Quick & Easy Featured Stamper Card!

Today featured stamper card must be the quickest one I have ever done in the 34 weeks this challenge has been running! It's would be a great card to make when you have forgotten to make a card for someone and you need it before you leave home! I don't have that problem at the moment I was just browsing through Jen Balcer's gallery who is the featured stamper for this week when I came across this card. There were lots of cards I could have CASEd of Jen's but this one appealed to me as it was different to one I would normally do myself.

As per other featured stamper challenges, I had to change at least 2 things on my card to make it different to Jen's. Here are my changes:

• I used a different flower stamp
• I used different black ribbon
• I omitted the black gingham ribbon
• I used a different verse
• I added 3 black brads to the bottom right hand corner of the card [you know I had to add brads somewhere to this card! ;) ]

Recipe:
Stamps: Flower - Carolee's Creations; Verse - Papertrey Ink
Paper: Black; White
Other: Black Ink; Black Grosgrain Ribbon; Black Brads

So Cute!

This is one of the images I got from the papercrafts show yesterday, I just had to play with one of them today. As I had to do Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use one of them and this particular card needed a smallish stamp, which helped me with the decision which one to use!

This weekend Beate's challenges isn't a sketch as such, she posted a tutorial on her blog on how to create a file folder card ... these are always fun to do and today I followed Beate's instructions on how she does hers. I am pretty sure I can cut file folders using my cricut too .... so I might just have to play with those soon. When I make another I might make that band that is on the front of the folder go all around so that it actually keeps the file folder closed. For this one I used a spiral clip instead.

Recipe:
Stamps: Mouse - Whipper Snapper; Verse - Karen Foster Snap Stamps
Papers: Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink & Green Galore - SU; White; DP - Heidi Grace
Other: Black Ink; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool; Word Window Punch; Corner Punch; Pink Grosgrain Ribbon; Foam Tape

Some New Toys!

A few people have been wondering where I got to today as I wasn't around to chat or do any stamping. Well as you can see I have been out buying some new supplies at the Paper Arts Festival which is in town this weekend. I didn't go too mad, but did want to buy some more Whipper Snapper Stamps .... wasn't able to get the ones I was really after, however I did find these there so I just couldn't leave them there to be tossed from one plastic container to another the whole weekend ... they wanted to come home with me. :) .... hehehehehe. I also found a couple of EK Success Corner Punches which I just had to have as well ..... these two are Interlaced and Laurel. I found a few packs of brads I needed .... I can't survive without brads on most of my cards. I also found a couple of packs of Studio G Christmas stamps ..... this is the first time Studio G stamps have made it down under, so I am hoping we get to see more in the future!

I had a fun day and was able to catch up with a few friends while I was there which is always a good thing!

More Pink Cake!

Most of you know by now that I do a challenge every Monday with a group of friends on SCS, we call ourselves CCEE ... Cheers and Challenges Eager Eight (in case you are wondering). I have another group of friends who have decided they too would like to do weekly challenges as well. Yeah I am going to be busy ... but that is ok.

As this new set of challenges came in a hurry and to get it started quickly it was suggested that we CASE a card from each others gallery until we have all been CASEd and then we will think up other challenges from then on. Jimmi went through my gallery on SCS and came up with the "Pink Male" card I did for the challenge with my CCEE group for us to CASE. So yes I had to CASE myself!!!!!! As you can see I used the cake from Eat Cake again, hopefully I will get a lot of use out of this set now I have started using it!

Recipe: Stamps: Eat Cake - Stampin' Up; Flourishes - Pollen Dust by Fancy Pants
Papers: White; Chocolate Chip & Regal Rose - SU; Infuse DP - Basic Grey
Other: Regal Rose SU Ink; Marvy Marker #18; Grosgrain Ribbon; Brads; Oval Punch; Foam Tape.

Snow, Snow and More Snow!

A few weeks ago you may remember that I participated in a challenge with a group of friends of mine to make snow cards. As a bonus to this challenge, everyone was to send their cards to me as I had never seen snow! A few people asked at the time if I would take a photo of the cards when I had them all together, well as I finally received the last one in the mail today I was able to get my photo taken.

I have to send my card off (the middle one in the back row) to one of the other participants in the challenge, which I was planning to do tomorrow even if the last card hadn't arrived as I know if mail comes just normal sea mail it can take 3 months and I didn't want to hold on to the card that long that wouldn't have been fair to the person who should have been receiving my card. So I was especially happy when it arrived today.

A True Friend!

I was quite excited today when I saw today's sketch challenge, you see the sketch this week was inspired by a card my friend Charlene created. And even more exciting than that was the fact that the card she has created using this design was the snow card she had made for our CCEE challenge that we do weekly! And all those snow cards made their way down to me as I had never seen snow, so I had that actual card in front of me .... wow!!!!!!!!!! I thought it was pretty cool anyway ;)

Before I could start on my card, I had to decide whether to use my new stamps I received in the mail today from SU or the ones I received from High Hopes stamps .... as you can see I compromised and ended up using a stamp from both companies!

I hadn't done this week color challenge yet so I again combined that with the sketch challenge, I seem to be doing that a lot lately but it seems to work out well so far. This weeks color challenge was: More Mustard, Old Olive and Bashful Blue.

We all know that a dog is mans best friend, and what better friend can you have then a little boy willing to share his ice cream with his dog .... you can see they are planning on sharing!!!! That dog definitely has his eyes on that ice cream .... and who could blame him! So when I was looking for something else to finish off my card I looked across at my new SU stamps sitting on the table behind me and saw my new "True Friend" set ...... so I stamped just the few words I need separately and then punched them out using my word window punch.

Recipe:
Stamps: Ice cream for Two - High Hopes Stamps; True Friend and Paw Wheel - Stampin' Up
Papers: More Mustard, Old Olive, Bashful Blue - SU; White
Other: Black Ink; Creamy Caramel SU Ink; Spots & Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Word Window Punch; Ticket Corner Punch; Bone Brads

Oceans of Joy Gel Card

Todays card is for this weeks technique challenge ..... gel cards. As I have been wanting to make one of these for sometime and had the gel sitting in with my stamping supplies for years, I figured it was a good opportunity to finally get one made. They are pretty easy when you know what to do and there is a great tutorial on how to make these on SCS.

The hardest thing about making one of these was finding a zip lock bag the size I wanted I had just about every size but that one ..... after a little bit more searching I found one which would work. It isn't that it is a hard size to find just that I was actually all out of that size for now. I shall have to go and buy some more in case I want to make another gel card in the future.

Recipe:
Stamps: Under the Sea Plate - Pink Cat Studio
Papers: White Card; Pale Violet Prisma Card; Yo Yo Yellow & Ballet Blue - SU
Other: Black Ink; Celeste Blue Impress Ink; Bubbles Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Brads; Oval Punch; Gel; Zip Lock Bag

What Scrapbooking Item are You?

I found this fun quiz on Julia's blog and just had to give it a go. I gotta be honest I am not a scrapbooker ..... I am a stamper .... so when it said Scrapbook I substituted stamping ;) .... I figure we both share pretty much the same stuff ... adhesives, Designer Papers, brads and all that fun stuff right .... we just use it on different things that is all.

What scrapbooking item are you?

You are STICKERS!You like brightening things up in life and decorating your living space with your own personal style. You are versatile and able to get things done with a stick-to-it attitude. People love your colorful personality and personal flair! You like exploring new things and are willing to try anything once. But Stickers beware - sometimes you like to stick to someone that you like a little too much and take them into your confidence a little too easily. Your personality tends to make you a steadfast friend, but make sure the friends you choose are worth your efforts!
Take this quiz!

Unlikely Pair!

These cards were created as part of a challenge I do with a group of friends on SCS. This week our challenge was supplied by Cammie, she sent us all some images of this adorable dog with the little bird on its head and the verse which accompanies the image. These images are part of the new released Carolyn King Design stamps sold through Gina K. We could do whatever we liked with the images. Cammie had also sent me these two images when she sent me some of her stamps to make sample cards, so I used my stamp rather than the stamped images as that gave me more options.

My first card I created I decided to use Beate's weekend sketch #19 which was last weeks sketch challenge. I also added bone buttons and fire hydrant as embellishments.

I decided to create a second card for this challenge, one was all we needed to do but I did also want to create a scene with the dog image. I stamped the dog, masked it and then stamped the dog house. This was then also masked ands the background trees were added and then the grass in various colors of inks. The dog/bird were then stamped a second time on scrap card, colored and cut out and attached over the first image using foam tape.

Recipe:

Top Card:
Stamps: All Stamps - Carolyn King Designs
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Navy - SU; Striped DP - Stamp It (Aust)
Other: Black Ink; Old Paper Distress Ink; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool, Bone & Fire Hydrant Buttons; Brads; Oval Punch; Horizontal Slot Punch; Grosgrain Ribbon

Bottom Card:
Stamps: Dog & Verse - Carolyn King Designs; Kennel - Fern Gully; Trees - CC Rubber Stamps; Grass - Stampscapes
Paper: Really Rust; Old Olive; So Saffron - SU; White
Other: Black Ink; Bisque, Lime Pastel & Olive Pastel Fluid Chalk

Eat Pink Cake!

This afternoon I was able to make my card for this weeks featured stamper challenge. So who is the featured stamper this week? Well it is Kristina Werner aka starofmay on SCS, congratulations Kristina! Kristina has quite a few cards in her gallery and as always it can be hard to decide which card to CASE for this challenge, but in the end I decided to case this one. The main reason I picked this card of Kristina's was that she used the cake from Stampin' Up's Eat Cake set and although I have had my set from at least April I had yet to use it so figured this would be a perfect opportunity to use it! Now I might actually use it a little more now I have used it once.

As always we have to change at least 2 things on the card we pick for this challenge, here are the changes I made.

• Changed the blue to pink.
• Changed the Ribbon
• Used stamped flowers rather than the felt flowers Kristina used
• Made my flowers double layers
• Added brads to the centre of my flowers
  

The flowers were created using the flower from Big Blooms and also one from Bodacious . I used paper piercing to frame my eat and then used my white gel pen to create faux stitching as Kristina did.

Recipe:
Stamps: Eat Cake; Bodacious & Big Blooms - Stampin' Up
Paper: Chocolate Chip; White
Other: Chocolate Chip Ink; Pink Ink; Pink with Brown Polka Dot Ribbon; Brads; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool

Santa's Coming Down the Chimney!

I am not sure if Santa is just coming down the chimney or whether he has eaten too many of those milk and cookies that the children leave out for him and he is stuck! Yikes!!!!!! Hopefully he isn't stuck cause I for one would hate to miss out on him visiting me ;) .

This card is for Beate's weekend sketch challenge, this week I thought I would play with some Christmas stamps as it is only about 3 months away now which won't take long to get here and I do need to start thinking seriously about making a few Christmas cards!!!!!!!!

I kept this card to the standard size card as this is a good size to use when you have a lot of cards to make and post at that time of year.

Recipe:
Stamps: Santa & Fireplace - My Favorite Things; Verse - Papertrey Ink
Paper: Olive; Red; White; Fruitcake Basic Grey DP
Other: Black Ink; Old Paper Distress Ink; Olive Brads; Ticket Corner Punch; Small Oval Punch; Red Grosgrain Ribbon

Friends for Heifer - Take 2!

As you can see I have created another card using the same stamps as the card I created on Tuesday. This time I just used a different layout, I have been wanting to create a card using this layout for a few months now and finally got around to actually doing it.

I ended up making this card at 1am Wednesday morning ..... I had just signed off chatting to a few friends I chat to on SCS saying it is now 1am so I am going to bed. I turned off the computer and had every intension of going to bed but then this idea jumped into my head and I just had to make this card .... I decided to keep to the exact color scheme as my previous card .... at 1am that is a safer option to do as it made it fairly quick to create ... change the color scheme and I could have been up all night. ;)

Once I had the panels on the card and everything cut out and colored .... I left it there for the night and came back to it in the morning to add the verse using my word window punch. The verse is actually too long to just punch out using this punch so I just stamped the verse on a long piece of card which is the same width as the word window punch and just fed in each end to get the rounded shape I needed.

I wanted to add brads to this card but at the time I didn't have the color I wanted ... fortunately my friend came over that day with some brads she had purchased for me .... I have been looking everywhere for chocolate and I think we have finally found them ... these brads aren't the chocolate ones .... they are actually a coated copper and will do for the time being but we know now we can get the chocolate so will be ordering some.

Recipe:
Stamps: High Hopes Stamps
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue & Real Red - Stampin' Up; White
Other: Black Ink; Chocolate Chip SU Ink; Word Window Punch; Copper Brads

Tagged by Kristi!

I was tagged the other day by Kristi of Kreations by Krissy, but I forgot to mention it here on my blog because it has been a pretty busy week with various friends visiting me!

The tag was that fun name one that I posted here on Saturday, click on the link if you missed it and would like to see what you missed ;)

Anyway as I have already done this tag .... I don't need to do it again .... I would think my answers would be the same but if you haven't checked out Kristi's blog before you might want to check it out!

I Got An "A"

I just couldn't resisted seeing whether or not I would pass on this fun grammer test! If you want to see if you could get an "A" too, just click on the link below.

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

Showering Birthday Wishes!

It's time for another sketch challenge on SCS as it is Wednesday already, the weeks sure do go fast when you are having fun! I also wanted to combine this weeks color challenge into my card the colors we had to use were: Really Rust, River Rock and Chocolate Chip.

As my Shower Time set arrived in the mail on Monday and as yet I hadn't had a chance to play with it I thought I would see if I could use that set for this challenge. I started by stamping the girl image onto the white card I was going to use as the base using black ink, I stamped the same image onto a piece of river rock DP and again on a piece of outlaw DP and then a third time on a scrap of white card. I cut out the umbrella from the river rock piece, the dress from the outlaw DP and finally the arms from the white scrap. These were then adhered over the base image. The arms and neck were colored using a flesh marker. I used my ticket corner punch to punch the corners of the white card and then sponged the edge of the white card using river rock ink. I then layered this to river rock and choc chip card and attached the brads in each corner.

The small thin strip is just river rock layered to choc chip card. The centre panel is river rock DP layered onto choc chip card I used a different pattern to that which I used for the umbrella. The base card using outlaw DP layered to the folded choc chip card. To finish this off I just added to brads to the left side of the thin strip and the greeting to the top left corner of the middle panel.

Recipe:
Stamps: Shower Time - My Favorite Things; Verse - Papertrey Ink
Paper: River Rock, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Outlaw DP and River Rock DP - Stampin' Up; White
Other: Black Ink; River Rock SU Ink; Brads; Ticket Corner Punch; Foam Tape

Friends for Heifer!

A few weeks ago I told you all that I was lucky enough to win a prize in a card contest run by Kraftin' Kimmie's Korner. Well yesterday my prize arrived and of course I just had to use some of them today to create this card show here. The stamps I won are by High Hopes Stamps and included this cute little boy with the cow (Clarabelle And Riley), the"friends for heifer" verse, cow spot background, single cow spot and the word Moo! These were all stamps I wanted so I was thrilled to have won them and now that I have my prize and could put in my order for the new stamps that were released recently. If you haven't seen them yet head over to High Hopes Stamps, click on the catalog and then type in HOTP in the search section. They certainly have some fun stamps! Thank you Kim and High Hopes Stamps for my wonderful prize.

Sherry from Walking on the Bad Side and Jeanne from Inky Paws have started hosting a weekly challenge called "Just Because We Wanna", this week the challenge is a sketch challenge which is what I used to create my card here.

Recipe:
Stamps: All stamps by High Hopes Stamps
Paper: Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip and Real Red - Stampin' Up; White
Other: Black Ink; Chocolate Chip SU Ink; Old Paper Distress Ink; Ticket Corner Punch; Red Brads; Brown Grosgrain Ribbon

Love Every Beautiful Day!

It's time for me to post my challenge I do with a group of friends on SCS. This week are challenge was to do some flower arranging with masking. We could use any technique we wanted as long as masking was involved.

I decided to play with my Wild Rose set from SU, I first stamped the large solid rose onto my white card using groovy guava ink and then using my stamp positioner I stamped the outline rose over the top of this using spiced marmalade distress ink. This flower was then masked so I could stamp my leaves and rose buds. Once I had the flowers all in place I then masked all the flowers and leaves and stamped my background (weathered wood) using river rock ink and then my verse on the right hand side of the card. I also sponged the edges of the card using river rock ink.

I created 3 panels using river rock card and then used my script cuttlebug embossing folder to add texture to these pieces and also sponge river rock ink over the raised areas. These were layered to always artichoke card and then attached to a groovy guava base card.

I wanted to give the large rose some dimension so I stamped another on scrap white card as I did previously and then cut this one out and attached the centre to the centre of the rose using foam tape.
Recipe: Stamps: Wild Rose - Stampin' Up; Weathered Wood B/G - Cornish Heritage Farms; Verse - Unknown
Paper: Groovy Guava; Always Artichoke & River Rock - SU; White
Other: Black Ink; Groovy Guava, So Saffron & River Rock SU Ink; Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink; Olive Pastel & Lime Pastel Fluid Chalk, Orange Brads; Script Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Foam Tape

Zindorf's Owl!

The challenge for the featured stamper wasn't posted until late last night (my time) it is normally posted about 2pm my time so I wasn't able to create my card until this morning. This weeks featured stamper is Zindorf, hence the title on this post. Zindorf's gallery is just wonderful but it wasn't hard for me to decide which card I was going to case. How could a featured stamper have a card with an owl on it and I not case it ... I ask you ;) ..... you can see Zindorf's card here.

I loved this card when Zindorf first posted it back in August, a friend had actually sent me the link so I couldn't miss it and I had put it in my favorites to case someday ... well today was the day! I loved the card as is so I didn't attempt to make any big changes to the card ... I did make little ones as I had to adapt some things for what I owned. Here are the changes I made:

• used different tree images for the base card and the branch the owl is sitting on
• used a different color star eyelet and changed the number of eyelets I used
• omitted the leaves from the card
• added olive ribbon to the centre of my card
• added brads to the verse
• cut my owl out and used foam tape to attach it to my card.
• used a different moon (I used the one from the set .. don't think this is what Zindorf used)
• used Creole Spice Kaleidacolor ink pad to brayer my card.
• used a different verse
• used so saffron card rather than apricot appeal card

The moon was stamped first in versamark ink and then in summer sun so that I could emboss it, I did the same with the branch & owl (but used choc chip instead of the summer sun). The owl was stamped on a separate piece of gloss card. The panel was then brayered using creole spice ink. The trees up the top of the background were also stamped using black pigment ink embossed with clear ep and brayered with the same ink. This technique is called the emboss resist technique.

Recipe:
Stamps: Owl & Moon - What a Hoot SU; Trees - Posh; Verse - Stampendous
Papers: So Saffron; Navy - SU; White Gloss
Other: Black Pigment Ink; Choc Chip & Summer Sun SU Ink; Creole Spice kaleidacolor Ink; Versamark Ink; Oval Punches; Olive Grosgrain Ribbon; Clear Embossing Powder; Star Eyelets; Navy Brads; Foam Tape

Another Sketch Challenge!

This is another card for yet another sketch challenge ... I just love participating in sketch challenges ... unfortunately I don't have time to do everyone I see but I do try and do what I can. Julie HRR of SCS had been hinting around that there were to be some changes to the Dirty Dozen Gallery ... as I live in Australia I get to view this when it opens at midnight in the US (all going well!) Well the changes were revealed last night and this is in the form of some fun challenges which we can all play along with if we want. One of these challenges is this sketch challenge ... which of course had to be the first challenge I had to complete ;)

As you can see I hadn't put away the DP that I used for Beate's sketch challenge and I thought it would work great with this image from My Favorite Things. I stamped the image twice, once on the DP and once on white card .... I cut out all the wall on the white piece and layered this over the DP image. I also added the remote and bottles which is also part of this set.

I used the DP again for the background for this card but turned the stripes. I used more mustard card for the left side panel which I stamped using the weave b/g from Cornish Heritage Farms and the stripe between the two layers is not quite navy. This was then layered to Olive and then choc chip card.

I used 3 different colored brads in the lower right hand corner and stamped the Happy Birthday on white card and punched this out using my small oval punch and then layered this to the not quite navy using my larger oval punch.

I felt it still needed something on the piece on the left so used my photo corner punch to create the photo corners from the DP and choc chip card.

It's my DH's birthday on Friday ... so I will give this to my DD to give to him.

Recipe:
Stamps: Let's Hear it for the Boys - My Favorite Things; Weave B/Ground - Cornish Heritage Farms
Paper: Choc Chip, Old Olive, More Mustard, Not Quite Navy - SU; White; Pipeline (Hang 10) Basic Grey DP
Other: Black Ink;Choc Chip SU Ink; Small & Large Oval Punch; Photo Corner Punch; Brads; Foam Tape

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #19

I normally get to make my card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge sometime Saturday and post it to my blog at the latest on Saturday afternoon. Yesterday I was out most of the day on a shopping trip with my family ... not necessarily a fun shopping trip LOL, but one that needed to be done anyway. You see it was the 1st of our Christmas shopping trips we do with my Mother, sister and our respective daughters ... we like to do it this way because then we have some help as to what to buy each others families for Christmas so if my sister's DH doesn't like what I get him he can blame my sister etc LOL. The not fun part is we all have different tastes etc so sometimes we are hanging around a shop that interests one person longer than we might like ... now if there was a stamp shop!!! ... I know I would be making them wait but unfortunately that doesn't happen. It was a pretty productive day considering it is only or first one for the year ... I know it sounds early to some of you to go Christmas shopping in September ... but I hate leaving things to the last minute ... and for an Aussie this is the next important holiday of the year ... remember halloween & thanksgiving are not holidays we celebrate here.

Anyway I did finally get to Beate's sketch, I had printed it out before I left in the morning and after a bit of a rest got to it last night ... but was tooo tired to try and take my photos and upload it to my blog, so decided to wait and do that today instead.

I decided to play with another of my High Hopes stamps that I have which I haven't used as yet .... I just love this cute newspaper boy ... actually I love soooooo many of their stamps!! I stamped the boy and colored him, and sponged the edges of my card using old paper distress ink. I also used my paper piercing mat and tool to create the corner in top right hand side of the card. This was then layered to choc chip and old olive card. I also sponge the old olive with old paper distress ink as I wanted it to have a similar look to the DP I picked for this card.

I used my stamp positioner to stamp my verse down the side of the olive card so it would be fairly central to the image. I also used my small oval punch to create the decoration at the top of the old olive card ... it needed something there. This was all layered to the Basic Grey Paper.

I layered not quite navy & choc chip card to use as my strip across the card and added the micro brads ... I thought that suited this card better than ribbon would. I then used my sign as my embellishment I needed for the lower left corner.

I really like how this one turned out ... not sure yet what I will do with it .... my daughter boyfriend does have a nephew so maybe this will be his birthday card for next year ... I can put an appropriate verse inside to go with the extra extra verse on the outside.

Recipe:
Stamps: All Stamps - High Hopes Stamps
Paper: Old Olive, Choc Chip, Not Quite Navy - Stampin' Up; White; Pipeline (Hang 10) Basic Grey DP
Other: Black Ink; Old Paper Distress Ink; Metallic Micro Brads; Small Oval Punch; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool; Foam Tape

A Fun Tag Thing!

I was tagged yesterday by Caz over at A Stamping Chirping Corner to play this fun tag game.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Buddy Ford

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Vanilla Gaiety

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) FBYR

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Blue Owl

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Julia Walthamstow

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) ByrFr

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put "The") The Teal Water

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Francis Ernest

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) If M & M's

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ) Dorothy George

Apparently now I have to tag a few people ...... hmmm let's see.

Kim Muhl

Walking on the Bad Side

Flashback Friday - Matchbox Drawers

Wow today has just flown by and until now I hadn't worked out what I was going to post to my blog today .... well after going through all my old stuff I have made I decided today to share with your a matchbox drawer thing I made a year or so back.

You need 4 matchboxes for this which I painted black and then glued together as you can see here ... I then cut two pieces of thicker card and covered them and placed them on the top and bottom of the matchboxes .... then I decorated the top with the giraffe image ... I used beads for the handles and also for the legs of the matchbox drawers.

Getting Punchy!

Today was stamp club day, each month a different person is responsible for picking a project from one of our Aussie stamping magazines which we all do at our stamp club ... makes us actually stamp not just chat ... which is what I would do if I didn't have this project to do cause I prefer to stamp by myself then in a group ..... I never do my best work with a group!

Today project came from a previous Stamping & Papercrafts magazine and was a project created by Kay Stephenson. The idea for this card was to use various sized circle punches and arrange them on your card in a pleasing manner... some of the circles have smaller circles punched out of them off centre and these are thread through the ribbon which is attached to the card.

This project was something I would have picked to do if I was looking through magazines but as it was the selected project for today ..... I decided to give it a go! The card above are the results ... I did change a few things on mine but not all that much. Basically just colors, the flourishes, the canvas background etc. I guess it isn't too bad ... but I doubt I will make another... arranging the circles was certainly a lot harder than I would have expected it to be.

Ollie's Reading!

This card is for today's sketch challenge .... I decided to use one of my Ollie owls that i haven't used so far .... only have a couple left I haven't used so that's not too bad. A friend of mine Kim aka Nutsymuhl on SCS also told me I had to do this week's color challenge .... I wasn't all that sure I was going to but to keep my friend happy I ended up combining the color challenge with today's sketch challenge.

The colors for the color challenge this week were: Purely Pomegranate, Taken with Teal & Always Artichoke. I am not sure these would be colors I would normally select for a card, but I guess they don't look too bad. The DP is really Rose Red but I figured those darker areas in the DP were pretty good to Purely Pomegranate so I used that for my background. As you can see I also colored my owl in blue .... I saw someone on another blog color her owl blue and I really liked it so I figured I would try it too .... as you know I normally end up coloring them browns ... but a change is as good as a holiday they say ;)
Recipe:
Stamps: Ollie's Reads & Verse - Stampendous
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Taken with Teal, Always Artichoke & Rose Red DP - Stampin' Up; White
Other: Black Ink; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool; Photo Corner Punch; Teal & Green Brads

Answering Questions & Comments

Hi everyone, well it is Tuesday here and so far today I haven't stamped up anything to put on my blog ...... I do want to stamp something today ... but unfortunately as that will be for the challenge I do with the CCEE group on SCS, I won't be able to post it here till Monday .... that is even if I get it done ... so far I haven't even figured out what I want to do for the next challenge ... I have taken a stamp set out of a cupboard so maybe that is a good start.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the post about the passing of my grandpuppy, Chloe. I means a lot to know soooo many people care, my dd also read the comments and I think it helped her a little too :)

Now to answer some questions I have received recently:

Q> Bluemoon asked: Luv your smashing card. How do you do the smashing technique? or where can I find it?

A> Sorry I should have put this in my post but I was typing that post up and doing something else at the same time and forgot to do so. Click on the link to find the Smashing Technique Tutorial.

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Q> Lynn asked: What did you use to color the owls because your coloring is awesome?

A> Thanks Lynn :) For the majority of my coloring I prefer to use alcohol markers ... the brand I use are trias as I have been using this method for many years now ...... however trias have gone through a number of changes recently so I wouldn't suggest people look for these .... Many people seem to be using Copic markers which are also an alcohol marker so if you are considering trying these I would look for that brand ... I intend to purchase myself too before the end of the year. Check out this Alcohol Marker Tutorial on SCS for some great tips on using these.

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Q> Debbie asked: Do you know where I can purchase the girlfriend's stamp ... that I used on this card for Beate's sketch challenge.

A> Sorry no ... this was a present from a friend as part of a secret sister parcel I received recently ..... the stamp does say "Kolette Hall" ...... I am thinking possibly Michaels or some such shop like that but am not sure.

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Well I think I have answered all the questioned I have received recently .... thank you all for coming and visiting my blog

Shopping ... It's all Black & White!

I am a little later than normal in posting my challenge card I do with a group of friends of SCS then normal, I was about to do it earlier but a friend came by and then I got caught up doing a few other things after she left.

Our challenge this week was inspired by Joanne aka Jojot who does some wonderful black and white cards on SCS, she has to be the master of black & white cards! We were allowed a little extra and that was that we were also allowed to add shades of grey! Well I normally love looking at Black & White cards but am not all that fond of creating them .... for the simple reason that they don't look that great when I make them ...... soooo there may have been a little grumbling about Joanne and her cards in the few weeks prior to this challenge. We even got to chat to her online on SCS recently and begged her not to post any and get her to make us one of her cards ..... not sure if she understood that we wanted them so we could put our names to them LOL! Ok so we aren't really dishonest and this card posted here is actually made by me and not Joanne (jojot), I say we cause I wasn't alone in wanting to have Joanne make one of her black & white cards for our use LOL!

Anyway after some grumbling and muttering .... I finally went to create my card and this is what I came up with. I used Beate's weekend sketch challenge #17 for the layout of this card. I already had the black & white circle DP which I wanted to use so after some thought decided to use one of my rubber romance girls for it .. .I think some of those suit black & white cards very well. I recently discovered some micro brads so used the black micro brads around the edge of the circle .... I now need more as this card used the last of my black ones. The shopping bags I paper pieced using both sides of the DP. All in all I was very happy with the outcome so I am no longer grumbling ;)

Recipe:
Stamps: Girl - Rubber Romance; Verse - My Favorite Things; Row of dots - Fancy Pants
Paper: White, Black, Grey, Black Tie Optional DP - Imaginisce
Other: Black Ink; Black Micro Brads; White Brads; Word Window Punch; Oval Punch; CM Circle Cutter.

Mad about Maddy!

Today's featured stamper on SCS is Maddy!!!!!!!! You can see the card I CASED here, I am not 100% happy with mine but I am tired after the weekend participating in VSN and this is the best my brain could come up with .... not sure I like the hello on the tag .... I may end up changing that yet .... we will see.

As always we have to change at least 2 things from the card we CASED ..... here are my changes:

• changed the colors
• changed the theme of the card
• changed the images
• changed the verse
• changed the cord to ribbon

Recipe:
Stamps: Boat - Hero Arts; Seagulls - Stamp It; Dolphin & Splash - PSX; Flannel Plaid - SU; hello - Studio G
Paper: White; Bashful Blue; Not Quite Navy
Other: Prussian Blue Fluid Chalk; Black Ink; Oval Cutter; Rope

VSN - Sept 07 Day 2

Well VSN is over for another weekend, it has been lots of fun! If you participated I hope you had lots of fun .... I certainly enjoyed seeing all your creations and chatting with some of you. If you haven't had time to play and still would like to then there is still time just head over to the VSN forum and check out the challenges, as long as the card takes you 45 mins to create once you start stamping you are fine .... your card does need to be in the appropriate gallery by 3pm Sunday ET.

Here are my samples from today challenges. I didn't make mine today because I got to play before hand as I am one of the hostesses for the challenges :) ....... however I still had to stick to the rules just like everyone else!

This first one was for the "Reach out & touch challenge" we were to use as many textures as possible .... mine included 3 different cuttlebug folders, staples, rope, brads.

This one was for the "It's the Great Pumpkin" challenge. Ok now I am not sure what owls have to do with Charlie Brown and the great pumpkin ............. however seeing I just got this whole set of these owls and some of them are halloween and we don't do halloween in Aust ......... so if I don't use them for VSN the halloween ones mightn't get used and I want to use them! So I have decided that there was an owl there ......... if you didn't see it ....... well it is because it flew across the screen very quickly and you might have blinked and missed it .... it landed on one stacks in the pumpkin patch ..... but the camera missed that too! I think Linus is just to the left of this scene but is not shown on my card

This one was for the "Falling into fall" challenge and the challenge was to make a waterfall card... I decided to use my leaf stamps from Cowtown Stamps for this one.

As soon as I saw this challenge, which was "Make Like a Tree", we had to make a card for leaving, separation or departure ....... I knew exactly what stamp I had to use for it ........ Now I have no idea who on earth I could give this card to ..... it isn't exactly a card you can give to just anyone ....... not even sure why someone would make a stamp with it ........ it came on a plate with leaf stamps and a few other leaf related verses. I figured if I don't use it for this challenge I may never use it ..... so can't let an opportunity go by now can I?

This is the sample card I made for my challenge "Resisting Autumn"... I resist Autumn because winter is finally over in Australia and we have just started to enjoy Spring... the challenge was to create a card using some form of resist technique. I chose the crayon resist technique to create mine.

This one was for the challenge "The Stamp Two-Step", the challenge was to create a card using the same stamp as the background and the main image. I used my Ginkgo image from Inkadinkadoo and used it multiple times masking it to create my background

This one was for the "It's a Harvest Mix!" challenge ....... we were directed to create a card using the fall colors ... yellow, orange, white, brown & green. I used my main image from My Favorite Things and the leaf background from Cornish Heritage Farms.


And finally my last card for VSN. This challenge was " Fall into the Dirt Pile" and we had to create a distressed dirty card. I used ink to distress my main image and the middle panel, my distressing tool to distress all the edges of each layer, I scrunched up my main image. I also added paper piercing to both sides of the main image.

Well that is it for another VSN, hope to see you at the next one ;)

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #18

Well it has been a fairly busy day today, even though I didn't create my VSN cards today .... it still takes time doing all the other bits and pieces associated with the event. I finally got a change to sit down to create my card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge this afternoon .... but then I had to leave it as we were due at my Sister in Law's for dinner .... as I am home now I can finally upload it!

For todays sketch I went with Tiffany from Rubber Romance ..... I love these stamps ... I don't think I have used this one before. I decided to stamp her using chocolate chip ink as I didn't really want to have a black umbrella ...... I thought brown would make a nice change ... I found this dot paper in with my papers so that helped decide what colors to use to color the raincoat! After stamping out the image I cut it out using my scallop circle punch and layered it to artichoke & choc chip circles cut using the cricut.

I added paper piercing around the edges and corners of the rose red card, and the verse is one I received recently from my VSN secret sis :)

Recipe:
Stamps: Tiffany - Rubber Romance; Girlfriends Verse - Kolette Hall
Paper: Rose Red; Always Artichoke; Choc Chip - Stampin' Up; White; Joyful Dots DP - All My Memories
Other: Chocolate Chip SU Ink; Pink Brads; Scallop Circle Punch; George Cricut Cartridge; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool; Brown Grosgrain Ribbon

VSN - Sept 07 Day 1

Well Day 1 of VSN has just finished .... what a fun day it has been! I have really enjoyed seeing everyones take on the challenges that have been posted so far.

In case you don't know yet what VSN means it stands for Virtual Stamp Night, this is a time when special challenges are posted to the VSN forum on SCS. Everyone is welcome to participate in the challenges ...... but there is a time limit of how long you can take to create your card ..... it can only take 45 mins! You don't necessarily have to participate in the challenge as soon as it is posted you have until 3pm Sunday afternoon to upload them to the gallery.

Each VSN has a special theme, the theme this time round is "Jumping into Fall" and the hostesses are all called Autumn Fairies ........... of course living in Australia it isn't fall down here but the start of spring (which I have been looking forward to very much) ..... so I guess I am either a Spring Autumn Fairy or some such thing ...... maybe just a confused fairy! with all this springing and falling ;)

As a VSN Hostess we get the opportunity to see the challenges before the actual weekend of the event and are able to play before hand ......... this helps the hostesses check that their challenges are ok ......... and also means more sample ideas for those playing on the actual weekend. I didn't get to do every challenge this time round but I did do most of them, here are my cards from day 1.

The challenge for this card was "Smashing Autumn", we had to use autumn colors and create a card using the smash technique to create the background. The stamp I used here is one by Lucy's Stamps (Aust Co), I also used my script cuttlebug embossing folder to create the background on this one ......... both the main image and the background card were created using the smashing technique.

This treat box was for the "Knock Knock Trick or Treat" challenge ....... we needed to create a 2, 4, 6, 8 box that could be used to put some candy in like a trick or treat bag. The stamp used here is by MissyB Designs.

"Falling in Love" was the theme for this card ..... the challenge was to make a card for someone I loved using stamps I love .. well of course I love my owls stamps so it wasn't hard to work out what I would use for this card ...... it would be perfect to give to my DH. The owl and verse is by Stampendous, the background stamps used on this card are both by Cornish Heritage Farms.

A baby card this time for "Falling in Love - with Baby!" .... the hostess of this particular challenge admitted she loves making baby cards so this was our challenge ..... which worked out pretty good as I need to create a baby card to give to my eldest DD for a friend of hers. This one using Teddy Bella and the Baby Cuttlebug embossing folder. I kept it neutral colors as my daughters friend doesn't know whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.


The final challenge for today was "Halloween Candy", of course Halloween is in fall if you live in the northern hemisphere ....... and our challenge was to make a card in the shape and colors of your favorite halloween candy. Of course not celebrating halloween I don't have a halloween candy and I was about to make a card using the colors and shape of a chocolate I like when a candy corn pop into my head so I decided to go with this idea for this challenge. This card must have been the quickest card to make of all the cards I created for this weekend taking only about 10 mins!

Well that is it for the card from today's challenges. I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of my cards I created for this weekends challenges. If you would like more info on VSN or any of these challenges you can do by going here.

Guava Sympathy

Today's limited supply challenge was to create a sympathy card, I wasn't sure if I wanted to stamp today but in the end decided I did and I do enjoy doing the challenges so I ended up doing this one. With the limited supply challenges we have limits of what we are allowed to do. Here is what we were instructed we could or couldn't use.

Here is the challenge directions:

• Main Image Stamps: Flowers
• Background Stamp: one (It can be a big background, a little background, or just another image turned into a background. But just use one.)
• Sentiment Stamp: one
• Cardstock & Ink: any colors
• NO Designer Paper
• NO Cuttlebug or similar tools
• Embellishments: Limit Depends on the Stamper

It was up to us to limit the amount of embellishments we use ..... we were supposed to use less then we normally word.

For my card I decided to also combine the limited supply challenge with the color challenge which I hadn't done as yet this week. The colors for the color challenge were Groovy Guava & Always Artichoke.

For my card I stamped the verse onto my white card using black ink. I inked my rose up using groovy guava ink and marvy marker #96 and overstamped this over the verse .... I used my stamp positioner so I got my rose exactly where I wanted it ....... I then cut my card down to size. I used my ticket corner punch to round the corners and layered this to always artichoke card. I found some brads from making memories that were a pretty good match to the guava card!

If you look close at the layout of this card ........ it will look familiar as it is the same one as what I used for my elephant card yesterday .... it looks slightly different because my main image is large then the centre piece but otherwise it is the same. This was based on a sketch I found on CPS's blog.

I used my lattice background stamp and my guava ink to stamp the guava card which was then cut into 3 pieces and layered onto the artichoke card. This was then layered to the folded guava card. The main image was attached to the front of the card using foam tape.

Recipe:
Stamps: Sympathy - Paper Inspirations; Rose - Penny Black; Lattice B/G - Cornish Heritage Farms
Paper: Groovy Guava & Always Artichoke - Stampin' Up; White
Other: Black Ink; Groovy Guava SU Ink; Marvy Brush Marker #96; Ticket Corner Punch; Brads; Foam Tape

Remembering Chloe!

I don't normally post things that are not of a stamping nature on my blog ....... but today I am a little sad as my DD rang early this morning to inform us that her "baby" (my grand puppy) seen in this photo above lost her battle to survive.

My DD noticed that Chloe was unwell last weekend so took her to the vet, apparently she had also lost a lot of weight recently ..... we all had taken this to be because my DD had been trying to help her lose weight with a special diet the vet had suggested as she was a little overweight, but unfortunately this wasn't the reason for her weight lose. At first they thought it was diabetes but as the week continued the the diagnosis did too, yesterday as she wasn't improving she was taken to a specialist who also said it was diabetes.

My DD visited with Chloe last night and she wagged her tail and her eyes looked clearer ...... so the signs were looking good for a recovery. But ......... unfortunately that wasn't to be!

Chloe will be greatly missed by her Mum (DD), myself, DH & other DD and her brother Oscar. She was a beautiful dog and grand puppy and she gave us all lots of joy in her short lifetime.

We love ya Chloe!

Virtual Stamp Night

VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) is almost here ..... all the fun starts on SCS Friday night at 6pm ET (or if you live in Australia like I do that is 8am Saturday). I am again one of the hostesses for this event, and am looking forward to participating.

For those who don't know VSN consist of a series of fun challenges which are run over the weekend starting on Friday night from 6pm to 11pm and Saturday from 12 noon to 11pm. Anyone is allowed to play so come on over to SCS if you have time and check out the challenges ...... each challenge does need to be completed in a 45 mins time frame ..... you don't have to do a challenge at the time it is posted if that time doesn't suit you (12 noon US time is 2am my time so I definitely won't be up then!) you can still do the challenges even after VSN is over as long as you keep to that 45 min time frame ........... You can do just one challenge or all the challenges that is up to you.

Check here for more info on VSN

Happy Elephant!

This elephant is one of the new cute animal stamps from alota Rubber Stamps .... I just love this image ........ so cute.

The layout for this card is taken from a sketch I found on CPS web site this week ..... as soon as I saw the sketch I was trying to decide which stamp could use with it ..... I decided upon this elephant image.... I also found some paper in with my black & grey scraps that reminded me on elephant skin so I decided to use that for the top and bottom panels of this card. I didn't have grey brads (note to self look for grey brads) ..... so I used my alcohol pens to color white ones grey! I also added 2 rows of paper piercing along each side of the elephant image.

Recipe:
Stamps: Elephant & verse - alota Rubber Stamps
Paper: White, Black & Dark Grey
Other: Black Ink; White Brads; Black Brads; Ticket Corner Punch; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool