You constantly surprise me!

I'm talking about my son.... He has grown to be a wonderful young man and he is always keen to try different things.  He has recently taken up horse riding and is learning how to jump... His girlfriend has two horses and he has been exercising one for her.  A couple of weeks ago she took a stunning photo of him on his third time jumping.... going over a  1 metre jump ( around 3ft).   This week I got some new stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn and Simon Says Stamp! and decided to make him a card....

I printed off a copy of the photo from his Facebook page and using the Lawn Fawn, "Say Cheese" Polaroid die cut the photo and a white frame.  Used the sentiment from the set.  My background was plain green and looked a bit whissy washy, so added some dots with an older Hero Arts background and some Mowed Lawn distress.  The banner and sentiment are both from Simon Says Stamp.   

I gave this to him this morning and he loved it.  I had a great chat over a cup of coffee with him when he came to collect his mail.  He is such a lovely person, I am very proud of how he has turned out.  

And just a quick note for those of my American friends who did not know what "chuffed" meant...

So that will explain why I was chuffed!

Thanks for visiting today.  I'm off to entertain guests for dinner... Don't you just love hubbies who invite friends around for a barbeque at 4.00pm ~ luckily they are bringing their own dinner to cook!!!!  Thanks goodness they are really good friends!

Australian Cardmaker of the Year 2012~ Highly Commended

Last year I entered a competition I saw in Australian Simply Cards magazine ~ Australian Cardmaker of the Year.  It was open to Australian and New Zealand card makers... I didn't win but this week got an email from Cecilia who was a runner up to say she had seen one of my card at the Australian Scrapbooking and Papercraft Expo in Melbourne last weekend ~ Highly Commended.  I was chuffed.... and Cecilia took a photo

 

and here is the card that got Highly Commended.

If you want to see the beautiful cards that Cecilia made and got her runner up prize for, go to her blog post HERE.  Her cards are just delightful. 

Thanks for visiting and sharing my excitement on this.

Sweet little girls.

Today's post is all about sweet little girls.  Both my cards today use digital images ~

First up uses a gorgeous image from Saturated Canary called Canary Love.

I printed and coloured with Copics.  Not sure I chose the right colour to highlight the image, but still practising.  I used a Spellbinders Label 8 to cut her out, and then used Decorative Label 8 in the purple for a frame.  I have Sandie to thank for the purple card and the use of the little sentiment which from  Stampin' Up Teeny Tiny sentiment set.   Love stamping with friends who share!!!!

My second card uses a Tiddly Inks image called Grow a little love.  It is simply adorable. 

I coloured Wryn with Copics and fussy cut her out.  The hearts are covered with Glossy Accents.  Today I picked up the Australian Papercrafts essentials magazine and it had some free papers.  I saw this one and thought it would just be prefect.  And it is!  I matted it onto the orange card.  I had stamped the sentiment onto the matting and cut it out, before putting  covering it with the PP.  The sentiment is from a Hero Arts/Basic Grey set called Life is Fun.  This one hadn't been inked up before, but seem just right for this card.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope my little girls have given you some inspiration.

Mellow Yellow

Yellow would not be my "go to " colour... but this week, two cards got made using yellow.

My first card used a very sweet little stamp from Technique Tuesday that the lovely Judy sent me with February's CCC card. 

I used some London Fog Memento Ink to randomly stamp the little flower over some card.  I then stamped it three times on scrap card.  I used Copic markers to colour the flowers and then fussy cut them out.  I layered one directly to the card base and popped the other two up.  I stamped the sentiment from the set and again coloured with a Copic.  I cut a banner, edged it with the Memento ink.  The panel was then added to a yellow card base.

My second card was made yesterday at Helen's place.  Had an awesome day stamping with Helen, Marissa, her sister Sonia, Sandie and Janet.  I really didn't get much done... this card, one more plus some colouring and some stamping for a few other cards...  Anyway on to this second yellow card.

I saw this faux letterpress technique in a magazine so found some suitable alternatives to give it a go.  I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder and inked it up with some Squeezed Lemonade distress ink.  I used some Stampin' Up kraft card for around the card and the edge punch.   I used the same ink and a Hero Arts stamp to make the other panel.  I used a sheer yellow ribbon.  I did have a yellow button on top of the ribbon, but it kept falling off.    The sentiment is from Hastings Rubber stamps cut with a SU punch.

And here's a little peek at the colouring I did

Still to be made up into a card.

Got home from the day stamping (9.30am left home ~ arrived back at 4.45pm) and asked hubby what he's got out for dinner... "Thought we might go out for dinner" was the answer.... YES!!!  what a perfect way to end a perfect day.  We ended up having dinner at Mairangi... a Japanese restaurant in Mairangi Bay.  We had awesome meals...

 

Don't they look fabulous.  We had such a lovely night out.   And this afternoon we went to a friend's place for a barbeque dinner.  So a super weekend all in all

Thanks for stopping by. 

Dawn

RCS Lucky Leprechaun Blog Hop

Welcome to Day 2 of the Lucky Leprechaun Blog Hop, brought to you by the card design team of Red Carpet Studio!

If you've come from Heid's blog, you're in the right place. If you've just come across the hop and would like to start at the beginning, please visit Red Carpet Studio.

This hop was put together to share with you fun and creative ideas for St. Patrick's Day projects along with introduce you to our new design team members AND officially announce our March Lucky Link-Up contest!

Before we get to all that fun information, I'd like to share my project with you. I created...

Using Digital PP from Cupcake Cutiees at Mygrafico and a couple of digis from Bugaboo

The sentiment is a Hero Arts Sparkle clear stamp.

 (And of course we have some wonderful sponsors giving away prizes to those who comment both days on every stop of the hop. :)

Dilly Beans Digi Stamps

3 digis of winner's choice

Paper Pretties

6 digital image sets

QKR Stampede

5 digital stamps

The Robin's Nest

$10 gift certificate

Winners will be announced at Red Carpet Studio on Tuesday March 5th along with the winners of our wedding/anniversary card challenge.

And now for our March Lucky Link-Up announcement! Each challenge entry in March will enter you to win over $200 in gift certificates to all sorts of online scrapbooking stores, from stamp companies, to paper piecing, to digital scrapbooking sites, and more. Check out the Lucky Link-Up page on the blog for a complete list of sponsors and details about the contest. We're also listing ALL of our March challenges in advance so you can get a head start on all your projects. :) 

We'd also like to give a warm welcome to our new layout design team member, Kim! She is sharing her first project as a DT member in this hop with you. :) 

Your next stop is Candice's blog 

Red Carpet Studio

Ashley

Tonya

Kim

Anneliese

Heidi

Dawn

Candice

Thanks for hopping with us! :)

It's time for a new challenge over at Die Cut Diva's.

Did you know that Paula, Arlene, Hannah and I have been updating how Die Cut Diva's do our monthly challenge.  We have decided to move the challenge to the blog...   and we've been looking for sponsors.  In the past, we, the moderators on the Flickr group, have put up the prizes... and that might still happen if we can't get enough sponsors... so if you know any one who might be interested in sponsoring us...let us know...

Anyway... March is my month,  and I am happy to say we've got our first sponsor....

Yes, Hero Arts are sponsoring us this month.  And look what they will be giving to one lucky winner...

so what am I challenging you to do??????

GREEN.... yes I want to you use the colour green on your card/ATC or what ever you want to create..... Just as long as it uses a die or an embossing folder and the colour GREEN.... I want to see it!!!  The team have come up with some lovely samples to inspire you on the blog.

And here is mine

I tried a variation on Triple Time stamping,  I cut three sizes of a Spellbinders Petite Oval Large and layered together.  I stamped the Hero Arts/BasixGrey roses on each end,  I coloured with Copics and then edged each layer with Peel Paint distress ink.  The sentiment is a little Hero Arts sparkle clear set one.   I popped in onto a layer of embossed card again edged with the Peeled Paint ink.  A few strategically placed gems ( to cover a little booboo of ink!)                           

I'd love to have you join me and the others this month with something GREEN!
Here's our blog ~ Die Cut Diva's 

First birthday for Twins

My friend's grandchildren turn one today.... so she asked me to make a card for their birthday.  I love Mo Manning baby images so decided to go with two matching images... one boy and one girl holding their teddies.



I flipped one image so they were facing each other and computer generated the sentiment using Ryan .  I coloured with Copics and then die cut them with Resplendent Rectangles from Spellbinders.   My friend was pleased with the cards.

Got a busy few days coming up...I'm taking part in Red Carpet Studio's Lucky Leprechaun Blog Hop over the weekend... and it's my turn to host the Die Cut Diva's challenge for March and I'm going to spend the day on Saturday stamping with friends... our first gathering for the year at Helen's place.

Hope you will be having a fun filled weekend too
Dawn  

Shabby Chic Butterfly

The current challenge over at A Blog Named Hero is all about Shabby Chic or Vintage style cards.  I like this genre but an not always as successful at it as I'd like.  I find the layering of many layers difficult to do.  But a challenge is a good thing....

I have a My Mind's Eye PP pad called "Follow Your Heart" and the papers are just perfect for this genre. I used this one as my base for the card. I cut a doily die from Die-Namics from cream card and stamped Hero Arts Starburst in Antique Linen distress ink. I punched a second piece of the PP and laid it across my card with some ribbon. The two butterflies from a HA stamp/die set stamped and cut from some more of the PP. I edged with Worn Lipstick ink and layered the two together with some gems ( saw Betty do the other day.) Stamped the sentiment and added the silver bling flourish.

The ABNH have been giving some great inspiration and instructions on how to make shabby chic/vintage cards.  Well worth having a look at their blog.

Not sure what is going on with blogger.... last night I had major issues with it... so if you didn't get to see my post about Paula's scramble, feel free to pop over here.

And did you see my little sneak peek about over at Die Cut Diva's blog... I'm hosting March's challenge and we've managed to secure a sponsor....  can you guess who?     Hop over to the blog on Friday to see what the challenge theme is and who our sponsor is....

Thanks for stopping by today.

Dawn