And...a birthday card for my goddaughter, too!

Hi there everyone,

Yep - you read right - last week I finally posted up the card I had made for my godson's birthday (and I have just found out I placed in the Top 3 at My Mum's Craft Shop Challenge with his card, so I am totally stoked) and today I am posting up the one I have made for his sister.  Her birthday isn't until next week, but the party was today (held at the Canberra Observatory, no less - they sure didn't do that when I was a kid!  I would have loved looking through that big ole telescope at the stars and planets, let me tell you!)

Anyways, this one is fairly simple - inspired by the bag I put her birthday presents in (and which I didn't take a photo of, so you can't even see why I was inspired - but it's been that kind of week - one step behind, the entire time).

So, the cardstock is a very bright yellow that I had to hand.  The paper is from the 6x6 paper pad by Prima called "Sweet Fairy", the chipboard letters are from the "Weird Alphabet" by Crafty Kids and have been painted with Metallic Gold Lumieres paint, while the flowers, jewels and brads came from my stash.  Oh, and the butterfly uses some handmade papers by me and a punch by Martha Stewart.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

Whoopsie Daisy - Anything Go's
A Spoonful of Sugar - Happy Birthday
Crafter's Companion - Glitter & Glitz
Divas by Design - Birthdays
Crafty Calendar - Hot Colours
Just Tracy's Craft Challenge - Happy Birthday

And that's pretty much it from me at the moment.  I will catch up with all of you a bit later.

Until then,
Happy Crafting!

A birthday card for my godson

Hi all,

So, my godson turned 6 about a month ago and I am finally getting the card I made for him uploaded.  The entire family are karate enthusiasts and I am such a bad godmother that I don't even know if the belt should be white, whether it should have "tips" or if it should be another colour altogether!

Still, I adore this digistamp by Mo Manning, which you can find here.  When I first saw it, I just had to have it - it was perfect for my godson.  It was my first time colouring white - everything I've done with my Copics has been using colour, not just the greys to create shadows.

The Copics I ended up using were:
E53, E55 and E97 for the hair; E01, E02 and E95 for the skin; W2 and W4 for the gi (uniform) and ground, with a little of the E97 added to the ground as well.  I added white gel pen dots on his cheeks.

I layered onto a piece of distressed look paper from the 6x6 paper pad "Ebony & Alabaster" by Black Market Paper Society, onto another sheet of white printer paper and then onto black cardstock.  The sentiment is from the Stampin Up set "Think Happy Thoughts" and the number 6 is from a set I got too many years ago to admit to, from Sunday International.  I added the black metal staples, distressed the edges of the patterned paper and (although you can hardly see it) the large black circle of cardstock,  and I was done.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
A Spoonful of Sugar: Happy Birthday
Crafts and Me Challenges - Make it Count
Divas By Design - Birthdays
My Mums Craft Shop - Sports & Hobbies
Send A Smile 4 Kids - Anything Goes (For Kids)
Just Tracy's Crafts Challenge - Happy Birthday
Dream Valley Challenges - Distressed

Today I went off to the Quilting and Craft Fair with a girlfriend - spent too much, had a lot of fun and came home with lots of new things to play with.  So I'm going to wander off and see how much mess I can make, creatively!

Until next time,
Happy crafting!

Another weekend... another set of challenges

Well hey there peeps!

Yep - another weekend and this one has been jam packed.  My birthday was on Thursday and I've had birthday celebrations at work on Tuesday and Thursday, took Friday off to have some "me" time and now today I'm being treated by my folks to a bonsai for my birthday before we go out to a swanky restaurant for dinner with the family.  I haven't got the foggiest which restaurant it is - my DH has done all the booking and arranging and I will apparently get ushered into the car at the appropriate time and driven there.  Yayyyy!!!

So that's my week - hope yours has been as eventful and as fun!

Now, onto the challenges!  I have put my name down for blog candy at Charmed Cards & Crafts, just because I can, and because I adore the Gorjuss images.  So fingers crossed the random number generator chooses my number (47).

Now, I coloured this image a while ago:

Isn't he just gorgeous???  The image is from the Emerald Faerie Garden shop and you can find these guys, Boo and Snookie, here.
I used these Copics to colour: E34 and E77 for the snail; YR01 for the skin; YR24 and YR09 for the clothes and wings; E19 for his hair.  And lots and lots of blender pen!!!

And then I made it into a card - and I am quite pleased how it's turned out:

I used some new flowers I got from Petaloo, some leaves and brads from my stash, backed it all onto a page out of the 6x6 paper pad "Imported Rhythm" by Black Market Paper Society and mounted it onto a piece of Stampin Up cardstock in Really Rust.  The sentiment is from the Stampin Up set "Best Yet" and I used both of the tag punches from Stampin Up to mount them.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly: Anything Goes

Kaboodle Doodle - In the Garden

Crafts and Me - Anything Goes

Sir Stampalot Challenge - Whatever You Fancy

Poodles Parlour - Round and Round the Garden

Stamp Something - Use a Digi Stamp

And that's my lot for now - I'm off to hit the treadmill so I can justify whatever it is I'm going to indulge in tonight for dinner - 'cos I'm not holding back, LOL!

Until next time,
Happy Crafting!

Oh, Woe Is Me.......

Okay, so here's the story:
I had a totally hideous couple of days the middle of this week, culminating in an incredibly horrific Thursday when everything went wrong, my emotions were bouncing like a super ball and it was all I could do to keep it together at work before coming home and having a complete meltdown.

As of Sunday I was on a fabulous high (which made the fall so very far down!). I had bought stamps, made a card, entered challenges, tweaked my blog and basically had a wonderful time. I was ecstatic. Then I had a couple of yukky days at work (not my fault - the only silver lining).

To console myself, I went online to see if anyone had found my blog because of my challenge entries.  Although there was a jump in the number of hits, there were no comments - just a very depressing "0 comments" sitting mocking me at the bottom of my post. 

Then I found out that my card had won me a first place with Moving Along With The Times! Wheeeeeeeee! Things were looking up again.  But I still thought it was odd that no-one was leaving comments (have you worked out how slow I was being, yet?!)

It has taken me until today to find that part of the tinkering I did to my blog design means that I have to approve every comment (amazing that the click of a little button could have me so low, and the remedy is to click another button, but there you go). So instead of being unloved and lonely here, I in fact had more comments than I ever have before, all sitting and waiting patiently for me to post them up. What a fabulous pick me up! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am discovering that comments are comfort food to me. There is nothing better than when someone tells you they think what you're doing is worthwhile :) So thank you to all my comfort food contributors.

I also had a huge pick me up in the form of my buddy Kasey, who has been wonderful again and given me an(other) award (the Leibster Blog Award also came from her). This new one is the A Thing of Beauty Award and there are some terms that go with it.

I have to tell you 5 things about myself and then award it to 5 other people. So, I guess I'd best get on with it.

5 Things About Me:

1 I'm an Army brat who spent the first 15 years moving
2 I am addicted to Twinnings Blackcurrant Tea, which I drink out of a 500ml mug
3 I read almost anything I can get my hands on, but love dark fantasy, historical and alternative universe genres (am reading Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth", Robert Jordan's "Knife of Dreams" and Charlaine Harris' "Dead Reckoning" at the moment).
4 I love a wide range of music, but can't listen to it while I'm trying to concentrate on something else
5 I have been spending "date night" with Will watching Eureka - we're up to the beginning of the fourth season and neither of us are sure we like the twist in the plot.

As for the five people I'd like to give this award to:
1 Carole at Apples & Pears
2 Heather at Rica's Haven
3 Chrissie at Simply One of a Kind
4 Cheryl at Cottage Creations
5 Kitty at Kitty's Krafty Blog

Thanks for all the inspiration, girls!!!

Okay - so now I'm going to quickly put up another of my stash cards, then go off and find out what other challenges are out there that I can enter!  This is one I did for a friend's birthday:

The card recipe is as follows:

Copics: R00 - skin; R27 and R37 - red of dress and N2, N6 and N9 for the hair.

Wings were done in Twinkling H2O "Iridescent Blue".  The flowers and the red ribbon were from my stash, the bug ribbon is by Cardmaking for Connoisseurs, item "Trim - FNRR88".

The image is a digistamp from A Day for Daisies called "Bitsy Bug Rosa", the sentiment is a Just Johanna which I went looking for and can't find - has Just Johanna shut down???

I would like to enter it into the following challenges (wheeeeeee!):

Crafts And Me: Ribbon

Totally Stampalicious: Anything Goes

The Crazy Challenge: Ribbons

And that's all I've got for now (it's a pretty long post - I figured I'd let you go and get on with your weekend!)

Until next time,

Happy crafting!

Playing with my blog design and entering my first challenge!

So many firsts for one tiny blog... I sat here on Sunday and trawled around all OVER the place, found lots and lots of digistamps which I bought and downloaded and then (kind of at the advice of a friend, Kasey, and kind of because I've been thinking about it for a while now), I went looking for a challenge I feel comfortable entering. 

So I look and I look and I look.  All I can find are these challenges which ask you do do steps 1 to 100 before entering your creative piece.  As soon as I kept reading the same kind of rules repeated in various challenge blogs, I figured I had better get my head around what the heck they were asking and how I go about achieving it.  Did you know that there are a lot of blogs out there about how to blog???!  Weird, but incredibly helpful, LOL.

So now I have a funky new signature block, have linked a blinky to my blog, rearranged my gadgets and feature elements, found out what a URL is and how I can use it and it's only taken me about four hours, 17 cups of tea and the invention of about three brand new swear words to do it!!!!  I am so proud :)

So, here is my very first ever card to be entered into some challenges!  Yes, people, I didn't just say one challenges, but multiple.  I don't ever try to walk - it's always full speed ahead... LOL!

The card recipe is as follows:
Stamp is a digistamp from Cuddly Buddly/Pachela Studios called "Shooting Star" and the sentiment is from Stamp It "Starry Dreams 1789C".  The Copics I used were E70, E74 and E99 for the mouse, YR04 and E42 for the present you can hardly see in front of the mouse, Y19 for the stars and BV01 for the purple sky.  I used Stampin Ups tag punches to mount the sentiment on and Creative Memories punch "Stardust Maker" for the yellow border stars.  The yellow layer and star paper is a scrap from my stash, I have no idea what it is, and the cardstock is Stampin Ups Lovely Lilac.  The charm is from my stash as well.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Moving Along With The Times - Cute and Cuddly with a Punch
Cuddly Buddly - Add A Charm
Paper Take Weekly - Getting Cute

Okay - that's all I've got for you.  I'm off to link my post page to these challenges and double (triple???) check that I've done it right.

Until next time,
Happy crafting!

Coming to the end of my stash of cards

... I think, LOL!
There have been a couple of new ones made in the last couple of weeks which I am adding to the list of cards I want to show off.  And there are at least a couple in the pipeline, along with some new stamps I mentioned last week from LOTV which I haven't had a chance to play with yet (I've run out of EZ Mount foam to put them on - I was sure I had a decent supply of it, but was much mistaken, when I went looking.  So my new stamps are still pristine and I need to restock before I can play *sigh*.)

These cards are ones I've made for birthdays recently (ish), and they're all fashion related, so I suppose I have a double theme going for this post:

This purse card uses the old Hero Arts set "Little Purses LL729" ((c) 2002 - can you believe it?!) but you can still find it here.  Stamped in Versafine black, mounted onto white and then black cardstock squares (punched out using the Creative Memories squares punch) and then finally mounted on a black card.  The thin silver ribbon I put on either side of the black flower ribbon are from my stash and I've embellished with Stickles "Silver" glitter glue and more stick on diamantes, also from my stash.

This one was for a friend who likes purple, travel and fashion, so I used the Stamps Happen stamp "Vogue Silhouette" because it combines the fashion and travel (France), stamped it on purple velvet paper and also on Stampin Up Whisper White cardstock.  Layer one on the other, then onto Perfect Plum cardstock, silver mirrorboard, a piece of white paper stamped with Stampin Up's "Fine Lace" background stamp in Perfect Plum and then back onto a Perfect Plum card.  Black grosgrain ribbon and diamantes come from the stash.

This card was for a birthday for one of the ladies at work - her favourite colour is yellow.  The hat, the shoe and the sentiment are all from Stamp It.  The hat is "Race Day 2820F Elizabeth" and the shoe is "Frilled Pump 3272D Elizabeth", while the sentiment is "Elegance Is... 3214C Unicorn".  The The ends of the flower spray on the hat and shoe has been accented with Stickles "Lemon", the tag punch I used is by EK Success and the pearl brads come from my stash.

And that brings me to the end of another post.  I'm off to dinner with my DH tonight - we are kid free and living it up!

So, until next time,
Happy crafting!
Bron

Miley concert update, Longevity and Seaside cards

I am so glad I went through a phase of making cards which I have slowly been posting, because the actual card making at the moment is non-existent.  I have been crazy busy at work and trying madly to keep on top of things at home, which means the creating has taken a bit of a nose dive!

The Miley Cyrus concert was much better than I expected.  The girls had a great time at their first stadium concert, although my youngest managed to fall asleep for two songs in the middle of the whole thing!!!   I have pictorial evidence, however, so I can make her wail "Muuuuuuuummmmmmm" at her 18th birthday when I have it made into a poster *heee heee heee*. 

We also managed to get out to Luna Park (where I managed to wail almost the entire ride on the roller coaster - my youngest couldn't go on it without me and I HATE roller coasters, so I figure we're even when I torture her with photos on her 18th - a long time to wait, but revenge will be sweet.)  Plus, there's photo evidence of me screaming on the stupid ride as we rounded a corner and some wiseass had set up a camera to go off just before the carriage took a drop that left my stomach about 4 meters above us, so there you go... all torture is totally justified.

So, with no more ado, have a look at yet more of the cards I made a little while ago.  This weeks' themes are Longevity and Seaside:

This image is from Mo Manning, and can be found here.  It is a beautiful one to colour.  I used Copics to colour, but given how long ago it was, I can't tell you which ones.  The cardstock is Coredinations, the flowers are from my stash and the background patterned paper is from the 6x6 paper pad "Reflections Collection" by Prima.

This image is one of Bugaboo's and you can find her here.  Again coloured with Copics so long ago that I haven't a clue which ones I used.  The background paper is from the Basic Grey 6x6 pad "Gypsy" and the flowers are from my stash.  The cardstock is Coredinations.

Image is an actual rubber stamp this time, rather than a digi.  It's from Impression Obsession and can be found here.  The background paper is from Creative Memories "Grunge" collection, the cardstock is Coredinations and the diamantes are from my stash.  The dragonfly wings are done in Copics and then gone over with Windsor & Newton's Iridescent Medium.

This image is from Tiddly Inks and can be found here.  Colouring using Copics (yeah - don't ask) layered onto paper scraps and onto very dark blue Coredination cardstock.  The red background paper is from Creative Memories "Grunge" range.

That's all I've got for the moment.  I'll have another couple to post next week and then we must be coming close to the end of my stash and I'll have to actually sit down and make some more cards.  There have been a couple of birthdays which need cards and I've had another wedding card commission, so that will give me some bits and pieces to show you.  Plus, I've just had a bunch of new Lili of the Valley stamps come in from the UK, and I need to ink them up.  Oh yeah - inspiration is not too far away, it's just finding the time.... *sigh*.

Until next time,

Happy crafting!

Bron

Some quick pics and then we're off to see Miley Cyrus...

Okay, so we're about to take off to drive to Sydney, do vast amounts of shopping, drop off my grandfather's Montblanc fountain pen to get serviced and last but not least (well, not least for the kids - I'm not quite sure where it sits on my list of priorities) we're going to go and see Miley Cyrus in concert.

I have incredible seats (if only they had been for the Bon Jovi or Pink concerts I've been to recently!) and we're all set to go and get rocked (teeny bopper rocked, but better than staying at home with Will, who has come down with the 'flu and looks like death warmed up - I have vague suspicions about his timing, but there you go....)

So, in a mad post before we leave, I thought I would put up some more cards for you to have a look at.  Since last post was the ones I had made for babies, I figured I would post the ones I had made for kids. 

All the images were ones I had coloured with Copics and put aside into my coloured image folder, which I grabbed when I went to craft camp.  Which makes for easy cardmaking, but is not much use when it comes to detailing which pens I used.  So sorry, but no details regarding that.

The Cowboy is a Bugaboo digistamp you can find here.  He is mounted onto paper from a 6x6 pad by Basic Grey called "Granola".  The circle sentiment is from a Stampin Up! set.  The rest of the stuff is from my stash.

The robot is a Tiddly Inks digistamp which you can find here.  The rest of the stuff is from my stash.

The Whatever girl is a Tiddly Inks digistamp you can find here.  The paper she is mounted onto is from a Creative Memories paper pack called "Rugged".  The Whatever message is from a Cricut cartridge, but I have no idea which one and haven't got the time to go find out (I borrowed a friends Cricut while at the craft camp).  The rest of the stuff is from my stash.

The fairy with the wand is one of a set of fairies digistamps by Mo Manning which you can find here.

The paper she was mounted on came from the 6x6 paper pad by Prima called "Fairy Flora" which you can find here.  The rest of the stuff is from my stash.

And that's all I've got for you at the moment.  I am in a crazy rush and we are already meant to be on the road.
I will catch up with you all when I get home and have recovered from our crazy four day girls weekend!

Until then,
Happy crafting!
Bron

Bye baby bunting, we went hunting...

For baby cards, that is!
I have been told that there is a need for baby cards, as I didn't have any in my stash and there are two pregnancies about to reach their end at one of the companies where I sell my cards.

So I wandered through my box of coloured images and grabbed a handful to make into cards at the craft camp I went to.  These are the results:

This image is a Bugaboo digistamp you can find here, which I have coloured with my Copics (mostly yellow-y ones and purple-y ones - does that help?!) and layered on to spotty paper from the 6x6 paper pad by Basic Grey called "Lime Rickey" and then coordinating card stock, including Elegant Eggplant by Stampin Up!  Three lime green brads and the purple ribbon from the stash finished it off.

This one uses one of Suzy's Zoo images, which used to be made by Rubber Stampede.  I went looking for a link to post for you all, but it's not a happening thing, unfortunately.  Rubber Stampede seems now to be Delta Craft.  And Suzy's Zoo seems to be collectors pieces.  So I am guarding  my set of 6 and my two single stamps fiercely!   The patterned paper is from the Basic Grey "Gypsy" 6x6 paper pad.  The layers of cardstock are Barely Banana and Summer Sun by Stampin Up!  And I've used "Waterfall" Stickles glitter glue around the dandelion clock, not that you can see it particularly well.  The "For You" sentiment is also Stampin Up!



The image is from a company called Paper Pleasure Plus.  Don't even bother to try and find them - they don't seem to exist anymore (this post is getting more and more like a "what once was" walk down memory lane, isn't it?  Paper Pleasure Plus had their closing down sale in September 2006.)  The cardstock is Not Quite Navy by Stampin Up! and a beautiful dark cream by Core'dinations (LOVE their stuff, which can be found here).  The patterned paper is from the 6x6 pad "Two Scoops" by Basic Grey.

And that's pretty much all I've got at the moment.  I had a commission of a wedding card for a friend at work, who is sending it overseas (to Italy - whooo hooo - I've gone international!), but I have had a crazy weekend and haven't had time to get the photos onto the computer, so that will have to wait until next time.

Until then,

Happy crafting!

Bron

So Long, Farewell, Auf wiedersehen, Goodbye...

Yes - it seems I have been making quite a few farewell cards recently, for members of my branch who have decided to go in different directions.  Only one of the three I've made recently has been for a friend who has left the job permanently - the other two have taken some time off, either to go on deployment to the Solomon Islands for 6 months with the Army Reserves, or to take some time off to be at home with her kids (not to mention, wandering off to the Netherlands next year to take in Floriade 2012, and the Chelsea Flower Show, to boot!)

So, with the friend who went back to Sydney to live (the Canberra weather got too much for him, I think!), I did this card:

The tags are cut out and popped up on foam squares.  The background Thankyou stamp is from a set by Hero Arts, but I can't remember the set name.  The tags are also Hero Arts "LL937 Tags With Words". Ink colours are by Stampin Up!: Old Olive, Not Quite Navy and Close to Cocoa. Mounted on Old Olive and Not Quite Navy cardstock, also by Stampin Up!

Then there was this one, for the guy going to the Solomon Islands with the Army Reserve:

The image is one I found on a US Defence (sorry, Defense!) site which had free clipart available.  And the quote is a fabulous one that I remember my Dad (ex-Army, Regular, not Reserve) saying, which I printed up after I had found it (had to make sure I got it right).  It says "We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.  We have done so much for so long with so little, we are now capable of doing anything with nothing."  It seemed appropriate :)

The camouflage background paper is also one I downloaded from the Net.  The dog tags are the heavy duty foil from the top of a Milo tin, punched out using a punch by EK Success, with his name stamped onto one, and Good Luck on the other.  The "webbing" ribbon in olive green is from my stash.

I used the following copics to colour the image:
YG97, YG93, YG95, YG99, G94, BG99, E55, W8, with E42 for the skin and YG91 for the map.

And last but certainly not least is one I made for the friend who is taking time off to be with her kids and to go jet setting.  She told me her favourite colours are red and hot pink, she loves chocolate and retro things, and she is amazingly talented when it comes to cake decorating (she would bring cupcakes semi-regularly into work and they'd always have these incredible flowers and other designs made of icing.)  So, that was the challenge - to incorporate all those elements.  I started off with a digistamp I bought from Heather Ellis' shop in Etsy "Pure Innocence 030", which I coloured with Copics: R27, E29, RV25, R00, R01 and E25. 

Then I cut out and added the coloured image to papers from Basic Grey's 6x6 "Lime Rickey" pad, highlighted the cherry and the heart in her hair with Plaid's Royal Coat Dimensional Magic, added bling to her shoe and added the sentiment "Seize the Cupcake" from the Hero Arts set "CL158 Clear Design Cupcakes".  Mounted it on Bazzill cardstock in a chocolate brown, grabbed some co-ordinating ribbons and flowers from the stash and here you have it:  A retro style card in red, hot pink and chocolate with a cupcake.  Whoooo hooo!

And that's pretty much it, folks.  I'm hoping that the need for farewell cards will start to slow down - it's depressing getting to know all these people, only to say goodbye to them. 

We've got a long weekend this weekend, so I am hoping to get on top of all the housework and free up some time for stamping (not to mention, uploading and posting!)

So, until we meet again,
Happy crafting!
Bron

Running....running to catch up!

Hi all,
Well, I got back from my craft camp well and truly exhausted, but totally buzzed.  In two days (we got there Friday afternoon at about 5pm and left Sunday at 4pm), I managed to complete 17 cards and sell 7 of them - not a bad weekend's work, huh?!  Given that I went to create, not to sell, the customers had to make do with cards that didn't have envelopes or inserts, but they were all scrapbookers (I was the only stamper that weekend) and seemed to think that making their own envelopes was part of the fun and a bit of a challenge!  Whatever floats their boats, I suppose. No one baulked at the prices (I didn't change them from my normal prices - mostly because the first one I sold came completely out of left field and I just said what I normally sell them for) and every single card was a 6x6, even though I had the standard C6 and DL size cards there, too.  Apparently, big cards are in at the moment, with no complaints from me!

So I will start posting pics of those, as soon as I finish posting the last lot I've been talking about.

Be warned - I have almost no details for these following ones close to hand, although should you absolutely *need* them I can let you know :)

These three were commissions from a guy at work.  Two of them (kittens and wheat) were for his twin sisters' birthday.  The red "You Make Me Happy" card was for his girlfriend.

I used Copics on the image with the kittens - and I am very happy with how she and the fuzzballs turned out - much better than my first attempt at that image, I think; the other two are DTP with the various stamps and ink. Give me a yell if you need to know which stamps came from where.  I've got all the details, but this late on a Sunday night, there's no way I'm going to go rummaging around to find them.

I don't know about all of you, but I find that if the first time I use a set or an image, it doesn't work out so well, then I usually don't pick up that set or image again.  I will automatically reach for stamps which have "worked" for me in the past and didn't give me grief.  The set I used for the red card was just such a set.  I didn't take to the first card I made with the set, which was created at a class I attended and wasn't "me" at all.  The colours were wrong, mostly.  And I have barely reached for the set since.  But this guy saw the class card in my stash when I took them to work, and asked me to rework it in new colours.  Thank goodness he did, because it's pretty much given that old stamp set a new lease on life, in my eyes!  I'll not say that I'm in love with the set, but I am certainly seeing some potential in it now (which I must have seen when I first saw it, or I wouldn't have bought it).  And I'm thinking I should go on to Splitcoast Stampers and see what the galleries produce by way of inspiration.  You never know...

I think I'm going to leave it at that.  Still have miles to go before I sleep, so I'd best go and get started.

Until next time
Happy crafting!
Bron

Time flies...

Hi all,
I can't believe it's been almost exactly a month since the last post.  I clearly remember each weekend coming and going again at a rate of knots, and reminding myself that I should get into the study and post something (always at the most absurd times, too - like while I was in the middle of the supermarket or driving the kids somewhere - never when I could drop everything and jump onto the computer right that minute).

So, let's do a quick catch up, shall we?  In the last four weeks I have managed to make 12 cards (averaging three a week - which is awesome for me - so you can see that even though I haven't been online, I've still been busy!) consisting of two cards for Secret Sisters, two for farewells, one as a "just because" for a commission, one for my stash and 6 for birthday cards.  Busy, busy, busy!

I'm going to upload them slowly over the next week or so, just in case you go into shock at the fact that I'm actually posting ANYTHING, let alone a heap of cards *grin*.

First cab off the rank is my Secret Sister card for April.  The theme was Easter, using pastel colours and including wire.  I like to stick to themes as much as possible - they push me out of my comfort zones by making me use what I normally wouldn't.  With this one, it was the mix of Easter and pastel colouring - I don't do much of either, if left to my own devices (although I eagerly take part in the bounty of the Fuzzy Chocolate Deity!). 

This is the stamp, which I've coloured with Copics.  The flower is toled twice - first layer is the the flower on top of the leaves and egg, second layer is the centre of the flower.

Of course, being a card I made in April, I haven't kept track of what colours I used.
And here's the finished piece:

Sorry about the darkness - had some issues with my beastly camera.  The flowers are from my stash, the punched edge was made using the Martha Stewart punch set "Double Arches" and the Happy Easter stamp is from the Stampin Up! set "All Year Cheer 1".

The second card I've got for you tonight is one using the brayer on gloss card again, plus a new stamp (which is why I made it - had to try out the new arrivals!). 

The tree is by Unity Stamp Co called "Dream Tree", the sentiment was made using my ProvoCraft alphabet in Circa 18pts and I spritzed the inks with water before I brayered them onto the gloss white card, which is why it's got that funky texture happening.

I then layered the image onto a 6x6 piece of paper from the Prima pad called "Reflections Collection", popped on some flowers (the stunningly gorgeous one in the bottom left hand side is also by Prima, called "Cloissone Bronze"), punched out a handful of butterflies from newspaper which had been spritzed with walnut ink using a Martha Stewart punch called "Classic Butterfly" to pick up on the background paper and...voila!

A little busier than I would normally go for, but it really appealed to me when I made it, and it obviously appealed to someone else, because my mum sold it (and heaps more) when she took them in to her work the other week.

So there you have it - a slight catch up on what's been happening in the world of Bronwyn.  I will post another set of cards for you to peruse soon.  I am off for the weekend (Friday to Sunday) to attend a craft camp, so am hoping to come back from that with even MORE creations to share.

Until then,
Happy crafting!
Bron

One for the stash, and a quick catch up

Hi all,

Just a quick post today - I was showing my mum (who started off as a scrapbooker, but who has slowly been dragged away from the dark side and is now a stamper who strays every so often) the embossed resist technique onto a piece of newspaper, using a funky fern stamp from Stampin Up from the set "Kind & Caring Thoughts".  I clear embossed onto the newspaper until all the powder has melted, then covered the image over with Ranger's Distress Ink "Pine Needles" using a sponge and buffed off the excess ink so that the clear embossing with the print underneath showed through.  The thick stripe down the left hand side is actually part of the newspaper article and is in a bottle green, which inspired the colour of the ink I used:

Then I made it up into a card, layering the embossed image onto a strip of Bazzil cardstock (a seafoam colour which I stamped with the same stamp using the Pine Needles ink again), then layered onto a piece of 6x6 paper from the Basic Grey pad "Two Scoops" which in turn went over a script stamp by Hero Arts "Old Letter Writing S4878" in Stampin Up's "Whisper White" ink onto a bottle green/dark teal card (brand unknown):

For a quick demo image, it turned into a pretty good card, I think.

More news is that my team was too late by two days to register for the Oxfam Trailwalker challenge I wrote about in my last post.  So that's not happening this year.  Maybe next year. There are a couple of other walking challenges happening this year and as soon as the girls and I are back from our Easter breaks, we'll look into what we can do instead.

My studio concreting was finished and then DH and I did a moderately alright job of covering the concrete with linoleum (not helped by the fact that the lino is years old and when we re-did our kitchen I sourced the last of the stock from the company who made it, which meant that we had to piece the area in the studio together with offcuts I had in the garage, kind of like a crazy quilt).  Let's just say that it does the job and leave it at that, shall we?

The new cupboard/shelving unit went into the studio almost before the glue had had a chance to dry and I have pretty much already filled it all, which means that you can actually see my worktables again (not for long, given how I create, but it's nice to remember what they look like).

And that's pretty much it for today.  I have a three commission cards which I need to complete, but once I have, you'll get to see what I've been doing.  Plus there is a Secret Sister card for April which I can post early next month (can't do it yet, in case my SS sees it here and knows who the creator is before the "big reveal".

I hope everyone has had a good break, whether you celebrate Easter or not. 

Until next time,
Happy crafting!
Bron

Violin card and the last two weeks

Hi all,

Such a crazy two weeks it's been.  My eldest daughter turns 10 tomorrow (Monday) and so we had her birthday party today - ice skating (the first time she's done it - a huge OMG moment on my part, as I could see either her or any number of the guests collapsing in heaps to the sounds of broken bones and sprained whatevers!).  Fortunately for her guests and my nerves, the 2 hours passed without major mishap, with only the shivering one associates with ice skating and 14 under-dressed, prepubescent girls (what is it about girls and the need to dress in the most impractical wardrobe imaginable?)  I have no idea where they get their ideas from - I'm an army brat and DH is a country boy - we were raised that when you go somewhere, you wear clothes that are practical to the situation and which save you from being injured - sunburn, frostbite, skinned knees, wind chapping etc.  My girls both rocked up with about 5 layers of tops, jeans, scarves and gloves, so they were fine - but one of the little pretties showed up in shorts and a t-shirt (so did dad and big brother, who were dropping her off - and admittedly it was a shorts and t-shirt kind of day - but for 2 hours of ice skating!?!)

Still, we made it through, and no one went home in tears, vowing never to return, which is the main thing.

I have bought tickets to the Miley Cyrus concert in June.  Both daughters are getting their tickets as birthday presents from DH and I - eldest as a late present, and youngest as an early one (her birthday is in November, so it works out nicely).  DH has opted out of coming with us, so it's going to be a girls weekend with just the three of us - and our seats are absolutely awesome.  Section 2, row A - why couldn't that have been at the Bon Jovi concert in December, or the Pink concert before that?!  Anyway, regardless of who we are going to see, the seats are awesome and the girls are stoked, so it was well worth it.

Now onto the craft :)  I have a lovely stamp by Stamps Happen called "Overture" #90285 which is beautiful to look at and fun to colour.  The colour indexing on the stamp is fairly dark, to my mind, so I've lifted it a little with the colours I used.  I think it makes a fairly unisex card for a music lover :

I stamped it on watercolour paper with Versafine in Black and coloured it with Derwent watercolour pencils.

Then I made it into a card by mounting it onto a piece of cut down sheet music (real, not a printout), and layering it onto a piece of midnight blue cardstock.  The sentiment is StampWorld's "Happy Birthday" A559, on a scrap of the same watercolour paper:

Other news is that I've had some concreting done in my studio.  If you can imagine a horseshoe shape, that used to be the layout of our house.  Then, many years ago, I got the open part of the horseshoe walled and roofed in and that room became my studio.  However, when I had the workmen come in to lay the concrete slab, I had them leave me an almost 2m x 1.5 m area unconcreted.  The grandiose and not well thought out plan (no natural light whatsoever gets into that corner) was to have an inside atrium, allowing me to grow "things".  It had wonderful drainage, was planted up, over time, with hundreds of dollars worth of plants guaranteed to survive even the blackest of black thumbs (they didn't make allowances for me and my no natural light floorplan) and it became the bane of my creative space - a complete waste of an area which ended up housing nothing but dessicated (but previously gorgeous, dark and rich) soil, the odd pot and a garden gnome.  So I have had it concreted over in it's entirety (barring the grate for the drain, which is fabulous for when the creative urge gets messy and I have to hose stuff off - or maybe when I'm having a Dexter moment and need to do clean up) and next weekend will be the laying of the lino and the installing of the workstation for tools (die cutting machine, guillotine etc) and the bookshelf/cupboard for "stuff".  Yayyyy!

Lastly, and not crafting related, is that I am thinking fairly seriously about signing up for the Oxfam Trailwalk at the end of August this year.  The challenge is to walk 100km in 48 hours (that's 62.14 miles, for those of you still working in imperial).  And it's hiking on a trail, not walking on footpaths.  So I've got to start training, if I'm going to do it.  Of course, someone could just put me out of my misery and have a Dexter moment of their own before I have to take part (it would help me save face in front of the other girls on the team).  I keep talking myself into it, and then I do 2 hours on my treadmill and talk myself out of it again.  Still, 19 weeks before the actual weekend we do it, so I've got time to get into some kind of shape.  At the moment, the shape is kind of squishy and nowhere near ready for 13+ hours of walking per day for two days, but in 19 weeks, I can probably get it to the point where I don't start whimpering until...oh, I don't know.... two or three kilometres down the track!  One of the things we have to commit to is raising $1000 in donations, so I will be advertising this pretty hard, the closer I come to doing it.  Just thought I'd warn you.

Until next time,
Happy crafting!
Bron

A Secret Sister card and one for my stash

Hi all,
I haven't been particularly creative in the last week or so, but I've managed to get my tax done (the 09/10 financial year - and yes - I know it's April - I'm a lazy cow if given the opportunity), and "discovered" a band who has been around for a couple of years, but one of their songs was used on a recent episode of "House M.D." and I just had to have the album.  Black Lab is the band, and the album is "Passion Leaves a Trace".  I know you are probably all yawning and telling me that it's nice I've finally made it into the 21st century, but I'm pretty impressed with their work.  The song which grabbed me was "This Night", and it's playing as I type this entry.

What else have I been up to?  Oh - there is a Secret Sister group I have been part of for a number of years which has started up the 2011 swaps, so I did my first card for that.  We are given themes and a randomly selected name of the person who will be receiving our card that month, and you can choose to use the themes or go with something else - entirely up to you.

March's theme was houses, and this is what I came up with:

The image is by Stampington & Co "Stacked Birdhouses K5151" and I coloured it with Rexel Derwent Watercolour pencils.  I used Versafine in black to stamp onto Stampin Up! Natural Ivory.

Then I made the card:

The friendship circle stamp comes from the Stampin Up! set "Think Happy Thoughts", the bird background paper from the 6x6 paper pad "Earth Love" by Cosmo Cricket.  The rest of the stuff came from my stash.

Secondly, there is a fairy image I made using A Day for Daisies digi-stamp called "Little Nymph".  I did the colouring waaaay back before I had a blog, so have no idea what colours I used, although I do remember I used my Copics (they were still new - that's how long ago I'm talking), and Tammy from A Day For Daisies was looking for cards to put in her new store gallery.  I didn't make it into a card properly until now (I sent Tammy a picture of the image blu-tacced onto a piece of patterned paper - it was definitely amateur hour in my household that day - I was in a rush).  Anyway, the original image was still hanging around, so I finally got it out (inspired by a conversation with my friend Kasey regarding UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) and completed it. 

The leaves and bling are from my stash, the card is Stampin Up Old Olive, the happy thoughts circle stamp is from the Stampin Up! set "Think Happy Thoughts" and the layer paper in that wonderful multicoloured, psychedelic pattern is from the 6x6 paper pad ""Lime Rickey" by Basic Grey.

And that's pretty much it for me at the moment.  The husband and the kids are going visiting tonight, so I have the house just to myself - we'll see what happens.  Now, though, I think I'm off to do some housework and catch up on the boring stuff, so I know I'm free tonight to play.

Happy crafting!

Bron

Another birthday card and some cupcakes

Today there was a celebration for one of the girls at work - her birthday is on Sunday and she's taking a long weekend to be with family for the big day.  So, instead of missing out on cake, or having to wait ('cos patience is not a virtue when it comes to cake and anyways, I'm bad at it!), I pre-empted her, asked for her cake preferences and came up with our afternoon tea for today (not to mention her card, which got signed by everyone this morning).  I admit I may have steamrollered her a *little*, but it was for the good of the branch - we all got cake!

First cake choice was Carrot, Walnut and Honey.  I found heaps of recipes for Carrot and Walnut cakes, so when I found one that had Maple Cream Cheese frosting, I simply substituted honey for the maple syrup in the frosting. Voila! One birthday cake choice done:

Second (but equal) choice was White Chocolate Mudcake.  Welllllllll....  I found a recipe for White Choc Mud Cupcakes with white chocolate ganache and just went to town.  I also found a packet of solid white chocolate Easter eggs while grabbing the rest of the ingredients for my bake-a-thon and used those as my decorations.

These turned out evilly good (goodly evil?!)  Whatever - after we recovered from the sugar coma, we all agreed that they were pretty damn nice.

And last but not least was her card, which I made in preparation a couple of weeks ago but couldn't post in case she saw it before she received it.

I am really happy with this card.  It doesn't do it near enough justice in the photo, because I stamped the dress (Stamps Happen "Vogue Silhouette" which I can't find online - has Stamps Happen closed down???) on the black patterned paper (Bo Bunny Press "Unforgettable Kiss" double sided 12x12) and cut it out, then layered it onto the SU Natural Ivory using silicon, so it had dimension.  Added some sparkles with Ranger Stickles in Platinum, some blinged up Prima flowers and a Penny Black sentiment ("Birthday Girl") and put in all on Bo Bunny Press' "Unforgettable" double sided paper and mount onto black and then DL sized SU Natural Ivory cardstock.  Ta Da!

That's all folks - I'll catch up with you all later.

Happy crafting!
Bron

A quick wedding card

Evening all,
Just wanted to share with you all a card I made this afternoon (thank goodness it was the one day of the week I leave work early to pick up the kids from school - I had all afternoon to put it together).

I was approached by one of the guys I work with about an hour before I left this afternoon.  Could I throw together a card for a wedding he is going to on the weekend (ergo, he'd need it by tomorrow, he was leaving at lunchtime as the wedding is out of town)?  Hmmmm - okay, says I - give me lots and lots of details (I think I startled him a bit as to what kind of details I wanted - hair colour of bride and groom etc so I could personalise the card).

However, he's one of those rare chaps who actually pays attention to details, so he was able to give me the colours on the wedding invitation (purple and peacock), the colours of the accessories the groom and groomsmen are wearing (ties/handkerchiefs/cummerbunds etc), although he admittedly pointed at a Post It note and said - "that kind of yellow" and I immediately wrote down "buttermilk" (I was reading an article that says, on average, women see a much broader colour range than men - probably the reason we have to give colours so many identifiers: "Yes dear, there IS a difference between teal, aqua and turquoise!").  Basically, he supplied me with enough info to happily accept the commission.

I went with my old favourite (used just recently, too - must be the season), Happy Couple by Stampendous and paper pieced the groom's jacket and the bride's dress again (black cardboard and thick ivory pearl paper respectively).  Did her veil in Twinkling H2O's "Heavenly White" and the rest of the colouring in Copics to match hair and skin colour.  All on Stampin Up's "Natural Ivory" cardstock.

The bling on her hem is in silver and royal purple gems, although the royal purple came out more a red violet shade than a blue violet shade in the photo - very irritating.  The bouquet is Kindy Glitz in Purple, with one of those teeny tiny silver crystal flowers by Heidi Swapp I've mentioned before.

I stacked the image onto a layer of metallic dark green paper called Metallic Emerald, after punching the corners with a Stampin Up corner punch which was offered in one of their minis for a couple of months (don't know if it's still available).  This then got layered onto a 6x6 card made of Stampin Up's Elegant Eggplant cardstock.  The bottom ribbon is purple shot with dark green and a second skinny ribbon is layered on top which is dark green shot with silver.  I stamped the Eggplant cardstock with Eggplant ink, using two Paper Pleasure Plus stamps which I can't find anywhere to show you - but they are beautiful feathers, aren't they?

And although you can't see it, I went very sparingly around the edges of the feathers with Stickles in Patina, so it's got the green, blue, silver thing going.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I can only hope that he feels the same.

Now it's time to wander off to bed - tomorrow is another fun filled day!

Happy crafting!
Bron