Retro Stars

Hello again! I hope you've had a relaxing weekend - it has been a lot cooler here and a bit wet, so we took our girls down to watch the Todd River flowing yesterday (for those of you overseas, the Todd River is a dry river through Alice Springs and only flows rarely - it hasn't flowed for 18 months); it was the first time for the little one seeing it flow. Today I've been able to spend a bit of time at my craft desk - yay!

I haven't played along with ColourQ or Stampin' Royalty for a while, but this week's challenges were perfect for a fun 4 year old boys card; great retro colours from ColourQ, and 'Dressing Down (No Embellishments)' from Stampin' Royalty.

I have been wanting to try 'fully embossed panels', so I adhered the stars to the background panel before running the whole panel through the Big Shot. I'm really happy with the effect (this is actually the second card I did today with this!) - no embellishements required!!

Have a great week and thanks for visiting!

Flower Bunch

The weather is getting cooler here in the Centre, but I know it's warming up on the other side of the world, so it's fun to play with all the Spring themed challenges that are around at the moment.

This bunch of flowers is for a friend of mine who lives quite some distance away - we did actually see her on her actual birthday, but as we were away from home I didn't have her card made. Luana helped her plant some flowers while we were visiting so a flower pot card was perfect for her - using this weeks Colour Q challenge for the colours, and Stampin' Royalty's Spring challenge as inspiration.

I found the tutorial for this flower pot card on Splitcoast Stamper's quite some time ago, but didn't save the link - sorry. I have made my own adjustments over time too :) I inked up the large flower from Punched Posies (hostess - retired) in Tangerine Tango, then rock 'n' rolled it in Cherry Cobbler, and used the Fancy Flower punch to save me cutting!! The 5 petal flower from the same stamp set was stamped in Kiwi Kiss ink on cardstock the same colour and punched out using the 5 petal flower punch for the leaves. The centre of the middle flower is a 1" circle of Cherry Cobbler flower punched out and attached with a dimensional. The pot is Kraft/Crumb Cake cardstock and tied together with some retired Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon. Finally, I stamped Happy Birthday from Well Scripted (retired) in Cherry Cobbler straight onto the pot.

I hope this little piece of Spring brings a smile to my friend's face - and yours too!

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Punched Posies (retired), Well Scripted (retired)

Card: Crumb Cake, Kiwi Kiss, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Cherry Cobbler

Punches: Fancy Flower, 5 Petal Flower, Scallop Edge, 1" Circle

Other: Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon

Magical Pony

I am ever so slowly catching up on my backlog of cards that I have - February is now done!! Just have March and the 5 birthdays for this week (yes, that's right, 5 birthdays this week!), plus finishing my calendars..... maybe by Easter.....

This is one of the cards I made last night for a special friend of Luana's who turned 5 (better late than never I say), and I am rather happy with it, I must say. Many thanks to the latest Mojo Monday sketch and ColourQ Challenge for the inspiration.

I wanted to make this card just a touch more special than usual as turning 5 is a big deal!! The pony from Pony Party was stamped in Early Espresso and I coloured her mane using a Pink Pirouette marker (and her hooves) and blender pen with ink pads for the Crumb Cake and Early Espresso (so the colour was a bit softer) before adding some sparkle with Dazzling Diamonds (sparkle always makes things more special! and you can *just* see it in the pic). I also very lightly sponged around the grass in Certainly Celery. The rest just really fell into place from the sketch - such a great one to use - thanks girls! I did reach for a little bit of retired product in the Certainly Celery Prints DSP and Pink Pirouette striped ribbon (actually the first time it has been used.... oops).

Happy Birthday to a very grown up girl - you will be receiving this in the post VERY soon.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Pony Party, Great Friend

Card: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Certainly Celery Prints DSP (retired)

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Certainly Celery

Other: Pink Pirouette Striped Grosgrain ribbon (retired), Dazzling Diamonds, Scallop Trim Edge Punch, Timeless Type Alphabet Junior Sizzlits

First Birthday Butterflies

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas with loved ones! We have been very lucky here to have a 4 day weekend which has been fabulous (and a much needed break) - we still have one day to go! I'm not sure I want to go back to work this week..... Even though it's only for 2 days, then it's another 3 day weekend! Yay!

I have had a very busy few weeks with my celebrating my birthday (my Mum flew up and surprised me for our trip out to Uluru and Kata Tjuta - here's a quick pic of my little family with 'The Rock'. I'll put some more up later) and now Christmas and all the festivities that go along with it. I'll be putting up a post in the next week with my Christmas Card that I sent to family and some other cards I put together. But for tonight, I have a first birthday card for you created using Stampin' Royalty Challenge 51 - a sketch and ColourQ 64.

I have some serious catching up to do on the card making front as I have not been able to create much lately, so these two challenges provided the perfect inspiration for a darling first birthday card. I love all the layers of the sketch and those butterflies are too cute - I don't yet have the butterfly punch (shock!) so I used the 5 petal flower for mine. The flower is scallop circles in Pink Pirouette and Real Red layered (the top layer popped up and the petals cut so they create more dimension).

Thanks for visting and I will try not to leave it so long between posts now energy levels are returning!!

Stamps: Best Friends Numbers (retired)

Card: Real Red, Pear Pizzazz, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Sweet Always DSP (retired), Patterns DSP

Ink: Real Red, Regal Rose

Punches: 5 Petal Flower, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" Circle, 1 1/4" Circle

Other: Beachfront Ribbons Originals (retired)

Faux Suede Flowers

I've seen faux suede used quite a bit around the blogs lately, and Shelli also demonstrated it at Convention, so I thought I'd give it a go with this card to add more texture to the flowers, and the backing ovals behind the greeting. I think the flowers would pop a bit more with more layers, but I made it as an option for a friend's grandmother, so I wanted to keep it flattish for the International post.

Tonight my inspiration has come from Colour Q and Sketch'n'Color; I didn't realise it had been so long since I'd played along with Colour Q....

The flowers actually look quite sweet with the scallop circles and the larger flower flower from Boho Blossoms; I gently swiped the edges of the Apricot Appeal layer with Cameo Coral ink, and the layers were gently scrunched a bit to add some extra texture.

Thanks for visting!

Stamps: Priceless, Vintage Labels (retired), So Swirly Jumbo Wheel

Card: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Apricot Appeal

Ink: Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Always Artichoke

Other: Cream Grosgrain ribbon, 5/16" Jumbo Brads, Scallop Circle Punch, Small Oval Punch, Boho Blossoms Punch

A Couple of ColourQ Cards

There are always awesome colours to work with over at ColourQ, and this week Arielle has given an additional task of challenging a friend to play along as well, so I challenged my good friend Nerine to join in! I know she's been stamping and scrapping a bit lately, and I know I always find challenges great inspiration.

As we don't have Crushed Curry, I have substituted Summer Sun - I think it works better than Marigold Morning which I tried last time....

I wanted the flower to be THE focus of the card above so have kept everything else simple and understated. I did add a couple of rows of paper piercing to the top and the bottom of the Brilliant Blue base to tie in with the flower.

I almost wasn't going to post this card, but when I came back and looked at it again after a few hours I thought 'yeah, I do like it'... VERY simple, just a little bit of paper piecing. A wonderful friend found and sent me this Just Beakause stamp set for my birthday because I love toucans (I'm toucantash on SCS!) and was really disappointed I didn't get this set before it retired. This is the first time I have used it in a card - I've only inked it up once before but that toucan is in my UFO stash. Isn't that little toucan SO cute though?!

This card could suit for either a male or a female birthday - such versatile colours!

Thanks for visiting again!

Happy Birthday

Stamps: All Year Cheer II (retired), Friendly Flowers (retired)

Card: Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Ink: Brilliant Blue, Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise

Other: Filigree Designer Brads, Certainly Celery Ribbon (retired), paper piercer

Birds of a Feather

Stamps: Just Beakause (retired)

Card: Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Whisper White

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Brillant Blue, Summer Sun, Certainly Celery

Quilting meets Card Making

The last time I actually sat down in front of a sewing machine, I was still in high school (Year 10 I think...). I have always admired the awesome work quilters do - Luana's godmother's Mum and one of Mum's friends both make gorgeous quilts and there were some AMAZING quilters in Katherine who raffled off creations periodically but I was never lucky enough to win one. There is also a quilting feature in one of the homemaker magazines I picked up the other day, so I was a bit inspired to try some of the patterns in my cards. The Colour Q Challenge this week inspired me to try out the traditional log cabin design; and I tell you, it's harder than it looks to get all the pieces lined up and exactly the right length.

I'm sure I read somewhere that in the log cabin design, the light colour are on one side and the dark colours are on the opposite representing the light and shade cast by the sun. For those of you who are quilters, please correct me if I'm wrong. I also put a burgandy square in the centre (instead of red) to represent the hearth, but that was covered by the image - oops.

I don't have any DSP in these colours, so made my own patterns with the flowers from Echoes of Kindness and actually fussy cut the entire rose before mounting it on the wide oval with scallop edging which had been sponged with Sage Shadow ink.

Hope you've had a great weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Echoes of Kindness (Level 2 Hostess Stamp)

Card: Bravo Burgandy, Sage Shadow, Always Artichoke, Cameo Coral, Whisper White

Ink: Bravo Burgandy, Sage Shadow, Always Artichoke, Cameo Coral

Punches: Wide Ovel, Scallop Circle, 1 1/4" Circle

Other: Vintage Brads

Colour Q plus

This weekend so far has been great; lots of cuddles/sleeps/watching movies together on the couch with my girl (Toy Story 1 and 2 have been on Playhouse Disney), a bit of housework, coffee with friends and plenty of opportunity to stamp! I have finally made a few cards that have been on my list for a while, and will be in the post Tuesday (we have the Anzac Day public holiday tomorrow).

I always have intentions to play along with Colour Q each week, but the best intentions don't always come to fruition... this week is different! And to make the most of it, this card also fits in with three other challenges: ABC Challenge - S for Sparkle, KWernerDesign - one layer and (again) Pile It On - Is Spring Finally Here? Four challenges in one project is a record for me (I've only managed it once before).

Gee, one layer cards are a challenge indeed!! I did lots of masking with this one and added a border with some scoring. Dazzling Diamonds added the sparkle in the middle of the flowers - I'll try to take a better photo in the sunlight tomorrow to catch the sparkle a bit more.

Another card I'm quite pleased with this weekend! Let's see what tomorrow will bring.

Thanks for visiting.

Stamps: Embrace Life, Cheer and Wishes

Card: Whisper White

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Bravo Burgandy, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore

Other: Dazzling Diamonds

Soft Suede Debut

This is the first time I have actually used Soft Suede. I tried to use it a few weeks ago for a scrapbook page, but it just didn't work. But today I think it worked so well as part of this weeks ColourQ Challenge.

These colours scream masculine to me, and I guess the gorgeous jacket in the picture helps that thought! One of my initial ideas was to use these for a boys card with lots of stars. But this is what eventuated. Simple and clean lines. No sponging as has been the case more often than not recently. The large flower from True Friend was stamped in Night of Navy and Tangerine Tango and fussy cut. The Tangerine Tango centre was popped up with dimensionals, and the whole flower was attached to the card with the same. This is the first time I've pulled out Chit Chat rubons too, which were in the Summer Mini.

I really like these colours together. I just might have to pull them out again...

Thanks for visiting.

Stamps: True Friend

Card: Soft Suede, Whisper White

Ink: Soft Suede, Night of Navy, Tangerine Tango

Other: Tempting Turquoise Grosgrain Ribbon, Vintage Brads, 5/16" Neutrals Jumbo Brads, Chit Chat Rub ons (retired)

First Time for a ColourQ Challenge

I've seen another colour challenge appearing frequently on blogs I visit, ColourQ, so I thought I'd pop on over and check it out myself. Arielle has put together some great challenges, so I thought I'd play along when I can. I missed last week, but not this week!!! Aren't the colours just great?! I am planning on using them for a scrapbook page for Mum's (very late) calendar too, but have run out of time tonight (and I'm not sure if this challenge is cards only or not).

The son of my friend in Germany is turning 3 soon. I have been a terrible friend and have not kept in fabulous contact (they last time we saw each other in person was 1999), and now I feel extra guilty as I received a care package from her the other day with some lovely bits and bobs for Luana and Haribo lollies for me - they are so good!! So, I have organised myself and made this card for her little man. Those animals from Animal Stories in the Summer Mini are just too cute! I've also edged the Whisper White mounted panels in Real Red to add a little bit more dimension.

Now I just need to remember to send this so it arrives in time for his birthday!

Stamps: Animal Stories (Summer Mini), Best Friends Numbers (retired)

Card: Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow

Punches: 1 1/4" Circle, 1 3/8" Circle

Other: paper piercer