Elegant Dad.

Hi everyone, I've been busily making Father's Day cards this week. For this one I used Annabelle Stamps Bling Sketch Challenge, I flipped the sketch for my card.

The design is quite simple, but I've given it a bit of oomph by using some gorgeous flocked paper by Christina Re and some fancy Nestabilities dies. I used a Stamp-It greeting, the damask stamp is from Stampin' Up's 'Friends 24/7' set. I added some of Annabelle Stamps 'Sprinkles', some black brads and olive satin ribbon. Cardstock is Stampin' Up Old Olive and Pedigree Paper black.

Dad card.

Father's Day is creeping up fast here in Australia, it's only a couple of weeks away now, so time to make a few cards for the occasion. I used Papertake Weekly's Sketch #46 for my card.

I used a stamp from the Stampin' Up set 'Seaside Sketches' and water-coloured it using Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I kept going with the distressed look and used some grungy looking Basic Grey DP, distressed on the edges. The striped DP is by Kaisercraft, added some chocolate brads and some alpha stickers.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

Blog Candy at Andrea's Stampin' Moments.

Check out the fabulous blog candy that Andrea is offering for her 3rd Blogoversary! Andrea also is the owner of the wonderful Annabelle Stamps online store and these goodies come from her own embellishments and stamp lines. Find out how to enter HERE! Good luck!

Wishful Thinking!

Hi everyone! As I sit here typing my post the weather outside is cold, windy and raining......a downright miserable day! My wishful thinking is that I can't wait for some warmer weather, like in the subject of my card today!


My card is for this month's Inkurable Stampers challenge - the theme is RESIST TECHNIQUES. I've used a resist technique on the greeting, waves, surfboard and the beach chair in my card. I stamped the images with Versamark ink, embossed them with white embossing powder, then sponged Distress Inks over the images and wiped the excess ink from the embossed areas.

For the sky area I smooshed some Distress Ink over my craft mat, spritzed it with water then used a damp sea sponge to apply the ink to my white cardstock. The sand is made by tearing some strips of watercolour paper, applying some Windsor and Newton Sand Texture Gel, then painting over this when dry with some acrylic paints. Once that had dried I spritzed some Bronze Glimmer Mist over the pieces and assembled them using some dimensional dots in places so I could tuck the other elements into my 'sand'. The palm tree is stamped with Memento black ink, coloured with Copic Markers and cut out and raised on dimensional dots.

My stamps used are :-
Inque Boutique 'Cabana' - Waves and surfboard.
Viva Las Vegas - Beach chair.
Stampendous - Palm tree.
Paper Xtra (Sullivans) - Greetings.
Other supplies:- Blue Bazzil cardstock, Kaisercraft DP, black marker, Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

This is the inside of the card, I used some Kaisercraft DP. The card is for my nephew's birthday so I made a little pocket with the striped paper so I can tuck a little cash inside.

If you'd like to enter this challenge you have until the end of the month to send in your entry.......for once I got mine done in plenty of time! Sarah has great prizes on offer each month for Aussie and international winners, and there is also a Newbie prize for the best Aussie first time entry.

Hope you are having a great day, and that your weather is better than here today!

More Christmas in July cards.

OK, I know it's now August but here are a couple more cards I've done for Sandie's Christmas in July challenges. Sandie has extended the finish time to August 23rd, although I don't think I'll get them all done at least I'm getting a few more cards in my Christmas stash!


This first card is for Day 5, a sketch challenge. The tree is actually a rub-on with a sticky surface, the pack came with some foil papers to rub over the sticky surface but I thought I'd try some glitter on this one. The glitter seems to have stuck OK. The red PP is by AED and the green holly PP is some really old Stampendous, thought I'd better use it up. The greeting is from a Stampin' Up set.

The 2nd card is for Day 6 challenge - "tearing or torn". I used a Crafty Individuals vintage Santa image.......do you recognize this Sandie, LOL! I used a Technique Junkies technique from the Dec 2008/Jan 2009 Newsletter called Torn Frames for the frame around the image. The PP is by Kaisercraft and the greeting is from Darkroom Doors Yuletide Vol 2 set. I wasn't going to add any other embellishment, but I found this green braid that was a perfect colour match to the Stampin' Up Mellow Moss cardstock that I used for the Torn Frames technique! The frayed edges of the braid also complemented the torn frame quite well. The card base is Stampin' Up Kraft

Love Bears.

I've been waiting a while for a stamp order to arrive, finally it's here so I've had a play with one of the new stamps! The stamp is from the 'Forever Friends' range from DoCrafts in the UK, I've been coveting these for a while and at last they're available here in Australia!

I've used this week's Bling Challenge from Annabelle Stamps Blog, a nice and easy sketch this week. It's also prize week at Annabelle Stamps, you have until Friday next week to get your entry in.

I coloured my cute bears with Copic Markers, hopefully I'm getting a little better at shading the colours. The Designer Papers are from a Heidi Grace pack, I've added some hot pink jumbo ric-rac, a button and the bling is some Rose Sprinkles from Annabelle Stamps.

Just on a personal note, I've been having some side-effects from my chemo tablets ie. dry skin on my hands and feet, which turned into really red, sore feet...felt like I had blisters! The problem is easy fixed with lots of moisturizer, but I ended up straining a tendon in my right foot while applying it.....ouch! It swelled up and I've been hobbling around for the past week. I can't do much about it except rest it, so I'm a bit annoyed that I can't go for my daily walk or practice my Tai Chi at the moment. Our poor doggie, Daisy also had to go the vet's for surgery to remove 2 large mammary tumours. We were a bit worried as she is getting on in years and thought she might not survive the anaesthetic, but she has coped remarkably well and seems to be well on the mend!

OK, that's it from me, hope you like my card today and thanks for stopping by.

Lavender and Lime card

Hi everyone, I'm running late again with my entry for this month's Inkurable Stampers challenge - this month's theme is Lavender and Lime.

I started my card with a piece of glossy magazine page, painted on some white gesso and sponged with Versacolor Heliotrope and Lime once it had dried. I then stamped my Darkroom Door images using Versafine Black ink onto the piece - the images are all from the Wildflower Vol 1 stamp set. I added a few Kaisercraft rhinestones to the middle image and the butterfly. I adhered my stamped piece onto some Stampin' Up Eggplant cardstock wrapped some lavender ribbon around the bottom half, then adhered the piece to some Bazzil Limeade cardstock. My card base is white cardstock layered with SU eggplant cardstock and a piece of Kaisercraft Lilac Ave designer paper. I layered my stamped piece onto my card using dimensional squares. The word is stamped onto a scrap of the designer paper and layered onto SU eggplant cardstock, then adhered to the card.

Hope you enjoy my card today, thanks for stopping by!

More Christmas in July cards.

Here's my next installment of Christmas in July cards! Both cards qualify for Drunken Stampers Christmas card challenge and this first one is for Sandie's Day 4 Christmas in July challenge - inking. My stamps are all from Darkroom Door's Yuletide Collection Vol.2. I used Versafine Vintage Sepia ink for the Santa image and greeting, then sponged on some Fired Brick Distress ink. I coloured the holly leaves with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and the berries with Fired Brick Distress ink, then covered them with red glitter glue. The background branches are inked with Impress Olive Green ink and randomly stamped, the edges of the background piece are also sponged with this ink.

The second card is for Day 3 of Sandie's challenges - Reindeer. I used stamps from Hero Arts Jolly Christmas clear stamp set, I added a red Kaisercraft rhinestone for his nose and some fun googly eyes. Also used some Christmassy ribbon, Stampin' Up Kraft cardstock and DP by Kaisercraft (blue/snow dots) and Basic Grey (red). I'm not entirely happy with this card, I may go back and add an embellishment to it as it looks like it needs something else.....maybe a snowflake die-cut on the ribbon?

Thanks for stopping by today, I'd love to read your comments on these cards!

Christmas in July.

Hi everyone, there are a heap of challenges at the moment for Christmas in July cards. Since I'm always leaving mine until the last minute, I decided that this year I would get a head start on my cards. Sandie is having a month long challenge with a new theme each day, you can join in at any time though.

My first card is for Sandie's Day 1 challenge to use your Cuttlebug on your card, I've also entered it for Annabelle Stamps embossing challenge and Drunken Stampers Christmas card challenge. The stamp is by Stamp-It and I used the Victorian Cuttlebug embossing folder.


My 2nd card is for Sandie's Day 2 challenge, to use holly somewhere on your card....and it's another one for Drunken Stampers Christmas cards. My stamp is from the Darkroom Door Yuletide Vol 2 stamp set and the Design Paper is by Basic Grey. I sponged Shabby Shutters Distress ink over my image and coloured the leaves and berries with Distress inks too, then covered the berries with red glitter glue. The cardstock is some retired In-Colours from Stampin' Up.

Have a great day, and I'll be back tomorrow with some more Christmas cards to show you.

Birdie Birthday!

Hi everyone, here is my card for Annabelle Stamps Bling Sketch Challenge. The stamps, cardstock and ribbon are all by Stampin' Up.....I love the polka dot ribbon! Patterned Paper is by Basic Grey, rhinestones by Kaisercraft. I used Stampin' Up Baja Breeze ink for the little flowers and Versafine Vintage Sepia ink for the image and greeting.

I hope you like my card today, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although I did get the sketch wrong......used 5 strips instead of 4. Doh!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!