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Last night I was commenting on the fabulous creations on the Hero Arts Flickr scramble and saw this card from Lin

 

Isn't it gorgeous.  I loved how she double stamped the floral stamp.   I decided that I was going to CASE this card.  

I used Catherine Pooler inks - Aquatini and Something Borrowed to make my panel. I used two layers of fun foam to layer it for dimension,  I stamped the Text stamp in the Something Borrowed.  My die cut is from CAS-ual Fridays and I covered it with glossy accents.    I didn't get it photographed in time for the scramble.  Thanks Lin for the inspiration

Who inspires You???????????

For me today it was a card from Joy Taylor (here is her card)
What inspired me?
- the design
- the watercolouring

I was home sick today - a very heavy head cold and after having a sleep in the morning, I decided to play a bit.

I white embossed some flowers from Clearly Besotted onto some ranger watercolour card.  Once it was all embossed I added water and some Distress Inks in Seedless Preserves and Peeled Paint.  The sentiment is from a Hero Art set.  Finished with some enamel dots. 

I'm entering this into the following challenges
Simon Says Stamp -Girly
Virginia's View - All things Embossed

Feeling really rotten now... sitting shivering and coughing and sneezing... so a few more blogs to check out, then off for an early night. Thanks for stopping by.

With Hope, anything is possible...

My first card for 2012 was inspired by Tiffany.  For those of you who know Tiffany, her cards are wonderful... always so elegant, beautiful and just so inspiring.  This one, was stunningly beautiful.  I loved the design she used and the sentiment both of which inspired me to CASE it.

I used a flower from Hero Arts, Bold Blooms set, and some Soft Apricot Shadow ink to stamp a background.  I stamped a larger flower in the ink and sponged it.  Once I cut it out, I popped it onto the card and added some gems and Stickles.  The sentiment is also a Hero Arts one... a limited edition for Breast Cancer Awareness.  To make the mat I dragged the ink pad around the edge of some white card.  Perfect match. Thanks Tiffany for such wonderful inspiration.

My cold is still with me.  I didn't last till midnight on New Years Eve... crashing about 10.00pm. Then Sunday night, was coughing and snorting so much, poor hubby took himself off to his armchair in the lounge to sleep the night!   Today, the cough in rumbling round my chest, I sound terrible but don't feel too bad.

I thought I'd just share a photo I took today from the deck... our weather has been shocking... rain and wind... but for part of the day, it was lovely and sunny and the Pohutukawa tree across at our neighbours is looking stunning.

I hope the New Year is starting well for you all.

Take care
Dawn

What inspires you?

that's the question on Jenny's blog ( Wee Memories) this week?  Do you have a fav designer? Fav magazine? Fav online gallery?  And what does it inspire you to make.... 


I get a lot of my inspiration from the Hero Arts Flickr group ( see this post )  and from the various blogs I visit.  Last night I was flicking through the HA group and came across this card from the lovely Lin 

Isn't it adorable.... it got me thinking and looking on my desk.... and inspire this card

I started with a strip of blue paper on found on the desk.  I stamped it with the HA Envelope Pattern  ( Hero Arts ~ this is the BEST stamp ever!!!!!!!!)  I used Stormy Sky distress ink.  Once I had cut the paper in half, I used one piece to punch out the edging ( Fiskars Apron Lace) and I matted them together.  I used a Spellbinders Label 4 for the little tag, stamping a HA sparkle clear set sentiment and sponged the edge with the Stormy Sky ink.   I made the flower with some Hero Arts flowers and some punched flowers, one being made with a bit of a tissue box ( a la Arlene) I adhered the flower to a blue ribbon bow and added to the card with the tag.   All in all, quite simple looking... but effective and a big thanks to Lin for the inspiration..( make sure you go see her wonderful work on her Flickr photostream) ..so it is getting entered into the Wee Memories challenge....


Hope the week is going well for you.... almost the weekend.  I'm off to stamp with Lei, Helen, Janet,  Glenda and Sandie.... what a wonderful thing to look forward to...

More Hero Arts Inspiration

I was browsing through Hero Arts Catalogue and was inspired by a butterfly card on Page 11
It used my all time favourite stamps set - CL383 Antique Engravings.   I decided to CASE this card, with a few changes of course.... ( again don't have all the stamps)
I started by stamping the butterfly and masking it.  Then I stamped two background stamps - Music background and Silhouette Grass... I used some of the brown shades of Distress ink.  However, the background was darker than the look I was trying to achieve so I scrapped the card...tore of the top half and turfed it in the scrap pile and started again....
masking the butterfly.  I then used a lighter colour ink and stamped the Grass only, twice in different colours of ink.

I added a portion of slightly textured card at the bottom of the card and used a Spellbinders die to cut a tag which I stamped with text stamp by Hero Arts.  I threaded some brown PP through the tag as I didn't have just the right colour ribbon.  I coloured the butterfly with distress inks and a water pen, using similar colours to the inspiration card.  Add a shadow of grey watercolour pencil to add depth.


Of course, yesterday, I relooked at my discarded piece and decided to colour the butterfly and see what it would look like.... I chose some aqua crayons to colour it, in yellow, orange and red and added some Iridescent Medium for a shimmer.  Didn't look too bad once I had coloured the butterfly, so went on to see what I could do to selvage it more....

.... trimmed the panel, added some ribbon ( thanks to Donna who sent me some of her wonderful coloured ribbon and a piece undyed) that I used some Scattered Straw distress to colour and added a sentiment in black at the bottom, layered onto black card base ( think that finished it off well)....Didn't look half bad in the end....
so two cards, same stamps, different colours ~ not bad.

Both have been entered into the Hero Arts challenge for the month... inspired by the catalogue.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you enjoyed my two cards.... and are having a great weekend... back to work tomorrow for me... after 2 weeks off!!!!!

Inspired by Hero Arts

I get a lot of inspiration from the Hero Arts blog, Flickr group and now their newest catalogue.  It is wonderful.  This month part of the Blog challenge is to be inspired by something you see in the catalogue.  On page 9 there is a beautiful card using the wreath from CL499 Special Note of Thanks set.  As I don't have this set, I improvised.

I used my wreath of leaves and added some tiny punched flowers in pink, dark pink and green. The lower portion is a piece of background card I made with Liquid pearls and distress ink ages ago.  The sentiment is also from Hero Arts - one I've had for a long time too... still a goodie though.


And I also want to say a big thank you for the lovely cards I received from my friends this past Christmas..... some from Flickr friends and some from my own stamp group friends.

top layer: Anne, Ivy, Arlene
2nd layer: Sue, Glenda, Sandie
3rd layer: Lei, Helen and my Mum and Dad.
and this wonderful tag from Jacqueline

Thank you all so much.

My mind is full of ideas after seeing all the beautiful work on the blogs, Flickr and all the other places I visit....so today ( being a bit cloudy) I will have some "play" time.  Love being on holiday when hubby is back at work... can play to my hearts content!!!  ~as long as his dinner is cooked!!!!!!!!  Take care

More inspiration from Nancy and Michelle,

Now I have found out that Nancy's card that inspired me was actually inspired by this one from Michelle.... I can say thanks to both of them for the wonderful design.  I thought of all my stamps that would work well with this design ... the Silhouette Bells came to mind.  I started by stamping them in black on some PP by Kaisercraft - but decided I didn't like that and re-did them in a green pigment ink on white card.

I put the PP on the white base after I masked and stamped the Old French writing.  I added a strip of black an mounted the three squares and added the sentiment.

I then played around with the first pieces I stamped  and came up with this....

It is a tall skinny card... but I am really pleased with the outcome.

I have also been working on something special - but can't reveal it all.... so here is a sneak peak.....

Hope you are all having a great start to the week.... Take care and thanks for visiting

It's been a great weekend

What a great weekend... despite feeling a bit off colour, I've had a great weekend. I got a card made for Anne from our Family Group - for her 50th birthday. - this one was inspired by Quilterlin's card. 6 of us, including Anne, went out for a girls dinner last night. Had a lovely meal and then went round to Anne's for coffee. Very pleasant ( apart from coughing all the time)

In the afternoon, Emma and I went to the Dunkley's craft fair. It was quite an interesting exhibition... there were 4 stamp stalls which I gyrated to..... one being one of my local stores - Stampzone. I missed Kaye's demo but she was doing mini demos while I was there, showing off the new Buff Pearl embossing powders. I had a $25 loyalty voucher so am now the proud owner of 3 colours (violet, blue and green) plus a new butterfly stamp. I used them today to make a topper for a mini pizza box I made in silver. I am going it fill it with wrapped chocolates as a birthday gift. I had made the purple mini pizza box on Friday. The tutorial is on Splitcoast stampers site. It is such an easy box to do but is so cute.

While at the fair, I also bought a new cover for my ironing board.... supposed to make ironing easier ( yeah right as if anything could!) and some lovely munchy seeds... a combination of sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds roasted in a lovely savoury something... very yummy.

Today I had a lazy morning... got up late and pottered round in my dressing gown.... got a lovely suprise in the email.... I won one of the prizes in Tiffany's giveaway on her blog - see Here - wasn't I lucky. I really enjoy visiting Tiff's site as she has amazing creations and the most gorgeous son.... he is really a cutie. So was quite excited about that, when hubby announced we had visitors..... eak.... still in dressing gown!!!! It was our old next door neighbours.... they saw hubby cleaning his car, so stopped to say hi.... Never mind - blamed the cough saying I was still a bit sick!!!!

Well thanks for visiting. I'm off to get the vegies done for tea.... nice roast chicken with roast veggies and good old carrot and parnsip mash. Yummy