Tuesday 31 December 2013

My Favourites for 2013

Hi all... It's New Years Eve here in NZ and I'm getting ready to celebrate the New Year with my Mum and Dad, my hubby, my son and his girlfriend and 4 of his friends... will be a good night!

I decided that I would share the cards I made this year that I really liked.  One for each month.... so bear with me with this picture heavy post..

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November


December.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my favourite cards I made this year... I've had a fun year and enjoying all my creating, blogging and "meeting" lots of friends via this medium.  I want to thank each and every one of my followers and commentors, I really appreciate your support.  

May 2014 be the best yet for you all



Thursday 26 December 2013

A Little Shabby Chic.

By the time you read this, Christmas will be done and dusted for another year... Hope Santa was kind to you and you got to spend time with family.

It's mid summer in my part of the world and I'll be sunning myself at the beach.  We are heading off for 9 days holiday at a beach town around one and half hours north of my home.    Looking forward for the break away

So onto today's card. It's my day over at Little Blue Buttons Stamps.  This one is a little shabby chic.


The background is one that Olga designed and which I have recoloured in blues.  I stamped the Kaisercraft sentiment  and then added some blue ink all around and in places with a stencil or two.  The whole panel was then embossed with a folder.  I printed out the Vintage Dress form (Available here as a digital stamp or here as a rubber stamp) and used some Copics to colour.  The blue wasn't quite right, so I smeared some Gesso over it to tone it down.  Then I added Stickles to the wings and some Glossy Accents to the hat.  The finishing touch was some twine and a vintage button. 

Enjoy the Holiday season. 



Monday 23 December 2013

Sunbonnet Girls ~ a Summer Christmas card.




Our sponsor over at Die Cut Divas this month is Bugaboo... and they have these totally adorable Sunbonnet Girls.  Some of the images are really wintery images...but one reminded me of a summer scene

Sunbonnet Girl Christmas

To make it really summery, I made her little bonnet a pretty yellow colour. And gave her a pretty blue dress.  The PP background was embossed with a Holly folder.  The sentiment is a Peelcraft sticker. 

The last few days have been very busy.  My parents arrived yesterday afternoon.  Great to see them both... and today I put them to work!



Dad glazed the Ham and Mum made Shortbread.  Aren't they just great.  The shortbread is going to be packed up as a gift, together with some Pecan Pies



Busy day tomorrow getting ready for the BIG lunch on Wednesday.  Hope you all get to have an awesome Christmas Day with family without a lot of stress... And remember the reason for the season.... God's Blessing to you.

Thursday 19 December 2013

Believe in the magic of Christmas



Wow, I can't believe that it's been a week since I posted last.   It's been quite a busy week... the weekend was full on with an overnight trip to friends who live about an hour south of here.  And last night we had our annual neighbourhood party...


It was a beautiful evening with lovely neighbours.  The last of the guys left at11pm ( mind you I snuck off to bed at 10.30)

Not much done in the way of crafting with all the other stuff going on...but I did get a couple of orders today so tonight got busy.  First up is a card I made for my team to sign and give to our team leader


A bit of vintage looking with papers from Kaisercraft.

And the second one is for a friend to give to her son with some money in it.  I made a little pocket inside to slip the money in


A perfect image for a New Zealand summer Christmas.  It's from Bugaboo.  The sentiment is from Kaisercraft and seemed to fit perfectly.    Added lots of stickles and some black enamel  for his tyre. 

Well tomorrow is my last day at work for 2 weeks... can't wait for the break.  Lots to do though... leading up to the big day.   

wishing all my followers a Very Merry Christmas



       ______ _________ ______________ 
   _||_||__|| | Merry | |  Christmas | 
  (         | |       | |            |
/-OO----OO""="OO---OO"="OO---------OO
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Thursday 12 December 2013

A few last Christmas cards and an exciting guest at Die Cut Divas.

I've got a last few Christmas cards to share today.  It was very warm after work so I hid out in my craft room which was nice and cool.  I managed two very CAS cards before dinner and my walk.

First up a card for CAS-ual  Friday's Out on a Branch challenge

CAS-ual Friday - Out on a limb

No stamping involved in this card at all... the die cut from Tim Holtz was a purchase last year but never used till today.  I cut the tree from Kraft card stock and distressed with Vintage Photo and Pine Needles distress inks.  Cut the bird from red card stock and added to an off white textured base.  I've added this to the following challenges
City Crafter Challenge Blog ~ Christmas Colours
CAS-ual Fridays ~ Out on a Limb

and my second card uses a freebie stamp from a magazine.  It is a Forever Friend teddy bear.

Forever Friends Christmas

I stamped and coloured with Copics and paired it with a Kaisercraft sentiment.    This one is entered into these challenges
Penny Black and More ~ Traditional Christmas colours
Word Art Wednesday ~ Anything Goes

Now to let you know that Die Cut Divas guest for December is none other than Barb Engler.    Do go and visit and find out a bit more about her and see her beautiful card.

And finally I'll leave you with this beautiful photo I took while I was out on my walk this evening.  I took this at 7.50pm



It was a beautiful evening and I enjoyed my walk.












Wednesday 11 December 2013

over 1000 posts.....

can you image it... yes I have I have posted over 1000 times.... this is in fact my 1002nd post....

today I have a card to share, that I made for a friend at work for a wedding she was going to...

Blingy Wedding card.

The brief was for a "blingy" wedding card.   I searched Flickr for ideas and then Pinterest... and finally came up with this card... being a combination of ideas from about 4  different cards.  The PP is from a Rosie's Studio pack of Wedding papers, trimmed and mounted on some silver mirror card  The heart is a Spellbinders one... two co-ordinating dies used together... one cuts the inside and one the outer part, cut from the silver mirror card.  The banner and sentiment are from a Simon Says Stamp, stamp and die set.. Lots of silver gems.  Inside I embossed down one side added the silver heart from the centre of the front panel and the sentiments " Happily Ever After" and Congratulations both from the SSS set.   My friend was over the moon about it.  

I took my Christmas cards into work and managed to sell $60 worth.  Just in time to buy some more PP to make some little tea light boxes like this one I made for a friend's birthday

Tea Light Gift box

I'm doing some Christmas ones for little gifts this year. 

I want to thank all of my followers for visiting and I really appreciate all the wonderful supportive comments I get.  You are the best.

                             

Tuesday 10 December 2013

I'm Blog of the Month....

Papercraft Inspirations have a Blog of the Month and I was super excited when I opened November's issue to find it's ME! 


About 6 months ago I got an email from the magazine to say they were interested in showcasing my blog and asked me to send a few of my favourite cards.   I'd forgotten all about it...so imagine my surprise when I opened the magazine at lunch time when I bought it and there I was.  The magazines are always about a month later arriving here in NZ.

Our weekend was super busy ~ we did some Christmas shopping, got our tree up and decorated and for once my hubby did some impulsive buying.... He NEVER buys anything on impulse.  We had gone to look at a new sofa for our dinning area ~ and he saw a nice two seater that was 75% off and bought it on the spot.  It got delivered on Sunday and we found it was about a foot longer than the old one.  So some rearranging was needed which resulted in having to clean the carpet.  But it's all looking good now


Hope you are not too stressed in the lead up to Christmas.  I'm off to a team lunch tomorrow.  Weekend busy and next week our neighbourhood barbeque is here on Wednesday and then the following Sat my parents arrive... in no time it will be Christmas Day!


Friday 6 December 2013

Skating Penguin

 

Bugaboo Digi Stamps have some of the cutest images.  This month they are sponsoring two of the teams I'm involved with.   Both Die Cut Divas and Chalk'n'Stock are sponsored by them.   Today's card covers both blogs.


I printed out the penguin at a fair large size, coloured with Copics and fussy cut him.  The design for my card is similar to one that we used in the Holiday Card Workshop.   I used my embossing folder on the top and bottom of the card.  I then sponged over some chalk ink.  I used a greeny blue colour ink.  The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Holiday Borders set.

I'm entering this into the challenge at Digi Haven who are also sponsored by Bugaboo. 

I really enjoying working with Bugaboo images... there really is something for everyone and for all of December their images are 50% off
 


Monday 2 December 2013

Colourful ornaments

Had a superb day on Saturday making cards with my friends Helen, Sandie, Janet, Marisa and Sandie's friend, Jackie.  We missed Lei who was laid up at home with a broken foot.   We got a lots of cards done.  I made 5 on the day


Here is a closer look at my two ornament cards

Blue ornaments


Red Ornaments.


Both use the same technique.  Using PearlEx powder mixed with some water to make a paint.  I die cut a Poppy Stamps die with some silver foil card.   For the first one I used some glue to stick down the die and then some blue PearlEx paint to colour in the ornaments.  I then used a Hero Arts sentiment which I silver embossed.  I used some Peelcraft stickers for the strings.  I sprayed the card with hairspray to set the PearlEx.   My second card used some red PearlEx to make the paint.  I finished it with a sentiment sticker.   I also stuck the silver card to some Jak paper before die cutting it, which made it much easier to stick down.  Wish I had thought of that for the first one!

Thanks for stopping by today.


Sunday 1 December 2013

It's December at Die Cut Divas!

It's time to get December off to a great start over at Die Cut Divas...We are continuing to Celebrate ( Holiday or Celebration).  November brought some amazing entries and I'm sure December will continue to impress.

So on to our sponsor for December.....It's none other than BUGABOO DIGI STAMPS!  Bugaboo is a digital stamp company and they have crazy stamps, cute stamps, and catch your breath, beautiful stamps.   Their stamps are fun to colour and sentiments fun to read.  There's a free digital stamp every Friday, so please visit Bugaboo Digi Stamps to catch your freebie!

Remember, you have to use a die-cut or something embossed from your machine.  You do NOT have to use a Bugaboo Digital in your creation.  However, if you use a Bugaboo Digital, I will award 2 chances to win.  You MUST also let us know if you are using a Bugaboo stamp or you won't be awarded your extra chance.  Do remember that Bugaboo has free digital stamps on Friday and December is Bugaboo's Annual 50% off Christmas sale! EVERYTHING is 50% off! no code needed...it will be applied at checkout
 
And because we are having our theme over two months, you can enter up to 8 times over November and December. 


 So here's my inspiration for you.

DCD ~  December sample

I adore this image of Deacon as an elf and had fun colouring him.  I used a Couture Creations embossing folder and then sponged over the top with some red ink.  

Be sure to hop over to the blog and check out the rest of the inspiration.