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.

The belated thank you's..........

Hi,

The following 2 cards are the ones I made whilst my boys were away. I decided to get out both of my 'robot' sets from Darkroom Door by Rachel Greig. I have only used them a couple of times but they are so cute! As the images are so fine, I had trouble with stamping them onto watercolour paper because of the grain, but I guess that just makes them look rustic ;) Anyways, the first card has both robots stamped straight onto Kraft cardstock with Chocolate Chip ink. The front of the card has the girl robot who has a paper piecsed skirt on, and the inside of the card I have gently used a blender pen to colour in his hair - seem to always ball up the paper when I use a blender pen :(

Anyway, this card goes to Kari who is such a lovely demonstrator - have only met her once, but she has bent over backwards for me. (please excuse the writing on the left card - didn't photograph it till after I wrote in it. I always forget to take photos of my cards!)

The next card was a tag I cut from my slice then I used stars also cut from my slice machine, stuck onto the kraft cardstock and sponged with chocolate chip, red, and tempting turquoise. I then used the stars, arrow and lightning bolt from the same stamp set and stamped them in chocolate chip. Made my own decorative cardstock! Cheap too! lol I stamped the girl robot onto watercolour paper (this is where the image doesn't come out too sweet) and then using an aquapen, coloured her in using various inks. I then added two brads for her 'bras', stamped 'you're awsome' in three ink colours, embossed with clear embossing powder, and then cut them out and stuck them on! Tada.......easy peasy. This thank you card goes to Alisa who has been an absolute gem. Thanks Alisa!

Mothers day and some very belated thank you's!

Hi All,

Just wanted to share some cards with you that I made in a fit of spurts the other day. My darling sweet partner decided to take himself and our very boisterous, hard to handle at present, son off to stay at MIL's the other day for two whole days! No boys in the house! Yayyyyy.

So what's a girl to do with so much time on her hands and with only one child to handle (and a very easy one at that!)? Make cards thats what!

Using Whisper White as the base cardstock (something I rarely do), I randomly stamped the flowers using staz-on as I was planning on watercolouring the image - which I must say went better than I had hoped. Not had much success in the past using water on cardstock but wanted to try a technique I saw on Melanie's site which meant having to use cardstock. I just added a strip of coloured cardstock for contrast as was too lazy to try the second part of her technique (check it out!)

Anyway, ran out of steam. Will post the other cards later - just making sure the receivers have received them first!

Supplies: In Full Bloom (SU!), Whisper White and Cameo Coral cardstock, Purely Pomegranate double stitched ribbon, rubons, markers, aqua paintbrush.

Another Male Card.........

Hi All,

Another male card? Yes I did it! They are the hardest cards for me to make - especially as I really have no specific generic male stamps.

The sketch I found on Amy's site. I did have some difficulty in getting the colours right but I think I managed okay - okay well, I used the colour wheel *wink*. The tag used was cut out with my slice machine I distressed the edges and sponged it with some ink. I went through my old stamp stash (ie. non SU stuff that I have in a tin) and found a multiple greetings stamp - bit like those date stamps that have the roller on the side. Used that to stamp the various greetings on the tag. The chipboard letters were coloured in using a marker and then slathered with crystal effects (gotta love that stuff!). I used every day twine for the card and just wrapped and weaved it amongst the strips of cardstock. The rest is self explanatory! Now I just have to post it.....

Recipe: Sanded Background stamp set SU, Really Rust, Bordering Blue, Mellow Moss, Kraft, Whisper White cardstock SU, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red ink SU, Versamark ink, Heidi Swapp chipboard alphabet letters, crystal effects SU, twine, dimensionals.