You make life beautiful -

 Took advantage of my non-working day yesterday to have a play.   I had done the housework first thing, and then travelled about 20 minutes to got to the Outlet Sports Shoe shops to get some new walking shoes and then had time in the craft room. 

Grace had been playing with some watercolour powders when Pop was looking after her on Thursday (the long summer school holidays here in NZ) and she made several sheets of mixed colours.  One of which was a vibrant mixture of purples, blues and greens.  Very rich looking and they inspired this card

.

Isn't it a stunning colour.  I used Altenew Pitcher Vases die and embossing folder set to cut out the pitcher.  In real life, the shimmer is incredible.  I chose to have just a single flower - Altenew Petite Mountain Aven die.   I cut it from some Lawn Fawn Pearlescent cardstock. I added some colour with alcohol markers for the centre.  Cut the leaves with some dark green card and added a couple of die cut twigs from Altenew - Charming Foliage - that did get a bit of pruning first.  I decided to keep the background simple and did a little partial embossing with Altenew's Dotty Circles 3D folder and added a thin strip of gold across the edge.  Trimmed a 1/4 inch off one side and added to my card with a strip of the some card I used for the pitcher.  And die cut some dots to add as embellishment.  The sentiment was one I had in my stash from Pinkfresh - Peony Glow stamp and die set.

I am entering this into the Time Out challenge - A favourite card making technique   in my case - two favourites - 3D embossing and die cutting and a bonus - using homemade dots for embellishments 

Summer has forgotten us here in NZ... The whole country has had some horrendous stormy, wet weather - lots of floods and slips - an unfortunately lose of life.  Two people died when a slip ploughed through their home and in a beach town a few hours south of here, 6 people have been caught in a large slip which came down on a camping ground, demolishing an ablutions block, tents, caravans.   This was on Friday and it is now a "recovery" operation.   Very very sad times.  

  

Lawn Fawn Critters

 Wow where has November gone!!!!  Less than 4 weeks till Christmas.     Today I'm sharing my DT card for Die Cut Divas.   

Our November challenge is CRITTERS

Our sponsor this month is Lawn Fawn. They will be giving our winner a $25 gift card to their online store. Thank you to Lawn Fawn for their generous support.

Today I have a birthday card - for a friend's upcoming birthday. 

Aren't these little Parrots so cute!  And that sentiment!!!! The stamp and die set is called Year Twelve.  My Background was stamped in a mid grey ink from Altenew and used a woodblock stamp Happy Birthday background from a now defunct NZ company called Rubbadubdado .  I die cut it with a Gina K Master Layout and added a wider border.  Found some fun striped paper and cut it to a panel to add to the background.   Stamped the stentiment and die cut with a banner die (did a little die surgery as the original die was a bit short.   Stamped and clear embossed the parrots and used my Zig Markers to add colour before die cutting them.  Added the black dots to finish it off.   

And I decorated inside 

This set is so sweet.    

We'd love to see your CRITTER creations in our gallery this month - you have till 9.00pm USA Pacific time to enter.  . Click here to add your card to our gallery.  Just remember to use at least one die cut or embossing folder must be used. 

Paper Mug for Christmas

 Hi it's my time to share at Die Cut Divas - our sponsor this month is Lawn Fawn and our challenge is Critters.  

My project today is a sweet little Christmas Mug 

I saw this video on You Tube by Christy Gets Crafty - Isn't this a cute little gift Mug.   It used two sheets of 6" patterned paper.    It's really easy to follow Christy video.  I die cut the tag from a Spellbinders die set and stamped the sentiment from Lawn Fawn - Cozy Cats Christmas Add on.  Stamped the little Kitty, his antlers and the present onto some scrap white card.  I used alcohol markers to add colour and die cut them out before adding to the tag.   Had fun making this and I'm sure I'll be doing some more - adding some chocolates as a gift. 

Do come and join us at Die Cut Divas with Critters and don't forget to use your die cut machine.  

Love is in the air... at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

 I completely forgot that I was due to post my card for Sweet Stampin' Challenge.    So I had to run into the craft room about an hour or so ago.  I already had an idea in my mind, thinking it was next Saturday that I needed my card for.   I was child minding again yesterday - spending time crafting again!!  Stenciling was the order of the day.  Grace really loved doing this.  And made a beautiful card - which I forgot to take a photo of - she has a great eye for colours. 

Anyhoo.... here is the card I made.

I had been to Kmart this afternoon and picked up a pack of red and pink card bases.   I trimmed the front of a red one and used a Couture Creations embossing folder - Peacock Fans,   I die cut lots of hearts from a Lawn Fawn set called Candy Hearts.  I made a little envelope using my WRMK envelope board.  I added the hearts coming out of it.  Added a die cut bow and a little sentiment from a Gina K stamp and die set - Blooming Butterfly.   

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' Challenge 

Christmas cards at Card Makers Success Summit - Aug 2024

 There is an upcoming Card Makers Success Summit starting 8 August - 11 August.   It's free - but each presentation is only available for 24 hours... however you can purchase a life time VIP pass that allows early access to the presentations.  Great for me as I work full time and the presentation times are usually the middle of my night.   And it's a perfect theme - Christmas/Holiday cards.   Just the thing to spark some Christmas card making.  

So I've been watching a few of the videos and made a couple of cards.   I was inspired by the presentation by Ardyth Percy-Robb (Mod Merry Christmas Cards with Minimal Supplies) where she used her own homemade stencils amongst other ideas.   Ardyth took some post-it's and cut some pointy ovals to make some ornaments.   Well, I will tell you - mine turned out terrible - so I adapted the idea a bit... I took a sweet little ornament die and made myself a stencil with some masking paper.  

The die I used was from a Catherine Pooler stamp and die set- Wonderful time of the Year.  I used the dies to make the stencils and then used  Altenew's Coral Berry, Ultramarine and whatever the green ink was on my blending brush on a 4"x 4" panel.   I used the little ornament topper from the set - stamped in Charcoal Suit grey ink and also the little star on the ornament. I added some little metallic pearls as embellishments. Stamped the sentiment from Waffle Flower Star Snowflake set in the grey ink as well.   I used a grey alcohol marker to add dots around the edge and layered the panel onto some grey card.  Added to a 5.5" square card base.   

And my second card was inspired by Therese Calvird (Unlock Basic Shapes to make FUN & EASY Holiday Cards) where she used basic circles, rectangles etc to make some cards.  Both her cards used circles to make a Snowman.  One was a big snowman and the other a smaller one inside a snow globe.

I remembered I had a polaroid stamp in a Lawn Fawn Set so the idea came to put the snow man in the frame.   I stamped the image from Say Cheese set (currently sold out).  I don't have the die so fussy cut the frame and cut out the centre.  Went around all the edges with a black marker.  I cut some circles from a Spellbinders Nestibilities dies in white to make the body, used a long thin rectangle die from MFT for his hat and two circle dies cut together to make the scarf from some card I had coloured with a Copic marker.  Two tiny triangles made the ends,  A snippet of orange coloured card made his nose and some green shapes cut for leaves.  A bit of white pen to add veins and they became my holly. Added red gems for the berries, black gems for his eyes and some dark grey enamel dots for the buttons on this body. His mouth was a few black dots with a Sharpie marker.  Made a blue blended piece with some white spray and some dots of the white pen for snow.   Layered my snowman behind the opening and added the blue panel behind.   Used another sentiment from the Waffle Flower Star Snowflake set added on the frame.   Found some pretty glittery snowflake patterned paper to add to my card base and then added the polaroid frame on a jaunty angle.

I can see myself making a few more of that sweet snowman and the ornament card.  

I've watched a few more presentations and got two more cards made - still to take photos.   Can't wait to watch some more presentations and get some more ideas.  

Hello Sunshine - with Lawn Fawn

Here it is the last day of March... where has the time gone. And Happy Easter to you all...  I'm getting ready to head off for just over two weeks in Perth with the family... travelling on the 4th April and getting back early on the 20th...

Any whoo... last day of the month means I share my Die Cut Divas card for a last inspiration.

We are delighted to have Lawn Fawn sponsor Die Cut Divas for the month of March with a $25 gift card.

The theme for this month is "Anything Goes"

I'm using the same stamp and die set I used for my previous Die Cut Divas... Magical Moments.   One of the stamps is "Hello Sunshine" so decided to use some of the left over PP from the last card and other scraps from my growing pile... to make a Sunburst card....

I added tape to a piece of light weight card and after trimming my scraps into triangle shapes, added then to the card.  Once I trimmed the overhanging pieces I used a We Are Memory Keepers 3D folder for a subtle texture.  I added the die cut circle with the sentiment stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink- using some 3D tape for dimension.   A few Nuvo confetti - Iridescent Circles finished off the card.

Still a little while to entry our challenge at Die Cut Divas 

Dawn & The Divas

Sending a BIG Hug with Lawn Fawn

 It's time for me to share my inspiration card for this month's challenge at Die Cut Divas.... 

We are delighted to have Lawn Fawn sponsor Die Cut Divas for the month of March with a $25 gift card.

The theme for this month is "Anything Goes"

I recently purchased a Lawn Fawn stamp and matching die set called "Magic Moments" - It's a great set with some awesome sentiments.   I chose to use the Fractured card technique - anything to use up some patterned paper.   

I used a piece of PP from Franceville's Tropical Daintree pack and cut it 4" x 5.25".  My centre was a 1.5" square. I used the reverse of the piece of PP to make my stripes with added silver Peelcraft lines.  I used the Lawn Fawn stamp and die set to cut the centre circle and backed it with a die cut doily from MFT - Die Namics - Dainty Duo.  Finished with some Altenew enamel dots from the Green Fields set. 

Do come and join us at Die Cut Divas   with you projects.  Just a reminder to use you die cut machine!

Dawn & The Divas.

Craft Roulette #206

 I managed to see the Craft Roulette show live yesterday ... 

Great parameters this week!  So much so I made two cards!   

Here's the one I made yesterday and submitted to the challenge

I started by making my background.   I was inspired by a video from Natasha Foote  - making a background with just one ink.... mine was a very old Hero Arts ink called Cup o' Joe.  I've had it for around 10 years.., and it still going well.   I smooshed it onto my craft mat and spritzed with water and dipped my Fabriano 160gms paper.  Dried and dipped again.  Then using a couple of lids to stamp circles and used a Catherine Pooler stamp set - Birds of a Feather to added some script and the Love postage stamp. Vintage colours ✓   I added a lace border using a Hero Arts wooden stamp called Lace Flower Cluster embossed with Ranger Vintage Pearl powder. - Lace on the Base ✓  It wasn't showing up so well... I added some extra ink blending to make it stand out.  Gave the background a bit of an ombre look.  I die cut a leaf cluster from the Fabriano paper with a Pinkfresh Curvy Leaves die.  I added a little bit of ink blending to the leaves.  That is my plant element.✓  My sentiment is from a Lawn Fawn stamp and die set - Magic Messages.   Again cut with the Fabriano paper and ink blended.  

Finally added a some little Hero Arts gems hearts to the centre flowers of my lace - Heart element ✓

And today - I made this one...

I've been seeing lots of cards using a birdcage and flowers... so that was my inspiration.  My patterned paper gave me a vintage vibe.  It was an A4 size so I cut it down into a 4" x 5.25" panel.  ✓  Used the same lace stamp and embossed it with the Vintage Pearl powder, ✓I have a very old Tim Holtz/Sizzix Bigz Die of a birdcage and bird.  I used some of the Fabriano paper ( it's a lovely light cream colour) to cut the die.  Added some gold gems along the bottom of the birdcage and a little bow from a bit of burlap.  My little grey heart from Altenew is added just under the bow ✓  And finally my plant element is the flowers and leaves.✓  The big green leaves are the Pinkfresh Curvy Leaves and the flowers are from the Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms.   I had them cut from some water colour paper and used Jasart Voyager Metallic paints to colour them.   I added a pre-printed sentiment from Creative Expressions - Everyday Wordies.

It was such a fun card to make.  I did some earlier in the day and the hubby and I meet up with our son and Grace at our local pub - The British Isles Inn just up the hill from us.  The boys had their glass of Guiness - to celebrate St Patrick's Day!  The pub was quite full of people dressed in green.  And there was a bank singing Irish songs.  Grace loved the music.   Florence didn't come with them as she is - unwell... ear infection and chest infection - poor wee mite.

Happy St Patrick Day 

Valentine wreath.

 It's the last day of the month, so time to share my card for Die Cut Divas.   Our theme is month is Valentines... and we have an awesome new sponsor, none other than Lawn Fawn!

I have used Lawn Fawn's Candy Heart's die together with an Altenew wreath stamp and die set. 

I added a little love die cut sentiment to finish it off.   Love the soft pink and blues together.  

Thanks for visiting.  

Be my Valentine

Hi there, it's my day to share a card for the January challenge at Die Cut Divas,

 We have an awesome new sponsor, none other than Lawn Fawn!

The challenge is Valentines - make a project for Valentine's Day

And the prize - Lawn Fawn is providing a $25 gift card.

I picked up a cute Lawn Fawn die set just before Christmas.   So here's what I did 

The die set "Candy Hearts" is super cute.   I die cut the sentiment dies in different tones and shades of purple.  I die cut the plain layer with white card and the the IOU from red so I could layer in the red heart.  I found some pretty patterned paper and used another shade of purple for the lower part of the card.   I used a sentiment from a Clearly Besotted stamp set.  I decided it needed a little something more so die cut a Spellbinder's edge die and added some gems along the top.  

We would love to have you join us at Die Cut Divas. 

My own personal craft retreat

WARNING: PHOTO HEAVY POST

This weekend was the Mangawhai Walking Weekend and my hubby and our friends went on a four hour tramp.  my knees can't handle the hills so I set myself up on three dinning table for my own private craft Retreat!

I started crafting at 8.45am and was still going good at 2.00pm when they arrived back.  got a total of 8 cards done.  One for an upcoming DT post and 7 just for fun Cards!

So here the are!
First up is wanted to try out the technique theater Jennifer McGuire did with veramark and Perfect Pearls.  I used a very dark blue base.   I used an Altenew stamps and then heat embossed the sentiment in white.  looking  good then I flipped to mark where I wanted to trim, did so and then when I flipped it back, I'd chopped off the last letter of the sentiment!  Urrrgh. Here's how I saved it

Next I tried the same technique but with Gold Perfect Pearls

 My next two cards in involved masking and sponging.  I die cut a circle with a Simon Says Stamp die and used both the positive and negative parts.   The positive circle was temporarily glued to the card and then start pedal with the goose half on and half off.  the entire masked the goose and did the sponging.

Entering this one into the Circle challenge at Crafting When We Can. 

For this one I sponged through the negative space as a mask

The goose is from a Stampin' Up and the Lighthouse is an Altenew set with a Rosie's Studio sentiment.

After a quick sandwich I got onto some pencil colouring using Altenew stamps and Faber-Castell pencils and Gamsol.

Next was to use a panel I'd made last week to make a card.

And finally a card I made a card for the Lawn fawn challenge

I made this one to entry into the new Lawn Fawnatics Challenge blog... I don't have many Lawn Fawn stamps but this one has been in my stash for sometime and never been used!   Some more masking of the little clouds and the balloon.

Thanks for staying long enough to reach this point I appreciate it.

Hope your weekend was a good as mine.

It's time for a Vacation over at Die Cut Divas.

First of August... so time for a new challenge at Die Cut Divas.     Our theme this month is Summer Vacations and our sponsor is Simply B stamps

For me it's was fun in the middle of winter, to think about making a summer card.  To me, summer holidays are all about going to the beach and taking lots of photos, so my card covers these both

I've used Sunhat Betty Munster from Simply B and used a Lawn Fawn Polaroid die and a Simon Says Stamp sentiment die.  My background PP is some of the Kaisercraft paper I had from a couple of months ago.

So come and join us this month with your projects inspired by Summer Vacations. 

It's All About ME!!!....

Yes.. I'm the guest over at Die Cut Divas this month.  Paula has interview me and you can read all about me there.   I made a couple of cards for her to show, both using images from this month's sponsor.

 My first card uses the gorgeous girl with some WPlus9 flowers and leaves stamps and dies.

My second card used a Lawn Fawn polaroid die with a little bit extra added to the bottom.  The ribbon hides the join.

So please pop over to the blog to find out a bit more about ME.

Today was Week 4 weight in for our Biggest Loser challenge at work.   I'm down 3.5kgs (that's almost 8lbs) and coming in 3rd in the challenge.  Two more weeks to go so it's all out now.  More exercise and less food intake.  Tonight I made cauliflower rice (grated cooked cauliflower) as a low-carb alternative to white rice with my Thai chicken curry.   Life is looking good!

Thanks for visiting.

Christmas in July Blog Hop

Edited:  I'm having an issue with blogger.  If you can't leave a comment, please head over to the Red Carpet Studio's site and leave a comment there, that you came here 

Just because there's not snow on the ground, doesn't mean Christmas can't be celebrated a few months early! Happy Christmas in July, everyone, and welcome to Red Carpet Studio's Christmas in July blog hop!

If you're unfamiliar with Red Carpet Studio, we're a challenge blog that challenges crafters to create projects inspired by movies! Right now we offer alternating weekly card and layout challenges, but starting in September we'll be opening up our challenges to any types of projects that fit our theme, as well as extending the duration of the challenges to biweekly to give you awesome crafters more time to create and play along! We're also having a design team call!

Now onto my project..

Being that we are inspired by movies.... my card was inspired by the 1954 short film ~ Frosty the Snowman.

My Frosty is a digital image from Crafty Sentiments Design.  I used a Lawn Fawn Polaroid die to cut the red frame.  As I wanted it a bit longer, I trimmed a bit more of the red card and covered the join with the ribbon which also served as my sentiment.  My background PP is from the Christmas paper pad by My Mind's Eye.  I used a punch to make the snowflake and added a pale blue gem 

And of course we have some wonderful sponsors giving away gifts to those who are a follower of Red Carpet Studio (either through Google Reader or Blog Lovin') and comment on EVERY stop of the hop!

Miriam's Crafting Supplies

$5 Gift Certificate

Designs on Cloud 9

$10 Gift Certificate

Eureka Stamps

5 Digis of Winner's Choice

Winners will be randomly chosen and announced on Tuesday July 23rd along with the winners of our Action Wobble challenge!

Your next stop is Rochelle's blog.

Red Carpet Studio

Tonya

Robin

Kim

Dawn

Rochelle

Darcy

Chas

Stephanie

Anneliese

Happy Hopping!

Boys and Men over at Die Cut Divas.

I've been away for a few days with NO internet :-(  Had withdrawal symptoms. 

And while I was away, Die Cut Divas started a new challenge.....The most talented Hannah has decided the theme Masculine cards.... for big or little guys!   And guess who we've got as our sponsor...  none other than the incredible Lawn Fawn

Hannah has interviewed the fantastic Kelly Marie Alvarez ~ see her interview HERE

I don't have many Lawn Fawn stamps but do have the "Say Cheese" stamp set and the matching die. So I decided to see what I could do....

 

As you can see I used the stamp and die to make the Polaroid frame.  I used a Sullivan's stamp for my unfortunate fisherman.   The "say cheese" sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn set, the "father's day" is from Stamp It and the "Happy" die is from Simon Says.  The PP is from a MME pack.   

I'm also entering this into A blog Named Hero's Mans challenge. 

So we'd love to see your Masculine cards ~ just remember to use your die machine... to emboss or die cut something on your project.

And I thought I'd just share how I spend Sunday afternoon...  a very pleasant early winter's day spent at Te Aria Point. 

Reading my Kindle laying on the beach

 watching a surfer heading out

and looking up at the Point...

We had a lovely long weekend at the beach with two stunning early winter's day.   Now it's back to work tomorrow. 

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

 

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.   

 

You constantly surprise me!

I'm talking about my son.... He has grown to be a wonderful young man and he is always keen to try different things.  He has recently taken up horse riding and is learning how to jump... His girlfriend has two horses and he has been exercising one for her.  A couple of weeks ago she took a stunning photo of him on his third time jumping.... going over a  1 metre jump ( around 3ft).   This week I got some new stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn and Simon Says Stamp! and decided to make him a card....

I printed off a copy of the photo from his Facebook page and using the Lawn Fawn, "Say Cheese" Polaroid die cut the photo and a white frame.  Used the sentiment from the set.  My background was plain green and looked a bit whissy washy, so added some dots with an older Hero Arts background and some Mowed Lawn distress.  The banner and sentiment are both from Simon Says Stamp.   

I gave this to him this morning and he loved it.  I had a great chat over a cup of coffee with him when he came to collect his mail.  He is such a lovely person, I am very proud of how he has turned out.  

And just a quick note for those of my American friends who did not know what "chuffed" meant...

So that will explain why I was chuffed!

Thanks for visiting today.  I'm off to entertain guests for dinner... Don't you just love hubbies who invite friends around for a barbeque at 4.00pm ~ luckily they are bringing their own dinner to cook!!!!  Thanks goodness they are really good friends!