Miss Jessica's Candle

I pondered for sometime what I could give to Jessica. Being a WORLD CLASS procrastinator it was hard!! Finally I decided to give her a Brith Candle. That was done...now all I had to do was find the right one!! The candle had to be at least 8 inches tall to fit her name....and white. FINALLY an 8" white pillar candle was found.....after 6 shops!!!!

I have to thank my best pal Tracey and her friend Michelle....and mordern technologhy (a webcam). Without all of these things, I would have NEVER finished this candle.This was the result....

I could not have been happier with the way it turned out. I used Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Orchid Opulence to match the card. It looked so good all together, which you'll have to trust me on cause it's the only aspect I did NOT have a pic of.....LOL!! Oh and here is a pic of Aunty Lynda and Miss Jessica....

For those of you who want to know more about stamping on candles, which by the way is sooooooooo easy, you can find a tutorial here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stuff used:

Ink: (SU) Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive and Versa Colour Violet

Stamps: (SU) Lovely Letters Alphabet, Priceless, Merci. Numbers are a clear mount set that I do not know the name of.

Other bits: Heat Gun, Tissue Paper, Repositionalble Adhesive

Lynda xx

Miss Jessica's Card

Warning....the next couple of post will involve so gratuitous Aunty boasting!!!

On Sunday the 4th of July I FINALLY got to meet my new niece Miss Jessica!!! needless to say she is adorable, cute and had everyone totally mesmorised. How could you not love this......

Ain't she just so cute and chubby??

Now I am so blessed to have so many wonderful blog friends out there and most of them (directly or indirectly) helped me in putting Jessica's birth gift an card together. It started with this idea for the card from SCS. Now I have trawled through all the possible combinations that I had hoped would help me find the person to give due credit, to no avail. Still that card was my start point.

This is what I came up with from there.......

Now the contributors that hepled were Debbie P (for the Nesties that I now have thanks to her advice) and Andrea (for the fantastic concept of the no tie brad bow!!) I was also very mindful of co-ordinating the card and the gift I gave, something I have not done a lot of enough.

With the help of those two I got these....

Now I DID score lines above and below the embossed dots and if you squint really hard you may see them...hee hee hee.

And of course these beautiful 1/2 pearls I got from Bizzy Bec's that I used with the sentiment.

Thanks so much to all of those (again) out there that provided the inspiration for this card. Wren (Mum of Jessica) upon opening up the card did say it was her fave card!! (blush)

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive

Ink: (SU) Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Orchid Opulence

Stamps: (SU) Vintage vogue, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Punches: (SU) Scallop Oval, Large and Small Oval

Other bits: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing folder and Olivia Alphabet, SU Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon & dimensionals, Brad fm stash, Lavendar 1/2 pearls fm Bizzy Becs

Lynda xx

A Handy BAG

The very talented and supportive Jenny Hayward posted this very cute little handbag. You know when you have a birthday coming up and you have NO IDEA what to get/make. This post came at exactly one of those moments. Miss Turning 10 (Kayla) needed a gift to go with her card, and I thought this wee bag would be perfect. So here's what I came up with...

and from the side and a close up of the "K".

I did the base from Rich Razzleberry (which is fast becoming my new fave colour) and the top in Orchid Opulence. The handle is actually a pale baby pink ribbon that I got from Alice's and the brads are part of a packet of 12 that I paid $1 for...LOVE a bargain!!! The Orchid Opulence is dry embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. It was filled with pencil top erasers, mini gel pens and mini multi colour pens. It was a HUGE success...so thanks Jenny for getting me out of a huge hole with this fun project.

Stuff used:
CS: (SU) Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Whisper White, Cottage Wall DSP
Ink: (SU) Rich Razzleberry
Punches: (SU) Scallop Circle, Horizontal Slot Punch, CM 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 circle punches, Martha Stewart Doily Lace Punch, carla Craft Corner Rounder Punch.
Other bits: Pearl brads fm Reject Shop, Ribbon fm Alice's, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Velcro Dot Closure.

Lynda xx

Bold, Bright and Funky

Sometime back the devine Debbie P and I swapped some images. I have been slowly been working my way through them. Debbie also very generously helped me through a very tough choice about what Nestabilities would be best for me and what I do.

Recently one of my niece's turned 10...so for such a special occasion...I turned to one of these images. I wanted to do a slightly less traditional colour combination, so I chose purple, fluro orange and fluro green. Here is the resulting card...

I got to get out my new Nestabilities for the "10" tag. I love it. here are the obligatory close ups..

I coloured her with a mix of my watercoloured Faber-Castell pencils and my Lyra Aqua crayons. I love this colour combo for tweens as it isn't classically PINK. ;)

This was teamed with a cute to boot gift that'll be shown next post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stuff used:
CS: Textured Bazzil Deep Purple, Optix Lime and Orange, SU Whisper White and Watercolour paper
Ink: Versa Colour "Violet" (VS-17), Lyra Aqua Crayons, Faber-Castell Watercolour Pencils
Stamps: Miss Anya "Sun, Rain, Shine", Numbers fm unknown clear stamps fm stash.
Punches: (SU) Large and Small ovals
Nestabilities: Fancy Tags (S4-235), Petite Scalloped Ovals Large (S4-139), Petite Ovals Large (S4 138)

Lynda xx

CASE'ing is the nicest way to flatter....

Good morning all.

One of my all time favourite blogs to visit is EnchantINK. Not so long ago Andrea posted this beautiful card. It struck a chord with me instantly. She is so very sweet in that she supplies a card recipe at the end of all her posts, which makes CASEing them all the more easy. So, with the supplies I had available to me, this is my version of Andrea's stunning card......

Now I do not have any of the ribbon or the exact butterfly stamp, but I had similar and I was happy with that. The other fantastic thing about this card is that it made me try things that I had not attempted before, like embossing on Vellum and sponging ink onto the BGS to give the wonderful aged look and layering a background. Here are some close ups....

I was so happy with the way that this card turned out, I thought I'd try again (are you sitting down Andrea??) in PINK!!!!!! Here it is....

I now am going to try some other colour combinations and see what I can come up with.

Thanks so much Andrea for provinding such a beautiful card to challenge me. See what you can find in blog land that challenges you.

Stuff Used:
CS:(SU) Soft Suede, Bashful Blue, Prettyy in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: (SU) Soft Suese, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Versamark
Stamps: (SU) En Francais and Jemac "Butterfly" (item Code - A56E)
Other bits: Vellum, "Zing" white embossing powder, Pink and Blue Grosgrain ribbon fm Alice's, Blue and Pink Diamante Brads (Minibuckles Brand)
Techniques: Sponging, Heat Embossing

Lynda xx

More masculine than the last attempt!!

Hey there people.

I am so very sorry that my posts have been so infrequent of late. My diabetes has not been playing fair of late, partly due my manic life at the moment, so hopefully we can come to an agreement soon!!

My DH had a birthday not so long ago, and after the not so masculine cake card debacle, I had to bloke a card up a bit more!! One of the best things about having friends who craft is that you can share their stuff too....therefore expanding what you have available to you!! I had a play date recently at my bestie's place and this gave me the gusto to formulate a more masculine card. I saw this card on SCS some time ago and thought that I may be able to use the basics of it someday. My Bestie had recently aquired the Fleur-de-lis Cuttlebug embossing folder from a win on Swap Sisters and the cogs started turning.

This is what the cogs produced...

I coupled the embossing folder with the fleur-de-lis from Carte Postale and the Weathered BGS. It came together so easily. Here is the finer details of the squares.

I stamped the BGS in Bashful Blue and then stamped the other images in Soft Suede over the top. I was so very happy with the results...as was DH....cause he had a birthday card!!!

Thanks for popping by again. Hope you are having a crafty kind of day.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Soft Suede, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Soft Suede, Bashful Blue

Stamps: (SU) Carte Postale and weathered BGS, Amy R "Birthday Sentiments" set

Punches: (SU) 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Square punches

Other bits: Cuttlebug Fleur-de-lis Embossing folder

Lynda xx

Cake Fun!!

Since I have been guilty of relentlessly flogging a couple of stamps set lately, I had a dig in my stash, and found Big Bold Birthday. I find this set brilliant for kids card....and (as in this case I was hoping) a male adult card....but it was not to be!!! I saw this card on SCS and used it as a base for my card. I took a slight bit of artistic liscence (changed the orientation etc) but essentially kep the colours close to the original. Here is my version.

Now whilst I was happy overall with the card, for the birthday boy that I had in mind, it was not quite what I had hoped!! Here are some close ups of the cake and the side brackets, which are Small ovals with a word window punch and a pewter brad. I had not even tried something like this before, but I like what it does for the card.

I am now in the habit of making 2 of the same card at a time, so that my stash can be replenished. I wanted to try and "bloke" the card up a bit more, so I got out my Cuttlebug and this is what I came up with.

Here is the close up of the Cuttlebugged icing. I think it makes the 'chocolate' look delish!!!

Alas however, whilst (I hope) improving the look of the card, it's improving blokey-ness was very elusive! I therefore admitted defeat for the moment and currently have another version (currently in pieces) in deeper, more masculine tones (fingers crossed)!! I'll share that upon completion.

Thanks for popping by.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Certainly Celery, Baja breeze, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Whisper White

Ink: (SU) Certainly Celery, Chocolare Chip, Baja Breeze, So Saffron

Stamps: (SU) Big Bold Birthday. "Happy Birthday" fm Jemac (Item Code: W39D)

Punches: (SU) Small Oval Punch and Word Window Punch

Other bits: Cuttlebug "Devine Swirls" embossing folder, Crimper, Dimensionals, Pewter brads.

Lynda xx