Thank-you card

This card combines a sketch challenge from Clean and Simple #163, and a colour combo form Color Throwdown #165. 

Red and Pink for Christmas

Red is a traditional Christmas colour - but pink?   This week's Just Add Ink colour challenge JAI91 was Cherry Cobbler, Blushing Bride, and a neutral.  A few of the designers on the site chose to do Christmas cards in this colour scheme, and so did I.
I also took some inspiration from a sketch at Clean and Simple #64, as well as Less is More, where the theme is "Stars".

Happy Birthday, Gina

Today is the birthday of my friend, Gina.  She's having a party tomorrow night - it should be a great night, costumes and everything! - but I'm posting this card today as it happens to fit in to a challenge that finishes tomorrow! 
One of the challenges is from CAS-ual Fridays - CFC 25 Just add colour, and the other one is a sketch challenge - FTL161 from Clean and Simple. 

Julie and Nick are Engaged!!

My cousin, Julie, got engaged to her long-time partner, Nick, a couple of weeks ago,  I was very excited to be making an engagement card for them :)

I wanted to keep it very simple, with mostly black and white, because Julie is a very stylish girl and black and white seem to suit her well.  Here's what I came up with:

 How cute are these little Hero Arts birdies! I think they're just so sweet!  I added a bit of Crystal Effects to add a bit of shine.

Congratulations, Nick and Julie :)

CFC #23

Last week's CASual Fridays challenge was themed "Every day you spend without a smile is a lost day".   I wanted to join in, but I had no internet connection - stoopid computer!  So this card that I made missed the submission deadline :(  Oh well, here it is, anyway. 

Christening cards

A few months ago, an old schoolmate of mine, Domna, asked me if I would make Christening invitations for her daughter, Zoe's, christening in October.  I wasn't sure how to go about it, because I'm not religious, and I have no stamp images of anything religious, so Domna picked out a couple of free clip art images, and I printed them out and coloured them in, and combined them with some stamped images and came up with this.

 Lots of stamped and coloured bears.  Incidentally, this bear stamp is the first stamp I ever bought!!

 Lot of booties!

A work in progress - all the stamping done - background on card, teddy bears and sentiment stamped and teddies coloured in, booties and church printed and coloured in, all images and background squares punched (my hand hurts - that's 210 squares punched!!!) front panel cut and border punched, ready for assembly.

The front panel all done

 All assembled - all 30 of them!!

I love that envelope pattern background stamp from Hero Arts - I originally made this card in pink, but

Domna preferred purple.  I didn't have two shades of purple cardstock that coordinated like the two shades of pink, so I thought I'd stamp the background in the same shade ink  as the purple cardstock behind each panel (SU Lavender Lace) - and it worked a treat!  I'm just unhappy that SU discontinued the colour Lavender Lace - I don't have much cardstock left :(


I hope your day later this month goes really well, Domna, David and Zoe :)

Happy birthday, Jackie

 My friend, Jackie, is French - she was born in New Caledonia, and English is her second language, after French.  That said, she's as Aussie as they come!  But I decided she needed a bit of something French for her birthday. 

 This is the first time I've used my new Penny Black stamp set, Mimi in Paris.  The sentiment is a stamp from A Muse Artstamps.  I think the colouring could do with some Copics, but I don't have any!  I started colouring with Tombows, but the paper didn't like it, so I finished the colouring with pencils. 

Computer issues

Hi, all,
I have been absent for a week or so because my computer is having internet issues -  one morning last week it was fine, and that afternoon after coming home from work, my laptop decided that no WLANs exist anymore, so I cannot connect to the internet.  :( 
Right now I'm using my father's computer, but all my card photos are on my laptop, so I'm waiting to hear back from the computer repair guy with bated breath.  I hope to be blogging away again soon :)
Cheers,
Michelle

Another two challenges!!

I really liked the idea of looped ribbon for this week's CASual Fridays challenge Feeling Loopy CFC#22, and I really wanted to try out my new lotus background stamp from Hero Arts, so I thought this week's Clean and Simple sketch #160 would do nicely :)

 Here's the loopy bits up close:

 And here's the lotus background up close - I hope you can make out the shimmer and shine

Some challenges

I decided that I needed to step outside my comfort zone today, and make something using a challenge that didn't immediately appeal to me.  I found two that fit the bill, so I combined them :)

The colours are from this week's Just Add Ink #87 colour challenge,  and the layout is from Card Patterns - sketch 135.

The "Pool Party" strip in the background is embossed with a Sizzix folder in the Big Shot, and then I sponged some Broken China Distress ink over the raised areas.  The white circles on the Kraft (a.k.a. "Crumb Cake" in SU speak) are white heat embossed - it's a bit hard to see the shine in the photo, though. :(

Feeling loopy

This weeks CASual Fridays challenge is to put loops somewhere on a card.  I've seen this done on a few cards before, but never done it myself, but there's no time like the present!!
I'm kind of addicted to this Japanese patterned paper now - it is just so gorgeous!  I also stamped some leaves in versamark in the background, because the background looked a bit stark without it. 

 I cut about 1cm off the right side of the front of the card, so I could have the sentiment hang over the edge without it getting squished up in an envelope ;).   I added a strip of red to the inside of the card just to set it off.

 This loopy idea is great to use up little bits of left over ribbon - this bit was not even really long enough to tie a bow with, but I cut it into 3 pieces and looped each around, fastening with a glue dot.  The SU antique brad in the middle sets it off nicely, I think :)

Happy birthday, Kate ;)

Happy (Belated) world cardmaking day!   I didn't get a chance to get into the craft room yesterday - had a 2.5 hour mani and pedi in the morning (bliss!), then off to an annual BBQ celebrating the AFL Grand Final in Sunbury, then off to a 21st at Docklands! Busy day!!  But I managed to sleep in until 7:15 this morning - no, wait, daylight saving kicked in, so I didn't sleep in at all! Boo. 

Anyway, here's a card I made last week for my friend, Kate - her birthday is later this week, but I saw her last weekend, so she got her card then :)

 I used some more of the gorgeous hand-painted paper that my friend, Sharyne, bought for me in Japan.  I love this paper so much that only very special friends get some on their birthday cards :)