scoped out some examples on Flickr to get me started so my first card was direct copy of this card by Linda aka Oz
I stamped the Dogwood down the side of the kraft card in Desert Sand Memento Ink and then highlighted with white pencil.  The sentiment was also stamped in the same ink, but it seems to disappear into the card.

As I have never seen Dogwood before and didn't know what colour it should be, I took some ''artistic license" and did a couple of cards where I coloured it in.... one blues and one reds. 


I was pleased with them both, but annoyed at myself as I moved the sentiment stamp slightly on the blue one.   Both of these were coloured with watercolour pencils - the blue one blended with an aqua pen and the red one with a colourless blender pen (from Tombow)   With the blue ones I left the leaves and centre black to give focus to the petals and the red one I coloured over the leaves in a dark green and added pearls to the centres.

As I spend most of the day at stamp club day, I also managed to get some more cards made.... the first one here is a technique I found on the net somewhere ( can't find the original post now) - first you emboss your card and then cover it with acrylic paint.  Once it is dry you sand the piece and then cover it with brown ink.  I got a new embossing folder yesterday called Jules Jewells so I thought I'd have a go.  The original had used pink paint and brown ink for a vintage look, but I used purple paint and then rubbed over d Dark plum ink.  I did have a bit of a giggle as after lunch our demo of the day was about using Whitewash card and Choc box card to do what I did manually.... emboss and sand to show the different colours.  Here is my card
Isn't that just a lovely folder... my fav butterflies yet again!!

And finally a card I made for our friend's 60th birthday.
I used a Rubbadubbado stamp which I coloured with a variety of Distress inks to make a Rainbow Trout.  Finished with the Inkadinkadoo sentiment embossed in silver.

Thanks for persevering with this long post.. but it was a pretty full on day yesterday.  Hope your week is good.... my final with my team.... off to lunch on Thursday and have booked myself a mini facial for Friday afternoon... so a good week planned.  Take care

Friday 9 April 2010

Thank goodness it's Friday...

It's been one of those weeks... having Monday off should have made for a nice quiet week, but work has been full on.... I work for the tax department and 7 April is a big payment date for New Zealand business taxpayers.... so our phones were sooooo busy with people wanting to make instalments to pay... I spend the day trying to ensure that my little area had sufficient staff rostered on to answer the phones....  Consequently I was quite tired by the end of each day... added to that we stopped Daylight savings on Saturday night..... so I am waking early in the morning and finding it harder to stay up till my usual bed time.... not much crafting done this week.

I did manage however to get some cards made for Deborah's April CCC... I chose a mixture of the Asian and Friendship themes.... I made a few cards so I had a bit of a choice.

This card didn't end up being sent to Arlene who is my partner this month.... ( once she gets the card I did sent I'll post about it)  -but I did like what I did...
For this one I made my own two sided paper by printing on both sides of some 140gm lightweight card.  The designs were on a freebie CD from Papercraft Essentials magazine and I just copy them onto the A4 sheet and cut to size.  The dragonfly is from a set by Inkadinkadoo and the sentiment from Hero Arts.  The lovely pink card stock is some Bazzil Bling... It is such lovely card.  The pale cream card is from a pad of cardstock I found in a discount store for $2.50.  Each pad has about 50 sheets of A5 card in them... I've been stocking up on them as I see the good quality pads.... some times the card quality isn't so good - but other times it is perfect.  I even picked up an A4 pad that was glossy on one side.... for $5.00.  A great bargain.

Tomorrow is Stamp club at Stamp'n'create... so am totally looking forward to a day of stamping... I got new stamps today.... the Dogwood stamp from Hero Arts and a neat set from Fiskars called "Petals from Scratch"  It has some lovely flower heads and a variety of stems...so you can mix and match.   Can't wait to play with them tomorrow... have to pack the bag tonight!!!!

Have a great weekend all..... thanks for stopping by.

Monday 5 April 2010

Spring bird- for a number of Challenges

This card is for a few challenges:
Inchie Inklings first challenge - a sketch
Digidoodle Shop's first challenge- Easter/Spring
and another entry in Anne's Bird challenge for April
All the stamps on the inchie ( total of 4) are from Hero Arts, the sentiment by Stampit, ribbon by Sullivan's and paper by Grant Archival. 
Today is another day off work here.... Easter Monday.  Earlier today hubby and I went out into the country a bit (20 mins drive from where we live) to go look at some native trees that we are thinking of planting.... but it was closed... However on the way we past through Coatsville ( a small country town) and they were having their Easter Markets so we stopped off on our way back. Lots of lovely stalls with Hand crafted jewellery, sculptures, clothes, food and best of all a Cheese shop... so we got some lovely Gouda and Paramsen, imported from Europe but at market prices.  Looking forward to eating these lovely cheese.

Sunday 4 April 2010

Birds Galore...

Anne is having a fabulous challenge this month with the most amazing prize... she will be making a donation in the winners name to the Heifer International.  Visit her blog here to read all about it.   This charitable organization helps fight poverty by donating livestock animals to impoverished families along with training. The animals provide food and income for these families. And, when the livestock produce offspring, the families are required to pass on the gift by giving the offspring to another needy family. In this way, a charitable contribution to Heifer is multiplied and continues to grow.
Anne is going to donate $20 for either Geese, Ducks or Chicken so her challenge is in two parts.... make something with birds on it and also to pass on a gift of some kind. This could be to make a card or project to give to someone else, it could be donating gently used items to Goodwill or a thrift shop, or it could be making a charitable donation of some kind. It doesn’t have to be a large gift, or an expensive gift, just one from the heart.
On Friday my son had a big clean up and gathered a bag of pre-loved clothing to which I added some of my stuff and we took it to the Cancer Kids collection bin.  The clothes are sorted and where possible sold to raise funds for the Cancer Kids charity to assist with research.
Today I made the card to enter the challenge.
 The inspiration for this card actually came from my 12 year old niece.  My hubby's sister and her family came to stay last night with us, and I let Lisa loose in my crafting room with instructions for her to use anything she liked....  She used some of this Kaisercraft paper and made a card.  I decided to use the last of the sheet of paper and came up with this.  The paper was from the Loire Valley collection.  The bird stamp is from Kaisercraft's Flora and Fauna set.   The darker flower is also from Kaisercraft.  It was a fawn colour but I added Aged Mahogany distress ink to change it's colour.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  I am very pleased with the result.

Hope the Easter bunny was good to you.... He left me a nice dark chocolate ( my favourite sort) bunny... 

Friday 2 April 2010

Happy Easter

It's Good Friday evening here now and I've had a lovely day.  Just about everything is closed her in New Zealand today - but hubby and I did pop out to the Bakers Delight to get fresh Hot Cross Buns...the rest of the day I have been crafting but can't show yet as they are for Deborah's April CCC.... ( don't know who for yet....but wanted to get a head start)  The theme this month is Friendship, Asian or Earth Day.  There are also colour scheme or Sketch to follow but I'm a bit wooshy and go for the easy one!!!!

My poor hubby has been a bit of a grumpy bum that last couple of days... He had a small basal cell carcinoma removed from behind his ear on Wednesday and he looks like this....   A huge bandage all over his head and a drain from the ear.  He had thought he would be back at work yesterday but with the drain in, he stayed home.  He tried to get into the computer but since I got the new laptop I have had face recognition to start windows or a password... and I hadn't told him.... then he couldn't get the email to work or the Compare Office I use instead of Microsoft Office... so was a bit grumpy.  Then he complained I was too messy and he couldn't find any space to work near the computer..... Need I say that he HARDLY EVER ventures into my "office" and I KNOW EXACTLY where every thing is!!!!!!!!
Still I did a bit of a tidy up ( only to mess it up again as I did some more cards) 

Well I hope everyone enjoys their Easter break and Gods Blessing to you all