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

Spots and more Spots!

Paul announced Friday night we were heading out for drinks this weekend for a his work colleague's birthday, so I thought I should put together a card for her. She's young and very sporty and funky, so flowers and 'super-girly' were out of the question. The bold funky colours of this weeks Colour Throwdown and the groovy sketch over at Mojo Monday were just what I needed to work with, so I made a card and a wine tag to dress up the bottle a touch.

Here's a closer pic of the card. As there are SO many spots, I have left the brads out of the sketch - they would have been lost!!

We had a lovely afternoon and Luana fell asleep virtually as soon as we walked in the door!

Thanks for visiting.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Lots of Thoughts (retired)

Card: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White

DSP: Pink Flamingo, Good Morning Sunshine, Bella Rose

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red

Other: Oval Punch, 1 1/4" Square Punch, Corner Rounder, 1 3/8" Circle Punch

Curtain Call Colour Challenge Act 18

Tonight I have been working with yet again another gorgeous colour combo from Stacey's Curtain Call Colour Challenge. I love Ballet Blue and don't use it anywhere near as much as I would like.

I paired it with the square option of the latest Mojo Monday sketch challenge - my mojo isn't in full enough force at the moment to attempt the circle (lol). I made a 4 1/4" square card (so it would fit in a standard size envelope), but I think I should have made it a bit bigger to pull of the large bow a bit more successfully.

This card started out in my mind as a Mother's Day card for my grandmother (trying to be organised) as she loves earthy colours. However, it didn't end up that way! I finally inked up my Boho Backgrounds set which has been sitting on a shelf for a good few months now. The larger circle was stamped twice in Night of Navy and once in Ballet Blue. One of the Navy circle was punched out with the scallop circle punch and the other I fussy cut the middle part of. The Ballet Blue one had the larger solid circle part punched out with the 1 3/8" circle punch. The upper layers were popped up with dimensionals, but it's a little hard to see that in this photo.

I will be using both the colour combo and the sketch again - they're so versatile!

Stamps: Boho Backgrounds

Card: Kraft, Night of Navy, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Old Olive

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" circle

Other: Vintage brads, 5/8" Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Fashion District Rub-ons (retired)

Curtain Call Colour Challenge Act 17 with Mojo

This latest Curtain Call Colour Challenge really was a challenge for me. More Mustard is one of 'those' colours for me, if you get what I mean.... and I don't have any Going Grey ink, so was limited in what I could work with. My initial thoughts were to make a birthday card for Paul's Pop who turns 89 at the end of the month.

However, when I saw Mojo Monday sketch 129, I knew both challenges would work well together, and I don't think scallops and ribbons would have suited Pop. He's VERY traditional.

I'm not 100% happy with the stamped So Saffron background panel, but I felt it worked better than the So Saffron/More Mustard Haiku DSP I had there to begin with. The greeting from the SAB set Whimsical Words is mounted on a very thin border of So Saffron then on the More Mustard. I am happy with how the flowers from Eastern Blooms work with the Haiku DSP in the larger panel though.

This one may make its way down to Luana's godmother yet, I'm not quite sure. She's more of a blue person, so will see how I feel on Monday when the post office opens....

Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Whimsical Words (SAB)

Card: More Mustard, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Going Grey

DSP: Haiku

Ink: So Saffron, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip

Other: Scallop Border punch, 5/16" Jumbo brad, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, paper piercer

Welcome Ella

My cousin welcomed a beautiful little girl, Ella, into the world a few weeks ago - a tad early so I wasn't quite expecting the text. My cousin isn't a girly-girl, so I didn't want to make a full-on pink card. Leah's latest Colour Wheel Challenge fit the bill: Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum, So Saffron and Mellow Moss. I also used the most recent Mojo Monday challenge as inspiration...

I stamped the adorable elephant from Animal Stories in Pretty in Pink, then rock'n rolled it in Perfect Plum before popping her up with dimensionals on layered Whisper White and Mellow Moss circles. I felt the square 'bit' on the sketch was a bit sharp for a baby card, so adapted it to a circle. The Whisper White scallop circle has been sponged in Pretty in Pink around the edges to soften it. A few Pretty in Pink brads added the finishing touch I was looking for.

I think my cousin will get a kick out of this! I'm looking forward to meeting darling Ella next visit home.

Stamps: Animal Stories (Summer Mini), Jumbo Bold Alphabet, Short & Sweet

Card: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Mellow Moss, Whisper White

DSP: Afternoon Tea

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum

Punches: 1 3/4 " circle (Summer Mini), Scallop circle, 1 3/8" circle, 1 1/4" circle

Other: So Saffron 3/8" Grosgrain ribbon (from Ribbon Bundle, retired), Prety in Pink Grosgrain ribbon, Soft Subtles brads

Saffron Birthday

I'm already behind this year on birthday cards - how can that happen so early in the year?! Must be the whole increase in workload thing.... It was my Mother-in-law's birthday this weekend, and this is the first chance I've had to make her card.

I must admit, when I saw the latest Scrapmaster's Paradise Colour Combo, I thought 'how on earth am I going to work in that Only Orange?' But I must admit, I think I did ok!! I used a base of So Saffron Washington Apple DSP, teamed with Walk in the Park DSP (retired) and took it from there, with further inspiration from this week's Mojo Monday sketch.

I wanted to keep the stamped images not too bold, so pulled out Burst into Bloom which was one of the first sets I ever ordered. I stamped the larger flowers in second generation Only Orange and the greeting in first. The double flowers are held together with an Only Orange eyelet (still have quite the stash of eyelets!), and some So Saffron ribbon (from the recent ribbon bundle promotion) provided the finishing touch.

When I finish the present, this card will be winging it's way down south, and hopefully I'll have the opportunity tonight to catch up with the other cards I need to make!!

Stamps: Burst into Bloom (retired), A Little Birthday Cheer

Card: So Saffron, Only Orange, Very Vanilla

DSP: Washington Apple, Walk in the Park (retired)

Ink: So Saffron, Only Orange

Other: So Saffron 3/8" Grosgrain Ribbon (retired), Only Orange Eyelet (retired)

Curtain Call Colour Challenge Act 3 with Mojo added

As part of my job I am often called up to see children on Kid's Ward, so have come to know many of the nurses quite well. One of them is expecting her first baby in October and I was chuffed to be invited to her Baby Shower tomorrow. As an added bonus I've been able to use the shower stamp from Greetings Eight for her card:

She knows she is having a little girl, so I thought the colours Stacey has chosen for her most recent Curtain Call Colour Challenge would work well, coupled with the latest Mojo Monday sketch, rotated:

I stamped the umbrella image twice in Regal Rose on Very Vanilla so I could fussy cut the open part and pop it up for a bit of dimension. This was layered on Regal Rose before being layered on top of the three strips of Certainly Celery Prints DSP (retired) which had the edges swiped with Certainly Celery ink. Kraft and Very Vanilla layered on Regal Rose formed the card base and some wide Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon and Certainly Celery brads finished it off.

I'm not likely to be in town when this little girl enters the world, so I'm so glad I can celebrate with her wonderful mother tomorrow.

Stamps: Greetings Eight

Card: Regal Rose, Kraft, Very Vanilla
DSP: Certainly Celery Prints (retired)
Ink: Regal Rose, Certianly Celery
Other: Regal Rose 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon, Certainly Celery brads

Water.... Inspiration

Once again, Makeesha's Inspiration Challenge this week is a doozy - where do you find them Keesh?! They definitely get the old grey matter working a bit! Isn't this painting gorgeous though? It takes me back to the days of Year 10 Art where I defaulted to watercolour paintings (only twice, but too much according to my teacher - I needed to expand my repertoire!)... Have no idea where those 'masterpieces' have ended up!

What I do love about Inspiration Challenges is the complete liberty you can take with them - it all depends on how you're inspired! With this one, I really wanted to scrap Luana's first babycino experience taking inspiration from the teapot (they're all hot beverages), but do you think I could find the photos? That one will have to wait. Instead, I drew on the water aspect and the colours and scrapped a photo of 3 generations on a Sunset Cruise on Darwin Harbour:

I mounted the photo with a very thin border of Regal Rose, then the thicker border of Pretty in Pink. It really works with the pinks in the sunset (it was just stunning that evening; if you come up to the Top End definitely go on a harbour cruise, even if it's a bit cloudy). To link in with the Inspiration, I've used Pumpkin Pie as well. A little bit of faux stitching on the Regal Rose spot DSP from Sweet Always and some extra flowers with clear rhinestone brads just added that little something. The layout was based on this weeks Mojo Monday sketch, just mirrored:
Someone (I think it was Nerine) once said that you should make a card whenever you do a scrapbook page. Well, I did that this time around too:

Using the sketch as is this time, but still with most of the same aspects as the scrapbook page. I've used watercolour paper for the panel and created the background with the Regal Rose watercolour crayon and an aquapainter. While it was still wet, I stamped the image from Upsy Daisy in Pumpkin Pie - am thinking I maybe should have stamped it off first though.... Not a bad little card though that came together quite quickly.

Have a great weekend!

Scrapbook Page:

Stamps: Scribble Alphabet (retired)

Card: Pumpkin Pie 12"x12", Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Paper: Sweets Always, Bella Rose

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose

Other: Blooms Die Cuts, Flower Fusion, Flower Fusion Too, Pretties Kit, Chocolate Chip Double Stitched grosgrain ribbon, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, white gel pen

Card:

Stamps: Best Yet (Level 1 Hostess), Upsy Daisy

Card: Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Watercolour

Paper: Sweet Always, Bella Rose

Ink: Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie

Other: Regal Rose watercolour crayon, aqua painter, scallop edge punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon