Delightfully Random friendship card

Hello!

I have been wanting to make this card in response to the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World ever since the Delightfully Random trigger photo was released.  I have mulled over ideas, but always came back to this gingham fabric, which I was envisioning as a picnic blanket in my card.

Here is the trigger photo:

Lovely, isn't it?

And here is my card:

I have created a thrown-down picnic blanket, and a flower for my field in which I am picnic-ing. *smile*  My little flower is actually a twine pom-pom, which I created around a fork (the idea for which I found on Pinterest). I frayed the edges of my fabric to create a tasselled edge on the blanket. I sponged the vanilla panel in pink and blue and then spritzed it with shimmer mist.  And I did a little sewing (don't look too close).

The card has lovely depth, it will definitely be a hand-delivery card, this one.

What I used:
Card: SU! Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Real Red
Stamp: Janes Doodles Pretty Peonies (sentiment)

Not my usual style. It is a hit with my girls, so I'm happy.

Before I go, I thought I'd show you a card my 8 year old daughter made up yesterday. I was working on something else and didn't even look until it was finished. I really love the way she's put the images and the sentiment together, and I think I'm going to steal her colour scheme for something similar on a card of my own. :-)  It is a little card, but very cute:

So, do you like my pom-pom flower?  What do you think?

Michelle
xxx

Happy 40th Birthday

Hello!

I have been thinking about my brother's birthday card for a few weeks. I have to send it to the UK, so I need to be a little organised. I would sort of like it to arrive in time for his birthday this year, since it is a big one... I am fairly certain that he never looks at my blog, so I should be okay sharing his card here well before the big day.

If he does pop in (by a miracle), Happy Birthday, dear brother!

I picked up a new-to-me, hand-me-down stamp set or two the other day (thank-you, Cassandra), and I've been itching to get into them. Added to those, I have a couple of borrowed stamp sets too. Oh, I am a lucky girl to have such good friends.

I found the Mojo Monday Sketch #208, on Monday, funnily enough, and I have been looking for a colour scheme ever since. The sketch is this one:

The square sketch really, really appeals to me. So neat and tidy, two squares and two rectangles inside a square. Mmm, nice!

Today the new Play Date Cafe Challenge #101 came out. The colour scheme is gorgeous, and perfect for a masculine card. It is also perfect for the ideas I had floating about in my head for this card. These are the colours:

On the subject of The Play Date Cafe, I'm very thrilled to let you know that the card I squeezed in at the last minute for Challenge #100 received an Honourable Mention. I'm the Cream in their Coffee! Am I feeling a little excited about this? You betcha! I find it so thrilling when a card I really like, is really liked by others. Thank-you, thank-you, PDCC Team.

So back onto the subject at hand...my card:

There is a tonne of shimmer mist on the cream panels, but I don't think you can see it much in any of my photos. The patterned paper is metallic, so the shimmer mist works well. I don't usually do this type of stamping - lots of different stamps layered on top of each other - but this is what has been sitting at the back of my mind for a week, so I did it. The card is supposed to be warm like a big hug, with uplifting messages (live, love, laugh, dream), along with the birthday wishes. I feel that I achieved what I was trying to do. I played around with all sorts of other embellishments, but I couldn't work them in. My CAS soul wouldn't let me frilly it up any further, LOL!

What I used:
Stamps: PTI Embellishments, Postmarks, Outlines Alphabet
Card: SU! Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Paper: SU! Mocha Morning (yummo! I just knew I NEEDED this paper)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Ruby Red
Shimmer Mist

So, what do you think?

Michelle
xxx

One Layer Friendship cards

Hello!

I have a friend who has been having a bit of a tough time lately. Luckily she has been receiving lots of loving support from friends and family.  I was thinking of her. I already sent a card. I already sent messages. I already offered my companionship and services. What else could I do? I thought maybe a set of little "thank-you" cards for her to use. I have made a few of them in response to the One Layer Wednesday Challenge #66, which is over at Susan's blog this week, so I thought I'd share.

The challenge this week is to "get inspired by Janelle". Janelle is going through a difficult time right now. She is totally inspirational in her positive attitude and her generosity while she is undergoing medical treatment. It is worth taking a look through her blog, there are some beautiful posts in there. I particularly like her "travel" labeled posts, not for the destinations, but for her chat about the people involved in her travels.  I was inspired by plenty on the blog, but I chose two cards in particular as my starting point, this one and this one. I'm going to go back and do more, because I'm still inspired by these. These are the pictures of Janelle's cards:
          

I used the SU! set Lifelong Notes.  It is an old retired set, but it is new to me. I'm liking it.  I did the cards plain, but my friend likes a little bit of embellishment, in EVERYTHING, so I added a little bling and I added twine. I think I like them in the plain version (imagine the twine missing), but I like ultra-CAS.

The photos are a little fuzzy. The skies are quite grey here today. And it's turned cool again. So much for our beautiful, hot (32c/90f degrees last week), Spring we were having.

The cards are 10cm x 10cm (3 x 3), just little note cards. The pinks are retired SU! Pink Passion and Pixie Pink (how I love that pink). The other card is Soft Suede and Real Red. That is a combination I will use more, I was surprised at how much I liked it.

So, what do you think?

Michelle
xxx

Birthday Peony for PDCC#100

Hello!

Another card being squeezed in at the last minute. This time for The Play Date Cafe Challenge, number 100.  I've been thinking about the colours for this challenge since they were released. Some of my favourite colours.

Here they are:

I actually made my daughter's birthday invitations in these colours on Monday, also. But I hadn't realised they met the challenge at the time. I might edit this post later and add a photo or two of the invitations. I haven't taken photos yet.

The card I made in response to the challenge is this one:

My inspiration, other than from The Play Date Cafe, was from a couple of cards I'd seen over at Lime Doodle recently.  They are here:


Debby just has CAS perfected. I love everything she does.

What I used for my card:
Card: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie
Stamps: Hero Arts Dots and Flowers background (borrowed, thank-you Manda!), Janes Doodles Pretty Peonies
Other: Inktense pencils, assorted rhinestones

So my effort doesn't really even approach Debby's cards, but I still like it (even if it is a bit too "green" for me).

What do you think?

Michelle
xxx

CTD#160 Take Two with a Kite

For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down, or click HERE

Hello!

I told you I'd probably come back for Color Throwdown Challenge 160.  I meant it, I love these colours!  It is very last minute, but I think I'm going to beat the deadline, LOL!

Yesterday I spent the day with my stamping friend, Manda, having a stamping play date together while our kids had a more traditional play date (building tents in the back yard, riding the scooters, filling the living room with every little toy in the house. . . you know how it goes when the Mummies are distracted by stamping. . . ). At the end of the day, I decided to use her Big Shot and punch out some shapes to take home. One of those shapes was her brand new, not yet used, Die-Namics Fly A Kite die. Manda commented about making a baby girl card with a pink and chocolate kite, and I thought, "That's it! That's my other Color Throwdown card!"  Not only could I use Manda's brand new kite die, but I could use my own brand new twine, yippee!

I didn't make a baby card, I made a birthday card. I'll keep the baby card idea in mind for later.
To remind you, the Color Throwdown colours are:

And my card is:

It's a really simple card, but I like my cards that way.  And I like this card.

What I used:
Card: (all SU!) Chocolate Chip, Pretty In Pink, Very Vanilla (yes, this time I remembered I was using Vanilla)
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: a retired SU! paper in Pretty In Pink
Die: Die-Namics Fly A Kite
Twine: Twinery Capuccino and Blossom (oh, I just love my new twine)

Here I am going to throw a plug in for Jay Gee's Nook. For those of you in Australia (and International customers, the postage will just be a little more), who haven't yet discovered Jay Gee's Nook, go and take a look. Jay Gee has a great selection, great prices (and low postage prices because she's in Australia), and excellent (outstanding) service. I got my Twinery Twine from Jay Gee (and the Die Namics die, and the Jane's Doodles stamps, and some other wonderful things. . . ) and with every order, I have never had to wait or follow up, I just order, and it arrives with perfect service. With my email enquiries, no matter what time of night or day, I get REALLY FAST responses. I truly LOVE great service like this. Thank-you, Jay Gee!

So what do you think of my little kite?

Michelle
xxx

One Layer Monochrome

For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down, or click HERE

Hello!

Over at One Layer Wednesday this week, the idea is to let the sentiment take centre stage, or at least have equal billing with the images. I'm not sure I've achieved this here. I did discover that I am very short on sentiments in my stamp collection.

For CAS-ual Fridays Challenge 21, we are being asked to use three shades of one colour and to add brown.  With this challenge, I discovered I need more colours!  I did find that I have quite a few greens in my collection.

With eight hours to go over at "Less Is More", I thought I'd throw in another card for their Anything CAS Goes challenge, where they are hoping for 1000 entries this week. They might make it, if Mr Linky doesn't succumb under the pressure of all those entries!

So with those instructions, this is what I came up with:

I don't usually embellish my one layer cards, but this card needed something extra, so my new twine came to the rescue.

What I used:
Stamps: PTI Take Three: Summer, and PTI Botanical Silhouettes (sentiment)
Ink: SU! Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip

Now, I'm a little weary, so I might toddle off to bed. Tomorrow I go to visit my new nephew, who will be around 24 hours old by the time I get to him. I'm smiling already.

Michelle
xxx

Baby girl card for CTD#160

For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down, or click HERE

Hello!

It is a stunningly beautiful day here today, and I am on holidays! Yippee!  

Yesterday I spent the day with a couple of stamping friends, and got a lot of chatting accomplished, but not a lot of stamping, LOL.  I did stamp out some friendship jars, so hopefully I'll do something with those elements soon.  

Today I actually did some housework BEFORE starting stamping. Yes, floors and bathrooms are sparkling, a load of washing is swinging in the breeze, and I even emptied and reloaded the dishwasher.  The kids played around taking photos. I haven't looked at the photos yet, I'm a bit scared of what they might have come up with...

This card was supposed to be an entry into the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge, but when I got to the point of making my circle, I realised I gave back my borrowed circle cutters yesterday. . . oh well.  

It is also supposed to be an entry into Color Throwdown #160, and despite one very obvious flaw, I am still going to enter it, and I am going to ask you all to pretend that the white is Very Vanilla *wink*.  These are the colours:

I'll probably have to make another card, because I truly LOVE this colour combo, I just forgot that I was supposed to be using vanilla and got all excited and carried away with how nicely my card was turning out.

This is my card:

Mmm, that looks a bit out of focus. . . let's try another one:

I really like how this turned out.  I hand-folded that ribbon and stuck it down with lots of sticky strip. I like it. I think I'll do that more. I paper-pieced the little birds, they're so sweet.

What I used:

Stamps: Jane's Doodles Garden Friends, PTI Inside and Out: Babies (sentiment)

Card: SU! Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip

Paper: SU! retired DSPs with Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie

Ribbon: Regal Rose grosgrain

So, what do you think?

Oh, I wanted to say thank-you to everyone who has been nice enough to leave me comments recently. I have made an effort to get back to visit everyone, I hope I didn't miss anyone.  It took me a while because I got distracted by all the beautiful blogs that I ended up visiting. Isn't it always the way?

Michelle

xxx

CAS Mini Card

For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down, or click HERE

Hello!

Today I had a tiny little bit of time to do some stamping, so I made a little tiny card.  I'm responding to CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #20, which is to make a mini-card, no more than 4 x 4 inches.

I'm also responding to "Less Is More" week 33, where they are aiming for 1000 submissions, and the theme is Anything CAS Goes. That is a huge goal. This is my contribution.

My little card is here:

It is 4 x 4 inches. The central square is 3 x 3. The flower and sentiment are from Jane's Doodles Pretty Peonies. I used SU! Crumb Cake card, Soft Suede ink, and Derwent Inktense pencils to colour. It is hard to capture the soft, subtle colours of this card in a photo.

Now you may wonder what my post header photo is about. Well, I went out with Mum yesterday to buy my birthday present. Actually we swapped presents (I still owed her one from ages and ages ago). We visited an art supplies shop... I'm lucky I came out without taking the whole store with me!  What did I get?

This:

Mmmm, yummy! Derwent Inktense pencils. I had to make up a colour chart for myself. The colours are delicious. You'll notice I left some gaps where the other colours are missing *grin*. I had a few pencils already, so now I have 40 of the 72 colours.

I mucked up my chart and didn't leave a space for one of the blues. One day, when I have that blue, I'll make a new chart. For now it sits at the bottom right side corner holding its blank space.

See how beautifully these pencils turn into watercolours? So bright and fresh! And when they dry, they're permanent, which I love.

Thanks for popping in today.

Michelle
xxx

Reject Blog Hop

For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down, or click HERE

Hello!

Amber over at Damask Love is holding a Reject Blog Hop for those of us who have cards that did not make it into the March/April Paper Crafts magazine, but still wanted to show off some of our creations. Amongst those "rejects" are some truly beautiful cards. Go and take a look. And if you also have a reject, perhaps you'd like to share too?

Here is my card:

This was responding to one of the sketch challenges. I still really like this card, even though it was "rejected". The colours appeal to me, the contrast of the Modern Basics with the floral In Bloom, I like it all. Part of what I like is that, as someone who doesn't do much colouring, I really like the way my flower and leaves turned out. In real life it looks pretty, too. I might even make more like this.

So, what do you think?

Michelle
xxx

Pretty Peonies for OLW & PDCC

For my For Your Inspiration Post, scroll down. 

This is my second post for today.

Hello!

I am very lucky. So, so lucky. And feeling blessed. And excited!

You may ask why.

I won a new stamp set. *squeal*  Not just any stamp set. . . a BEAUTIFUL new stamp set. From Jane's Doodles! This is the set:

Every time I look at it I'm inspired. Pretty Peonies was released last week.  I won this set when I was selected from the Jane's Doodles Flikr Gallery entries for August.  All you have to do to enter each month is use Jane's Doodles stamps, and load your project into the gallery. That's your entry. This is pretty easy for me, because I'm loving these stamps... as you may have noticed, LOL!

It may sound like I'm advertising, or that I'm being paid to say these things, but I'm not. I'm just thrilled with the stamps. I love them.

On to the reason for my post. I'm entering a card into One Layer Wednesday, which is over at Susan's blog Simplicity this week. The challenge is to stamp an image and colour it.

For my colours I have used the colours from the Play Date Cafe Challenge #99 (Ooh, almost to #100!).  The colours are so soft, pretty, and sweet this week:

My card is here:

I used:
Stamps: Jane's Doodles Pretty Peonies
Card: Stamping Up! Whisper White
Ink: SU! Barely Banana, Lavender Lace, and Memento Tuxedo Black, and a Blender Pen

I'm still learning how to colour. I think I'm improving. I also did a little masking on this card.

A couple more photos for you, if you feel like continuing to hear me waffle on. . .

This week was my birthday. Presents aren't really my big thing. I like presents, but I am not so fussed on presents for presents' sake. BUT, when someone puts some thought into a present, and gets me something that I have never asked for but really, really wanted. And that present is USEFUL. This rings all my bells and fills me with gratitude.  I received a couple of these types of presents this year. But one in particular I'm sharing with you because it is stamping related:

My very own, personalised stamp for the back of my cards. I didn't have one. And I wanted one. My sister-in-law is one of the most thoughtful present-givers in the world.

And one more. To take my card photos, I sit on the floor, beside the big windows at the front of my house, with my cards on a chair, getting as much natural light as possible. So each time I sit down, I suddenly have a very nosy companion attempting to get her nose into my picture, or her body on my lap. Every time.

She's cute, but I don't want her wet, sloppy nose on my camera lens. And I don't want to be bumped when I'm carefully focusing on a sentiment. Especially when she's been digging in the sandpit. I do love her, though. This is Coco.

So if you made it all the way to the end of this post, would you take a little time to leave me a comment to let me know you were here? I really love hearing what you have to say. I promise to come and visit you in return.

Michelle
xxx

For Your Inspiration #14

Hello!

Welcome to my second challenge as a For Your Inspiration Design Team member.  I'm still excited! If you haven't joined us yet, please do! The inspiration photos are beautiful, and you get lots of lovely comments on your work. It is also worth taking a look over the work of the other DT members, as they offer so much inspiration.

This week's inspiration photo is this one:

I was inspired by the beautiful greeny-blue water and the heavenly look of the sun through the rain in the background.

My card is here:

I used PTI Snowflake Serenade (such beautiful snowflakes and sentiments). I stamped the sentiment first in navy, then I clear embossed my snowflakes. Because I didn't have the colour inks that were in my imagination, I had to get a little creative with making my colour. I sponged (SU!) bashful blue, certainly celery, tempting turquoise, and night of navy inks to create just the right colour feel, and then I spritzed the whole lot with champagne shimmer mist (oh, how I love shimmer mist) to create the shimmery, heavenly, light feel I was looking for. It was a bit naked at the top, so I added a night of navy ribbon to create some balance. I used Whisper White, Night of Navy, and Crumb Cake cardstock. I thought of making the card base white, but it didn't work. The  Crumb Cake reflects the rocks of the photo better, and it doesn't distract from the other elements of the card. To finish off, I added some rhinestones for that little extra sparkle.

I really like this card. What do you think?

Please do head over to take a look at my fellow Design Team members' blogs and leave them some love too.

Debbie
Debby
Keva
Peggy
Sara
Steph



Michelle
xxx

OLW #63 - Baby card

For my For Your Inspiration post, scroll down

Hello!

One Layer Wednesday is back! Yay! If you haven't looked at Jennifer and Susan's challenge, you should pop over to Jennifer's blog this week and have a go. If you haven't tried one layer yet, you should definitely have a go! For me, it is extra challenging.  This week there is the added bonus of a giveaway up for grabs - A Muse products, LOVELY!

This week's challenge is to create a one layer BABY card.  I have a few cards sitting on the table right now after spending last night trying to create SOMETHING that looked good on one layer.

I'm still playing with Jane's Doodles "Noah's Ark", because I adore the image, and I know I haven't explored everything I can do with it yet. This time, instead of paper-piecing (because of the one-layer rule), I coloured. Yes, ME, I coloured. Another of my personal challenges. I used SU! inks with a blender pen.  It turned out okay. I was using pale colours and attempting to make a gender-neutral card. I tried to anchor with the blue sponging, but I think I need something more. Maybe that is just because I have been anchoring this image with "water" in all my other cards, I feel it is a bit NUDE this time.  This was quick to create, which is always a bonus. I must be getting better at one layer.

What I used:
Card: SU! Whisper White
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! various colours
Stamps: Jane's Doodles "Noah's Ark"

What do you think? Do you like my simplified Ark?

Michelle
xxx

Nicely Neutral Baby!

For my FYI post, please scroll down, or click HERE.

Hello!

It's Fathers Day! I probably should be spending some time with my family instead of blogging. . . but my hubby and kids are having fun between basketball and Playstation, so I'm having some time out to myself.  I've been having stamping withdrawals these past two, very busy, weeks.

Today I decided to respond to the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World, which this week really, really appeals to me. . . all those neutral colours, yum! 

I needed to make another baby card. It seems that there are babies arriving left, right, and centre at the moment. I loved the idea of making a baby card in neutrals, something different to the usual pinks and blues. And I ABSOLUTELY love how this card turned out.

In real life this is so soft and warm looking. The frilled ribbon is the first time I have done anything like that for a card. I ended up having to sew the ribbon down on small strips of card to keep it in place. I do like how my "ribbon water" turned out.  The ribbon treatment was to reflect the frills on the cushions. Because of the ribbons, I had to double-pop the ark to get it to fit over the water! I added the bunting to Noah's Ark to reflect the bunting on the headboard above the bed. I luckily had a bunting stamp from Pink Paislee that fit across Noah's Ark perfectly.

What I used:
Card (SU!): Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Paper: retired SU! paper which I forget the name of
Ribbon: Chocolate Chip Taffeta, kitchen twine
Stamps: Jane's Doodles "Noahs Ark", Pink Paislee "Soiree"

Sigh! I just LOVE this card.  What do YOU think?

Michelle
xxx