Doggie Love

I thought this digi from Doodle Dragon Studio was just so cute. He is coloured with copics and I added some glitter pen and glossy accents to his adorable drool.  He reminds me of our boy Spider who springs a leak at the mouth anytime there it a hint of food.  I didn't have an appropriate sentiment to go with the pooch, so I made something up in word, printed out and cut with a heart die. I wanted to keep it pretty clean and simple so just added a bit of sparkley twine and a cute doggie footprints embossing as a background inked with some red ink.

 

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

 

Speedy TV simple Salutations Challenge #26 - Make a card using a dog

 

Clearly I Stamp Clearly Inspired Challenge #66 - Puppy Love

 

Fairy Tale Challenge # 58 - Animals and pets

 

Crafty Creations Challenges - Anything Goes

 

Little Scrap Pieces - Anything Goes

 

 

 

 

Birthday Card

I have made this birthday card for a friends young daughter's birthday.  The background papers are Kaisercraft (blue) and Grace Taylor (yellow polka dots).  The image is an Elisabeth bell stamp - "Lemon Pepper" in rubber by Whimsy.  Pepper has been coloured in with copics (sorry didn't take note of the colours - was sitting in front of the TV trying to multitask - poorly obviously).   The image was cut out with the largest of the spellbinders floral ovals (s4-356).  Don't know the source of lace and the pink ribbon - it was just sitting in my jars. The happy birthday from Kaszazz is stamped on the Spellbinders ribbon banner - the centre of which has been cut out, layered and popped up. Normally I'm not a huge fan of yellow but I think this worked out cute and girly.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamps Challenge Blog  - use dies and or punches

Oozak Challenge Blog  - Challenge #7 Diecuts

By the Cute and Girly Challenges - Birthdays.  By the way they are celebrating their 3rd birthday check out the great hop and prizes.

Southern Girls Challenge - Challenge #55 Tie a ribbon around it.

Bearly Mine Challenges - Anything goes

The Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything goes

Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - Birthday Cards

Card Mania Challenges - Happy Birthday

Wings

This card arose from playing with the Marks Finest Papers Tree Greeting stamp set I won on their blog hop.  The tree stamp was coloured with Marvy Markers and lightly spritz with water.  The background paper is Kaisercraft from their Timeless Classics paper pad. The purple paper is from Basic Grey and was punched with X-cuts Border Sparkler. The sentiment is from Crafty Secrets and cut with an Mpress die.  The chipie bird is kaisercraft and swiped roughly with Stampin Up's basic grey ink.  The purple Bazzil and unknown white card were cut with the Spellbinders circles. The ribbon I'm not sure of the source (other than my jar of orange ribbons).

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges

Mark's Finest Paper Speedy TV simple salutations challenge 14 Tweet Bird

Creative Card Crew Birds

Polka Doodles Wings and Things

Top Tip Tuesday Things with Wings

Bizzy Becs Store Blog Things with Wings

Distressing Experiments

Don't worry I'm not talking about vivisection!  At my local card class at Woodford Cards and Craft we were playing with using the Ranger Ink Refresher to distress card.  Spray it on, rub it in, scrunch it up, dry it off, colour it up and then iron out.  The end result is a textured card, with great distressed coloured effect, but the best of all it remains supple and almost feels like suede leather.  I loved the result so much I had to buy a bottle to play with, however the scientific enquiring mind I really wanted to know what it was and how it worked. So I felt it- slightly slimey when wet, drying with almost a slight stickiness; so I sniffed it - not much smell at all; so I tasted it (well they do say it is non toxic - but don't do this at home kiddies) and it all fell into place - it contains glycerine!  Hubby was in the papermaking industry for years and glycerine is used to soften and reduce shrinkage in paper. So I made some mixtures of glycerine and water - 1st too wet (ie too much water) paper ended up with holes as I scrunched it. 2nd too much glycerine a bit too thick and kept that sticky kind of feel. 3rd mixture worked like a charm.

The background of the following card was made with this distressing technique.   The butterfly image is Vintage Cherish from Kaisercraft.  The image was stamped 4 times and layered (though this isn't obvious from the photo).  The image is ink distressed and coloured with Tim Holtz Distress Inks (broked china, tumbled glass, brushed corduroy & frayed burlap) then coated with Jelly Roll glitter pen and finally Glossy accents.  The satin ribbon was also coloured with distress ink.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges

Tutorial Time on SpeedyTV Challenge 18  This challenge was all about distressing following a tutorial on ink and physical distressing (like tearing) by Pam Stang.

Bunny Zoe's Crafts is also having a distressing challenge. Now that's not to say that anyone is in an unhappy state of of mind but the challenge is again all about distressing

Simon Says Stamp blog Celebrates World Card Making Day! Where they want everyone to show what cards they are working on.

Bizzy Becs Store.Blog Challenge for october which is "Things with Wings"

Vintage Elusions Challenge Blog with the theme of Wings/Anything goes

Mega Blog Candy

Donna's has sent out her last weekly blog candy, but that is no reason to cry. Check out this mega candy on the Bearly Mine Crafts blog. It so totally delicious that be warned you are going to need more than a napkin to catch the saliva that forms when you check out it sweet, sweet tastiness.

PS. If you reside in the UK Donna has another fantastic candy. Boo hoo for us colonials, but great if you're from the motherland.

FOSTV Challenge 39

As I've been feeling lacklustre of late I've been blog hopping and surfing looking at all the gorgeous craft blogs out there, looking for inspiration and hoping that some might magically come through the keyboard to my hands.  While hopping I was lucky enough to win a gorgeous set of stamps (Tree Greetings) on the Mark Finest Papers and Stamps August Blog hop.  In this set are some gorgeous palm trees. It made me think of Dad sailing up the Queensland coast with friends.  They asked him to come away with them for a while to take him out of the empty house and hopefully put a smile on his face, show him its ok to be happy.  I made the following card for the FOSTV Challenge 39 which is to put a tag or ticket on your card.  I hope this trip is the ticket to some happiness for Dad, he's been doing it hard this year.

The tag has distress ink back ground and the Mark's Finest Papers and Stamps palm trees have been coloured with copics. The background paper is from Stamp-it Australia - a gorgeous water colour image called Pelicans. Boy oh Boy do I have trouble with cutting up lovely patterned paper, I nearly cried.  That is probably why every drawer in my craftroom is chock-a-block full of papers. I think I need some counselling or I wont be able to move for paper. The ticket is from a cuttlebug cut and emboss die - vintage collage and coloured with distress ink.  The other embellishments are some ric rac and some kaisercraft pearls.

I'd also like to enter this card into the following challenge

The Poodles Parlour - Tag you're it challange

Make the best of every day

I been feeling pretty flat lately and really haven't been up to crafting very much.  It has been a pretty joyless couple of months. My mum died back in July after suffering with pancreatic cancer for 6 months, she was only 63.  She came out of pallative care so she could spend the last week of her life at home.  I think this is the hardest thing you can do - to watch someone you love just fade away.  In additon a friend suffered a terrible stroke which has left her with some partial paralaysis, but she's happy to be alive. Also young girl that I worked with had a terrible accident which has left her with severe burns. It will be a long road to recovery for her. There has also been a change in government here and there has been a lot of retrenchments from the state public service (in which I work), many people I know no longer have a job.  It has been depressing times.

You never know what the next day will hold - enjoy today - hug your family and friends, tell them they are loved, cuddle your pet, indulge in your hobby or passion and be thankful.