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!!

New Years Card

This week's Dare was to make a New Years Card, with a recipe of:

• 2 printed papers,
• A Die cut,
• 3 brads or eyelets.
  

I used two patterend papers but their pattern is so light I am not sure it got picked up in the scan. The flowers were punched, as were the corners of the blue patterned paper, and the brads are in the centre of the flowers. The sentiment is computer generated as is the Happy 2007! I do wish all of you a happy New Year!

A special tag for a special present

Tuesday's challenge on Daring Cardmaker's was:

"We'd like you to make:
a special tag for a special present
be it for Mum or Dad, for the Love of Your Life or even for your Best Friend in the Whole Wide World, this year make sure their present has a special finishing touch and join in with this week's midweek mayhem."

I made a tag for my Mother's present. I scanned a photo of a tree I know she will like into my computer, then ran it through the photo prgram to emboss it, then printed it out small, used layers and a heart punch that I shaped to suit my purposes after punching out, and the ribbon is fabric ribbon with loopy lacey edges.

Friendship Photo Card

I discovered the lovely Photo Cards from Creative Memories recently and just had to make one for my good friend for Christmas. Thanks to another friend Vanessa for making it possible for us to work shop today and get it done! The picture of the whole card is a little blurry - the quote says "Remember, the greatest gift is not found in a store or under a tree, but in
the hearts of true friends." Cindy Lew
I included a better picture of the front cover for you to see how the embellishment is done.

Black & White Christmas card with a splash of colour

Another challenge answered!

Black and White Christmas cards with a splash of colour

This card was inspired by gum leaves of course - I thought the gum nuts looked kind of like Christmas bells. I used gold as my splash of colour.

Christmas Tags

"This week we'd like you to make 3 tags for your Christmas Presents using this list of words to help you; holly, gift, snowflake, ribbon, tree, silver" - that was one of the challenges on Daring Cardmakers last week, and I am just getting to it now. I chose silver and ribbon from the list and came up with these quick to make little cards. They are stamped and I used wooden silver stars to embellish them.

Stars and Stamping with a Twist

I have been playing with a new toy - a mouldable foam block that lets you use whatever image you have lifted from somewhere in your home, as a stamp! I heated it up with a hairdryer and then pressed it on to a doiley on one side, and flipped it over to press it into some woodwork on the other side, then stamped the backgrounds of these cards with it. The blue card has the wooden bg and the pink has the doiley bg. In real life, the bg images are more obvious. Now I have two more cards to send out to friends - thanks for the incentive!

Instead of making cards, I have been using every spare moment to finish a Hope album project for Christmas - my DSS Nathan is going to receive this album. I was so happy with the result! I sure hope DSS likes it too. There are two more albums to make for the other two 'kids' in 2007.

I also need to work on my own family album – I am just starting out with Creative Memories techniques and materials and the task before me is enormous as I am a compulsive phot-taker and have boxes of pics to sift through, but I think I will just take one little bit at a time – what I get done will be better than never doing anything, right?

Will be back making cards again soon, all you lovely people at Daring Card Makers!

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.