Challenge - part 2

Here is the second card from the 'cork flowers' challenge.

This time I used some of the lovely images from Nature Walk as a subtle background, added a strip of embossed Cajun Craze and then popped a flower made from three of the shapes from the Blossom Party die.  I also made three loops with Old Olive Ribbon to add as 'leaves' under the flower.

The edges of the Very Vanilla background have been sponged with Crumb Cake to soften them a little.

What I used:

Card:  Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede

Stamp Sets:  Nature Walk

Tools and other fun stuff:  Big Shot, Blossom Party Originals Die, Framed Tulips embossing folder, Stampin' sponges, 1/8" Old Olive ribbon, sheet of cork.

It all started with a challenge!

It was my turn to design a Make and Take for our monthly meeting and Keryn challenged me to do it using some cork and card flower we had cut with the Blossom Party Originals Die and the Big Shot.

We looked through the Color Coach to see what colours would work nicely with it and we came up with a combination of Cajun Craze, Night of Navy and Old Olive.  

The first photo shows what I arrived home with.....  as I don't to waste anything I ended up making 5 cards!  

The card you see today is the first one I made and the one we made last night during our meeting.  I used the inlaid embossing technique and really like how it turned out!

Over the next few days I'll reveal the other cards, I tried to make them in different styles so show the versatility of the materials.

What I used:

Card:  Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, Old Olive, Cajun Craze.

Ink: Nil

Stamp set:  Nil

Tools and other fun stuff:  Big Shot, Blossom Party Originals Die, Glue stick, Square Lattice embossing folder, sheet of cork.

Petal Pizzaz For You

When I first received the Easter Blossoms stamp set (from the Summer Mini Catalogue) I thought I'd try to stamp the blossom branch on DSP to see how it looked, I coloured the flowers with Markers, added a Petal Pizzaz flower and a couple of leaves and then wasn't quite sure what to do with it!  I'm sure everyone has those moments - at least I hope so...

Anyway, it got buried amongst papers on my desk for months, (yes - months!) and today I came across it and decided to finish it as I was in need of a thank you card.  I think it turned out quite well in the end, but by golly it took a long time!

What I used:

Card:  So Saffron, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Tea Party DSP (retired)

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red

Stamp sets:  Easter Blossoms, Basic Phrases, Petal Pizzaz

Tools and other fun stuff:  Basic Pearls, Word Window punch, Scallop Border punch

Anzac Poppy

I bought an Anzac Poppy today in readiness for Monday and when I looked at it closely I thought I'd try to make my own version and here is the result.  I used a couple of punches for the two petals, and a snippet of Old Olive Ribbon was added to the stem for a little balance - it was quite fun to make, why don't you give it a go?  We don't really make Anzac Day cards in NZ, but maybe it could be the start of a new tradition?? (my daughter's boyfriend is in the army so I suggested she might like to give it to him!)

(For those of you not familiar with Anzac Day, it is the day we remember all those soldiers who have gone to war, and the poppy symbol comes from the poppy fields in Gallipolli (Turkey) where so many New Zealand and Australian soldiers lost their lives in the first world war.  My paternal grandfather was one of the lucky ones who fought at Gallipolli and come home safe and sound - my little boy is named after his great-grandfather Leo)

I'll try to post a photo of the poppy sold each year at this time so you can compare both of them.

What I used:

Card:  Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Red, non SU paper.

Ink:  a little Riding Hood Red was swiped around the poppy pieces.

Tools and other fun stuff:  Wide Oval Punch, Large Oval punch, black button, Old Olive 1/8" tafetta ribbon, Square Lattice embossing folder, non SU background shape dies.

Big Shot Brooch

The Big Shot is not only for cutting card - it cuts a whole lot of other materials too including polar fleece!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to make my very own polar fleece brooch when I attended our team's monthly get-together.  Brenda showed us how to make these fashion accesories and we all had lots of fun constructing them.  If you're a sewer and have lots of scraps in bags stashed away (like me!) then this is a great way of using some of them up.

The circles were cut with the Circles #2 Originals Die and you can cut more than one layer of polar fleece at the time too which is great.

All in all there are five petals made up of two circles each, two hand cut leaves, another circle to hold the pin on the back and a nice button to finish it off.  My mum made the orange one with the pearl centre, incredible how starting with the same sized circles we came up with two quite different flowers!  I like to think of mine as a "David Austen" rose LOL!

Happy Birthday Carlos

{I typed up this post way back in February as that's when Carlos had his birthday but due to the hybrid nature of the card (SU products and non-SU products) I was not going to publish it.... but seeing that I have not been able to get anything else posted lately I thought showing you this card was better than not showing you anything at all!!  And it's almost all SU except for the Owl stamp anyway....  :>}

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Now, if I had the Owl punch that is what I would have used for this card!  But I don't own one (yet) so chose an owl stamp from my pre-SU stash and then of course remembered I do have an owl stamp in the Fox and Friends set, but by then it was too late...

Anyway, Carlos gets an owl card because he is an ardent supporter of a Chilean football team (soccer) which has an Owl as a mascot and the shorted name for this team is 'la U" hence the huge U on the card as well (personally I thought that was a stroke of genius LOL!).  Oh yes, and blue, red and white are the team colours, obviously!

What I used:

Card:  Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red, White

Ink:  Riding Hood Red, watercolour pencils

Stamp Sets:  Basic Phrases, Wonderful Favourites, Big Deal Alphabet (retired) Owl (non SU)

Tools and other fun stuff:  Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Word Window Punch (I used it to punch out the happy + birthday, then snipped off the rounded ends), non SU scallop dies, Stampin' Dimensionals.

Make and takes

I held my first stall at a school fair yesterday and it was a very interesting experience!  Sold a few cards, had a couple of leads, I enjoyed it.  (My typing is a little limited today so this will be brief!)

Here are the 'make and takes' I made for this occasion.

What I used:

Card:  Cherry Cobbler, So Saffron, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler

Stamp sets:  Petal Pizazz, Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Butterfly Prints, Easter Blossoms (from Summer Mini)

Tools and other fun stuff:  Scallop Circle punch, Butterfly Punch, Large Oval punch, Scalloped Oval punch, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Basic Pearls, Rhinestones.

Happy Anniversary to my Aunt and Uncle!

My Aunty Patricia and Uncle Ray are celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss (one of the reasons my parents are over here visiting - can't miss out on a good shindig!) and I was waiting for my new order to arrive so I could make them a card to celebrate the occasion.  Anyway, it arrived last week and I had lots of fun trying out my new products, the Framed Tulips embossing folder, Gold embossing powder, even the Cherry Cobbler card and ink are new!  And I must say I absolutely love the stamp set, as soon as I saw cards appearing on American blogs using the Nature Walk stamp set I added it to my mental wish-list and hoped like mad it would be sold in Australia and New Zealand and it was - how lucky is that!

Anyway, went a bit crazy with the gold embossing, it's not everyday you celebrate your Golden Wedding anniversary, hope they like it.

The gold embossing is more obvious in the next shots.

What I used:

Card:  Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Versamark Watermark ink

Stamp Sets:  Nature Walk, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Tools and other fun stuff:  Framed Tulips embossing folder, gold embossing powder, heat gun, embossing buddy, Large Oval punch, Scalloped Oval punch, Stamping Dimensionals.