May's card chain challenge,

As many of you know, I have taken part in Deborah's Card Chain challenge from the beginning.  This month her challenge was to use these colours

or this sketch  or the theme of Friendship, Mothers Day or Memorial Day.

My recipient was Deborah March who lives in Nova Scotia.  Now I had to look up the map to see where that was!!!!!  Deborah has a great blog here.  She is one extremely talented card maker who has been recognised all over the place.  She has the most amazing tutorial on her blog for making flowers.  Go see this.

Anyway I sent off a card based on the sketch and another card with a book mark as part of it.

I had made some purple alcohol ink background and I cut a circle in half for the pieces.  The quote is from a set of by Inkadinkado kids quotes. 

For the book-mark card, I started by adding a strip of silver duct tape on the white card and embossing it with a CB border.  I added some colour to the buds with Copic pens. I then cut it to fit onto the side of a card.  I used a perforating cutter to mark down where it is torn off.  The rest of the card was decorated with a panel - made by stamping the HA cling Flourish in silver ink onto a black card wrapping some silver thread around it and mounting on silver card stock then onto the purple. The birds were made by stamping twice onto the purple card and then when I cut them out, turned one over. 

As usual I had fun making these cards and love sending them off.  I can't wait to see what I get in the post... hopefully not too long away.

Thanks for looking today, wishing you all a great day.

Cream in our coffee..

I was so excited when I popped over to The Play Date Cafe today.  There was my name in the Cream in our Coffee list.... the first time I have ever been recognised in a challenge.  Very exciting for me!!!!!   A big thank you to team and to Nancy and Suzanne whose wonderful cards inspired me to join in.

And I have also found out this week that one of my cards will be in Sherri's column on Scrapstreet.com.  I can't wait....

Last night I was checking out Stamp TV ( Gina K's website) and this weeks video was about using Impressibilities by Spellbinders.  I have two plates, but don't use them as much as I should.... I tend to forget them.  So out I drag them  and CASE'd Gina's card.

The Impressibility I used was one I hadn't even opened.... bought it and never got around to using!!!!  Once I had embossed it, I used my Tim Holtz tool to rub Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade and Dusty Concord distress inks over it.  Gina had used one colour but I liked the idea of shades.  I used the same colours to ink up the big butterfly from HA Antique Engravings set.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo.  This has been entered into the OCC challenge on butterflies this week.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope the week has been going well.  I've moved into my new space.. ( much smaller :-( than what I had ...but oh well) and am doing lots of reading about the position.  All good!!!

Play Date Cafe Challenge #25

Today I visited Nancy's blog and saw she had entered the Play Date Cafe challenge #25. 

 This weeks challenge is to use Black and White and a splash of Orange.  I was inspired by Nancy's card and also the lovely Suzz - who is host designer for the week.  I thought about what I could do and straight away I thought of my darkroom door stamps and one in particular - so here's what I came up with

I stamped the Daisies ( darkroom door - Viva La Flora Vol 2) onto the white card in Versafine Black and then water coloured the petals with Orange aqua crayons. I doodled round the edge of the image and then put it onto the black card matted onto the white base. Added the sentiment ( Inkadinkadoo) embossed in detail white EP.  I added the tiniest bit of grey on the steams of the flowers to tone down the stark whiteness. I am quite pleased how this turned out.  It was a super quick card - 20 mins from the time I thought of what to do till I was outside photographing it.  The longest bit was waiting for the water colouring to dry so I could mat it!!!!

Hope the weekend is great for you all.  Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas on my mind....

This week I suddenly realised that although I had my overseas cards done... I still needed to do some more for friends and family living here... so Thursday night I got into "the office" as my craft room is known, and put the head down and the bum up and created.....

I started with some quick and easy cards which mainly used Patterned papers as the focus of the card with just a little stamping and embellishment...

thanks goes  to the lovely Linda who send me the sentiment stamp amongst a whole pile of other things including a fantastic ink pad... one of the famous Garden Green inks she uses in her video's  (Highly recommend you visit her blog and watch her videos) 

Next I did a black and white version of a white and black card I did a few weeks ago.  Really pleased how it turned out... ( Notice that sentiment yet again...)

 

 Finally I did a reasonably quick one - the Joy stamp is by Stamp-it and I embossed with Copper EP onto a very dark brown piece of card, layered it onto a gold patterned paper and then onto the chocolate brown square card.. 

I can tell you by the end of the night, I was pooped!!!!  But felt so much better that I had a few less cards to do now....   and got a few more done today at Stamp Group...  mainly duplicates of ones I had already done - so I knew what was needed.  Did do another digital one  - which is currently waiting for the Kindyglitz to dry so will photograph tomorrow and blog about the day I had...

Take care and thanks for stopping by....

Unto us a child is born.....

I got a new set of Christmas stamp from Inkadinkadoo this week.
O Holy Night.  For this card, I stamped the sentiment onto white card stock and cut it out with my Labels 1 nestibilites. While it was still in the nestie, I sponged the edge with Faded Jeans distress ink. I coloured the star with yellow pencil and used the aqua pen to spread the colour outwards. I then stamped the Mary and Jesus image onto card stock and coloured it in with blues and a touch of yellow. I cut it out and pop dotted it onto the corner of the label. I added some ribbon and used my Fiskers Threading water punch to edge the blue layer. I entered this into the CAARDvarks Color it Challenge. 

I also managed another quick card this week.  I had got a new set of Tim Holtz Alcohol inks... Salmon, Aqua and Sandal.  I used them to make the background for this card.  The sentiment  stamp is by Stamp It was stamped with Archival Ink in Sepia on white card. This was then overlaid with embossed vellum - with holly leaves on it.  I then finished with three bronze gems. 

Today I spend the morning in surgery.  I have been having a few issues with "woman's stuff" as my DH would say and had to have a D&C( Dilations and Curettage) and a hysteroscopy to see if there is anything wrong.  Initial results are all fine...Hopefully the D&C will fix the issues I'm having.  I am feeling a bit dopey still from the anaesthetic  and bit uncomfortable feeling so it's off to bed for an early night.  I've taken tomorrow off so if I feel better - will do a bit more crafting.

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all the wonderful comments people leave.
Take care  ( one month till Christmas - 4 weeks till my Mum and Dad arrive to spend Christmas with us!!!!)

Simple christmas

Simple christmas
Originally uploaded by turleyfamily(Dawn)

This weeks challenge at Hero Arts is to make a simple holiday card. My idea seemed simple enough... in theory that is.... it did take a bit longer than I anticipated. It is a longer card (10.5 cm x 21 cm) I cut a white panel a bit smaller and stamped the fir boughs along the top. They were from a Inkadinkadoo set. I then stamped HA Antique Brocade in red onto red patterned paper. I cut out the three hearts with my Nestibilites die. I then highlighted the stamping with a white gel pen and edged in red ink. I added a small silver strip as the topper and then popped them on the white panel. I drew the strings up to the top and embossed the sentiment in the corner. Layer all this onto the silver card then onto the base card. I think the whole will go quicker next time round.... all the deciding whether to add ribbons ( did not do so) or whether to draw the strings or to use real string.... that's what took the time. Anyway all finished and I am pleased with the result which is the main thing.
Thanks for stopping by. It's almost the end of the week for me so I am happy.

Man week challenge

This weeks challenge at Hero Arts blog is to make a male card or have a male make a card.... well that's not a happenin' thing here.  Hubby is " crafty challenged" .  Give him a garden tool and he is in his element.... but crafty stuff- no way!.  So it's up to me....
As it is Father's day this Sunday I have made a few of this card to sell at work.  The tie stamp is by Rubbadubbadoo and I used the HA Ancient Brocade to make the pattern on the middle tie.  Layer on long rectangles cut with my nestabilities.  The sentiment is from Stamp-it.  As I used one HA stamp it can be entered for the challenge.

I also got asked this week to design a card for my friend Kathy.  Her husband is 65 next week and she wanted something musical for him.  This is what I can up with.  I found the picture of the old gramophone on the internet ( Isn't Google just great).  I printed it on plain paper and over-stamped HA Old French writing, before distressing the paper and edges in Old Paper and Aged Mahogany distress inks.  Matted onto a mid-brown card stock  ( cut with my nesties) Used peelcraft corners.  I stamped the Inkadinkadoo Flourish on one side of cream card stock,  The music paper was also a download I found on the 'net which also got the distress treatment.  The whole lot was then mounted onto Chocolate chip cardstock.  I stamped the Happy Birthday ( from HA Petite Messages set) along the bottom..  All in all I was pleased with the card and so was Kathy.  
Thanks for coming by and hope the rest of your week is great.

Hero Arts challenge - Mail it

This week Hero Arts challenge is about making a card and then ACTUALLY POSTING IT to someone....
My inspiration for this card was from a Papercraft essentials magazine. I have a lady in New Plymouth ( other end of the North Island to me) whom I speak to on the phone every day for work....and I decided to send her this card.
The flowers are made by me- using the cuttlebug asterisk die. I put two different pieces of pattern paper together - off centring them and then added the green punched flower for the centre. I add a Blush coloured pearl to finish them off. The flourish is by Inkadinkadoo and the sentiment by Hero Arts CL129 Was a bit disappointed with the ink colour in the end... no quite bright enough. I used my new Martha Stewart punch to put a butterfly in the corner. Think I'm going to be using this one a bit.... more butterflies.....
Thanks for stopping by.

Purple and Yellow

I am enjoying the challenge this week at Hero Arts. There are lots of different colour combos to work with. Tonight I chose purple and yellow. I used two shades of pale creamy yellow - whipped cream and cameo cream for my base cards. I layered then used faux stitching round top layer. I used two shades of purple to cut my nesties frame. I stamped the flourish in the corner ( from Inkadinkadoo) and sentiment from HA CL 129 Anytime messages. Finished with the yellow and white flower. I have a 21st to go to this weekend - so this will do even if it is for a boy.... it's not too girly.
On the home front, hubby's Mum is deteriorating quickly. I am pleased we got to see her last weekend. I pray she does not suffer.

Thanks for visiting.

Inspired by Lin

Yesterday was club day at my local stamp store ( Stamp'n'create). Started at 10.30am and went through to 4.00pm. Love this day every month, sharing time with like-minded ladies. This week I took along my new stamp set by Hero Arts - High Heels..... I was amazed at how one stamp set could generate so many different cards. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so didn't get any photos of the creations Helen, Sue & the others made. I finished off my calendar from last week and then did this card for the HA challenge this week. It is to do a card inspired by someone else. This card was inspired by Lin's card here. I really "card lifted" as I used many of the same things. I used the Printed flowers set which I embossed in white and then rubbed the Distress inks - Faded Jeans and Shabby shutters over. I used the Scattered Leaves set to overstamp in Shabby shutters on the paper and stamp the two leaves I attached with the flowers. The butterfly is from a Inkadinkadoo set - embossed in white and rubbed with Faded Jeans. I really enjoyed distressing - so used Shabby shutters round the text page and Faded Jeans round the kraft paper which I used my fingernail to distress. All then matted on to a blue Bazzil Bling card. Lin makes the most amazing cards. I really love her style. Check out her Flickr photostream.

Mothers Day flowers

Mothers Day flowers
Originally uploaded by turleyfamily(Dawn)

I decided to start a few flower cards for HA challenge this week. I had been watching Kristina Werner's MACM video and got the idea for this card from there. I stamped the Inkadinkadoo (Doodle Flowers) in olive chalk ink onto craft card. Stamped the Sentiment (Stamp-It) and covered it with the printed organza. The butterfly is from HA Artistic Butterflies set - which I coloured in with watercolour pencils. Finished with some gems. I am taking a few mother's day cards to work for my workmates to choose from.

On the home front, we are still waiting for Diane to have her operation to remove the mass on her brain. Hopefully tomorrow. Hubby is going to head down to Wellington tomorrow after work... going as far as Hamilton to stay overnight and then take his brother with him. Hamilton is around 2 hours away and then a further 6 hours travelling to Levin to visit their Mum - Wellington is a further 1 1/2 hours from there.

Good news and bad news

The good news from yesterday was seeing our daughter and her fiancé... who came over to have dinner and celebrate their engagement with us.... the bad news was just before starting to serve up dinner we had a call from hubby's niece to let us know her mum ( his sister) had had a seizure and was in hospital and they had found what seems to be a tumour on her brain..... she is conscious and feeling okay - has spend the day having heaps of tests and then this evening was transported by helicopter from Palmerston North Hospital to Wellington Hospital, where she is to have surgery tomorrow. Our prayers are with you Diane, and with Terry, Angela, Matthew and Rachel.

I made an engagement card for Emma & Brad. I used HA design Block Flourish and embossed in white Holographic powder. The love birds were from a free set I got in a magazine and the sentiment by Hero Arts. Used my Threading water edge punch and used a scrap of Cuttlebug'ed white ( still waiting for the CB to be fixed)
They loved it. Found a lovely verse for inside -
" Our wish for you is that the joy you feel, the happiness you know and the love you share....will be with you through a lifetime of tomorrows"

After dinner I had a mother's day card to make. Some of the ladies at work want a supply to look through. This one is inspired by Arlene's card for the one layer challenge,

I used an Inkadinkadoo flower stamp for the rose, and stamped it in Impress Ink - Pansy then used my new watercolour pencils to colour it in. The Happy Mother's Day is by StampIt. Again stamped in Pansy. The writing is HA Old French writing. I edged all three panels with the pansy ink and sponged on Tim Holtz - Distress ink - Shabby shutters. Add the flowers and all done. Thanks Arlene for the inspiration.
Thanks for visiting.

Distressed swap pin collage

Distressed swap pin collage
Originally uploaded by turleyfamily(Dawn)

I had to visit the hospital yesterday for some tests. It's been 6 months since I had pulmonary embolisms in my lungs and went into repository distress and it's time for follow up. I had a CT scan of my lungs and an Ultra sound on my leg to check on clots. Still a couple of little ones just below my knee. I go to the outpatients clinic next week to get the results and see if I still need to have blood thinning drugs. Anyway, afterwards I headed off to work - via the stamp shop... ( I had taken leave for the morning) I picked up this lovely stamp by Inkadinkadoo. I used a cream cardstock and stamped the image once on the base card and once to cut out. I lightly coloured with chalks and pop dotted on the base image. The sentiment is from Hero Arts CL250 My Art Sparkle clear set. I then distressed the edges with a sponge and the Impress ink. Quite pleased with the results. So another 4 swap pins done. (12 in total now so about 1/2 way there) Now to decide on the next idea.
Well that's all for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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

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

Quick cards

Family arrived safely yesterday - MIL looking really good. Today Hubby took them out shopping and then we had a lovely barbeque - steak and salad-dinner. Made two little cards for Diane and June to give to Emma with housewarming gifts. Didn't get round to photographing again. One was using HA 4 dolls and the other one used an Inkadinkadoo flourish on it. Pleased with them both. Will take a pic tomorrow and post. I'm having the day off to entertain... might go have a pedicure.