Fusion: Glamping

Welcome to a new challenge at Fusion!

I completely ignored the sketch this time and just went with some of the elements of the photo. I also went uber clean and simple! I had to do some fossicking through my scraps of patterned paper to find the red and white polka dot patterned paper! The sentiment is from Create a Smile.  

 I hope you join us for this challenge - make sure you visit the Fusion challenge blog to check it out!

Thanks for visiting :)

Masculine birthday

I made this card for my colleague, Ian - happy birthday, Ian! 

I used the shell image from Hero Arts' "Antique Engravings", and a sentiment from "Many Birthday Messages". I clear embossed the images onto white cardstock, and then painted Distress Inks in blues and greens over the top. I used a couple of very old punches from Stampin' Up to punch out the 1 inch squares and the postage stamp layering paper.  The sentiment is stamped in Intense Black ink from Hero Arts.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Easy Peasy Christmas tags

I always find that December creeps oup on me, and then when it arrives, I have NO TIME!! I managed to get all my Christmas cards made and written out in November (yay me!), but I always forget to make Christmas tags until I come to wrap the presents! (one year, I put post-it notes on the presents until I had time to make tags!)  This year is no different - so I pulled out my PTI tag die, a bunch of scrap patterned paper, and a couple of punches and got busy.

 I kept them very simple, because I had a few of them to make, and very little time.  In a perfect world, I think I would have added some Distress Ink blending to the edge of the tag and the edge of the stocking, and I would add flocking to the top of the stocking, and I would add some Stickles (or maybe Glossy Accents) to the holly, and and and and - I had limited time, so none of those things happened!

Thanks for visiting - have a lovely day :)

Bookmarks

I recently made a bookmark for each of the ladies in my bookclub. 

I punched the top of the bookmarks with Stampin' Up Tag Topper punch.  I used various different washi tapes for the background. I then die cut the names out of the background using either Lawn Fawn or PTI letter die cuts, and also out of a contrasting colour. I then stuck the background piece and the letters to a white base card, and added some ribbon and twine to the top.  

Thanks for visiting :)

Addicted to CAS - Codeword: Baby

I'm often asked for baby cards that are neither pink nor blue, so when I saw this week's ATCAS codeword, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to build up my stock of unisex baby cards :)

 Can't wait to see what baby themed cards you come up with - make sure you add them to the link up at Addicted to CAS!  There's a prize to be won from our generous sponsor:

Thanks for visiting :)

Another Valentine's card

Another Valentine's day card to share today - I actually made it in December, but somehow forgot to blog about it!

It was quite difficult to photograph this one - the colours towards the longer wavelength end of the spectrum (sorry, I'm a science nerd - that's the blues and purples) look kinda washed out in the photo.  They're not quite so wishy washy in real life.

Thanks for visiting - have a great day :)

Fusion #3!

Time for another challenge at Fusion!
I used both the photo and the sketch this week, to create this fusion (I just put the sentiment below the dots instead of above!):

The red polka dot circles are covered in washi tape.  The musical circles have been stamped with Hero Arts Music Background.  The heart is punched with a Stampin' Up punch, in their red Glimmer Paper.  I then trimmed a couple of mm off the edge, and layered it on some shiny paper (this is from a gift bag a friend gave me (thanks Janet!) from Happy Lab - it was originally gold, but I coloured it red with a Copic Marker.) The sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink.  

Make sure you visit Fusion and join in on the fun!  Thanks for visiting :)

Snow stencil, but not on a snowy card!

I thought I'd try using my Simon Says Stamp falling snow stencil today, but not over an entire card.  I put the texture paste on the stencil first thing this morning, took the stencil off, left it to dry, and then when I came back to it early this afternoon, I had NO IDEA what to do with it!  I cut a square panel of card to be the focal point, but coun't figure out what to put on it!  I tried leaves, I tried a monster, I tried flowers, then I gave up.  Just came back to it after dinner, and as soon as I decided to try a Valentine's Day card, it just came together :)   Yay!

I'll be submitting this card to Just Us Girls #225, and to CAS on Sunday's Lovely Dovey challenge.

I'm wondering if anyone else out there uses Martha Stewart Crafts texture paste with their stencils?  I have some VERY old texture paste from Jo Sonja, but it smells quite strongly of paint, and the smell doesn't completely fade when it dries, so I bought the Martha Stewart Crafts White Texture Effect paste.  When I first opened it, it looked almost like a foam - very odd consistency.  But when it goes on, it is quite grainy, which means that when I try to use it on a stencil with larger open spaces, I get these streaks and scratches where the grains have dragged across the surface. 

I haven't seen the Wendy Vecchi paste in any shops here in Australia - I might just have to wait until my next internet order, which will probably be months away. Oh, well.  It works OK with stencils that have quite small open spaces, so I'll have to stick to them.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Retro Sketches back for January

Arielle and the girls at Retro Sketches have kindly extended their invitation to me to continue with them for January - they didn't have to ask me more than once!  I jumped at the chance!

Here's what I came up with for this week's sketch #96:

Make sure you visit Retro Sketches and play along - I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Thanks for visiting :)

Retro sketches meets Lawn Fawn

I recently ordered some Lawn Fawn goodies, and the lovelies at Lawn Fawn included a little thank-you gift in my order!  I got a couple of pieces of patterned paper (which I will use another time) and a cute little "love" flair-buttony-thingy!  As soon as I saw this week's Retro Sketches challenge, I knew I would be using my flair!

How cute is that flair!?!  The patterned papers are all from Lawn Fawn's "Peace, Love, Joy" 6x6 paper pack, and the stamps are from the matching stamp set.  The twine is from Doodle Twine, the punch I used on the edges is a Stampin' Up postage stamp puch (I just used the edge). 

I stamped and white embossed the "joy" on the middle panel, then clear embossed the little leaves above and below the word.  They didn't show up as much as I wanted, so I very lightly sponged some white ink around them.

I hope you're having a fabulous weekend - thanks for visiting :)

Patterned paper for A Blog Named Hero!

I've written a post for A Blog Named Hero today - 4 cards, all using Basic Grey patterned papers. Check it out HERE but, in the mean time, here's a sneak peek!

While you're there, check out our latest challenge!

There's a $25 voucher from our generous sponsors, Simon Says Stamp

Paper Smooches SPARKS/Retro sketches

A very quick post today, to enter this quick card into Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge, as well as to Retro Sketches challenge. 

A bit of fun!

How would you describe a fun card?  How about a row of rainbow dancing elephants and some glitter?!?!?

Hope you're having a great day ;)

Lots of inspiration from Class

The Online Card Class, "Holiday Card Workshop" has given me heaps of ideas - and I've used quite a few of them in this card!

The scored and inked background came from Kristina Werner's card in day 3, the strip of patterned paper on the inside of the card showing on the edge is from Jennifer McGuire's Day 4 card as well as Shari Carroll's Day 5 card, the perfect pearls/clear embossing resist baubles are from Kristina's Day 5 card, and the idea of baubles on a tree is also from Shari's Day 5 card.

I used a couple of different punches on this card,  so I'll be submitting this to A Blog Named Hero's "the ol' 1-2 punch" challenge.

 

CAS for a quick recovery

A workmate of mine is going into hospital tomorrow, so I made this card for all of us at work to wish her well.

 I tried a new technique (new to me, not new to most Copic users, I bet!!) - I tried to get a 3D effect on the vase with the flowers by flicking the marker from the edge to the middle of the vase image - I'm comparatively inexperienced with Copics, and have previously used different coloured markers to blend, but I only used one green marker on this - worked pretty well, I think!  I'll be submitting this to Lawnscaping's New Technique challenege, and A blog named Hero's "Clean up your Act" CAS challenge.