A Card for Dad

It's Fathers' Day tomorrow here in Australia, and last night and today I got busy with my coloured pencils and made Dad a card. I sometimes find it tricky to make cards for males, mainly because most of the stamps and so forth I have are not very masculine. So, with cards for Dad I usually try to think outside the box and do something a little different to my usual.

I did most of the 'Dad' and the green last night. I was so into it that eventually my hubby had to tell me "pencils down" in a school examiner's voice to make me stop and go to bed...

Today I finished off the green and did the background. I was going for a wood grain effect... I do hope that's stating the obvious? All up I used about four different browns, two greens, dark blue and black.

I had a bit of trouble getting the colour right in the photos. It's probably somewhere between the first and second photo.

On the back of the card I did this quick little heart:

I think it's safe to assume that Dad will like it. He likes the colour green, he loves wood and working with wood, and he likes that "Old English" style of writing. Plus he's my Dad and as such he will love it because it's made with love - I'm sure that's what's most important to him. 

Thanks for visiting me here. I hope you and the dads in your life have a wonderful day tomorrow.  

Bye for now x

It's a card!

I started this blog, way back when, to share the cards I was making with my family (mainly Mum) who lived 4 hours drive away. Now, I have ended up sharing mainly fabric items because, well, that's what gets made these days. Today though, I've got a card to share! :)

I made this card for a friend's birthday last month, and it is the first one I've made in quite some time. The bird is a stamp from October Afternoon, part of an alphabet set called Rosie's Diner.

The pretty background paper is from K&Company.

After making the card I thought the bird would go nicely on the gift wrapping too, along with some washi tape.

It was good to get back to a bit of paper crafting. Patchwork and quilting takes over sometimes - most times - and the paper and other goodies I have in my cupboard just sit there, neglected. I'm glad the birthday gave me a push to make something papery again, I enjoyed it. 

Bye for now x 

Spectacular Sky

I get up at 5.40am every weekday, and now that the clocks have changed there is a little perk. This sky is what greeted me when I opened the curtains. Normally it would just be darkness. I rushed out and took several photos. Look at those colours!

Oh, and I made a card yesterday. Copycatcards, which I used to participate in ages ago, has started up again on Facebook. The theme was heart, red, bling. I had about four attempts at this card. I had the idea in my head but couldn't get it to work on paper as I saw it in my head. :( I had kept adding to the previous versions, and ruining them. This one seems a little under-dressed to me I think, but I'm calling it done. It is wider than it appears in the photo, but I took it at an angle to catch the glittery 'bling'.

I may, or may not, revisit the idea in the future. I do like those little robots.

Sultry Birthday

I found this picture of a card I haven't posted here, so thought I'd stick it on the blog. The paper is Basic Grey Sultry, from the 6x6 inch paper pad. I think the rhinestone flower is Kaisercraft. Not sure about the rest of the bits. It was a couple of years ago that I made it :)

A couple of things...

First up, here's a card I made:

The papers are from the Basic Grey Offbeat 6x6 inch paper pad. The stamps by Grant.

Second, a Wild Thing block, in miniature:

I will do more of these mini blocks till I have a mini quilt, but it will be bit by bit, between other things, so may take a while.

The Sugar Bowl Challenge 69

Two cards in two days is not bad. I had already coloured this Sugar Nellie image, I just needed to use it for something.

Urban Prairie papers from Basic Grey, and a sketch from The Sugar Bowl challenge 69 (rotated and elongated) and it was done.

It's Magic

Yesterday afternoon I had some therapeutic colouring-in time, and ended up with this Christmas card, first of the year. I absolutely adore this image, from Sugar Nellie. He is just so cute.

One down, several to go. I'm not going to count.

Archaic Birthday

Some craft, finally, after far too long. This is the card I made for my nephew's 2nd Birthday. Paper is all from the Basic Grey Archaic 6x6inch paper pad. I love the dinosaurs, cute but ferocious looking :)

Some sewing has also been accomplished, but photos of that are yet to be taken.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg is the name of the really cute papers from Cosmo Cricket, used for the following two creations. The little critters are so adorable :)

I went to a scrapbooking retreat recently organised by Scrapsidaisy, and we were given a challenge pack with these papers, some buttons, Kaisercraft alphabet stickers, velvet ribbon and sticky-back felt. This is my creation - and it got third prize :)

There were plenty of leftovers, which of course I kept, and one thing I've done so far is this card for my brother. The dashed lines on the black are done with a Souffle pen from Sakura. I love how well they stand out on black.

Thank You

Gosh, what a long time since I posted anything on here. Well, here's the first card I've made this year, done for a challenge at the Zest blog to use red, white and blue, plus star embellishments. The main image is from Whiff of Joy, coloured with pencil, and the fancy bit along the bottom is a stamp by Fiskars.

I think there is something not quite right with it, not sure. Anyhow, done now!

Winged Heart

I recently bought some glitter reduced to clear, and had to have a play. I was originally thinking of something "shabby-chic" when I glittered the chipboard heart, but ended up with this card, nothing like what I set out to do. That tends to happen a lot, when I just go with the flow.

The papers are from Kaisercraft (the background, and the butterfly wings behind the heart), and the stamps are Prima.

Four more for Christmas

Here are four more Christmas cards, a bit different to the others I've done :)

This one uses the cuttlebug Holly embossing folder, which I cut some leaves from, painted silver, and gave a pewter effect with black paint over that. The greeting is from Stamp-It.


Simple patchwork effect using Basic Grey papers, and some machine stitching.


That cute House Mouse stamp again :)


And I think this is my favourite, 12 squares of card, all covered in foil, carefully placed in the Holly embossing folder, embossed, and then black paint used on each square for a pewter effect. It was like assembling a puzzle, putting it on the card. The greeting was done on my computer then embossed in Platinum embossing powder, and coloured in with black pen.

Christmas Mice

Another Christmas card, using a House Mouse stamp and Basic Grey papers. Those little mice are so, so cute! :)

Something Brown

Here is a card I made for the Stamp Something Challenge, which this week is Brown Plus Something. I coloured the stamped image with brown ink and a water brush pen using various strengths for the different shades. The card is rather country-ish I think. Something a bit different for me. Very simple layout, but I like simple. :)

Happy Birthday Mum x x

I made this card for Mum, whose birthday it is today. It went through many incarnations, and this final one is totally different to what I started out with in my head. I'm pleased with it though. I stamped the Inkadinkado bird in white on brown card, then coloured over with colour pencils. The background border is a Prima Stamp. A stitched border and a Happy Birthday rubon, and it's done. Sounds like it should be quick, but boy did it take me a long time. I just kept making mistakes with the stamped border. Got there in the end though. :)

Bear Hugs

Gosh, it's been a while since I posted anything here! Well, here is a brand new card. I made this on Friday as soon as I received this cute stamp (called Sweetheart Teddy from Stamp-It) from Scrapsidaisy. Simple, but I like the way it has turned out. I used watercolour pencils and a water brush pen to colour the image, and foam Thickers by American Crafts for the greeting. I can see this little bear being used for a whole range of cards.

Colour Challenge

I made this card for the Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo Challenge #12. These are the colours we had to use:


The bird stamp is from Inkadinkado, and the flowers in the background from the Boho Blossoms set by My Favourite Things.

There is also some great blog candy up at the SPCC blog, celebrating 10,000 hits. The candy post is here.

Scrapsidaisy 4th Birthday Card

I thought I would post the card I made for Scrapsidaisy's 4th birthday. The paper is all Two Scoops by Basic Grey, which I figured was appropriate as it was the first thing I ever purchased from Scrapsidaisy. Rather difficult to see is the Happy birthday rub-on on the crochet lace - which is also from Scrapsidaisy.

I was in a quilting frame of mind at the time, so the card is full of piecing and stitching, even the inside (which I forgot to photograph). I think before I try this sort of thing again, I will invest in a square punch. Maybe. :)

Ooh La La

At copycatcards over at the Scrapsidaisy Forum, there is a challenge to use food as inspiration for a card. I used little musk lollies for my inspiration, and here is the card I ended up with:


The poodle and sentiment stamps are from a set by My Favourite Things, and the background behind the poodle a stamp by Fiskars. I stamped the sentiment straight onto ribbon with Opera Pink VersaColor ink.

:)

Berry Happy Birthday

Here is a card I made Martin for his birthday - simple, but he liked it. Just a chipboard frame inked blue with a photo of strawberries behind it, a few Kaiser rhinestones, and a Happy Birthday rub-on from FTI.