Guess Who's having a Sale...

I was going to come & post a link to the GALLERY over at CRAFT QUEEN, when I saw that she's having a SALE...Lots of great stuff, at great prices too, so go & have a look. My favourite would have to be THIS ribbon.

Quick Challenge Entry

3 cards made over the weekend, the top one is for a friend who likes to play with the Stampotique images as much as I do, & it is also my entry for the current STAMPOTIQUE Designers' challenge #3 (with the theme of Spring has sprung, which is more applicable to our friends in the Northern hemisphere, but which always makes me think of flowers & sunshine)

I used a watermelon colour base, some DCWV pp, kraft cs, the frame is a stamp(available HERE) coloured in with white Souffle pen, & I've used a combination of paper flowers as well as some stamped ones (Darkroom Door, Hampton Arts) The wings on HEAD are a stamped butterfly (Darkroom Door) & I stamped him on some DCWV pp using some Archival ink & the sentiment is from a word strip (also from Darkroom Door) I added some watermelon coloured cotton ribbon & some Kaiser pearls.

For the cupcake card, I used some left-over watermelon cs, & addeed the orange cs strips, the image is from a Kaiser set of stamps, the sentiment is from a Darkroom Door wordstrip, & I added a bow of tulle & fibres.

Lastly, a robot card for one of our nephews, very quick to make (thanks to the Montage robot image from Darkroom Door) I used some blue cs for the base, & got some coordinating colours from my craps box, stuck everything down & added the staples & the sentiment (again from a Darkroom Door wordstrip, best things for when you're a bit pressed for time)

That's it from me, I'll be back to share some more creations later on in the week, but in the meantime, thank you for visiting me, & make sure you set some time aside to play, it's good for the soul : )

A Vase Glove?

That's the best way to describe the little bag I made (in 10 minutes!!) I did some pruning yesterday, & I wanted a vase, but could not find the right size...so I had a look in the cupboard under the sink, which happens to be the place where I keep "stuff" which may-come-in-handy -one-day,-but-which-usually-ends-up-in-the-recycling-bin-after-a-month LOL, & ended up using an empty jar of sauce. I couldn't be bothered to remove the label, so I decided to hide it instead.
While I was searching for some suitable fabric, I got an email from LEESA, letting me know she had a St. Patrick's day challenge happenning in her blog, which made the choice of fabric easy, green, just in case you're wandering LOL. So I just measured the circumference of the jar, got my sewing machine out, & 10 minutes later I had a vase glove, or jar bag...I added some string to hold it in place, & one of Sandie's hand-made daisies to finish it off. So this one's for Leesa's challenge : )







Now, onto another challenge...

This is for INKURABLE STAMPERS gothic Arch challenge #4, the theme is "hands", & as usual, no planning! I started with the green colour (acrylic paint onto an old book page) for the b'ground (nothing to do with St. Patrick's, I just wanted to use a colour I haven't played with for a while LOL) & the image of the dangling fob watches (it's from a Non Sequitur plate) The same plate had the quote (which is stamped & clear-embossed), the clock face, & the tiny group of hands (under the clock), & to those I added the eyes (from Time To Stamp)& the small script (from Victoria's Secret) The edges were inked with Encore metallic ink (copper) & clear-embossed, & I added some copper-coloured German scrap, & some Kaiser pearls, a hand-trimmed felt heart, bling brad, & the clock hands (punchies) If you get a chance, have a look at the great Flickr group HERE, & don't forget, you can join in at any time...

Last week I was lucky enough to receive this lovely parcel from my friend SANDIE, part prize( for the Halloween competition she had happenning in her blog a while back) & part challenge (the napkin is my next project) with a lovely card, all for me ( Thanks so much Sandie, love your beautiful hand-made flowers)

& She has recently celebrated the BIG 50...50 followers (not years!!!!) & she's running another great competition, so pop in & say hello :)

Here's what I did with the set criteria...

We had to use our favourite colour, bling, a pin, beads, & some sort of trim (ribbon or twine etc) So I used purple BBcs & DCWV pp, a bling brad for the centre of the flower, a sewing pin, pearly beads (on the embroidery floss attached to the sentiment, & some beautiful red velvet ribbon (from CRAFT QUEEN)

Phew! If you've made it this far, thank you for your patience, I hope there is something here to inspire you to use up your crafty bits & pieces, & to have fun. Thanks for your visit, & see you soon : )

Shaken Up...

A quick post today, as I'm using our laptop, & i'm not used to it, our PC is getting an upgrade & all my favourite programs are away!

This card was made for the new Stampotique challenge blog (thanks Sarah for the reminder) I did receive their newsletter announcing the new blog, but I read it, & put it away, & forgot all about it, so I missed the first challenge, but here is the second one & it's a colour challenge...

I started with a pale yellow card base (BB) adding some K&Co pp, the bow is a strip of organza fabric, & I used my spanking-brand-new labels 1 nestie (a new favourite!!!) The 2 Stampotique images were stamped onto some Darkroom Door film strips using some Archival ink, & coloured using some wc pencils. The sentiment is from a Darkroom Door word strip. Now I'll just have to link it up (fingers' crossed i can work it out LOL)

For those of you who may be interested I was born in Chile, the country that has been shaken by an earthquake of huge proportions, & I've been trying to get in touch with relatives, but until today the power had been down. I had received news that all our relatives are well, but more than that, my worry was for my parents, who have been holidaying there for the last couple of weeks, but they are both well, so I'm feeling very relieved right now.

I'm without my favourite photo editing program!!! So, excuse the photos : ) & excuse the fact that I don't know how to add the proper links : ( I promise to be back & fix everything as soon as my trusty PC is back in my arms :)

Until then, don't forget there's only a couple of days left to join in with INKURABLE STAMPERS monthly challenge, & also hop on over to DARKROOM DOOR, where Rachel is celebrating the release of some new products with a 15 day giveaway competition!!!

New Gothic Arch

Here is my Gothic arch for this week`s theme over at INKURABLE STAMPERS (which you can join in at any time)

For this week, the theme is crowns, & as is usually the case for me, I worked on this backwards LOL, I`m so not the planning type LOL!!!!

I set myself the challenge of using a stamp that had not seen ink in a long time, so I decided to play with one of my Non Sequitur images.

I stamped the image (from the "Every Woman Is A Star" plate) with black Stazon ink onto watercolour paper, & then used some gel pens to colour it in, & trimmed it with my craft knife, but I wanted to add some more dimention to it, so I stuck the image to some cs for stregth, & trimmed it again. I then worked out the shape for my new arch from HERE , & pasted an old page book onto my arch, painted it with white acrylic paint, & when dried, stamped the flourishes (AL Flourishes Vol 2) with Brilliance Moonlight White ink, & heat-embossed with clear EP. I then painted over the flourishes with jade wc paint, & wiped with a clean rag to reveal the stamped flourishes. I stamped the wording (from the same Non Sequitur plate) using timber brown Stazon on off-white cs, trimmed with scallop scissors, & edged with Brilliance Pearlescent Coral ink.

I also wanted to add a bit of trim, & found the perfect LACE RIBBON in the stash that Nicole (from CRAFT QUEEN) sent me (thanks Nicole)

So, after adding the trim, I stuck the dancer & the words using some foam tape, & thought I was finished, & then realized I had forgotten to check that I had a suitably sized crown!!! Just like everyone else, I have lots of crown stamps, but none of them were small enough to go on my dancer, so I decided I would cut one out of cb, but when looking through my scraps box I found a bag with some shrink plastic scraps, so I changed plan & stamped my crown (from Studio Astarte) using Brilliance coral, trimmed it using Kai scissors, & shrunk it, sticking it down with Pritt gel (very strong stuff)

There`s a lot to be said for planning!!! : )

Nicole has put some of my work up in the gallery HERE, so if you get a chance, go & check it out, & let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading through the long post, & I hope you get a chance to play with your supplies too. Have a happy Sunday, & see you soon.

Ooh, & before I forget, final DT Doctor Who episode is on tonight! : (

Rubbing Shoulders With Royalty...

I am so excited to share that NICOLE from CRAFT QUEEN has asked me to be part of her design team (yay!) A little while back, my friend SANDIE put me in touch with Nicole, who then sent me a lovely kit to play with, & I guess she liked what I made with her kit, because she asked if I would be interested in playing along for the rest of the year!!! Would I ever! So I have lots of cards that I have made, but I can`t share just yet LOL, but in the meantime I`ll let you have a peek at the MARCH kit:

& HERE is where you can purchase the kits. & while getting the link I just noticed some of the past kits are on special, so what better time to treat yourself : )

I have to say I`m not normally a pastel kind of gal, but all the bits & pieces in the kit went very well together, & you even get a small set of stamps included in the kit, which I think is a great idea. There`s enough cs & pp in the kit to make up 6 cards ( I had enough left-overs to do an extra 2 small cards, one of which can be seen in Nicole`s CRAFT QUEEN BLOG) as well as other bits & pieces that could be used in other projects (the kits are very generous) & what better way to give some gorgeous ribbons a test run : )

I hope you`re having a great weekend, & don`t forget to set some time aside to play & create...

Thank you for visiting me, & allowing me to invade your monitor for a little while, & now I`m off to get some dinner ready...I don`t want to be cooking in the middle of Doctor Who! Only two episodes left with David Tennant in them! I`m going to miss the 10th Doctor. B4N

She`s A He !!!!

We took Minkie to the vet`s yesterday, & he discovered that she wasn`t a she at all, apparently an easy mistake to make when they are under 6 weeks...so we came home with a little boy! I keep thinking of him as a her, it will take a while to get used to him, but DD wasn`t fazed by the news, & even though I suggested a change of name (Elton came to mind LOL) she thought the name should stay the same.

On another topic, the new theme for the INKURABLE STAMPERS challenge blog is metallics (have a look HERE) & as I was in need of a card, I killed two birds with the one stone, so to speak...only thing is, after sending it in I thought "mmm, is it metallic enough?" but I`m very happy with how it turned out, & as I haven`t used anything metallic in a while it felt about right : )

I started by taking an old book page & wiping some teal StaZon directly onto the page, I then stamped the Darkroom Door image (from THIS set) onto it using Archival ink in jet black. I took a small Stampbord piece & coloured it using the teal StaZon ink & I then stamped a portion of the same image using black StaZon ink onto the stampbord, & using my craftknife, I scratched away to reveal the white highlights. I then inked the edges with Encore metallic copper ink, & covered the block with DiamondGlaze.I added the stampbord piece to the stamped image, & layered the page to some teal coloured BB cs, inking the edges of same with the Encore metallic ink,adding the copper coloured ribbon, & the thread. The DD words ( from THIS set)were stamped onto black cs using theEncore metallic ink & covered with clear EP, the edges were inked with same & they were stuck using some foam tape, this was then stuck to a folded piece of olive BB cs.

I have not used that Encore ink in a looong time, & the ribbon has been in my stash for quite a while as well, so it was great to put them to good use : )

Yesterday, Sarah let me know that I am now "officially the ONLY person to have completed ALL of the monthly challenges" at INKURABLE STAMPERS!!!! (I feel like a stalker LOL!!!) But I have to say, I`ve enjoyed every one of the great themes she`s come up with, & some have been more challenging than others, but they have all been fun, & if you`re ever short of inspiration, just take a look at the great slide shows in the blog showing all the entries to date...& don`t forget the new Gothic Arches challenge & its Flickr group, lots of great projects there as well.

In other news, I managed to do all of ONE challenge for last month`s CC over at SBT50, but in my defence, it was a double page LOL.

Lots of colour, lots of journaling, & lots of photos! This was challenge #2, & we had to do a double page LO, four photos or more, & it had to have the year in the title, as well as the theme being some kind of over-view of the year. I hadn`t scrapped for the last 2 months or so, but I`m really happy I got the chance to get this LO done! But there`s no time to stop & smell the flowers LOL, the CC for this month has already started!!! So if you`re into scrapping, check out the challenges HERE, there`s always great prizes up for grabs, & even if you don`t win, you`ll end up with some great LOs to add to your albums : )

Now I`m off to check my friend Sandie`s BLOG, she has a napkin thing happening that looks quite interesting HERE. My apologies for the essay, & thank you as always for your visit, & if you leave me a comment, I thank you for those too : ) Now go forth & CREATE!