Hoot of a Card!!!

Morning all and welcome to Spring!!!! (insert wee happy dance and beaming grin!!)

 

Before I share today's card with you I have to send out a MASSIVE thank you to Katie Ridden for the inspiration. Since birth of bubba #2....most of her creative works are shared on Facebook here. We met a couple of years back on a creative forum...and our daft senses of humour were a PERFECT match.

 

Katie's creations are brilliant, and with 2 younguns under 5...she has her finger on the pulse of all things kiddy related. i made a particular mental note when one day she sat down and created these.....

 

Now for those not all knowing in the "real young-uns" area....the above are punch art creations of Hootabelle and Hoot the Owl. Hoot has his own programme on the ABC here in Australia (Giggle and Hoot).

Now (again) one of the doctors at work, well his niece was turning 1 and she is MAD about all things Hoot....to the point where her party was totally Hoot themed!!! He asked if I could make her a special card. I immediately thought of Katie's effort. This is what I came up with.....

There was a lot of research into all things Hoot. He has a special set of drawers in his house and this is what I based the card around. Here are a couple of close ups of the card....

 

 

I tried to get the drawers as close to authentic as possible using EF's and some checkered DSP with a slight marker adjustment to make the squares bigger. I stamped the Weathered BGS in Versamark to add a bit of texture to all the brown space.

 

Under the "Happy Birthday" there is the "splat" from Extreme Elements in very light pink. (sorry about the dodgy pic). The card is known as a Side Step card. There are many tutorials around, but I used this one here by Jackie Topa.

 

 

When I gave it to the doctor in question, I was MOST stunned and shocked by his reaction. I am not really THAT tech savvy (he is about a decade younger than myself and STREAKS ahead!) He snapped a pic on his iPhone, sent it to his fiancee, she sent a text back and he came in whilst I was with a patient with HER reaction!! Thankfully the patient was a regular and has a brilliant sense of humour.

 

Now I have used a lot of stamp sets and punches here. I will try to list them all, but if you have any questions, please ask and I will get back to you. Thanks for popping by and making to the end of this post.

 

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Soft Suede, Whisper White, Pool Party, Orchid Opulence (ret) Pumpkin Pie, Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand, Riding Hood Red, SU DSP (can't recall name), Optix Purple and Turquoise

Ink: (SU) Pink Pirouette, Versamark, Tempting Turquoise and Melon Mambo SWMs

Stamps: (SU) Weathered BGS, Extreme Elements, Birthday Wish

Punches: (SU) XL Owl Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Carla Craft CP8 Heart Punch, Carla Craft CP1 punch

Other Bits: Cuttlebug Olivia Alphabet, Buttons fm Big W, Mini Silver Brads (Kaiser I think), 0.05mm black felt tip for stitching, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

 

Lynda xx

 



Christmas - Dasher #1

Hi all,

Is anyone else scratching their head and wondering where the time is evaporating??? Every year I get 'organised' earlier and the time vanishes quicker....AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

....and breathe......

My Dasher stamp has come in for a bit of a work oer this Christmas. It started here!!! Over at Inkspirations4U for the Christmas session, we were thrown this colour challenge....

For some reason it jumped out at me. I was inspired by this card on SCS, but I wished to keep it very much more simple. This was my version.....

I made an edge for the circle with the Scallop Trim Border Punch and nipped and eased it onto the circle. The edge on the Decorative Label punch was done by punching another 2 labels from Razz and cutting then in half, one lengthwise, one vertically and placed them to the depth of border required.

I am very happy with the finished product. I hope all of you creative souls out there are "on top" of your Christmas mountains!! Stay sane and I hope to be back soon with some more Christmas fun.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Sahara Sand, Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand

Stamps: (SU) Dasher, Contempo Christmas, Weathered BGS

Punches/Dies: SU Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Nestabilities Classic Circle dies

Lynda xx

Male Sailing

I had some more fun with "Sail Away" a couple of weeks ago, whilst my son was playing baseball. Again, none of these cards are exactly the same, but are the same layout....very basic.

I started with a Sahara Sand base and stamped it with the Weathered BGS. I then co-ordinated it with

Always Artichoke

Chocolate Chip

...and Early Espresso

I also used the Modern Label Punch a little differently in each card.

Now if you also look carefully in the pic above, you will notice that the pattern of the Weathered BGS is at angles. I randomly stamped it diagonally and LOVE the result.

It is always good to have some male cards in the stash....greatly eases the 'freak out' factor when one sneaks up on you!!

Thanks for popping by again.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Sahara Sand, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Sahara Sand, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso

Stamps: SU - Sail Away, Weathered BGS, Amy R Sentiments "Birthday Sentiments"

Punches: (SU) Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch

Other Bits: Dimensionals

Lynda xx

Challenges Galore!

Hi all.

Over the coming posts I will be showing you some of the cards (and 1 project) I recently completed for the latest series of Inkspirations4U. I had a lot of fun doing these and once again went outside the comfort zone to complete them.

Our very first challenge was to gain inspiration from this picture.....

Obviously a baby's room...so a baby card was needed. Some of the gals had produced some beautiful projects and I wanted to do something a little different. I had seen some beautiful side step cards similar to this one here. This was my card from the baby's room......

I drew on the elements of the colour, set of drawers, texture in the velvet seat and the teddy bear in the corner. I was so paniced about trying one of these cards out, I made a paper one first and wrote all the measurements all over it!! The texture is given by stamping the CS with the Weathered BGS in Versamark and then sponging all edges in Certainly Celery. The draw knobs have Crystal Effects on them to make them stand out a tad more.

The cut outs on the draw base was achieved with the Curly Label Punch. I was very happy with the end result. If you have not tried a Side Step card before, there is a tutorial on SCS, but I based my card on this one.

Thanks for popping by again.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White

Ink: (SU) Certainly Celery, Versamark, Close to Cocoa (ret), Rose Red SWM

Stamps: (SU) Weathered BGS, Button Bear (ret), Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Punches: (SU) Curly Label, Modern Label, Word Window

Other Bits: Crystal Effects, Pink 1/2 pearls.

Lynda xx



Cracked Tree

I have had a further play with Lovely As A Tree. This time inspired by this. I took a layer off, but it is otherwise a direct CASE. I had never tried the Cracked Glass technique. Sometimes it is called Shattered Glass. Hindsight has told me to invest in some UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) because doing it with noraml clear EP is certainly time consuming. On this card I must have done 10-11 layers. I also re-Versamarked the image once to get the coverage even again.

Here's the card

As a masculine card...I love it! I also like it purely mounted on the brown, as opposed to the caramel in the original. 1st use of Creamy Caramel too....can you believe it...and they retired it...LOL!!

The "cracks" in the EP really give it an aged look that matches very well with the Weathered BGS. The layered Word Window punch with the Pewter brads add a lovely finishing touch. I am so loving this stamp set and actually wonder how I managed without it!!

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel (ret), Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Chocolate Chip, Versamark

Stamps: (SU) Lovely As A Tree, Weathered BGS, Sincere Salutations

Other Bits: SU Word Window Punch, Kaiser Pewter Brads, Ranger Super Fine Clear EP

Lynda xx

Bye Bye Bestie....

As you are all reading this....my beautiful and bestest buddy is settling into her new digs in Singapore with her children and her partner. Still getting use to the fact that she is now a LONG way away....as opposed to being abt 50kms or so.

I wanted to make the final gift I gave her before she left something special and from my heart........so the cogs went on overdrive for many days. I had to take into consideration the size, weight and how it would travel...as it wld have to be packed to go OS. I went to my files and cruised and came across this. If I did something similar, it would be light and small enough as not to take up too much room....so I went to find some frames.

Tracey loves blues...so I also took that into consideration. This is what I gave her.....

I know she has a crafting nook in her new place, so I figured there can be a spot for them in there somewhere. Here they are seperately....

I stamped the Vanilla CS initially with the Weathered BGS with the ink sponged on in Crumb Cake, to soften it a little.

Then it was just a matter of using ink pads and markers to get the desired effect. I also had intended to stamp the grass behind the flowers....but kinda sorta FORGOT!! The "bullrush" look was achieved by using really Rust in the Horizontal Slot Punch and randomly stuck on.



The lettering was done using the Olivia Alphabet in the Cuttlebug. It was stuck on the base of the frame but not flush, so it has a bit of a 3D effect. When she puts them up, it can read "Friends Forever" or "Forever Friends". Either way, it speaks the truth and comes for the heart.

There is a lot of emotion that went into this gift, but the final result I am happy with...as was my bestie.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Very Vanilla, River Rock, Really Rust

Ink: (SU) Crumb Cake, Mellow Moss, SWM's in Brocade Blue and So Saffron

Stamps: (SU) Inspired by Nature, Weathered BGS

Other bits: Picture frames (that fitted photo size 10 x 15cm)

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

Caring Baroque

I recently received some very sad news about one of my old patients of whom I looked after for some 8 years. he has been diagnosed with a very nasty Cancer and his prognosis is not favourable. When I left my old job, he made me a beautiful clock and barometer hanging piece from scratch. It (like him) has not missed a beat.

I saw this card on SCS and thought I could tweak it a little to suit this chap's personality and flair for woodwork. I came up with this...

And here are the close ups of the motif and sentiment.

 I was a little unsure about using the square pearl/gold brad in the centr of this, but I am happy I used it anyhow. I love the 'shadowing' of the River Rocka nd the Soft Suede. It is a very rare card that does not have any Whisper White of Very Vanilla in it. the final step to 'bloke' this up was to distress the edges of the River Rock CS just a little.

Also sorry about the sun glare in some of the pics. I have been playing 'chicken' with the breaks in the rain and finally the sun came out briefly....so I took my chance and grabbed it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stuff used:
CS: (SU) Soft Suede, River Rock
Ink: (SU) Soft Suede, River Rock
Stamps: (SU) Baroque Motifs, Weathered BGS, Sincere Salutations
Other bits: Distressing tool, Dimensionals, pearl/Gold Square Brad fm stash.

Lynda xx

Swap Sisters Challenge #7

This week on Swap Sisters, the delightful and always encouraging Michelle set us a technique challenge...Ghosting. Now I for one had never heard of this technique before and thankfully she provided us with a guiding pdf. It involves using Glossy white CS, Versamark and a brayer. Basically you versamark the image you wish to "ghost thru" and then when dry, ink up a brayer and cover the whole piece of card in the ink and let dry. The Versamark will resist the ink and you gently buff the card just to help the image through.

Now I had a wee hiccup this week cause I do not have glossy CS OR a brayer...but Michelle assured me that I could do the same with glossy photo paper and a sponge. So with that in mind, here's my challenge card....

I used the flourish and small flower from the Fresh Cuts set to Ghost and then went over it with Lavender Lace ink. Now in the example given, Michelle also used a background stamp (BGS) before the versamark and it looked a treat. Unfortunately, this was not the case with mine....however...if you squint really hard you may see the Weathered BGS!! There are some 'veins' of colour there I promise....LOL!! The wind also caught the card and I lost a 1/2 pearl...DOH!!

Anyhow....I learnt another technique and through a lot of elbow grease (yes evenly sponging is a great workout) I got a card in for the challenge. Ghosting is fun and perhaps when I have the glossy CS and a brayer I may give it another go!!

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Vellum and Dotti brand hi gloss photo paper

Ink: Versamark, lavendar Lace, Certainly Celery

Stamps: (SU) Fresh Cuts, Weathered BGS, Butterfly Prints, Whimsical Words

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

Other bits: Dimensionals and 1/2 pearls fm Bizzy Becs

Lynda xx