Alcohol ink and foil.........

A great combination!  Over at Our Creative Corner last week that was Sue's challenge.... and guess what!  I made the Top Talent.   Very exciting.  So here is the card I made

I found a silver foil doily in my stash and got out my alcohol inks.  I used a purple, a blue and a green mixture and coloured the doily. I chose a purplish card for my background and embossed it with a Spellbinders M-bossiblities folder.  The Santa is on a La Blanche stamp.  I just inked up Santa and punched him out.  Edged with my 2.5mm gold Calligraphy pen as I did around the sentiment.  This worked well as I hand cut around the stamp.  I matted it onto the some brown dotted PP and then onto a cream card base.   I was really pleased with the result.    And to win was even better!  Thanks Sue.

Thanks everyone for visiting.  Hope I have inspired you to pull out your alcohol inks and give them an outing!

Dawn 

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

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 

More Butterflies.

I really LOVE butterflies.... so Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger really called to me.....here's the inspiration photo

In my tidy up the other day I came across some punched butterflies.   If I have a background I don't like or it didn't go well, I will punch out flowers or butterflies.  I'm not sure why I did this with the background I had.... but I had a whole bunch of butterflies.

They reminded me of a waterfall of butterflies.  I just added lots of the butterflies to a piece of PP from MME that I had on my desk.  It has a subtle doily pattern.    I used a coral card from Rosies Studio as my base.  The sentiment is from Kaisercraft.

I had such fun putting this together.   I have also entered this one into Our Creative Corner's Challenge ~ Butterflies.

Tomorrow is a Public Holiday in NZ and Australia to celebrate Anzac Day.  It honours the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli during World War I.  My hubby will be getting up super early to attend the Dawn Service at the local RSA (Return Serviceman's Association).   I'm planning a quiet day, doing some card making.  I might try some submissions for Papercrafts Mag.   Christmas cards in April!

Have a great week

Dawn

Black and White and a Splash of Colour.....

My friend, Sue, is on the Design Team over at Our Creative Corner.  I saw her working on her card for this week's challenge.  She did an amazing card that you can see over at OCC.  So I decided I need to join in...B&W with a splash of colour... always a favourite of mine...

For my splash of colour, I chose a pretty bright coral pink ..... starting with the card base.  For my bold black and white panel I chose black card and white embossed Hero Arts Leaf and Floral background.  So pleased with the look I got.  Then I die cut a little butterfly and added some depth of colour with Worn Lipstick distress stain.  I used the stain to ink up the Hero Arts sentiment as well.  Finished with some black gems on the banner and butterfly.  Very happy with this one!  Always a bonus when you are pleased with the outcome!

Hubby is off to Sydney again today... up at 4.00am this morning and back again tomorrow night late.   So I get to control the Remote tonight.... watching Masterchef NZ.  It's the first episode.  Should be a great series this year as they seem to have a real variety of contestants.  Then my favourite - NCIS.   So that half made card will have to wait till tomorrow to get finished.

Take care
Dawn

Paper Pieced Dogwood.

Yesterday while looking through Flickr I saw a delightful card by Greta (here) that she had done for a challenge over at Ellen Hutson's The CLASSroom ~  Hero Arts Wood Take and Make.  To take part you had to use a Hero Arts wood stamp and then show it in the photograph of your card.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do as I was thinking of something to enter in Our Creative Corner's "Paper piecing with a Twist".   So here's the card I made....

I stamped the Dogwood onto some cream cardstock with Peeled Paint distress ink.    Then stamped it again in black ink on some pink PP from My Minds Eye and cut them out.   I added a little colour with a marker pen and added to my card with a pop dot in the centre and stuck down around the edge.  The Twist part of OCC was NO RIBBON and ONE EMBELLISHMENT so my one embellishment was to use Enamel Accents on the centre of the flower.  I distressed the edge of the panel with some Antique Linen ink and then layered onto a lighter cream base.  Still a bit CAS. The sentiment is an older one from Hero Arts as well.  I am pleased with the result.

Thanks for visiting.  Have a great week.
Dawn

Mami Doodles Guest Designer call....

Over at Mami Doodles, Elisa is looking for some more guest designers for the rest of the year.  She has provided this adorable digi stamp called Lil' Rosie to use.... and free for anyone else who wants it!!!  I thought I'd give it a shot.... Elisa - not available Sept but okay for the rest of the year  ( if I make it!!!)

I printed out Lil' Rosie and coloured her with Pearlescent paints.  Gives a lovely shimmery look.  Next I took some PP ( Rosie's Studio) and punched the lacy scallop along the bottom.  Added the ribbon and mounted it onto the square blue base.  Embossed some purple card with a Sizzix folder and then cut out the scallop with a Spellbinders die. I popped Lil' Rosie onto the edge so it looked like she was sitting there.  Add the sentiment from Hero Arts as a banner.  The design for this card is based on this sketch from Card Patterns.
I'm also entering it for Our Creative Corner - challenge is to use embossing.  And Hero Arts - Keeping in Touch challenge.  Not bad for one card!!!!

Having the kids and partners round for dinner tonight so a lovely big roast of Pork in the oven and an Apple and Plum pie cooling on the bench.... smells yummy in my house.

Cheers to you all.

Super Saturday and ANZAC day Sunday

Today is ANZAC day here in New Zealand and Australia.  It is the day we remember our ancestors who served and died at Gallipoli in Turkey during the First World War and all the other service men and women who have served in all the other wars.  This morning my hubby was up at 5.30 to go to the Dawn Service at our local cenotaph in Browns Bay.  He goes as his late Father served in World War II.   Me - I stay in bed and think about them.

Yesterday was a SUPER day... in the end there were only 4 of us stamping... but oh what fun.  We had plenty of room to spread out.  Must admit if everyone had made it, it would have been a bit cramped....We started just after 10.15am and finished round 4.30pm.  It was a lovely warm day so had the door to outside open, the sun was shinning in and we got to sit outside under the umbrella for our lunch.  Unfortunately no photos as my camera was playing up... ( blond moment and I didn't check the batteries till this morning!!!!)
I had a great day... finally finished the swap pins for Stamp Camp next weekend, got some more quilted pieces done and a card made with one, as well as an easel card - instructions from Sue.... then later in the evening got two more cards finished.

  The swap pins are a series of 4 stamps that I have done various colour schemes on, using a variety of colouring mediums - water colour pencils, aqua crayons and markers.
My teddy card used paper I had downloaded from Gina K's Peachy Keen collection available for free here. I coloured in the Teddy ( which was one the lovely Anne had sent me before I bought the stamp) with Distress ink - Walnut Stain and some peachy aqua crayon.  Welcome baby is a Stampin'Up stamp.

The easel card is made with a frame ( cut out with a nestie) and folded over the central image  I stamped on some of the left over Peachy Keen paper, with some Stampin'Up Pocket Silhouette stamps in Dusty Concord and Walnut Stain distress inks.  Sentiment also by Stampin'up.

Next was a quick card as I had the background already - I made it the other night when I was using my Impressibilities - used it as a stencil and sponged the Tattered Rose ink over it.  Made a flower ( a la Dawn McVey) with some computer paper inked with the Tattered Rose and cut out with a Dahlia die from Spellbinders and crumpled. Sentiment by Stamp-It ( this one is for SIL whose birthday is next week)  Plus entering into OCC challenge this week - Blossoms)

And finally - the last card is for The Play Date Cafe's latest challenge - colours to use: Silver or Gray, Clay, Cream and Turquoise.  Think it fits the bill.  I used my new Borderabilites to make the scallop, a new set of stamps from Fiskars for the flower ( coloured with water coloured pencil) sentiment from Stampin'Up ( stamped in Potters Clay ink from Momento) and ribbon from my stash ( not sure where it came from)

Whew!!!!  If you made it through that lot, thanks heaps~  I do appreciate my followers and commenters.  You make my day.
Hope you week is great.  Take care

Butterflies galore....

I love butterflies.... I have so many different butterfly stamps but couldn't resist just one more!!!!  Hero Arts Antique Engravings was just in at Stamp'n'create...so I had to have it!!!!  I had resisted for a while... but the urge was too great.... so now it's here and I've used it a couple of times...  While at the store, they also had some new papers.... now I'm NOT a scrapbooker... but I just don't seem to be able to resist lovely papers either.  They had just received some lovely Websters Pages and this one really took my fancy.

It is a lovely pale green background.  I thought that it would be useful on cards as each of the four corners could be used....  so when I saw Our Creative Corner challenge was Beautiful butterflies I knew exactly what I wanted to do..... and here is the result.

 

 I used the left hand corner of the paper and cut it slightly smaller than the card base.  I rubbed Walnut stain distress ink around it and used my fingernail to distress it further.  I stamped the butterfly from the Antique Engravings set onto the pp directly and then onto a the piece I'd sliced of the side ( I cut the pp into  6 x 6 pieces).  I coloured it with some aqua crayons and then added to the card.  I used a glue got on the body and a pop dot under the wings to give some dimension.  My main focus though was the awesome paper and the words in the corner....  

Now off to enjoy the lovely autumnal weather we are having.  Still round 20 degrees Celsius - but cooler in the mornings and evenings..... still to be sitting outside in shorts and a tee shirt, mid April is great.  

PS - thought I'd pop this picture in as well.  The pine trees behind our house are dropping their cones at the moment and I can across this one today.  Love that it looks like a rose...

thanks for stopping by.  Take care and enjoy your Sunday.