Another thINKspot Challenge Card....

Hi All

Please excuse the terrible quality of photo but as it is now 10.30pm and I have no hope in heck in finding sun at that time of night, this will have to do. I just thought I would enter one more card for Marelle Taylor's catalogue challenge, and as this ends at the end of the month....well, you can see my dilemma.

I have used the sketch from page 29 of the catalogue, and have just turned it on its bottom. I had some coloured and crystal effect(ed) flowers left over from another challenge and decided to see if I could make it work. My greatest problem has been starting something and not finishing it so I have all these half finished projects. I think it turned out okay albeit a bit bright but that is the way I like 'em sometimes :) Thanks for looking.

Supplies: SU Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise; SU Ink: Summer Sun, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip Classic and Whisper White Craft; Stamp Sets: Technique Tuesday Loving Words stamp set; Scrappy Cat clear stamps Timbres Clair; white gel pen; dimensionals.

Some Blog Candy by Kellie

I came across a great blog the other day by Kellie who is also having some fantastic blog candy because she reached 20,000 hits! Now all you have to do is check it out and also check out her great creations. I have left a link to the left of my blog. Thanks for the opportunity Kellie and good luck with your future endeavours :)

A thINKspot Catalogue Challenge

I decided to go for Marelle Taylor's challenge as my mojo just hasn't been there. It took me only a couple of minutes to find a card (27A); half an hour when I changed my mind and then went back to the same card I chose before, and two minutes choosing colours by using a printed sheet of colour combinations using the old in colours from the last catalogue. I really like how it turned out. It isn't far off the original card but as it is my first challenge using the catalogue I thought I would keep it simple simon (kiss).

Anywho, I have seen in the past how some cards have punched out circles in matching cardstock stuck over the card; rather like dry embossing. I also didn't have any coordinating ribbon so used cardstock with a stamped message on it. Hope it reaches muster Marelle :)

Supplies: Cardstock - SU! purely pomegranate (textured); pumpkin pie; old olive. stamp set - SU! merci; Technique Tuesday Loving Words by Ali Edwards. Accessories - 1/2 inch circle punch, distresser, dimensionals.

A home made Mothers Day card for me? No Way!

How was Mothers Day for you? Mine wasn't going to be particularly easy as my DH works until midnight so needs his 'sleep in' which leaves me to get up to our wonderfully gorgeous 2yo and 16mo. As my son always loves to get up 'immediately' at 5.30am - 6am, it is left up to me to go downstairs with him before he wakes up the rest of the house. I make a huge cup of tea and potter around and clean up.

Anyway, the night before mothers day, DH rang me at 9pm..........

"Hello my gorgeous" (he always calls me that *blush* how can I resist?).........."You know all your cardmaking stuff? Could you please select me some cardstock and embellishments (embellishments?.......he does listen to my ramblings!), and other things and leave them out on the table? Oh and have we got any wrapping paper?"

Wrapping paper was upstairs in DD room - guess that was too late.....lol......... I swear DH gets later and later every year with this! Mind you I wasn't complaining as the usual fair is to get some form of printed up card from a hallmark card programme - shock horror I know!

Anywhoo, that morning, my darling 2yo decided that at 6.30am, his little sister also needed to wake up so went into her room, turned on her light on and sat in the cot with her. That would be nice and a complete 'awwwwww' moment except she wasn't at all ready to wake up and just sat there crying with her dummy in her mouth......great. This is got the makings of a great day.

Came downstairs with my deleriously tired DH who had crawled into bed at 2.30am that morning and had left all my craft stuff on the table - a playground for my darling DS!!!!

I received my card with much aplomb, which I have to say I was amazed and pleasantly surprised at what he come up with (details below), with my present (wrapped in butchers paper from our sons stash). I got a "okay, I am off to bed now - see you later'" and with a kiss he was gone!

The present was sweet - I found a pad of really good quality smooth watercolour paper (weight 300gsm) and told DH about it a while back and so he went back into the Art store and bought 3 different pads of various weights for me. Better than any flower!

And the card? Well, even though the verse was short, the simple process of him making that huge effort in using my (god forbid!) 'scrapbook stuff' to make me a card that he designed, meant more than all the pretty words in the world.......

Card process (as told by DH) "to start with, I had a look at what you laid out for me - I didn't want to use anything too expensive, so looked at stuff that you already had cut out - I decided on a pinky red and brown, so found colours I liked. I liked the printed up DSP and realised it was double sided so that was nice. I used a lot of already cut out shapes and used that as a border and as decoration inside the card. the rest is self explanatory"

Well, there you go. He made up for taking himself back to bed by making me scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast (10.30am) and making me fresh herb pasta to go with the rockin' yummy pasta sauce I made the other night :) Hope you all had a lovely Mothers day and thanks for taking the time out to read this loooong post!

Kristina Werner's CI #50

After looking at Kristina Werner's colour challenges week after week, I thought that I would be brave and try one. I am not one for challenges as I really dont think I am good enough (especially looking at all the wonderful entries this week HERE) but just loved the colour combination she chose.I first of all stamped a heap of flower images onto white cardstock, then coloured them in with markers and covered the images with crystal effects to give a nice glossy shine and make them pop. Sticking the flower tops (some on dimensionals, and some not) onto yellow cardstock, I then embroidered the stems (detatched blanket stitch) with brown thread; used dimensionals to pop main image onto the brown cardstock; used a white gel pen to faux stitch around the card and stamped the greeting with white pigment ink and then embossed. I thought the whole card looked unbalanced, especially as I rounded the corners on the centrepiece, so used a scallop punch to edge the base card and used a scallop edge for yellow, red and turquoise strips - I thought it looked cool ;)

Now completing the card turned out to be the easiest thing in the world - picture taking brings on a whole new meaning. I must have taken at least 50 photos (not including the ones my hubby tried to take for me with me throwing directions at him like 'you have to focus on the scallop edges and the embroidered stems' and 'no, dont take it from the front, it needs to be on the side' and 'oh no, I dont think you have the lighting right') So after my 'helpful' directions, he gave up and I had a go.............50 shots later I end up with these. It is finally raining in parched Adelaide so it is overcast and had to make do with the poor lighting. Oh, it also took two whole days of photos to get these!!!!

Supplies: Stamps - Scrappy Cat clear stamps Timbres Clair, Stampin Up! Yummy; Cardstock and Ink - Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Whisper White (craft), Summer Sun; Accessories - brown embroidery thread, scallop punch, crystal effects, dimensionals, white gel pen, hubby's brain.