Angus Argus!!!!

Hello,

Something a bit different today - I received a digi stamp yesterday from one of my Stamp TV blogging friends Christina Bower aka Sunshine. She asked me to come up with a card using the image and I got right into it. Meet Angus Argus!!! Isn't he cute.

I haven't really tried digi stamps before so had some fun playing to see just how I could print the image. As your can see on the 1st card 'I will follow' I reduced him to print out 2 one slightly higher than the other. I printed this onto white paper first to see how it would sit on the card.

I wanted some clouds so made myself a stencil then using white scrapbook chalk sponged the little clouds. Once this was dry I taped the pale blue card over the white printed page and put this through the printer keeping my fingers crossed I might add. I'd added the sentiment too so that was most of the work done. I coloured the planes with Copic markers, rounded the corners and attached this to the card base.

On the second 'Special Delivery' I just reduced Angus some more - set the three in formation! printed onto a slightly heavier weight white paper. Using an Oval Nestability cut this out and mounted it to the green craft card. My card was embossed with Swiss dots and a strip of Nursery paper attached across this before attaching the oval with foam tape. The printer was used to print special delivery onto a strip of ribbon to finish off.

Now this last one I couldn't resist.......

So, do you want to try a digi stamp? just click on the sunshine link to take you to Christina's blog where she will give you a copy of Angus Argus to play with.

Till next time.........

This is my House......

Morning,

This little card was made for 2 challenges this week. The first was one of the Gina K June Release challenges. Which was to make a card using pink and brown plus one neutral colour. The second is the Stamps and Smiles Sketch Challenge.

The finished card measures just 41/4 inches with the back of the card punched with a SU lace punch.

• Stamps: GKD Rupa Shevde's Home Tweet Home, The little Bird was cut from SU A Flower for all Seasons.
• Paper: GKD Pure Luxury Ivory and Chocolate, DCWV Nana's Nursery Stack.
• Embellishments: 3 Kaisercraft chocolate pearls.

The chocolate brown card was embossed using the Cuttlebug birds and swirls embossing folder.

The birdhouse was stamped onto Ivory card, cut using a scalloped oval from Spellbinders Nestabilities . I coloured it using Copic markers and the little bird was attached with foam tape.

This next card 'Friends are Like Flowers' is my card for Donna's CAS challenge the 2nd of the Release Party challenges. The challenge was a one layer card using only one kind of embellishment - you could use as many of them as you liked but only one kind. I was'nt sure if the punched strip could be counted as an embellishment so the green ribbon I had planned to use was left off!

• Stamp: GKD Elegant Flowers.
• Card: GKD Pure Luxury Ivory
• Ink: SU Pretty in Pink and Mellow Moss

With this little card after I'd punched down the right hand side I embossed the frame then stamped the image followed by the sentiment. That was it!!

I think with the square or rectangular nestabilities this would have been easier still.

Thats it for today - I hope you have a good Monday...............

It's your Day............

I had such a busy day yesterday - card making!!! I wanted to take part in the Gina K June release challenges 3 of them. Then there was this card - I started this one on Friday evening . For the first time I'm entering one card for two challenges (actually this week I'll be doing that with two of my cards).

So the challenges were to do some stitching - Gina used a mini Janome on her card, mine was done on my singing and dancing Husqvarna!! The second challenge was a colour challenge so here it is.

• Stamp: Gina K, Eclectic Summer
• Card: Gina's Pure Luxury Ivory, SU - Baja Breeze, Basic Grey - petticoat and ladybug. pale pink and black craft card.

I zig zagged around the card once the Dp was attached to the black mat. Punched both sides of the pale pink card using the SU lace punch. Then lay a thin strip of baja breeze down over the centre of the pale pink and zig zagged either side of this.

I stamped the image and then coloured it with Copic markers. Used Spellbinders to cut both the scalloped and plain circle, then the small oval for the sentiment. Both the scalloped pieces were pierced. The image was popped up with foam tape.

The inside of the card is decorated by cutting out the scalloped oval, stamping the sentiment and attaching the fabric flowers which were coloured with Copics.

I really enjoyed making this little card, for the first time since our holiday I felt good when a card was finished!

Tomorrow I'll show you one of the 3 Challenge cards, till then...........

Hello all,

How's your week end so far? It's not such a nice day in Sydney today with rain showers on and off.

No card to post today just a couple of pictures for my 'Wild Rose' friends over at Stamp TV.

These lovely girls live in the USA and Canada and we've been swapping stories of the views from our windows and some of the locals we live with (the animal kind). My house is next to what we refer to as 'bush' and we see Possums, Snakes, Goannas, (occasionally) Echidnas

and we also have a Wallaby who at the moment is not very welcome as he eats all my nice plants!! He particularly likes my favourites the Gardenias. I've tried spraying them with a mixture of chilli powder and water but that's not very practical with the rain we've been getting. Also we have a long driveway which is in need of landscaping if anyone has any suggestions of some plants Wallabies don't like I'd love to hear from you!!!! I keep putting this job off as planting will be expensive which I don't mind but not to feed this visitor!!

I'm off to get on with some challenge cards.

Have a great weekend,

If Friends Were Flowers.....

We have had a fantastic day today - the suns been out all day, as I type this it's just starting to disappear. Walshie was at home and we spent most of the day in the garden, working to tidy it after all the rain we've had. A Kookaburra has been keeping me company - sitting on a branch waiting to see if any worms are un earthed! I did however spend about one hour this morning on the computer as Gina K from Stamp TV had her June release party - what a hoot! The chat moves so fast it's hard to keep up, but great to see what her design team came up with for the new stamps.

One of my Cyber friends Nina has a gorgeous stamp set that I think will be a favourite of many, check it out here. It's at the top of my wish list. There were so many great cards made using it, go click on the Stamp TV badge to see for yourself!

OK enough chat, this little card I made ready for a friends Birthday. I took the picture this afternoon and I'm sorry it's not a very good one. You can hardly see the stamp!!!

• Card: Ivory Linen, We are Memory Keepers double sided DP and a scrap of green for the outer scalloped circle.
• Stamps: SU Polka Dot Punches and the sentiment is from Gina K's Bold Flower set.
• Embellishments: Peach silk ribbon, a silver filigree spacer set with a pale green sparkling gem.

I punched both edges of the peach and green DP using a SU lace border punch.

Embossed the peach card with Swiss Dots .

Using two Spellbinder scalloped circle dies cut one in green and the second in peach and pierced them. Then attached the stamped Ivory linen circle dressed with the gem. I used foam tape to pop it up.

The sentiment was stamped out twice one on the Ivory card then again on peach with the three words cut out and attached to add some highlight.

The cute little purse was made using a template from SCS. I added some of the plain green as an edge to the purse flap. The daisies were first coloured with Copic markers then using a green gem brad I attached them to the flap on the purse. I used a different ribbon for the purse handle not perhaps as nice as the silk on the card but stronger! Hope you like this little set.

I've added a couple more Gingerbread cards I made quite quickly to add to my Christmas stash!! What do you think of these?

Always & Forever - Mojo Monday92

My card for this weeks Mojo Monday is Always & Forever using Gina K's 'eclectic summer' stamped image and Rupa Shevde's sentiment from 'with this ring'. (Thanks Kez for the loan!).

I stamped the image using Versa Color - sand beige and then clear embossed it. The sentiment was treated in the same way.

I used Gina's Pure Luxury Card in Ivory for the card base with the tan card from American Craft Cards for matting, the black cardis ACC too. The dp is another from Basic Grey - Ambrosia quince and pome. Great card for male card don't you think? I rounded the four corners to follow the curved look of the dp and attached 4 black pearl stick ons from Kaiserscrapbook. Black ribbon set with an antique swirl across the paper join and a smaller swirl on the bottom right hand corner of the image to finish off. Oh, I should say I popped the sentiment up with foam tabs.

The inside of this little card uses the same dp 'quince' with an oval cut from the centre using a Spellbinders die. I've attached 3 daisies from my sewing box and stamped the sentiment which also comes from Rupa's stamp set.

The Boss and I celebrate another year of 'wedded bliss' at the end of September, I think he might approve of this little card so I'd better hide it......

Gingerbread Wishes......

Hiya,

So, here's the thing - Joan from Paperlicious ran a little contest to win 2 sets of stamps Gingerbread Joy Oven Baked and Half Baked. In fact they were the first stamps to be offered by Claire Brennan of Waltzingmouse fame.  All we had to do was guess how many ink pads Joan owned and I got the closest with my guess of 200.  I'm sure I would have told you all this in an earlier blog  -  I was so wrapped at the time as I win nothing as a rule a less lucky person you have never met!!!  Enough waffle..... my 2 new stamp sets were waiting for me when I got back from NZ so I had to play.  

I used all the clear stamps from the Oven Baked set for this card.

I started with a piece of white card I cut to give me just over an inch to the front of the card and to this I attached the 'ginger'  card from American Crafts. I used a Spellbinders oval die to cut out the centre of this card then lined up a piece of We R Memory Makers dp and cut an oval out of that. This I used to line the inside of the card.

The little Gingerbread man was stamped through this oval onto the white card underneath and coloured with pencils and baby oil.  For some Christmas bling I gave him some stick on jewel buttons.

Onto the 'ginger' front - around the oval I stamped the holly and berries with the help of my SU Stamp a ma jig (what would I do without this little tool). The Sentiment was from the same set as where the candy canes - I know, I stamped them upside down, what was I thinking !!!! (I think it was because I turned the card round to stamp them. A blond moment.)

I tied the ribbon around the bottom to finish off.

These are such cute little stamps and there are so many to each pack you should go check them out. I plan to make all my Christmas labels, bon bons etc using them.

Tomorrow I have my Mojo Monday Card to show you it's just about finished just needs to be photographed.

Till then..........

ps -  guess what I've added some more holiday pics to see....

Here are 2 more very quick cards I made just before I went to bed last night!

My head hit the pillow and I was thinking of so many things I could make with these stamps ready for Christmas so sleep was a long time coming!  

Winter Wonderland meets SCS......

Morning all,

This mini Pizza box was features on SCS and Jen del Muro posted a tutorial for it.

I thought it would fit the bill for the Winter Wonderland challenge this week which is "A Blue Christmas".  

It's a great little box that can be made out of one sheet of card - so off I went with a piece of soft blue craft card and guess what it turned out OK the lid closed nicely too!

I decorated the top with Basic Grey - Figgy Pudding then stamped some snowflakes from SU  short and sweet over a piece of SU Pacific Point.  My snowman is made using a small oval and circle Nestabilities die. With beads for his eyes and nose, His mouth was drawn in with a Copic marker. His scarf is a small scrap of ribbon and for his hat I drew the shape onto a piece of felt and cut it out. I added a couple of larger beads for his buttons (as kids we used coal! showing my age now ah).  I added some cotton wool, a couple of punched swirls. The computer generated sentiment was printed onto a piece of the soft blue card which had snowflakes stamped on before I ran it through the Cuttlebug with a Spellbinders small tag die.  I've added SU ribbon around the lid and the snowflake charm to finish off.

I'm  thinking I might make a few small cards to put inside or even some chocolate, not sure yet.

Tomorrow I have another Christmas Card (sorry but I have loads to do) and I've used a stamp set that I won!!!!!  OMG yes..... not for my card making expertise though, for my guesswork - tell you more when I post the card.

I'm hoping to add some more photos to the slideshow later. I have some taken on the Doubtful Sound - this would have been one of the most memorable days of our trip.

Anyway I'm going to post this then off to bed............. its nearly 1am again!

Oh Christmas Tree...SASSC20

This card was made for the Stamps and Smiles sketch challenge 20. I used a new little stamp by Inkadinkado that I bought in New Zealand. I would have loved to find some Kiwi stamps but sadly didn't.

My base card is Gina K's pure luxury white. Both the green dp is from SU and the gold is a scrap from We R Memory Keepers. I attached the three mini gold buttons with embroidery floss to the green polka dot dp before this was added to the card.

I cut the gold craft card using a Nestabilities scalloped die. Stamped the image onto more Gina K white card inking up with green and black then used a second Nestabilities circle die to cut out.

A small timber star from my stash was attached with embroidery floss to the top of the tree before mounting on the scalloped circle and popped up with foam tabs.

I'm working on a little something for the Winter Wonderland challege and hope to get it photographed today to put up tomorrow - hope you'll come back to see it!

I'm still adding pictures to the slideshow, just a few each day as it takes a while to load them to Picasa

Tokens of Love......

Yesterday I managed to make 2 cards whoohoo!

It's good to have one ready I think and as I found it hard to get started I decided to make a couple of sketch challenge cards.

'Tokens of Love" is made for the Thursday Sketch at Stamp TV.  I've flipped it round for my card - hope Jessica won't mind.

I started with the pale blue craft card and some chocolate brown from Gina K. 

 On to this I have used a sheet of dp from We R Memory Keepers called White Out.  I've used these papers before they are double sided and one side has four different blocks printed on it which is great for cards.

The image which is 'Tokens of Love" from Penny Black, is stamped onto White card with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I coloured it with coloured pencils and baby oil and then cut out using one of the Nestabilities dies. This was then mounted onto another piece of the chocolate brown card and attached to the front of the card. ( I have to thank my friend Kerrie for the loan of her gorgeous stamp, thanks Kez! ) The Sentiment is from SU.

I showed it to Walshie as I usually do when I finish a card and his reaction to it was  - its a bit modern for Christmas.....  I just thought it was more an Australian style Christmas Card.  What do you think?

Sorry forgot to add the photo!!!! I'm trying to work out how to add a slideshow!!!!!

Yeah, I did it.......... now I have a slide show for you of our Holiday snaps. Check out top left hand side column. If you want to know where abouts we are click on the photos - I've added a line to explain.

OK- IT'S TIME FOR SOME SNAPS!!!!

Sorry I haven't started making cards again, still sorting laundry!!!

I've been asked if I have some Holiday snaps to share  - do I!  

The South Island of NZ is an amazing place with breath taking scenery. For those of you who haven't been I want to share some with you.

I will try not to bore you I promise,  just a few pictures each time over the next few days. It might just inspire you to make the trip. 

The camera came out as we started our descent into Christchurch. I was lucky enough to be sitting next to the window and the Southern Alps were too good to miss from this height!

Christchurch, our first full day and there was a cold wind - I had to buy a hat!!!

A very nice man from LA took this picture for us.

The cafe is in an area where they have all the local arts and crafts. There are many of these buildings around town as well as some more modern, as seen below in the Art Gallery - I just loved the curved glass front.  The City is very English in lots of ways - The River Avon runs through  it and they have Punts on the river.    Maybe in Springtime!

Last one for today was taken in Cathedral Square which is really the heart of the City. The Cathedral is another Gothic building with beautiful stained glass windows.  We did view the inside and plenty of people were taking pictures but I don't like to!  We were lucky, there was an organ practice in progress during our visit - the sound was wonderful.

OK so that's enough for now, I'll pick a few more for tomorrow!!!

It pays to stay home!!!!!

I'm having so much trouble with my computer at the moment, so not able to concentrate on cards at all. I've managed to get my lap top that I use when I'm working to load my blog correctly but my Mac Desk Top is giving me all kinds of trouble. I think it's because I've been away and all the blogs I follow have backed up taking too long to download!! I just need to find out how to clear them. I managed to get my posts visible but none of the side bar info comes up. If anyone out there knows the answer to my problem I'd love to hear from you.

I've fixed it! - not sure how possibly just a slow connection! but I seem to be up and running again thankfully.  So please ignore my moaning I hope to be back on tract tomorrow - er later today!!!!

Happy Birthday Walshie!!!

Hi,

Walshie and I flew back to Sydney from Christchurch, New Zealand this afternoon, getting home around 18.30.  It's his Birthday today - what a way to spend a B'day.  Still it's nice to be home and I've just loaded over 400 photos into the computer.  I think it will take me ages to sort them all, but it's going to be fun going through them again.

Having trouble with my computer so just want to try this post to see if this works.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!

This is the card I made to the Stamp TV sketch challenge. I thought it could be my first Christmas Card. It's quite a different sketch from Melissa one of the new In The Spotlight Designers. A long slim card, which I like for a change.

1. Red craft card for the base of the card and background squares.

2. Ivory Linen for the other elements.

3. Scalloped circle cut using a Spellbinders die. Stamped with SU Very Merry. 3 small gold brads added and the scallop's pierced.

4. The long narrow horizontal strip was pierced on both sides and had the bow made up of gold gift ribbon and red ric rac knotted together.

5. The Stamped image is Gina K's Wreath of Wishes. Stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black ink then clear embossed before being coloured with copics. This was cut into inch squares and mounted onto red craft card which I pierced in opposite corners before attaching to the Ivory strip.

Sorry this is a very rushed post today, I've been out to lunch with 'Le Girls'. These are the girls who come and share a craft evening at my house once a fortnight. Because of illness and one thing and another we haven't had craft night for a couple of months so this was the first time we've been all together for a while - can you imagine the catching up we had to do - six of us all trying to talk at once. The sun was out, cool but nice and the restaurant was on the edge of a lake so a perfect setting. I took the camera meaning to take a picture to post then forgot all about it - how silly, never mind another time.

This will be my last post as we are off to NZ very early Monday - Home on the 17th (Walshie's B'Day)

Till then.........

Good Morning,

Suns out at last here, I've got every window in the house open and the washing machine on  -  Domestic Bliss!!!

No card as yet today - but you never know I might get one before the end of the day!!

I'm off to get my hair trimmed  this afternoon, tomorrows our 'craft girls' lunch then Walshie and I are off on Monday at the crack of dawn!! 

I've just read this Poem one of the girls on Stamp TV put up. She didn't know who wrote it so unfortunately I can't credit the writer.   I copied it to use sometime in the future and thought I would pass it on.

She learned to stamp on Monday

her embossing was quite fine.

She forgot to set out dinner....

so away out we went to dine.

She brayered backgrounds Tuesday

she says they are a must....

they really are quite lovely

but there was no time to dust.

On Wednesday it was birthday cards

she claims that chalking's fun

shading, blending and water-colouring

but the laundry wasn't done.

Her card swap was on Thursday

she had to use green, blue and red,

it was obvious she was really engrossed

when she failed to make the bed.

It was Shaker cards on Friday

using techniques that she just adores,

what a pity she then failed to notice

the crumbs dropped all over the floors.

I found a maid on Saturday!

My week is now complete

my wife can stamp her hours away

and the house will still be neat.

Well, already it is Sunday

and my forehead's feeling damp

cos I've cursed, and raved and ranted

for the Maid has learned to stamp!  

What do you think - pretty good ??

Red, White & Blue

Good Morning!

How do you like my patriotic cards!!

SCS sketch challenge this week  (SC231) was the vertical stripes with a square on the bottom lefthand side. This is my take on the challenge - I thought it screamed stars and stripes!!

I've photographed this card twice because Walshie and I like it with the stripes running horizontally (which you can see at the end of this post), so that's  how I'll send it! 

No stamping at all on this one just two sized stars stamped out using a SU star punch.  They were punched out of white card and the larger one coloured with Copics.  The base card is Navy craft card to which I added white card from Gina K's.  I've also printed out the red star paper that Gina offered as a freebie with her latest stamp release over at Stamp TV. This too was mounted onto Navy card.

I've also passed on the blog candy alert for Melissa's blog - check over on the left hand side. 

I couldn't resist even though I'll be away when it's drawn!!!  Will one of you let her know I'm back on 17th????????

Birthday Celebrations

Just a quick post today I'm on the back foot again!!!

This card is made with one of the images I stamped for yesterdays Mojo Monday Card.

I clear embossed the image onto Ivory card then sponged with SU Blush Blossom thinking it went with the colour of the dp I was using - it so didn't go!!!

Today I mounted the stamped and sponged image onto Chocolate Bazzill card that I tied the satin ribbon around. I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set onto a piece of heavy cream writing paper and punched out the oval using a Nestabilities die. It looks so much better today! This stamp set is so versatile - have I said that before!!!

I received my first blog award today from Debbie P who is another Aussie stamper with a fabulous blog (go check it out).

The rules for this award are...

*comment on this blog

*cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog

*nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude

*link to your nominees within your blog post

*comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award

*link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation

In no order:

Kathy - Inspired to stamp; Jo - Scraps from Oz; Fiona - Fionas Stamping Spot; Kerrie - Kezzam; Selma - Selmas Stamping Corner; NinaB - Crafting in Croatia; Bev - All the things I love

Not all these stampers are Aussies but they have blogs I've enjoyed and we keep in touch which is really what it's all about for me. Thank you all.

MOJO MONDAY 89

So for this weeks card which looked to be a square on the sketch diagram, I've decided on 14cm square which in my talk is 5.5 inches.  I only hope I can find some envelopes this size now!!

I must say I liked the sketch, squares and circles together, great.

My base card is Gina K's  Pure Luxury Ivory, a nice heavy weight card. I used dp from Kaiserscrapbook Pretty in Pink,  a double sided card. The plain strip sitting on the bottom of my card I embossed with Swiss Dots  through the Cuttlebug. I mounted both onto Bazzill Chocolate card, did some piercing around the four corners.  A strip of pink organza ribbon was  wrapped around where the cards joined.

The image is from Stampin Up called Upsy Daisy. I've stamped this onto the plain side of the dp with VersaMark and clear embossed it before mounting it to more of the Ivory card. The circle was also cut from Ivory card using a Spellbinders scalloped circle. The circle was attached to the card first followed by the stamped image.  The organza flower to finish off,  I made by stitching a line of running stitch along the edge of doubled ribbon. Then just pull the stitching up to form the flower.  I've been making these flowers over the years for embroidery projects then saw a card made by the very talented Debbie from Thinking Inking which you can see here

It made a simple card look beautiful, so I thought why not!  Thanks Debbie I love your blog.