Paperplay Challenge ~ White + One

Last weeks Paper Play challenge was to use White + one other colour.  There were some lovely examples from the DT.  I decided to go with White + Cream.  I had a new Magonlia Tilda stamp that I hadn't inked up and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I started by stamping my Angel Tilda stamp onto white card and doing some paper piecing ( used a CB folder to give the dress some texture) and then coloured with Copics.  Her wings are covered in Kindyglitz glitter glue. The white panel is also embossed with the Swiss Dot  folder.  I added the cream ribbon, flourish, tag and flowers.  Used a Hero Arts sentiment on the tag.  I made the flowers following this tutorial.  I used the tiniest Dahlia Spellbinders die. Really tiny but they turned out lovely.  This was really hard to photograph with all the white and cream.d

Today I didn't get a single card made as I was out and about... I had my weekly blood test first thing and then went to see my friend Kathy from work for morning tea, had a half hour walk along the beach before meeting another friend for lunch.... finally got home around 2pm feeling pooped!   The All Blacks are staying at the hotel right next to my work so waiting for Liane... I saw a number of them walking the street.  My friend Kathy's daughter was having lunch with her and managed to get this photo of one of the All Blacks with Vanessa and Rio (Kathy's grand-daughter)

That's Ma'a Nonu ~ one of the All Blacks backs.   The All Blacks are in the Quarter Finals on Sunday against Argentina.   Only   2 1/2 weeks till the finals on the 23rd. Hoping that the All Blacks are there!

Cheers

Dawn

On a Roll...........

I'm certainly making the most of my time off making cards... particularly Christmas cards.  This set of three cards all use Heather Ellis's Pure Innocence (#10)  I had such fun with this image.  (warning Long post...)

#1

I resized this one reasonable small and then printed onto white card and then some coloured PP to piece the hats and scarves.  Unfortunately the ink ran a little on her face.  But that's okay... The blue background was made with a new little Hero Arts cling I picked up the other day... it is only 2.5 x 2.5 inches, so stamped it a number of times onto the card in Versamark and white embossed it.  Then using the Soft Pool ink directly to the card, did a resist technique. I made the snow by running some scraps of white card through Swiss Dots CB folder and layering onto the oval.   Added some Kindyglitz glitter glue.  The base card was made with Spellbinders Oval Scallop dies.  Sentiment by Hero Arts.

#2

This one was made with 2Peas Stamptoberfest challenge (Pattern Paper) in mind.  You needed to use 3 PP.  I did 4 if you count the snowflakes on the blue background.  That background came about by pure accident.  I was playing round with the image in my Word Document and did some negative colour changes and lo and behold ~ it coloured the background of the image!  I never knew you could do that... so something new learnt for the day!.  I printed out the image with the coloured background and then again without.  I stamped the background with the HA snowflakes cling and white Colorbox ink.  The plain one, I coloured with Copics and added some Diamond Dazzle glitter and cut out.  I then took some PP's to make my card.  The red snowflakes from DCWV, the stripes I made with HA Stripe Pattern stamp, some clear embossing and distress inks and finally a strip of scrap paper for my mini rosette.   I like how it turned out... so colourful....

and bearing with me....
#3

For this one, I used Card Patterns #135.  I liked the look of this sketch and knew immediately what I wanted to do.  I had seen this tutorial on making washi tape ( via Vanessa's blog).  I made some snowflake tape with snowflakes from old Hero Arts set ( came out in 2007).  I stamped them with Soft Pool so they are very subtle on the tissue.  I added the tape to a strip of purple card I edged with a Fiskers punch.  I stamped my cream background with Magical Background in Scattered Straw distress ink.   I had the panel coloured and cut so only had to add with the sentiment.  Notice I added some Liquid Appliqué for the pompoms and the snow.  Finished with some punched snowflakes and gems.  This one has been entered into Lily Pads Cards  Bling Challenge 

Thanks for sticking through that lot.  I really enjoyed this image and got my money's worth out of it ( It's on sale here)

I'm off to have some lunch - nearly 1pm here now.  Then off to the library to pick up a book.... yes I do other things .... including reading ~ a Nora Roberts series on Weddings... some nice light hearted reading.

Take care
Cheers

Dawn

Monday Feature at MyGrafico ~ Green Fingers

This week our feature is Green Fingers by Sarah Paris.
Garden themed digi stamp set featuring garden tools, deckchairs, plant pots and watering can. Ideal for father's day, cards for the men in your life and can be coloured to match your own theme in masculine colours.

Please note: these stamps have a white infill and transparent background on PNG files.

I made these little seed packages.  I fiddled around a bit with THESE online seed packets... cutting bits out and using temporary adhesive to stick to plain copier paper so I could print the digi stamps onto the centre panels.  The blue one is paper pieced and the brown one, I just added the digi stamps to the panel and coloured with watercolour pencils.

Pop over to MyGrafico and see the other samples from my teamies.... some very clever examples.

And don’t forget about our challenge!  The theme is Halloween.    Entries will be accepted until October 7th at midnight.  We can’t wait to see what you come up with.  Rules can be found here.

I've been busy getting ahead with samples for future features and challenges ... so please come back each Monday to visit.

Thanks for visiting.  I'm so enjoying this time at home making cards like there's no tomorrow.... only 10 more days then it will be back to crafting at nights only :(

Cheers

Dawn

What a Sunday....

After getting only one card done on Saturday as well as trying out a new technique... my Sunday must have been spent all day in the craft room.... or so it seems as I made 3 tags and 3 cards.... I promise you, I did spend some time with the family watching rugby,  oh and a 30 mins snooze in front of the TV....

Anyhoo..  first up is the card I made with the panel I did on Saturday.  It involved Copics and was inspired by this card from Barb who had seen the technique tutorial at The Classroom
The technique used Copic blending solution but as I didn't have any, I thought that I could use Alcohol Blending Solution... and see what happened......

I stamped the HA Silhouette Corner on the panel and then as I wasn't too sure whether I liked it, left it on my desk.  Imagine my surprise next day to see this card from Sally.... we practically made the same background.  At least in that we both used Blending Solution rather than Copic solution, and used the same stamp on the background.  I finished up my card by adding my panel to a white base and stamped the sentiment in Danube Blue Momento Dye ink.

My next card was for the Penny Black guest spot challenge...

I had stamped the Hedgie and bee and I just needed to colour it in.    Just some simple layering, some pretty paper and ribbon.  My sort of card.... not too much in the way of embellishment or PP.

My final card came about because all through the day I was dipping in and out of the WCMD blog tour organised by Papercrafts.  One of the blogs I dipped into was Simply Rae.  Rae had a little challenge going on.... to use her sketch to make a card.  It is a lovely sketch and I had fun with it...

I started by finding some patterned paper for my background and working from there.  I used some DCWV mat stack card from La Creme stack.  I then cut the cream Spellbinders label and stamping the HA Silhouette Spray.  Keeping the die in place I sponged some Tea Dye distress ink around the flower.  I did the same with the sentiment tag.   The black edging is a Martha Stewart punch.  Finished with the narrow ribbon.  I was really pleased with how this one turned out.

Wow, thanks for persevering with this long post.... Today is wet and wild, so I went out to the stamp shop and the local mall... bought 3 stamps, a new Copic and Tombow markers, some Shimmer spritz. two pairs of shoes and a pair of jeans... a goodly spend!!!!!
Already inked up two of the stamps.... both waiting to dry before being made into cards~

Thanks again for stopping by...

Cheers

Dawn

Scramble to make a Tag.

Today I got up super early for a Sunday (7.00am) to take part in the Hero Arts 90 Minute Scramble.  With Daylight Savings having started here, Arlene's start time of 11.00am PST suited me.  I managed 3 tags.... one very very simple Christmas one, a more Vintage Christmas one and a fun Halloween one.

First off was the simple tag

I inked up the Birch trees from "Merriest Christmas Wishes" Cling stamp with some Danube Blue Momento ink and stamped it on a tag I cut from a Spellbinders Die.  I added some Gathered Leaves distress ink on the trees and used it to stamp the sentiment from the same set.  Added some Kindyglitz glitter glue for the snow and the bird.

#2 took a bit longer to do... but not much ~ just some simple stamping, adding an image printed out on the computer....

The image is from The Graphic Fairy.  I printed it out and distressed the edges.  The main stamp on the tag is the postcard from " Carte Postale" set.  I then stamped some Silhouette Spray onto the corners using Verasfine Vintage Sepia ink and some second generation stamping.  Added some lace to the image and a hand made poinsettia flower.

And finally #3 ~ a little Halloween tag

I printed the background directly onto the tag, but miscalculated the size, which in the end gave me space to write my sentiment.  I tried to do spooky looking writing.... not sure I succeeded!  I stamped and coloured the little cheerleader from the "Happy Girls" cling and added a little witch's hat from "H'owl'oween" set by The Craft's Meow.  All in all, a fun little tag. 

Hope you had a chance to play in the scramble.... if not, go see what was produced... a lot of fun tags and cards.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend all.....

Cheers

Dawn

It's the little things......

that are fun in life.....
So I have some little cards, scraplings and ATC's to share today.  The last few days I have been busy doing projects for Mygrafico design team ~ I'm about 5 weeks ahead now... so the pressure is off me..... but of course, I can't share yet....

So here's a few little things I've done

This little scrapling was made for Dana's 1st challenge.  I had a 12x12 sheet of Bazzil that I cut up into some card bases and had this little bit left.  The PP is a freebie from Mygrafico (here) It has some fun PP.  I printed an A6 piece of card stock and trimmed it to size.  The little owl ghost I had sitting on my desk as I stamped off a number of them when I was doing my H'owl'oween card earlier. Added a little scrap of orange ribbon.  This was entered into a couple of challenges.... Dana's scraplings and Wee Memories ~ Patterned paper challenge



This little ATC was for Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge ~ Men Only.  I used my new Tim Holtz seasonal distress inks...  Gathered Leaves and Ripe Persimmon - and a car panel from Graphic 45.  Stamps are Hero Arts -Old French Writing, Inkadinkado - Harlequin and Kasiercraft - Explore sentiment.

And this little ATC I made for the previous weeks Simon Says Stamp and Show ~ ATC's



I started with some white card and distressed it with Antique Linen and Pumice Stone distress inks.  I then stamped two Stamp-it images onto it, one in Versafine Vintage Sepia and one in Versafine Onyx Black.  I then stamped the clock and wings and Time Flies onto scrap card and distressed lightly and cut out and stuck to the ATC.  Added Glossy Accents to the clock face.

Had a great time last night... luckily it was an early dinner so was home by 8.00pm ~ great to catch up with my work mates.  I will pop into the office on the 12th for my boss's last day and morning tea.   Today I've been for two 30 mins walks so feeling very energetic and vitalised.

Thanks for stopping by

Dawn

Happy Retirement......

My boss, Berys, is retiring in early October and tonight the area we work in is going out to dinner to celebrate.  Of course, I HAD to make her a card.... well I couldn't NOT!

I found a funny image from Bugaboo digital stamps.  Jodie has the funniest images.



I matted the PP ( flowers to remind Berys that she wants to garden more in her retirement) onto white and then the pearly blue base.  The Stella image was printed onto white card and cut with a Spellbinders Label.  Coloured with Copics and some distress ink.  A very simple card, but I liked the sentiment...as we have a very busy work space and Berys is a VERY BUSY leader.   I also used the PP to make a little gift box to hold a few chocolates

Looking forward to catching up with my team-mates after nearly 4 weeks off.
The last two days have been very busy... I've been quite social.... my girlfriend, Yvonne, had a birthday yesterday and we went out to a lovely restaurant for a girly lunch ( including a nice glass of wine) and then last evening Peter and I went to "The Last Night of the Proms" with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra .  Any of my English readers will no doubt know what my evening was like... the first part of the night was beautiful classic music with a Mezzo- Soprano singer then the second part of full of fun.... "Land of Hope and Glory"  "Rule Britannia" - lots of streamers and poppers.... a really fun evening.  I was pleased I managed to cope with the standing beforehand as we had a Canapés and wine get together prior to the show.    Mind you, I did have to have an hours nap earlier this afternoon.  

Thanks for stopping by.... I hope you enjoy reading a little about my life and my love of card-making.

Cheers

Dawn

Happy H'owl'oween

I recently won a set of stamp from The Crafts Meow.  It was the set called "Happy H'owl'oween" and was designed by none other than the talented Jenny Suchin of Wee Memories.  It is super cute.  Here in New Zealand we do not celebrate Halloween to the same extend as in other parts of the world.  We do not usually give Halloween cards.  But I just had to make a card with these wonderful stamps and my new Tim Holtz "Fall" Seasonal distress inks.



I started by taking some white card stock and distressing with Stormy Sky, Seedless Preserves, and Milled Lavender distress inks.  I then spritzed with water and finished with a touch of Pumice Stone on the edges.  I had masked the moon, so used the Ripe Permission ink to distress it.  I added the spider web in the corner with Colourbox  Frost White ink stamping several times.  I stamped the bats on black card and coloured the eyes with gel pen and black enamel accents.  The fence was stamped 4 times side by side and distressed with Gathered Leaves distress ink and cut out.  The ghostly owl was cut from white card and popped up for dimension.  I stamped the sentiment over the moon.  Quite pleased with my first Halloween card.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to all of you who sent me cards and well wishes after my recent surgery.  It really made me feel very special.   I am doing extremely well... I am just about able to do every thing around the house now... just can't bend over to make the bed or do the vacuuming.   I am still off work for another 2 1/2 weeks.   Go back to the surgeon on the 11th for my checkup.

Cheers

Dawn