Challenges

I decided that now I have more time, I will take part in some of the stamping and cardmaking challenges that abound on the net! Yesterday, I found these two challenges while I was browsing the blogs that I follow and, after cleaning up my work area, got down to making them.

The Stamp Something challenge was to make a card with one image. I used the Cuttlebug to emboss the green strips and light blue squares. The stamp is one I bought recently and I really love the sentiment on it. I used watercolour pencils for colouring as the tombow pens were a bit too strong for the delicate flower. I punched the border of the background card for the stamp using a Fiskars border punch.




The second card was one for the Allsorts challenge. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought that I would try out a stamp I haven't used before to make the card. I layered the heart and used Kindyglitz to highlight it.

I used a Spellbinders Nestabilities scalloped circle to cut the image out. The papers used were freebies from a magazine. Added heart brads to the corners to finish it off.

Wedding Card

This is the card I made for our neice who is getting married tomorrow - 9 Jaunary 2010. I used metallic card and the trim is made from paper with a metallic shine as well. I cut the cake using my Cricut - the Weddings cart. I cut three images then layered them to create a three tiered cake. I used some tiny stick on dots to make the decoration on the cake stand out a bit more. The flowers were also cut with the Cricut - same cart.

Tanda Challenge Card for this week.

Had some time today so thought I would have a go at creating something for the Tanda Challenge this week. The theme was Pretty as a Peacock and the challenge was to use the peacock of the colours that are typical of the peacock. Because New Zealand Paua shell is very similar in colour, I chose to use that as the basis for the card.

I found some paper serviettes in a kitchen shop recently that were based on the paua shell image, so I pasted the top layer onto card and used that as the lower part of the card. I stitched the two different pieces of card onto the base card and glued pieces of paua shell onto the card. I love these colours.

A New Year and a new beginning

Well, 2010 is upon us and I have now finished working for a living - well for a while anyway! The Christmas break was just great - spent time at Waikawa Bay and read 4 books as well as making 50 wedding invitations and generally enjoying being with the family and sitting in the sun for a bit.

Before Christmas, a friend asked me to make some little boxes for her to hang on the tree with chocolates inside them. I used the Cricut Wedding cart to makes these little boxes. I made 12 in all, 3 of each colour - red, green, gold and cream. I added gold cord to tie them to the tree.

One of my challenges for this year is to get more use from my Cricut - I invested a lot of money in it and now need to make more use of it. I have found a website that sends free SVG designs regularly that can be used with the Cricut. You can also purchase others from them.

We also had some landscaping done before Christmas. An area outside the lounge was looking decidedly tatty and needed something doing to it. we found a landscaper who did a simple design for us and did the work. Really pleased with the results. The picture on the top right shows one view of the new area.

Long Break!

It has been some time since I have added anything to my blog, especially since I began with a hiss and a roar!

Things have been pretty busy in my life over the last month. We had a 60th birthday party for Roger last weekend and it was a great success. The "children" made a great presentation about Roger and his life and we were able to share the evening with some very special friends.

I have also been really busy with cards as I have another market day coming up this weekend.

I have uploaded pictures of some of the cards I have made on my Photobucket gallery for people to check in to see.

This week, the photo here is related to the Tanda Teaser which is a musical theme. I found a decoupage Christmas theme which has music in it as well as the flowers. I used the Cuttlebug to emboss the background.

Brown, Russet and Gold

Today, I had some time so made another card. This one is for the Tanda Teaser this week. The theme is russet and gold. I have used a brown base card and stamped the leaves on the background with Versamark ink then brushed with gold sparkle powder. I stamped the same leaves onto gold coloured paper with brown ink and cut them out, then glued them onto the card.

The contrasting card on the side was punched with a new border punch that embosses a faux stitching line as it cuts. I stamped the other edge with a faux stitching stamp that I also used as a border around the text.

I checked out the Stamp Something blog and found that I could use it for that challenge this week as well.

Time to blog again!

It has been a very busy week this week and have not had time to make anything until today. Had a look at the Allsorts Challenge this week and liked the idea of a Kraft coloured card so here is my effort for the challenge.

Used kraft coloured card to make the base card. Layered with orange coloured Bazzil basic and some punched, striped paper that toned quite well, then added the ribbon trim. Stamped the owl (from CS magazine) onto kraft card, coloured with Tombow markers and cut it out. I cut an oval shape in some scrap brown card and stamped with a Hero Arts saying stamp that I acquired recently.

I added some shading to the edges of the oval and the actual card with coffee coloured Archival Ink, using the rubbadubba I also recently bought!