Mellow Pink Banksia

Hi there,

well things have been quiet lately, on my blog, not at home. Home has resounded with the coughing of my little Miss 4 every night, several times a night, and now me, plus I have viral conjunctavitis - oh joy - NOT. But despite the odds I have managed to make one card this week and its a Mother's day card for my MIL. I decided to use the latest Mojo Monday sketch and combine it with a pink dominated colour scheme. My MIL is very fond of pink. Here's the sketch.

So having settled on a Regal Rose, Mellow Moss and Pretty in Pink combo. I set to work. I decided to use another of the Aussie native flowers in the new Bloom Away set - the Banksia, and I wanted to frame it in something subtle but lush - so I tried stamping my (new) Floral background stamp and it was perfect for the effect I was looking for. Immediately behind the stamped Banksia I wanted something much more sparse and restrained so it wouldn't draw attention away from the flower - so I used Sanded. The flower itself I coloured using markers and then I used my aquapainter to smooth and blur the colours. Some distressing, pierced borders and punch work finish it off.

(Edited to add - card is 12 x 12 cm).

The next ordeal was to photograph it, it is blowing a freezing gale here today, so the card got blown down into the garden beds quite a few times as I tried to set up shots. I strongly advise anyone coming along to the Aussie convention here in Canberra next weekend to bring LOTS of warm clothes. Anyway here is the card.

Recipe: (All SU unless noted otherwise)
Stamps: Bloom Away, Floral, Sanded, unbranded Mothers Day sentiment
Cardstock: Regal Rose, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Regal Rose, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink, Going Gray, Always Artichoke, Rose Red
Accessories: Scallop edge punch, Word Window punch, Corner Rounder, narrow Mellow Moss grosgrain ribbon, Pink Bo Bunny brads, large Filigree brad, small Fire rhinestone, mat pack and piercing tool, aquapainter, Cutter kit, sponge, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Mothers day Waratah

Hi there,

well this has ended up being my first set inked up from my new catty order - and I have been enjoying it. I knew I wanted to use one of the flowers (the set is in the new Australian catalogue) for my Mum's mother's day card. But was feeling a bit lost as to how to go about the layout - I was thinking circles but I didn't have my circle nesties yet (that was just remedied today - yippee - how pleased was I to received that package - thanks to Bizzy Bec for that).

Anyway back to the card - luckily enough the new Mojo Monday sketch was perfect. So here's the sketch.

I wanted to go with colours that came from our Aussie environment (earthy) but at the same time were brightish. So settled on Ruby Red and Old Olive as the main two. I first coloured my Waratah flower in with markers, - Cameo Coral, Ruby Red and added dark lights with Bravo Burgundy. Then the leaves, first with Old Olive then added accents of Always Artichoke. It was then blended and water coloured using my aquapainter. I actually did this twice - once on the base image, outlining it with Going Gray and then again for the paper toiled Waratah that is sitting up on dimensionals. In lieu of a ribbon at the bottom I crimped a strip of Ruby Red and added a large filigree brad (which I love!!) and finally stamped Mum in Basic Black straight onto the Old Olive layer. A couple of extra details - silver brads and a scalloped bottom edge and its all done. So here it is finally...

The inside was simply finished off with a strip of DSP layered over a scalloped Old Olive strip.

Recipe: (All SU unless specified)
Stamps:Bloom Away, Whimsical Alphabet Lower, Sanded
Card Stock: Ruby Red, Old Olive and water colour paper
Ink: Old Olive, Basic Black, (Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Close to Cocoa, Going Gray markers)
Accessories: Crimper, Aquapainter, large Filigree brad, silver brads, Ginger Blossom DSP, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, sticky strip

Three Little Rocketships

Hi there,

I hope everyone has had a nice Easter. My Miss 4 had stacks of fun searching for Easter eggs at a friends place. She kept running around holding up her basket, which was absolutely gorgeous and made by Sam, whose place we were visiting, saying "look at all the eggs I found" with a huge smile on her face.

Now onto my card, I had a bunch of ideas to try with the latest Mojo Monday sketch, but funnily enough what I ended up doing wasn't one of them. It was a last momment - opening of the stamp cupboard inspiration. What I have ended up with a birthday card for a three year old boy. Anyway here is the sketch.

Using some DSP scraps as colour inspiration I decided on Tempting Turquoise as the base and then layered the next two panels in red, one then has a cuttlebug panel layered over it and the other some DSP. The kind of overall theme is dots, stars and rocketships. One point to note is that the chipboard was pressed into my Real Red ink pad a couple of times and once dry then covered with crystal effects. I had my first go with colouring with Copics, which turned out OK I think but I need more practice. Once coloured the rocketships were highlighted with crystal effects on the yellowish windows and nose cone and I used a atyou Spica clear glitter pen to add some subtle sparkle to the blue clouds. Ok here's the card...




Here is a close up of the crystal effects and spica glitter. Even with the close up its hard to see the glitter. But its there - really!

$%*^&%$ Just discovered that I missed the Mr Linky cut off - oh well I hope some of you, my regular(?) viewers enjoy it.

Recipe:
Stamps: Birthday Whimsy, So Many Sayings, Boatloads of Love and a Studio G rocketship stamp
Card Stock: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: Copics(R27, R29, YR23, YR24, B02, B05, B06), Bella chipboard miniz, Paper Mills star brads, Crystal effects, atyou Spica clear glitter pen, Cuttlebug Spots and Dots folder, narrow Real Red grosgrain ribbon, Silver Hodgepode brads, small star punch, East Coast Prep DSP, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Button Birthday

Hi there,

well as usual late on a Wednesday afternoon with a very clingy Mr1 by my side (any typos are because he keeps trying to grab the keyboard) I am posting my card for Makeesha's latest challenge - in this case it was an inspiration challenge. Here is the inspiration pic.

The whole mugs of soup said Autumn to me. Autumn here in Canberra is full of colour and every where you go at the momment you see the whole spectrum from green, burgandy, red, orange yellow and brown. Its just breath taking sometimes and we are starting to get that lovely chill in the air in the mornings and evenings. So to create Autumn I first stamped some Chocolate Chip card stock with the Weathered background stamp then freehand cut out a tree. (I did use the tree from the US set Branch Out as inspiration). Then I selected a bunch of little buttons in Autumn shades and scattered them across the tree. Thats the nub of it anyway. So here's the card...

The inside was just finished off simplying with a layered strip of Pumpkin card stock and Close to Cocoa DSP.

Recipe:
Stamps: Weathered, Birthday Whimsy
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie
Card Stock: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Accessories: Close to Cocoa DSP, Wide grosgrain Chocolate Chip ribbon, Narrow grospgrain Pumpkin Pie ribbon, Buttons from Earth Elements, Neutrals and Soft Subtle packs, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.

Purely Artichoke Thanks

Hi there,

Well I have finally found the time to post the vintage-ish card I’ve mentioned. I used a Mojo Monday sketch as my starting point (I was hoping to get it in that week but circumstances intervened. Anyway just several weeks later, here is the Mojo sketch.

I wanted to try using a cuttlebug folder on the entire base of the card, so after selecting my colours, I folded the card base, stamped the front randomly with the butterfly and then slipped it into the Script cuttlebug folder. Then I trimmed off the excess from the bottom. The other point to note is that I first stamped the bird and bough on some watercolour paper then used the 1 3/8 circle punch to punch out the bird. A second stamped bird and bough was coloured using aquapainter and ink pads and then cut out and mounted on dimensionals to overflow out of the circle element.

So after all that detail here is the card.

Recipe:
Stamps: Touch of Nature, Warmest Regards
Card Stock: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate
Ink: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Cuttlebug Script folder, Old Olive DSP, sponge, watercolour paper, Scallop circle, 1 3/8 circle, 1/8 circle, Scallop edge punch, Mat pack and piercing tool, Pewter brads, Stamp-ma-jig (I always forget to add this but I always use it – so just take it as a given if I forget to mention it), Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Sticky strip, Sakura clear glaze pen.

Starry Birthday Wishes

Hi there,

well I managed to combine another two challenges for this one - so I'm being very efficient at the momment. I used the latest Mojo Monday sketch and then Makeesha's latest colour challenge. Here they both are:

Initially I had flowers of some sort planned but when I opened up my stamp cupboard my eye fell on In The Stars and I thought I would try and see what I could do. I originally bought this set because I thought it would be really useful and versatile but have found it strangely hard to work with. This is in fact the first time I have really used it. After a few permutations - I tried stamping stars in all the colours as background, then as a panel, then three feature stars I finally came up with something that I think actually works. I did jiggle the sketch a little, just plain forgot to add a ribbon on the small panel and moved the accent trio on the LHS. Its pretty straightforward - one point to note is the white embossing of stars over the Bali Breeze DSP, on the lower panel. OK here is the card...






Recipe:
Stamps: In The Stars
Card Stock: Purely Pomegranite, Whispher White, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Purely Pomegranite, Regal Rose, Versamark
Accessories: Bali Breeze DSP, Silver Hodgepodge, District Ribbon Originals, White Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, 2 Way Glue, Dazzling Diamonds, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive