ScrapFriends Candy Giveaway

Check out this fantastic candy on the ScrapFriends Blog.

 

They also have another chance to win an equally fantastic candy if you place an order on the ScrapFriends store but make sure you do so quickly your chances run out on 15th December.

Flourishes December Release Challenge

Flourishes December Release Challenge has two angled sketches for you to play with.  I have picked the B Sketch or portrait version of the sketch.

The card I have made uses the wattle from Flourishes Bloomin Aussie Florals stamp set.  I really struggle to find stamps appropriate for Australian Christmas cards.  The stamps are all northern hemisphere snow, deer, holly and pine trees.  Lovely stamps but don't really reflect the swelteringly hot days of summer which is our Christmas here. The only white stuff falling from the sky here is likely to be hail from a thunderstorm. Australian Christmas stamps tend to be cutesy surfing Santas or koalas in Santa hats.  So I thought I would colour up the flourishes wattle with Christmas green and red rather than our green and gold and add a bit of sparkle.  I used Copics R000, 02, 22, 24, 27 for the flowers and G000, YG00,03,06,67 for the leaves. The green background is a scrap of card I used to wipe up distress ink and glimmermist from another project.  The circular die is Memory Box's Suffix Globe cut from red glittery cardstock. The Merry Christmas is an old Kaisercraft wood mounted stamp.

Thank you for looking and I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas.  Cheers Linda

Speedy Fox and Friends Purple Christmas

I made this card for Marks Finest Papers Speedy Fox and Friends challenge 188 Purple Christmas. I was a little stumped at first as I don't have a MFP Christmas stamp set, but then I remembered all the gorgeous window scene cards that I have come across lately.  So I grabbed the bare branched tree from MFPs Tree Greetings stamp set and Poppy Stamps Grand Madison window.  I stamped the tree in Stazon jet black on gloss card, masked a circle for the moon coloured the background with distress inks - milled lavender, shaded lilac and (my all-time favourite) dusty concord. I masked some snow drifts at the bottom but the window ended up covering it.  I then added a bit of Signo white pen for snow on the branches. The sentiment and banner, and the sparkly snowflake are Marianne Collectables dies from two different sets.

 

Maybe one day I wont be crafting in the middle of the night and be able to take a nice picture in natural light. Thank you for passing by my blog. Cheers Linda

Enjoy the Ride

I made the following card for the Sparkle Creations Challenge 118. The main image is the adorable Bicycle Chloe.  Chloe is coloured with copic markers in the Y, YR and YG family with a little bit of the cool greys for the bicycle wheels and a bit of B00 for the sky. I then shaded around the image with Distress Inks.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Admit one set and it was stamped on a Marianne Collectables banner die. The brown leaves are also from Marianne dies. The little orange leaves were cut with a punch of unknown manufacture from paper towel I used to mop up glimmermist from another project.  The flower was handmade by wrapping cotton string. Thank you for looking, sorry about the average photo - late afternoon light and not enough charge in the camera battery for some flash to fill in the shadows. Cheers Linda

Flourishes Grab a Cup - November Release Challenge

This months Flourishes release challenge was to create something inspired by the following beautiful photo.

I was inspired by the colour combination, the round saucer and the woodgrain of the table. The stamp is the Sturts Desert Rose from the Flourishes "Blooming Aussie Florals" stamp set. Now I have used some artistic licence when colouring the flowers as they certainly aren't blue and brown out in real life. The image was stamped with memento tuxedo black ink and coloured with copics B00, 24, 29 and touches of BG000 and BG15 on the flowers and E000, E 31,33, 35 and E57. The spotty brown paper is from a 6x6 pad by Fancy Pants Designs - Country Boutique. I wish I knew who made the woodgrain paper as I would definitely get some more. The sentiment is also from the same Flourishes set stamped with memento rich cocoa, die cut with a Spellbinder label 18 die and colour with tumbled glass and chipped sapphire distress inks. I don't know where the ribbon came from it has been lying around in my stash a while.

 

Thank you for checking out my blog, even if it just briefly. Cheers Linda

Flourishes - Get in Shape September Release Challenge

First up I have to apologise for the pretty ordinary picture. As usual I'm trying to get a half decent picture in the middle of the night (or very early morning in this case) natural light wont be around for a few hours. This card is my entry into Flourishes Get in shape September release challenge. No sweaty exercise was necessary just create a shaped card or a 3D item. The stamps on the card and the box are Flourishes Garden Fairies. I was lucky enough to win this gorgeous stamp set in their blog hop back in July.  I'm feeling totally guilty that I haven't inked it up until now. I coloured the fairy with copic markers, cut her out and matted her with Spellbinders classic ovals. The other dies used to create the card are decorate labels  8 and labels 8. The sentiment on the box is sitting on a spellbinders adorning square. The patterned paper is Kaisercraft Fairy Tales.  Sorry I have absolutely no idea what the card colours are - wish I did because I really like them.

Thank you for passing by my blog, cheers Linda

Vintage with handmade flowers

Today started off nice and sunny so I decided to do some washing and hang it outside on the line. Bad idea - the rain came back again - AGAIN - I'm so over it.  Why can't it rain all week while I'm at work. Nope it's got to make the weekend all gloomy. Well at least I got some crafting done.

The following card was made with a die cut image.  The sheet has a lot of cute vintage images. I don't know the brand as there's nothing on the sheet and I've had it for a while. It originally had a gold border but that is behind the Spellbinders fleur de lis doily diecut.  The image is popped up on foam dots over a piece of material.  I picked up a lot of material pieces at a recent craft show as I really liked the texture fabric gives to cards. The background card was distressed and inked with distress ink. Penny Black letter background was stamped on some cream card. The card was very thin - really more like thick paper. No idea of the brands of card as they were just in my scrap drawer. I used a strip of the stamped card over another strip of the distressed kraft card under some sheer ribbon which I coloured with distress ink as well. Over this is some blue velvet ribbon - Websters pages I think - but don't quote me on that. My ribbons and trims just get shoved into jars of like colours - I don't record brands. The pretty scalloped lace was tucked under this panel. 

The flowers on top are handmade. The large one was made with the penny black stamped card. It was cut with the EK success retro flower punch the tips of which were then cut with deckled edges scissors (looks like the Tim Holtz tattered florals to me).  The centre is some paper from an old dictionary coloured with broken china distress ink.  The small flowers were made by wrapped thin twine round a cardboard die (the centre of the nellies multiframe die #10).  An idea I have certainly borrowed from someone else. I'll look for the original site and pop up a link when I find it. Then I just added some golden brown bling. The base card is pale blue.

Thanks for looking, cheers till next rainy day, Linda

I like to enter this card in the following challenges.

Krafty Girls - Anything goes challenge #22 (sadly this is the last challenge here)

Friends of speedy TV challenge #82 - No designer Paper

Creative Craft Challenges2 - A colour Challenge - Blue and Brown

Crafts-Too Challenge You - Challenge #1 Choose your decade or era, with twist 2 - three or more layers.  My era is the Victorian era.

A Creative Romance - No designer papers

AnMa Creatief - Challenge #22 punching

Whimsy Stamps Inspirationa Challenges - Challenge # 61 Ribbons and Lace

Paper Crafting Journey - Punches and or Diecuts Challenge

Charisma Cardz Challenges - #29 Make your own embellishments