Hook, Line and Sinker!!

This is a birthday card for my Dad.  He's a fisherman and has been since he was small.  Now that he's retired from the cane farm he's often out fishing.  We get the benefits from these trips. lol

I had the idea in my head using the papers from My Mind's Eye Breeze because the colours reminded me of the water but it needed that bit of something....so I rang him up and asked if he had an old prawn net that I could cut a piece from and also at the same time I snaffled the hook, line, swivel and sinker.  The map of Australia I thought was appropriate because he's always checking the weather before he goes fishing.  This was from a piece of Kaiser dp.  The piece of hessian is there because years ago when we went fishing, the inevitable hessian bag was used to put the fish in then dragged through the water to keep it all wet and fresh.

The card stock is Core'dinations which I've distressed.  The dark brown pieces are from the My Mind's Eye Core'dinations card stock pad.  The distress look of the papers, card stock seemed to suit the type of card I wanted to make.  The main panel has been swiped with Shabby Shutters distress ink.

I've added Crystal Effects to the net, line and hook to represent water droplets.

I did have to doctor the hook a bit because it 'got' me while I was tying the line to it.  Damn thing. The fish is covered in Rock Candy distress stickles, just to show that he's fresh.  The stamp is a fabulous one by PSX that I purchased on Ebay last year. 

We are off out to tea tonight for Dad's birthday....Australia Day.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Merry Monday Challenge Three!!

This is my card for the Merry Monday Challenge 3 this week.  I took a leaf out of Becca Feeken's book and embossed this image in a cream embossing powder on vanilla card stock.  Then with my applique mat and ink blending tool I inked Wild Honey distress ink over the whole image, then cleaned off the ink from the embossing.  I'm really pleased with the result.

Becca had one of her patent bows on the top of her ornament and I liked the way it looked.

I combined my ornament with Kaisercraft's dp December 25th.  The gold in the dp picks up the colour of the ornament.  Always artichoke is a fabulous colour for these papers and the base card is Naturals ivory.  The red is some Bazzill that I had and I'm sorry I don't know the name of it.  I couldn't find a good match with my Stampin Up card stock.  The vintage button on top of the seam binding bow is a Webster's Pages button.  Love these things. lol

Thank you for visiting my blog and hope you all have a wonderful day.

Country Life!!

These cards made using Stamp It's Country Life 9ups are often requested for male cards and are extremely popular with the recipients.  If you want the link for these 9ups, please email me.
For these two cards I used a Sketch Saturday week 188 sketch very loosely followed I admit but I had to accommodate my image.
The papers are current Stampin  Up called Mocha Morning Specialty and are great with these 9up images.  Lots of stripes, patterns and manly colours.  I used one of my new nesties for the greetings.  A final touch of wide striped grosgrain ribbon with twine and a button finished them off.
The ladies who ordered these are stoked with them.

Thanks for visiting today and stay cool or warm as the case may be!!!

Authentique Uncommon Case.

I saw this card on Andrea Ewen's blog and absolutely loved it.  I just had to case it.  Thank you Andrea.  Nowadays I'm tending to make two cards to keep my supply up.  I've changed the trims to lace and braid with different leaves and more of them.  The flowers and silver cord are the same as what Andrea used.  I really like the tag punch I used which is one I bought on sale at Robyn and Sue's shop before they closed down.  The leaves are the Stampin Up sizzlet die which I've used many, many times.  What a good investment that little die has been.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Card Patterns Sketch 148

I was lying in bed last night designing this card in my head after I saw the Card Patterns sketch.  So this morning I had to sit down and make it.  I'm absolutely stoked with the way this has turned out.

  The card stock colours are vanilla, Going Grey (retired), Riding Hood Red.  I also added lots of lace, velvet ribbon and a Websters vintage button with a black pearl in the centre.  The round panel is inked with Groovy Guava and layered on a scalloped nestie circle.  I felt the black leaves and black tipped corsage pin just added that bit of something to the card.  Prima flowers and black pearls finished it all off.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Mojo Monday Challenge 222

I was looking through my collection of sketches and found this Mojo Monday 222 sketch which was perfect for the Authentique Uncommon dp that I hadn't touched.  Do you believe that I was saving it???  lol  I used a few different nesties on these cards.  Riding Hood Red and black are a fabulous match for these papers.  I must admit, that pennant cuts are not my favourite thing to do.  The ends don't seem to work out evenly.  I think these will pass with a push. Pearls, prima flowers and some black leaf trimming finished them off.

It was overcast today but not raining.  When Dean was home, he and I had a clean out of his cupboards, consequently there is a mountain of washing waiting in the laundry for the first sunny day.  Linen etc that I want to freshen up before being put away again.

Thanks for visiting my blog and hope everyone is well.

Beautiful Chanteuse!!

Thursday was a very productive day for me.  I finished four cards!!!  This is one of them.  I used Kaisercraft's Chanteuse dp.  It's gorgeous.  The sketch is similar to many cards that I've made, Sharon cards, Jean and I call them.  Sharon makes these cards which are stunning and very simple with gorgeous embellishments.  Thanks Sharon.

The greeting has been stamped twice, with just a smidgen of movement to make it stand out a touch more.  Card stock is Stampin Up and the greeting panel is from the 6 x 6 paper pad.

Thanks for visiting my blog and taking the time to comment.  Very much appreciated.

It's still raining here, not as much as it was but with light showers.  I do hope to do some more card making today...I have several orders to fill.  Also hope to crumb the steak I bought on Friday so a busy day ahead for me.
Take care everyone.

Prima Botanical Sympathy cards

I needed a sympathy card so I cased Sharon's card but added layers and inked the nesties labels. I hope she takes it as a compliment.  I did put a different sentiment on one of them.  I've kept the other one in my supply of cards because unfortunately just lately I seem to need sympathy cards.

Baja breeze went perfectly with these particular papers from the Prima Botanical collection.

The weather broke and it's been raining for the past day and a half.  We needed it though.  Looks like there is more on the way.  Don't mind the rain so long as there isn't any cyclones to go with it. lol
My son is coming to visit me this morning before he goes back to Toowoomba this afternoon on the plane.  I hope to get a card done for the Merry Monday challenge today as well.
Thanks for visiting.

Beau Chateau Doily

I've had this card in the making for some months.  I just couldn't get it finished.  Today I was determined that it had to be done.  The seam binding is hand dyed and the doily stamp has been embossed with ink sponged over the top.  I cut the top layer of the butterfly out of the same embossed piece of card stock.  The dsp is Beau Chateau.  A pearl flourish and a sentiment finished it off.  I hope it looks ok, I'm still not too sure about it.

We've had thunder here most of the afternoon, but the storm isn't here..over the mountains a bit.  Definitely the weather will break soon because it's been so very hot.

I have been making some other cards and I'll put those up tomorrow.  Off to start on the kitchen so I can get some tea ready.

Thanks for visiting today.

Merry Monday Challenge One

 I think Lesley's idea of a weekly Christmas challenge is a fabulous one so I've joined in.  I've made two cards exactly the same except for the greeting.  This way I, hopefully, should have many Christmas cards by the time the end of the year comes along.

I used an idea of Beeka Feeken's and layered some nesties.  Instead of the punched border, I decided that the lace looked better on my card.  The pennant nestie used for the greeting is one of my new toys. The finishing touch was adding pearls on my layered nesties.   Hope you like my cards.

This is a quick post because I'm off to work at the Tourist Centre.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Red Hat Birthday.

A friend of mine, who is a member of the Red Hats here in this area, asked me to make her a Red Hat birthday card to send to another Red Hat lady.  So here is the result.  I actually made this card twice, well nearly anyway.  Three quarters of the way through the first one, I decided it wasn't right and it went in the bin.  I salvaged a few bits, the image and the two nesties and used them for the second effort of which I'm quite proud.

Now for details...the image is a digi by Priscilla Heaton which fitted the bill perfectly. If you would like the link please email me.  I then coloured it with copics..I still need a lot of practice in this area.  I cut a mask and then air brushed, yes that's right, air brushed the background with my copics to take away the starkness of the white background.  I paper pieced the mannequin's head and very slightly moulded the hat and 3d'd it onto the base image to give it a touch of dimension.  I think I managed to get it just right.  The flower and feathers finished off the hat.  I was really pleased to find the exact colour feathers in my stash.  The sketch is based very loosely on a Mojo Monday one...185.  To add a bit more texture I embossed the purple panel and also added the white lace.  A greeting and silk ribbon finished it off.  I hope my friend likes it.

Enjoy this very sunny hot Tuesday everyone.

Stay safe!!