HEAVY METAL

The DCM challenge for the week was...HEAVY METAL!

"..no I don't mean rock music! (Note: I was thankful for that! I am definitely more a classical music type of girl) I would like you to make a card on any theme you like with the rule that it must include something metalic...thats all!You could use wire, charms, foil or even metallic pens. "

I went fishing today and seriously considered using a fishing hook for this challenge. I have used a hook in the past. I posted the card with a turtle to show you how I've used a fish hook :-)

This new card is a simpler card - it's meant for a 12 year old boy. I used brushed silver metal brads, silver metallic pen, and a soft drink ring pull to make the buckle. I generated the numbers by computer and coloured them in with the gel pen. The doodle rick rack was just a fine tipped black felt pen. I used a die-cut for the oval shape - no freehand this time!

Extra! Extra!

It was a shock to return to work this week, and very full-on it was too. I had literally 499 e-mails to sort through as well as heaps of other 'emergencies' just brewing along, waiting for me to arrive so they could pounce. I really hope I can keep doing the DCM challenges.

The Dare in the middle of this week from DCM was great because it just so happened I needed to make a birthday card for my six year old friend, Emilee. The flower requirement was just the right number. Here's the Dare:

"We have a recipe for you this time; your challenge is to make a card using the following ingredients:

7 brads or eyelets

6 flowers

5 letters"

Well, I used the word 'Happy' for Emilee's card and inside I asked her to count the flowers for a special birthday message. I used up six of the brads on the flowers and the seventh on the tag and ribbon. I 'stitched' around the edges of the circle with copper gel pen and wrote the word with green gel pen. The flowers are from 'Got Flowers?' The ribbon is from SU! and the cardstock & bg mat is from Overflow and Big W - he he. Thanks for another great challenge, ladies!

And I am tempted to CASE an idea for the next challenge - using metal in some way - to make a birthday card for an about-to-be 12 year old boy...which of the lovely creations from DCM will I CASE? They were all so wonderful! Will I CASE, or will I make up an idea of my own? I guess none of us will know the answer to this puzzle till I get out my stash and play, so see you later....

Essentials

Aezine Challenge: What are your essentials? If you had to get rid of everything and just keep a modest amount, what would be on your list? The challenge this week is easy: draft up a list of your essentials. What do you reach for time after time?

I haven't been making cards or scrapbooking very long, so I think I am still gathering my essentials. And they do change, I've noticed! For example, I am fast getting to regard my Stamp-a-ma-jig from 'Stampin Up!' as an essential. It took me awhile to begin to use it, and now I use it a lot.

When I make LOs and cards, I do seem use some of the same things each time. So I have listed 20 items as they came to mind:

1. fine black felt tipped pen (archival pen)
2. gel pens in various colours - especially silver and gold, but also copper and green, and sparkle pens - I cannot seem to make anything without a touch of gel pen!
3. ready-made card bases in plain colours
4. I like to use deckle edged scissors, but straight edged scissors with really sharp blades are essentials for me, as is my stenciling knife
5. Fiskar cutter
6. water colour pencils - I LOVE these things
7. a frisbee I use as a stamp cleaning vessel
8. an old plastic container I use to fill up with water to play with water colouring pencils
9. Versa mark inks
10. embellishments - especially ribbons and brads
11. my computer - how could I do any of this without it?
12. my colour printer/scanner
13. ideas
14. camera - a Kodak Easyshare - and pictures
15. self-healing mat
16. lots of scrap paper to blot, mask, practice for, protect etc the 'real' creation
17. stamps
18. Stamp-a-ma-jig - yes, I think it is an essential now
19. Time to create
20. good quality albums from Creative Memories

And of course, I need the feedback from others, ideas from others, the humour of others - it is really an essential for me now that I am part of a crafting community!

Through the Round (well, oval) Window

Or the square window, or the arched window, or any shape window you like! This week on Daring Cradmakers "its Rhi setting the dare, and I dare you to make a card with an aperture in it, it can be any shape you like and can be see through or have something covering behind it. It could be a ready made aperture card or lots of small windows punched out, diecut or handcut or one large window. It could be a shaker card and can be for any occasion."
For this dare, I hand cut the oval shape in the backing card and used deckle Victorian scissors to cut out the inserted oval shape. I used pale green and blue ink squares on the bg, then brushed pink ink on th einserted lacey edges. The brads are sherbet making memories brads, the butterflies are painted wooden shapes, the ribbon is SU! and there's silver pen outlining the edges of the window. The quote is computer generated and says 'If nothing ever changed, there's be no butterflies. Author unknown". The colours are a little softer and more companionable in real life.

Aezine Weekly Challenge - my word is Gentleness

From Ali Edward's ezine:

'One of the things I noticed in many posts about people's one little word was mentions of looking up their word in the dictionary. I love that idea. This week, locate the definition of your word and copy it onto a 3x5 notecard and stick it somewhere you will see it everyday. Maybe you have a board you look at, maybe your bathroom mirror, or someplace else where only you will see it, etc. It will serve as a little reminder of your word'.

Well, I made mine a bit bigger than a 3x5 because there were so many definitions of 'gentle' in the dictionary (and therefore of 'gentleness') that the text would have been far too little on a 3x5 card! I just doodled the edges and thought while I made this. I can place this in spots where I will see it, which is one of the reasons for making it after all. Let me know if you can read it - I needed to make it a smaller file as Blogger won't take bigger pictures, and think I may have cut it down too far for you to see...

Meditations on Gentleness...

I am going to post occasional thoughts about my 'one little word
for 2007 every now and then. Here's the first thing I have been meditating on about Gentleness:

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.

Gal 5:22 - 23

Imagine...

Just imagine...

That's your Daring Cardmaker's 'Little Extra' challenge for this week - make a card inspired by this one little word

IMAGINE

This challenge wasn't hard to do once I saw Pearl's lovely creation - I had just taken a photo of a friend on the beach of coral Island, daydreaming alone for awhile while the rest of us went out in small boats to fish! It will double as his birthday card for the end of this month - thanks for the fun dare!

Palm Tree Christmas

A friend of mine from Canada remarked once that she was so cold, she would happily decorate a palm tree if it meant she could be in a warmer climate for Christmas. Since Australians always have hot Christmasses, it being our summer here in Dec/Jan/Feb, I decided to make her a traditional tree decorated with ...PALM TREES! I sent the card close to Christmas and she only just got it, so finally I can publish the card here.

Happy Bug Day

I have a few birthdays to remember this month and today have made a card for a male friend who troubleshoots computers all day. I put more bugs inside with the wish that he have a trouble free birthday - no bugs or stress! I made this a wardrobe inspired card - I was wearing a striped blouse today in pink and yellow colours, which I needed to change to suitable colours for this man's card, hence the green. I included a picture of the inspiring blouse pattern.

For the card, I hand cut the wonky washers and used brished silver brads, and that's striped dragonfly ribbon held down with a hand stitch and the 'be happy' sticker, and I just smoothed ink pads along the card for the background, then stamped the bug over the card. I used a combination of stamps for the 'Happy Bug Day' sentiment as I didn't have one that said exactley that (I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig tool for the first time to place the stamps - wow, how easy was that?? It's a GREAT tool!) Then I used a green ink pad around the edges and mounted the piece on green cardstock.

What a load of old rubbish!!

From Daring Cardmakers:

"Just as a little midweek extra and to help you use the various bits and pieces scavenged from the Christmas and New Year festivities, we would like you to use something leftover to make a card.

You could use a bit of ribbon from a cracker, paper from a paper hat, a piece of leftover wrapping paper, a bit of card/paper/ribbon from a box of chocs - as long as it's something saved, or scavenged it's allowed!

Of course, it does not have to be Christmas leftovers, I am sure that you all have bits and pieces lovingly saved from being chucked out in the rubbish!! "

And here is mine. I used Christmas colours - red and green - and added in the yellow to make it look less Christmassy. I cut all the little sqaures from bits and pieces in my craft drawer. The spiral is something I have had for awhile, as is the stamp. It's a man's card so I made it simple and refrained from the ribbon I was thinking about using...

DCM Bling Card

OK - here is the *Bling!* card for this week's Daring Cardmaker's challenge. I stamped the butterfly, coloured it as a Ulysses Butterfly from Far North Qld with watercolour pencils, attached the 'Got Flowers?' flowers with beads, then used gold lettering stickers for the Happy Birthday. I sponged around the edges of the butterfly with black and blue ink (ruined my blue ink pad, too! hint - use lighter colours BEFORE darker colours) then stamped some Kaiser stamp leaves on a piece of gold paper, and attached it all to white glossy cardstock. Voila! A beady bling card just right for my MIL's birthday :-D She does love Ulysses butterflies.

AEzine Challenge: one little word

Thank you, Paula, for telling me about the AEzine/Life Artist Newsletter. I have now signed up to receive it and participate. I have some work to do this week, to keep up with Daring Cardmakers AND the Aezine challenges! Here is the first Aezine challenge for 2007:

"one little word

A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow.

This week your challenge is to create something, anything, that celebrates your chosen word for 2007. Maybe a layout. Maybe a blog posting or a journal entry or a simple post-it note that you put somewhere you can see it each day. Make sure to journal about why you chose your word and what it means for you - the more you let yourself explore the more benefit you will receive in the end."

The word I chose is GENTLENESS.

I need much more of that in my life. It is linked to serenity and calm, and noticing, and being. I am so not like this. I would like to be more GENTLE and notice more GENTLENESS. The world can be a rough, fast, cold, hard place. My little corner can be more GENTLE perhaps...

Will be thinking about a LO or another way to show GENTLENESS on my blog in the next few days.

Bling & Beads

Daring Card Makers - Bling & Beads

"This week's challenge is set by Lynda and I want you use... Bling and Beads. You can use micro beads or threading beads. Any sort of bling: glitter, sequins, crystals brads etc. Have fun!!! "

OK - I am off to have fun with this challenge. Will re-edit this post later when I have something to show.

Thank You Card

From Daring Cardmakers: 'This week's team dare is easy, peasy, lemon squeazy, just to ease you gently out of 2006 ! We are daring you to make and ultra simple Thank You card. Just simple and straight forward....'

I was determined to finish this challenge before I went to bed tonight! And here it is! I had a lot of fun reviving that old trick of making your own paper lace by folding a long strip of paper and cutting into it strategically. The stamp is from the SU! 'Nice & Easy Notes' set (so is the birthday card stamp for the four year old in my previous post tonight).

Birthday Card for a four year old

I've just been having fun with some stamps I got around Christmas time. I have made a birthday card for a four year old friend, CASEing the layout from another (adult!) dear friend who sent me a wonderful card for Christmas. Carla alwasy insipres me and gives me ideas about how to make cards - without her encouragement I would probably only have started stamping after I retired! I plan to make a Thank You card next for the Daring Cardmaker's challenge as I know there will be a new challenge tomorrow and I don't want to get behind.

Birthday card

Well, I haven't done this week's challenge with the Thank You card yet, but I did make a birthday card. I was lent some retired SU! stamps by a lovely friend so decided to try some of them out on this card. I wanted the stamps to be part of the background but they just didn't 'pop' so I put them on different layers. Would try embossing or something else next time as I ran out of time to play. I had fun with the water colour background - just love those watercolouring pencils!!