Lynne's birthday card

This is the card I made for my friend Lynne earlier this month:

I'm loving this colour scheme! The dark brown really sets it off.  You might not be able to see very well, but I ran the brown circle through the Cuttlebug with the wood embossing folder by Tim Holtz. Here's a close up:

I used some beautiful MME paper, a Pink Paislee Artisan Element, a Prima hydrangea flower, and some Twinery twine.  The rolled roses were made with a My Favorite Things die, and the leaves with an EK success punch. The stamp is Purple Onion.

Thanks for stopping in today.

 

A baby card....or two

My friend is about to have a baby. I am convinced it's a boy, so I made this card:

I used the new Baby Word Block stamp and the new Mesh Background stamp. The letters on the banner came from the Word Block itself - I just stamped it in another colour to match the patterned paper). Here's a side view, so you can see that some sections are raised:

 

On account of the fact that I am conviced it's a boy, coupled with the fact that I have been 100% incorrect in my guesses on sex of babies for the past 20 years, I also made a card to cover the eventuality that it will be a girl:

 and a side view:

Thanks for dropping in. I will let you know how I went with my guess ;)

 

Nature by iPhone

While I was away at stamp camp last month, I took myself for a little walk around the property. It was a beautiful late autumn day, with lots of sunshine after a morning shower.  I had no camera with me, but I did have my iPhone, which is what I used to capture some of the textures of nature for this layout:

Grasses, wood and pebbles. I used different shaped Nestabilities to mat each photo, and a different way to attach each photo - eyelet, string, staples etc.  I used a stripped back piece of cardboard box in the centre of the layout - love all the texture!

I used a Thickers alpha for the main title, and a teeny little Labels One nestabilities die cut to record the place and date.

If you'd told me in high school that I would love working in brown and green, I would have laughed!

All of the materials I've used here are listed on the Down Under Direct Inspiration blog.

I'll leave you with another photo I took that day - it's becoming one of my favourites:

 

 

A Patchwork Orange

I made this card for a class a while ago. I just found it in my miscellaneous card bucket - the bucket I send people to rummage through when they ask me to make them a card.

Despite being someone who hates little itty bitty bits of paper, I'm loving patchwork lately.  I think I'll be repeating this design again soon.

Thanks for dropping in!

 

Stamp of the Month cards

I run a class at Little Bits called Stamp of the Month. We make 4 or 5 cards with the featured stamp or stamp set, and then participants have the option of purchasing it at a discount.  For May I chose a beautiful set of Hero Arts stamps called Sew Artsy:

Here are the cards we made:

Lots of variety in styles and colours. Something for everyone!

Thanks for dropping in.

A pink and white card for a friend

I was chomping at the bit to use the Grand Nestabilities Scalloped Square dies.  Here I've used the two largest dies to make the base for this card:

Scalloped all the way around - perfect!  I used Labels Six for the centre piece that was stamped with a JustRite stamp from the Vintage Oval Labels set.  See in the photo below that I mounted the words onto a scrap of chipboard to lift them off the card:

I used some scrunched seam binding and some hot fix crystals to embellish the card, after sponging the edges lightly with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

Thanks for stopping in for a look.

 

More than a little excited

What's got this girl giddy today?  Click here to find out.

Yahoo! My arm is getting sore - I keep pinching myself :)

Stay tuned - I'll have a project up here on the blog before you know it!


 

Copic project class at Little Bits

Every now and again I run a project class at Little Bits. It's a good opportunity to consolidate the knowledge people have learned in other Copic classes and apply them to a project.  Here's what we made in May:

Using Jenny Bowlin papers, we paper-pieced Marci's dress after colouring her hair and skin.  The pearl strip and ribbon were recoloured with Copic markers (B95 or B97 from memory), and the window was cut with Nestabilities.  There was lots of grumbling about all the careful cutting out (mostly from me LOL), but at the end of the class everyone was pleased with the result I think. 

I'll post about the card we made in June very soon - I just need to take a photo of it.

 

A birthday card for Dad

This is the card I made for Dad's birthday in May:

I made the card in time - I've just been slack in posting about it here on the blog.

I started with kraft cardstock and Webster's Pages paper. I added Twiddleybitz chipboard (tree and Itty Bitty Alpha) and the hot air balloon is from an ephemera pack from Pink Paislee.

Thanks for looking!

 

A colour challenge card

This was a colour combo challenge Tracy sent me. Black, white, red and steel blue - isn't it elegant?

See the white border pieces at the top and bottom? They are what was left over when I cut out a scalloped square with a Grand Nestabilities die for another project. 

 I used a JustRite set called Signs of Life.  I love that the stamps fit a Nestabilities die perfectly:

You can just make out in the photo above that I've embossed a Labels One shape around the blue piece.

I finished the card off with some seam binding coloured with a Copic marker, and that beautiful vintage button is called Sophia and made by Bazzill.

Details about what I've used for this card can be found on the Down Under Direct Inspiration blog.

Thanks for looking!

 

Australia's Copic Challenge card

I decided at the very last minute to enter a card into the Copic Card Challenge.  We had to use three certain colours and make a card, with an extra incentive prize if we used one of the gorgeous La-La Land stamps.  Here's my card:

The winner is being announced at the Brisbane Show this weekend.  I'm waiting to hear who that was.....

A box made with Nestabilities

This is a box I put together using a couple of Nestabilities and JustRite Stamps:

I don't know what was more fun - putting the box together, or embellishing it. The absolute most fun was adding the hot set crystals. You can just make them out in the photo above.

This little box is going to a friend. It will be filled with seam binding, buttons and other supplies.

Details of what I used can be found on the Down Under Direct Inspiration blog.

Thanks for stopping by today :)

 

Precious Moments

Occasionally, the moons align and you get an almost perfect photograph.  I reckon this photo is one of them - not taken by me, but by my sister of her children one afternoon in her backyard. I love it!

 

Lots of Twiddleybitz goodness here!

I sprayed the cream 12x12 cardstock with Antique Gold Colour Spray using the Chicken wire as a screen.  The papers are Prima, as are the flowers.  They're the ones that come in a tube, I simply stacked a few together, spritzed them with water, and scrunched them up until they dried.

You can see the butterflies in the photo above - I painted them with acrylic paint, and while it was wet, I sprinkled on some glitter.

This layout will be on display at the Twiddleybitz stand at the Brisbane Papercraft Show, so pop in and check out the brilliant work from the design team. And then come back and tell me how brilliant it was :)

 

A Twiddleybitz layout

This layout is on its way to Brisbane for the papercraft show:

The subject matter lent itself to the nature-inspired colour scheme of green and brown. If you look closely, there's some of the new barbed wire over the photo.  I made it look rusty with acrylic paints:

I'll be back tomorrow with another layout.


 

Twiddley ATCs

Here are a couple of ATCs I made for display or swapping at the Brisbane Show this weekend.  The amazing Jenni Hodge is organising a bit of a swap at the Twiddleybitz stand at the show, so if you're interested, you'd better get in quick!

If you're going to the show, drop me a line and let me know what it's like :)


 

Goodie bag card challenge

I went to a stamp camp run by Little Bits last weekend. One of the absolute highlights is the goodie bag Lesley puts together - it's always jam packed full of fun stuff. 

Over the weekend, if we have the inclination, we can make a card or other project using items from our goodie bags.  Here's what I made:

You can get an idea from everything I've added to the card, of the sort of stuff we received in our goodie bags - Prima papers, flowers, ribbon, stamps, diamonds and pearls, Darkroom Door images, chipboard and lace. All I added really, was the button!

After a weekend like that, I'm always left with a feeling of wanting more time.  Which is why I'm so excited about camp next year - Lesley has decided to run it over the long weekend in June! That's one whole extra day to play. I can't wait!!! 

Thanks for dropping in today.

 

A tea party layout

This is a bright layout to suit a photo of children:

It started of with a 12x12 sheet of polka dot kraft (Rope Swing) and a black and white photo of my friend Bev's grandchildren.  I cut the central mat with one of the Grand Nestabilities dies, and injected some colour into that with some bright stitching:

The Thickers fabric alpha I used was pink in another life, but I coloured the letters with my B29 Copic marker, and it's now bright blue. I was amazed at the coverage - have I told you how much I love Copics? LOL

I used some beautiful bright paper from Simple Stories to cut circles and scalloped circles to hold the names of the children, and connected these to the respective child with bright blue Bazzill floss. The names were computer generated with a cool font called Calvin and Hobbs. I love it for projects involving children.

A list of all the Spellbinders dies and Bazzill products I used can be found on the Down Under Direct Inspiration Blog.

Thanks for stopping by - and a huge thanks to Bev for the gorgeous photo!