Yes, another CASE!

I thought I was done making CASEs of cards for the CASE Study DT Call this week, until I stumbled upon THIS CARD by Lindsey at Occasional Crafting on Pinterest - it got pinned immediately, and I quickly pulled out some watercolour paper and my paints and got painting.  

 After reading Lindsey's post, I realised I used a completely different technique to her card - I used watercolour paper, wet it, then painted some very rough flower and leaf shapes in dark pink and green. I added the sentiment from Winnie and Walter (the same sentiment Lindsey used) in Hero Arts black ink.  I then stamped a leaf outline (from a discontinued Stampin' Up set) and a flower centre from Wplus9 "Fresh Cut Florals" (probably the androecium, or staminal ring - you do KNOW I'm a science nerd!), also in Hero Arts black.  I then stuck the (warped) panel onto a pink card front with a HEAP of foam adhesive (I recently bought a roll of foam adhesive, which is much easier when you need LOTS!). The finishing touch was a white row of faux stitching.  Done!

Here's Lindsey's card  (click on the photo for the link to Pinterest)

Thanks for visiting - have a great day :)

People's Choice Award

Hi, all,

"Handmade by Michelle" was nominated for the Best Australian Blogs award at the Australian Writer's Centre.  This week, you can vote for the People's Choice Awards!

Please visit http://www.writerscentre.com.au/community/best-australian-blogs-comp/peoples-choice
and follow the prompts.  There are a few pages of nominees, so you have to scroll through until you find the blogs you would like to vote for (you can vote for more than one!)

In the mean time, here's a card I made a while ago, but I don't think I've posted it here.

 Thanks for visiting - have a great day :)

Time Out challenge

This week's Time Out challenge is to CASE a card made by Virginia Lu.   I have done a fairly faithful case - watercolour background, patterned paper strip, white embossed sentiment, handmade flower.  My own twists are the colour, the placement of the twine, and the makeup of the flower (I punched a flower, added a folded half-doily behind and a flower shaped bling on top.)

Here's Virginia's card - you can see that I followed her layout fairly faithfully.

 Thanks for visiting - have a great day :)

Addicted to CAS - Codeword: Grunge

Welcome to another ATCAS challenge, and this one was a REAL challenge for me!  GRUNGE!!!

I don't do grunge.

And how do you do grunge and CAS?   Now that's a challenge!

But I had to try.  I thought paint platters look grungy, and I only own one dauber bottle of paint, and it happens to be Distress Paint in Picket Fence. So I pulled out some black cardstock and got to splatting.

 I used the "happy" and "birthday" stamps from Winnie and Walter's "The Big , The Bold and The Happy stamp set - LOVE LOVE LOVE this set!!

Many thanks to our sponsor for this challenge:

Thanks for visiting - have a great day!

CASEing Chupa!

I've been making a few different cards for the CASE study DT call - and I couldn't possibly NOT try CASEing Iwona Palamountain (aka Chupa). 
I chose a card Iwona made for a Runway Inspired Challenge. I used similar colours, a white layered die-cut sentiment, and lots of flowers, but tipped my card on its end.

I used stamps from PaperTrey Ink "Stitches and Swirls", Hero Arts "Stencil Art", Judikins "Mod Mum", and a solid flower from a discontinued Stampin' Up set. I also used my brand new Happy Birthday die from Simon Says. 

Here is Chupa's card that I CASEd - you can find her original post HERE.

Thanks for visiting :)

CASEing Kristina Werner

Hi, all,
I've made a 3rd card to submit to CASE study's Design Team call - I'm trying a few different styles.  Today, I'm CASEing Kristina Werner's card, which you can find HERE - she used Distress Markers and water to colour her image, but I used Copics (because of the card stock the image was on).  I also thought I'd incorporate some elements that I associate with Kristina's style - hence the patterned paper and the white dashed lines.

I started with this image from Saturated Canary called "Queenie and Princess".  (I got this blank stamped image at the recent craft retreat I attended - thanks so much, Debbie Pamment!)  I think I will be buying some of these images for myself - they're so gorgeous, and so much fun to colour!!

 These are the copics I used:

The strip of patterned paper is from Basic Grey Kneehighs 6x6 paper pad.  The sentiment is from Wplus9 "Quite Like You".

I hope you can see on this one - I added some Wink of Stella to the girls' headpieces for some shine.

Thanks so much for visiting :)

Fusion #9

Time for another Fusion Challenge!

Used some paper from Basic Grey's "Kneehighs" collection.  The teeny tiny sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set. 

Make sure you drop over to Fusion to see what the rest of the DT has come up with!

Thanks for visiting ;)

Another CASE study

As I mentioned in a previous post, CASE study challenge blog is having a design team call.  Entries are to CASE a muse of their choosing. With this card, I have CASEd one of my all time favourite cardmakers, Debby Hughes. 

My card uses the same owl stamp (from a Hero Arts/Operation Write Home set, "Lil Hoot").  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.  The rest of the card is quite different to Debby's, but I have used a technique Debby uses frequently - adding embossing paste through a stencil, but only in a particular part of the card - not covering the entire card front.  (I only recently bought some Wendi Vecchi embossing paste, and I'm in love!!!)
Another thing Debby often does is have a lot (and I mean a LOT) of gorgeous white space on her card - not on this one, but I've tried to emulate her style without copying her card outright.
Here's her card:

I'll also be submitting this card to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge: this week, it is Clean and Simple, with a one layer option (which I didn't use with this card), and showcasing Hero Arts products.

Thanks for visiting :)

CASE study DT search

The fabulous challenge blog, CASE study, run by the awesome Iwona Palamountain, is having a design team call.  The idea is to pick a papercrafter who inspires you and CASE one of their cards.

I have chosen Joy Taylor as my muse for this card - I just adore her clean and simple style.  I also got to spend a little bit of time with her at a recent crafty retreat, and she is just the best. 

Anyway, here's my card - I took some of the ideas from Joy's card (which I've added below, with her permission), but also added some other touches that Joy uses sometimes in her designs (like embossing paste, and twine).

 Here's Joy's card - you can check out her original post HERE:

I love the white on white on this card, and the single colour used.  On my card, I used embossing paste over the Hero Arts "Large Lotus Pattern" stencil, as well as a white doily, to provide white on white texture.  I decided to colour my vellum "Clustered Leaves" die cut (from Simon Says Stamp) to add a pop of colour - I coloured it with a Faber Castell gelato (Margarita Mix) mixed with lots of water, then painted the colour on - this coloured the vellum, and also made it curl up, which means the leaves provide a bit more texture to the card.  I originally thought of punching the sentiment panel out of coloured cardstock, but, after trying a couple of different colours, I preferred the simplicity of the white.

Thanks, Joy - mmmwaah!!

Thanks for visiting :)

Happy Anniversary to my parents

My parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next month.  To celebrate, my brother and sister and their families and I have bought them tickets to see Petula Clark in concert.  Seeing as the concert is before their anniversary, we had to give them this gift a month early :)  I made this card to put with the tickets. 

I used a sentiment from Avery Elle stamped in Hero Hues black dye ink, and Lots of Dots from Simon Says Stamp., which  I stamped in Brilliance Galaxy Gold ink and then heat embossed with Hero Arts gold embossing powder.  I then added some extra dots with my Uniball Signo gold gel pen. 

 Thanks for visiting :)

Using different embellishments for ABNH

Come on over to A Blog Named Hero today, to see my post about using pre-made embellishments, or making your own. 
Here's a sneak peek: 

Thanks for visiting :)

Happy birthday Dinos for Thomas

My nephew, Thomas, is turning 4 soon, and I knew that I would have to pull out Lawn Fawn's Critters from the Past to make him a birthday card.  I used LOTS of layered masking, embossing on top of Distress Ink blending, adding Copic colouring on top of Distress blending, and removing colour with the Copic colourless blender pen.  This is what I came up with:

 This is how it started - stamped first, then masked:

I added 2 more masks- one for the moon, and a large one to separate the land from the sky.  I then blended 3 Distress inks for the sky (Tunbled Glass, Faded Denim and Chipped Sapphire) and 2 for the land (Brushed Corduroy and Peeled Paint).  Because I'm a total nerd, I couldn't use Mowed Lawn, because grass did not exist at the time of the dinosaurs (even though these 4 dinosaurs didn't all exist at the same time either - poetic license!)
Before I removed the last masks, I stamped the Hero Arts/Basic Grey Tiny Star Background and embossed in silver.

 After this, I removed all the masks and coloured with my Copics:

I added some swirly lines with some light and dark Copics and the colourless blender over the land to give it some texture, and gave the dinosaurs some dots and stripes for some added interest. 

The sentiment inside says "wish big".

I'm submitting this card to Simon Says Wednesday challenge - Animal Antics. 

Thanks to a heads up from my friend, Jenny, I'll also be submitting this card to TIME OUT challenge #3 - birthday with a masculine twist.

Thanks for visiting :)

Under the weather

A work friend of mine recently had an accident, and so is home recovering from some broken bones.  I made this for her:

The sentiment is from Newton's Nook (one of their March releases), and the image is from Annabelle Stamps - isn't it just the cutest?  I love it!  I coloured it with Copics and then added some Wink of Stella to the umbrella and the water. 

I'll be submitting this to The Card Concept's latest challenge theme, "Use an Umbrella" in their Clean and Simple category.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Combining some challenges

 I used this Hero Arts "Heart Winged Butterfly" last week by stamping and white embossing it onto vellum (you can see that card HERE).  I thought I'd try it in bold black and oranges today. 

I stamped the butterfly twice, using Memento Tuxedo Black for the one in the foreground, and Versafine smokey grey stamped off once for the shadow. I coloured the wings with Copics.  I really like how the shadow shows through the wings of the butterfly in the foreground, making it look like it has translucent wings.  I added Wink of Stella to the wing to add to the effect.
I then used my blending tool to add Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks, before using a Kaiser Craft stencil to add the leaves in Mowed Lawn DI. 

I will be submitting this card to 4 challenges - The Card Concept "Use a butterfly theme",  KIS "use a stencil" , Virginia's View, which is ALSO a stencil challenge, and Less is More "one layer and shadow stamping". 

 Thanks for visiting :)

Bon Voyage

My mum wanted a quick Bon Voyage card for her hairdresser, who is going on a trip to Italy soon.  I thought I'd play along with Annabelle Stamps challenge, which is a sketch.

I don't have a stamp that says "bon voyage", so I wrote it by hand on the banner die from Simon Says Stamp.  The stamps are all from "Fanciful Flowers" from Annabelle stamps, stamped with various Hero Arts shadow inks.  

Thanks for visiting :)