Christmas Card

Hi,


Just a quick blog today.  I was very pleased to see that I had another of my cards acknowledged at Wee Memories.  I got the "I am a honorable hoot at Wee Memories" award.  Click here to take a look at my card.  It used my new stamps from The Craft's Meow, the owl in the Santa hat and I also used my favourite technique at the moment - resist embossing.

Here is my card for today. I am entering this in the Wee Memories challenge #78 "Free for All".



This is the card I decided to make several of to send overseas this year.  I wanted something that looked interesting, but wasn't too time consuming and didn't involve too much cutting.  It again includes my favourite technique, resist embossing.  For the background I used the ornaments from  Hero Art CL236 set - I have made good use of these ornaments.  I white embossed the ornaments and then inked over the top with faded jeans distress ink.
The sentiment is also from this set. I  used the spellbinder label dies to cut the shape for my sentiment.  I kept the die on the white card and inked over the top of it so that it would leave a narrow white border.
Although the card includes red, I wanted to try something different from just the traditional colours of red and green, so hopefully with my use of blue I have achieved this.

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments.

Angela

Lily Pad Creations

Hi,

Last weekend I took part in The Twinery Blog Hop.  After seeing so many great creations using twine I decided to make some cards myself using twine.  I had received some twine a while ago along with the Lily Pad CCC card I was sent, but I hadn't used it yet.  Now was my chance to put it to good use.  (Thank you Jeane).  These were the two creations I came up with.

The first card is for another Lily Pad card challenge exchange for November and December - CCC.  For this card I decided to make a Christmas card and use the sketch.

I gold embossed the ornaments from The Craft's Meow (The Merry Best set) onto a circle cut with spellbinders, edged in a red circle to make it stand out.  I added the swiss dots embossed background for texture.  The sentiment is also from The Craft's Meow from the Season's Greeting set.  I also added some twine.


For my second card I used a different sketch.  This one is also for a Lily Pad Card challenge.  It is The Craft's Meow Presents a Sketch Challenge. 

(Sorry I don't seem to be able to download the sketch.  I will try again later, but you can view it here)




I masked the HA writing stamp so it would only stamp on the right side of the card and added the sentiment on the left. I used my cuttlebug to emboss a strip of purple card with some texture and added the twine for effect. Lastly I added the butterflies (kindly sent to me from Betty) and added some rhinestones.

Thanks for taking a look and as always, I really appreciate your comments.

Angela

New Stamps From The Craft's Meow

Hi,

Not so many blogs from me recently as it is a busy time of year, but last night I had to get some stamps out and have a play.  I have been very blessed to win the seven new sets released in November from The Craft's Meow  Thank you The Craft's Meow!  These are such adorable stamps.  They arrived yesterday and so last night I had do some card making before I went to bed.  I didn't have a lot of time and it was getting late, but these are two cards I made using the layout for CAS-ual Friday's challenge .

Both of these cards also fit the challenge for Wee Memories which is sponsored by The Craft's Meow. #77  This week's theme is Woodland Animals - Owls, Foxes, Squirrels.

I am also entering this card in the Penny Black and More November Challenge - All Creatures Great and Small  as now any make of stamp can be used, as long as it is not a digi stamp.

For this card I embossed the snowflakes on white card and sponged it with faded jeans distress ink.  I mounted this onto red card.  I then stamped the Santa owl, coloured it with copic markers and mounted it with raised mounting tape.  I mounted this onto white card and added the red rhinestones and sentiment.

 

For my second card, since I have no Christmas patterned paper, I again white embossed the snowflakes, this time onto red card (not one of my best efforts in embossing - if it wasn't so late, I would have tried it again).  I stamped the owl image and coloured it with copic markers.  I mounted this onto white card with mounting tape and added the sentiment.

Thanks for dropping by and for your comments.

Angela

Sparkle, Shine & Texture

I haven't had a lot of time to make cards recently, but I did enjoy making this card. 

The image "Every Flower" is from Designed 2 Delight.
The flowers are coloured with copics and I have added kindy glitz.

I have added the swiss dots embossed background, rhinestones and flowers for texture.

This card is for the following challenges:

The Crafter's Cafe - Sparkle and Shine

Lily Pad Cards - Texture

Thanks for stopping by.  I greatly appreciate your comments.

Angela

Hero Arts October Challenge

I haven’t had much time lately to be able to make cards and as we draw closer to Christmas, it will be even harder to make time, so there may not be quite so many blog entries from me. I still have to decide if I am going to make my Christmas cards this year. I have done so for the last couple of years - see below. I used to do it before I had kids too, but only got back into making them again a couple of years ago.  I would like to make some this year again, but I need to come up with a design that looks good and is easy to mass produce!

I also won a set of ciao copic markers (36 of them!) which arrived in the post about a week ago. I am looking forward to using them, but I just haven’t had the time to sit down and play with them. Hopefully I will get to have a little play with them soon, and then more over the Christmas holiday period. Any hints or techniques on using them would be most welcome.

I really wanted to make a card to enter in the Hero Arts October challenge. The closing of the challenge is Thursday 27th October although because I am here in New Zealand, that actually is our Friday evening, so I am still in time. I made the card last night, but waited until this morning to take a photo so I have better light. A few days ago I decided what I wanted to make a card and I already had an idea on what I would do, but the difficultly has been trying to find the time to make it. I decided I wanted to use one of the sketches and I would use it to make a Christmas card. I wanted to use the ornaments from the Hero Art CL236 stamp set in my card.

Here are the sketches.

Here is the card I made using the last sketch.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Hero Arts October Challenge - Sketch
Wee Memories - FREE FOR ALL Challenge! #73  Sponsored by Annabelle Stamps
One Stop Craft Shop - Week #154 - No Designer Paper
Simon Says - Anything Goes

I decided to use three colours – red, forest green and white. I embossed the ornaments in gold on three different coloured cards and cut them out. Then the dilemma was what colour background to use. I didn’t want to use a colour I had used for the ornaments as otherwise they would get lost in the background and I felt the background colour also need some texture so I managed to find this blue textured paper in my collection. Lastly I added some gold twine and used my corner punch.

I was pleased with the result, but it is not one that I will be making lots of this year!

Here are also the Christmas cards I made last year and the year before.

Christmas Card 2010 - The following is gold embossed inside with this verse "wishing you all the joys of the season and a year filled with happiness" which is from the stamp set Hero Art CL236, along with the other ornaments and "Joy" I have used on this card.




Here is the Christmas card I made in 2009.





As you will see, my Christmas cards tend to be in the more traditional colours.  Perhaps this year I will branch out and do something  little different.

Thanks for stopping by.  I really appreciate your comments.

Angela

Final Simply Scrapping Crafts Challenge

I did manage to make two fairly simple cards last night.  When I saw the final September challenge (a little late)  for Simply Scrapping Crafts and I thought I really wanted to take part.  The theme is make a baby card.  I have a friend having a baby girl in the next couple of months so I thought I would make a card for her.  I used the sketch from Card Patterns #136 as my layout for the card.



The stamp is a Penny Black one "Basket of Joy" and I used coloured pencils to colour it.  I used baby PP in the background and added a pink and white bow.

I am also entering this in the One Stop Craft Challenge #152 "Anything Goes"



My other card is for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge  #172 "Age is just a number". A card personalised with a number.



It seems to be the season of birthdays for my children's friends, so I thought since my daughter has just turned 5, there will be others turning 5 soon too.

I used a Penny Black stickeroo mounted on a label die cut which I had inked the background with red ink, leaving the edges white.  I cut out the "5" from an alphabet and number set I have for my cuttlebug.  I positioned the hedgehog so it looks like he is looking up to the number on the card.  I added the ribbon and some kindy glitz for a bit of sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by.

Angela

Sparkle and Bling

Just a quick post as I haven't had much time for card making and blogging recently. My kids were sick last week, then I got sick over the weekend. Thankfully we are now all better, but now it is the school holidays, so a fun and busy time, but not much time (if any) for card making.

Here is a card I made for a friend to say thank you. She very kindly gave me the stamp set which I have used here. It is a stamp set from Djeco. Not one that I have heard before. She also gave my son a Djeco vehicles stencil set and my daughter a Djeco sticker set for their birthdays, which they also both really like. So they can get "creative" like Mum too!




The background is made with distress inks - walnut ink and wild honey, stamped on an acrylic block, spritzed and the stamped onto the card. The green ink is the ink that came with the set. I coloured the girl pencils and added her with mounting tape to make her stand out. Betty, who I met through Lily Pad Cards CCC exchange, very kindly send me some of her lovely punched butterflies which I adore and have finally got to use in a card. (Thanks Betty!) I love the texture it gives to the card, especially with laying three butterflies together. I felt I needed something else at the top, so I added some "bling" which was perfect for the Simon Says Challenge "sparkle and bling".


Also entering this card in One Stop Craft Challenge - "Anything Goes" #152

Thanks for stopping by and for your encouraging comments.

Angela

Another Leaf Card

Here is another card using my leaf stamp. This stamp seems to be my favourite at the moment. I have used it on a few different cards, particularly those with an autumn/fall theme, even thought here in New Zealand it is the beginning of spring!



I stamped the Hero Arts Old French Writing stamp in chocolate impress ink onto the cream card.

I stamped two small leaf stamps in Versamark onto nutmeg card for a background effect and mounted this onto the mulled wine card.
The larger leaf stamp was stamped onto white card that I had coloured with distress inks. I stamped walnut stain and wild honey onto an acrylic block, spritzed it and then stamped onto the white card and left to dry. Once dry, I stamped the leaf stamp, cut out it out and I added glossy accents once it was mounted on the card with mounting tape.

For the sentiment, I used a Spellbinders circle and a scalloped circle with Birthday Wishes stamped in chocolate impress ink.

Stamps used:
Hero Arts Old French Writing
Large leaf stamp - Stamp Oasis
Small leaf stamps – sorry no idea of the brand
Sentiment - Hot of the Press - Tiny words & images (HOTP 1020)
Cardstock – cream, mulled wine, nutmeg


This is for the following challenges:

Simply Scrapping Crafts - Sketch

The Play Date Café PDCC101 -

One Stop Craft Challenge – Week 151 - Just for Men

Simon Says – Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments. 

Angela

Penny Black Blog Challenge

Over at the Penny Black Blog there is the opportunity to win stamps and be a Guest Design for them at their  Blog.  All you need to do is create your best, *new*Penny Black stamped card and upload it into their Gallery by Midnight Sunday (tomorrow) night, PST. You need to tag your entry with “pennyblackguest“. The Penny Black Designers will choose a winner to receive an assortment of their favorite stamps and they will also be invited to Guest Design for a day at the Blog.

Here is my entry. 



I stamped the background with Daisy Pattern (2642K) and white embossed this, using my stamp positioner each time to make sure I had a continuous background stamp. I then used faded jeans distress ink over this.

I also used faded jeans distress ink for the background of the label, leaving a white edge by leaving the die on while I inked it. I then added a stickeroo. I don't have many Penny Black stamps, so stickeroos are great, but I would love to buy or even win some PB stamps!

Lastly I added the sentiment - Just for you. I did hope to stamp that in faded jeans distress ink too, but it just was blurry and didn't come our right, so decided to stamp in black.

I think the emboss resist technique is one of my favourite techniques at the moment.  This card involves this technique, so I am entering it in the Wee Memories #70 "Your fav technique" challenge.

And also entering this card in the Simon Says - Anything Goes Challenge.  Trying to do my bit to help them reach their target of 1000 entries.

Angela

90 Minute Scramble - A tag

This morning (Sunday 7am NZ time) I took part in the Hero Arts 90 minute scramble.  My second time at taking part.  I had to keep it quick and simple as my kids were around and needing my attention too.



I had an orange tag that I found, so I based my tag around that.
I used the Hero Arts Cling Flower stamps and Hero Arts Happy Birthday stamp (E1119).
The background is a swirl stamp.
I had white ribbon and stamped it with distress ink - wild honey.

I am also entering this in the Simon Says - Anything Goes Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

Angela

World Card Making Day - 1st October

Hi and Happy World Card Making Day

Today is World Card Making Day and there is a blog tour list here that you can visit to see who is taking part in this big celebration.  Here in New Zealand the day has nearly ended and I have just had enough time after a busy day to made a quick and simple card to celebrate this day.  I had to make a card even if it meant making it at 10:30pm before I went to bed.!






I have used :
Spellbinder Labels
Faded Jeans Distress Ink
HA Happy Birthday Stamp
Pink rhinestones
Blue ribbon
White gel pen for the faux stitching

I am entering this in the following challenges:
CAS-ual Friday - Feeling Loopy CFC22

Lily Pad Cards - Simon Says Stamp Presents a Bling Challenge


And Simon Says - Anything Goes  They are trying to reach 1000 entries, so please feel free to take part!

Thanks for taking a look a my cards and for your comments.

I hope you too are having a wonderful World Card Making Day too!

Angela

Birthday parties over and time for cards

Finally, a blog entry again! It has been a while (well a week) and I have been missing it. It has been a busy few weeks with my son's 7th birthday, and then daughter's 5th birthday, so birthday parties to organise and cakes to make and no time for cards.

So the cakes first and then I will show you the card I made.

Jonathan had a Toy Story theme for his party. A Woody or Buzz cake would have been quite difficult so I made his cake one of the aliens.


Danielle had a butterfly theme so the cake was a little more straight forward.





Today's card I made using the sketch from Card Patterns - Sketch 135.

It also works with The Crafter's Cafe September Progressive Challenge.
Week 4 Challenge: Happy Birthday! Card + peach/pink and light green colors + "terrible twos" (use the number 2 or two of something - like an embellishment)

Here is the card.



Lots of pink on this card, with some green and two sets of light and dark pink swirl circles.

Thanks for dropping by.  I appreciate your comments.

Angela

Party Hat Bird

Hi,

Today I have made a card which fits a few different challenges. 
I am entering this in the Play Date Cafe Challenge. PDCC99

I didn't have any lemon/light yellow card, paper, or ink, so this was the closest colour I had.

This also uses the Lily Pad Sketch.

And I am also entering in the Simple Scrapping Crafts - style challenge - clean and simple

And lastly as Wee Memories Challenge #68 - No pattern paper WMC68




Image: Tiffany Doodles.
Stamp: Swirls - This is rubber stamp, but sorry I don't know where I got it from
Ink: wild honey distress ink, pansy impress ink and a clear embossing pad
Embossing powder: white
Sentiment: Hot of the Press - Tiny words & images (HOTP 1020)
Other: Spellbinder circles, Pen nibs (to colour the bird using the inks)

Thanks for dropping by.
 
Angela

Autumn Colours

Today's card uses some autumn colours, even though here in New Zealand it is the start of spring.  However we have not had much spring weather this past week - lots of rain and wind.

This is for the following challenges:


Lollipop Crafts - Use eyelets or brads. 
Simply Scrapping Crafts - September Challenge - Distressing
Lily Pad Cards - Simon Says Stamps Presents a Resist Challenge
The Stamping Boutique - Birthday

The background is made by stamping wild honey and fired brick distress ink onto an acrylic block and spraying it with water.  I then stamped it onto card and let it dry.   After that I stamped my swirl stamp in chocolate brown over the top.  I mounted this onto brown card  and added the dragonfly brads.  Then I mounted it onto the beige card.  Before mounting it onto the white card, I added the brads in the corners.  I do seem to like making cards with lots of layers!

To finish off I added the Hero Arts Cling Flower which I had embossed onto white card with white embossing powder and coloured with fired brick and wild honey distress inks with my blender tool and then cut out.  Lastly I added the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week.

Angela

One layer card

This is for the Wee Memories challenge #67, a one layer card.



A one layer card sounds easy, but I realised that usually my cards involve a few layers, so making a card for this challenge involved a bit more thought for me. It is more of a simple card, but it was fun to try and do something different from what I usually do.

I got to use my new Hero Arts Cling Flower stamps. The ink colours I used are fired brick and dusty concord distress inks and a black brilliance. I used a corner punch on the edges and sponged around the whole card to give it a bit of a border feel. Lastly I add the sentiment.

Remember to take a look at the giveaway they have at Wee Memories.

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments.

Angela

Wee Memories Giveaway

Hi,

Just a quick post to let you know of a great giveaway going on right now. The Wee Memories website is celebrating its followers/fans with an amazing giveaway. Please check it out here.

Angela

Very Exciting News!

Last week was birthday and I got some new  inks and stamps which I have been looking forward to using, but I haven't been able to as it has been a rather busy time.  Finally today I was able to make something which I will show you below.

Five days after my birthday was my son's, so last week I was busy organising his party with his friends.  He turned 7.  The party went well, but then I got sick this week with tonsillitis.  I am starting to feel better again.  The antibiotics are helping. 

Today I got some very exciting news!  I got an email to say I was the winner of the amazing blog candy at The Crafter's Cafe. Their blog is http://crafterscafe.blogspot.com/  I am new to their website, but so glad I joined.  Take a look and see all the wonderful they have to offer, tutorials, challenges, social groups etc.

Last week for the first time, one of my cards got recognised in a challenge.  I got an "honorable mention" - "the cream in our coffee" in the Play Date Challenge 97 - A splash of colour.  You can see my card here.  And I have just had a look at the Simply Scrapping Crafts blog and one of my cards has been chosen as the Fab Four. 


Today's new card - Autumn Leaves.



The card I made today uses distress inks.  I stamped walnut stain, wild honey and fired brick onto an acrylic block and sprayed it with water and stamped it onto card.  I tried this a few times to get slightly different colourings and I have more card to use later.  When it dried I stamped it with a leaf stamp and cut it out.  I mounted this onto my card.  The background is stamped in chocolate brown ink using my new HA background word stamp (Old French Script).  And I added an embossed card strip too.

This is for the following challenges.
Lily Pad Cards - Chain Card Challenge
Simply Scrapping Crafts - Distressing

Thanks for stopping by.

Angela

 

Vicky's Giveaway

Did you know Vicky from http://www.clips-n-cuts.com/ is having a $25 giveaway? She creates some amazing cards. Take a look at her blog and see.

Have a great day.

Angela

The color splash

This card is for The Play Date Cafe Challenge 97, A colour splash - a splash of red.

It took a while for me to put this card together as I wasn't happy with my butterfly.  I originally white embossed the butterfly and coloured it with distress inks.  The only red I have is fired brick and that didn't seem bright enough, so in the end of black embossed the butterfly onto bright red card.



This photo was taken at night so the lighting is not the best.  The ribbon is white ribbon, but with the black behind and the night light it looks more silver. I will probably give this to my cousin for her 30th birthday so if I do, I will add "30" in red below the butterfly.

Cheers,

Angela

Simply Scrapping Crafts Sketch

My card is based on the sketch from Simple Scrapping Crafts.

I embossed the white background. Added the black strip and white flowers and coloured the stamp image with Faber Castell colouring pencils.



I then coloured the same image but this time used pen nibs and ink from my new distress inks and this was the result.  I used fired brick and peeled paint. 



Thanks for stopping by.  Your comments are very much appreciated.

Angela

Simon Says STAMP-tember Blog Hop

For the second year in a row, Simon Says Stamp and Show & The Simon Says Stamp Challenge teams are joining forces to bring you a SUPER blog hop and treasure hunt to celebrate STAMPtember!

This is my first time to take part.  If you haven't taken part yet,  then go along and have a look as they have a huge basket of goodies for the hop winner.  Details of how to play are on their websites.

Here is the card I have made for the Anything Goes theme. 



I am also entering it in the Anything Goes theme for Simple Scrapping Crafts.

I tried some new techniques today with my new distress inks. An early birthday present. (My birthday is actually next Wednesday, but I got some vouchers early as my Dad is overseas and used them to buy some stamping stuff.)


The colours I used are dusty concord and peeled paint. I stamped the dusty concord ink onto my rectangle acrylic block and sprayed it with water and stamped it onto white cardstock. After it dried, I stamped the flower with black brilliance ink and added the stem and leaves by hand. I mounted this onto purple cardstock. I them embossed white cardstock with the "floral screen" cuttlebug folder and brushed it with the peeled paint ink pad to add colour to the embossed part. Finally I added some purple rhinestones.

Thanks for dropping by and for your comments.

Angela

Simply Scrapping Crafts

I have used a Tiffany Doodles free digi stamp to make this card. I used distress inks to colour in the gift box. The background is a Happy Birthday cuttlebug embossed folder with ink. The ink doesn't seem to cover the embossed image quite so well. I think that is because it is quite detailed, but I still ilke the results as it helps the words to stand out more. I didn't quite know what to do above the picture. I added a ribbon and gems and didn't know if I quite liked it or not. I tried to take it off, but it was stuck, so decided to go with that.

This is for the Simply Scrapping Crafts week 2 challenge to use a digital image or sentiment.



Thanks for dropping by.  I appreciate your comments.

Angela

Lily Pad Cards & CAS-ual Friday

Lily Pad Cards had a sketch for this challenge sponsored by The Greeting Farm, and CAS-ual Fridays had the challenge Stuck on You.  I decided to make a kid's card which included both.  This card uses Penny Black stickeroos.

Angela

Simon Says Use Dawny's Sketch

This card is for the Simon Says use Dawny's Sketch.  It is a little different from what I usually do.  I distressed inked the background, layed the different card and papers, gold embossed the flower and sentiment.  I don't have any border punches so included some cuttlebugged the flowers instead.





Thanks for having a look.

Angela

My first 90 minute scramble

At 6am on Monday morning,  I got up early to take part in my first Hero Arts 90 minute scramble.  The challenge was "make a card using either your oldest or latest-purchased Hero Arts stamp. Or, use them both."  

It was a lot of fun.  Here is the card I made, using the oldest Hero Arts stamp I have.


Thanks for dropping by.

Angela

Jo's Birthday Blog Candy

Tonight I came across Jo's blog and here are details on her blog candy.  Please feel free to take a look. 

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Angela

Pink Butterflies

I have been helping my kids to make cards the last day or so which has been fun, but it has been nice to get the chance to make one myself too.  Here it is.  It incorporates aspects of several challenges. 



This card uses the colours from the Play Date Cafe Challenge #95,  navy, bubblegum and leaf green.  (It may look black, but it is actually navy). 

It  incorporates two types of embossing which is part of the CAS-ual Friday Challenge #16.

It is also for the challenge from The Crafter's Cafe - Anything in August Progressive Challenge.  The challenge is anything goes, but it does need to have a bow, sparkle and a sentiment.

I used my cuttlebug to emboss the floral background onto the green card which I mounted onto the pink card, and then onto the navy card.  I added some butterflies which I embossed with white and distress inked with pink.  I keep the bottom part plain so that I could stamp a sentiment on it.  I separated this with some pink ribbon and a bow.  I added rinestones too.

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments.  They are greatly appreciated.

Angela

Simon Says .... Summer Holidays Children's Challenge

Simon Says have a challenge for children aged 2 - 16 years.  My 6 year old son and 4 year old daughter were quite keen to make a card and enter it in the competition.  Here are their entries.

They chose the coloured card they wanted to use and enjoyed using my cutter to cut the white card to size.  Jonathan wanted to colour in a Toy Story picture and added a couple of stamps afterwards.  Danielle wanted to do some stamping.  She likes pink and purple and hearts as you will see.

Jonathan's card



Danielle's two cards






Thanks for having a look.

Angela