Monthly Archives: November 2013

Nov 28

Christmas cards aplenty

Yesterday I was hit with a big Christmas cards order and I found out that I don’t have enough to cover it, not to mention leaving some favourites aside for myself. Needless to say, I’ve been busy creating! I’m not a fan of rushing my cards and my mojo suffered a bit, I’d certainly change a few things here & there but there you go… There’s plenty of photos and lots of cards to show, so I’ll once again be brief. With so much visual content, you wouldn’t pay too much attention to the written part anyway, hey? 😉

First up, I made the MME All Is Bright paper pad work for me, and combined the lovely, graphic papers with a Flourishes poinsettia stamp (paper pieced and topped with the image die cut from one of the papers) (it seems to be retired now). The alpha stickers come from Glitz Design Teeny Alpha in ivory.

Next up, a white-on-white card, with a touch of silver. I combined here Spellbinders & MFT dies with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and a sentiment from a brand new & gorgeous stamp set from Waltzingmouse - Seasonal Flourish.

Here I made a rather unconventional Holiday card, by arranging some (not necessarily Christmas stamps) into a wreath. The leaves come from WPlus9 Folk Art Florals, the stars and snowflakes are Simon Says and Waltzingmouse‘s respectively, and the baubles are made by stamping with the back of different circle-shaped stamps. The touch of sparkle comes from a glitter glue.

Here I pulled out my old favourite, a Hero Arts Christmas Reindeer, for this cheerful card. Coloured the guy and the trees with Copics:
fur E89, E84, E81 & colorless blender, sweater R27, R24, R20, trres BG93, BG96, G82, ground BG72.

Last but not least, is this light & eclectic card. Lots of things combined here: the dies used are Spellbinders and SSS own, the stars also SSS, the sentiment Waltzingmouse. The music notes are an old Glitz Design rub-on.

This particular card, is inspired by Runway Inspired challenge #48:

Whew! That’s it for now, but I may need to get some more still. Eeek! Bear with me 🙂

Joy, Peace & Love card


Joy to the World card


Wreath card


Reindeer card


Season’s Greetings card


Nov 28

CASE Study Challenge #168

It’s Keisha Campbell‘s last appearance as a Muse, at CASE Study and I chose this great design to finish a month of fun with. This is my favourite from the lot and I clearly saved the best for the last 🙂

Three of Keisha’s iconic style elements are present on her card: embossing, butterflies and die cutting. I could not make my card without the embossing part (which is, actually, debossing), I made the same use of negative space, although as hard as I tried to fit a butterfly (or any other image, for that matter), to fit inside the feather ‘windows’, I couldn’t find anything that would look half decent. After much fussing, I slapped a piece of a gorgeous DP underneath and I think it turned out great 🙂

For the embellishments, I pulled out a few washi tapes, enamel dots, Freckled Fawn wood veneer shape which I suspended from a string bow, and a cute little feather (craft store find).

Check out the blogs below for the Design Team’s takes on the challenge, or visit CASE Study for the full reveal.

Keisha Campbell - November Muse
Amy Tsuruta - November Guest Designer
Amy Wanford
Andrea Ewen
Clare Buswell
Debby Hughes
Jeanne Jachna
Maureen Merritt
Silke Ledlow
Tasnim Ahmed


Nov 27

A whopper of an update… on pubs

At first I procrastinated… then late pregnancy kicked in and I couldn’t be bothered, followed by the appearance of a bundle of sweetness which kept us on our toes since. I’ve been thinking that I should finally gather all those mags together and be done with but you know the story… the more there is, the less you feel like tackling it. Eh? Well, I started on some serious Christmas cleaning today and I figured that I either do it now and file these away contentedly, or I can forget about it altogether 🙂

There will be quite a few photos but I’ll keep talking to a minimum. Julka’s teething and I’m not having a fun day today 🙁 Also, I know that most of these photos are pretty crappy, I was short on time and the lighting is less than desirable. I hope I won’t offend you too much with the quality!
Let’s start with a few issues from the first half of the year.
Vol. 19 No. 5. Feature on creative use of embossing folders. Cover girl. You may recognize this card; it was pulled from my blog, originally submitted to the Waltzingmouse sketch challenge. When it still existed…

Also, this set. I have a half-decent photo from my studio as well, a bonus for you 🙂

Vol. 19 No. 6. Color Blocking. Just this little number.

Vol. 19 No. 8. DOUBLE cover girl 🙂

Studio Steps feature.

…and this little number for Multicolour Stamping. Got a better photo from my studio here as well.

Vol. 19 No. 12. That’s when I had a baby and took a few months’ break from submitting. A card set. Sorry for a crappy photo…

Vol. 20 No. 1. That’s the current issue. Cute Christmas treat boxes, created with Silhouette.

And lastly, Vol. 20 No. 2. Shhh… coming to the stores soon. Cover girl again 🙂 Stay tuned for this one!

You will see quite a lot from me, in the upcoming months. I’m busy creating as we speak 🙂 Thanks for joining me for this arduous post! lol

Nov 26

StampNation sketch meets Monday Mood Board

Howdy, crafty peeps! I had a bit of time on my hands tonight (I know, shocking!) and I decided to play with the current StampNation challenge. It’s a two-weeker and also a very cool sketch - check it out!

I combined it with Monday Mood Board #24, which I adore. I couldn’t wait to play and put my head, buzzing with ideas, to rest. Too bad that I’m still waiting for this year’s WPlus9 Christmas release stuff to arrive… I ordered a few of those scrumptious sets and dies from Simon Says and a bigger bummer still that the most coveted set, the wreath, is out of stock in both SSS and WPlus9 store. Ouch!

Here’s what I cooked up… stamped the mixed border in red, white embossed the sentiment, cut the snowflake from glitter CS and wrapped some twine over the die cut ‘joy’ word - a great look for this cozy, homey feel 🙂

If you’re wondering what StampNation is, you might have missed the news! Here’s some of the things waiting for you there:

  • Over 370 exclusive video tutorials
  • 27 Lessons in the CAS Classroom
  • Bimonthly Trends Articles
  • Weekly Challenges
  • plus coming shortly, the Technically Speaking tutorials taught by yours truly!
Oh yeah, and lots of fun too. Click here to learn more about membership benefits.
If you’d rather have a little taste of the deal first, why not sign up for the newsletter? The 12 Weeks of Christmas video series is on for four more weeks, taught by Catherine Pooler and free for subscribers! This week’s idea includes an exclusive video to make the quickest and easiest Gift Card Holder in town.

As a newsletter subscriber, you will also receive the 4 part video series: The top 10 things every stamper needs to know AND 3 – 4 newsletters a month with the latest, greatest and a project tutorial.
See you on the flip side 🙂


Nov 24

Countdown to Christmas with Penny Black, week #5

Uh-oh, sorry for the late! Blame it on the Dr. Who 50th Anniversary Special that aired last night and spoiled my usually craft-filled time 🙂 Welcome to another week of Countdown to Christmas with Penny Black series, only 5 weeks to go now! Woot!

Countdown to Christmas
My aim is to share a new Christmas card made with Penny Black stamps each week. Today I’m showing you how I incorporated a non-Christmas stamp in a Holiday card, and I used the beautiful Autumnal Wreath stamp for this purpose. It’s great for those whose Christmas is not necessarily snow-filled (like mine) but still want the homey feel of a Holiday project. I stamped the wreath in olive Memento ink and watercoloured using paints and brush.
I stamped the sentiment from Yuletide Greetings, in two tones by inking the bits of the stamp separately, and finished the scene by flicking some spray mist over it (dispensed the liquid straight from the bottle screw-on tube). <- anyone know how I should call the darn thing?? lol

I helped myself to the FTL268 sketch:

Until next time!


Nov 23

Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #110

Hi guys! The frantic month might have eased up on me and I’m looking forward to a bit of a breather before the business of the Holiday season kicks in, as well as the StampNation buzz and new projects (Thank you all so much for your encouragement and kind words! Did you sign up yet?? 🙂 ), but I’m still only half way there… I mean, the sketch is here (and I love it!) and so is my sample, but I yet again run out of time to coordinate a Guestie. Insert a pout here 🙁
Next time I’ll finally succeed I’m sure! Hope I’m not doing the wishful thinking here… hehe

So… do you like this layout as much as I do? I can’t believe I still haven’t tackled it. It has all of my favourites in it, including banners and a doily (but of course it can be whatever you fancy) and I had heaps of fun giving it physical shape. I’m also joining the November Pajama Party with my card - I know that I announced my last DT post two days ago, since I wasn’t sure if I can make it to this month’s event, but I did and therefore I’m making this one the last opportunity to put my beloved DT badge on.

I’m using the Little Lantern set, paired with the brand new, matching Cutting Edge die. What a delightful combo that is! There’s quite a bit of die cutting going on here, plus dry embossing… when did I last use an embossing folder?? Ugh, had to dust off this buddy before I put it to use earlier today 🙂

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If you would like to play along:

- You’re kindly asked to save the sketch image onto your computer first, and if you make a card based on it, please link back to this post.
- Share the link to your creation via the Inlinkz widget below, so that I can come and check it out!
Perks:
- A new sketch is posted every other Saturday night (9pm Australian EST, 6am American EST, and the link widget is open for two weeks. However, you’re welcome to play any time! Just leave a link in the comments section and I’ll pop in to see it.
- I’ll be inviting one person who uses my sketch, to join me for the next one! I’ll be also highlighting the entries that caught my eye, on my Facebook page.
- Every now and then, I will also invite an inky friend to join me as well, for an extra dose of inspiration.


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