Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #29

Last night while I watched NCIS, Lie To Me and Eli Stone, I also made a card using Mercy's latest sketch challenge:


So...there was rather a lot of TV watching going on, and not all that much crafting...but hey, I had fun! This is what I came up with in the end:


Now...as you can see I have omitted Element # 5 from the sketch...that'll be Eli Stone's fault. That show was fun!

I have coloured the focal image with stampin' Pastels (including Ruby Red and Bashful Blue), but one of the Ginger Blossoms DSP colours is River Rock, and we don't have a pastel in that shade. So I mixed Close to Cocoa and Old Olive together and got something that doesn't look too far from River Rock IMO. You can hopefully see that I have painted the flowers and vase water with crystal effects, for a crystal-like effect ;-).

Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Ruby Red textured and Whisper White
Paper: Ginger Blossoms Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Sassy Stems
Inks: Basic Black Classic Ink
Accessories: Spellbinders long rectangle plain and scalloped dies, Metallic Eyelets, Crop-a-dile, River Rock double-stitched grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Pastels, crsytal effects, The Robin's Nest Dew Drops Poinsettia set, A Perfect Day rub-ons, SNAIL, sticky strip and dimensionals.

Another avert-your-eyes warning to dieters...

I made this cake yesterday. It is my favourite banana cake recipe, and is from Nigella Lawson's book 'How To Be Domestic Goddess'. That title always makes me grin...like YEAH....look at me, a DOMESTIC GODDESS...hehehehehehehe..NOT!!!!!!!!

I take the optional route that she mentions at the very bottom of the page (like it is some sort of disgraceful thought, best kept far way from the other ingredients), and substitute good ol' choc chips for those rummed up raisins (that's just a no-brainer for me ;-). Nothing wrong with a little choc-chippefication of your banana cake I say. Be proud Nigella!

Anyway..here is the cake...I couldn't decide whether to eat it or photograph it first...the photo impulse won (obviously):


...and here is another little happy snap which makes me smile:


BTW that is not cake smeared all over his face...promise!

Nighty night all,
Sam.

Shades of Blue...

We have some birthday's coming up shortly for some little friends of ours (CSCC girls, if you are reading, I'm not talking about hobbits here ;-), so I thought I'd try and get a head start on their cards.

I have also recently stumbled on another challenge blog called Our Creative Corner, and this week's challenge is to use make a card using only two shades of blue and a neutral colour...check out the details and some beautiful samples here.

So last night, while watching 'While You Were Sleeping' I made one of the birthday cards that I need, using the OCC colours:


Ingredients (all products Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Textured and plain Night of Navy, textured and plain Whisper White
Paper: Spring Silhouettes and Notebook Designer Series Paper
Ink: Night of Navy and Soft Sky Classic Inks
Stamps: Classic Numbers and Space Ships & Robots by My Cute Stamps
Accessories: A Perfect Day rub-ons, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots emboss folder, Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities, Pewter Jumbo Eyelets, Crop-a-dile, clear emboss powder, heat tool, two-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter, 1/2" circle punch, SNAIL, dimensionals and craft knife.

Thanks for dropping by, I hope you have a good day!
Sam.

PS. Speaking of shades of blue...if you ever need a really good chuckle you should check out Lydia's blog Understand Blue. This lady is not only a very talented stamper...she tells the funniest stories. Thanks so much for making me laugh Lydia, I really look forward to your posts popping up in my reader!

Cute Anna Mae

My apologies for the general lack of new things to look at on here. My other half brought back a lovely gift for me from the UK...a hideous cold. Two weeks of feeling BLERGGGHhhhhhh and now I'm on antibiotics for a sinus infection and eye drops for conjunctivitus. Did I mention how sorry for myself I've been feeling? This, and it's Summer...NOT FAIR!

Anyway, I just thought I'd show you a little birthday card I made recently. I have used a brand new stamp set that I got from Our Craft Lounge (PS. I have just discovered that you can also buy these locally HERE). I've never used clear stamps before, being a huge fan of Stampin' Up!'s lovely red rubber, but I thought I should at least try the competition and see how they went (...I like them, and there is definately a place for them in my stash ;-):


Materials Used (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Regal Rose, Whisper White and Pretty in Pink
Stamps: Anna Mae stamp set - by Our Craft Lounge, Think Happy Thoughts stamp set, Short Order Numbers stamp set and Linen background stamp
Designer Series Patterned Paper: Spring Fling
Ribbon: Flirty Ribbon Originals
Accessories: Metal Edged Tags, Pretty in Pink Eyelets, Watercolour Paper, Black Stazon Ink, Classic Ink (Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Soft Sky, Creamy Caramel, Pumpkin Pie and Blush Blossom), Aquapainter, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds, crop-a-dile, 1 1/4 inch circle punch and 3/4 inch circle punch
Adhesives: SNAIL, Two-Way Glue Pen, Sticky Strip and Dimensionals.

Here is a little close up so you can see the Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds:


Thanks for stopping by!
Sam.

NO MORE SURFING SANTAS....d'ya hear me?

This is what 20 Surfing Santas looks like! There will be no more Surfing Santas in this household. Not today, not tomorrow, not next week! I am all Surfing Santa'd out. COMPRENDE?

It is such a good feeling having this job completed though! It took a while, even with Mum helping (she coloured 10 of those Santas for me last week while she was visiting).....thanks Ma, you rock :-)!

I sent the parcel off to my brother today. So his Christmas cards will be out by the end of the week. Hope he likes them!


I played around with the water colour, and have made 10 with Blue Bayou surf, and 10 with Brilliant Blue surf. I also changed from a Whisper White background layer and envelope to Very Vanilla, because it matched better with the off white colouring of the watercolour paper and the twill tape. On two of the cards I had a small tinker with adding some Liquid Applique to the breaking water of the wave, but thought it ended up being a bit too busy for my liking.

Now I can get back to mucking around with my new Summer Mini catalogue goodies :-).

Have a great day!
Sam.

Basically, it's black!

There are two reasons for this card:

1/ I have Stampin' Up!'s Rub-Ons on my mind, I love them :-)...

2/ I recently purchased a Macro Lens for my camera, and now I want to play with it....LOTS.

SO, if you start seeing close-up photos of bits of fluff and stuff, you'll know why ;-).

For now, I am amusing myself with close-ups of my cards. I made this very simple card this afternoon, in order to have something to take snaps of:


This first shot is also taken with the macro lens, but standing way back from the card. This task was not as easy as it sounds, today there is a force 10 (...a teensie exaggeration) gale blowing across the place, so my card kept taking off into the garden. I eventually managed to get this shot on top of the washing machine. The focus is a little soft, but ok.

Then for a close-up:


I found a little corner of the yard where the card was a bit sheltered and got this snap. So now you KNOW I'm using textured basic black on the upper layer! The rub-ons are from the 'A Perfect Day' set (in the current Spring Mini catalogue), and the centre of the flower has a black eyelet in it (and you can see one of the dimensionals in the centre of the eyelet). That pretty much covers this card...let's just call it minimalist :-).

Thanks for looking in on me. I'll try and make something serious and worth your time to visit for tomorrow. Please forgive me for dragging you here under false pretences.

Ciao bellas!
Sam.

The Third Christmas Project

As promised, here are some pics of the third Christmas Project made at my class last week:



We were shown how to make these little two pocket bags out of a single sheet of 12 x 12 DSP at our last regional training event. I haven't seen any online instructions for them, but if you know of some please let me know and I'll post a link.

The holes for the bag handles are punched using the crop-a-dile, and the outer four holes have been set with Classy Brass Jumbo Eyelets. The ribbon for the bag handles is Real Red 3/8" Grosgrain, and the tags are stamped in Real Red classic ink using the 'Tags for All' stamp set in the current spring Mini (which ends at the end of November...so don't miss out on these groovy stamps).

If you are interested in coming along to one of these classes, just drop me a line at: navarino@yahoo.com and I will email you out the details of the next class. We usually do two cards per class, but for the last one we did three x 3D Christmas projects.

The class is usually held on a Wednesday night from 7:30 pm, although if enough people were interested I could negotiate another date/time. My house is in Kambah, ACT (southside). I charge $10 and this includes all materials for the cards or projects, including SNAIL adhesive, and envelopes for cards. I also provide tea, coffee and hot choc, and some light supper...which may even be a chocolate cake ;-).

Back tomorrow...
Sam.

PS. A big thank you to my blog buddy Karen in NZ for letting me know there is a tute on SCS for these Double-Pocket Bags!

Boats for Baby Boys

I was tinkering around last night, and came up with this little card:


The colours are Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Sky and Whisper White. The Soft Sky and Whisper White layers are textured cardstock and I have stamped the Nursery Necessities boat onto them giving the following groovy effect:


I used the Crop-a-dile to set the silver eyelets which act as portholes for the boats. The Crop-a-dile wouldn't reach the portholes on the middle boat, so I had to get out my trusty Crafter's Toolkit and set them with my hammer and punches. I had to wait until this morning to do this as I find I need to go out and do this on the concrete slab outside. When I try this inside (on a wooden floor) I seem to have 'issues' which I put down to the flexing of the floor....or perhaps I just don't hit as hard inside because I worried about the noise ;-).

The Pumpkin Pie layer has been crimped and the upper three layers are mounted up on dimensionals. The hardware is Styled Silver from the current Stampin' Up! Spring mini catalogue.

Have a great day stampers!
Sam.

More make n' takes

While I am here...just a couple more bits and bobs from the same workshop.

Sharon Turnbull's beautiful Gift Card purse. This one has been a big favourite at the workshops I have demo'ed at.




The colours are Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Really Rust. We used some Fall Flowers Designer Series Paper, and covered chipboard from the Onboard Blossoms and Basics pack. I love covering chipboard!

This next photo shows the hostess gifts and lucky door prizes from this workshop. For these goodies I have used the same colour scheme as described above.



I have also been working on some scrapbook pages...but you will have to wait for them ;-).

Thanks for visiting!
Sam.

Color Inspiration #16

It's that time of the week again....Kristina's Colour Inspiration, and here are this week's beautiful colours:



...and here is my card:



I've used the Nursery Necessities Stamp Set for the boats and the 'rock-a-bye Baby' sentiment, and the Linen Background stamp on the Soft Sky background cardstock (but that might be a bit hard to see here). The scalloping was done with the Stampin Up! Corner Rounder, and then pierced. I've also used some Soft Sky Double-Stitched Ribbon and Silver Eyelets to finish it all off.

Okay...gotta get back to Spooks. It's a bit exciting tonight :-).

Have a great weekend,
Sam.

Kristina's Color Inspiration # 10

Kristina Werner has posted another fabulous Colour Inspiration on her website. The colours for this inspiration are:



What a groovy set of colours!

So, this afternoon, while the kids were playing nicely together (if you believe that you will believe ANYTHING ;-)...I sat down to play myself!



The background cardstock is Not Quite Navy. The next layer is Old Olive Prints Designer Series Papers, and it has a white eyelet mounted in each corner. Then there is a layer of So Saffron cardstock. I have inked the butterfly from Garden Whimsy in Bashful Blue Classic Ink, then Rock n' Rolled it in Not Quite Navy Classic Ink, and stamped on Whisper White cardstock. I have then clear embossed the whole image. A frame of Not Quite Navy cardstock is mounted above the butterfly on Dimensionals, and has been faux stitched using a paper piercer and white gel pen. The ribbon underneath the butterfly is White Taffeta.

Have a great weekend everyone!
Sam.

The Emboss Resist Card

Here is the second card that we made at my Technique Class last night. This card was made primarily utilising the emboss resist technique



It is difficult to see on the photo, but the boat, sun, fish and waves are all clear embossed. Various colours have then been brayered over the top to create the scene.

I would like to play a little more with getting some gradation of colour in the sky...but as a first pass I am very happy with the way this card turned out.

Sam.

A Little Bit of Happiness

This is a card that I made for a friend, who I thought could use a Little Bit Of Happiness! I wish it had been a Whole Lot of Happiness...but I did the best I could.




The background cardstock is Groovy Guava, and I have stamped on it using Groovy Guava Classic Ink and a stamp from the 'A Little Bit of Happiness' set. The next layer is a piece of Purely Pomegranate. It has been ripped along the edge, and then I have doodled little flowers along it using the White Gel Pen. The next layer is Soft Sky, and I have used Textured Cardstock for this piece. The join between it and the Purely Pom layer is covered with a piece of Blue Bayou Double Stitched ribbon. I affixed two Jumbo Eyelets in Pewter at each end using the Crop-A-Dile...what a great tool! It cut through that ribbon like butter :-)...no hammering and cursing either.

There is another small layer in Blue Bayou, then there is the Watercolor Paper with the main image stamped in Stazon and coloured using an Aquapainter and Classic Ink picked up from the lid of the stamp pads. If you look closely you will see that I have gone around the edge of the image in Going Gray Classic Ink. This is a tip provided by the amazingly talented Alisa Tilsner during her Brisbane Convention WOW session. It really does make a difference to your image. Thanks Alisa.

I have stamped the back of a Stampin' Up! Whisper White envelope using Groovy Guava Classic Ink. This is an idea I saw on the blog of a wonderful stamper, Michele Force. Check her blog out for plenty of beautiful card ideas!!!

Have a great day!
Sam.

Colour Inspiration #6

I was feeling a little motivation-less last night, so I thought I'd take part in another Kristina Werner Color Inspiration challenge, Color Inspiration #6.

This is the challenge that she set:



I realised when I had finished with it that my card is VERY similar in style to the last one that I made...albeit with the new colours! Stuck in a rut as well as motivation-less! WOE is me ;-).



I still think it looks nice, and hope that you do too!

I've used some of Stampin' Up!'s, soon-to-be-available-in-Australia, 'Palette o' Prints' Designer Series Paper (stay tuned for more information on that promotion ;-). I've also used the crimper, some striped Grosgrain in Pumpkin Pie, the five-petal flower punch and a large Pewter brad (for which I had to use my recently acquired CROP-A-DILE. It is LOVE!). The 'ALL MY LOVE' sentiment is from the Level I Hostess Set, So Many Sayings, and it has been stamped in Basic Gray Classic Ink (a new favourite of mine).

Thanks for stopping by.
Sam.

Its nearly Valentine's Day, and Love Matters!

Here is a little card that I made last night. I was mucking about in my cardstock folder last week and these colours came together. They have been sitting on my desk, ready to work with since then. I just bought Love Matters, from our Summer Mini catalogue, last week (I'd been waiting for Sale-A-Bration to start ;-), and with Valentine's Day coming up...I thought I'd see if I could dream up an appropriate card or two.

The colours are: Bordering Blue, Whisper White, Ruby Red and Summer Sun. I think most of it speaks for itself. I have coloured some of the hearts on the background, using an Aquapainter and Bordering Blue Classic Ink. There is at least a quarter of a sheet of Dimensionals holding the three elevated layers up! I have tried to replicate a Ticket Corner punch effect using my slit punch....but if you look carefully you can see that these are a bit wonky. Fingers crossed for the ticket punch in our next catty ;-).

The 'Love' sentiment has been stamped in Stazon on Watercolour Paper and coloured using an Aquapainter and Classic Ink (I am enjoying doing it this way far more often than using the Watercolour Wonder Crayons as it gives a much more vibrant finish IMO). I have also used some Jumbo Eyelets that were a gift from a friend in the US. She sent me a whole bunch of bits and pieces in a little container...and of course last night (working by the light of my brand new, Christmas present OTT light (ooops), but with my brain on auto-pilot) I didn't realise there were two different colours of these eyelets, Antique Brass and Pewter...so if you have a sharp eye you will see that I have accidently used one of each colour on this card....hmmmmm (actually, looking back at the photo...which was taken in the cold hard light of day mind you...It is bleeding obvious that they are different colours...double-Hmmmmm).

I couldn't see any way of getting it out once I had hammered it down...so now it is a FEATURE, ok? (I am going to work on the premise that the recipient will be so over-awed and stunned by the beauty of my fabulous colouring that they won't notice the mismatched eyelets...yeah, right! ;-). Good thing I do this for fun eh?

Have a great day,
Sam.