Black and white rainbow card.

This is a card for another of Pernickety's blog challenges. This is one of Becky Fleck's card sketches, with the added twist of making the card 6" x 6", a black and white background and a "rainbow" theme.

I made this rainbow background ages ago and had a small piece left over so I used it as my "rainbow".......can't remember exactly how I made it, but it uses Kaleidacolor ink, I think I flicked water on it and added some Brilliance gold re-inker. The background is cuttlebugged black and white cardstock using the Swiss Dots embossing folder - the black piece is swiped with white Staz-on ink and the white piece is done with black Staz-on ink.

The phrase and the butterfly are both stamps by The Darkroom Door - I stamped the phrase onto a piece of acetate and layered it over the rainbow piece. I've also used an assortment of flowers and brads and metal embellishments.

It was Grand Final day here for our Australian Rules Football, as my team didn't make the finals I managed to fit in some card-making while I was sort of watching the game in the background. I was barracking for the underdog, The Hawks........and they did get up and win it! Hopefully next year my boys, The Tigers will be there!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend........we are having a lovely Spring day here today!

Pernickety challenge card.

I made this card yesterday for the Pernickety blog card challenge, but didn't have time to post it as I was having too much fun babysitting my grand daughter!

The requirements apart from the sketch used, were to use theme music - I have an abundance of this after finding a huge box of it at the local flea market, a hand torn flower, machine stitching and no bling.

I used the 'sending you a smile' greeting as I thought it tied in perfectly with the lyrics on the theme music - the top line reads 'Smiles are like a flower's bloom'

I crumpled the sheet music and added some Antique linen distress ink to the creases. For the flowers, I just traced some circles then hand tore around the lines, distressed the edges a bit more with my little distressing tool, then crumpled the flower in my hand. I just hand drew the leaf shapes and did the same to them. The swirly stamp I used for the flower stem is by Inque Boutique.

Thanks for looking!

Blog award.

I was honored to receive this 'I love your blog' award from not one, but two fellow bloggers. I'm feeling rather guilty as Sandie had given me this award several weeks ago, and now Shirley has given me another one!

The rules of the I Love Your Blog award are to link the award back to the Blogger from whom you received the award. Those bloggers are Sandie from Sandie's Place and Shirley from Card Art, Etc

Here are the other rules to the award:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received the award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a messsage on the blogs of the girls you nominated.

I've been really stumped trying to come up with 7 blogs who don't already have this award, so I'm nominating just one blog, and drumroll please...............that blog is Vicky's My Paper Palace blog! Vicky has only recently joined the world of blogdom, so do have a look at her blog and say hi!

Fuji Goddess card.

This is a card I made for Sandie's Challenge sketch #2 over at Sandie's Place blog. I used a Stampington Imperial Cargo stamp called Fuji Goddess - I stamped it on white cardstock and used a Technique Junkie technique called Watercolour Distress to colour the image. All the background papers are from the SEI Poppy paper stack, and I coloured a dragonfly embellishment with alcohol ink.

If you'd like to join in, Sandie is posting a weekly sketch challenge on her blog, so pop on over and say Hi!

Oriental Inchie cards.

My OSA friend Sandra G. very kindly sent me some of her laser-cut grids all the way from Houston, Texas in the USA. The grids are just perfect for making Inchie cards....it's really easy to line the Inchies up on top of the grid.



I've cut part of the grid from this one so that I could make it into a square card. The stamps used are from Art Neko - I embossed the images with black EP., then edged the inchies with a gold Krylon pen. The background paper is from the SEI "Poppy" 6 x 6" paper stack pad.

I left the grid in it's original size for this one, but there is an extra row which doesn't fit in with the inchies, so I covered that row with the wide ribbon. For the ichies I've used a piece of gold glossy cardstock and randomly glued bits of washi paper to it, then randomly stamped and embossed some oriental images. I then cut the piece into inchies and mixed them up before adhering to the grid. Underneath the wide ribbon I've added some narrow spotted ribbon, and under that row is a strip of gold German scrap.

Thanks again Sandra for sending me the grids..........I hope you like what I've done with them.


FYI: If you aren't sure what an "Inchie" is, it's a 1" x 1" piece of art. The size might be a bit daunting to start with, but they are quick and easy to make. As you can see by my 2nd card, you can use just part of a stamp to fit on the small canvas.

Baby card from Sandie......................and some photos!

My friend Sandie sent me this gorgeous baby card welcoming my new grand daughter to the world. I love how Sandie has layered the different elements on her card. Thanks so much Sandie!



I thought it was time to share some more photos of Annika too, she'll be 8 weeks old on Sunday and is just a delight! She's been smiling since she was 5 weeks old, but yesterday was the first time I've been able to capture some decent photos of her smiling. Sorry about the crappy lighting in the photos, but you can't have everything I guess.



Hope everyone has a great weekend...............I'll be babysitting tomorrow night! Can't wait for it :)

Asian Beauty.

This card is made using one of my favourite Asian stamps - Cinnabar by Stampington's Lynne Perrella (Imperial Cargo line). I've used the CPS sketch #81 for the card design. This was a pretty quick card to make as I already had the stamped image in my stash.

The background for the stamped image is one of my first attempts at the polished stone technique using alcohol inks (I think this was made using a Pinata ink). I don't think I quite nailed the technique with this one, but I decided to use it anyway as the colour matched well with the SEI Poppy papers that I used with it.

I've added some polka dot ribbon and some black eyelets - I must say that I'm using eyelets a lot more since I lashed out and bought a Crop-a-dile! This tool is fantastic, it's so much easier to set eyelets using it.

The fan embellishment is yet another flea market find..........it was originally one of a pair of earrings!

Thanks for visiting today and have a great weekend!

2 Sketches 4 You - Laura's Sketch #8

This is my entry for Laura's Sketch #8 over at the 2 Sketches 4 You blog this week. I've used my Twinkling H20's to make a shimmering watercoloured background on textured watercolour paper. The butterfly is stamped onto green vellum paper and cut out and adhered by the body only.

The stamps used are from the Inque Boutique - Boutique Grunge set, except for the greeting which is a Stampin' Up one. I've also added Kaiser rhinestones for some bling.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Darkroom Door ATC Swap

I recently participated in an ATC swap at Rachel Greig's Darkroom Door blog. The theme was to just use any Darkroom Door stamps. This is my ATC pictured on the left. I used stamps from the DD Essentials Wildflower set. My background is Basic Grey paper and I sprayed it with Tattered Angels Bronze Glimmer Mist - you might see the shimmer if you click on the pic for a larger view. I also added some Sandylion holographic stickers to give the composition some balance.

These are the ATCs that I received as returns. This was an international swap, so some of the swappers were from the USA, The Netherlands, Ireland. The ATCs from the top left are - Mine, next one, in lovely green is from Janet H, then blue and white butterflies from Damaris M. Next line is a very dimensional doorway from Rhonda C, then a winged lady from Lorri L then more butterflies from Sue B. The last line is the soft pretty umbrella lady from Julie P, then 'spread your wings' from Robyn W, and lastly the gorgeous burgundy coloured flowers from Terry A.

You can see all of the ATCs, as well as the card swaps HERE at the Darkrom Door blog..........and while you're there, don't forget to check out Rachel's newest release stamps........and she has a new ATC swap starting soon.

Did you notice?

I now have a signature for my posts!! I have to thank Lori for pointing me in the right direction to a website that makes it real easy to do. Have a look at this post of Lori's and it will show you where to go to do this.

Thanks Lori!



ps. One of these days I'll figure out how to do a blog header too...............and maybe I'll even find a photo of myself that isn't too ghastly to show the world!

Father's Day cards.

I'm a little late posting these as Father's Day was yesterday! The card above uses a Stamp-It shell collage stamp and Cuttlebugged die-cuts. I used textured paper as a background to give the illusion of sand.

I had a play with some new Core'dinations cardstock on this one..........the bottom edge is embossed with a Cuttlebug border strip which I sanded back to show the cardstock's core colour. The star stamp is by Inque Boutique...............the background for the star was created using a Technique Junkie tech. called Pearlized Gesso from the August 2008 newsletter. I used the same background for the 'happy' word.

Hope your Dad, husband, partner, Grandpa had a great day and got some pampering on Father's Day.

Thanks for dropping by :)

Napkin card.

I have a really nice napkin "collection", so I thought it was about time I actually used one on a card :)

I didn't really need to do much to this as the napkin was a nice collage of images. I've just added some words, a few brads and a flower thingy that I made out of a bead part (dunno what it's called sorry!) with a metallic brad for the centre. In hindsight I'm not sure I should've added the flower at all.......or maybe I could've placed it better?

I'm giving this card to my daughter Hayley as a sort of Bon Voyage card as she is heading off to England and Europe for a holiday at the weekend. She's going by herself on a Contiki trip for under 35s and will be gone for at least 6 weeks......................I hope she enjoys herself, but I'll really miss her too :(

Thanks for dropping by my blog.

xxxLyn

Edit: If you would like to know how to attach a napkin to a card, my friend Carole has written an article on how to make easy Napkin cards - here is the link NAPKIN CARDS

Surprises in my mail!

Don't you just love mail that doesn't come in windowed business envelopes? I received not one, but two beautiful RAKs yesterday! I also received a prize from OSA for my Thursday Tip from 2 weeks ago. I didn't photograph that, but I received a couple of U/M stamps, some PSX stickers and an assortment of beautiful handmade papers.




The first card is from Sandra G who is an OSA member from Texas in the USA. Sandra very kindly offered to send me some of her laser cut grids, but she also made this beautiful card for me!

Thanks so much Sandra, your generosity never ceases to amaze me!









The second card is from Wirg, who is a member of a few Aussies forums that I frequent. Wirg knows how much I love Oriental cards so she sent me this beauty!

Thank you so much Wirg for thinking of me!