2015 - A New Year, A Fresh Blogging Start!

Hi everyone, I wanted to say sorry to you all for being missing for so long.  No posts for a good long while.  I have been making cards here and there but at some point I'd decided I should watermark them and never got around to uploading anything until now.

Well!  Tonight I re-figured out how to watermark using the free software I found via google called GIMP2 and my paintbrush program that comes with windows.  If anyone wants any instructions on using GIMP2 to watermark their pictures, please leave a comment and I'll do a post on it.

I hope you've all had a great Christmas break.  I had a lovely Christmas with my Mum Judi.  We spent the day having a Game Of Thrones marathon and cooking and eating roast pork and veggies for Christmas lunch/dinner.  I also made a humongous trifle which was delicious, but lasted the week almost! 

We also went to the boxing day sales on the day after boxing day (to avoid the madness, and it worked).  We had lots of fun and lunch whilst there.  And hows this for an unexpected bonus? I discovered a Kaisercraft store I didn't know existed.  I'd never been in one and had to be pretty ruthless and quick as Mum is not into crafting and she was waiting on me.  I picked up some lovely papers, stamps and glitters and was lucky enough to find they were having a sale that day too!  Lucky me!  I'll pop some pictures below so you can see my goodies :o)   Sorry about the hand shadows on some of the pictures.

   

 

I've had a rather great christmas in relation to crafty stuff, I won't post all the pics as there are just too many.  I've also been saving some of my christmas pay so that I can have a big buy up from the Stampin Up new Occasions Catalogue and Sale-abration...plan to do my shop on Tuesday :o)

So, being a cardmaker you might like to see some cards!  Here are the birthday cards that I've made so far this year.  I've managed to incorporate a lot of my new purchases into them so I'm not feeling too guilty about my crafty shopping sprees! *giggle*

Below you'll find two masculine cards and a decidedly femine one.   The car one was my first for this year, the 6 year old liked it :o)  The top one was for a man in his 30's, I used all new stuff on this card!  And the third card was for my lovely friend Virginia.  I really love how each of these turned out!

 

For this card I utilised double sided tape and put cosmic shimmer gilding flakes on there - I think this shade is called Autumn.  The tag was put through a cracks embossing folder and I rubbed a brilliance galaxy gold ink pad across the raised cracks.  I also inked the tag and insert with frayed burlap and aged mahogony distress inks.  Finally, I added some cog shaped brads that I've had in my stash ever since I started card making.  Oh and the letters of Aaron were die cut on this sparkly black wrapping paper that I adhered to double sided tape before die cutting, turning them into stickers.

This car birthday card uses the technique called "Colour Blocking" which I learned recently from Youtube by lostinpaper.  I worked out that it's best to stack up a full size sheet of each of the papers and then cut them together, which leaves enough cut bits that fit together to make three cards!  You should have seen my first attempt - a total disaster, lol!

 

And last but certainly not least is this beautiful card I made using a free hostess set from StampinUp called Bloom With Hope.  I stamped the image on the smoother side of watercolour paper using the SU Cherry Cobler ink pad and coloured it in with a waterbrush, no extra ink was needed!  I also made the envelope (from KMart) match by sticking adhesive to the back of the cardstock and die cutting some spellbinders borders into it, making an easy to adhere sticker!

Well, that's all for now, I hope to pop in again soon and put some cards up that I've made since my last post.  Don't forget to comment below if you want me to post instructions on watermarking pictures using the GIMP2 software.  You can also find helpful videos on youtube for that.

Take care and keep on crafting!

Mother's Day 2014 (Number 2)

Hey there!  Surprise!  Another blog entry for you to peruse and another card for you to enjoy!  I was watching Christina Griffiths (CardmakingMagic.com) on youtube last night and she made a card that inspired me and resulted in my latest creation.

I've finally got some kraft coloured cardstock in my stash (been wanting it for a while) and this card was made using the 12x12 sheets from CraftOnline.  It isn't very strong cardstock but when you reinforce it with a few layers, it's just right.  *smile*

Anyway, I really like how this card turned out, so much so that I wanted to finish it before I jumped online to chat with my other DUS friends.  (oh, DUS stands for Down Under Stampers, I don't think I've mentioned us all before.)

Well here it is, I think I will make a few more.  The diecut was only cut half way by placing the plates half way only on the die.  I chose not to emboss as Christina did on her video here, as I was going to cover it with a white die cut anyway, so I didn't see the point.  I also didn't put loads of embellishments on there, I think the simplicity on this card is rather elegant (even if I do say so myself!)

Enjoy! and thanks always for stopping by!

  

 

Cheers

Scrapbook Boutique Challenge Entry

Hi everyone, yep it's me again, 3 entries in such quick succession can only mean a dry spell (work week) is ahead of me (and possibly you too!).

Today I'd like to invite you to view my entry into the latest Scrapbook Boutique Challenge, the prize is a $30 voucher for use in the store, but it's only open to Australian residents as they do not as yet sell overseas.

The inspiration for the challenge is this picture, which has lots of lovely colours: 

And here is my entry, which I haven't entered into any other competitions (even though I could have it in up to 3).  Oh! And I tried to use some lighter pink flowers but you couldn't see the definition in the petals properly and they just looked a bit like blobs, so I had to go with this darker pink - hopefully that is ok!

Wish me luck and happy crafting to you!
Cheers for stopping by

Inspired by Marcelle - Torn Base Birthday Cards

Hello again, I hope you're having a wonderful day or night.  For myself, I enjoyed having a day off work today and have had a rather enjoyable weekend making a set of cards that I hope you will enjoy.

My inspiration came from my friend Marcelle, she found a blog post by Marelle Taylor and alot of us have been having a go at making them since Marcelle ran with it and inspired us all!

Basically, the gist of it is that you make a card base with coloured cardstock, tear off part of the front part and then replace with other/white cardstock stamped with designs on there.

Here are the ones I've made, first picture is the front, second is the insides.  I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did making them!

Cheers and have a happy creative day!

Owl Birthday Pop Up Card

Hi everyone, I think it's past time for an update (again, sorry about that long wait!).  I hope you're all doing well and having a lovely crafty time.

Today I'd like to share with you my first go at doing a pop up card.  I didn't have any fancy pop up dies or anything, all I used was good old fashioned scissors.  

My inspiration comes directly from this video by Darlene DeVries.  She did a great job with the card.  I had to improvise as I didn't have any party hat stamps or balloon stamps.  I instead made party hats by cutting a 2cm x 2cm square of paper, marking the centre at the top and then drawing lines from the bottom left and bottom right to the centre and cutting out the resulting triangle (hat).  To replace the balloons she stamped on the background, I attempted to make wallpaper and flooring.  It's a little rough, but for a first go, I'm pretty happy with it.  It has a heck of a lot of work involved and I decided to keep it myself!  I can use it as a prototype but really, it's so cute I just want to be able to look at it for more inspiration!  The owls are made with a StampinUp punch and paper pieced together.  Here's a pic of the punch and the final card I made.

Thanks for stopping by and having a gander!

Take care and happy crafting to you!

Fluttering Fairy

Hi everyone, I thought I'd just pop in quickly and share my latest card creation with you.  This is a fairy from Whimsy Stamps that I fell in love with and just had to have - along with several others of course! 

Here is a pic of the wonderful haul that I got from Whimsy Stamps:

And that wonderful company included three free stamps (the red rubber ones) with cute sentiments that say: "I shut my eyes in order to see" and "Home is where the heart is" and finally "Summer memories last a lifetime".  Don't you just love freebies?  I sure do!

Anyway, back to the point (I know, I do tend to wander around the point sometimes)...  This is the first fairy I've played with from that order and I quite like how she's turned out.  I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and choose a different colour - and the winner was Green!  I don't use it much so that qualifies in my book.  I used a white cardstock base, stuck a green spotty panel over the whole front and then the panel with the fairy, which is mounted on a spellbinders die cutout.  A few gems and of course some clear wink of stella on the dress and stickles glitter glue on the wings and hey presto - a beautiful fairy.  The sentiment stamps are from Simon Says Stamp and I thought they fit rather well as the fairy is blowing...(I had to cut the little stars out, and now she looks like she's blowing out the candles, I think).

I also was rather lucky and received more happy mail from Lawn Fawn and an ebay store - which I highly recommend called Aunt Arabella.  Here are the goodies:

Well, I have been rather stuck, had computer problems this week also, but now it's working again and I hope it keeps working as I don't know why it stopped in the first place!  Computer withdrawal is not so much fun!

Have a happy, productive and crafty day!

Cheers

Past Time For A Catchup I Reckon

Hello you lovely people, sorry I have been MIA again, I have been rather un-inspired lately and instead of making cards I've been doing a lot of window shopping and online shopping for crafty stamping products and watching a lot of youtube where other people are doing all the creating! 

I have a few new pics for you though, so lets get into it!

Ok, these two cards were made for a challenge on StampTV called Merry Moddy Christmas 2.  The link to the challenge has disappeared but a link to the entries for it is here.

I made this card for Liz, one of my StampTV friends as she sent me a special card to celebrate the season for 2013.  I really like how it turned out.  It is inspired by a youtube video tutorial by Robyn at injoystampin, which you can view in two parts here and here.

This card was made for my friend Carolyn's son Mathew, who was turning 5.  The dinosaurs and volcano dimensional stickers were bought from The Reject Shop.  I made the clouds and the hills myself though.  The second picture is of the inside, where I managed to fit the Happy Birthday.  Thankfully Mathew loved it!

With this next card, I thought I'd posted it previously, but it looks like I didn't.  It was entered into another StampTV challenge called Mix It Up Monday Dec 16 - Love is in the air!  To view all of the entries you can click here.

And guess who won that challenge?  Yep, me, I did, and they sent me this awesome prize!

And I think that about brings me up to date with today's card.  This image was sent to me by another StampTV friend called Virginia, who very nicely fullfilled my fairy stamp wish by stamping me a bunch of her stamps.  I really like the way this one turned out, but I have to tell you, the Spellbinders Dies that I used are called Elegant Labels 4 and my cuttlebug did not want to cut the outer one, it kept missing the top and bottom of the die. Oh well, I've now decided that it's almost time to upgrade because I want the largest dies, so I plan to get the Big Shot Pro hopefully around June 2014.

I tried masking the fairy image but I had the masking plastic sheet backwards so the sticky side was around the wrong way, lol.  My second attempt was much better and around the right way, but I didn't place it over the fairy properly and after attempting to put a glow around the fairy I discovered white spaces around parts of her that shouldn't be there.  I went around her with a black fineliner, which looks alright I guess but next time I will need to be more careful.

And this picture shows how glittery the fairy is with clear wink of stella pen all over her.  I also coloured the white panel under her with the pen, twice and it went super glimmery - like glitter cardstock without the texture!

Well, I hope you all have a lovely crafty day and until next time, take care!

Regards and thanks for stopping by!

Julie is having a baby!

Hi there, another quick post for you.  I've just finished making a card for a lady called Julie who works in our Brisbane office branch and is soon to be a mum for the first time!  She's going on maternity leave soon so we needed a card to farewell her, I hope she likes it!

I thought I should do a close up so you can see the sparkly wink of stella in clear - I love that stuff!

Well, it's late (12.01am) and I have work tomorrow, so I'd better choof off to bed!

Goodnight and thanks for stopping by :o)

Feeling a little bit like blue is a lovely colour

Hi there, sorry it's a been a while, I've been busy with work and all that entails and I've been watching a lot of other people on youtube making cards, instead of making them myself!

I've been really loving blues at the moment and felt the need to make a blue card.  I had the base and the greeting and finally I found some really nice paper pads from Crazy Clarks and The Reject Shop and now my cards are finished.  (I made two the same).

I hope you like them! The first one is the outside, the second is the inside, the third is the card & envelope together.

Take care, until next time!
Cheers