Stuck On You...

I`ve been itching to show off what I did using a new (to me LOL) stamping surface called STAMPBORD. Yes, I know it`s been around for quite a while, but this is the first time I`ve actually played with some, thanks to SARAH, who gifted me a great assortment of pieces a little while ago as a RAK (thank you SARAH). She also happened to have a link to THIS great STAMPBORD competition up on her challenge blog (INKURABLE STAMPERS) so I thought I would have a go. The Stampbord website has a great, easy to follow "how-to" page, & there`s also a variety of very inspiring samples up in their gallery & there is also a "Featured How-To" page (Sarah has a great LO there) Anyway, because I entered the competition, I haven`t been able to show my entry until now (the winning entries have been announced HERE) & I`m so happy to say that I`m one of four mini prize WINNERS (insert happy dance here!!!!) So, if there`s a lesson to be learnt here, it is this: Don`t be afraid to play, have a go, you may just win something, & even if you don`t win, you`ll have fun trying, AND you`ll end up with some cool magnets LOL :)

You can click HERE if you want to find out how I made these...

& if you want to find out more about some great alternatives to plain ol`canvas, visit AMPERSANDART, click on "products" & have a look at some of the gorgeous projects artists have created.

As always, thank you for visiting me, & I wish you a very creative week, B4N :)

A New Challenge

Sarah over at INKURABLE STAMPERS has set up a great new Gothic arch challenge which will run for the rest of the year, you can read more about it HERE. & the theme for the first Gothic arch is butterflies, which you can read about HERE .

The top photo shows my Gothic arches (I used the template for a triptych card from HERE ) all ready & waiting for the themes, & this is the one I finished last night, I had to ask DD to hold the arch for me to photograph it, thanks darling :*

After tracing the design onto heavy card, I covered it with an old book page, painted the b`ground with white acrylic paint, inked the edges, stamped the swirls (Sculpey texture sheet) & the face (My Stamps) Added the b`flies (Darkroom Door) which were stamped onto painted cs, cut out & mounted). The sentiment is from a red rubber butterfly plate (?) & I added the tiny rhinestones to the lower corner. This is my very first Gothic arch, & I have to say I`m so happy with how it turned out, I can`t wait to see what the other themes will be! Sarah has created a Flickr group HERE where the arches can be uploaded. You can join in at any time, so if you`re like me & haven`t made one of these before, why not have a play : )

Welcome 2010

CAUTION: LONG POST AHEAD :)

Welcome to a brand new decade, I know I`m a little late updating my blog, but as the old sayng goes, "better late than never".

It`s school holidays here ATM, so not much crafting happening, plus the heat over the last few days has been quite annoying! But enough about the weather :)

DD has been invited to a couple of sleep-over b`day parties, so while she was busy getting her things ready last night, I had the chance to join in this month`s brand new theme over at INKURABLE STAMPERS (where I was lucky enough to win one of the fabulous prizes, for the colour challenge with my party cones , thank you Sarah)

A few months back the theme was "By the Sea" & I made THIS mermaid using a template from THE ENCHANTED GALLERY (a great resource for paperdoll templates!) so I went back & downloaded a different mermaid to make her into a bookmark.

So, here she is, complete with navel jewellery (hard to see, but it`s there LOL)

After tracing all the pieces onto cream coloured cs, I used various images on her arms & torso (by Technique Tuesday & Oxford Impressions), & attached them using tiny brads. I added some beads by sewing them onto her neck as well as onto her wrist. Her "hair" was cut out from a printed book page, & painted with acrylic paint & KG. I like my mermaids to be a bit on the conservative side LOL, so I added a couple of butterflies (Non Sequitor,from my scraps box) to cover her bossom.

Her tail was painted with silver paint, stamped using THIS set of DARKROOM DOOR stamps (part of my prize pack for taking part in DRD Flickr challenge, thank you Rachel) as well as some Victoria`s Secret stamps, using royal purple StaZon ink, & highlighted with a white Souffle pen. I added a little chalk to her arms & her cheeks, & she kind of reminds me of Cher (must be the purple hair LOL) If you look very closely, you`ll see there`s a tiny purple rhinestone where her belly button should be (DD`s idea, thanks darling) She`s approx. 11" long (or should that be 11" tall?) & she will reside happily-ever-after in my currently-being-read book from now on :)

There`s heaps happening over at INKURABLE STAMPERS, including a new prize structure (if you haven`t had a go at the challenges before, this is a great time to take part, as there`s a prize for newbies as well as for domestic AND international entries, so go & check it out HERE And if you`re looking for something a little different there`s also THIS starting this coming Sunday, & I can`t wait to see what the theme will be.

On another note, I also managed to finish my ATCs for THIS swap, but I`ll share when I get my returns back...

& I just got an email from LEESA about THIS competition, so if you have a little time to play, why not join in?

And just what I need to get me scrapping again, this is the prize pack I received on the 24th of December from DARKROOM DOOR, thank you so much Rachel. You`ve heard it from me before, & here it is again: You`ve got to be in it to win it, so go & create something, have fun & play along, & USE that stash, you know you want to!!!!!!

So in conclusion,thank you for reading this far, & Happy New Year/Decade, & as always, thank you for visiting my humble "palace"

A Happy Wish

A happy wish to you & yours, for a wonderful festive season, & my apologies to those of you who have left me some lovely comments, I will visit you eventually...but for now, thank you for popping in :)

I thought I had finished all my Christmas cards for the year, but I forgot I had signed up for SANDIE`s challenge over at her blog (sorry SANDIE, better late than never LOL) So here`s my last bit of crafting for the year... The top
card was a very easy one to make, it`s just a circle punch (Whale of a Punch) some DCWV pp, & metallic cs, Fiskars edge punch, ribbon, & a cuttlebug embossing folder.

For the second card, I used the stamp I won last month over at INKURABLE STAMPERS (thanks SARAH, & STAMP & SCRAPBOOK MADNESS), stamped the image using Versafine Ink, coloured it in using wc pencils, & added some KG, ribbon & the sentiment is from a DARKROOM DOOR word strip.

& here`s another card using one of my favourite Christmas set of stamps ( by DRD) Both the reindeer image & the word are from THIS SET. The pps are from DCWV, the green cs was in my scraps box, & I used 2 different edge punches (Martha Stewart`s for the green cs, & Fiskars for the blue DCWVpp) & a bit of ribbon to finish it off.

For this next one I used the circle punch again, & 2 different cb embossing folders, some ribbon & foam tape, & the words (from the DRD Christmas set) were stamped onto kraft card, distressed around the edges & mounted onto scraps of DCWV pp. The finished card was edged using Brilliance ink.

For this card, I raided my scraps box again, the green b`ground pp is Basic Grey, the strip of red cs was a left-over piece from the first card in this post (I just can`t throw ANYTHING away LOL) The beautiful images are from a Montage sheet (DRD), with some tiny Kaiser pearls in between, & the sentiment is from DRD Christmas set mounted onto a scrap of DCWV red pp.

Now we come to the very last card, made using BB cs (jade) DCWV metallic cs (copper) edged with a Fiskars punch & sanded back slightly to show the white core, DCWV pp (the dots are silver), reindeer image & word (from DRD set) stamped onto white cs using Versafine ink (Sepia) & some beads strung onto metallic embroidery floss. Again, card was edged with Brilliance ink. So these are the first 6 Christmas cards for NEXT year all taken care of LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

& if you read THIS post, you would know I was picked as one of the winners in the DRD FLICKR challenge, & my prize pack was delivered to me on Christmas eve (Thank you so much Rachel) I still haven`t had a chance to play with it, but that`s the first thing I plan to do next year...which is just around the corner!!!!!!!!! I don`t know about you, but this year has just flown by! & on that note I`d like to wish you & yours, a very happy & safe new year, may you only make resolutions you can actually stick to, I know I will :) Thanks for visiting, & see you next year : *

Party Favour Cones

Well, today DD will celebrate her 12th b`day, & she`s having a few friends over...I wanted to make her something special for the lollie bag, but it needed to be quick, & easy, so I thought what could be easier than a cone shape filled with lollies! The cs is pink pearlescent Christina Re, & I`ve used a scalloped nestie shape, an EK circle punch, a Collections cb heart, & the stamps are SeeDs (xoxo) Non Sequitur (butterflies) & Cherry Pie( bricks ) & I`ve used Vivid ink (pink) Versafine (bricks) StaZon black (b`flies) & Adirondack ( to colour the heart) & my crop-a-dile to punch the holes. The ribbon is actually torn satin fabric. So after making this one, I showed DD & she loved it, but asked if I could make the others in pp, so I got her to choose from some DCWV pps & she also had a look through my ribbon stash & in no time at all I had them all done : )

I won a great prize (a beautiful stamp) for my entry to last month`s twinchie challenge, over at INKURABLE STAMPERS, & I think this is the last bit of crafting I`ll get a chance to do this month, so I thought I would enter my pink, brown & cream cone into this month`s competition...I have joined in every single challenge there since it started, & I didn`t want to break my attendance record LOL. I know it`s only days to Christmas, but if you get some spare time, why not join in the fun, there`s some gorgeous prizes up for grabs, & like I always say, you`ve got to be in it to win it...I better go & get things organized, thhis is the calm before the storm : ) Thanks for popping in & enjoy your day.

Christmas Is Coming...

& here are the rest of my Christmas cards, as promised.

Can you see what they all have in common? I`ve used the beautiful images from the Darkroom Door Yuletide Montage sheet, & they are just the best thing for when you are running short on time. I kept their designs fairly simple, just adding ribbon, brads, string, or fibres, but I`m very happy with how they turned out. & I have to say, I`m getting a lot of use out of the word strips as well.

If you`re looking for some Christmas cards inspiration, make sure you visit the Darkroom Door blog, & if you want to win yourself some DRD goodies, just upload YOUR Christmas projects to the DRD Flickr group HERE, you never know your luck until you try. I`m living proof that you`ve got to be in it to win it, just found out this morning that I was picked as one of the winners of this Flickr challenge, WOOHOO! Thank you Rachel :)

Now, I better go & write some Christmas cards!

Don`t forget to visit Inkurable Stampers & have a go at the new challenge for this month, it`s a colour challenge, & a yummy one at that, & Sarah has made some beautiful Christmas cards as her samples for this month`s theme.

Thank you for your visit, & if you`ve taken the time to leave me a comment, I thank you even more : )

Cards, Babies & Ballet Shoes...

December is normally a very busy month for our family, but this year has been even more so. DD has taken up ballet & has had end-of-year-concert rehearsals, so both DH & I have shared taxi duties, plus we`ve had a couple of babies born, which has also meant visits to hospitals, & our own DD has just turned 12 years old!!! My, how time flies when you`re sleep deprived LOL
Anyway, here are a couple of cards I`ve created. Firstly are the 2 baby cards, top one is for a little baby girl, & the second one is for our new nephew.

I used this very cute hippo image & kept the designs fairly simple, as I only had a few minutes to make the cards, take a photo & go to the hospital to visit!!! I had the images ready, each hippo was stamped 3 times using black Versafine ink, coloured using wc pencils, & cut & layered for the 3-D effect, so all I had to do was "assemble"the cards

& this card went to my brother for his b`day, another quick card, as I already had the painted b`ground (painted with MM glaze on an old book page) So again, all I had to do was to stamp both the quote & truck image from THIS DRD set onto the paper, tear around the edges & create the trim n the middle (done using a hand punch)

& this is the card I created for my little angel, it`s the first time I`ve inked this stamp (from Stamp-it) but it wont be the last LOL. DH bought it for me a few weeks ago, but as so often happens, I just hadn`t had a chance to play with it yet... I have stamped the image twice (once onto white card & a secnd time onto scraps) using black Versafine ink, cutting each image out, & colouring them in using wc pencils. I then stuck some foam tape & layered the images to their corresponding mannequins. I`ve used some K&Co pp for the b`ground, some tiny rhinestones & the words are from a DRD word strip.

I hope all your Christmas shopping is done, & your Christmas cards have all been sent (mine are still waiting to be written up!) I`ll be back later on to share some more Christmas cards : ) Have a creative day, & thank you for visiting my humble "palace"