Thursday 31 May 2012

Yes Virginia..... I'm Inspired.....

Over on Virginia's blog she shared some wonderful photo's her daughter took of son and his friends with their bright coloured Cello cases.  She then challenged us to create with this inspiration photo.
 

 Isn't it wonderful.  Here's what I created.

IMG_5494

I made the xylophone with bright coloured pieces of card.  I used some black enamel accents for the screws.  The scallops were made with punched circles stamped with some music ( a stamp by Kiwi Stamping)   The ledger background is a Hero Arts cling stamp and the sentiment is part of a stamp from a Hero Arts set.  I just inked up the word "Celebrate"   Back to my usual CAS style!
Also for Simon Says Stamp ~ Anything Goes~ challenge

I'm off to the beach tomorrow for 4 days R & R.  I am hoping to take some stamps and papers with me ~ even if I just get some colouring done.   

Take care

Dawn

Wednesday 30 May 2012

The Big Reveal.... my Shabby Chic card....

Got it finished last night, photographed and then today when I got home decided it needed some more bling... so here it is, in all it's finery.....

The pièce de résistance is that wonderful flower.....

I had some instructions from the wonderful Sue ( aka Scrumplescrunch) a while back on how to use the Tim Holtz/Sizzex Tattered Floral dies and watercolour paper to make these and haven't had too much success till now... mainly I think I wasn't patient enough to let the petals dry.  Basically, you smooched the petals after lightly spraying with water and the secret to success... LET THEN DRY OVERNIGHT!!!!  It works.  I had used some soft pinky watercolour paper ~ again after instructions from Sue.... edged with some red ink and once dry and put together... a touch of Stickles and some iridescent medium.

My background paper was the rest of the watercolour paper over-stamped with a variety of stamps... A script from Hero Arts, Dots and Cross stitch from a Bo Bunny set and the butterfly and trail from Kaisercraft.  The base card was a pearlescent one that came with a magazine I got this week.   I tied some lace into a big bow and made a little tag for the sentiment.  I finally added a few pearls for the bling.

This is being entered into Our Creative Corner ~ Hosted by the lovely Sue this week with her Shabby Chic theme and also into the monthly challenge over at The Crafter's Cafe... butterflies and hand made flowers.  

So there you go.... Sue, I hope it's Shabby Chic enough.... I certainly challenged myself with this....although I still feel I could have maybe done a bit more titivating! 
Thanks for peeking in today... I appreciate all of you stopping by  leaving  lovely comments
Dawn

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Monochromatic Magic

That's the challenge over at Penny Black Saturday challenge this week.  I pulled out an older Penny Black clear set called "Enjoy Life" and used the birds to do a blue monochromatic card


Monochromatic Blues

I stamped the birds in Stone Wash shadow ink from Hero Arts.  I used an aqua pen to use the Stone Wash ink and Soft Pool ink to add a bit of colour.   Finished with some dots of Stickles.  The sentiment by Hastings Rubber Stamps is stamped in the Stone Wash ink.  I cut out the image with a Spellbinders Floral Oval die and while I still had the image in the die, I sponged with some Soft Pool ink.  I'm loving this new Spellbinders die.  It is so pretty.  The card base is a very dark blue that has a bit of texture on it.   And I added a white satin ribbon and big bow.

And here is a little pic of my work in progress for my Shabby Chic card. 
Work in Progress

The flower dried beautifully overnight and is looking good.  Hopefully later this evening I will get it finished ~ after watching Masterchef NZ.


Thanks for peeking into my world today... take care
Dawn

Monday 28 May 2012

Mygrafico Challenge ~ Father's Day

This week we got to work with a fabulous set called "Tool Time "
As it's coming up Father's Day in the States, we used that as our theme.... ( Father's Day in NZ isn't till September) 

As you can see, I took the elements and printed then cut them out.  Add lots of glossy accents.

I added some items to the "To Do" list and used some brads to fasten it to the background.  I made that by stamped Hero Arts Designer Woodgrain background with Cup'o'Joe ink onto some browny-grey card.  This set is perfect for male cards.     Do pop over to the blog to see what the other DT members have come up with...

I'm trying my hand tonight at Shabby Chic for Our Creative Corner.... My friend Sue (aka Scrumplescrunch) is hosting this weeks challenge.  If you are a visitor to Sue blog you'll know she is the QUEEN of Shabby Chic... me, a real novice.  CAS is more my style... but a card is being made.... flowers scrunched and drying!  Lace out, some collage stamping done... a bit of pink ... but boy does this take time!!!!!!  Not like the 20 min CAS card I did earlier!  No this one will be a two dayer!

So off to bed while that flower dries... till tomorrow
Cheers

Dawn 

Sunday 27 May 2012

Black and White Elegance.

One of the card I made yesterday was a CASE'd card of this one from Gina K.   I loved the look of stamped lace on the card and decided to see what stamps I had that might have worked...

Butterfly card

I found a beautiful fine lace stamp in a set from Kaisercraft  that suited the look I was after.   I used Versmark and white embossing powder.  It took me a white to decide on what to have on my focal image.  I knew I wanted to use the Floral Spellbinder die so tried a number of stamps.  Finally decided on the butterfly from Stampendous.  I only wish now that I had used Archival ink to stamp the butterfly as it would have been darker.  I distressed around the edge of the die with some black ink.  Again, not overly happy with the result.  But all in all, the card does have a touch of elegance. 

The weekend just seem to fly by.... Stamping all day yesterday and then this afternoon, we went to visit some friends who spend a month travelling round Croatia and other parts of Europe.  We wanted to get some ideas and their thoughts on Croatia as we are thinking of travelling there next year...so have started the planning phase.  Karen and Gary and their daughters visited relations in Croatia as well as Switzerland.  They also visited Italy and France so it was great sharing experiences.   A nice way to spend a dismal Sunday afternoon.

Wishing you all well for another week.... A short working one for me as it's Queens Birthday Weekend here in NZ and I'm taking Friday off making a 4 day weekend.   We are heading up to the beach, so a relaxing quiet weekend in store.  

Dawn

Saturday 26 May 2012

Christmas Cutie...

Yes you did read that right... I recently decided to try my hand at making a card for Paper Crafts submission call.  Making Christmas cards in April seems wrong!   My card wasn't picked up so I'm sharing it today.

Magical Christmas

I did some dry embossing, some die cuts and the cute Penny Black carolling mice.

Today I spend my day stamping with some friends... Helen, Lei, Sandie, Janet, Marisa and Andi.  We have so much fun... Andi is just 10 years old but a talented card maker, Marisa, her mum has only been stamping about a year.  We all share stamps, dies, papers etc... really a lot of fun.  Lots of laughs, good food and fun.  Usually I go with a bang and do a number of cards but for some reason today, I struggled with ideas and only ended up making 3 cards.  Haven't photographed yet as the day has been a bit dull and by 4.30pm when I got home, no good for taking decent photos.   So that's a job for tomorrow.

Hope you get to get inky this weekend too. 

Dawn

Wednesday 23 May 2012

A Winner ......

And the Winner is...................... < drum roll...>

No 18
CanadianScraps43  - Dana.    And a Happy Birthday to your son!


I used Random Org to chose for me... but for some reason I can't get the image to paste here :(


Thank you all for joining my give-away and to all my new followers.... welcome... I hope you enjoy my little slice of the blogging world.  


I'll leave you with a little doily card I made last week.... sending kisses to you all


Kisses


Thank you all for visiting.
Dawn

Tuesday 22 May 2012

In the Garden



Over at Penny Black Saturday Challenge last week, the challenge is was "In the Garden"  I love my Penny Black stamps especially my Critter stamps.  I had fun with a little Hedgie lying in a bed of flowers.

Hedgie Garden

Don't you just love the bright flowery PP I used for the background.  It is from a magazine so is really shiny and bright. I took the sketch from City Crafter's Challenge Blog, turned it on it's side.  As I like to do, I coloured my Hedgie with Distress inks and an aqua brush.  The flowers are more yellow in real life, not so washed out as the photo shows.  The sentiment is also from the same PB set.  My little piece of grid at bottom is washi tape.  Love how transparent this tape is.
And here's a peek into my garden over the weekend...







The autumn flowers are looking really good and the Hydrangeas are just keeping on going and going.  But do excuse the lawn.... it's in the process of being re-seeded and over-sown. 

That's me for the night... It's getting late and I am quite tired... but a bit of a sleep in tomorrow as I have a visit to the skin specialist at 9.00am tomorrow for my annual skin checkup.... and then to work.  Usually in the office by 7.30am so it will be nice to stay tucked up in bed for a little longer!

Dawn