Merriest Wishes

Now that Halloween is over, it's full steam ahead with making Christmas cards. I'm trying to come up with some ideas for quick cards to make for Christmas so I can get a number of cards made in any one sitting, or I should say standing, as I always seem to stand when making cards!

I pulled out the Merry Christmas Tree stamp and die set I got last year to make a card that is very quick and easy to put together. This card is for a relative who loves muted colours and lots of bling, so I went a bit wild on the shimmery gems! I'll probably make a couple more cards like this using different colour combinations.



Stamps & die (Hero Arts) - Merry Christmas Tree & Very Merry Christmas

I started by embossing a square of vellum using a snowflake folder and applied some white ink here and there. Then I embossed the Christmas tree, die cut it and added lots of gems and a bow. The sentiment was also embossed and I lightly inked the edges of the sentiment piece and added a little gem.

I'm submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge (A Few of my Favourite Things category) as I used embossing which is one of my favourite stamping techniques. Also I'm submitting it into the Die Cut Divas Let's Celebrate Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Someone here is already in their relaxed weekend mode!

Hope you have a relaxing, fun and inky weekend!

Flowers and Butterflies Gift Bucket

I'm playing along again with one of Cath's 350 Cards and Gift Week Challenges over at Moxie Fab World. This time I thought I'd try the Gift Packaging Challenge .



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Blossom Art & Birthday Messages

Sometimes I like to give gifts in small buckets and picked up this little one a while ago. I embossed the flowers on vellum, cut out and layered. Then I added little flower gem centres and adhered the flowers to the bucket. To try to give a light, airy feel I used some organza ribbon for the bow and tulle as packaging.



I had loads of tiny little butterflies left over from punching borders for cards, so to use up some, I sprinkled them over the present and tulle. Well I better go tidy up my stamping supplies, you'd never guess the huge mess I made putting together this tiny gift bucket! Thanks for visiting:)

Blinged Up Butterflies Gift Box

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I posted anything so I had to clear the cobwebs off the cobwebs on the blog this morning!

Part of this month’s Hero Arts Challenge is to bling up a project so I went a bit bling crazy on the butterflies for this gift box!


Hero Arts Stamps (Flower Dot Pattern & Antique Engravings)

To start with I made a small opened topped box – instructions on this post. Then I added white Label 8 die cuts to the front and back of the box. The Flower Dot Pattern was embossed in white on watercolor card and I applied broken china and tumbled glass distress inks.

The butterflies were embossed in white on vellum and blinged up with lots of Hero Arts gems.



Recently I’ve been busy with work and the craft fair so hopefully in December I’ll be back to blogging as usual again.

Hero Hostess Takeover!

It’s Hero Hostess week on the Hero Arts blog this week and we’ve had such a fun time making birthday cards and projects for the blog!

Linda and Sharon were first up on Monday with wonderful cards for a friend and a guy. On Tuesday Sally shared a stunning gift box which she had created and is sure to make a present extra special. Wednesday saw Anita with her very first video tutorial and she created a gorgeous card with wonderful instructions on how to make twisted ribbon flowers. So Friday is finally here and I’m sharing some gift wrapping ideas.


Stamps (Hero Arts) Antique Engravings, Blossom Art, Large Flower & Birthday Messages

I often make my own wrapping paper and embellishments for gifts. I love choosing the stamps and colours to make these and had great fun going through my Hero Arts stamps to wrap these particular gifts. Full instructions on how I wrapped the gifts are here on the Hero Arts website so I’ll just give the short version now. I stamped a butterfly randomly over pieces of some blue craft paper using VersaMark.



To decorate the parcels I white embossed the butterflies and flowers on vellum and added a selection of gems – thanks again Joy for some of these! The bottom layer of the sentiment was also white embossed on vellum with the top layer white embossed on a scrap of the blue paper.



The blue paper I used was from a roll which is 70m long and cost the same as a single sheet of wrapping paper. So I’ll be able to wrap lots of presents from this roll and will be able to customise them to suit the recipient’s tastes. The other day I wrapped a present for a friend using different paper and stamped embellishments. She told me that she has saved the embellishments so that she can make her first cards using them – hopefully she’ll get hooked on card making too!



I'm submitting this project into The Shabby Tea Room "Party Time" Challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday Challenge.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

An Imperfect Kiss

As soon as I saw the photo above on Moxie Fab World I wanted to make a card inspired by this gorgeousTuesday Trigger. The elements that inspired me were the wonderful mix of blues and white, the distressed wood, the flowers, all the textures, the grid pattern on the couch and the square cushions. I also thought it looked like a comforting snuggle place so made a get well card and used vellum because of the light airy feel due to the sunlight and colours.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Poppy Background, Ancient Motif and Envelope Pattern

I wanted to try out the stamp kissing technique which is part of Hero Arts challenge this month. I have never tried this technique before and decided to start with the poppies and ancient motif images. I applied broken china distress ink to the poppy image and faded jeans distress ink to the ancient motif image. After a bit of kissing went on I stamped on white card. The first time I didn’t manage to kiss the images fully but did on the second attempt. In the end I decided to go with the first image as I liked the look of the imperfect kiss.




I added some beads to a couple of the flower centres and the sentiment is white embossed on vellum. Then I found a button with a little square pattern on it, added a yarn bow which had been coloured with broken china distress ink and one of my favourite Hero Arts embellishments – a pearl heart. The card base was white and I applied broken china distress ink and stamped the envelope pattern with the same ink. I don’t usually do a lot of distressing but went a bit distressing crazy on this card I think!

Wild Flowers and Butterflies

This month the challenge on the Hero Arts blog is to make a card, page or project with the theme of love or friendship or else to use the stamp kissing technique. I love making cards for friends and it’s great to send a card to a friend without a particular occasion in mind.


Stamps (Hero Arts) Wild Flowers, Old Letter Writing & Tree Birds and Messages

To start with I applied faded jeans distress ink to white card and using the same ink stamped with the Old Letter Writing. For the main panel I applied shabby shutter, broken china and faded jeans distress inks to white card and spritzed with water. Then I embossed the Wild Flowers in white and added some gems.



To make the butterflies I embossed the Old Letter Writing in white on vellum, punched out four butterflies, layered and added gems. The sentiment is embossed in white.

I'm submitting the card into these challenges -

ABC Challenge - N is for Nesties.
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - In the roll of a die.
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Whateva!
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturday - A Punchy Challenge

PaperPlay Challenge – Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

This week’s PaperPlay challenge is “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”. So I’m looking forward to seeing lots of snowy projects this week! Craft Brulee is kindly sponsoring the challenge and the lucky winner will receive a $10 voucher to spend on some wonderful goodies in the store here.

I ended up making a luminaria and a card.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Starry Night & Stunning Snowflakes

I love soft candlelight (great for hiding the wrinkles lol!) and for a while I’ve wanted to make a luminaria. So I finally got around to making one this week. To start with I scored a piece of white vellum into a box shape and white embossed the sides using the Starry Night and Stunning Snowflakes stamps. After I made up the box I applied diamond stickles to all parts of the trees and to the stars. I added diamond gems to the centres of some of the snowflakes.

With the candle flickering inside the luminaria there is such a lovely twinkling sparkle on the trees and snowflakes – just a pity I couldn’t fully capture it in a photo.


Stamps used (Hero Arts) – Share the Joy & Stunning Snowflakes

A little while ago I was lucky to have won some gorgeous blog candy on Fika’s blog and the cutie snowman stamp was part of the prize - thanks again Fika for the wonderful goodies you sent me!

The card is pretty much made up with scraps I had left over from other projects – pink pieces (white card white embossed with the Stunning Snowflakes, worn lipstick applied and spritzed with water), white pieces embossed with snowflakes in the Cuttlebug and some blue patterned paper which I've had for ages with “let it snow” text on it. I like the thoughts of snuggling up in a quilt when it’s cold and snowy outside so for the background I made an Ohio star quilt block with the scraps and added some machine stitching. I paper pieced the snowman using my scraps, added a little pompom to his hat and silver beads to his jacket.

I can’t wait to see all the entries for this week’s challenge!

I'm submitting these projects to:

Hero Arts Challenge - Gift tags and handmade gifts.

The Crafty Calendar Challenge - Winter Snowflakes

ABC Challenge Blog - H is for Holidays

Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog - Merry Christmas

Simon Says Stamp! Challenge Blog - Sparkle

Barb's 90 Minute Scramble

There was great fun again over at the Hero Arts Flick group yesterday when Barb hosted her 90 minute card making scramble. Scramble is the perfect word for these challenges as it's a bit manic trying to get a card made, photographed and uploaded to the pool in 90 minutes. But it's so funny at the same time running around like a headless chicken and it's brilliant to see what everyone comes up with in such a short time period. Barb's challenge was to add a flower or flowers not normally associated with Christmas onto a Christmas card or project.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Holly Flourish, Large Flower & Holiday Dolls.

As soon as I saw the word flower, I knew I had to use my all time favourite stamp, the Large Flower. I white embossed the flower on vellum twice and using an embossing pen added some stardust embossing to parts of the flower. To the centre of the flower, I added a red foil snowflake and a button which I had covered in glossy accents and silver glitter. I had great fun with this as when I had the card upright to take a photo, the glossy accents and glitter started to slide down the button as it wasn't quite dry! Today I'm going to add glitter around the edges of the button - it would have been too messy to do that last night.

The sentiment is also white embossed on vellum and I white embossed around the edges of the tag too. The red card was clear embossed with the Holly Flourish and I just added some silver gems to finish.



A big thanks to Barb for hosting such a fun challenge and also to Hero Arts for the wonderful group which I love being in. There are always great things going on there and it's packed full of amazing inspiration from everyone in the group!

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

PaperPlay Challenge - Your Number's Up

It’s Thursday so it’s time for a new challenge at PaperPlay. The challenge this week is titled “Your Number’s Up”. So you can make a card for any occasion as long as a number features prominently on it. The prize this week is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp! and the winner will receive a $15 voucher for the store. I hope you’ll join in!

I wanted to make a 25th wedding anniversary card and decided to use the opportunity to go all out with silver and sparkle (hard to tell with photos taken on a dull day)!



Stamps (Hero Arts):- Flourish Background, Heart Winged Butterfly

The background is a piece of vellum clear embossed with the Flourish Background. I printed the numbers (from a free template on the internet) onto white card, cut them out and embossed with stardust embossing powder. I repeated the embossing process twice more.



I love the Heart Winged Butterfly stamp from Hero Arts and thought it would be nice to use on an anniversary card. The butterflies are also embossed with stardust embossing powder. One layer is embossed on white card and the other is on a piece of silk fabric. To finish I added some machine stitching and trails of silver gems with a white pearl heart (Hero Arts) at the base of each one.



I’m looking forward to seeing your creations!

Trinh told me about the monochromatic challenge at the CARDS blog so I've submitted this card. Thanks Trinh for yet again alerting me to a challenge!

Can't leave that large flower down!

I have really fallen for the Large Flower stamp by Hero Arts and I know it will be one of those stamps I will use over and over again - no dust will gather on this one!

Here's a card I made recently using this stamp. Before machine stitching the flower I made a "sandwich" of a piece of fabric, wadding, snippets and threads of organza, a piece of organza. For the leaves, I stamped a leaf from the Scattered Leaves set (Hero Arts) on cotton fabric, layered it on another piece of fabric, zigzag stitched around the edges and cut out.



Here are some more cards I've made using this stamp.

Organza again





Vellum





A couple more!