Howdy Doody Sympathy

 Mmmmm well if I have any followers left, I hope you are all well and enjoyed your Christmas and New Year celebrations.

October, November and December were outrageously busy for me.  October was spent making items for the November Artist of Month display at the Tourist Centre.  November disappeared at a great rate and December flew by too with Christmas preparations.

Now it's January and I've spent most of it crocheting with a couple of cards here and there.  Now January is nearly finished and I thought I really should update my blog.

A friend of mine recently lost her mother so this is the sympathy card I made.  Actually I made two, one for Desley and one for the Tourist Centre.  The only thing different on each one is the style of flower used.

The papers are Howdy Doody by My Mind's Eye.  Card stock and seam binding are Stampin' Up and the sentiment is a Just Rite stamp.  The lace is some given to me by a dear friend and the flower is Prima.

Thank you for visiting my blog and keep cool or warm as the case may be.
 

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.

I love this Be Merry paper!

Another card using MME Be Merry papers. I've embossed the tree with silver embossing powder then adhered crystals in the middle of the snowflakes. Also a little crystal on the greeting snowflake. The sketch I used is Crazy 4 Challenges #17. I know the challenge is finished but I liked the sketch. I took two photos trying to get the twinkle on the crystals to show up properly. Not sure that I really succeeded. lol
I'm enjoying myself at the moment, making Christmas cards. I'll be ahead for this year I hope.
Thanks for looking,

Be Merry Again!

I've so enjoyed making these Christmas cards. Here are two more that I finished a few weeks ago. For the first card I cuttlebug embossed the Basic Grey pink background with my new snowflake flolder. I made a Christmas tree using punches like Francie did. I think it looks fabulous. The star at the top of the tree is an acrylic embellishment out of my stash as is the lace and bling. Stamps are by Papermania and the papers are My Minds Eye Be Merry and Basic Grey.

The second card uses Nesties for behind the Christmas trees which have been cut out of the Be Merry paper by My Minds Eye. I cuttlebug embossed the pink layer with another of my new embossing folders from the UK. Stamps are by Papermania with Stampin' Up punches used for the greeting. Lace and bling from my stash.

Today I received some gorgeous crystals in the mail so hope to get some more of these cards made using them.
Jennifer requested that I do a tutorial on making bows. Well all I use is the Bow Easy and sometimes the rabbit ears technique. I'm not allowed to put the link on here where I purchased my Bow Easy but if you email me, larleigh@bigpond.com, I'll be more than happy to send you the link to where I purchased mine from and also on that same website is a fabulous tutorial on how to use the Bow Easy.

This last week has been spent in non crafting activities for the most part. CWA is finished for the year, the crafting groups I go to have finished up for Christmas and Sunday afternoon was spent with 4 other girls that I went to Primary School with. We have an annual get together at this time of the year.
The fine tuning of my craft room clean up is nearly finished.
Thanks for the many wonderful comments on my blog, I truly appreciate each and every one of them.

Pink and Blue Christmas

A couple more of the Christmas cards using my lovely papers. I'm totally happy with my Joy card but the other one is a bit iffy. I tried Jak Heath's technique of using the Diamond Dust over acetate snowflakes. Unfortunately mine are certainly not as good as Jak's. I know you can't see them very well. I had a terrible time with this card. It took ages and the snowflakes at one stage were going in the bin. Anyway, they are there now and I know I need more practice at them. If you want to try these, be careful as the acetate isn't easy to punch.
The sketch I used for this card is from the Inspirational Card Sketches blog # 43.
I love my lace and ric rac but had to put a piece of blue underneath to make that feature stand out. The wreath has been silver embossed with little bling placed over the stars. I can't put a link to where I purchased the lace and ribbon I used on this card but it was from the UK and the US.

The Joy card sketch is a version from one of Francie's cards that she was making on the stamping weekend. This card came together really easily compared to the other one. The little pot the Christmas tree is in, is just punched from the border of the MME papers. I thought it a perfect way to recycle the bit I would normally throw away. I managed to make the Christmas Tree using Francie's idea with a punch.
Thanks for looking and once again, a big thank you to all who take the time to comment on my blog.

Patterned Pines

Another Christmas card using my pretty papers, bling, lace and a charm. This one was made on Wednesday when I had a cardmaking session with a couple of girlfriends.
Thanks for looking and for the fabulous comments I receive.

Happy Snowmen

On the stamping weekend, we met a girl called Francie who was making absolutely wonderful cards using these papers. Well I managed to find some and these cards are the results of me casing one of Francie's cards. I haven't any of the crystals Francie was using so made do with what I had (yep, I know, shock horror, "made do with what I had") lol
Hope you like them and the biggest thank you to Francie for sharing her inspiration.