Blush!

Thanks to all of you lovely people for leaving such wonderful comments on my blog! I was overwhelmed and delighted to receive your feedback. Being a member of the Daring Cardmaker's has been an amazing experience for me - it's lovely to have found you all! (I actually blushed with pleasure at reading all of your comments.)

I have been doodling another card in between all the other activities around here today. I am usually very slow at making my cards but am getting a little speedier. Sometimes I get an idea and everything just flows - other times it's painstaking work that takes DAYS! Kwim? The fast ones are few and far between. Anyway, I took inspiration from a biscuit tin I have all of my pens in for the broder of this one. It's my interpretation of their Victorian embellishment. I used copper, green and gold gel pens and a fine black felt pen to make the designs. The whole card is drawn work 'cept for the brads and paper/vellum/ribbon. It's a bit sparkly too - though there is NO embossing powder on this one :-)

Doodling

Thanks for the doodling challenge, ladies at Daring Cardmakers! I drew this pair of boots after I saw a stamp that I absolutely loved once, and couldn't buy the stamp. I used water colour pencils to shadethe doodled boots and then did doodles in the background too (the fence and grass and shadows etc). The flowers are stamped.

Sparkle Card!

OK - you ladies at Daring Cardmakers asked for Sparkle, and I think you've got it in this card! Talk about daring - all that gold embossing powder - I nearly set my kitchen alight using the toaster to 'cook' it! (Would that have counted alongside the coffee quirks I read about tonight?)
Anyway, here it is, in all its glory. I didn't do anything too technical. I used ordinary writing paper to print the words with Word Art, then jazzed them up with gel pens. I used embossing ink on the rest of the card, then gold embossing powder (did you notice??) Next I stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment on white cardstock, enhanced it with gel pens, pinked it, pinked the edges of the main matt, then jazzed it all up with some ribbon and wooden painted stars. Out with the glue stick and voila - one Sparkle card. Thanks for the idea - I now have a total of ONE Christmas card for my box! Gotta start somewhere, right?

Thank you for your comments, Daring Card Makers!

It was wonderful to log in to my blog today and to find three lovely comments from new stamping friends! It's fun to be part of a new community of Daring Card Makers. Here is the link to the Daring Card Makers blog for anyone else interested in having a look: http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/

I think I'll just travel on over and see what this week's dare is...

New stamp maker

I went to a craft fair today and found this clever little sponge that takes on impressions you push it into. First you heat it, then you press it into something (like a brick wall or straw or a leaf) and it takes on that shape. Then you use it just like a stamp! When you are finished you just wash it out, reheat it and re-press - it takes on the new shape. And you can use both sides of it. It's called a 'make-a-stamp mouldable block form' and I got it from a lady who owns a scrap booking shop. Must go try it out - results to be posted later :-)
Meanwhile, here's a picture of my little dog Trixie playing Only Queen of the Old Back Yard Stump.

Hope, till tomorrow at least

Tomorrow I plan to make some more pages.

Hope so far...

Hope evermore

Hoping still

Continuing Hope

More Hope

Hope album

I'm part way through the album I am making for DS. The colours are nice - blues and 'cement' and a buttery yellow, mainly, with sprinklings of black. Once I make the 'hope' pages, I will start adding photographs. Most people probably do this as they go along, but not me. Maybe next time. I think this album is going to have quite an impact - "I Hope"! It seems like such a special thing to do for your children. I CASED nearly all of the layouts but they wound up not being exact copies :-)
Anyway, here are a couple of the pages so far.

A card & a photo journalling window

I just made a card witha fish hook in it. I found a turtle stampe that was really calling to me to be used, and so I combined the stamp and the hook with some twine, and voila - a card for a man's birthday. I would have positioned the stamps a little differently and also tried to stamp more 'cleanly' if I had had time to recreate the card. How do people get such crisp, clear stamps every time, anyway?

I also had a wonderful experience learning that working with photos, telling a story and using my card making 'skills' is very satisfying - I always thought I would not be interested in photo journalling/scrap booking - but a friend has introduced me to this craft in a lovely way, and I think it is going to continue to be a part of my craft life! I am making a 'Hope' album for our son who recently married, and want to do 'Hope' albums for our other son and daughter. It is such an inspiring thing to do for someone, and so special. Will post some of the results another time when I have had a chance to scan some pages of the album I am working on.

The Wedding Card

This week was a lot better craft-wise. Here is our DS's wedding card - it is a larger than average card. I found a special something to put inside too, about the Marriage Alter - it's a lovely bit of wisdom about how you have to put more into a marriage than you take out. A lady I just met in a Creative Memories class sent it to me - how wonderful and how timely!

I will post my creative memories page here once I work out how to scan it satisfactoriy - it is too big to fit on my scanner. The class was such an enjoyable experience, I'm going back for more. Real soon.

Till later.

Stamping and scrapping - Nil

I am working a lot this week so have had no time to do anything crafty - will have to be sure I include some fun time soon, or I will suffer withdrawal!!

Scrap Book Plans

OK. I have consulted with my friend and am about to start a scrap book for my first son. I have decided to do three scrap books, one for each child, and to have them ready for Christmas. It isn't as easy as it looks - I am now on the hunt for the right photos and thinking about how best to tell their stories. I have a lovely example of a Hope book that I want to try out for each of them. I have settled on which album to do first, the colours of that one, and some of the embellishments and photos, but still need to play some more. I want to stamp some of the pages as well, of course. I always take ages to think about how best to do things. Projects seem to have to percolate in the back of my mind for awhile till they can become 'real'. Will post some of the results as it goes along though :-)

Scrap booking tomorrow!

Tomorrow I get to try scrap booking with a friend who has been scrap booking for years. She is going to help me put together a gift for our DS who is getting married in less than 3 weeks. I have been gathering old photos of him today to see what we can come up with. I plan to make an album to give them too - for the wedding photos. Will post up the results when I have played for awhile. It's been a busy week as we have our church camp on at the moment. It's a lot of fun and a lot of work! Maybe there will be a scrap booking project that comes out of that as well..hmmm...stamping and scrap booking do go together pretty well, don't they? Must make a birthday card for an Aunt tomorrow too. More later.

Red Hat Day

Today was a lot of fun - a bunch of us got together to welcome one of our friends to the Red Hat Society! It was a fun day. I made a card for her that I have posted for you to see. We all dressed for the occasion, with four Red Hat Ladies being present and about another 10 Pink Hat Ladies also coming along to enjoy the day. I've posted a picture of my own Red Hat look for today.
Have any of you ever taken part in a Red Hat Society event? We are not a registered chapter, but it looks easy to become one! If you want to know more about the Red Hat Society, click on this link:
http://www.redhatsociety.com/

Director's Special

Well, I made the card for the Director - that's it with the suns on it - and most people seemed to like it. I hope the Director did. I really liked the poem and have my wonderful friend Carla to thank for that. I used the 10 Minute Collage Technique for the stamped images and wound up with some interesting bits and pieces I will be able to make into other future projects. You can see how to do a 10 Minute Collage here - thanks to a lady named Trish Bayley:

http://www.stampingnetwork.com/2005/10minutecollage.htm

I will definitely use the collage technique again, especially when I have more choice in the stamps I can use. My collection is a bit limited at the moment. Maybe alphabet letters would be one way to go in future? With a couple of other small/medium/large stamps? Must try that - hmmmm!

Other news: there is a scrap booking workshop being held in my town at the end of September! I so want to go. I hope I can. I am sure the scrap booking techniques can be used in card making. And I have a special reason for wanting to do some scrap booking - our son's wedding is coming up in October, and I sure do want to make a special album for that. One for him and his new wife, and one for us. Must find a way to go! I'll tell you about it after I do :-)

DH's 50th

I finally got my DH's card finished, in spaces when he wasn;t around to watch! He does know I will make him a card but this time he has no idea what it will look like - I borrowed the stamp I used so he won't have a clue! I made it big enough for everyone who is coming out to dinner with us tomorrow night to sign. It should be a nice keepsake for him. WHen I think back to a decade ago when he turned 40, that was one thing I would have liked to have had - a memento of who was there that night. So this decade, we have one! He LOVES to fish, so I thought this might be appropiate for him. It was fun to make the fish shine with a silver gel pen.

Waterfalls

After reading some of the recent blogs added to the SCS blog site, I remembered that I have a picture of Millaa Millaa Falls and that some of you might like to see that. So here is a picture of the falls. I would like to put in a short video, but I don't know if this site could handle that! Besides, it might make the page soooo slow to load.

I am going to be making a card sometime in the next couple of days for our Director who is leaving us to take up a job in Singapore. It is for everyone at work to sign, so it has to be a nice one. I have no idea what to do yet. Any ideas for making a 'goodbye-and-thanks-for-everything-and-we-wish-you-well-in-the-future' card??

Wow! It's been about a month since I posted!

How does time slip away so quickly? I knew I had been busy but not that I had been too busy to blog for a whole month. My work is demanding - have been travelling a lot, but have found a few moments to make one or two cards. We had a graduation ceremony for our students and I made 25 photo holders in one evening - they were pretty simple but I thought they looked effective. I just used angel wire on cardstock and some ribbon and paper flowers with brads for the women. For the men, I substituted a swirl clip for the flower. Each holder turned out slightly differently, and the students can put their grad photos under the corner ribbons and then frame them.

Another thing I did was make an Aussie card for a friend in Canada who has been ill. I got to play with water colours again - the more I use water colours the better I like them. Another stamping friend I have in another State was selling some stamping magazines which I bought, and one of them had some great water colouring tips, so I plan to do more water colouring projects in the near future.

Then it was my DD's 20th birthday and I made her a card in some of her favourite colours. I found some oval punched cardstock and a friend had sent me the cute little cupcake embellishment, and I found out that my DD loved the bg paper I decided to use, which was a great coup. She and I do have quite different taste in many things so I have to pay close attention to clues like that! She liked the card. I found this lovely saying to put inside too -

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye,

but only a few will catch your heart…

pursue those.”

Anonymous

She liked the saying probably more than she liked the actual card!

Now I think I will stop and see how this post is going to look on the blog...

Cased Card

I thought I had cased a card this week. It looked so cute and I had just the person to give it to, I wanted to do something quickly, so I tried to case a card. It turned out pretty differently anyway but the layout was similar and the central idea of the boots was also similar - I cannot say it was the same because, lacking the boots stamp, I drew them! It was also an attempt to improve my water colouring technique. It was a fun card to do, and I wound up taking longer to finish it than I thought! See what you think :-)
The Show was on here this week as well, and I discovered a few brave souls had entered their papercraft - scrap booking and card making - so I think next year, I will do something for the Show too. (The Show is like a county fair). So many people enter their sewing, knitting, corchetting, art work, etc, it is a fun way to get feedback and even maybe win a few small prizes. Sounds like a fun thing to do to me!

Last one for today

Finally I tackled the last card, made for a young man who is having a hard time at present. I wanted to encourage him and Psalm 27 just leapt to mind. I thought it fit with the light of the sun and this is the result.I spent some time playing with water colours and glitter to make the sun pop out a bit, but maybe I would do it differently next time. In 'real life' the colours do blend together better and the glitter is more obvious. I see I also need to get better at following straight lines when I write words. I still think he will appreciate it though.

Card no 3

Then I made a card for a young girl who has just started high school and is rather dreamy - she is a 'girly' girl too so will appreciate the flowers, profile stamp (another one of my birthday gifts!) and the colours, I think.

FOUR cards in an afternoon!!

Wow - this is a record for me! I managed to make not three cards, but FOUR cards this afternoon and still got dinner on the table in time (just!) It was a lot of fun. I used new stamps I got for my birthday as well as ones I had just received from my SU! order. These little cards were made for two boys who had birthdays this week. They know each other well so I made them the same to stop them feeling like I was playing favourites. The Itty Bitty Backgrounds came in handy! The boys also tromp mud into houses a lot and both like animals, hence the other stamping messages!

A week to make three cards...

I have this week to make three cards. That should be fun, right? Well, it will be, once I actually start! Will do so tomorrow. Today was a wonderful sunny day and I just had to take advantage of being out in it a bit. This is the first time we have had a completely sunny day since March 20th, when Cyclone Larry struck. It felt so good to sit and bask in the sun a bit - with my two tabby cats, of course. They thought it was wonderful to have company on the front steps for awhile!

What is it about sunny days that make me want to clean everything? I spent another part of today getting red mud off lots of things - floors, walls, mats etc. And the rose bushes appreciated a light pruning. They were yet another excuse for me to stay out in the sun.

There was a craft interlude at my house today. My mother has a new computer program that can change photos into cross stitch patterns. She brought it round to me and we worked out how to use it, finally creating cross stitch patterns out of two pictures of my lovely daughter. My mother was thrilled with the resulting patterns and went away a very happy woman. Of course, the coffee and cake probably also helped!

Cardmaking is definitely on the 'To Do' list for tomorrow.

My Sister's Anniversary

I nearly forgot my sister's anniversary! I remembered just before I was supposed to go see her, and, inspired by Alora's eight minute wedding card (thanks, Alora!) I got busy and made something for her. I didn't time myself, but I will next time I have such an emergency! I got to use some new stamps too, which was wonderful. And my sister seemed to like it.

I had time to make a card with one or two of my new stamps and stencils last night, and this is the result. I made it for a seven year old friend and he seemed to like it, though I think he liked the attention more! I was pleased he could read all the words on the card, even the message on the inside. It was fun to make and this week I have another couple of birthdays to start preparing for ... though a wonderful friend will be visiting and staying in my stamp room for a couple of days and we shall be gallivanting around doing the 'tourist' thing, so maybe I will get a chance to create some cards next weekend. So many stamps! So little time!!

Birthdays are wonderful

I must have told everyone near and dear to me how much I love stamps. That's exactley what I got for my birthday - a swag of NEW STAMPS!! And some new inks, brushes, tags, cut outs, scissors, and paper. I am all set - spoilt for choice. All I have to do is decide what I want to do first. That's harder than it sounds - everything looks so interesting. Even my Itty Bitty Backgrounds arrived on my birthday. Well, this weekend I am going to STAMP.

Itty Bittys

I ordered the Itty Bitty Background stamps from my new SU! demonstrator and can't wait till they come. I see so many cards on Splitcoaststampers that use these stamps! I noticed also there is something called a Stamp-a-ma-jig and will have to order one of those to see if it helps me keep things straighter when I make a card. If anyone reading this uses one, what do you think?

This is what the cyclone did to our fence and tree. The tree is now gone, the fence is repaired, but it sure looks barren and bleak. I plan to allow the new roses to grow all over the fence - yellow Pilgrim and pale pink Cecile Bruner and deep pink Gertrude Jekyll roses - maybe we will one day have a pretty structure and a seat there too.

It's raining again, but that's good for the roses

I got up today, looked out the front door and was pleasantly greeted by three beautiful new Fragrant Plum rose blooms. I leaned out my window to see two new Kardinal blooms as well. When I looked out the side window, there was my gorgeous Carla rose nodding at me and a Peace rose looking up too! I am so happy that my roses are finally producing. I have only a dozen plants, and the enjoyment I get from them is enormous. I thought maybe the cyclone had ruined them but it seems it shocked lots of plants into producing their best, my roses among them.

Today my DH and I went shopping and came home with another new rose bush - a David Austin climbing Gertrude Jekyll. I plan to plant it with a couple of other new climbers I recently found to hide the ugly back fence where the majestic pine tree used to be. The pine tree was blown over by the cyclone and now there is just a stump left. Climbing roses will soften the old ugly fence and even better, I can see them from my kitchen window. Maybe the stump will make a nice garden seat one day. We are going to plant a few more things on the swell of the old root system too.