Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #11!

Hi Ho everyone! Hope you've all had a great week!

My week's been very busy to say the least with lots of rehearsals and running around for Maddisons Wakkakirri concert which I'm off to see tonight! 'Tonight' is actually Thursday - I'm doing this post up to be a scheduled one so it's right to go for tomorrow night! Are you following me here? lol

This week's challenge from Keesh is a sketch, and I have to say it caused me more than a bit of grief and stress! Nothing was working for me at all! Having said that, please read on and also be seated, as you may well fall off your chair with what you see in this post! lol

Here's the sketch!

Below, is the card I made using the Snow Swirled Stamp set! I even dragged out my Cuttle Bug Machine which hasn't been used in yonks to try and liven it up a bit! While I love the colours of Choc Chip, Pink Passion, Kiwi Kiss and Pumpkin Pie together.........this card is way too "circleeee" for me I think! If that wasn't a word before, it sure is now! lol Might I also add this card was my SECOND ATTEMPT, read on for pic's of my first!!

Ok, so you all know I AM NOT A SCRAPPER!! No way hosay!! Initially when I sat down to work on this sketch though, the only way I thought I was gonna pull it off was to whip up a little 6 x 6 page! That seemed the only logical thing to do given the sketch Keesh had issued, but holy cow, I was cringing every second I was creating it! I'm just not a confident scrapper at all I'm afraid!

So here ya go - my scrap page!

I know it's nothing 'flash', but this is big news people......... KAREN THOMAS HAS SCRAPPED! lol

The photo is of my daughter Maddy if you hadn't guessed! She is just the most photogenic little thing (must get that from her dad I think!) and this is very much a favourite photo of mine!

I hope you've enjoyed my challenge projects this week! I can't promise you another scrap page will be coming any time soon though ok, so don't hold your breath waiting! lol

Righto - off you go to check out what my wonderful DT girl friends have whipped up for you this week! I bet they 'knock your sox off'!

Kirsty

Amy

Cindy

Renee

Nancy

Inspiration Challenge #10

Well hello again...................told you I'd be back! lol

The challenge this week that Keesh gave us really made me think hard, but once I decided on which angle I was going to tackle the challenge at.......everything was sweet!

This is the picture below that we had to work with!

What I decided to do, was work with the striped kind of pattern happening in that dooner cover. Now, depending on your screen resolution, the colours you might see may differ, but for me, I see Basic Grey, Black, Tempting Turquoise, Kraft, Close To Cocoa and of course White!

This is what I came up with!

For my card I have a Basic Grey Base, which I've spritzed using my spritzing tool and Basic Grey marker. Because there was such a huge area of the card not being covered, I wanted to give it a little bit of interest and found that to be the perfect way!

I made myself a nice little striped feature for the lower section of the card, distressing all the edges with my distressing tool, and then added a row of paper piercing at the top and bottom of the striped feature just to make it stand out a little more.

I wanted the focal point of my card to remain fairly simple, so thought a nice little star theme would be good. I've used the Spotlight on Christmas large star and swirls, and let me tell ya', if your wanting a great versatile inexpensive stamp set that you can use some aspects of all year round.......this could be the one for you! I love how our large star punch co-ordinates with this set too, making creating that much more easy and quick!
Then to finish it off, I've just secured the ribbon at the side of the card using some linen thread and stamped the 'Good For You' sentiment from the Really Retro stamp set!

This card has been sent to one of my new team members! A big welcome to you Steph, and I hope you enjoy your Stampin' Up! experience! :)

Now, be like me and do the rounds of the Design Team to see what they've come up with! I so look forward to this every Friday!!

Kirsty

Cindy

Renee

Amy

Nancy Riley

Mini Catalogue And New Goodies!!

Hey everyone!

I've spent the morning prepping for my Stamp Club girls to come over this Saturday, but once I'd finished doing that, I had a few extra minutes to make this very simple but pretty card using some new goodies you can purchase from our new Spring Mini Catalogue! Bring on August 1st!!

My card is made using one of my all favourite colour combinations at the moment which is Kraft, Baja Breeze and Close To Cocoa, and some of the gorgeous paper from the Parisian Breeze paper pack!

The stamp set is one I think is just beautiful and also very versatile and it's called 'Great Friend'! I really love the butterfly included in this set and can see me using it for many cards!
I've actually inked up the butterfly in Baja Breeze ink and stamped it off once. Then I rock-n-rolled it back in the Baja Breeze Inkpad! The effect is really beautiful - you gotta try it!

That beautiful big brad you see is covered in corduroy - just beautiful they are, and really add something special to any project you do! I only bought the Baja Breeze pack, but will certainly be buying them in Kiwi Kiss and Basic Grey as well. They're kinda like a good comfy pair of shoes really, you need them in every colour! lol

If you'd love your own copy of the Mini Catalogue, please drop me and email and I'll put one in the post for you!

I'll be back tomorrow night to reveal another card for Keesh's Inkspiration Challenge!

ETA - Just looking at my photo and well.......the stamping looks a bit dodgy! lol I can assure you that the sentiment is there in full and not blotchy like the photo suggests! I think it looks this way because I wanted to use a Kraft coloured ink and of course we don't have one - so I inked both the sentiment and the frame up in Close To Cocoa stamped them off once and wallah...........you have a perfect match to your Kraft card stock! You all probably knew that little tip, but just humour me and say you didn't! lol

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #27!

No, your not seeing things - it's me.............back with another fun Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge! I enjoyed the last one so much, that I had to play along again as soon as I saw Karen's sketch online!

This is the sketch for this week!

And here's my card featuring that mischievious little monkey, Hank!

For my card I've used a Baja Breeze base and a layer of old olive, followed by some of the beautiful new DSP which you can purchase from the Spring Mini Catalogue come August 1st! I've actually used a few other new goodies on my card...........can you spot which they might be?

Then I've just made little Hank a feature in a christmas bauble. I think he looks so cute with that big santa hat on which is about 20 sizes too big for his head! lol

Hope you like this card. I really enjoyed just sitting and stamping for absolutely no reason. Its' been far too long since I did that!

Colour Challenge #10

Hi Ho everyone! Hope this post finds you all well and being super crafty.........unlike me! lol

This week has seen my kids go back to school and call me weird if you want............but I really miss having them around and listening to them chatting and laughing. We had a lovely break though, spent way too much money, and now it's back to the grindstone of routine and getting out the door super early in the mornings! Thats one thing I DIDN'T miss let me assure you! lol

Anyhow onto this weeks challenge which again, I really liked! Keeshie has given us a lovely lot of colours to play around with this week, although I always seem to get stumped when I have to use 2 shades of 1 colour - dunno why that is, but I do!

So here's the colours!

And here's my pic!

Now, I have to say that part of my card layout was taken from this weeks Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge. My brads aren't positioned in the required place, so unfortunately I won't be entering this card in the challenge, but I'd like to thank Karen for a great sketch anyway as it really helped me out of a tight spot this week!

It's a very simple card just using the required colours, and throwing in some DSP in Rose Red that's now retired! The butterfly wings (from the Flight Of The Butterfly set) are all pinched so they sit up like they're about to take flight! Not sure if you can see, but the sentiment I've stamped along the bottom which is from the same set, has a rose red brad where the letter "o" is - nifty hey! lol

So that's it from me........hope you like it! Please visit my other DT Girl Friends as well as my all time favourite blogstar and Guest Designer for July NANCY RILEY to see what they've been up to! I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

Night all!

Inkspiration Challenge #10

Wow - I'm totally on fire this week with having more than one post! lol

Hope you've all had a great week - we sure have! While we haven't done a whole lot , the time I've spent with my kids has been so much fun and I've enjoyed every moment! I can't believe the holidays are almost over and I have to get back to some kind of normal routine - that is something I'm not looking forward to I have to admit! lol

Okey dokey, so this week Keesh has provided us with a wonderful sketch to work with and one I will definitely be using again for sure! Thanks Keesh!

I decided since we're now in July, it was time to make at least one Christmas Card!! At least then when someone says to me "Have you started on your chrissy cards yet?", I can truthfully say "You betcha booties I have!! lol

So, for my card, I've used a mixture of papers from the Holiday Treasures pack, and teamed it up with Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip! I wanted the bauble to be the main feature on my card and so I've hung it ever so delicately from the branch using linen thread! The "branch" is the tall tree from the Lovely As A Tree set!

The sentiment, which I personally really love is from the Snow Swirled stamp set, and as a bauble decoration, I used one of the stamps from the Circle Circus set! So as you can see, it's very much a mix and match kinda card! The large Very Vanilla bauble I cut out using my Creative Memories cutting system just in case your wondering how I got such a big circle!

To finish it off, I've just done a bit of paper piercing and added some lovely Vanilla Taffeta Riboon!

So there ya go, this weeks challenge is done and dusted! Thanks so much Keesh for that great sketch - I loved it! I'm off now, to check out the gorgeous creations the other girls have done. I really look forward to Fridays to see what they've been up to!

Kirsty

Amy

Renee

Cindy

Nancy Riley

I'm Still Around!

Hey there all!

I thought I'd jump on midweek and show you a card I made on Monday! It's a stepped up, colour changed CASE of this card by fellow demo Stephanie Pike in Brisbane, who actually phoned me on Monday to give me a few pointers on the wax paper resist technique since I was in a spot of bother with it! Long story..........don't ask! lol

Thankfully, I have it all sorted now so THANK YOU Steph for your help.......I really appreciated you coming to my rescue, and chatting with you was absolutely great!!

ETA - I've been having problems with blogger today, so I had to delete my first post (which was exactly the same as this post!) totally redo it and upload the whole post again! Unfortunately the comments got deleted along with it! :(

Anyone for Cake?

Hi ho everyone - hope you've had a great week!

It's currently school holiday's here and I've been doing some lovely stuff with the kids! Apart from enjoying the very welcome sleep in's, I've taken them for a bbq breakfast at a park, long walks at the beach checking out soldier crabs, I've sewed Maddy's Wakakirri costume (yay me!!), we've visted some friends and I've also taken Maddy to see the Hannah Montanna movie which I have to say I totally loved! Gotta love that hoe down song! lol

Anyhoooooooo, in amongst all that I made time to make sure my Design Team card was done and ready to go, and honestly I had heaps of fun doing this one!!
When I first looked at the pic below that Keesh gave us to work with, all I saw was CAKE so that's the theme I went with! I even took a small part of my SU demo hat off this time round and used the fantastically fun set from Papertrey Ink called 'Piece Of Cake'! I've had it for ages now and think I've used it once - bad me! lol

So here's the inspiration pic!

Here's my card!

As you can see I've actually done some stitching on my card using my Janome Sew Mini sewing Machine! If you like to do a bit of sewing on your cards or scrapbook pages, I highly recommend this little machine - its fabo! I think from memory it cost me $149 about 12 months ago, but seriously, it's so easy to use and does perfect stitches every single time! The link I've given you is in the US I think, but you'll get to see a pic and there are stockists here in Australia if you google them!

Back to the card though.......my colour scheme is Pink Pirouette, Close To Cocoa, and Pumpkin Pie and Regal Rose and the DSP is from the Sweet Always pack - love it! I have to thank my gorgeous friend Patrice for the Nestability cut outs too which I've used! She sent Keesh and myself a pile of them to play with and they are just awesome! Thanks Patrice!

I think it's a pretty self explanitory little card, so I won't go into the finer details! Hopefully it's inspired you though to grab out a stamp set you havent used in a while and make something with it!

Oh, and before I go I just HAVE to welcome aboard our guest designer and card making extraudinaire for this month NANCY RILEY! When I was chatting to Keesh on the phone last week and she told me who she'd lined up I nearly fell off my chair!! I've been a stalker of Nancy's blog and commenting on her cards for ages, so to have her playing along with us is absolutely so exciting and I'll look forward to her creations every week for July!

Be sure to follow the links on my side bar to see what the other lovely DT girls have done also - I for one can't wait to skip across to their blogs to see what they've whipped up! They never cease to amaze me that's for sure!