Monday 29 July 2013

"Beat the Heat"....

that's the current challenge over at Penny Black.... not so much heat here in NZ... but not too cold either!

http://pennyblackinc.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/banner1.jpg

 I've finally got around to inking up some of my new Penny Black stamps.  I shared the first one on Saturday (here) and this is one is my second one

Penny Black "Beat The Heat"

I started by stamping the large flower from Floral Applique in Memento ink and coloured with Copics and fussy cut.  The background was made by sponging Peacock Feather distress ink through a The Crafter's Workshop Punchinella stencil and then sponged with the ink.  I did an edging with Golden Glitz ink.  The sentiment is from Montargo.  I popped the flower up and added a few sequins.

And I am happy to say I've fixed my comments.... so please feel free to leave one for me.  I appreciate them all.


Sunday 28 July 2013

The Hangover @ Red Carpet Studio

It's the card design team's turn to inspire you over at Red Carpet Studio and our inspiration movie is "The Hangover"

 
The challenge is to include a drink or cocktail on your card.   I don't have many stamps or digis that are drink orientated, but do have a Bugaboo image that does... so here is my card



Had a lot of fun colouring this one in.  I used the computer to create the sentiment.   I finished off with a Spellbinders Poinsettia. 

Be sure to visit the blog  and see what the others have come up with and join us with or drinks/cocktail cards. 

Thanks for stopping by.  

Saturday 27 July 2013

The Maharaja and I


Did that get you attention?  What's that all about you might ask.  Well last night Hubby and I went to dinner at Alberton, a historic house here in Auckland.  The dinner was to celebrate 150 years since it was built.  The original owner was a gentleman called Allan Kerr Taylor who was born and spend some time growing up in India and last night's dinner was a celebration of that.  And the brief was to come in Indian or colonial garb.  We decided to go with the Indian look.  I borrowed a Sari from one of my Indian colleagues, as well as getting some instructions on how to wrap it, and hubby hired a Maharaja outfit.



and here are a couple of photos of us with our friends at the dinner.



Today I made a card to say Thank You to the lady who's Sari I borrowed.  The colours in the Sari inspired it. 

Thank you so much

I used a Penny Black set called Floral Applique and silver embossed it.  Then did a resist with Peacock Feathers and Black Soot Distress ink.

I've entered it into the Penny Black "Beat the Heat" Challenge

http://pennyblackinc.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/banner1.jpg

Thanks for visiting today.  


Wednesday 24 July 2013

A Geisha birthday

Recently Monika sent me some stamped images.  One was a beautiful Giesha girl which I decided to make into a card.

Japanese Birthday

I coloured the image with Copics and then trimmed it.  I used Golden Glitz ink to edge the panel.  The PP is from a My Mind's Eye pad and the sentiment is Docrafts.  I coloured a paper flower with the gold ink and added a resin button I made over the weekend.

I have made a few buttons and flowers using resin


I added some purple alcohol ink and ended up with Neon Pink!  Not quite what I had in mind... my last batch I used Peach Bellini ink which gave a nice creamy colour.   I made some roses and buttons. 

I've been having some issues with Blogger... because I added Google+ to my gmail and it's meant that unless you also have Google+ you might not be able to leave me a comment.  I hope that you will still come and view even if you can't comment.




Saturday 20 July 2013

Christmas in July Blog Hop

Edited:  I'm having an issue with blogger.  If you can't leave a comment, please head over to the Red Carpet Studio's site and leave a comment there, that you came here 

Just because there's not snow on the ground, doesn't mean Christmas can't be celebrated a few months early! Happy Christmas in July, everyone, and welcome to Red Carpet Studio's Christmas in July blog hop!


If you're unfamiliar with Red Carpet Studio, we're a challenge blog that challenges crafters to create projects inspired by movies! Right now we offer alternating weekly card and layout challenges, but starting in September we'll be opening up our challenges to any types of projects that fit our theme, as well as extending the duration of the challenges to biweekly to give you awesome crafters more time to create and play along! We're also having a design team call!

Now onto my project..


Being that we are inspired by movies.... my card was inspired by the 1954 short film ~ Frosty the Snowman.

My Frosty is a digital image from Crafty Sentiments Design.  I used a Lawn Fawn Polaroid die to cut the red frame.  As I wanted it a bit longer, I trimmed a bit more of the red card and covered the join with the ribbon which also served as my sentiment.  My background PP is from the Christmas paper pad by My Mind's Eye.  I used a punch to make the snowflake and added a pale blue gem 

And of course we have some wonderful sponsors giving away gifts to those who are a follower of Red Carpet Studio (either through Google Reader or Blog Lovin') and comment on EVERY stop of the hop!

$5 Gift Certificate

$10 Gift Certificate

5 Digis of Winner's Choice

Winners will be randomly chosen and announced on Tuesday July 23rd along with the winners of our Action Wobble challenge!

Your next stop is Rochelle's blog.


Happy Hopping!

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Friday Freebie

Every Friday, Jodi over at Bugaboo has a freebie... just available for one week.  A great way to build up your digi images and I can tell you, once you try out a digi from Bugaboo you'll just want to buy more.

This past Friday, the freebie is a very cute little image
Bugaboo are this month's sponsor over at Die Cut Divas, and with our challenge is to use flowers, I made this little cutie into a card

Five

I printed the image and cut with a Spellbinders Labels die and coloured with Copics.  I added some multicoloured glitter to my number and some glossy accents to the circles on the hat.   I added the pretty spotty background and stamped the sentiment (a stamp by Montargo  a NZ stamp company) I finished off with a pretty pink flower with a button and some twine. 

Over on the Die Cut Divas blog, you can see the lovely card Arlene made with the same image. 

And don't forget that our challenge is still ongoing.  We would love to have you join us.


Tuesday 16 July 2013

June CCC reveal

Hi there.... I've been quite busy over the last week or so.  I've had a number of commissions for a few of people at work and then we went away for the weekend.  I took some stamps and my Copic makers and Watercolour pencils.


Had fun.

But today I am here to share the card I made as part of Deborah's CCC for June.  If you don't know what this is... it's a card chain challenge...where you get to make a card and send it to someone else.  See Deborah's blog (here) to find out about the next challenge.  For June I got to send my card to Deborah herself.

June CCC

I used the sketch Deborah did and the colourway.  I stamped the greeting and then embossed the background.  I also embossed the banner I cut.  The little blue circle is a Penny Black stamp cut out with a Spellbinders die. 

I'm off  to make up some cards from my coloured images...

I'm back tomorrow with a card for Die Cut Divas blog.  Do come back and visit


Monday 15 July 2013

Joy Taylor ~ Guest artist at Die Cut Divas

Yes, I had a pleasure of interviewing the one and only Joy Taylor  over at Die Cut Divas  today. 

So please hop over to the DCD's blog and find out some more about Joy and see some incredible photos of her crafting space... it's a gem.  And soooo tidy I must say...

Plus she has made an awesome card with an image from our sponsors, Bugaboo


Sunday 14 July 2013

"Action" Movies inspiration @ Red Carpet Studio

Hi all.... been really busy this week, so not much blogging done and a weekend away at the beach... so relaxing during the winter as it's too cold to do much but read and in my case, lots of colouring in.....

anyway it's time to share my make for Red Carpet Studio this week.

Our inspiration this week is "Action Movies"  ~ and to use an action wobbler on your project.   Stumped me a bit.... I don't own any action wobblers and wasn't sure where to find any... so a bit of internet search and I made my own wobbler with some floral wire..  and here is my card



and here it is in action


I used a Penny Black image which I cut and coloured and added my spring behind.  The blue background was die cut with a Spellbinders Wonky Rectangle and added to a white base. 

So hop over to the blog and see what the others have created for your inspiration. 


Monday 8 July 2013

Drama at Penny Black class.

I took a class on Friday, using Penny Black stamps.... fun but not without it's dramas.    Nothing seem to go right for me....

First up, a card using the free stamp I got....
giggles picture 
 We were given some glitter card to stamp the image on as well as some gorgeous PP's.  My drama..... I used the wrong ink... Archival black instead of Momento so when I went to start adding my Copics.... the ink bleed.  YUCK... and because I didn't do my colouring till I got home.... due to me not reading my email correctly and didn't take my colouring medium with me to class!  So there was NO more of the glitter card left.... and I really wanted to try this technique.  So out came the JAC paper and my Diamond Dazzle glitter and I made my own piece.  And stamped it with the right ink....  Here it is finished

Glittery Goodness.

Then it was onto the next card.... The drama here was all about the adage.... Measure Twice, Cut Once.... yeah... I didn't measure properly and ended up with a narrow card...

Penny Black Sympathy

I had stamped the leaves onto the PP after I had trimmed it, to what I thought was the correct size... and only when I matted and went to put it onto the base, I realised it was cut too narrow.  So my card had to be cut down to fit.  Luckily I have an Envelope Punch and was able to make an envelope to fit.

On to our third card ( still waiting to be coloured) and another drama.  We had to edge punch two sides of some PP... and you guessed it... I messed up down one side.  I missed a portion and when I went back to cut it, I over punch one little bit...what a mess... but my ribbon treatment will be moved from the bottom to the side.  Once I finished colouring the stamping I'll be able to share....

So all in all, a very INTERESTING class...  

Had a very slow trip home from work today.  What was a usually 15-20 min trip took one and a half hours.  All due to an incident that took place on the motorway early in the morning that closed a portion of motorway for nearly 15 hours.  It meant that many people diverted along my normal route.  I'm glad I don't have to do that every day.

Thanks for visiting today. 


Saturday 6 July 2013

SENZ 2013... an awesome day!


Yesterday I took the day off work so I could head down to Manukau to attend NZ's biggest scrapbook and papercrafting Expo ~SENZ.   It's about a 30km drive to Manukau and I left home around 8.15am expecting it to take me a while with morning traffic, but I am pleased to say, it only took me 35 mins to get there... time to have a Hot Choccie before heading into the stadium.  I started by heading to ScrapFX's stall as I want to meet a few ladies I have been chatting on Facebook with.  I belong to a Forum of NZ and Australian crafters and was pleased to meet in person with Paula Lynne and Kimi Blundell

This is me with Kimi who came all the way from Australia to help out Paula on her stall.    I also got to say hi to two other members of the forum... Faith and Tracey. 

From there it was off for a few minutes shopping... got two Hero Arts sets I was after, before heading of to Scottie Crafts workshop to do a class...

IMG_7114

This is my frame almost finished.  Just needs some PP and a photo.  I had so much fun making this.... lots of fun with spellbinders de-lite dies, crackle paint, making our own resin pieces and getting messy in the process

Photo: More paint on the fingers than anywhere else
Took some time to get the glue and paint off my hands....

I had around 20 mins to gobble down some lunch before heading to my second class for the day.... a card class with Hastings Rubber Stamps tutor Wilma using Penny Black stamps. But I'll leave that for another post!  Three cards made, not without a few drama!!!!

Hope your weekend is going well.... and to my American friends, hope your 4th of July was fun filled and you enjoyed yourselves.


Wednesday 3 July 2013

Captain Hugh from Mo Manning

Last week, while blog hopping round the internet I saw a pirate card from Paula... which reminded me I had Captain Hugh from Mo Manning's Digital Pencil... so I printed him out.

Finally got around to colouring yesterday and making up into a card.

Captain Hugh

I found a free treasure map (here) and resized and shaped to have it fit a 15cm x 10.5cm.  I cut it out and added some Sahara Sands chalk ink for a bit of definition.   I used a Spellbinder's Label 1 to cut out Hugh and added some blue ink around the edge and some of the chalk ink to the rest of the panel.  I then stamped the sentiment from one of my new Penny Black stamp sets and cut it like a banner.  I added some of the chalk ink as well.   

I really love the way it came together.  I'm going to throw it in the ring at Simon Says Stamp challenge ~ Anything goes....
and as the sentiment is PB (and large) I'm entering it into Penny Black Saturday Challenge. ~ Masculine.

I'm off to SENZ on Friday.... it's the biggest Scrapbook and crafting expo in NZ and it's in Manukau -South Auckland  ( about 40kms from my place)  I've booked into two classes... one in the morning ~ a frame and one in the afternoon ~ Penny Black cards.  Each class is 2hrs long... then a little time to go shopping!!!!!  And I'm hoping to catch up with a few of my new Facebook friends... Paula who owns ScrapFX has a stall and Kimi is over from Australia to help her out!  

Take care

Monday 1 July 2013

Summer Flowers at Die Cut Divas.

July is my month for hosting the challenge over at Die Cut Divas.  And it's all about Flowers!  In the Northern Hemisphere summer is finally under way and the flowers are blooming.   And last year at the end of July these were flowering in my garden

July 28th 2012


so onto our challenge this month.... we are celebrating Summer Flowers.  Our sponsor this month is Bugaboo and we Divas got to use some of their images.   I used a bunch of flowers in a vase


As this card is also my sample over at Chalk N Stock, I used chalk inks to paint the flowers and tea cup.  I smushed the ink onto the an acrylic block and used an aqua brush to paint the images.  I then cut the image with a Spellbinder die, matted with the next size up and then onto an Eyelet circle die.  I added some stickles to the flower centres.  The sentiment is a stamp from Memory Box.  

So you have two challenges that you can enter....
Die Cut Divas ~ Summer Flowers (you must have a flower/s on your project, and use your die machines to cut or emboss something)
Chalk N Stock ~ anything goes as long as there is some chalk involved. 

I will be posting on the Die Cut Divas blog throughout the month, so do keep popping in there for some inspiration and mid month, an awesome interview with our guest designer.... you'll just love her work!

Onto a happy note about my laptop... I managed to selvage most of my files.... and download all the images I purchased over the last two months  and a big thanks to Irina at La-La Land who resent me the links to my two images ... that was great customer service.   The one biggie was the loss of my bookmarks.... all those delightful video tutorials and blog posts that I loved are all gone... I'll just have to start looking again... and making sure I save the bookmarks regularly to my external hard drive!