Tea Thyme For Birthday

This card is for another very special friend of mine who loves pretty things.  I used lace, feathers, pearls, burlap and flowers to create lots of texture and interest.  The red rose was added to give the colour palette a lift and it ties in with the red border on my tag.  This card was inspired by Warm Winter Wishes by Kathy. 

We've had some very rainy weather and I think it means to continue for another day or so.  

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Keep well.

 

Ladies Diary.

I follow a blog called In My Little Korner and this lady makes absolutely stunning cards.  I love them.  So after seeing this post by Kathy, I cased it and made the four cards you see below, using dies, lace, seam binding, cheesecloth and doilies.
I didn't change a lot because I loved Kathy's version so much but had to improvise due to the different card sizes...eg metric and imperial.

Thanks for visiting today,
 

Butterflies And Clock

 My friend Jan request a very special card for her grand daughter's 21st birthday.  It had to be in blue tones.

Once again, issue 42 of Australian Simply Cards came to the rescue.  I've changed a few things on my card but it's the same sketch, papers and die cuts.  There are quite a few cards in this issue that I totally love.

The base card is acetate with a panel of designer paper attached to the back inside so the greeting could be attached.

My clock isn't as good as the original one in the magazine but my excuse is, that it's the first time I've really used crackle paint on something that wasn't for practice.

This card was a joy to make and Jan absolutely loved it.

I'm still recovering from the last lot of cooking I did for my son.  Thirty-nine meals were done and are now in the freezer.  By the end of the session I was forcing myself to keep going to get it finished. lol

Talk about exhausted!!

Enjoy the rest of the day everyone and thanks for visiting my blog
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Pretty Little Bird.

I've had this image coloured for months now.  It was coloured with copics but sorry, I have no idea which colours I used.  I wasn't sure what to do with this image until I saw this card by Marlies.  Absolutely perfect!! Thanks Marlies.   So I cased the layout but changed the punch border to lace and added some cheesecloth. The papers are different and of course my stitching isn't as good as Marlies.

I sponged the edges with distress ink and also stamped the edges with some edging stamps.  The papers are very old ones from Websters that I pulled out that matched the colours I used.  Flowers and lace are from my stash.

Thanks for visiting my blog and hope you like my card.

Midnight Frost Christmas Cards

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year to everyone.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day.   Christmas Eve was spent by me preparing as much of the food as possible for Christmas Day.  Christmas Day morning, I started the roast pork early, then put the chickens on.  Cooked those, then started on the cauliflower/broccoli au gratin and potato bake.

The pudding then had to be steamed and the other vegies to cook.  A very busy morning, but it was worth it.  Everyone had a wonderful meal and had no need to eat tea that night.  rofl

The rest of year here is shaping up to be extremely hot and muggy so we'll see how much rain we get in the next few days. 

These are six more Christmas cards that I made this year.  I saw this card by Jocelyn

and loved it.  These are my versions.  The same sketch but I've embossed in Pewter, used different greetings, added an extra card stock layer and used different dp.  I punched a couple of the white strips and liked the effect.  I loved this paper pad when it came out last year and was very tempted to purchase some more....but I'm quite sure there will be something similar released by this time next year, so will be sensible. lol

Tomorrow is work for me...just a mail run but have to do a full day at the Post Office on Thursday.

Enjoy your day everyone and thanks for visiting.

The 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge

I've had this card half made for a week or so but was inspired to finish it when I saw the 4 Crafty Chicks Colour Challenge for this week. So here it is, a card using Concord Crush, Pretty in Pink and Basic Grey.

For the last 3 or 4 days I've been cleaning up my craft room, reorganising and throwing out.
When Stampin' Up released their new colour groups I didn't get around to reorganising my cardstock, inks, pens etc. Well it's been driving me crazy. So now it's done. All my stamps have been culled and what is left is sorted into groups like wordings, flowers/nature, seaside, male etc and then into alphabetical order. I can then go to any of the catalogues over the past years, mainly this year though and find exactly what I'm looking for.
Anything that I'm not using at the moment, like Christmas, are all in Dean's old room. I hope no one wants to stay in a big hurry. rofl
The spare washing machine is currently residing in there too as well as Charlie's exercise bike.

So now I'm all ready to craft but I don't want to mess up my tidy room. lol

Enjoy the rest of your day everyone.

Jazmyne for The Sweet Stop sketch.

I've had this gorgeous paper since I went to a craft camp at Mt Tamborine last year. When I first saw it, I knew I just had to have it. I think the shop had the whole line at the time but I liked the glitter stripe and the glitter floral the best. Just recently I was shopping online and found these absolutely gorgeous velvet flowers. As soon as I saw them, I thought, they would go fabulously with these papers, so I purchased them too. lol
Well as you can see, they do match really well.

Yes, I realise you are probably sick of seeing these calendar easel cards but I've enjoyed making them and do have a few more calendars left to use up. This one uses The Sweet Stop sketch 95.
I dyed the seam binding myself with glimmer mist. I'm just not sure whether I'm using this seam binding the correct way. To my mind, the loops etc should be a bit messy but I just can't seem to get it that way. A very kind friend sent me the gorgeous glimmer brads from Stampin' Up, they are just the right purple for the papers. Yummy.

This was posted on Friday to Jean so I hope it has got to her safely.

Thanks once again for visiting my blog.

Elegant After Five for Jean.

While I was at Robyn and Sue's shop one day, Sue showed me this card she'd made up for class. I immediately said, I would like to do that one, so here it is. Just a smidge altered by adding some pearls. I absolutely love the silhouette image made by using a die. It's gorgeous. Whilst making it, I thought, this would be a perfect birthday card for Jean, 'cause I knew she loved these papers.
Thank you to everyone visits my blog and comments. All very much appreciated.

Two challenges in one!!

Well this is very unusual for me, two challenges in one project. The sketch is from Friday Sketcher's Challenge 141. The other challenge I'd like to enter this for is the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge 105. This week the challenge is to use three different pattern papers. Well I've done that. The verse is stamped onto a linen look paper that is from the same collection as the other two papers I have used.

Once again I've made a Calendar Easel card. This one is for a friend of mine who used to go to our craft group in Mackay. Since Anne closed the shop I think Marg is a bit lonely. I thought maybe this card may cheer her up. Hope so anyway. I did go a bit berserk with the pearls but they are just so pretty, I couldn't resist. The flowers are out of my stash. The die cut border is using a new toy that I received yesterday. I just had to use it.

Well two posts in one day is enough from me. Thanks for visiting.

Birthday Trio.

Last year I gave all the girls in our little craft group a clock for their birthdays. This year I was stumped until I came up with the idea of covering a box in the same papers as their clocks. The idea floated around in my head for a few weeks because I was trying to get out of using Mod Podge. In the meantime, I was going through some 3d's I had, when I discovered one that was exactly like the flowers on the Webster's Pages that had been used for Heather's clock. So that was the card and gift for her birthday this year taken care of. Then for my birthday, Jean sent me a calendar easel card which I loved. So having a pack of these little calendars myself, I immediately thought, right, I'll do each of the girls a calendar easel card using the same papers as were used for their clocks. One way of using up the little calendars.
The pictures below show the results of all my exhausting labour of the mind. rofl

The card uses a basic sketch just so I could highlight the papers and the 3d in the centre.
For the Calendar easel card I used a sketch I found here. I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

The box, well it's not very good I'm afraid, but at least I avoided using Mod Podge, which seems to get all over me and all over the paper and then makes a heck of a mess.
I didn't have a clue how to decorate it, I only knew that I wanted to use the same flowers as I had used on the matching clock. So together with not a lot of imagination I'm afraid, some velvet flowers, leaves, punched butterflies, pearl swirls and lace here is the finished box.
Hmmmm maybe I'll improve with practise as I have three more to do over the coming year...BUT joy oh joy, NO Mod Podge. lol
I see my OH is about to mow, so I'm off to get the clothes off the line.
Thanks for visiting and hope you like my latest efforts.

My Last Clock!!

Here it is, my last clock. This one was made for a friend of mine who wanted a gift for her Mum. This is the result. Anna Griffin papers which are just gorgeous and Prima flowers mixed with flowers from my stash. Some charms and punched butterflies finished it off.
I'm off to Sarina soon for a craft get together with the girls. Thanks for taking the time to visit.

Snow Globe Ornament Cards

These cards were made to accomodate the Yuletide Snow Globe stickers by K & Co and Vicki Burdick had the perfect card on her blog for me to case. I've kept to her sketch but have changed the punches, papers and colours. Please excuse the quality of the photos, I was in a tearing hurry this morning and had to get them photographed quickly. Two of these cards were orders and the girls bought the other two on the spot, so all four are gone. They were absolutely rapt with them because of the dual use, card and ornament.

The snowflakes were cut with different MS punches out of glitter cardstock.
Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla and the retired Ruby Red Stampin' Up cardstocks were perfect with these papers. The green cardstock is Bazzill.
The gold cord is unfortunately retired Stampin Up as well. I thought the bling added a bit of glitz to match the shimmer in the snow globes. Love that Petals-A-Plenty SU embossing folder.
I'm really chuffed with these cards and thank Vicki for her inspiration. Hope you like them too. Thanks for visiting.

Life is Beautiful

Once again I used a card made by Ann Schach for inspiration for my own card. The papers are SU Lap of Luxury with Basic Gray and Very Vanilla for cardstock. The sentiment is a Just Rite stamp and so is the border. The butterfly is the Martha Stewart monach butterfly punch with a pearl from the new SU range. The rose/organza trim matches perfectly but unfortunately I can't remember where I purchased it.
Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to comment.

Kick Up Your Heels!!!!

I've made this card for the High Hopes Challenge 90. It's a sketch and I do like sketches. I've had this High Hopes stamp for a couple of months now but haven't been in the mood for colouring. Yes Kathy, I did try to use my copics but didn't have the colours I needed. So back to my good old faithfuls...Prisma Colour Pencils. Once again I've used Basic Grey Cappella paper. Love this stuff. lol I've followed the sketch pretty closely feeling that I wanted the image to be the focus not lots of embellishments. The doiley is cut from a Marianne Designs die, which I really like. Cardstock is SU Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Blush Blossom, Very Vanilla, Mellow Moss. The image panel was layered on a piece of Blush Blossom and I cut the Vanilla and Black pieces with Nesties. The border is a Martha Stewart punch called Deco Shells. Some Stamp Simply lace and velvet ribbon with Kaisercraft pearls finished off my card.

It's raining here once again with storms predicted. The power flickered a couple of hours ago and I see on the radar that Mackay and Sarina are getting the rain now. We had the storm about 11.30 and it pelted down.
Thanks for all the wonderful comments on my cards and taking the time for visit my blog.

Flutterbys

This card did not start out to end like it did. For some reason, it had a mind of it's own.
I've used my new Lacey Circles nesties and a gorgeous Marianne Creatable doiley die. I punched the butterflies using my MS Monach butterfly punch out of the same paper as the background which is SU retired Tea Party.
Stitched satin ribbon with a big bow and bling finished off this little girl's card.

It's been quite a hectic time here. Dean has started a full time TAFE course, Cert 2 in Construction which he seems to be liking. So it's up to Sarina every morning to get him to the bus that leaves at 7am and then picking him up off the bus at 6pm. At least I know that the week days are consistent, not like school with him making different arrangements and his part time job making each day different with no continuity at all. lol

Just have to get myself organised and get crafting.
Thanks for visiting today.

Certainly Celery a lá Sharon

Well after a month of being sick with this awful bug that's going around, I'm finally feeling a bit more myself. I'm now playing catch up with everything including my blog reader. So if you were wondering why there hadn't been any comments from me, that's why. I did manage some cards while I was sick, orders to fill etc etc.
This is one of them. The tulip ribbon is from my favourite ribbon shop, Stamp Simply Ribbon. When Sharon first put this ribbon up for sale, she said that it went nicely with Certainly Celery and it does.
Here is my version of a Sharon card. I had to use one of my pendant nesties and of course, my new stamps from Claire at Waltzing Mouse Stamps. Gorgeous. The sentiment is a Just Rite one which along with Claire's stamps all fit nicely into different nesties. Got to love that. Card stock of course is SU Certainly Celery and Whisper White with the paper being from a Certainly Celery designer series pack that I've had stashed away. The punch is a Martha Stewart one and with some bling, voila, a finished card.
Thanks for visiting and hope you all have managed to miss this dreadful bug.

Lilac Avenue

Don't fall down with shock people, I'm here again. This time with some Lilac Avenue cards that I have finally finished. Once again I used Leslie's idea and pre made kits and had the bases done and only need to add the toppers and ribbons. The post that I've highlighted is actually the post i was looking for yesterday to put in my Blue Awning blurb. The sketch I've used here on the square and A5 cards are based on this card by Sherry Cheever which I used to make this card.
These cards use a mixture of different companies items as with my Blue Awning cards. I love doing this, mixing the different products I have. That way at least I use them.
As much as I am a SU demo, I love all the products out there and can't help but buy them too.
Already one of these cards is spoken for so I must be doing something right don't you think?
I won't go into too much detail, I think most you will recognise the components used to make these cards.
Have a wonderful afternoon everyone and take care.

Bird Clock

Here is another clock I have made. This one is for a girlfriend's mother-in-law. It's her birthday next week. I'm not as happy with it as I could have wished. The rubon moved when I was rubbing it on and then after using my Crystal Effects to glue the flowers and leaves on, I stood it up. Came back later to find the jolly stuff had run down the inner square edge and formed a big blob!!!! Panic!!!!! So I added some more pearls to the edges of the square, the rubons in the other square and just hope that it looks alright. I couldn't add any rubons because there wasn't enough room and I like to seal them under a coat of mod podge before adding embellishments.

I fly out tomorrow to Brisbane for the Scrapbooking and Papercraft Expo. Kerry and I have classes booked and are so looking forward to seeing everyone we know to have a chat, coffee etc.
Waving at you Kim, Chrissie, Jane and everyone else.
So see you all when I get back on Tuesday.
Thank you to everyone visiting my blog, all your visits and comments are very much appreciated.

Lilac Avenue

I made this card some weeks ago now using Lilac Avenue papers, Prima crochet flower, stunning double faced satin ribbon and a gorgeous MS punch. There card that I used for inspiration was a card made by Sherry Cheever back in February. The sentiment is in one of the sets available this year from SU SAB. The centre shapes are nestabilities.
Thanks for all the wonderful comments I've received on my Convention swaps and my Team swap boxes. I love reading them and thank you for taking the time to comment.