Friday, July 25, 2008

Nerine's Back to Basics Challenge

My sister demo Nerine set a Back to Basics challenge not long ago that I thought 'yay, I have a couple of cards that already fit that challenge'. She set a basic layout to use and the conditions 2 colours and 1 neutral.
This first one I made for my Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary last year. I really like this card because it is so quick and easy, but I'd forgotten that I'd used 3 colours...
Stamps: Petal Prints, Heartfelt Thanks
Card: Pale Plum, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Ink: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum

This second one will look familiar because I posted it a while ago, but I love it, and so did my friend Susan who I made it for.
Stamps: Time Well Spent
Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Lovely Lilac
Ink: Lovely Lilac
Other: White gel pen, Lovely Lilac Stampin' Write Marker
The only thing was, one of the conditions of the challenge was to use only 2 colours and a neutral, and Suze's card used 2 neutrals and a colour. So, with these two cards not quite meeting the conditions, I came up with this card to submit:

Stamps: Priceless

Card: Tempting Turquoise, Cameo Coral, Whisper White

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Cameo Coral

Other: 1 1/4" circle punch, ice rhinestone brad

(I have no idea why the spacing has just gone haywire - sorry). I was really happy with this card; IRL it looks much better. I twisted the punched background circles for the butterflies to give them a swirl effect. My sister almost ended up with this as her birthday card, but I have since made another which I will post soon...

If you like what you see, check out Nerine's blog and vote after the 3rd of August!!


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

DSP for Grace

My work colleague and fellow card maker Grace recently celebrated another birthday, so I whipped up this card for her. She loves using DSP in her cards and doesn't like a lot of 'frills' and ribbons, so I tried to keep it quite simple and used my current favourite DSP Fall Flowers.


Stamp Set: A Little Birthday Cheer
Card: Old Olive, Soft Sky, Really Rust
Paper: Fall Flowers DSP
Ink: Versamark
I embarrased her by organising a morning tea at work, but I think all was forgiven with chocolates...

Thank you Nerine

My sister demo Nerine recently nominated me for my very first blog award.

Thank you so much Nerine - you are incredibly talented and I am honoured that I inspire you!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

For my little bro...

In between my recent Adelaide trips, my little (well 26 year old) brother had his birthday, and for once I was organised and he got his card AND pressie before the event (unlike this posting). You all know the difficulty I have with masculine cards, so here 'tis.


I didn't realise until after, but I used very similar colours to Dad's card (these are Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy, Real Red and So Saffron). I used the background stamp from Looks Like Spring and the star is from Classic Backgrounds. Once again, his name uses Big Deal Alphabet (a common occurence at the moment, but it's such a great alphabet!!). I stamped off each letter in Wild Wasabi, and then kissed each one with the Looks Like Spring diamond background to give the 'two-tonish' effect. I like the way the letters worked out, but think I should have used the diamond outline for the background instead.... As usual though, Dad was quite impressed (gotta love your Dad!!).

Happy Birthday Mate!!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Poppin' Pastels Swap

Well, I've taken my time posting this card too... As mentioned previously, I was involved in a Poppin' Pastels swap last month which provided me with quite a challenge. Third time lucky, this was the card I ended up swapping:

My offering was quite different to the other swappers, so I hope they liked it...
The main poppin' pastel image (and the flowers too) was from Bold Butterfly. I must say using sponge daubers makes so much difference with this technique. The background was Paisley. Card stock and inks were Taken with Teal, Lavendar Lace , Soft Sky and Old Olive. We also needed to include an eyelet, so mine were silver (thanks Mel!).

Now I just need to get my head around 2 more swaps I've put my hand up for.

Welcome Shanae and Casey

Sorry once again it's been a while - the horrific amount of travelling has finally caught up with me... Even so, I was still able to sit down last weekend and make a dent in the HUGE list of cards I need to make. I thought first up today I would show you the cards I made for the beautiful twins - who are almost 2 weeks old!!


After I finished these, I thought 'Oops, they're not very baby-ish...' but, they fit with the colour scheme Kerry has chosen for them - obviously pink for Shanae and purple for Casey. Being twins, I wanted to make something similar, but different, and as Shanae's name wouldn't fit on a 'conventional' card, the folding provided one of the differences!! Both cards use images from Wild About You and Big Deal Alphabet. Shanae's card is Pixie Pink and Pink Passion (with Very Vanilla), finished with (retired) Pixie Pink eyelets, and Casey's card is Lovely Lilac and Almost Amethyst, finished with Dazzling Diamonds (on the elephant's toenails too!!). I know they are bolder than most baby cards, but I do think they suit these gorgeous little bundles. They'll be almost 5 months old next time I see them :-(

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

ABCD... Airports & AFS, Babies, Cars & Catch ups, Diabetes

These are the reasons why I haven't posted for a while. I was thinking on my latest drive up to Darwin last week that by last night, I would have travelled pretty close to 14 500kms in 2 1/2 weeks. That's a bit scary, especially considering Luana has basically done the same. How long do you think it will take to get her back into a routine?!?

So, we have spent a lot of time in airports and on airplanes (and Luana LOVES planes and excitedly exclaims 'plane, plane' when we walk along the ramps towards the plane and she can see them through the glass; she has just started saying aeroplane today too - too cute!), and just as much time in cars. I learned a lot at the AFS conference (and we are still looking for 2 volunteer host families in the NT for an Italian boy and a Brazilian boy for 6 months who arrive Aug 1st - PLEASE contact me if you can help - all you need is a spare bed and an open mind), and am glad the second week of my diabetes course is over, but I have a 3000 word assignment due at the end of Sep. The most fun part of the trip was meeting 3 beautiful new little girls - Alexandra (her card I have already posted) and Shanae and Casey - the twin daughters of Luana's godmother. They are all so gorgeous and I'm glad we could meet them in person!
Here's a photo of Luana meeting Casey.We were also able to catch up with a few friends in the little bit of spare time I had. I didn't even really get an opportunity to do any shopping these trips :-( My credit card is happier for it though!

Anyways, I have not had time to indulge in stamping (and the one night I was attending a demo night I had to leave early because Luana wouldn't settle so didn't finish anything), but I still have a couple cards up my sleeve I haven't posted yet so that will have to tied me over until I can find a spare few minutes to attack the list of cards I need to make (thanks to baby group I have a HEAP of 2 year old cards to make over the next couple months).

This card was made for a friends little girl who is turning 6 tomorrow.

Purple is her favourite colour, so I used Almost Amethyst (the 6 is out of discontinued DSP) and Lovely Lilac, as well as Confetti White card, which I think is a little bit softer than Whisper White. I LOVE the butterfly from Time Well Spent so had to use that, especially as I used the ones from Bold Butterfly last year and couldn't possibly repeat so soon (plus I couldn't fit 6 on)! The 6 was traced from Simon On Board Lower chipboard and cut out, and the 3D butterfly was coloured in a bit using a Lovely Lilac Stampin' Write marker. Hopefully she'll be happy with it and we'll get to see her soon. Happy Birthday Vetty!!

Must go and find my bed but hopefully it won't be too long until I post again!