Time to dust off the blog - Christmas creating

This must have been the craziest end of year, birthdays and back to school yet.  So these holidays while I had projects on the go, it was all I could do to keep up with them.  My holidays were well spent making memories and reading and relaxing.  Finally I am back to somewhat of a routine and am wanting to do so much more here.   First what have I been creating?  Christmas - yes I gave a sneak peak in this post and then didn't show the end result.  It all started with this card as inspiration.  With lots of great tags to use I mixed and matched the different elements and added some little details.

Colours: crumb cake, cherry cobbler, always artichoke, very vanilla, early espresso

Stamps:  vintage labels and postmarks (PTI), merry christmas (kaiser)

Finishing touches:  handmade holidays papers and tags (simple stories), rhinestones (SU)

Next there was the teachers gifts

 In our Stampin Up Christmas swap I received a beautiful set of Christmas cards.  The wise owl always works well with teacher gifts so I added some more using the sets that I have and I had my cards sorted.

Colours:  white, rich razzleberry, old olive

Stamps:  wise owl (PTI), all year fun (SU), dress up lily (PCS)

Finishing touches:  doily die (couture creations), dimensionals, dazzling diamonds glitter and rhinestones (SU)

 For the school teachers some stationery bits and pieces, clips, post its and magnets in fun colours.  And the kindy teachers, yummy apples with caramel dip.  

This one went down really well.  They all asked for the recipe.

And last on the Christmas front was my Stamp Club Christmas swap.  Sorry the photos aren't that great.  I realised in all the busyness that I hadn't taken any photos and my phone isn't that great.  I had pinned the ideas for recycling books and thought it would be great to fill with goodies to give as a gift.  Once I started making bits and pieces I was hooked.  As such I have lots that didn't go in so will have some fun creating my own cards.

Colours:  daffodil delight, baja breeze, not quite navy, certainly celery, garden green

Stamps:  just the ticket (PTI), punctuation (KP), ciao baby and a round array (SU)

Finishing touches: book, envelope, for the record papers (echo park), embosslits beautiful wings,  lots of tags die, round tab punch and chevron border punch,  7/8 scallop circle punch and petite curly label punch (SU), buttons, ribbons, just the ticket die , ric rac die (PTI)

As you can see I have been a busy girl.  Lots of fun when I get creating.

Something girly

Another chance to use my new sandable paper from Echo Park and my embossing folders.  I haven't done any colouring for a while so it was fun to get the markers out and colour.  I love the chance to make girly cards.

Colours:  certainly celery, blushing bride, rose red, white
Stamps: dress up lily (PCS), wonderful words (PTI),hey cupcake (EB)
Finishing touches:  paper (heidi grace, MME and EP), seeing spots embossing folder (cuttlebug), button, stitching, wonderful words die (PTI), washi tape

Aargh Matey

Tis the time for birthday parties.  We were invited to a pirate party so it was an easy decision to put together a card using the pirate from my Dress up Billy set from Pink Cat Studio. As I didn't have much time I used a sketch from my ideas folder {card pictures from mags that I have put together}  Once I had the patterened paper the colour combo followed.

Colours: very vanilla, baja breeze, not quite navy, early espresso, cajun craze
Stamps: billy dress up (PCS), sanded and itty bitty bits (SU), banner builder (PTI), story time alpha (CDS)
Finishing touches: stapler, spiral punch and linen thread (SU), dimensionals, black embossing powder, distressing tool, stiching

A wise owl

My goodies from Papertrey Ink arrived in time to put together a card for my son's teachers. I have had the wise owl set on my wish list since I discovered Papertrey Ink so I had to have a play. I remembered the santa hat from Pink Cat Studio's Dress up Lily set. A great finishing touch.

Colours: very vanilla, always artichoke, riding hood red
Stamps: wise owl (PTI), merry christmas (Kaiser), dress up lily (PCS)
Finishing touches: spiral punch (SU), stitching, button, red and copper embossing powder, bakers twine (the twinery)

Always jump at the chance to do girls cards

The inspiration for this one came from a dress that I saw on a gorgeous little girl so when I found the chance to make a card for a birthday coming up I had the perfect starter. I was going to do it all pink as she loves pink but added a little of the green when I coloured the turtle. A little sparkle finished it off.

Colours: pink pirouette, certainly celery and white
Stamps: lily at the beach (pink cat studio), big and little pieces (SU)
Finishing touches: with love borders embossing folders (cuttlebug), rhinestones, pink stitched ribbon, silver embossing powder

Love coordinating papers

With lots of birthdays in the next few months the creative juicies have to start flowing early. This card is for a teenage nephew. It started out with the sheet music stamp from Kaiser as he is into music. I had seen a card using circles that were cut from patterned papers at kristina werner design blog and pulled out a current fav praire lane from Kaiser. I am starting to get into distressing. The more you do the more you learn.

Colour: baja breeze, early espresso, not quite navy
Stamps: lily and billy accessories (pink cat studio), sheet music (kaiser)
Finishing touches: large corner rounder (fiskars), 1" circle punch and colour spritzer tool (SU), praire lane paper collection (Kaiser)

Into my boys cards

Thanks to a loan of mags (thanks Shona) and a night out scrapping with a friend (thanks Jo) I have finally got on to doing my boy cards. Armed with a bit of inspiration and a few bits and pieces thrown into my crop bag I was surprised by the end result. This card is for my nephew over in Canada. It is made nice and early so hopefully I will get on to sending it in time, which seems to be my downfall at the moment.

I started with the superhero stamp from Pink Cat Studios Billy stamps. I had put in some of my boy pages and the stars one seemed to fit. I intended to have squares of the same size but cut them too big and so added the smaller blue ones to break it up. I have been wanting to get the label dies from spellbinders because I like the look but it is still on my wish list. So this label is actually stencil cut from a label that I got on some clothes I purchased recently. I love stitching but not always the time involved especially getting out my big machine for zig zag. So thanks to a tip from one of the mags I read I had a go at faux stitching zig zag. Finished it a treat!

Colour: kraft, pumpkin pie, ballet blue, going grey
Stamps: billy (PCS)
Finishing touches: faux stitching

Birthday Card Blitz

I have been having a blitz through my cards and coming birthdays. This card was in the to be made pile from way back. My mum and sister were looking for something to create when they came to stay and we found some challenges to play. These were some of the colours that my sister used and I wanted to make something with the left overs. We used one of the pals paper arts challenges. Because it was so long ago I can't find the sketch. Lots of fun anyway. I made it for a niece and the Pink Cat Studio Lily stamp fitted well.

Colours: only orange, ruby red, handsome hunter, sahara sand
Stamps: dress up lily (PCS), circle of friendship (SU), spiral (hero arts)
Finishing touches: fiskars apron lace border punch, rhinestones red (kaiser)

Birthday Boy

A perfect card for our boy who turned 6 this month. He is a real boy. Into life boots and all. His favourite thing to do is go on adventures. The Billy stamps from Pink Cat Studio work so well with boy cards. There are so many ways to use them. So with all the organising for scraptacular that I have been doing this one came together well. As I was flicking through my stash I came across the paper and added the extra embellishments. I wanted to have a go at the smooshing technique with the cuttlebug where you ink it first with versamark and then emboss. I think I will have to do a bit more experimenting with this one.

Stamps: Billy (PCS)
Finishing Touches: Cuttlebug embossing plate, copper embossing powder, frog brads, boy stickers (7 gypsies), chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon

For the birthday boy

I managed to sneak a bit of time in the busy school holidays to make a card for my son's fourth birthday. While catching up on blogs I found a great link on Mel Stampz site for different shaped cards. I just loved the magnet skater Ian as it is a stamp that is on my wish list. So I had a go at my own version with stamps that I have. I thought it turned out pretty well for a first attempt with the time that I had. Usually the card is passed aside for the present but this one was played with a bit first. He enjoyed it almost as much as the present we got him, his new wheels.

Colours: gloriuos green, basic grey, going grey, black
Stamps: dress up billy (pink cat studio), birthday whimsy and sanded (SU)
Finishing Touches: fiba tape, vintage brads (SU)

Super Dad

A super dad deserves a special card for his 60th! Certainly never says enough for all that he has done for us. I always seem to plan what I want to do well in advance and manage to pull it together in the end. This being the night before heading down country.

I was very pleased with how this one turned out from the colours to the images. Male cards are always harder to do. I picked out things that represent Dad and went from there. It certainly drew on a lot of sets that I have. The colours from the ribbon gave the base for the colours that I used.

Colours: chocolate chip, close to cocoa, bashful blue, very vanilla

Stamps: dress up billy (PCS), tool time (CDS), Leaf (Megilo), Just beachy (SU), alphabet (unknown)

Finishing touches: traffic lights squares embossing folder, jigsaw stencil, sanding block, fiba tape, copper embossing powder, ribbon (unknown) brads- vintage (SU)

A little closer to finishing

It is always great to feel like you have achieved something. I am only a couple of pages away from finishing the pages that I wanted to do to finish an album. For once I am feeling better about how they are coming together. A little less busy and therefore not taking so much time. It puts back the fun into scrapbooking. This one was made easier with the background page I used. I just needed to add a couple of embellishments and it was done. Once again there was a billy stamp from Pink Cat Studios dress up billy collection that finished it off. I also love the clear dome pieces that you can add stamps to make your own 3D pieces. Here I used them with the music notes and you rock words.

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 43

I have been doing a few baby cards of late and had wanted to use my train to make a boys card. I have a friend due next week so I had a chance to finally have a play. I have a couple of other ideas that I wanted to try as well as we don't know whether it is a boy or girl. Having seen this weeks Sunday Sketch Challenge I thought this one would work really well. The train is a set that I found at the Warehouse that I had got to make birthday invites a couple of years ago. I used the Teddy from the Dress up Lily stamps from Pink Cat Studio and the rattle is from the all year fun from Stampn up. After trying to decide what colours I would go with I went for a retro theme when I found the striped patterned paper. Nice to have a change from baby blue!

Colours: tempting turquoise, chocolate chip, so saffron, pumpkin pie, brocade blue, white
Papers: Sandylion
Stamps: Train (unknown), dress up lily (PCS), all year fun and best yet (SU), Congrats (unknown)
Finishing touches: Fiskars embossing plate, black embossing powder

Scrapbooking Update

Despite scrapbooking being my first love it seems to always take a back seat with the cards that need to be made. But I finally had a chance to get back to the pages I had planned. It makes it easier when the packs are sorted as I can sit down and get straight into creating. Being out of it for some time I have been blog hopping to find some inspiration and check out the new styles so I can refine my own style and exactly what I want to get across in my work. I discovered Melanie Louettes site and have drawn inspiration from her simple layouts and clean lines. I enjoyed working with a different style. The embellishments I used are from the billy stamps from Pink Cat Studio. They finished it well.

Baby Cards

My DH asked if I could make some cards for people at work for gifts from their social club. There have been several babies born over the last few months so I have had a chance to create something special for them. I just love the patchpal stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps. They make great baby cards. Combined with different sentiments stamps there are so many different things you can do. I always take up the challenge to do something girly as well.

Colour: pink pirouette, regal rose
Stamps: patchpal giraffe (CDS), alphabet stamps and congrats stamp (unknown), in the stars (SU)
Paper: various patterned papers, corrugated card
Finishing Touches: pink cotton, black and white embossing powders, pink glitter, pink ribbon

Colour: bashful blue, so saffron, certainly celery, white
Stamps: patchpal puppy (CDS), in the stars (SU)
Paper: designer series paper
Finishing Touches: blue cotton, copper embossing powder

Colour: white, rosered, lovely lilac, pink(bazzil)
Stamps: Dress up Lily (PCS), natural beauty, baroque motifs and circle of friendship (SU)
Finishing Touches: cuttlebug embossing folder-stylized flowers, hodgepodge hardware (SU), pink ribbon, rhinestones, black embossing powder, dazzling diamonds

Scrapbooking update

I said I would keep you posted on the progress with my scrapbooking pages. Well I started a couple more while out at a friends for our monthly craft night catch up. Thank goodness for my Revolutionize layout kits because I didn't have a chance to sort much but they were all ready to go. I just had to add a few extras to finish them off. I was especially pleased with how the chef turned out on my Panpakes layout. I used my Billy stamps and accessories from Pink Cat Studio. Since then I have been back onto cards. Now that I am up to date with the birthdays I will get back into my pages again.