Candy Winner!

I used the very technical "ask my daughter to pick a number" method and she chose number 2 - so that means Natasha is the winner of the blog candy! Natasha, leave me a comment or call me so I can arrange to meet you and give you your prize.

I'm back!

I have batteries!

I held a Watercolour Techniques Class on Saturday afternoon. These are the 3 cards we made:

From top left:
1. This card was made using the Misting Markers technique. Stamp Sets are Season of Joy and A Little Birthday Cheer. Colours are Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Cameo Coral.
2. We used Watercolour Wonder Crayons and Blender Pens for this card. The images come from the True Friend stamp set. Colours are Elegant Eggplant, Lavendar Lace, Pretty in Pink, Pixie Pink and Old Olive.
3. Lastly, we used Markers and Aquapainter for this beautiful rose from Bloomin' with Beauty. Colours are Always Artichoke and Rose Red with Certainly Celery wide grosgrain ribbon.

The ladies and I had a great time! Maybe you'll like to join us next time for a Christmas Stamp-a-Stack (stay tuned for details).

BLOG CANDY

I know I promised you some blog candy when I reached 2000 hits. Well, we passed that over the weekend. So, leave a comment on this post before midnight Friday 29th August (Darwin time) and you'll be in the draw to win the above 3 cards! In your comment, tell me your favourite watercolouring technique.

I can't wait to read all your comments.

New Batteries - well almost!

I had new batteries for my camera - until my daughter needed batteries for a fibre optic she was given for her birthday! Guess I'll be shopping again tomorrow.

I have a Watercolour Techniques class on Sunday afternoon. I am teaching 3 different techniques for achieving a watercolour look - Brushless, Watercolour Wonder Crayons and Marvellous Markers. I hope the ladies who are attending have a great time and enjoy making the 3 cards. I'll post the 3 cards on Sunday night.

No Batteries!

I'm so sorry for my long absence. The batteries in my camera died and I haven't been able to get to a shop to buy some more. I shall be doing that tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to post all the cards I've made then. I have new rubber to play with tonight as I received my order from the first level of the Stampin' Start program on Monday - 3 new stamp sets! I can't wait to play but my daughter is bugging me to get her some ice cream so I guess duty calls.

See you tomorrow! Come back because I'm going to be announcing some blog candy for when I reach 2000 hits!

Altered Journal

Over the last 2 nights I made my first altered anything - an inspiration journal. I will use it to makes notes on colour combinations, layout ideas, techniques I want to try, anything that might inspire me.

I covered the journal with Rose Red DSP. The Colour Coach was my inspiration for the colour combination - Rose Red, Cameo Coral, Barely Banana and Certainly Celery. It's such a beautiful combination!

The Cameo Coral triangle is a scrap from another project. I layered it underneath a large sqaure of Barely Banana with Certainly Celery textured cardstock layered on top. I stamped the large butterfly from Garden Whimsy randomly over the Certainly Celery square with Rose Red ink.

Both butterfiles were stamped twice on Whisper White cardstock using the Rock n Roll technique with Cameo Coral and Rose Red. I cut out the wings from one of each and glued Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the spots on the wings. The wings were then layered on the whole butterfiles but only adhered along the bodies - to give them some dimension.

The tulips flowers were inked the same way as the butterflies with the stems and leaves inked using the Certainly Celery marker. The tulip flowers were stamped separately also, cut out, glittered and glued to the whole tulips just at the base of the flower.

The letters were stamped in Rose Red ink on Certainly Celery DSP using the Jumbo Outline set. They were cut out, adhered and then covered with Crystal Effects to give them the look of shiny chipboard.

I'm really pleased with the journal. I think my last step will be to make some dividers with tabs to separate the pages into the different categories of inspiration.

I hope you like my first journal. Please leave a comment before you leave so I know who has visited. My counter is clicking over but I haven't had a comment for ages. I love to see who has come to visit.

Mel's Colour Challenge

I made this card for a colour challenge set by my sister demo, Mel. The colours were Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink and Apricot Appeal. I have to admit, I was stumped for a while with this one - 2 Earth Elements and 2 Soft Subtles! So not Mel.

I decided to ink up a set from the Spring Mini, Always, for the first time. I black embossed the flower-filled heart on Whisper White cardstock and watercoloured it with Watercolour Wonder crayons - Pretty in Pink and Apricot Appeal of course. Then I hit a wall. How could I use the green and the chocolate?

I played around with matting the heart on different combinations of the colours but that just wasn't "doing it" for me. I decided that the card base had to be Garden Green and then had a brainwave - what about a circle aperture in the mat! After that it fell together fairly easily.

I stamped the berry branch from the Always set over the Chocolate Chip mat after I had used my CM circle templates to cut the aperture. Then I cut a circle frame from Pretty in Pink textured cardstock (I just love the textured cardstock, I so have to get more!). The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip on Apricot Appeal. The ribbon is Pretty in Pink taffeta. All the edges of the Chocolate Chip and Apricot Appeal cardstock have been distressed with the Cutting Kit.

There you have it! I'm quite pleased with the end result although I spent this much time on a card for ages. Why don't you give this colour combo a go yourself?

Marcia's Challenge

Marcia from The Stamp Spot set a colour challenge this week - Ballet Blue, Groovy Guava, Mellow Moss and Barely Banana. I knew exactly which stamp set I wanted to use straight away - Bloomin' with Beauty - but the layout took me longer to come up with.

I stamped the single flower image on watercolour paper and coloured using my Aquapainter and ink pads. I then mounted the image on a stip of Mellow Moss. The ribbon is Ballet Blue grosgrain. The sentiment is stamped on Groovy Guava matted with Barely Banana. Most of the layers have had their edges distressed.

When I put it all together it seemed unbalanced as everything was on the righthand side. I decided to add the little bee from the set to help balance everything.

Catch ya later!

PJ Inspiration and Challenge!

I bought a new pair of PJ's this week. Isn't the fabric wild?! I got inspired by it - I knew it would make a great card. I want to challenge you to be inspired by this fabric too.


The colours I have taken from this piece are:

• Whisper White
• Soft Sky
• Regal Rose
• Purely Pomegranate

I challenge you to see what you can come up with using these colours. Be inspired by my PJ's!

If you takeup my challenge before 5pm Sunday 17th August, please leave a comment and a link to your blog or email me a photo/scan of your card. I will have some card candy up for grabs.

Here's my card.

More Babies!

More baby cards today! The girl baby card was done first this time. The card base is Blush Blossom. I then layered the Almost Amethyst DSP. The image is from Nursery Necessities, stamped in Almost Amethyst and Apricot Appeal and layered with Apricot cardstock. The ribbon is Certainly Celery wide grosgrain. The flowers are from the Pretties kit and have been dyed using Almost Amethyst and Apricot Appeal markers. They are attached with a Rhinstone brad. The sentiment was punched using the Word Window and layered with Regal Rose. Very girly!

The boy card is much simpler with a base of Gable Green. The image is stamped in Not Quite Navy and Barely Banana. The ribbon is Bashful Blue striped grosgrain. The sentiment was punched with oval punch and layered with Perfect Plum.

I'm not sure who these will go to yet. Have to see who has their babies first!

Babies!

There have been a few babies born around here lately, and more are not far away.

I though that it was about time I made some baby, both to give away and for my stash.

I have had the stamp set Nursery Necesities for a while now but it hadn't seen rubber yet. I thought I'd better christen it before it started feeling like I didn't love it!

I began with the boy card on the left. The moon has been inked with Barely Banana and the long edge was rolled with Summer Sun to add some depth. The DSP is from Spring Showers. I stamped the star background from Itty Bitty Backgrounds in Versamark then added Dazzling Diamonds for glimmer. Both "welcome little one" and "it's a boy!" are from Nursery Necessities too. The cardstock colours are Bashful Blue, Bagle Green and Barely Banana. Welcome little one is gold embossed.

I was really pleased with this one so I made a pink one using the same basic layout. Colours are Pretty in Pink, Balush Blossom (instead of DSP), So Saffron (for the moon), Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon and Perfect Plum to mat the sentiment. The other main difference is that the moon was not rolled in another colour as it made it too dark, and I covered the moon with Crystal Effects to give it more dimension.

I'm really pleased with these cards as it is not often that I design my own from scratch (I usually use someone's design and make my unique versions).

A Promotion Gift

When I promoted to Senior Associate a couple of weeks ago, my lovely upline, Nerine, came to my house to give me a card and a gift. Isn't she great?!

The gift was a stationery box with 12 sheets of notepaper and 6 matching envelopes. She had decorated the set using the Carte Postale stamp set. Isn't it beautiful?

The card is one she posted on her blog a little while ago. The sentiment says - Rubber Stamper 365 days. How appropriate!

Father's Day card

Charis made this card for Alan for Fathers' Day. We shall mail this to him tomorrow with a small gift. I'll have to attach a label though - Don't open 'til Fathers' Day.

Alisa's Colour Challenge (ACC#5)

This is the first time I have completed one of Alisa Tilsner's Colour Challenges. You can see her inspiration piece here. I had been planning to make some masculine cards today so this colour combo fit the bill - Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Summer Sun and either Whisper White or Very Vanilla. I went with the vanilla.

I managed to knock out 3 cards with this colour combo - one for my father's birthday at the end of this week, a Father's Day card and a birthday card.

This one will be in the mail tomorrow for my Dad's birthday. I used Very Vanilla textured cardstock for the background strip and roughed up the edges to give it even more texture.

The letters are from On Board Lots of Letters. Of course, there is only one of each letter but you can double up letters by using the negative as well as the positive. I covered the letters with Summer Sun cardstock.

The stripes behind the letters are Ruby Red. I was going to complete this card having used NO stamps but the ruby stripes needed something so I used Itty Bitty Backgrounds stipple stamp. I'm very pleased with the result. I hope my Dad likes it.

This card uses the argyle stamp from Classic backgrounds. I inked using markers (Summer Sun and Ruby Red) and then stamped it repeatedly over Very Vanilla to get a full argyle background. I filled in the dots through the Summer Sun diamonds with the fine tip of the Ruby Red marker.

I stamped the greeting from Occasional Greetings on Very Vanilla using Versamark and Ruby Red and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. I sponged the edges of this piece with Summer Sun and mounted it on Ruby Red. This was then mounted on the argyle background.

I used the Designer Label punch with Ruby Red cardstock, the 1 1/4" circle and 1" circle punches with Summer Sun. The larger circle was mounted behind the label and the smaller one on top with "for you" from Occasional Greetings in Ruby Red.

I'm very happy with the way this one looks too.

This 3rd one uses the argule background left over from the previous card, and a scrap of scalloped Chocolate Chip textured cardstock - I do love using up my scraps.

The image and sentiment are from Celebrate Everyday from the Spring Mini that was released last Friday. I coloured the image using a blender pen and ink pads (Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red and Summer Sun). This was punched using the Tag Punch. I then mounted it on Summer Sun and used my trimmer to cut the tag shape. The edges of theSummer Sun piece were then sponged with Ruby Red so it stood our from the argyle background.

I really like this card too. It must be the colour combination - thanks Alisa!

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