Dots Challenge

Today I received my Splitcoasters newsletter for the week and one of the techniques was Bandana stamping. It is about using a white gel pen to doodle and make a background like a bandana. Perfect also for this weeks Hero Arts challenge- dots.
I used HA CL068 Paisley patterns - stamped in black on blue card and used my gel pen to put dots around the paisley. Used a dotty ribbon and button to finish off. As my Cuttlebug is still being repair, I used the nestie die as a stencil and used the pen to go round the inside of the die and then cut it out and popped in onto the ribbon.
I enjoyed doing this technique and will do it again. It will make a great background for a male card.
Thanks for calling in.

Inspiration

Today I decided I wanted to go to a class at Stamp'n'create on using the new spellbinders, so took the day off work. Great I thought, class is not till 10.30am so I'd have a nice sleep in, a leisurely brekkie and toddle off to class...... well as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men..... hubby told me last night that the wall paperer was coming at 7.30am this morning.... and as he was papering in our ensuite..... I had to get up super early to be dress and organised. There went the sleep in... made up for it by spending a goodly amount of time surfing all my fav sites. I also managed to catalogue the new stamps that I got last weekend and during the week... and doing the earrings.... one pair I made last night for my daughter and the other pair this morning for myself. The HA CL303 is a great stamp to skrinky dink as it is quite large.

Class was really fun. We did some lovely cards using Impressabilites and inking them and using the Dahila nestabilities. Will post photos tomorrow as it is really wintery and I couldn't get any great photos of them.

I did however manage to get a photo of the card I did for the Hero Arts Blog challenge this week. It is all about getting inspiration from the cards people made using a tag "2009catalog" My card was inspired by Lucy who lives in England. Have a look at the original here. I really like Lucy's cards. She has so much fun with them I used kraft card for the base and some patterned paper samples that I down loaded by Papertrey - here is the site. The birds are from the set of Decrotive Birds by HA. The sentiment is from a set by Inkadinkadoo. Button from my stash and string from my kitchen drawer. Boy did I have trouble threading it through the buttons...

Tomorrow is club day at Stamp'n'create, so I've decided to take a couple of Lin's cards for inspiration.
Thanks for stopping by.... enjoy your weekend

I've broken my Cuttlebug!!!!

I can tell you there was much gnashing of teeth, many swear words ( some not even repeatable in mixed company) when I realised that I'd broken my Cuttlebug. I've had it for 6 months now and love it to pieces. I had cut out a nestibility label and decided I wanted to emboss it. Well of course I thought I knew what to do.... A plate, B plate, nestie, tan mat and C plate. Bit of a tight squeeze but I'd get it through..... about half way it stopped.... so a good turn on the handle and it went through ok....with an almighty bang..... Oops.... I thought - there goes the B plate.. ( its inclined to curve a bit)... but no all well there. But the next time I went to use the CB - nothing happended.... no pressure on the plates.... So quick call to my LSS (local stamping store) - no more in stock but if I bring it in Judi will take it back to the manufacturor and they'll see if it can be fixed..... Whew!!! I really don't want to buy another one... but might have to. So took it in this afternoon and will have to wait and see...... I'm supposed to take it to a Techniques class on Saturday, but will have to share someone elses. Luckily I had a piece of paint chip cut into a scalloped square already.... not actually a colour I was going to use on a card for Mother's Day... but managed to find some co-ordinating colours. This card was inspired by one I saw in a video by Kristina Warner in her MACM series from May last year.
I used my grid stamp by Rubadubadoo with gold ink along the top of a 10.5Cm X 10.5cm base card ( Curlew Cream by Kaskad) The yellow spotted paper was in my scrap folder so can't remember where it came from and same with the ribbon. Flowers by Hero Arts - black gem in centre.
I stamped the MUM letters onto white card. These are from the Basic Font by Fiskars ( got them yesterday 1/2 price from a stationary shop) and then cut them out and stuck them on. Love you is from the HA CL129 Anytime Messages. This is an entry into the HA Blog challenge this week.
I will try and get some more done... I want to sell some mothers day cards at work so need a variety to take in. I seem to spend so much time blog hopping and viewing videos ( and I wonder why I reach my 10G limit each month) that I don't get much actual creating time!!!!
Anyway I'm doing this as my dinner is simmering away, so thanks for visiting and have a great day.

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

Monday's Washday Blues...

I know it's Wednesday... but Monday really was a washday blues sort of day. My son hadn't put out his rugby gear for washing till late on Sunday so I left it to do after work on Monday ( as well as the weekend towels etc) - so go to do it... in goes the powder and clothes - turn it on, push the all change buttons ( heavy duty cold wash) press the start button...... and NOTHING>>>>> did all things one does for computerised electronic systems. Turned it off at the wall, tried again... still as dead as a dodo..... Okay... next morning ring the electrician- can come 8.00am Wednesday, so here I am waiting....... still with heaps of washing to do and the weather has now packed in and it is raining. Two beautiful days just past.

Glad I'm not a home during the day though. Our local council is doing some reticulation work round our place. Our drive has been dug up and new storm water drains are going in,.... now they want to do more work round our drive way. Hubby is out there now discussing with the council exactly what it is.... and the noise from the concrete cutters, diggers etc is so bad. I usually leave work prior to this all starting and by the time I get home , they have packed up for the day. It's been ongoing for 4 weeks already and looks like going for some time more.

Have managed to get some crafting done over the past few days. Did Easter cards for MIL and SIL - no photos as I had to get them into the post ASAP ( Easter seems to have snuck up on me) . Marnie from work wanted some cards done with her little boy on them so got 4 of them done. Ollie is such a cutie.

Plus last night I did a card for the HA challenge this week. The challenge is to use something other than paper or cardstock to stamp on. The other day we did a technique where you stamped on acatate and then put easter egg foil on the underside. I found some lovely multi coloured eggs the other day so bought them - unwrapped them all and used the foil ( Eggs still in the fridge waiting to be eaten) As I didn't have an Stazon black I stamped in white. It didn't look so good so went over it with a permanent black marker....
Stamps used: Branch from Asian Designs by Inkadinkadoo, Grid pattern on oval is by Rubadubadoo ( stamped once straight and once on an angle) sentiment HA CL129 Anytime Messages, Butterfly HA F5158. Lace edging - Fiskars Edwardian edging. Bottom edge is the off cuts of the side edge.

Well the electrician is here ) only 20 mins after they said they would... so can't really complain. And he can fix it now.... albeit its going to cost $139.00

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by
PS after some discussion on Flickr - I will be submitting my pink card for the CPS challenge. I used the sketch for a starting point on this card.

two challenges

It's been a busy few days. Friday morning I took my SIL to have a pedicure. A very relaxing hour sitting in massage chairs having our feet and legs massages and our toes painted. In the afternoon more family arrived. John (BIL) his wife Mary, their daughter Nicola and her son Nathan. MIL was really pleased to see them all, especially her great grandson. Nathan is 8 months old and an adorable little thing. Then it was off to Emma's place for pre-dinner drinks and then down to Devonport to Graham ( yet another BIL) and Denise's place for dinner. Needless to say by 9.00 June was shattered.

Saturday morning was a bit of a sleep in then off to watch Kieran (son) played rugby. Talk about "the silly season" - standing on the sideline watching rugby in shorts and jandels. One lot of friends were off to watch their other son play cricket... Peter took the inlaws off to the airport to head back down the island while I caught up on the house work.

Haven't felt too creative this week, but this afternoon decided to do a card that would do for two challenges. One being HA windows and one KWernerdeigns Colour Inspiration
As I don't have any Stampin Up card or inks I had to use what I had that matched. I used some Berger paint samples for my tango and shaffron colours- layering them and then cutting out the window with nestibilites. I cut a nestie square out of the white card for the window. Stamp is HA F5132 Black and white flowers - stamped in a Fawn colour Impress ink ( darkest brown colour I had) Sentiment inside from Inkadinkadoo 96614 Expressions stamped inside the card together with an portion of the flowers stamp.

Also here is the card I made for Di to give my daughter. Just a little one using my favourite HA 4 dolls stamp.
Well that's all for today. Go check out the HA Flickr group for all the wonderful window cards

Nice Surprise

In yesterday's post I received a lovely envelope of paper edgings from Monika in Germany. I have been corresponding on Flickr email with her and we exchanged some edgings. I have the Fiskars Threading water punch and she has the Martha Stewart doily punch so we sent each other some. M0nika also sent me two lovely cards. thank you Monika.


Tonight I have thinking about what card I can make for a friends 50th - we are going to the party on Saturday night so have a day or two to think about it. Although saying that the next few days will be busy and I might not get a chance to craft as my mother in law and sister in law are arriving tomorrow to stay a few days. June - my MIL- has been quite ill... (cancer diagnosed late last year) but is now feeling much better. She and Diane (SIL) are coming from Levin by train tomorrow and flying back to Palmerston North on Saturday afternoon.

I have decided to enter Dawn McVey's colour challenge with Sunday's Gerbera Card- will edit my blog with it. Love the colour choices and I think the gerberas are just the right colours.