Thinking of You | Hello Sunshine | Best Wishes

I can't believe just how fast the year is going ..... here we are in April already!

It's Autumn here in Australia and I think this is my favourite time of the year.  Nice sunny days, blue skies, cool nights - perfect!

 

I have some more cards to share, as part of my CraftMad Swap group.

 

We had to make 2 cards - Card #1 a 'silhouette' card, and Card #2 a fun fold concertina card.

 

Card #1a - Thinking of You

I started by making my own stencil/mask using one of my Spellbinders Oval dies and ink blending a rainbow of colours in a diagonal pattern directly onto the cardbase.  I splashed some water onto the rainbow area, to add some interest, and then dried off with my heat gun.  A selection of silhouette stamps (from Amazon) were stamped in Versafine Onyx pigment ink directly to the cardfront.  I ummd & ahhhd over whether or not to stamp the sentiment and add it as another layer, but decided against it and ended up stamping the sentiment directly to the cardfront as well.

 

A final little touch of bling completed the card.

 

I actually enjoyed how this card came together, I made another one!  I believe it is called a 'two-fer'

 

Card #1b

I followed the same process as the previous card, but this time made my own stencil/mask using one of my Spellbinders Circle dies and ink blending a rainbow of colours from the centre outwards directly onto the cardbase.  I love the way it looks like the glowing sun.  I splashed some water onto the rainbow area, to add some interest, and then dried off with my heat gun.  A selection of silhouette stamps (Creative Place - Islandia) were stamped in Versafine Onyx pigment ink directly to the cardfront.  Sentiment was stamped directly onto the cardfront as well.

 

A final little touch of bling completed the card.

 

I was very pleased with how both of these cards turned out.

 

  

Linking Card #1a with the following challenges:

AAA Cards #287 - Silhouette +1  #1a = Geometric Shapes,  #1b = Landscape

Just us Girls #768 - anything goes Stencil week

 

 

----oooo0oooo----

 

Now onto Card #2 - a fun fold 'concertina' card

 

Well, I think you can guess what I'm going to say next right?   NOT a fun fold at all! 

It took me a while to decide on which 'concertina' card I was going to make, but I settled on one that had quite a few videos on YouTube and several different bloggers seemed to have a lot of fun making it. 

 

Even though I watched several tutorials, who made it look so very easy, I struggled - both with the construction and the end design of the card.

 

I took notes on the various measurements and started to cut - I settled on some double sided DSP that has been in my stash for a while - I think it is Kaszazz - and some co-ordinating 12x12 cardstock.

 

A rectangle using the other side of the DSP was added to a black matt and added to the cardfront.  The large sentiment was stamped and layered twice to add dimension, then added to a square green DSP front panel matted with black.   MFT Adorable Elephants Butterfly and heart stamped and a touch of bling completes the front.

 

Now despite my very careful cutting and layout plan, I still managed to muck it up!  I had intended for the the 'green gingham' to be the inside of the card and the smaller section to use the lighter paper .... oops!

 

Anyway ..... once I had got my valley folds & mountain folds sorted, I struggled to decide what to do with the inside.  I was going to leave an inside panel blank to write a greeting, but there wasn't really enough room to do that, I ended up stamping the inside panels with the cute little hearts and dotted 'flight path' over some cute little daisies.  In the end, I added a white panel on the back of the card for a personal note.

 

Here is a top view of the concertina card.
 

I really struggled with this one ..... an awful lot of wrangling, for not a lot of reward LOL

 

Anyway, I hope my swap partner likes the cards I have made - I will be sitting out the swap for April - I have had my fill of the 'fun fold' cards ................. they are NOT FUN!

 

 

 

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Happy 21st Birthday

The nephew Liam celebrates his 21st birthday!  Where does the time go?

 

I made a card using his favourite football team colours - black, white & teal (Port Power)

 

For the Cardfront, Bubbles were stenciled using my home-made stencil with Spellbinders Circle Dies and randomly placed & coloured using blending brushes with Blue, Grey & Black Distress Inks.  The outer border was coloured with Copics.

Sugar Pea 'Champagne bottle & glasses' were stamped & die cut, then coloured in with Copics and highlighted with Kindy Glitz & Dimensional Magic, Extra bubble blended & handrwitten '21' added to the cardfront with 3D foam dots.  

 

Honey Bee 'Bitty Buzzwords' Sentiment 'happy' stamped directly onto front of card, 'birthday' die cut from black cardstock, mounted onto white shadow, then added to the cardfront with 3D foam dots.

 

Gems added for a final touch of bling!

 

Inside the card I made a pocket for some money - stamped with VersaMark.

 

Linking With the following challenges:

 

Happy Little Stampers - July - Anything Goes with Dies

My Time to Craft! #513 Shades of Blue (not sure this REALLY fits, but will include the link anyway)

Inkspirational #295 - Use Stencils

Color My Heart Color Dare #559 (used blue, orange, yellow, green)

UPDATED:  Emerald Winner in Color My Heart Color Dare #559

 

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Happy Birthday

A birthday card today, inspired by a sketch on Freshly Made Sketches and Colour selection from Just Add Ink

 

 

 

I used my own handmade circle stencil, made with Spellbinders Circle dies & acetate, to make the 'bubbles' using blending brushes on a white 210gsm cardfront.

 

'Happy Birthday' from MFT 'Adorable Elephants' stamped directly to the cardfront in Black, trimmed to suit with a blue border added to define the edge.  Cardfront was then added to 300gsm cardbase using 3D foam.  

 

Two cocktail glasses & umbrellas from Sugar Pea Stamps 'Cheers to You' were stamped, die-cut & coloured in with Copics then layered onto the cardfront with 3D foam ... and a finishing touch of Kindy Glitz/Stickles & bling.

 

I used Distress Inks - Twisted Citron, Tumbled Glass & Mustard Seed - they are the closest to the Just Add Ink colours I have.

 

 

I am quite pleased with this card - I hope you like it too!

 

**UPDATED**  Oooh - My card was chosen Princess of Clean by Judy for Freshly Made Sketches!

 

 

Linking With the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches #587

Just Add Ink #654

Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies

 

ITEMS USED

Stamps/Dies:  MFT Adorable Elephants, Sugar Pea Stamps & Dies

Inks: Distress Inks

Tools:  Cuttlebug, Handmade Stencil, Blending brushes

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Love You ......

It's that time of year for us ........ we celebrate our 41st Wedding Anniversary on 13th February, and of course, 14th February is Valentines Day  ... 

 

Here is the Anniversary/Valentines card I made for Mr Fixit

 

On the inside of the card it says "I think I will keep you!"

 

Sentiment (font: Finesse) printed with laser Printer, the heart shape was foiled in Red with the MiniMinc.  Centre panel was die cut with Spellbinders, then background was ink blended with a brush using Distress Ink (Candied Apple) while still inside the die, giving another border effect, without adding an extra layer.  

Centre panel was then layered onto red cardstock, then mounted onto black leathergrain (300 gsm) cardbase using foam dots.

Red Gems and Black Bling hearts added as a finishing touch!

There are so many challenges with a 'love' theme at the moment :) it is a real love fest out there!

 

The 'InspiredBy' challenge inspired the placement of the two overlapping heart shapes I used.

The 'Inspiration Station' challenge inspired the use of red hearts.

The 'TicTacToe' challenge, I chose Across Middle Row: Red/Free/Love Sentiment 

The 'Try it on Tuesday' challenge theme is 'all you need is love' ......

 

-oo0oo-

 

Linking With the following challenges:

Try it on Tuesday - All You Need is Love

Tic Tac Toe Challenge #196

 

Inspiration Station - Photo Inspiration (inspired by the Red & Hearts)

Cut it Up #271 - Have a Heart

Inspired by Challenge - Hearts

 

Creative Knockout - Love is in the Air

Cardz 4 Guyz - valentine for a guy

Allsorts Challenge #715 Anything goes with hearts

ITEMS USED

Stamps/Dies:  Spellbinders large rectangle Die

Inks: Distress Ink Candied Apple

Tools:  Cuttlebug, blending brush, Heidi Swapp Mini Minc

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Happy Birthday Sharon

It's my Sister-in-Law's birthday during February, around the same time as our Wedding Anniversary.  

We usually get together to celebrate as a family, and this year was no different other than it was a little bit later than normal!  But hey, we got there in the end!

I have been really trying to be more creative with my cards and trying new techniques - one such technique from Natasha Foote caught my eye :)  

In her video titled We can use WHATEVER you have Natasha shares a technique of placing multiple diecut stamped images close together then cutting them out in a heart shape using a heart die.  I don't have a heart die, but I was quite taken with the end result.

So using what I have on hand, I stamped and coloured in my images with Copics and then die cut them.  

As I didn't have a heart shape, I used an oval Spellbinders Die as my shape and placed all the die cuts accordingly.  A little touch of Kindy Glitz here and there and the empty spaces were filled in with some bling (of course).  As the card seemed a bit bare, I sponged the background to give the oval a bit more definition.

The sentiment is from Inkadinkado 'Cupcake' stamp set.

The sweet goodies are from Lawn Fawn 'Sweet Plushies'

Cardstock from BlueEdge Crafts.

Linking with:

Time Out Challenges: #208 Birthday Challenge

Happy Birthday

Hi everyone

back again with another card using a 'new technique'.  I have been concentrating on using my stamps & dies that I have recently purchased .... and not packing them away so that they become NBUS (never before used schtuff) :)  

This is 'Take II' of a card made after watching a video from Natasha Foote on embossing vellum.  My previous card worked out okay, so I thought I would do another one.

First up, I ran vellum through the Cuttlebug using a Darice 'Ranunculus' embossing folder, and swiped all the raised bits with VersaMark Embossing Ink, then heat embossed with Gold embossing powder.   To attach the vellum without any noticeable 'sticky tape', I used some 'jac paper' (double sided sticky) to mount the vellum to the cardbase.

I stamped 'happy birthday' from 'Miss You Big Time' and diecut 3 layers, added a few bits of 'bling' in the center of the flowers, then gave the topper a black edge, like my previous card.

I used a lighter touch for the VersaMark ink this time, so the smudges & overflow was much less! 

Now I have a birthday card for the Sister-in-Law :)

I am quite pleased with this technique, although I am not sold on the black border :(

Cheers for now!

Happy Birthday

Time for some more crafting :) and inspiration from Freshly Made Sketches.

During my 'tidying up' I came across this lovely textured cardstock in DL size and a pile of beautiful patterned papers (from Blue Edge Crafts if memory serves), I also came across some quilling supplies ..... and a plan formed!

 

Of course, it wouldn't be a card made by me, if it didn't have bling!

 

It was fortuitous that 30 candles fit nicely on the DL card within the context of the Freshly Made Sketches sketch ..... I nearly ran out of 'teardrop' bling for the flames.

Now to find someone who is turning 30 to give it to LOL

Linking with the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches #482
Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #WWC314

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Birthday Cheers!

Greetings All!  I hope you have had a great Easter!

We had a very quiet one:  We had a friend visit for a few hours & a coffee on Saturday, and on Monday, we went to Brother-in-Laws' for Nibbles & Coffee & Hot Cross Buns.

It was a nice day weather wise, in fact the whole weekend was lovely - a bit hotter than previous years, but that was OK by us!

I made a belated birthday card for Brother-in-Law using some 'new' stamps :)

I used my Couture Creations 'stamp platform' to line up the glasses and the 'cheers' sentiment, then inked them up using Paint Box rainbow ink pads.  I coloured the drinks with watercolour pencils, then added some 'clear embossing' and to finish off, added just a touch of bling!  

A simple, restrained card for me - not too much froo froo ;)

Linking with the following challenge:

NBUS #25 - Never before used schtuff

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Congratulations, Laurel & Roger

My very dear friend from way back in my teenage years has become engaged to a lovely lady, named Laurel.

Here is the card I made for them.

The inside image is a lovely digital stamp from Mo Manning - I thought it suited the verse beautifully!

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Always wanted to see your name in lights?

Well, that was the thinking behind this card I recently made for my friend's neighbour's 50th birthday :)  He was having a Bollywood themed birthday party, and Joy asked if I could make a card to suit.



the elephant wobbles :)



here is another card I made after being motivated with all that bling!





the '50th' wobbles :)

I usually use Gold on my cards, in one way shape or form - either gold heat embossing, or gold stickers - that and some form of bling ..... you can't go wrong with bling!

Linking this card with:
As you like it - Gold or Silver?

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

New Baby | Happy 30th Birthday

I finally managed to get the new baby card that I mentioned in my previous post done & dusted, and I must say, I am really pleased with how it turned out.

When I went hunting for what type of card I was going to make for my new great nephew, Archie, I looked through my stamps and found a Lily of the Valley stamp I hadn't used.  So I went looking for layouts I could use to incorporate that stamp.

I was inspired by a card created for an old challenge blog called Here Come the Boys by Sharon, unfortunately, the blog doesn't exist any more, it closed in 2013 - but I did save the image as inspiration for the future.

Several layers have been cut with Spellbinders dies, Lily of the Valley stamp hand coloured with copics, embellished with liquid paint & kindy glitz, and a ribbon.

It is also my niece's 30th Birthday - so here is the card I made for her :)

I would like to submit my baby card to the following challenges:
Dream Valley Challenges - #142 one for the boys
CAS-ual Fridays (layer it on) - CFC158 (my card has 8 layers)
Daring Cardmakers: Seriously Monochromatic
Sunny Day Crafting - Anything goes

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.