Retro Snowflakes

I'm totally addicted to Retro Sketches, I try to submit at least one card every week and it annoys me when I don't! I couldn't resist Sketch 39 of course. I'm also submitting this card to the Simon Says Stamp - Almost Goes challenge. Here is my card, submitted just before the deadline!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

Stamps - My Favourite Things Christmas Ornaments, Seasonal Sentinments

Ink - Hero Arts Soft Granite and Pool, Tim Holtz Broken China

Die - MFT Let it Snowflake

Others - American Craft Jewel Brad, Kaisercraft rhinestones, Ranger stickles

Frame by frame

When I saw the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger - Frame by Frame, I knew what I had to do. I clicked on the image credit and found the crochet patterns for the frames. As I am still a novice at crochet, I picked the easiest pattern and made two in front of the TV (I didn't really pay much attention to what we were watching, but hey, I was spending quality time with my DH)! Once it was done the rest of the card was put together very easily! I'm also submitting this card to Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes challenge. Thanks for dropping by!

Image credit

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

Paper - Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden

Stamp - Hero Arts Antique Flowers and Butterflies, Florentine Messages

Ink - Hero Arts Wet Cement

Others - Panda Regal 4ply cotton, White gel pen

Grateful for You

Back with a quick card I made a while ago for the Graphic 45 Thank You card challenge on Facebook. The cards are due in by tomorrow and I thought I better get my act together to submit it. I used the G45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe papers for this card (I love this collection, especially from a Scientific point of view). Thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Via Vellum Kraft, Black cardstock

Stamp - My Favourite Things Favourite Sentiments, Designs by Ryn CM-T3

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs

Dawny's Sketch

I had to make two cards this week, one for a wedding anniversary and one for a wedding. I recently received some stamp sets from Papertrey Ink and papers from Basic Grey. I've been dying to try out my newly acquired stash and I incorporated them in Simon Says Stamp's Sketch Challenge for both cards as I liked the sketch. A little tip to salvage more patterned paper - I diecut a  tag out of the bottom piece of patterned paper to be used again next time so not to waste my precious stash!
The first card is made with Pink Paislee's London Market collection. I've had this 6x6 pack for months and I have been waiting for the right card to use it. I based this card on the PDCC 158 challenge (Rose, Eucalyptus and Slate). This is for a couple celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary, hope they like it!

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White
Paper - Pink Paislee London Market
Stamp - PTI Lovely Layers, Hero Arts CL272
Ink - Hero Arts Soft Granite
Die - PTI Lovely Layers, Martha Stewart Lacey edge punch
Others - Kaisercraft pearl brad

The second card is made with my new BG Lucille collection - this collection was inspired by Lucille Ball! I love the 60's look of these papers. This is an unusual wedding card for me as I usually stay with the neutrals or pink/red for Chinese wedding cards. I recently re-learned how to crochet (I prefer knitting) and have made lots of little flowers, I've actually made more than I need! So it was quite handy to pull out one of these beauties to add to the Lucille butterfly which came with the 12x12 pack. Thanks for dropping by!

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Dawny's Sketch

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White
Paper - Basic Grey Lucille 12x12
Stamp - Hero Arts CL272
Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs
Dies - Memory Box Woven Circle, Fiskars edge punch
Others - Kaisercraft pearl brad, White gel pen, crochet flower

Second Chance

I made quite a few cards on the weekend for the Hero Arts Flickr group 24 hour (90 minute) scrambles. There was one card which was made in 25 minutes that I was not too happy with and I wanted to re-do it for the A Blog Named Hero Second Chances challenge. My new card is below - a better improvement on the one made on the weekend! I'm happy now!! Make sure you tune into ABNH's Christmastravaganza. There is going to be a Christmas project uploaded each day from 22nd November to 25th December with lots of guest designers and inspirational projects!

A close up of the glimmer from the Perfect Pearls

The original scramble card

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Natural White, Red cardstock
Stamps - Hero Arts CL558, CL633
Ink -Versanark, Hero Arts Red Royal, Green Hills

Others - Kaisercraft rhinestones, Perfect Pearls, Red hessian ribbon, Gold Embossing powder, Barn Door Distress Marker

Seeing Double!

Tonight is a night of doubles! My good friends in Queensland just delivered healthy twin boys this afternoon. I had a card prepared for them (as they had already announced the sex of the twins and their names a while ago) and I put the first born's name first. At work today, I was asked to make a double birthday card for a husband (51st) and wife (50th) celebrating their birthdays together. What a 'doubles' day! Here are my cards!

Ingredients:

Jeremy n Jayden Card

Cardstock - Via Vellum Kraft, Neenah Solar White

Paper - MME Blinking an Eye

Stamp - Hero Arts CL492, Hero Arts Studio Calico Roller Rink Kit stamp

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Broken China

Dies - MFT DieNamics Fishtail Flags

Others - MME Enamel Dots, Hemp, Basic Grey Alpha stickers

Double Birthday Card

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

Paper - MME Indie Chic Ginger

Stamp - Hero Arts CL530 657773

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black, Hero Arts Wet Cement

Dies - MFT DieNamics Tag Die, Numbers Die, Layered Labels Die

Others - MME Decorative Tape, Kaisercraft blossoms, hemp

Christmas Squares

Well, what a busy weekend with the 24 hour scramble! Thank you to everyone for all the lovely comments on my blog and Flickr account. A big welcome to my new followers on the blog and twitter! I was a bit tired after participating in 6 scrambles and hosting one myself. I cleaned up my Craft desk and floor yesterday and did not make any more cards....... Well, you can't keep me away for very long. I wanted to submit a card to the Moxie Fab World Square Punch challenge. I do not have a square punch but used a square die from the Spellbinders Nestabilities set instead. I have done a square punch challenge before when I didn't have any dies, it is damn hard to card a small square with the equipment I have! Here is my card - my tally is now 23 Christmas cards, Yay!!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Via Vellum Kraft, Red textured card, Brown card

Paper - Kaisercraft Turtle Dove 6x6

Stamp - Tim Holtz Christmas Carol

Dies - Spellbinders Nestabilities Squares, MFT DieNamics Numbers

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black, Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs

Others - Red ribbon, Kaisercraft rhinestone

Sweet Christmas Sketch

My 99th blog post and 16th Christmas card - nearly there! I'm reserving my 100th post for the Hero Arts 24 hour scramble this weekend. Come and join in the fun - a 90 minute scramble every 2 hours for 24 hours! I will be hosting one at 7:30pm AEST (2:30am CST) this Saturday. Anyway onto my card. I haven't done a Sweet Sunday sketch for quite a while now and I quite liked this one, so I decided to submit a card. The stamp was part part of a freebie when ordering stamps or dies from MFT last month, I've had fun with some of these sentiments. I've stamped the sentiment on red paper with Versamark and clear embossed it before coating the paper with Viva Precious Metal. I'd also used this technique on another card done recently. The Snowflake was die cut from silver card and plain card with JAC paper on top. The crystal glitter was then sprinkled on top and burnished onto the snowflakes - I love this technique and have done all my snowflakes and edges this way! The background paper was embellished with stickles, silver gel pen and red rhinestones. Here's my card with the sketch below it:

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White, Silver metallic

Paper - Basic Grey Aspen Frost

Stamp - MFT Christmas Sentiments

Ink - Versamark

EP - Clear and Clear Crystals

Die - MFT DieNamics Fishtail STAX, MFT Snowflakes

Others - Viva Precious Metal, Stickles, Silver Gel pen, Kaisercraft rhinestones, Rhinestone brad

Today Will Be...

... The Best Day Ever! A great sentiment for a wedding card! I've made this card for an Chinese/Aussie couple and did not want to use my Chinese Doll as the bride is not Chinese. I used the current MFT Wednesday sketch and Basic Grey's Konnichiwa papers to make this quick and easy card.

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Via Vellum Kraft, Neenah Solar White

Paper - Basic Grey Konnichiwa 6x6

Stamp - My Favourite Things My Favourite Sentiments

Ink - Hero Arts Pool

Die - MFT Fishtail STAX, Upsy Daisy

Others - Studio Calico MME Enamel dots, white gel pen

Thank You James

I made another A4 sized card to farewell a work colleague. After I assembled the card, I decided to add some stamping to the background strip, so there is a bit of smudging as the overlap needed to be masked off. Anyway, hope no one notices my mistake. I love this new water droplets stamp by Designs by Ryn which I recently received. I was the first one to upload to CAS-ual Fridays' Snips, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails challenge and maybe the last before it closes soon! Thanks for dropping by.

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White, Black cardstock

Paper - Kaisercraft After Five Collection

Stamps - Hero Arts CL544, Designs by Ryn CM-T3

Ink - Hero Arts Wet Cement, Ranger Archival Jet Black

Dies - Spellbinders Nestabilities

Others - Amy Tangerine Thickers, Hemtique Hemp

Baby Oscar

A quick post with a baby boy card for a work colleague. This card is A5 in size and will be submitted to CAS-ual Fridays' Snips, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails challenge.

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Via Vellum Kraft

Paper - My Minds Eyes Away We Go

Stamps - Hero Arts CL544, CL606

Ink - Hero Arts Stone Wash

Dies - MFT Fishtail and High Rise Alphabets

Others - white gel pen

MFT Guest DT Sketch

I've been gradually acquiring stamps and dies from My Favourite Things. I've been dying to try out the Christmas Ornaments dies and the current MFT Guest DT Sketch 112 is perfect for them! The great incentive is the $200 prize from MFT and also Guest DT. I wanted to keep this card CAS and use some of the techniques I learnt from the Online Holiday Card Workshop. The snowflakes were done with a technique shown by Julie Erbersole in Day 2 and the ornaments were inked with two distress inks with a spray of perfect pearls. I've entered my cards to the MFT DT sketch challenge before, the talent pool is so great that I am always in awe of some of the work represented. It would be great to win this challenge one day - think of all the MFT dies on my wishlist that I can purchase! It would also be an honour and privilege to be a DT for MFT! Thank you for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Via Vellum Kraft, Neenah Solar White, Curious Silver

Stamps - MFT Seasonal Sentiments

Ink - Tim Holtz Broken China and Peacock Feathers

Dies - MFT Christmas Ornaments, Let it snowflake, Fishtail Flag STAX

Others - Sizzix Damask embossing folder, Perfect Pearls mist, Glitter EP, Crystal glitter, Kaisercraft Sparklets and rhinestones

Konnichiwa Butterfly

I would like to share a card which was submitted for the recent PC World Card Making Day Contest and was not selected.  The Heart Winged Butterfly (a new addition to my family) was embossed in black over patterned paper. The lacey circles die cut is also a new addition. I'm submitting this card to the A Blog Named Hero's Challenge#15 -The Ol' 1-2 Punch.

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

Paper - Basic Grey Konnichiwa

Stamp - Hero Arts F5158, CL530

Ink - Versamark

Dies - Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles and lacey circles

Others - Seam binding, flower ribbon, pearl brad, black embossing powder

MFT Wednesday Sketch

I haven't entered into a MFT challenge for a little while now. The MFTWSC96 sketch really grabbed my attention. Since I recently won a set of DieNamics Fishtail banners, I wanted to put them to good use and turned the sketch into a Christmas card. This is my 14th Christmas card, I'm aiming to do at least 25 different cards so that I can post one on each day of December on my FB account! I'm also submitting this card to the Artfull Crafts's Christmas Countdown. Thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Via Vellum Kraft

Paper - Kaisercraft December 25th 6x6

Stamp - MFT Christmas Sentiments

Dies - MFT Fishtail banners STAX, MFT Ornaments

Ink - Hero Arts Red Royal, Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs

Others - Hemptique twine, Kaisercraft rhinestones, White gel pen

HCW5

Hi All, been too busy lately to do all the Online Holiday Card Workshop cards so I decided to pick one inspired by Kristina Werner on Day 5 to do with the current Retro Sketch. Without giving too much of the class away, the sentiment is clear embossed on red paper. Instead of using Perfect Pearls (mine didn't work out too well), I used Viva Precious Metal in silver instead - this gave a brighter silver colour. A strip of the patterned paper and the woven circle were embossed with glitter, although it is hard to make it show up in the photo. I'm also submitting this card to the Hero Arts November and the A Blog Named Hero's The Ol' 1-2 Punch challenges.  I'm looking forward to next week's HCW classes!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

Paper - Basic Grey Aspen Frost

Stamp - Hero Arts CL634

Ink - Versamark

Dies - Memory Box Woven Circle, MFT Die-Namics Fishtail STAX, MFT Die-Namics Open edge scallop, Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles, corner punch

Others - Glitter Embossing powder, Hemptique cord, Kaisercraft rhinestones

HCW1

I'm participating in my third online class. This will be my second one with Jennifer McGuire. The list of teachers in this class is awesome and I can't wait to see what we are in for. I have already taken 3 classes and I've been dying to give it a go. I've been pretty busy lately as I just submitted more cards for magazine publication calls. Now that is over, I needed a day off before I can get back into more card making. I can't think of a better way to start than to make my card inspired by Jennifer in Class One of the Holiday Card Workshop (there is still time to register)! Here it is, hope you like it. It was really easy to do and took no time at all! Hero Arts has just announced the November Contest - 'Bring on the Bling', just as well I added in some rhinestones on this card!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Solar White

Stamps - Hero Arts CL558, CL633

Inks - Hero Arts Mid-tone Pool, Wet Cement and Stone Wash, Tim Holtz Distress Broken China

Others - Ranger stickles, Kaisercraft rhinestones