75th Birthday

I've been busy with a few publication submissions lately. This is one of the rejects which I enhanced for a 75th birthday card for my Aunty. The background was white embossed, inked with distress inks and sprayed with perfect pearls (one of my favourite techniques). The vellum flowers were also white embossed and fussy cut. I'm submitting this card into the Hero Arts January contest, Moxie Fab World's Make a Background challenge and PaperCraft's January Flickr Gallery challenge. Thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White, Tim Holtz Kraft Core

Paper - Patterned vellum paper

Stamps - Hero Arts Lattice Background, Four Flowers and Find Joy

Dies - MFT DieNamics By the Numbers

Ink - Versamark, Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers, Scattered Straw and Bundled Sage

Others - White EP, White brads, Twine from The Twinery

Mad on Tweed

When I first saw the new Hero Arts stamp with a tweed background, I had to get it. There are so many possibilities with this stamp. My order from Simon Says Stamp arrived two days ago and I've played with it a few times before I made this card today. Again in the eleventh hour, I'm submitting this card to Retro Sketches #46 , Runway Inspired Cacharel,  Hero Arts January contest and the Simon Says Stamp Herocontest on Splitcoast. You'll see many more cards with this new stamp! Thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:
Card - Neenah Solar White
Stamp - Hero Arts S564 Tweed Pattern, CL497 Find Joy
Ink - Versamark, HA Pool, Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers, Scattered Straw and Bundled Sage
Others - Clear EP, Twine from The Twinery, Kaisercraft rhinestone

Retro bird

I couldn't let the Retro sketch challenge go this week without submitting a card. So in the last hour, this is the card I made. My cardstock supplier has finally got Neenah Desert Storm in stock now, so I'm stamping on it for the first time. I'm also submitting this card for the Hero Arts January contest - Try something new (Neenah cardstock and Basic Grey Serenade) and Basic Grey's New Beginnings/Something New challenge. Thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Desert Storm

Paper - Basic Grey Serenade

Stamps - Hero Arts Timely Bird CG292, Simon Says Stamp Sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Others - Kaisercraft rhinestones

Repeats and Rainbow

It's difficult when we have to make a sympathy card. I wanted to make a cheery Sympathy card for someone who passed away just before Christmas. He had a long battle with cancer and would always bounce back after each bout of chemotherapy. This card is to celebrate his life and his final release from all the suffering. I was reading Nicole Heady's blog on PTI's Make it Monday and knew this is what I wanted to make. I've used colours from HA's mid tone inks to match the rainbow set number 6 as I do not have any PTI inks. I'm also entering this card to Moxie Fab World's Make a Background challenge. Here is my card that I'm going to post tomorrow, thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White, green card stock

Stamps - PTI Lovely Layers, HA CL497

Inks - HA Midtone Inks: Pool, Butter Bar, Green Fields, Bubble Gum and Stone Wash

MFT Guest DT Jan13 Challenge

There has been a lot of chalkboard inspired cards on Pinterest and on various galleries. I have been wanting to try out this technique. This is the original post by Betsy Veldman which started the chalkboard trend. Sounds easy? I thought I'll give it a go with the current MFT Guest DT sketch challenge. It was easy to do, but I didn't have much black smooth paper, hunted high and low and found some! I don't have any vertical sentiments and I had to flip the card around to use the sentiment I wanted to use. I also repeated the bottom of the sentiment and added it to the top to even it off. I'm also entering the card into this week's ColourQ - Challenge 170 (Choose an Colour Palette). I chose cQc #146, although my card does not have a lot of green, the other main colours are there. Anyway here is the result!

This sentiment in this card reflects my thoughts - I'm a dreamer.... One day, it's going to happen... I can craft full time and don't have to work for a living!! ... until my dreams come true... I would love to be a guest DT!! I would love to win $200 worth of MFT products!!

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Desert Storm, Black cardboard
Paper - Basic Grey Konnichiwa
Stamp - MFT My Favourite Sentiments
Ink - Versamark, Versamark Chalk Ink Cloud White
Dies - MFT Fishtail STAX, MFT Upsy Daisy
Others - White EP, Hemp from Hemtique, white brad, white gel pen

Washi Thank You

Some of my regular followers will know that I won $100 worth of MT wash tapes before Christmas with this card. I made a 'Thank You' card for Sam from Paperpoint who picked my winning card from the November washi tape contest on Facebook. This card was made with some of my winnings and some tapes already in my stash. Paperpoint is my favourite shop to visit in South Melbourne. I get all my card stock (they are now stocking Neenah Desert Storm) in A3 sheets and cut them down to size. They also have a great range of ribbons, card stock and patterned papers! I love going there!! CAS-ual Fridays have just announced their new challenge today - CAS Thank You card! The sister to this card (the negative) will be submitted for a magazine publication as I like it a lot! This card is also submitted for Simon Says Stamp's Use Washi Tape Challenge!

My card is below...

This is the stash I won from PaperPoint. I added a tape cutter to my collection. It came in handy during Christmas when I used it for place cards, last minute gift tags, etc. I can't wait to use some of the other tapes...

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

Tapes - MT 

Dies - MFT DieNamics alphabets

Others - Rhinestones and pearls from Kaisercraft

Sweet Dreams

I couldn't resist the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger and had to wait until the craziness of Festive Season settled. The trigger photo beckoned me to use MME All is Bright (believe it or not, I did not use it for any Christmas cards) and BG Paper Cottage. I wanted to use the PTI Lovely layers and combine it in a sketch from Random Acts of Creativity's Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #86. My card is below and the trigger photos below that. The sentiment I used was from a new HA stamp set I just received, so I'm entering this card to the HA January contest and A Blog Named Hero's New Year New You challenge. Thanks for all the lovely comments on my previous blog!

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White
Papers - BG Paper Cottage, MME All is Bright
Stamps - PTI Lovely Layers, Hero Arts CL497
Ink - HA Pool
Dies - Spellbinders Scallop Circles, PTI Lovely Layers, MFT Dienamics Fishtail STAX
Others - Pearl Brad, Hemp from Hemptique