Tuesday 30 April 2013

Gorjuss Girl shaped card.


I was very excited to be asked by Adrienne from Scottie Crafts to make some cards for her store.  She provided me some stunning papers from Farm House Fair Skies  to use.  I've made a number of cards which I will share over the next few weeks.

First up is a shaped card I made with the fabulous die Scotties gave me... Timeless Rectangles by Spellbinders.

Gorjuss Girl

I started by cutting the largest rectangle from white card stock. I masked all around the edges and sponged on some Victorian Velvet distress ink.  Using the same ink I added the brick wall ~ a background stamp from Obsession Impression.  To make the card I cut and folded white card the same size as the inside portion of the die.   I then stuck the die cut on the front.    Next I die cut a My Favorite Things flourish and some leaves from Sizzix Dogwood Thinlit die set.  I added a Prima Flower.    My focal image is another one of the Gorjuss Girls from Docrafts  I colour the majority of the image with Copics and used some Kraft Notes PP for her dress.  I have decorated the inside with a smaller rectangle die 



Hope this has given you some inspiration.


Monday 29 April 2013

A CAS card

Yesterday over at Die Cut Divas blog I shared a CAS birthday card.   And I'm sharing it here today

CAS Birthday flowers

I wanted something very clean and graphic for a family member who is having a birthday soon.   I took some dark wine and green card and the Simon Says Fresh Daisies die and cut out two of the flowers.  I just trimmed the flowers off the wine one and added to the green one.  Added to a white card, matted with the wine card and then added to the white base.   The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  Finished with some gems.  Just love how this turned out.  I've entered it into the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays

Thanks for stopping by....I truly appreciate all your comments




Sunday 28 April 2013

Thank You @ Red Carpet Studio




It's time for a new challenge over at Red Carpet Studio.  This week our card challenge is inspired by traditional Hollywood award speeches... so we want to see Thank You cards.

Our fabulous sponsor this week is Dilly Beans Digi Stamps! One lucky, randomly chosen winner will receive three digis of their choice!




 Dilly Beans provided the design team with an image of our choice.  I chose this one

 Thanks


I cropped the image and cut it out with Lawn Fawn die... the Polaroid one.   Added the sentiment with white embossing.  The PP is from MME and the purple edging is a Martha Stewart punch.  Finished with some satin ribbon with a large pearl brad. 

Do hop over to the blog and see some of the other beautiful projects.   

 

Saturday 27 April 2013

Playing with Friends


Today I spend some time (actually a lot of time!  over 6 hrs) playing with some friends.   There were only 4 of us at Sandie's today, so we had plenty of room to spread out.
I had a good day getting a few cards done.  One for a design team project in a couple of weeks, and a few other just for fun.

PicMonkey Collage

I wanted to have a go at the Muse Card Club challenge... this week the Muse was none other than the incredibly talented Virginia Lu.

I was inspired by Virginia's bright colours and flowers.

CASEing Virginia.

I used an older Hero Arts set ( thanks to Judy for reminding me about this set).  I used four distress inks in the bright colours and did some masking as well.  I added some faux stitching  around the edge and the sentiment oval.    I had fun making this card.

I also finished off a card I started the other day.  

Postcard Collage


I used some free papers from Olga ( found here)  that I had recoloured in Word and printed out.  I stamped the Big Postcard stamp in Peeled Paint distress and then using Weathered Wood ink, I stamped Hero Arts Timely Bird collage stamp.  I used the inks to colour the little flower and the bird.  I then stamped some little flourishes.  I added some highlights with a white Faber Castell big pen.   I used some MME PP on the pearlescent card base and layered the tag with some lace on it.  I added an organza bow and a Prima flower.   The sentiment is from Kaisercraft.

I also got some colouring done, a couple of CAS cards which I will share over the coming week together with some cards I made over the the last week.

Thanks for visiting.  Hope you get to have some play time this weekend.

Dawn 


Thursday 25 April 2013

ANZAC Day ~ Lest We Forget



They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
Lest we forget


Today is ANZAC Day here in New Zealand and Australia. It is a public holiday that honours the soldiers of the Australian and Zealand Army Corps who fought in Gallipoli in 1915.  My husband got up this morning to go to the Dawn Service.   

I spend the day pottering around in my craft room.   I did a couple of cards for some design work, finished off my ATC's for a swap that I'm involved in.  The theme was was "Text" ~ to use a book page on your ATC.  Here are my three
#1 ~ used some papers from a telephone directory that I tore up and glued onto the card.  I added some white and pink paint and some green distress stain.  My heart was die cut and stamped with some text and painted with some white paint.  The wings are stamped onto some pearlescent paper.  

#2 used some MME PP.  My book page was used for the photo corners and my flower.  I added some iridescence medium to the birds.  Added a flourish.

 #3 totally uses book paper from an old book on Roses.  I tore the page and distressed the edges and rubbed a white acrylic paint across it.   The rose was trimmed from the page and coloured with Gelatos and some pink and gold stickles.   The sentiment

I'll be posting these off in the morning and will be looking forward to receiving three in return. 

I'm also having a day off tomorrow.... I've got an appointment at the Dietician's at the hospital and then one with my own doctor to review my blood glucose levels.  It wasn't worth going back to work for the afternoon, so I'll be enjoying a long weekend.   And I'm going to Sandie's to stamp.  Yes, a good weekend!!!

  

Tuesday 23 April 2013

{Enjoy the Journey}

I was keen to enter into the challenge over at City Crafter Challenge blog this week which was "Bon Voyage".  I've been working with some Farm House Fair Skies PP (available at Scottie Crafts) and the hot air balloons gave me a great idea.

Enjoy the Journey

This is a very CAS card that uses the PP to perfection.  I started by stamping the Hero Arts sentiment on the white card base, which I then embossed with Swiss Dots folder by Cuttlebug.  I took some of the PP (Goodways sheet) and trimmed the map to the size I wanted.  I added some white paint to tone down the colour.  Added some matting and twine.  I then cut one of the balloons out of the Horizon PP and added a bit of faux stitching and some glossy accents.

I saw that Simon Says Stamp challenge is Travel, so am adding this there as well.

I'm just off to start my kneading of the pasta for dinner this evening.... Have a great week

Monday 22 April 2013

Farewell to Mygrafico.....

Usually this would be my day to share a card for Mygrafico.... but I'm sad to say that the owner,  Burcu, has decided to close down the challenge blog :-)  so no more Mygrafico.  I've enjoyed my time with the challenge blog and I say a thank you to Burcu and Tammylee for allowing me to be part of the challenge blog.

But now I'm available to do some more design work and already have something on the sidelines... more news about this next month.  

So today I will share with you a card I made in the weekend.  I had a lady from work come over on Saturday and do some stamping with me.  Suna is fairly new to card making and I invited her over to play with my stamps.   We had a fun afternoon.  She made two Mother's Day cards and I made one for Mother's Day, one for some design work and started the one I'm sharing here.   I finished it yesterday morning.

Just Because


I stamped onto white card and then used distress inks Antique Linen and Spun Sugar.  I used stamps from Hero Arts, Inkadinkado and Simon Says stamp to make up my collage.  Thanks to Jacqueline,   Sally and others for their wonderful inspiration using the postcard stamp.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Sunday 21 April 2013

A Mother's Day Card

Yesterday afternoon I had a lovely lady from work come over.  Suna is a beginner stamper, just starting out so I told her to come and have a play.  We both managed two cards.  She made a Mother's Day card for her Mum and one for her MIL.  I got one Mother's Day card made as well.

We both used Poppies... Suna used the line one and I used the Negative stamp

Mother's Day

This card caused me heaps of grief.  I didn't leave the ink to dry fully before putting it together.  Inky finger prints everywhere.  But finally it all came together.  A few of the ladies at work have requested Mother's Day cards so this makes a great start. 

I've been working on some special projects that I'm really enjoying, but can't share just yet.  

It's been a wet few days here, but still very warm for this time of the year... 10pm at night and I'm still in just a singlet top and shorts.  Usually by this time of the year the evenings would be cool enough to need a cardigan or top.  And the rain is just what's needed to break the draught around the country.  

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.  I thank you all for visiting and those who leave me a comment... I do appreciate it.


Friday 19 April 2013

Old, New, Borrowed and Blue Blog Hop

Welcome to Day 1 of the Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue Blog Hop!


Wedding bells will soon be ringing as the wedding season is almost here, and the design teams of Red Carpet Studio and The Paper Nest Dolls have teamed up to provide you with some beautiful wedding inspiration by creating projects using Paper Nest Dolls digital stamps! If you've just come across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Red Carpet Studio.

Red Carpet Studio is a movie-themed challenge blog that runs weekly challenges, alternating between layout and card challenges each week. All of their challenges are inspired by either a movie or aspect of Hollywood!
The Paper Nest Dolls is a brand new digital/rubber stamp shop that sells adorable stamps inspired by the designer's children. Their stamps are sold here and they just started a challenge blog as well!










For my project today, I made...



I used "The Wedding" from Paper Nest Dolls.  Printed and coloured with Copics.  I used this together with a frame from  Deasy Designs   I stamped the frame with Hero Arts Woodgrain, then coloured with Copics and cut out. Pop dotted up from the bride and groom. Added some Prima flowers, a MFT scroll and a die cut heart ( top of a heart key die). Base card is embossed with a woodgrain embossing folder                          

The Paper Nest Dolls owner and artist, Christine, is very generously providing us with some blog candy from her online stamp shop and her brick and mortar scrapbooking store! To be eligible to win you must comment on every stop of both days of the hop. 


Two $20 Gift Certificates

Prima Flower Prize Pack


Ready for the next stop? It's Lydia's blog

Red Carpet Studio
The Paper Nest Dolls
Tonya
Lori Ann
Chas
Kelly
Kim
Erika
Dawn
Lydia
Anneliese
Darcy
Sandra

Happy Hopping! :)

Thursday 18 April 2013

Runway Inspired Challenge #34

Just love this weeks inspiration at Runway Inspiration



Doesn't the black and white look great and the pop of red in her lipstick.
I had an idea in mind... a CAS one-layer card.... so pulled out an old Hero Arts stamp and started

Once I finished and took the photo I really didn't like it.... so I made a change


I simply trimmed the front panel and mounted onto a black card base.  I like it better.   Do you?

And can you see the last of the late afternoon sun?  We have been having some warm weather still but over the last few days we've had rain.... desperately need rain as much of New Zealand is in drought conditions.   Today, some showers in the morning, but then the sun came out and it was nice and warm.

And today was like Christmas for me as my SSS parcel finally arrived (left SSS March 22) Lots of goodies to play with this weekend.

Thanks for visiting.  Come back tomorrow as I'm part of The Old, New, Borrowed and Blue blog hop.


Tuesday 16 April 2013

Water Stamping....

I have not been feeling well the last few days.  Saturday I got a pain in my lower abdomen which by mid morning yesterday had me bent over in pain.  I rang my doctors and was able to get in straight away... but she wasn't able to determine what the pain was...  so off for some blood tests and an ultrasound and she gave me a course of antibiotics.  The radiologist said everything looked ok, so hopefully it's just some sort of infection and the antibiotics will do the trick.  Feeling a bit better today already, but still stayed at home and rested.   While I did, I was surfing the 'net and came across a new technique...

Over at Technique Time Tuesday, I saw Water Stamping... After lunch I decided to give it a go.

True Friends

I started by using some distress ink and my application tool.  Once it dried, I made up my water pad and wet the Leafy Vine stamp.  I gave it a quick spritz of some gold Perfect Pearls and then stamped it onto the card.  I made sure it had plenty of time to soak onto the paper.  Once it dried ( with a bit of help from the heat gun.... too impatient to wait) I inked up the stamp with Bundled Sage ink and stamped again.  To make my sentiment, I only inked up the words from a Large background stamp and stamped it directly onto my card.  I added some embossed lines.  I loosely followed the sketch over on Hero Arts for this month's challenge.  The orange piece was made and treated the same, using another part of the background stamp and then punched out the Martha Stewart butterflies.    I sponged some of the orange ink around the edge of the base card as well. 

I am also entering this into the Background challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show

Now I've found this blog I'm going to go and have a good look at some of the different techniques.  

Now I'm going to send you over to Die Cut Divas blog as today we have our Guest for April.... none other than..........................

Do pop over and get to know a bit more about this amazing lady.


Sunday 14 April 2013

Vintage @ Red Carpet Studios

 
Welcome back for another challenge at Red Carpet Studio.  This week's card challenge is inspired by Hollywood Noir films....so create a Vintage card.





I like Vintage/Shabby Chic cards but not always sure I can pull it off, but was happy with today's project.

Shades of pink and purple

My lovely PP available for free from my fellow Red Carpet Studio DT member Olga, available here.  She has some beautiful papers that are all free.   I printed out the paper increasing the colour tone and saturation a little.  Not sure who produces the butterfly die as I've lost the package it came in. I sponged it with some soft pinks and purples and once I had the ribbon and flower on, spritzed it with some Adironack Colour wash. The doily was also sponged with shades of pink and purple.     This one is a bit more Shabby Chic than vintage... so hope over to the blog and see the fun Vintage cards created by the team.

Had a lovely weekend visiting with our friends in Te Puke.  It's been nearly 2 years since we have seen them.  Here is this morning's brunch


Bacon, lambs fry, tomatoes, fried potatoes, poached eggs, mushroom sauce.   Deliish!!!!

We also visited Hubby's sister in Papamoa and then stopped off to drop something off at our friend's Mum in Ngatea... so it was a long afternoon trip home.  

Well time to catch up with all the blog posts I've missed this weekend. 

Have a great week.


Friday 12 April 2013

Gorjuss Girls


Two cards to share tonight.... both with new Gorjuss Girl stamps from Docrafts.

First up....
Gorjuss Girl


.....this beautiful girl standing on some books... however it is rather large ~over 6 inches  tall which meant she didn't fit onto my card front,  I had to trim the top and some of the books off the bottom.  I stamped and then coloured with Copics.  Added the trim down the side and layered onto some Creative Imaginations PP.  I stamped the photo corners onto the same card as the trim and cut them out.  The book plate is from the set as well and I coloured with Copics and some distress ink   Sentiment is a Hastings Rubber Stamps one,   Still need to practise colouring black hair.  Been watching some You Tube videos.  

And this second one......

   
.... which I just finished and try to photograph under the artificial light ( not very good) The colours are way too greeny yellow.  Will definitely take a photo in the morning.  EDITED: replace with a decent photo
The hair colouring on this one is a bit better.  Still lots of room to improve!.  Happy though with the way I managed the shading on her dress.  The PP is from My Minds Eye ~ Portobello Road~ with some added stamping and distressing.  The ribbon is hand dyed ( not sure what colour I used as it was done some time ago) The fence is a Spellbinders De-lite sponged with Distress inks.
All in all very happy with my new stamps.  I'm sure you'll see a few more samples with these delightful girls.

We are off again this weekend.... This time down to Te Puke ( around 3hrs south east from home) to visit with our friends who own a Kiwifruit orchard.  Hoping the nice weather continues.

Thanks for stopping by.  Much appreciated that you take the time to visit.

              

Tuesday 9 April 2013

With Love

Today I got an email from my LSS telling me the latest Docraft magazine and products had arrived in store.... so of course, I had to race over after work to pick up the magazine.  Plus I got some of the stamps ~ two Gorjuss Girls and one Forever Friends plus a gorgeous Paper Pack. 


 And as soon as I got home, I just had to have a play.

I used a design I saw done by Cathy A (here) that I knew I wanted to CASE. 

With Love

I stamped the  teddy onto the card base and used some Derwent Inktense pencils to colour.  As the paper wasn't watercolour paper, the water pen made it bobble, but in the end this added some texture to the teddy.   I took a piece of the PP and cut the circle out and used some white card to make a frame with the scallop die.  I added some bakers twine, the faux stitching and finished teddy with a dot of Black Enamel for his eye and the centre of the flower.   The sentiment is from Hero Arts and is stamped on the reverse of the PP.

Now I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow so I could play with the Gorjuss girls.   But they will have to wait.  

Daylight saving finished over the weekend, and I'm still getting used to the change.  Waking early and finding it hard to stay up till the right time to go to bed. 

Have a great week.

Monday 8 April 2013

Owl Get Well @ Mygrafico

Another new challenge starts over at Mygrafico this week... Anything Goes again.   Last challenge there were 193 entries... so there were two random prizes...

This week I chose a gorgeous owl set from Cupcake Cutiees



This set is already coloured so I used my Publisher to build up the page.  I did a bit of a play on words for my sentiment.   I printed it out and layered onto my card base and added lots of stickles to the body.  I added some Glossy Accents to the eyes and feet.

The very sweet owl toy in my photo was made for me by my niece Vicky.   Isn't it sweet.

So do pop over to the blog and see what the other's have come up with, and join us in our challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I really appreciate all my followers.