Finally used it!!!!

You may recall sometime back (May this year to be exact) I attended a Crafter's Retreat. Whilst there, I played with the Watercolour Rose Technique. I had previously attended a workshop some time ago under the guidance of Angela Sargeant. This is a beautiful way to colour without the need for much painting ability...hence why I gave it a go!!!! I have had it sitting there patiently waiting for the appropriate occasion to use it.

My SIL (#3) was another in the birthday bonanza of September. She is a soft and beautiful soul, so the rose was perfect for her. This is the result....

I used the Manhattan Rose embossing folder to emboss the Vellum and then layered the rose with some leaves from "A Rose is a Rose" stamp set to add a bit of interest. The depth and variation of colour you get with the rose and this technique is magical.

And a couple of obligatory close ups!!!

If you haven't tried this technique, why not give it ago. It's the kind of thing where no two are going to be the same, and if you do an aray of colours...and get caught short for a quick card, it may be what you need.

Thanks for popping by.

Stuff used:
Card: (SU) Lavender Lace, Whisper White, Watercolour Paper, (Non SU) Vellum
Ink: Kixi Kiss, Regal Rose, Reinkers and SWM's in Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette, Versamark
Stamps: (SU) Fifth Avenus Floral, A Rose is a Rose and Amy R "Birthday Sentiments"
Punches: (SU) Scallop Oval and Large Oval Punch
Odd Bits: (SU) Manhattan Rose embossing folder, Dimensionals, Zing White EP

Lynda xx

A Bevvy of Boxes - #3

"With a little help from my Friends" is a FAB song and is pertinent for this post. Kerry Bunting as I previously mentioned is a magical friend and I was blessed to receive this a short time back. (Sorry Kez that I have not posted it here yet!!) It is beautiful and takes pride of place on my table.

The birthday bonanza of Sept continued with niece...Miss 15 (the day before my son's b'day). Oh the agony of it all!!! A quick call to her Mum and all she wanted was bangles....EASY!! With such a basic gift it needed spectacular packaging. Now I am NEVER one to bite off more than I can chew (yeah right) and had images of co-ordinated cards and boxes, but sadly time ran out. I looked up and saw my little draw from Kez,...and a MASSIVE lightbulb came on.....a combo effort. Card and box in ONE!!! An e mail later and some information and I was on my way. Kez based her easel draw box on a template from Liam Pucher. Liam is SUPER talented in 3D paper projects. Take a look round her blog if you have not before. It is amazing.

(Sorry to keep rambling) I wanted to use the devine Miss Anya Collection stamps that have sadly sat neglected and unused since I purchased them (a long time ago!!) These 3 savvy young gals are perfect for tweens and teens. Rather than colouring the whole image I paper pierced some of it. This was the result..

and this is how she looked completed.....

I bundled her up with some Grosgrain Ribbon as wrapping....

      




Then.......when she took the ribbon off.......

I was sooooooooooooooooo happy with the result that a (somewhat sad but enthusiastic) happy dance was undertaken. It looked so pretty with the bangles in it!!

The card was a very narrow panel at the back of the easel which cannot be seen when opened, but is there as a special reminder. Here it is from the side and close ups of the delightful draw handle and the sentiment. Given that the inside of the draw gleamed...Happy Birthday did not seem right. "Sparkle" fitted the bill perfectly.

Thanks so very much for enduring this post to the end. The crafting community is such a wonderful and caring group, makes you feel good just to be a part of it.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Orchid Opulence, Whisper White, Watercolour Paper, Cottage Wall DSP.

Ink: (SU) Rich Razzleberry, Black Stazon

Stamps: (SU) Warm Words, Miss Anya Collection (The Greeting Farm)

Punches: (SU) Scallop Oval and Large Oval punch

Other bits: Nestabilities Oval and Scallop Ovals, Faber-Castell Watercolour Pencils, Lyra Watercolour Crayons, SU Dimensionals, handle fm Kez's local craft haunt, Kaiser Clear Rhinestones

Lynda xx





Fresh Cuts Quilt - Inkspirations Challenge #42

Yes people....stay in the upright position please.....I did a CHALLENGE!!!!!!

I have been a keen follower of Makeesha's Blog. for more than a couple of years now. I once use to comment quite often, but I now more marvel at the amazing talent that she is and those that enter her challenges. Challenge #42 was a colour challenge......

Firstly, these are all colours I have in my possession, so I was already thinking!! I went to sets, layouts etc, then slept on it for a night. About 3AM...it came to me (as most good things do....LOL)!!! I have DP in these colours too....and then the cogs started again......a quilt card!!! This was the result...

This is the first time I have attempted one of these cards and I must say I was surprised at how quickly it came together. The DP strips are cut at 1/2" x 4" (and you need 4 of them). The centre piece of Vanilla is 1 1/2" square. The piece that the quilt is secured to is 4" square. The total dimension of the card is 5"square. I was shown how to do this by Tia Routledge who was one of my Swap Sisters (which sadly is not running at present).

Because I needed 4 different types of DP...and I only had 3 that were true to the colours needed....I made the 4th one myself by stamping the vine from Fresh Cuts onto the VV card and them crossing back the other way, but stamping it off first to add a bit of interest. I then stamped off the border of the card in the colours and matted the quilt square onto it. Here's a close up of the self made DP and border.

        

                          

Finally, the sentiment in the middle is from Great Friend and I did that with the markers. The leaves in the corners were again the vine and stamped off. I am so very happy with the result. Hope you like it too.

Thanks Keesh for setting a challenge to get the cogs turning. May have to try this challenge thing a bit more often....it's so much FUN!!!!

Stuff used:

Card: (SU) Very Vanilla, Bella Rose DP (ret) and Urban Garden DP (ret)

Ink: (SU) Ridinh Hood Red, Not Quite Navy, Kiwi Kiss, markers in NQN and RHR.

Stamps: (SU) Fresh Cuts, Great Friend

Other Bits: Stamp-a-ma-jig (a must on this card), Xyron adhesive

Lynda xx

Just Jawing Double Take!!

Continuing the bevy of birthdays in September for me...my Son turned 10 on the 20th and my bestie's eldest turned 11 on the 21st. This age is always a tough group to do cards for, so I invested in the Just Jawing stamp set before it retired. Now I also know that this set is not for everyone, but I love a challenge. I saw this card in Steph Pike's blog some time ago and stored it away for such an occasion!! Now CASE'ing cards is fun, but you also have to know what sets things come from. I goofed up big time on the sentiment from this one (which is actually fm Party This Way), but it all worked out in the end. Anyhow, here's my son's card...

I love the way it turned out. I had never stamped on DP before, something so easy but sooooooooo effecticve!!!! The grungy feel is perfect for kids this age....the only thing it was a little too clean cut.

So the next one I did for my bestie's boy, I got the Cutter Kit out and did a whole lotta distressing!!! This is the end result!!

and a close up of the edges....

I think I like the distressed one slightly better. Best feed back though is that both boys liked their cards.....and didn't chuck them aside immediately to get to the presents!!!

Stuff Used:
CS: (SU) Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, DP - "artsy.licious" Fine Illustrated paper in Kohl (#31685)
Ink: (SU) Basic Black
Stamps: (SU) Just Jawing, Bitrhday Wish
Other bits: (SU) Dimensionals, Cutter Kit

Lynda xx

A Wonderful Surprise!!

I love to BLURF!! (blog surf). From it I am always inspired to try new colour combos, techniques, get the odd impulse buy stamp set....and along the way, make cherished and magical friendships. Kerry Bunting (KB Papercraft) is one such friend. She started as a blog buddy and then a year or so back we literally crossed paths at a Stitches and Craft Show at Rosehill. Sadly, the meeting resembled 2 teenage gals a a Zac Effron appearance (LOL)!! Anyhow, Kerry, who inspires me in so many other ways than crafting, bestowed an award upon myself and this blog!!!

The award is passed on to those who inspire. I was so chuffed and honoured....and now I get to pass it onto 5 people who inspire me!! They are..

Andrea Lowcock - EnchantINK

Debbie Pamment - Debbie P's Place

Deanne Wilkinson

Nicole Derendorf - Stamping Down Under

Stephanie Pike - Stamping with Steph.

I wouls also like to add to the list 2 non blog people who inspire me as well. They are..

Tracey (my bestie) and

Kathryn (the gal who is responsible for introducing me to SU!!!!)

If you have not visited any of these blogs before, pop on over and see the magical work that these gals put forward. They are inspirational, creative...and all round fabulous gals.

Thanks Kez for inspiring me as well as letting me inspire you in some small way.

ADDIT...... As of 5PM this arvo...Tracey surprised me and launched her own blog!!!! Check it out here....

Lynda xx

Just a Little Late!!!

This is what I gave the Dad's for Father's Day this year. It was all inspired by this card that I found on EnchantINK. She has used an old White Pages phone book for the background paper....how cool!!!!

This is my version.

Now you are not seeing double. I actually did 2 different versions. On the 2nd card...I sponged the edges of the tags and sentiments,,,the effect being a tad more vintage.

This is unsponged...

This is sponged....

I also put the strip with the sentiment on it through the crimper...again, just to bloke it up a bit. Sadly this is not really reflected in any of the pics I took!!!!

The old vintage dictionary paper was a bargain find at Alice's. Only 50 cents a sheet (12 x 12)...so I did my crafting patriotic right and stocked up!!! Sorry it took so long to post these, but it is a case of better late than never!!!

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Vintage Dictionary DP fm Alice's (non SU)

Ink:(SU) Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip Stamp and Write Marker

Stamps: (SU) Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Whimsical Lowercase Alphabet (ret.)

Punches: (SU) Word Window Punch, Small Tag Punch

Other bits: Pewter Brads, Crimper, Twine, SU Dimensionals

Lynda xx

Smile for the Birdie

One of the Doctors at my work was a bridesmaid at a wedding recently and wanted a clean and simple (CAS) card. There was no gift giving at the wedding, just cash, so the 'wrapping' had to be something special. I set to the task. I found this on SCS which filled the CAS criteria, however I did not like the colour combo. I ended up settling on Shimmer Ivory and Gold paper.

As most card makers will know though, in your mind you have a pretty good idea of the finished product, but when it appears, you are not QUITE there. This is the ORIGINAL, similar to the SCS one.

Although I was a little more than OK with it, I thought I could do better, so I did the next best thing.....I ripped off the bow and replaced it with a gold embossed sentiment....with this result....

The final result gave me a better sense of what I was after and I hope you share the same sentiment. The Doc was MORE than happy with her 'wrapping' and she also kindly passed on the kind words of the bride who theought the card was stunning (##blush##).

Thanks for stopping by.

Stuff used:

CS: Shimmer Ivory and Stardust Gold Paper and Cerice CS (fm Alice's)

Ink: Versamark (and Gold EP)

Stamps: (SU) Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Punches: (SU) Bird Punch XL, Carla Craft CP2 Heart

Oddments: White Organdy Ribbon (fm Big W), Dimensionals (SU)

Lynda xx