Easter card for Archie

Hi there. I'm sharing my card for Archie...  I sent it early, but even so, with the COVID 19 it sill hasn't arrived.   I'm sure it will get there sometime.

I printed out the Bunny image (not 100% sure who produced this one) that I have in my files. I added the sentiment with the computer.  I used Prismacolor pencils to colour the image.  Then some simple layering and it was all done.

I saw some little videos Archie made, thanking me for getting the Easter Bunny to come from NZ to drop off an Easter Egg in a mug for him.  He was supposed to be here to celebrate Easter with me and next weekend have a birthday party with Nanny and Pop, Uncle Kieran and Aunty Erin and baby Grace.  He turns 4 on the 20th so was going to celebrate his birthday here in NZ.  But alas, COVID-19 stuck and we have to  just have a virtual party for him. 

I also got to have a wee video call with my son and Grace.  She is now 11 months old and taking a few steps.  Was nice to see her on the call.  She kept trying to touch me on the screen.  So precious.

Hope you have all had a safe Easter and been able to connect with family via the internet if you are quarantined/in lockdown and can't be with them.

WWC#214 Marsha's "All About Occasions" challenge

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Marsha is our hostess this week with an " All About Occasions" Challenge. 

 

I wanted an Easter card to send to my little Grandson.  I chose a digital image by "From The Heart" called Easter Trio that I have had for a number of year. ( Sadly, this company no longer exists)  

I printed the image and the matching sentiment onto my white card and used a rectangle die to cut it out.  I used my Prismacolour pencils to colour it in.  I then added to a creamy base for a quick CAS card.   A few spots of Spectrum Noir sparkle pen was all the embellishment it needed.

Come join in the fun.  Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenges have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.  You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at 1pm NZ time) to link up your project.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Happy Easter

It's Easter Sunday and I am wishing you all a Happy Easter.

I was asked to make a religious Easter card for a friend to send to her elderly aunt.  I made up two cards for her to choose from.

First card used some PP from Couture Creations as the base layer.  I the then stamped the cross by Inkadinkado onto some watercolour paper and cut out with a stitched oval die.  I coloured the stamping with Watercolour pencils.  I added some water to the background colouring. 

My second card also used stamps from the Inkadinkado set.  The embossing folder and the diffusser I used are by Inside Out Embossing plates and folder.  I used Copics to colour the image. 

My friend chose the first card and I gave the second on to the woman I sit next to.  She is very religious so loved it.  

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Easter Bunny is coming.

Easter is not too far away now... I don't make many Easter cards but just did one last night that I thought turned out rather cute...

 Doesn't he look adorable.  This is a digi image from "From the Heart"   I came across this site after seeing a card made by Carol (see it here)  There are some cute as images.

I have gone CAS as usual.  I printed the bunny onto the card then again onto another piece of card.  I sponged the first one with green and blue and yellow distress inks.  I did the colouring on the second print and fussy cut out the bunny and the eggs.   I also printed the sentiment that came with the digi stamp and used a MFT banner die to cut it out.  Love the fact I can resize the images and sentiments to fit my card. My only embellishment is some Secptrum Noir sparkle pen on the eggs , sun and the butterflies. 

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Whimsy Stamps - Spring colours or Easter
Simon Says stamp - Cute and cuddly
Digitally "Sweet" Challenge - Spring is in the Air 
Cute card Thursday - Easter

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your weekend. 

Somebunny Loves You.

Yesterday I saw this adorable card from my bloggy friend, Joy and it reminded me that I had the same digi image but just hadn't got around to printing it out and using.   So today I did just that... amongst a few other things!

I started by printing Wryn from Tiddly Inks at 90% - but it was too small for my card design, so reprinted at full size and much happier

I coloured Wryn with Copics and fussy cut her.  I found some pretty PP from a pack called "Japanica" by Rosie's Studio.  I cut it with a Lil Inker's rectangle die and then cut a white card circle with a Spellbinders nestibility. I made a bit of a mess of the sentiment, so had to make a save by white embossing it onto some black card.  

As I had already coloured and fussy cut the smaller image, I made up a mini (10.5cm x 7.5cm) card, using some of the PP I had cut for the first card.  

She looks very cute on this card.  I love the way you can change up the size of your images with digi stamps.   

I also took my crafting outside today.  Our weather has been superb lately.  A long late summer so it was too nice to stay in all day.  

 

I took some stencils, paints and inks outside and had a play.  Still have to make these up into cards.  Got a couple of ideas in mind.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope your weekend was full of crafty time.  I managed to get three cards done yesterday as well... some work for May's Die Cut Divas so awhile before I can share.  

Happy Easter @ Red Carpet Studio

I'm a bit late with my Red Carpet Studio post today, as I've only got back from my weekend away with my family.   We had an amazing three nights over on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf.  It took around 45 mins on the car ferry from Auckland city, but is like a world away.  The weather stayed beautiful, a few showers overnight, but great days with lots of sun.   I even made it into the water..... was very warm.

Anyway on to the challenge over at Red Carpet Studio.   As it's the 5th Saturday in the month, it's a combined card and LO challenge or you can make something other!   As long as it is Easter based project.

Our sponsor this week is Verve Stamps

and the Design team were lucky enough to get to work with a cute little set 

 

 I made a little gift tag and attached to a little bag of chocolates  and then made a card as well

This was a super cute set to work with and I used the sentiments on many of my Easter cards this year. 

Now I will leave you with a photo from yesterday morning, looking out from the deck of the bach we rented on the Island

Card exchanges....

There is nothing nicer than getting a home made card in the post.. so I always enjoy taking part in card exchanges....  Greta organised two over at the Love....Handmade cards, ATCs and other Crafts Flickr group and I took got to send cards to Canada and the Netherlands

First up is my card that went to Canada.  It was in a Religious Easter Card exchange

I used a Sizzix embossing folder and a Tim Holtz Diffuser.  I used some distress ink to sponge around the edges.  The cross and sentiment are from Inkadinkado.    And here is the inside

My second card was for the Secular Easter/Spring challenge and winged it's way to the Netherlands.  

I used a Penny Black cling stamp and a new Spellbinders Die. Had a bit of an issue with this.. Stamped the image, coloured it in and then went to die cut it....and DID NOT use wax paper.... BIG MISTAKE!!!.... the card tore and all sorts of tragic things. So re-stamped.... but it was not quite in the middle and when I die cut,  part of the little trolley got chomped.... so rather than start all over again, I simply fussy cut the first coloured image and laid it over the second image. Card saved.... Added a little Verve sentiment. (Note to self - for the third year running.... get some Easter sentiments!)

Today over at Die Cut Divas, I had the pleasure of sharing a video from Wendy Jones from Scottie Crafts.  Do hop over and have a look... she was highlighting Spellbinders De-Lite dies. Some incredibly beautiful cards and LO's from Wendy and the team there.

Had an incredibly relaxing weekend away.... only had my iPhone, so not much time on the internet.... took some printed images and my Copics and did a little colouring

 

Lots of practising for my little notebook and some images to make up into cards.

Thanks for persevering with my long post today... Wishing you all a happy week full of crafting fun.

 

The Easter Bunny is coming .

Today is the start of a new challenge over at Mygrafico and I chose to make a little gift box to hold some Easter Chocolates.

I used two sets from Shery K Designs,  

 and

and here is what I made

I started by printing the PP onto some light weight card and then put it through the printer again and printed the little gift bag.  I really like how Shery K Designs have the SVG patterns and JPEG for gift bag.  As I don't have an electronic cutter, I was able to print out and cut and fold the bag.   It is just big enough to fit two chocolates inside

The little Bunny with my gift bag is one I made a few years ago.  It's all hand sewn.

As usual this two week challenge is a "ANYTHING GOES" challenge.  If we have over 100 entries in our challenge we'll draw TWO winners...that's right the more people that play the more prizes we'll give away!!!

So...Please link directly to your newly created project (not just to your blog).  And depending on the number of participants there will be one or two winners this go round.  You will have until midnight, Sunday, March 24th to link up your project!

Happy Easter one and all

Hi everyone.  Hope your Easter is going well.  I am enjoying spending time with my friends, Michael and Yvonne, at their bach ( holiday home).  I'm sneaking some time on the Internet while the other's are doing some work around the house.  The weather is coolish today but was rather warm overnight...  yesterday was lovely, enough for the others to swim ~ but too cold for me.  I'm such a wooss when it comes to swimming in the sea.

I've managed a card earlier in the week, for the Hostess Same Stamp challenge over on the Flickr Hero Arts Group.  The hostesses all have "Antique Engravings" and challenged each other and us, to use it .  I had popped into my LSS on Wednesday and saw a sample card from Jill on display and loved it so thought I'd recreated it as best I could.

EDITED:
REMOVED FROM THE BLOG AS THE LSS WAS OFFENDED THAT I RECREATED THEIR SAMPLE - PLEASE NOTE THAT WAS NEVER MY INTENTION AND I APOLOGISE FOR ANY OFFENCE CAUSED.

I did another one for my DT challenge for June... so you'll just have to keep guessing what it looks like till then.   It's hard to make cards so far in advance of the date I can share with you.  But I'm loving being on the team.  Please do join me at Simply Scrapping Crafts and join a few of the amazing groups there.

Well. I've been sprung.... so I better sign off and go help with doing some stuff round the house.  The guys are putting up some fascia on the garage and Yvonne is doing some work in the bedrooms.  Getting them ready for painting I think.  Enjoy the rest of your Easter weekend.

Dawn

All things adorable.....

I've been working on some more Easter cards... another Mimi and one with some fabulous patterned paper I found in a magazine last Easter.   Both are so cute and adorable I have entered them into Wee Memories "all things adorable" challenge here

First off is the Mimi card... Mimi in her cute bunny suit.  The card was inspired by this one by Joy.

I CASE'd Joy's design as it is such a beautiful CAS.  I paper pieced Mimi and cut her out and then popped her onto the base card which I had used my computer to generate the sentiment ( Note to self: need Easter greetings stamps)  Added some PP and some hearts and pearls and a bit of glitter to her tail. 

This next one was a really quick card I made for Die Cut Diva's challenge ( here) Paula set a recipe.... ribbon, ink, die cut or embossing and 2 embellishments.   There are no stamps on this one...

so where's the ink you might ask!!!!  Well I distressed the edges of the card with some Spun Sugar distress ink.   The edging of the centre panel is cut with an Ezcut paper die ( made by Sullivans)   The paper is from a magazine from last Easter. Ribbon was given to me from a lady at work who cut all the bits of her clothes! and the two gems are my embellishment.  I cut out one of the bunny's and popped it up and then used some glossy accents on it's ears and the flowers.

I've been working on a card for my Mum for Mother's Day.  I'll share once she gets it in a week or two.    Wishing you all a good week and a great Easter.... God's blessing to those of you who celebrate  Easter and to those who don't, enjoy spending time with your families.

Dawn

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... 

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

Bunnies and Hydrangeas.

Yesterday I managed to start a couple of cards that I finished off this afternoon.... (came home early - things got a bit stressful at work... more about that later in the week)

First off I won Boris the Bunny from Jane's Doodles on Squiigglefly.  He is really sweet and just right for Easter.  I love these digital stamps as you can print them out whatever size you want very quickly.  I decided to do something little...

 Isn't he cute!!!!  I coloured him in (not that you can see the white) and added Kindyglitz over his nose and ears.  I added a bit of glossy accents to the flowers.  The whole card is 3.75 inches square.  Just a perfect little Easter card.

Next I inked up another new Hero Arts stamp - The Hydrangea.  It is a delightful stamp, so easy to colour.  I choose purple for my flower - although the ones still flowering in my garden are pinks.... but I love the deep purple/blue ones the best.

I used watercolour pencils and a Tombow clear blending pen to colour in the flower. I used the biggest of my Label 1 nesties to cut the flower out and sponge some Momento Sweet Plum ink round the edge.  I then traced round the outside of the nestie to cut out the matting.  Added the sentiment in the plum ink. I found some bigger cream cards in my stash and cut one down to 4 3/4 inches square.  I love how this turned out.  I'll be making some more of this one in different colours - I'm even going to try Nancy's trompe-l’oeil technique using this stamp.

Thanks for stopping by.. hope you week goes well..... Take care

Easter Catchup

Well Easter has been and gone. I can't believe how much of the years has gone by. Am I getting old... time seems to disappear. Had a very pleasant Easter break.

Decided to make my own Easter buns this year, so got out the bread maker and started making them. Of course the phone rings half way through getting the ingredients into the pan ( in the right order). It was my daughter... so carried on chatting to her and putting the stuff in the pan..... only to turn it on and suddenly realised I HADN'T put in the yeast....... luckily only about 2 mins of the first kneading had happened so sprinkled the yeast in.... what delicious buns they turned out... I was impressed with myself..... ( but then the breadmaker did all the hard work - all I did was take out the dough and handshape it) I did make the crosses as well - used a different recipe for those this time and it was perfect. Took them over to Emma's after church on Sunday morning....and helped out with painting some of the outside of her house. First time I've been allowed to paint.... hubby always said I couldn't do it.... but I managed.

I did get some time to make some cards. One is for Caardvarks Fantasy Challenge.


I used an image I had from the Internet... not even sure where I got it now and used my Nestibilites to cut the label and the mat for it. I stamped and embossed a crown in the corner and stamped the words and the scroll. Ribbon and some gems to finish. It is for my neice for her birthday. She ues to call herself Princess Sasha when she was younger.

The other card is a mosaic one I did using a piece of background double CB'd and inked that I did a few weeks ago. I cut out little triangle peices and layered them onto the background after putting the focal sentiment. I used a peice of Kwik Clear ( double sided mounting film) so that the spaces were still sticky. I then used black micro glitter to act as the "grouting" Thought this would make a good masculine card.

Back to work today.... need to earn the $ so I can spend on my stash....

Just had a break.... and went and booked our trip to Cairns in Sept. We head over on the 18th Sept for 9 days.. looking forward to it. Plus I'm looking at flights for my parents to come over for Christmas.... they live on the Gold Coast in Australia. It will be great as I haven't had a Christmas with them since the children were much younger.

Well Thanks for looking. Have a great day

That Darn Cat...

For the second time in as many weeks this little ratbag bought in vermin... yes Snoopy bought in another mouse early yesterday morning. About 6.20am I heard him racing up and down the hall but couldn't be bothered getting up as it was too early. Heard the son get up about 6.30 and unusually go into the kitchen, got a rubbish bag and went out again, poking his head round our door shortly there after - to ask how he got blood off the carpet.... and to say he's disposed of the half eaten mouse.....ugh!!!! Better him than me though.

Snoopy actually belong to our daughter, but lives with us. She got him 3 years ago for her 20th birthday from her then boyfriend.... (partner now not so keen on cats) He is really a cat with character. He is rather large cat, who as well as being a hunter/gatherer is also a bit of a kleptomaniac..... yes that's right, he is a "cat burgler".... a bit choosy as he has only decided to take stuff from one household. On a regular basis he arrives home with swim togs, rash shirts, caps, dolls and toys etc, all from the neighbour across the driveway from us. So once a week I will take an assortment of bits and peice back to Natalie - and she knows if the kids togs are missing, they'll be at our house. (PS Have tried to show him pics of jewellery but no avail, he's only keen on the other stuff. ) I think Emma named it well as he really is a snoopy cat. As a kitten he was into everything. Love climbing into boxes, cupboards, anywhere he shouldn't have been. She had thought about calling him Nosey but decided on Snoopy. Hubby calls him "the dog" as Snoops follows him around all day on a Saturday when he's outside doing his gardening etc.

Photo of him isn't the best, but today we had a lot of sun and he would'nt sit still for me. Thank goodness for the nice weather as I had all that washing to catch up on. Got 4 loads done, but the downside to all that washing is now I have a whole heap of ironing to do and I've only just caught up on the last lot. I HATE ironing, so do my crafts stuff instead and then end up with about 2 weeks worth to do at one time.

Today is Good Friday so have had a peaceful day. My son and his girlfriend have headed off for the weekend so Peter and I are "Darby & Joan" for a few days. I managed to get the housework done, while he surfed the net looking for accomodation for us when we go for our trip to Australia later in the year. We are going to Cairns in Sept as he has an "old Farts" rugby tournament and then we will spend some time up there. As the weather was so lovely I decided to go for a walk. One hour later I got back after going over the cliff path to the next bay and then walking up and down the hills back. Felt really good so didn't feel guilty about doing a card before cooking dinner. Yesterday I had been to Spotlight and got some felt which I cut with my Cuttlebug into flowers. I have never done this before so was pleasently suprised how well it went. I stamped then with a HA stamp - Old French writing. I used a real mixture of stamps on this one. The flourish is by Inkadinkadoo and the grid by Rubadubadoo ( a NZ based stamp maker)
I used a nestibilty to make the oval scallop and white embossed the sentiment from HA CL129 Anytime Messages. I liked how the felts went so will be making a few more of these to have as ebellishments. As I used the sketch from CPS I have linked it to their site for the challenge. I love this sketch and think I'll be using it again and again.

Well I have one more card to finish off before tomorrow. One that has been commissioned by my gym instructor for her friend's 50th.
Hope you all have a lovely Easter and may God Bless us all at this time of hope and joy.
Thanks for stopping by and reading this rather long post... take care