Stipple Rose

I am sleepy but was determined to get a card up on my blog tonight. Have just become a hobby demo for SU! and got all these wonderful new stamp sets to play with when I joined. I have admired the Stipple Rose set from afar for over a year, and just had to play tonight. I used the blender pen and the pastels as well for the first time. Will look at it in the light of day and see if I still like it - felt a bit awkward using all the new things but I am sure to wear everything in pretty soon! Lol!

Tagged

This week at DCM the challenge is from Rhi: 'Everything we buy has packaging, some of it excessive, some of it beautifully designed. Tags, labels, stickers... all sorts of bits and bobs that we can recycle onto cards.

I dare you to make a card using a tag, label, sticker or anything else you can find, thats from packaging and would normally end up in the bin. Of course you can ink it, change it, distress it and add anything else you like!

If you're feeling brave, I DOUBLE DARE you to make it a card for a man!'

Well, Rhi, I salvaged some birthday candles this week (since it was my birthday!) and used them to drip wax onto this card. They make pretty balloons I think. The card is for a whole family who spoiled me this week, one of which is a man! So I managed to complete your Dare AND your Double Dare!!

I Double Dare anyone reading this to join is if they have not already done so!

Cousins

Got to spend time with my friends setting out pages in my album today and working on a special album fro DD who is turning 21 soon. Am not finished the album fro DD yet but was pleased with this page today. I had great fun drawing and cutting out the splashes!

All materials used were Creative Memories. Note the border - it was simple to do and I used double sided paper.

Celestial

Hi it's Keryn here (from DCM) and it's my turn to set the dare this week. This time I asked my family for ideas for this weeks dare and the best amongst a lot of ideas including power tools etc, etc was Lachlan's ideas for Space. It's been his topic at school this term. (Lachlan is seven and in Year 3). To make in a little easier on you all I've called it Celestial to also include horoscopes as well as planets, spaceships, stars, suns etc. How you use these items is up to you.

It just so happened I needed a 21st Birthday card for my nephew today - and this theme fit perfectly!

If you haven't seen DCM yet, go on over now and join in the dares!

The Daintree and Cape Tribulation

Spent a craft free day - a drawback only because I do have a card to make - but the day was a glorious one and I loved every minute of it. DH and I drove to the Daintree River and to Cape Tribulation and just enjoyed the beauty of the country and each other's company. It was a wonderful break for us both. We are tired in a good way this cold evening (it's not down to freezing yet but early this morning we had the first frost of the winter) and will soon away to sleep, but I wanted to show you a picture of the beach in late afternoon - just gorgeous - and a view from the top of the range on the way back to Mossman. We are so blessed to live in this beautiful land.

Warmest Wishes

Amy came all the way up here from Cairns yesterday (96kms!!) to do a demo for me and some friends, and we had a wonderful time! There were seven of us counting Amy and I. Amy, you are so clever and well-organised and just plain fun to be around! I was so pleased to be stamping with other people who love to stamp!!

That's Amy on the left and me on the right, a pic of all the cards made at the workshop and a closeup of the one I made. I included a picture of the little tin Amy brought and decorated before our eyes - she had pre-packed it with the little stamps. It wound up being my special gift for holding the workshop! What a clever idea.

It was a fun day - my first day with fellow stampers in 'real life'. Thanks to all of you on the Internet, many of whom read this Blog, I have learned heaps. It was a great treat to be stamping with 'live' people - like speed learning!

Little Extra - Black with One Other Colour

This weeks little extra from DCM is to use Black and ONE other colour only. We, the design team decided to be really nice to you all and allow shades of that one colour to make it really easy for you (and us...he..he...! (see aren't we nice to you ?)

So here is my entry fro the Little Extra challenge. In real life, all the colours are shades of green!

If you are reading this, c'mon over to DCM and try out the dares fro yourself! It's fun!

Sunshine

Have gone back to work after five days off with the flu and asthma, and today the sun decided to shine. I really wanted to be out basking in it, and I was chained to my desk! :-( I did manage to go outside for a couple of minutes to make a mobile phone call, which was better than nothing :-)

I won't have as much time to stamp and create again till the June holidays, but the ideas are coming a little faster lately so maybe I can squeeze a couple in.

It's late so I am off to dreamland for awhile.

Welcome Baby!

A forum friend has just become a grandmother for the first time! I just had to make a card, of course :-)

I used die cut imagesfrom Andrea (thank you, Andrea!) sheer ribbon with suede words, pink brads & ribbon with little loopy bits, silver eyelets, scallop scissors and I drew the hearts and silver & pink bits. (I used pink and silver gel pens of course!)

How's the weather where you are?

So much of Australia is in drought, yet where I am we are having unusual days of rain. I've put two pictures here to show you the difference between two days ago and today (today it was rainier).
Oh - before anyone gets mad at me because we're getting rain, they do ship lots of water to drier parts of the country from up here!

Pages for my Mother

I had some time to go through stacks of old photos and found some I really wanted to put together as special pages for my Mother. She is one amazing lady and her children and grandchildren all think she is wonderful. Here's how they turned out.

Reminiscing...

Over at DCM, the dare this week is all about reminiscing: "I would like you to make a card using some thing that you would normally find in an office environment. Such as... staples, paperclips, paper fasteners, file folders, library cards, hole punches, lined paper etc you get the drift."

I started with some mauve paper, then stamped it with the 'fax' and 'paid' stamps. I signed them with black pen, then 'distressed' the paper with Jumbo Java brown ink in the shape of that pad. I cut around the edges with 'Postal' deckle edged scissors and inked around the edges. I took an SU! metal edged tag and wrote 'Just a Note' on it, then clipped it to the paper with the pink fastener. I used a sponge dauber in pink ink for the bg of the base card and mounted the Note on top with a bit of room to spare to accommodate the clip.

'A Sketch In Time'

This week's Little Extra challenge from DCM gives you a sketch to play with. Remember you can bend it, twist it, shrink it or stretch it - you can even turn it upside down if you like. You don't even have to use flowers if you don't want to (shock, horror!)
Just have fun, and don't forget to let us know you've made a card and where we can see it.

I had lots of cards to make and this seemed to be an excellent layout to choose to work from, so here are my cards for this week. The star card is one I made AFTER I had a look at everyone's wonderful creations - makes the other two look a bit 'pedestrian' - lol!

Iris fold fan cards

I found out how to make iris fold fan cards today. They are easy to make and are so effective! See what you think:

80th Birthday cards

I had my first (?) order for cards - my DS and DM both asked me to make 80th birthday cards for DS's FIL! (Does family count when we're talking orders??) Well, I played around with some graphics and a photo of the honoured Octogenarian, and came up with two different cards. The card with the plaque on it is A4 size so all the guests at the party can sign it. Inside the blue one it says 'Have a whale of a time' and I put a little picture of a smiling whale there too.

Shane's WIsh

If you've read the story of Shane's wish (see the story on the right) you'll know he is trying to break the record for the most birthday cards ever received by anyone. His 8th birthday is on May 30th. He's a sick little boy and the cards are making him feel more hopeful, so here is one I will send to him this week:

Wings!

The DCM challenge for this week is........WINGS!

You can pick any subject, any colour but the card has to incorporate WINGS of some sort-so you can do - butterflies, angels, fairies, insects,birds........anything basically if it has wings!

I decided to try this challenge while making my dear Mother's birthday card - and yes, the 76 trombones have a special personal interest for us!

Thanks for the challenge this week, ladies. It's a lot of fun to join in. Anyone reading this who has not tried a DCM challenge, why not have a go?

This week's little extra...

Over at DCM, this is the mid-week challenge:

"What we'd like you to do this time is to confine your colour choices to the three primary colours; Red, Yellow & Blue. You can use just one, two or all three and we'll let you have a bit of white or black just to make it nice and easy".

I decided to do a woven card with only the colours 'allowed' and no black or white - I was able to use some of your pretty flowers, Pearl, and the inks I recently purchased form Susie! Now I just hope Laraine doesn't see it before her birthday this Sunday - shhh!

ARRRGGGHH! I've been TAGGED!!

I've been tagged by a lovely lady named Andrea ('Frog') (Andrea's Card Creations)!! This is my first tag so here goes. You have to write seven facts/habits about yourself then tag another seven people.

1. I have played the flute since I was 13 years old and am still playing each week at my church. I LOOOVE to play Godly music and worship Him.
2. I LOOVE my husband and my children - really and truly!
3. I have realised that you have to pass on your skills to others, lest they be lost. None of us lives forever, so I am teaching some sweet young things how to play the flute and fife.
4. I have realised that my priorities have changed since I got older. People and relationships matter more than anything else I 'do' in my life.
5. I started stamping and scrapping last year and LOOOVE stamping and scrapping! (Surprise, surprise!)
6. I need to lose weight but will settle for not gaining any.
7. I LOOOOVE chocolate!

OK - now it's my turn to tag. I choose.... Iralamija, Wendy, Dolly, Kel, Leo, Rhi, and Suzanne!

Have fun, everyone!

Home Sweet Home

So, on to this week's Little Extra (from DCM) and another in our series of Boy Scout cards - you know - as in the scouting slogan "Be Prepared"! This time it's cards with a New Home theme.

Easy, eh? And, how nice are we? Helping you to get organised and always have the right card ready when you need it instead of scrabbling around to make one in a hurry!

Well, it just so happened that I had a need for such a card this week. I made the following with a 'cupboard door' fold on the front. Behind the door there is an old family recipe for Russion Tea Cakes - something to bake in the new home!

I used an orange card stamped with teal ink only for the frames, punched light orange card for the bg 'house' shape & doorknobs, and doodled the rest with copper gel pen. The scan didn't really do it justice - it is nicer in real life.