Totally Out of my Comfort Zone

A bonus post for you all!! (scroll down for the other post today)

The folks at Our Creative Corner have set another great challenge for this week. You can read up on it here. Now there is a back story to this card. I have shown you some cards in the past for my cousin's daughter here and a couple of other places. She is 16 tomorrow and I still am amazed by her. She was born at 28 weeks and was not really expected to survive 2 days.....yet here she is 16 years on and still going strong. Sh has many special needs and I so admire the strength and resilience of my Cousin and family and the way she has raised her. Her cards have always had colour and texture as her eyesight is not fantastic. With all this in mind, I went with butterflies. This is the picture that OCC set for the challenge....

This is the card I made.....

As you can see, I drew inspiration from the colours, the flowers on the DP  are similar to the ones on the table and the texture of all the lollies, icings and food on the table. Now because I am also very literal with my cards sometimes too (surprising right!) there are 16 butterflies used in the construction of this card.

I added dimensionals under a couple of the butterflies so she could feel them 'flying' on the card.

Notice the other thing about this card.....NO STAMPING!!!!! Now the things that took me way out of what I felt comfortable with were 1 - the colour palate....I don't do corals/oranges hardly at all....let alone combine it with blues!!! and 2 - the fact that I did not use stamps. Felt really odd.

Thanks for popping by. Why don't you go over to Our Creative Corner and challenge yourself.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Baja Breeze, Groovy Guava (ret) and Foof-a-La Paper (Savannah - Ambrosia # 47090)

Ink: NONE

Stamps: NONE

Other bits: SU Beautiful Wings Embosslit die, PortaCraft Ice Blue Rhinestones, Cuttlebug Olivia Alphabet, Dimensionals

Lynda xx

More Blossom Fun

Morning all.

I want to share some more fun I have had with the Build-a-Blossom stamp and punch. This is seriously so easy to use and the cards go up so quickly. I sourced this card on SCS, but decided to change the colours up as the person it was going to loved blues. Here is the blue version......

I curled the edges of the flower over my bone folder to give it a slightly 3D-ish look.

Now...as I had not done a Flower bookmark for a while, this is what went in as the present.

And here are the 2 together.......

Thanks for popping by. I have been through all my pictures and found at least another 2 weeks of things I have not shared with you. So.....you may have to buckle in and brace yourselves!!

Stuff used:

CS (SU): Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy

Ink (SU): Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy

Stamps: (SU) Build A Blossom, So Happy For You (SAB '11)

Other Bits: SU Very Vanilla 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, SU Sherbert Designer Buttons, 3mm Cream Satin ribbon, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder

Lynda xx

Botanical Fun

Morning all.

I decided that I needed some quick and easy cards. So as usual, I went to SCS for inspiration. Now I thought I had noted the name of the creator of this card, but sadly I cannot. So I just wish to say a big thank you to the original creator. This is a direct CASE of her card.

I love it when you can add a little extra embellishment to cover up the occasional inky oops....don't you??

The other wonderful thing is that you only use half a flower.

Just a quick one today as a couple of my last posts have been a tad long winded.

Thanks for popping by.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Springtime Vintage DSP

Ink: (SU) Blushing Bride, Regal Rose, Old Olive

Stamps: Build-A-Blossom, Sincere Salutations

Punches: (SU) Blossom Builder Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Carla Craft CP2 3/4" circle punch

Other bits: SU Beautful Wings Embosslit die, Dimensionals

Lynda xx



More Post Christmas Birthdays

Morning all.

Like most, I struggle with masculine cards, so when I come across a good one, i make a couple of them and put them away for a rainy day. My darling Dad turned 71 in the 1st week of January, so I needed one for him. my FIL also had both knees replaced in the same week, so I needed a Get Well Soon card for him. I found the inspiration here.

I tend to go to Lovely as A Tree as my "male" set. These are the 4 versions of the card I found.

Now on the original card, i believe it was stamped onto Frostwood Lodge DSP. We do not have that here, so I made my own by using the retired Rough Texture Wheel. I inked it up in Crumb Cake and then randomly drew Early Espresso lines across it, stamped it off and then onto the Very Vanilla CS. I loved the result.

 They also looks kinda cool all together......

Now Miss 7 also wanted to make a card for her Grand-dad's birthday. She sat and designed the card all by herself and I helped her punch out the shapes. She stuck them down and assembled it and then I helped line up the stamps.

Thanks for dropping by again. I do so very my appreciate you all taking the time to comment.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Certainly Celery, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Early Espresso SWM, Versa Colour - Pinecone 171

Stamps: (SU) lovely As A Tree, Sincere Salutations, Rough Texture Wheel (ret), Generic clear b'day sentiment stamps

Other Bits: Mini Pewter Brads, Cuttlebug Branches Embossing Folder, SU Bouquet Blossom Triple Layer Punch, Carla Craft CP2 Heart, Clear Rhinestones fm stash. Optix Apple Green and Sky Blue CS

Lynda xx

What I Made for Christmas - #4

Morning all.

Last Christmas make for a couple of posts...I promise. This last one was also a challenge. Amongst all the kids....is 1 nephew (Master 8)...not incl my son of course. His Mum happened to let it slip that he has been engrossed in "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". So,I made him his own diary that he can jot his thoughts and feelings down in. He is the brother of Miss 16 and 14! His diary was also a lot larger than the others (A4), it took 2 pieces of DP to cover it.

For the label, I stamped off the stars in So saffron from the Just Jawing set. Worked well I think!!??

The top was looking a little bare with just the planets and there was a rocket ship on the off cut. I trimmed around it and put it amongst the planets.

I think he was pretty happy with it.

To accompany all the notebooks for the girls, I made tiny desk caddies to hold their bits and pieces. I got the idea from Rubber Redneck (Holly Krautkremer) here. The go up very quickly and hold lots! Perfect for the age group.

Miss 16 and Miss 14

Miss 11 and Miss 14

I am going to make me a couple more of these and keep them in reserve as they are a fun and unusual gift.

Thanks for dropping by.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Pretty In Pink, Certainly Celery, Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose, Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette, Almost Amethyst (ret),Tea Party DSP (ret), Only Orange (ret) and Optix Turquoise 

DP's: My Memories S'book Paper #141791, My Memories "Once Upon a Dream" S'book paper # 142827, Silver Hollographic A4 CS, K & Co DI Rough and Tumble Outer Space Flat Paper.

Ink: (SU) So Saffron

Stamp: (SU) Just Jawing

Other bits: SU Decorative Label Punch, Cuttlebug Olivia Alphabet

Lynda xx

What I Made for Christmas - #3

Morning all.

Still wading through all the projects I made (sorry). today's one...I definitely went out of my comfort zone. Our delightful Miss Pippa celebrated her first Christmas with us. At Christmas she was 7 months. Please excuse a massive Aunty moment, but I have to share this picture of her in her dress.....too cute.

Now only being 7 months old, and Aunty Lynda wanting to still MAKE her something special for Christmas....my thinking cap went on....and sadly nearly fried....LOL!!! I got some inspiration from Nicole Derendorf. She works with fabric a fair bit and has used her dies to cut material. So with all that on board.....I came up with these......

.....and the 2 of them together.....

I must say I was delighted as to how they turned out and must thank Nicole for her counsel and guidance. Now of course Miss Pippa's Mum loved them too and she modelled one of them straight away.....

Thanks for dropping by. More Christmas ideas in the way. Perhaps you may be inspired for something for 2012??

Stuff used:

Fabric and Buttons from Hobbysew

Headbands purchased fm store

Dies: SU Fun Flowers Bigz L Die and Bigz Butterfly Die

Lynda xx



What I Made For Christmas - #2

Good Morning.
Here are another 2 altered notebooks, this time for siblings Miss 14 and Miss 11. The paper for Miss 14's notebook was the one NOT in the 60 cent pile, but I think it turned out to be my favourite. She is a real purple lover but the blue woven into this DP had me sold from the get go.

Miss 11

Miss 14

Back and fronts....

...and of course the flowers....

Thanks for popping by again.

Stuff Used:

DP: K & Co Brookfield Sunflower Diamonds Flat Paper, KaiserCraft: Airy Fairy - Dreams"

Other bits: Lace, Flowers, Ric-Rac and Charms fm Alice's, Martha Stewart Celery/brown ribbon.

Lynda xx



What I Made for Christmas - #1

Hi all.

Well given that we are nearly half way through January, I thought I should share with you the things that I made for my nieces, nephews and friends. I am going to break them up into a few posts, but know that each reflects the receivers personality. The other brilliant thing is that the papers used I got at my favourite Paper Crafting store (Alice in Paperland) for the bargain price of just 60 cents a sheet (with the exception of 1).

Today I am sharing siblings Miss 16 and Miss 14. All the girls received notebooks that were A6 in size.

Miss 14

Miss 16

The DP's looks so great, this is how they looked in their entirety.

The things I carried through all the notebooks are the flower motif and the wee double heart charm. the lace was all the same, but I added another narrow contrast ribbon to make it pop. The flowers (I thought anyhow) looked fantastic. Sadly I did not have any black paper flowers so I tried to colour a white one with ink....and nearly got there.

Here is a close up of the lace and ribbon/ric-rac.

The girls also received something small for their dressers, which I will feature in another post.

Thanks for popping by.

Stuff used:

DP: K & Co  - Sparkly Sweet: Shoes and Purses Flat Paper/ Danny O Red & White Checks Flat Paper

Other Bits: Lace, Ric-Rac, Paper Flowers and Double Heart Silver Charms all from Alice In Paperland, Brads fm stash, Double Sided Tape (lots of it)

Lynda xx