Beautiful RAK from Marie D.

When I finally got home exhausted from Paperific yesterday, this was the lovely surprise in my mail box! It was from fellow OSA member Marie Doody, who is also a fellow Aussie from across the Nullabor in Western Australia. Marie's card is just so beautiful, I had to share it here on my blog. Marie has stamped and embossed the image onto vellum and paper pieced the dress using washi paper, then coloured the fan. I love the stamp she has used, it's so elegant, and I just love the red, black and gold colours together.

I've just noticed that my camera angle has cut off part of the right side of the card too.........there is a strip of black and layered with a strip of the same washi paper used on the dress. I'm not sure if I can explain this, but the strip I just mentioned is on the inside of the card - approx 3/4 of an inch has been cut from the card front so you can see the strip on the inside (except you cant see it, because of my camera angle!)

There is so much work in this card, Marie has even hand cut the red and black frames around the image!

Thanks so much for thinking of me Marie, I just love your card!

Melbourne Paperific - Autumn 2008

Yesterday I took a trip out to Caulfield Racecourse, in Melbourne to visit the now bi-annual Paperific Expo. This was the first time they had used this venue, and I must congratulate the organisers, as this has been the best venue used so far! There was plenty of room there for everyone, lots of tables and seating if you needed a bit of a rest or refreshments, and it's such a light filled place too.

I met up with my friend Sandie around lunchtime, we had a quick bite to eat, then we hit the stalls again! We decided to do a couple of make and takes at 2 of the stalls. The first one was at Karen's Scrappin' Cupboard - we made a flower tag thing using Tim Holtz's new crackle paints. The 2nd one was at Handprint Art Stamps - we used some Mineral Magic Meltz, I think that's what they were anyway. It was a UTEE type embossing powder like Opals. We had a chipboard jigsaw piece which was covered in black embossing powder, then you could add interference colours, and finished off with stamping over the top. I've added pics of both make and takes........and pics of the goodies I bought LOL.

Can you tell I like ribbon and flowers? The bargain of the day would be the bunch of ribbon scraps for $5 a bag.........there were heaps in it, and some quite long pieces too. I wasn't really going to buy stamps, as I still have a lot of stamps that I haven't used.................but what can I say, I bought 3 sheets of stamps!

Garden card.

Ok, I'm back as promised with a photo of the card I made yesterday. For the background of the lake scene stamp I used the Water Color Distress Technique from the Technique Junkies Feb '07 Newletter. I also added my own twist on this technique by spraying the finished stamped piece with Vintage Pink Glimmer Mist (You probably can't see the nice shine this gave the card though). The lake scene and the 'garden' word are both Art Neko stamps, the leafy branch is by Heidi Grace.

I've echoed the colours I used in the stamped piece for the card colours, some black layers for definitions, and added some pink brads to balance out the design.

I also finished off some cards for an OSA Asian Scenery Swap, but you'll have to wait until they're swapped out before I can show that one. I was thinking of doing the above card for that swap, but wasn't sure how well I could replicate the background for the number of cards needed, so I decided not to use it. Instead, I've sent it off as an RAK for a fellow OSA member......hope she likes it. Thanks for looking.

Goodies from Sandie!

My friend Sandie sent me a little goodie package and lovely card for joining in her blog anniversary challenge. Here's a photo of what she sent me. Notice the flower petals on her card.......they're all individually stamped and cut out and assembled into petals. Great idea Sandie, and thank you so much for the goodies! Check out Sandies blog for some lovely creations too!

Apologies that I haven't posted anything for over a week, but I have a card to upload later.........just need to take a photo, and run a few errands first. I'll be back.............said in my best Arnie voice!

Ten Two Studios March 2008 Countdown.

I'm a little late posting this link as I had forgotten about it! Lisa Vollrath has posted some great images to download for free as long as you provide a link to her site from your blog or forum. The images are for St Patrick's Day through to Easter. You'll find vintage images, printable templates, postoids and a host of other goodies here.

Here is the link for the Countdown. Have fun!

Aussie Stampers Challenge 2

Aussie Stampers Challenge 2 was for a project with a European flavour. I don't have many stamps with a European flavour, just really the Eiffel Tower..............or the Eiffel Tower, plus a few French words LOL!

I decided to try a new technique that I hadn't used before - the Burnt Edges tech. from the Technique Junkies Feb 07 newsletter. OK, so it doesn't look much like Springtime in Paris, more like burnt to a crisp...........but I really do like this technique! I will definitely try this technique again with some vintage stamps.

The main stamp I used is from Stamp-It, an Aussie company, and the 'bonjour' greeting is from Stampin Up's 'Carte Postale' set. I've added a vintage Prima flower and brads.

Aussie Stampers Challenge 3.

Aussie Stampers Challenge 3 was for an Easter card. I started off with the ribbon and built the card around it. I chose matching cardstock colours to match the ribbon, the purple card is Bazzil, not sure who makes the turquoise one - just a cheap pack from KMart. I used the flower and stem from the Stampin Up 'Scribble This' set, and added purple Kaiser gems to the petals. The 'happy' word is by Heidi Grace and 'Easter' is made from an Alpha set (Grant Archival, I think).

I made the eggs by using a balloon punch and cutting off the end bit, I inked up some Hero Arts 'Stripes and Dots' background stamps and just pressed the egg shapes onto the stamps. I added a little bunny eyelet as well.

Aussie Stampers.

I've been over to Aussie Stampers this weekend for their 2nd Cyberstamp weekend! This is a fairly new Aussie stamping forum, so if you're interested head on over there, there's still time to do a challenge or two - they don't need to be uploaded until Monday night.

Here are some cards I did for Challenge one using embossing - heat or dry embossing. The trusty Cuttlebug embossing folders came in very useful for this one! I did use heat embossing on the 'Celebrate' card, as well as the Cuttlebug dry embossing.

I'll upload the cards I did for Challenge 2 and 3 tomorrow...........it's waaayy past my bedtime now!

Pretty in Pink!

Hmm, I wasn't sure whether to post this card or not........it's definitely not my taste of pink shades! Well here goes, but you better put your sunglasses on first.........it is very BRIGHT!!!

I figured that most girls like pink, fairies and bling though, so that's why I made this card.........I also wanted an excuse to use my new Cuttlebug folder with the polka dots, and figured it would be good for a 'girly' card. The image is called Tinkerabella and is by Stamping Bella, so is the greeting. I've coloured Tinkerabella with markers and added KindyGlitz as highlights.

Thanks for looking, hope you didn't get blinded by the neon pink!

Update on Peacock card.

Well, I found out who made the card that inspired me to make mine........it was Judy Parlin! Judy had posted her card to the Technique Junkie's Artwork site, that's where I saw it. Thanks Judy for the inspiration, you can see Judy's card on her new blog here , scroll down to the 3rd card.

Also, I've had several emails asking me what company's stamp I used, it's a Magenta stamp. Sorry, I should've put that in the original post.

Elegant Peacock.

Have you ever made a card and thought "Wow, I love this card!". Well, I haven't thought that a lot about my own work...........and I don't want to blow my own trumpet, but I do think this one turned out great.

I'd like to say it was all my own design, but I did see a card posted recently that featured a peacock with the same Cuttlebug textile embossing folder background. I think the card was on the TJ artwork group, so if anyone knows whose card it was please let me know so I can give them credit.

I've used a TJ technique from the Feb newsletter called Pencilled Twinks, and I do like this technique very much. The background is my take on the TJ Aged Metallic technique. You probably cant see the shimmer too much from the photo, but IRL it just sparkles!

Hope you like this card as much as I do.

Transportation Card Challenge.

This weeks card challenge at Caardvarks was to make a card with a transportation theme. I've used a Stamping Bella image and coloured it with markers. Other stamps used are by Heidi Grace and Kelly Panacci.

Sheetload of Cards celebration!

Have you checked out the great card templates from Sheetload of Cards? Well here's another reason to visit their great blog, for the month of March they are having a month long celebration in honour of their 15,000th hit with lots of blog candy giveaways..............so what are you waiting for, go check it out!

Micro Challenge Card.

I made this card for the Micro Challenge over at Caardvarks. You weren't allowed to use any patterned paper for this one, which I found pretty easy as I don't use it a lot anyway.

The background for the stamped piece is a TJ technique from the Dec. 07 newsletter - Technicolor Dye Inks. The background under this layer is just a Twinkling H2O watercolour background done on canvas paper, which has a great texture to it. I've added brads, a butterfly gem and sewed lace down the left side of the background panel, then adhered it all to a black card.

Birdie Card

Here's another quick card made using the Heidi Grace papers and stamps. I used a purple Bazzil card for the background, then layered onto a light grey card. I haven't put a greeting on this, I'm not sure what to use it as yet. The birdies look like a mother and baby, so I guess I could use it for a baby card or a mother's day card. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to make a comment. I used a sketch template for this design, I think it was from Beate's blog - correct me if I'm wrong though.

A nice surprise!

It was my birthday last Thursday and my friend Sandie sent me not one, but two blog awards! How special is that?