Christmas Gift Card Set - Card 4!

Hey Everyone! Posting the last card that I created for the Christmas Gift Card Sets designed for the girls in our family.

This is another fabulous Hero Arts stamp set that I love, the versatility of this set is wonderful, these flowers can be created into pretty much anything you set your mind to.

Inking up the Hero Arts, Flourish background stamp with Soft Sand ink and stamping the fronts of Eggshell notecards. Next, cutting A Muse gingham card stock using a Labels 15 die from Spellbinders, and stamping a sentiment from the Essential Messages stamp set to the bottoms of the die cuts, adhering each die to the fronts of the card using foam dimensionals. Taking some white card stock and stamping one of the flowers from the stamp set, I coloured each in using my Copics and cut each flower out, then adhered to the die cut using more foam dimensionals. Lastly adding a pearl to the centres of the flowers.

Another really simple design to create masses of cards, simplicity like this is great for creating lots of cards, when you are pushed for time like I was this is one way to go, but still give a great effect.

Here is a photo of all the cards together:



Before I sign off I wanted to share a link to Jay Gee's Nook, they have just got some of the new Hero Arts stamps in and WOW! on the prices, so be sure to jump over there and take a look, I just placed my order and hope to receive them soon.

Have a great day and a wonderful New Years Eve!

See you all in 2011!!!

Hugs

Christmas Gift Card Set - Card 3!

Hi Everyone! So I am back to share card 3 of the gift set that I created for the girls in our family. I share this card with you using this set that I don't think that I will ever tire of using.

In fact these cards were made with basically all Hero Arts products. I took Celadon cards and the Friend Definition stamp, inking it up with Soft Green ink, stamping the stamp sideways on the card for a different effect. Next, taking the Antique Flower background stamp, inking with Soft Pool, stamping this a few times onto some Powder Layering Paper, trimming down to create a tag, also trimming white card stock to form a backing for the tag, adhering both card stocks together then attaching them to the front of the cards. Next, using more white card stock and taking a butterfly from the stamp set, I stamped several times onto the card stock and coloured each one in using my Copics, trimming around them and attaching to the tags using Glossy Accents. Lastly, adding a sentiment from the Big Hugs stamp set to the other side of the tag, finishing with some pearls adhered under the sentiment.

Well there is card 3 of the gift set, tomorrow I will be back with the last card of the set.

Have a wonderful day, thanks for taking the time to peak!

Hugs!

Christmas Gift Card Set - Card 2!

Hi Everyone! a little while back I shared one of the cards that I created for the card sets that I was giving away for Christmas, so I thought over the next few days I would share the other 3 that I created as gifts for the girls in our family. I unfortunately, ran out of time to add one more card to the set, but everyone was pretty happy with the ones they received.

I tried to make each of the cards fairly simple design so that they were easy to punch out quickly as even trying to pull the 4 together became a challenge in the end. I vow next year I am so starting early on creating gifts, I did really well with the Christmas cards this year but not so on the gift lines.

This card was created using this beautiful big flower, I love this Hero Arts flower, the boldness of this stamp makes a statement all on it's own.

Using white card stock, trimmed to form a card, I took some pink gingham card stock from A Muse, which you can find HERE trimming pieces of the card stock to be adhered to the bottom of the white cards. I took thin strips of pink card stock and using the sewing machine to add stitching in the centre of each strip. I then inked the stamp up using Hero Arts, Soft Pink ink and stamping directly onto the cards, next, adding the gingham card stock, pink sewn strips of card stock and adhering pearls to the centre of each flower with Glossy Accents. To finish the card I took a sentiment from the Hero Arts, Big Hugs stamp set, stamping the sentiment to one side of the gingham card stock.

I find that sometimes stamping in one colour and not colouring it in can be just as effective, don't be afraid to do this and use lots of white.

Enjoy the card today, I will be back here tomorrow with Card 3 of the card set.

Have a great day!

Hugs

Present from a Really Sweet Friend!!

Hey Everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and have had some relaxation. It seems to come and go so quickly these days and before we know it, it will be a new year, scary to think how time flies by that easily.

So the other day I promised I would share the gift that a sweet, sweet friend sent me in the mail, when I opened this I must admit I shed a little tear. To think that this world of the crafting was so kind and caring just touches my heart every time.

I have gotten to know so many wonderful people in the crafting world, one being Britt, who was the one to send me this beautiful card and gorgeous little gift, to cheer my day, thank you, thank you Britt from the bottom of my heart, you are one kindest people I know and believe me I will treasure this always.

Make sure you check out Britt's blog, she is one talented gal who makes amazing creations and wonderful videos to boot.

Here is the sweet gift and card that she sent me.



Isn't it just beautiful, I know that this gorgeous card will sit in my craft room and when I look at it each time I am in there I will know what a beautiful new friend I have in my life, thank you once again Britt.

Well I am off to watch a Nigella Lawson DVD and maybe do some more crafting, so needed today off work for some much needed down time. I hope you are all getting the down time that you all need too.

Hugs to you all!

Merry Christmas!

A very short post to you all as I am completely exhausted from all the festivities...LOL.

I just want to wish all of my wonderful readers a very, very Merry Christmas, I hope that you have enjoyed the day with family and friends and that you have all had lots of laughs and fun memories to cherish forever.

We have had a wonderful day with my Mum, Brother, his wife and kids, the kids were spoilt rotten and it was so nice to be able to spend time together as a family we even managed to take a family photo that we have not done for years and years and it is one of those things I think are really important to do now, so am pleased that we achieved that.

So before I sign out for the night and head to bed early in which I need to do, I want to share one last Christmas card with you.



I decided to have a go at a design that the talented Kristina Werner created in one of her Holiday Card Series 2010, this was so out of the normal style that I generally create, but heck, that is what crafting is all about right? Having fun!!

I used all Echo Park, Wintertime Collection pack papers and a Hero Arts Stamp, the rest I will leave up to you, as it is a pretty simple card.

Okay so I am off to rest and have a very, very early night.

Enjoy the rest of your Christmas and if you are just about to celebrate Christmas morning have a wonderful time.

Thank you to everyone for passing through my blog to take a look.

Oh and one more thing, I will be sharing a special little package that arrived in the mail the other day from a very sweet friend in the next couple of days, so stay tuned to see what arrived.

Hugs to you and once again:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Christmas Tree!

Hey Everyone! I am back here with another blog post sharing some photos of my Christmas tree all decorated in all it's colour and definitely does not reflect my Less is More feel...LOL, I realised that I promised to share this with you a few days ago and had not done so, I also wanted to share some photos of some goodies that arrived today from Simon Says.

Now for the crafty goodies.

Now for some links:

These are totally Gorgeous and great male Christmas cards.

Simplicity at its best.

There is something about both of these cards that make me smile.

I am totally in love with this stuff.

I would love to take this class...

Okay I hope that leaves you with some things to feast your eyes on.

I will be back during the week to share some of the cards that I have created as card sets for the girls in our family.

Have a great night.

Hugs

Penguin Christmas!

Hey Everyone! So today brings us to another DT card for Jay Gee's Nook and I have decided to use this sweet set once again, but this time using the cute little penguin and some flocking powder.

I took the penguin stamp from this set and adding glue to the areas that would be black on him, I then took some black flocking powder and adhered. Once dry I coloured the other areas in with my Copics and added Glossy Accents over the top to add shine, I trimmed him out and set aside. Next, taking some Japanese Masking Tape, adhering it to some white card stock and stamping a sentiment from the Lawn Fawn, Bows and Holly stamp set, punching out a circle. I then took the Hero Arts, Magical Background stamp, inked it up with Hero Arts, Soft Pool ink and stamped onto more cream card stock, punching a larger circle out so that the penguin could be adhered to, I added some distress ink, broken china and attached the penguin to the circle using foam dimensionals. The last circle I took the snowflakes that were in the same set as the penguin, inking up with some more soft pool ink and stamped over white card stock, punching the same size circle out as the sentiment one and adding more distress ink around the edges of the circle to soften. I trimmed white card stock to form a card and inking the Hero Arts, Large Plaid Background stamp with Versamark Ink, I stamped over the front of the card and embossed using white embossing powder. I adhered all the circles to the card using foam dimensionals, added blue buttons, bakers twine and some stickles, lastly, I corner rounded two corners of the card using my corner chomper.

This was my first time at having a go at using flocking powder and I certainly know that I need a little more practice, but have found it to be a fun product to use.

Okay so I am off to check out what Ange and Judith have been up to. Also don't forget to check out what is in store, fantastic products at really, really great prices and to let you in on a little secret, there are more goodies on there way so make sure you check in when you can.

Hugs

Bling, Bling and more Bling!!

Hey Everyone! WOW! the last few days have flown by and hence the blog has been neglected, I feel as though the last couple of days I have been running around like a chook with it's head cut off and seem to not be getting very far.  Why is it at this time of the year we all go into crazy mode..LOL.

When I went to do some computer work tonight, I suddenly realised that I had not posted for the last couple of days and that I really needed to tend to that, so I ventured into the craft room and came up with a super, super quick card that literally took minutes to create.



I took white card stock, trimmed it to size to form a card and taking the PTI, Holiday Sparkle I inked up the Christmas tree that was in this set and stamped across the front of the card 3 times, adding scoring lines under the trees and stamping a sentiment in the middle of the score lines from the PTI, Big & Bold Holiday Wishes stamp set.  Next, my favourite part adding heaps of bling to the trees and also either side of the sentiment.

An absolutely simple, simple card and right now I think this is what we are looking for to create at this crazy stage of the Christmas preparations.

Okay this is a super short post tonight, but I will be back tomorrow to share some pics of my Christmas tree that I finally set up tonight.

Enjoy your night!

Hugs

Floods!

Hey Everyone! So don't have a card to share today, have taken the day off from crafting (although secretly between you and I, I may sneak in there a little later on..LOL) as today I am celebrating my Birthday. I look back and think where has all that time gone..LOL. I have had many birthday wishes from so many people from where I work, on the phone and from some wonderful friends online. I just want to take the time to thank everyone that have sent me wonderful wishes for my day, you all mean so much to me.

The other thing that I thought I would share with you are some photos of the flooding that has been happening around my home town, my friend sent me these photos the other day, so this is off the town above us. We are currently experiencing flooding here, the river has broken it's banks and the 2 major highways have been closed, there are still ways to get in and out of town, but takes a lot longer to get to where you want to go then it did when the roads were open. I am keeping my fingers crossed hard as my brother, his wife and kids will be trying to come home for Christmas and he has not been home for Christmas for 15 years, so I really want them to be able to do so.

These photos were taken of some the streets in my friends town and also the under carpark:

All I can say is it seems strange to have so much water when it is Summer, crazy weather :)

Okay so I am going to make this short, Darryl is shouting me Chinese tonight so I am going to go and relax just a tad.

Hugs

Sunday DT Card and a Video to Boot!

Hey Everyone! Well it is Sunday and it is time again for another DT card for Jay Gee's Nook. Today I thought that I would share the card, but also share a little video on how I created the card too (please forgive the blurriness, I seemed to have the angle a little better this time, but just don't have a good camera to show up details, so if anyone, anyone at all has any suggestions as to what is a good camera to use for creating video's please let me know, it will be most welcomed).

I just adore Pure Innocence stamps from My Favourite Things, they are just too sweet and so today I have created a card using this little cutie:

Firstly, I wanted to make a mask, so taking a post it note and the stamp, I stamped it onto the post it note and trimmed around, placing it onto white card stock trimmed to size, then taking the Hero Arts, Starry Sky I inked it up with some distress ink, antique linen and stamped over the masked image. Taking the Pure Innocence stamp once again I stamped into the blank space on the white card stock, I also stamped the image onto some patterned paper and trimmed pieces of the paper out, adhering these pieces to the image on the white card stock. Taking my Copics, E0000, E00, E50, RV95, RV93, RV21, R20, W4, W1, C1, and Colourless Copic to colour more features on the stamped image. I then sewed around the edge of the stamped image and blended with more distress ink, antique linen and also some vintage photo. I trimmed more white card stock to for a tag and stamped a sentiment from the Hero Arts, Holiday Sayings, adding a rhinestone either side and adhering to the top of the stamped card stock. I adhered the the stamped card stock to some more patterned paper using foam dimensionals and also more foam dimensionals to the patterned paper to adhere to a bone coloured trimmed card.

Here is the video showing how I created the card and as I said before if anyone knows or could offer and great advice as to which camera to purchase I would be grateful.



Okay so I am off to check out what the other DT members have been creating and don't forget that there is still time to enter the Challenge too, so get those inks and crafting bits out and start creating, you have a great chance of winning a fantastic Lawn Fawn stamp set.

Hugs

Red and White Christmas Card!

Hey Everyone! Today I spent the day Christmas shopping or at least trying to almost finish it off, nearly done, a couple of more items and I will be completed. Although, I cannot say the same about getting the Christmas tree up and decorated...I think that this weekend will have to be the day for it. How are you all doing with your Christmas preparations?

After getting home from Christmas shopping, I decided to have a little play in the craft room, I have been dying to have a go at this little baby:

I have to tell you, I am in love with it...LOL.



I ran a piece of white card stock through my Cuttlebug, cutting a Tim Holtz, Alterations, Rosette die, I folded the scored lines and glued each end, pressed down to form the rosette and glue the scalloped circle to the centre to hold the rosette together. Next, I took the PTI, 2010 Holiday Tags and stamping one of the images onto white card stock, that was inked with red ink, punching the image out with a circle punch, setting aside to dry. Taking the rosette once again, I added glue around the edges of the rosette and adhered prisma glitter, then adhered the stamped image to the centre of the rosette. Taking more white card stock, I took the Hero Arts, Large Plaid background stamp and inked it with some Hero Arts, Punch ink, stamping over the white card stock, trimming it down and sewing around the edges, applying distress ink, vintage photo and stamping once again with the punch ink, using PTI, Holiday Sparkle small stamps that are contained in this set to stamp over the plaid background to produce my own patterned paper. I took some Hero Arts, Punch paper and ran it through my Cuttlebug, cutting a mat stack die, then stamping inside the mat stack using the corresponding mat stack stamp from the Tiny Treats stamp set that was inked with punch ink. Taking the plaid background card stock, I stamped a sentiment from the PTI, Big Bold Holiday Wishes. I then adhered all the pieces together using foam dimensionals, adhering the sewn card stock to a trimmed white card. Lastly, I added some red pearls to finish the card.

I love this rosette die and cannot wait to use it more to create projects.

I hope you all have a great day, think of me having to work today!

Hugs

Blogging with Shari Carroll Day 5

Hi Everyone! Today is quite a sad day as it is the last of the blogging that Shari and I will share this week. I have had the best time and a lot of fun and just want to thank sweet Shari for asking me to blog with her, it has been a true honour to work alongside someone that is just the sweetest and uber talented to boot, so thank you Shari, I hope we do this again really soon.

So without further ado I will jump straight into today's final blog posting with Shari. Today we decided to create a Christmas tree using any embellishment, this is such a great way to use up those scraps or other bellies that you may have left over.



I took some chipboard and cut a piece to form a tree, then taking the paint dabber, pearl, I painted the entire piece and heat set it with my heat gun. Next, I adhered pink buttons to the entire tree, adhering them with glossy accents. Before adhering 4 of the buttons I added string through the holes as added interest. Once these had time to adhere, I added rhinestones and pearls to give the tree some shine. I took some Basic Grey patterned paper and the Hero Arts, Flourish Background stamp that was inked with Versamark Ink and embossed with white embossing powder. I trimmed the paper to size and added some distress ink, spun sugar and vintage photo to the edges of the paper, lastly, adhering the tree to the patterned paper with foam dimensionals, stamping a sentiment from the Hero Arts, Holiday Sayings stamp set and adhering to a bone card that was trimmed to form a card.

Here is a close up of the tree:



I do hope that you have enjoyed the week with Shari and I and that we have given you lots of inspiration to forge ahead with those Christmas cards.

Okay so I am off to blog hop again over to my friend Shari's blog.

Have a great day everyone!

Hugs

Blogging with Shari Carroll Day 4

Hiya! We now arrive at day 4 blogging with Shari and I do hope that you are all finding some inspiration to make those Christmas cards we all need to make.

Before we head into today's card, I just want to take the time to thank you all for leaving all the wonderful comments on Shari's and my blog and just taking the time to look, I am sure it means a lot to Shari as I know it does to me, so thank you all.

So today we are bringing you a technique and this technique is to use Distress Inks.



Using a non stick craft sheet along with distress ink, dusty concord, faded jeans and peeled paint, I placed the ink directly onto the craft sheet. Next, taking the Hero Arts, Swirl Frame, I walked the stamp through the ink, making sure to get good coverage of colour onto the stamp. Taking a mini mister and spritzing it with water and stamping directly onto water colour paper, heat setting with heat gun, I then inked the Hero Arts, Friend Definition with distress ink, vintage photo and stamped over the top and trimming the stamped image out. Once dried and trimmed out, I took more of the same ink and blended the colours over the Swirl Frame. To add more of a Christmas theme to the card, I took the Hero Arts, Merry Christmas Trees stamp set, taking one of the trees from the set and inking it with some Versamark Ink, stamping onto white card stock and embossing with white embossing powder. I then coloured the tree using some distress ink, pumice stone and bundled sage, once I was happy with the colour I took some twine and added a bow to the bottom of the tree and also some twine around the Swirl Frame. I adhered the tree to the Swirl Frame using foam dimensionals, added some rhinestones and set aside. I trimmed a piece of white card stock to form a card and taking the Hero Arts, Starry Sky, inking it with Versamark Ink and embossing with white embossing powder. Lastly, adhering the Swirl Frame to the card and adding a sentiment from the Hero Arts, Holiday Sayings and more rhinestones to finish.

I really enjoyed making this card, what with using the fun technique, it was also fun to use some non traditional colours as well as a non traditional stamp and make it into a Christmas themed card. Hoping that this card gives you some inspiration to be able to use non traditional stamps and make them into some cards.

Okay I cannot contain myself any longer I need to go and check out my friends card, lets blog hop together shall we.

Looking forward to returning again tomorrow with another creation.

Have a great day!

Hugs

Blogging with Shari Carroll Day 3

Hey everyone! Back again to share day 3 blogging with sweet Shari, this has been an incredibly fun week so far, although had a little panic last night thinking that the mojo was starting to leave me at one of the most critical times, but with Shari and her sweet words of wisdom has put me back on track again, Phew!!!!

Today we are showing what we have created using this wonderful Hero Arts stamp set:

I started with white card stock, trimmed to size and taking the Hero Arts, Music Background stamp and inking it with distress ink, antique linen I stamped over the card stock, distressing the edges of the card stock using vintage photo. Next, taking the mistletoe stamp that was in the set I stamped this across the entire top of the card stock, colouring each of the leaves in using my Prisma Color Pencils, adding glossy accents over the top to give shine. Whilst the glossy accents was drying, I took the large ornament that was in the set and stamped it onto white card stock 4 times, colouring the centres of 3 of the ornaments, cutting each of these out, then colouring the outer of the large ornament and also trimming around this. I added some stickles to the centre of the 3 images cut out and with the larger ornament I went over the black lines with my white gel pen. I adhered the centre of the ornament to the large ornament, making it a 3 dimensional look, once the ornament was adhered together I adhered this to the stamped background card stock using foam dimensionals. I added string from the ornament to the mistletoe and also placed a bow of sting on the top of the ornament. Next, I added some more stamping over the background using one of the snowflakes that was in this set, inking the snowflake with distress ink, antique linen. Lastly, I added a sentiment from the Hero Arts, Get Merry and some rhinestones, adhering this to a trimmed white card.

Here is a closer look of the ornament.



So I am off to check out Shari's card, why don't you join me.

Before I sign off, yesterday I promised a link to see my large scrapbooking haul, most of these products have been brought over the last couple of months and the larger one was my present to me for my birthday which is next Monday. To view my 2 videos please click HERE.

Looking forward to seeing you all here tomorrow.

Hugs

Blogging with Shari Carroll Day 2

Hi Everyone! So I return with day 2 of blogging with the lovely Shari Carroll. I hope you all had a chance to check out her amazing creation she made yesterday, I have to say that it totally blew me away, that girl is so darn creative, to see more of her creativity you can check out her wonderful Flickr photostream HERE.

Well we head into day 2 of our blogging and today we are bringing you a sketch, this is what we had to create by:

I decided to create a card that had a vintage style feel to it, totally out of my comfort zone but one that I have always felt a strong passion to try.



I took white card stock, trimmed to form a card and taking the Hero Arts, Flourish background stamp, I inked it up with some Versamark Ink and embossed it with white embossing powder, setting this aside to work on the rest of the card. Taking a circle punch I punched a circle of card stock, also taking a scallop punch I punched 4 circles out from white card stock, folding each of them to form a petal, adhering this to the plain circle. Next, running more white card stock through my Cuttlebug, cutting snowflakes, I then placed plenty of glue on each and covered the larger one with silver glitter and the other with prisma glitter. Once the glitter had dried, I took both of the snowflakes and adhered them to the flower that I had created using the white card stock, placing a crystal brad through the centre to hold it all together. Taking water colour paper and the Hero Arts, Branch and Flourish Tree, I inked it up using some distress ink, barn door, spritzed with some water and stamped directly onto the paper, heat setting it with my heat gun. I then sewed around the edges of the paper and tore the excess off, applying distress ink, antique linen and vintage photo to give it an aged look. I took all elements of the card and adhered each of them onto the front of the embossed card, lastly, adding some red rhinestones and vintage lace trim to finish.

Certainly a very different style to what I am normally used to but it was fun to create and something that was also new for me, this was my first sketch card that I had created.

Okay so now it is time to follow me over to Shari's blog to see what AMAZING creation she has created for us today.

Looking forward to bringing you another creation tomorrow.

Oh and I will have a video for you all to have a look at what goodies I have purchased over the last couple of months, I will leave the link for you tomorrow so that you can view this. I brought quite a bit, an early birthday present, now seeing my birthday is less then a week away :)

Hugs

Blogging with Shari Carroll Day 1

Hiya! yes you read the title of this blog post right, I am blogging this week with my sweet friend Shari. Shari asked me a couple of weeks ago whether I would like to have a week where we would could blog together and of course I immediately said yes (to tell you the truth I did let out a little squeal of excitement..LOL).

So this week we will be sharing a different array of stamping and creating Christmas themed projects for you to feast your eyes on, with day 1 being a Photo Inspiration, here is the photo:

I decided to create a card using the different colours that I could see on this beautiful pillow.



I took some white card stock and ran it through my Cuttlebug, cutting a Label 8 die cut, then inking the top half of the die cut using distress ink, peeled paint, also inking the Hero Arts, Friend Definition stamp with the same ink and stamping over the top of the inked section, giving it a tone of tone look, then dipping my fingers into water and flicking water over the top, which as we know when distress ink has water applied to it, it reacts, I dried it off using my heat gun. Taking, a piece of Kraft card stock, I ran this through my Cuttlebug, cutting it with the same die, then inked the Hero Arts, Magical Background stamp up with some Colorbox Ink, Frost White and stamped over the die cut, I adhered this to the peeled paint die cut, adding string to cover the glued sections. I added a sentiment to the top of the die cut from the Hero Arts, Get Merry Stamp set, I also added some scatters of red rhinestones and a Hero Arts, Poinsettia with the same string behind the flower and a Basic Grey brad through the centre. Lastly, I trimmed brown card stock to form the card and adhered the die cut to the card.

I loved that I was able to use quite a few techniques, stamping and Hero Arts products on this card.

I do hope that this card gives you inspiration to create a card using different stamping techniques.

Well I am almost giddy with excitement to see what my dear friend Shari has created, so why not follow me and check out what she has been creating.

I do hope to see you all back here again tomorrow to check out Day 2 of our week together.

Have a great day!

Hugs