50th Birthday

I have a friend who is turning 50 very soon, and she is still mad about horses. Hence the theme and the lack of 'girly' embellishments! She is a no nonsense type of person and would think I had gone mad if I gave her ribbons and flowers :-) I had to hold myself back, mind you! I thought the blowsy black sponging sort of made the image look like a fresh brand or something that was burnt into the 'wood' of the card - what do you think?

This is an aperture card. I took the image from Clip Art and used stickers fro all of the lettering. The image is slightly raised behind the aperture as it is stuck to the body of the card with a cutout of the window behind it to pad it slightly. The horse bit is cut slightly larger than the aperture and is sponged round with brown and black on the inside.

And the winner is.....

Thank you everyone who took part in my VERY FIRST Blog Competition! It was lovely to have 11 entries to put into the Official Competition Blue Frisbee today (it usually does duty as my stamp cleaner holder! Lol!) Lacking anyone else in the house this morning, I dutifully shut my eyes and fairly drew out the winning entry. The Winner Is: (Drum role, please)

ANDREA! Congratulations!

If you would like to send me your address, Andrea, I will send you the card you have won. You can e-mail me at hurleylukeatstevens.net.au

In the Fold

At DCM this week, it was Jane's turn to dare us all: 'I'm daring you to make a card that has to have more than one fold - so it can be a gate fold card, or a 3 panel card with an aperture or a card with multiple folds OR you can incorporate paper folding on the actual card itself. It can be on any theme "

Well it just so happens I was taught how to make rosettes this week, by using nine little squares of paper folded into a flower shape! This challenge could not have come at a more perfect time for me so thank you, Jane. I even found an Irish blessing about being enfolded in God's love.

I have decided it is about time I had a competition on my blog and that that this card can be the prize. Anyone who posts something about this card will go into a draw to receive said card. Posts must be made before the next DCM weekly challenge is posted on Friday to qualify!

All Things Media

This week at DCMs You are being Dared to make a card that is inspired by 'All Things Media'. The dare has been set by our Gillian:

It's around us no matter which way we turn, and all designed to get our attention. Ads designed by graphic designers who know all the tricks & techniques to draw our eyes to the product in question. You only have to glance at a Newspaper quickly to read headings with 'Shock' titles & 'Clever' puns all designed to make you want to read what the article is all about!
Maybe you have been inspired by an Ad in a magazine, the colours or design that has been used. Or incorporate actual magazines & newspapers onto your card; maybe chop up letters (ransom note style) to create the sentiment So grab that latest edition of your favourite Mag, or pick up your newspaper, because there is so much inspiration there, Just waiting for you to discover!

At the very last minute, I came up with an idea inspired by an old photo on the 'Net advertising perfume - I caught a few more recent perfume images as you can see - have we really changed so much? Except maybe for the size of the bottles?? The SCENTiment is the same!! LoL!

Celebrate the Romance

"This week at DCM we're joining forces with the wonderful team of Scrapbookers over on the Everyone is Speshal blog. We're daring each other and you to make a Really Romantic Scrapbook Layout - but on a card! Scrapbookers are challenged to downsize your usual a 12x12 LO onto a teenyweeny one - maximum of 6x6, which can be sent safely through the mail. Cardmakers - you're used to working on a small space, and you know all about the ribbons, brads and other bits and bobs - but can you take on board all the other little touches that are used on a scrapbook page - the titles, the journalling, the photographs etc? "

This dare was actually sent out on February 2nd but I am just now catching up! I thought about this one a lot, and finally came up with something I think will amuse my Valentine. I used three shades of purple and some brown, some purple, blue green bg paper, deep purple ribbon, a heart & clip brad from SU!, an old key I had, and backed it all with beige cardstock. It says "You hold the key to my heart - a noble beau, a playful one, my only one, my Valentine". Awwww!

Ever had one of those days?

This morning I thought I knew what was in store for me - get up early, drive out to a community agency, teach for the day, drive home late, stay late at work finalising lesson planning for tomorrow and Thursday...but it didn't happen that way.

I had tried confirming that I was to teach at this agency today as planned late last year, without success, as no one answered my e-mails or phone messages left on answering machines. As there were 17 or so people involved in the class and I would not be at all popular if I failed to show and they were expecting me, I drove the 55kms out to the agency. The day was glorious - sunny and cool - the country was green and lush from all the monsoonal rains we had had. The joy of driving through such beautiful country is pretty special! There was little traffic, and no rush.

When I arrived at my destination, sadly there was no eager group of students ready to come to a class, but really I was blessed already by the unexpectedly peaceful interlude, so contentedly got back into the car for another lovely drive back to base. Then I had the gift of all the afternoon hours to prepare for the following days, without pressure, and could go home at a decent hour.

Ever had one of those days when you felt as though you were being paid for doing something wonderful, not just for working? This was one of those days for me :-)

Now if I had only been able to make time to create a card, it would have been perfect!! Gotta go do some marking now...

Work is too busy

Work is so demanding lately I cannot get time to craft anything. I just quickly read the latest challenges on DCM and would love to contribute something, but cannot do so for a bit. Just wanted anyone reading this to know why I have become a 'lurker' for awhile! I have lots of travel to do with work and don't have a way of taking my projects with me, and besides I don't get many breaks as breaks are the times for students and others to talk to me personally...This is not a whinge! Just a little info so you will know why I am not making new stuff just now.

I will be back!

Ali Edwards Challenge - the delightful side of crafting

Ali Edwards set a challenge for us this week: “This week I want you to take a look at those "extras" that are truly delighting you right now and making you want to create. Make a list and then CREATE a layout that details your favorites. I love how people ended up making layouts about their essentials - very cool idea.”

Well, I am still building up my craft supplies so most of what I have is really pretty essential for me, but I think I do have some luxuries too that I love to have around me. The more I thought about it, the more I realised it isn’t the things that top the list. It’s the connections with people I treasure the most. Here’s a list of things that currently give me joy:

The people:

1. Blogs, Web sites and Magazines about how other people make their cards and LOs. It’s a real luxury to me to have found some inspiring and warm people in these wonderful communities! You are all amazing.
2. RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) and the people who send them! What a wonderful, uplifting thing for people to do.
3. Live Workshops with friends – how relaxing and enjoyable these are. I had no nearby friends who were interested in craft when I started making cards seriously, but all that has changed wonderfully.

The things:

4. Flowers, little and big, silk and paper and punched and hand made. I love them. They seem to be able to bring a project into another class. Same as stickers and ribbons – they are fun and quick and easy and pretty. Oh and I like beads too.
5. Punches – I borrowed a bag of them from a generous friend – and they are so much fun. This friend also lent me a bag of new stamps! Joy! (Hmm – this is a people one too!)
6. A slow recovery foam block that can take on the shape of anything it can be pushed into - you heat it up with a hair dryer then push it onto something with an interesting texture, and voila - a new bg stamp! You can have different textures on each surface of the cube.
   

OK – that’s my list. I will have to work on getting a LO done which can reflect some of this. I may not get that part done this week, but ‘counting my blessings’ about my craft has been a very lovely thing to do. Thanks for the idea, Ali.

Sketch challenge

"For the Little Extra challenge this week on Daring Cardmakers we've a sketch for you to have a go at. We don't mind how you use it - bend it, stretch it, shrink it or turn it on it's head - as long as we can see the original plan in there it counts and we'd love to see how you use it."

I had trouble getting all of this together! It took ages to find what I thought was a pleasing way to fit all the pieces of this sketch together. I did come up with a card for a small friend's birthday - she is aged 12, so let's hope she likes the elements of this. First I thought I had too many pieces, but in the end I added to them. Now why is that, I wonder? I used an SU! balloon stamp in black ink on the brown cardstock bg, then layered on sky blue paper, roses wrapping paper, white cardstock dressed up with sponged edges in blue, pink and blue glitter gel pen plus an occasional punched heart, an SU! flower tag and a Be Inspired blue brad. Oh, and Inchworm & Scallop deckle edged scissors. I wrote all the words in me own fair hand - aharr.

Work

It's been awhile since I posted, and it's all because I went back to work. It's been a hectic week and I have had no time for crafting - have been coming home to get ready for the next day's agenda and have just been falling in to bed! I am a 'night' person more than a 'morning' person and I have had a struggle to get back on the old timetable this week :-) But never fear! I will find time to make cards again before too long. I love to do it, and I have to have something like it in my life or I get very borrrrring.

Have been thinking about the 'non essentials' of my card making as suggested in the AEzine this week and will also post that list soon.

Meanwhile, hubby wants to go our for dinner - yay! Going out to dinner with him does beat a night in, even a night in making cards!! Must dash and get ready. Trust you are all well and crafting - will look forward to having a look at everyone's cards this week with Gillian's fabulous LO ideas - more later.