New Butterfly die

I was given a gift voucher for Paper Squared for my birthday a couple of months ago and, this week, I finally got to spend it!  One of the things I used it for was a buttterfly die that I saw Jennifer McGuire use in the Kickstart Online Card class.  Here's the first card I made using the die:

 I thought I'd submit this card to the Daring Cardmakers Chevron Crazy challenge (see the purple butterfly at the top left!?) as well as Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes. 

A missed challenge

Those of you who follow my blog (and thank you so much for doing so!) will notice that I sometimes go missing in action (these times usually coincide with a mountain of marking - I teach Biology to Uni students, and I often get buried under hundreds and hundreds of prac reports, exams and assignments).  During these times, I still keep up with looking at blogs and challenges, and some of the challenges I store away for a future cardmaking session. 
This card fits in with a recent CASual Fridays challenge that I missed - it was called Black & White plus One - that is, make a card with black and white, but add one more colour.  I went with a red piece of flocked acetate from the recently released Stampin' Up catalogue. 

CASEing my own blog!

I'm CASEing my own blog header today - which is the theme of this week's CASual Fridays Challenge, called "toot your own horn"! 

*Update* Ardyth commented below that I should link this card up to One Layer Wednesday - I've never done this challenge before, and with a little searching, I found it this week at a gorgeous blog called Snippets by Karen Dunbrook - it migrates from one blog to another each week!   

CASEing Jennifer McGuire

I thought I'd try making something using Jennifer McGuire's cards from day 9 of Kickstart Online Card Class as my inspiration, but it ended up being a direct CASE of her card - the sketch is pretty much identical! I thought I'd share it anyway, but it's Jennifer McGuire's creativity you see, not mine!  I also took the easy way out, using some gorgeous Stampin' Up patterned paper instead of a stamped panel like in Jennifer's cards.

Inspiration from Jennifer McGuire

I made a card today after watching Jennifer McGuire's video at Simon Says Stamp (you can see it HERE).  One of her cards had a stamped strip of acetate across the bottom edge, so I used that idea as a starting point.  I also wanted to challenge myself to use up some scraps of patterned papers - these three papers are from 3 different companies, but they went well with the fabric flower that has been sitting in my stash for FAR too long, so putting them all together, I came up with this:

This week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp Challenge is "Anything Goes", so I thought I'd submit this card :)

Another Kickstart challenge

I'm trying to challenge myself this week, as part of the Kickstart Online Card Class.  For this card, I challenged myself to use only scraps that I already had cut and stamped.  The white panel was already stamped from a few months ago (I made some square cards that you can see here), the ribbon was already cut, the stamped banner had been stamped and cut for another card but replaced, the mat behind the stamped panel was a scrap - the only completely new thing is the card base!

I gave this card to my friend Anne for her birthday on Tuesday - happy birthday, Anne!

Another attempt at Autumn CAS

I'm taking part in the Online Card Class "Kickstart", and wanted to challenge myself today. For this card, I challenged myself to use 3 different patterned papers - coordinating different patterned papers is something I struggle with - but I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to use 3 patterned papers and still come up with a design that is pretty much CAS. 

Something about this colour scheme just says "Autumn" to me.  I know they're not traditional autumn colours (reds, oranges, yellows etc) but the combination of teal and brown makes me think of days getting cooler and falling leaves, for some reason, so I'm submitting this card to CASual Fridays Fall Fun challenge.

A failed CAS card

I started out making this card with this week's CASual Friday's challenge Fall (Autumn) Fun in mind, but the card turned out not really CAS enough! I used some of the new Stampin' Up embossed kraft cardstok (see my post from yesterday for more on that), and punched some of it and inked the leaves with some Distress Ink.  A dry-embossed panel, heat-embossed sentiment and some hemp twine finished it off. 

Tulle ribbon and a tidy up

I went to the launch of the new Stampin' Up Catalogue at Sue Madex's place yesterday - she always has such great ideas for cards, and a fun showbag and prizes, too!  I won a prize - a bundle of envelopes (yay!) that she'd wrapped around with some of the new Stampin' Up embossed Kraft cardstock, and some of the chocoloate brown tulle ribbon. (If you go to her blog and scroll down to the last photo in that post, you can see the envelope pack I won!) I decided to try to use both of these today, as well as get stuck into some tidying up (see below). I used the tulle on this card:

 I'll be submitting this card to "Less is More" Take 3 challenges - the three I've combined are Week 12  Off Centre, Week 67 Use Three Stamps and Week 83 Brown & Pink.

 Onto my tidying up (trying to do some Kick Start online class homework) - I have a box (it's a box that an Estee Lauder perfume gift pack came in, so it smells very faintly like Beautiful perfume) that is A4 size, about 5cm deep, into which I throw offcuts of plain coloured cardstock (I have a similar one for patterned papers) and it was completely overflowing!  I decided I need to do some organising,  so I got out some A5 plastic pockets and organised the scraps into colour families - I think I'll be getting much better use of my offcuts now that they're organised!  (I didn't take a before picture, silly me, but it wasn't a pretty sight, trust me :)

Tag, you're it!

I don't usually do tags.  I make gift tags at Christmas time, but I don't usually put them on cards.  But today is an exception, as this week's challenge at A Blog Named Hero is called "Tag, you're it!"

I'm also participating in the Online Card Class "Kickstart", and my background in this card was inspired by Kristina Werner's day 1 card in class - I went with the same technique, similar colours (a bit brighter than hers), but a different layout - it ended up looking a bit shabby chic, I think, especially with the lace. 

Back at my craft desk - HOORAY!!!

I've had quite a few weeks without any crafting - too much stuff on - some good, some bad, some very bad, but it's all good now and I'm back at my craft desk creating!  Gee, it feels good! Also taking part in the Online card class "Kickstart" - I really love participating in these classes, they're such fun!

An order arrived for me from Simon Says Stamp AGES ago, and another (smaller) order from Stampin' Up, and they've just been sitting there unloved for weeks!  Thought I'd use something brand new today, so I pulled out the Umbrella die and stamp set I bought and give them a go :)

 I thought I'd submit this card to a few challenges - Moxie Fab world has three challenges that I think this card fits - The Assymentry Challenge, The Movement Challenge and The Repetition Challenge.  Lawnscaping also has a challenge this week to use text, called "Getting Texty".

Constellation cupcakes

It was my brother-in-law's birthday a couple of weeks ago, but for various reasons, his birthday celebration was postponed until last night.  One of his passions is astronomy, and he's very good at setting up his telescope to gaze at the stars, so I incorporated this into his birthday cake (well, cakes, actually!)

Each of the blue cakes has a contellation of stars piped onto it in white - there's Orion, Gemini, Cassiopeia, the Crux (Southern Cross), Scorpius, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Taurus, Pisces, Leo and Sagittarius.

The cupcakes are made from a Red Velvet mix from Suzie Q (which, honestly, was not what I expected - they were very nice, but from my experience, red velvet cake is red and slightly chocolate flavoured.  These were not very red - much more brown from the chocolate - and they had a raspberry flavouring in them!)  I made cream cheese frosting and coloured half of it blue (VERY blue - people ended up looking like blue tongued lizards!  For those of you not in Australia, yes, there is such a thing as a blue tongued lizard!  http://www.itsnature.org/ground/reptiles-land/blue-tongued-lizard/ ) I sprinkled some edible glitter onto all of the cakes (which looked very effective under the downlights in my sister and brother-on-law's kitchen!) On the white ones, I added some sugar cachoux, and I piped stars onto the blue ones, in the shapes of some constellations :)

 And here's Paul pointing out which is which!  ("That's Orion!")

Giving credit where credit is due, the idea came from
 http://helpinglittlehands.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/easy-constellation-cupcakes-space-party.html
and 
http://pinterest.com/pin/189643834278549832/