Instead of Ironing Blogspot

A blog award from Roxy

2012-01-27T22:34:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I received a lovely blog award from Roxy of "Roxy's Cards". Thank you Roxy - I really appreciate it.

"Liebster is a German word, meaning dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favorite. The idea behind the Liebster Blog Award is that it is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to create new connections and bring attention to these wonderful blogs!"

The Liebster Blog Award is used to show appreciation of smaller blogs (under 200 followers) and to help spread readership and joy! As part of the tradition, this award is passed along to five other blogs that have motivated and inspired me in such great ways!

To accept the award:

1. Link back to the person's blog who gave it to you and thank them :)
2. Post the award to your blog
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers (less than 200 followers) that you appreciate and value
4. Leave a comment on the five blogs you chose to let them know.

I am passing this award onto Sudha from India. Sudha's blog is called "Crazy Crafter" and Sudha has been a great supporter and encourager of my blog.

Also Cathy Fong from her blog "Fong Crafty Place". Love Cathy's unique and fun style and Cathy has just joined the Penny Black Design Team.

Another blog I recently discovered is 'Shien's Paper Arts' by Joe Shien Shien. Shien Shien is a lady from Indonesia who loves all papercrafts.

Melania Deasy's blog is "Things I love about papercrafting". Melania also comes from Indonesia and I adore her fun and creative style.

And the 5th blog is "Stampin' cos it's fun" by Jean McKenzie - a fellow Australian who has also been a great supporter and encourager of my blog - and makes the most gorgeous cards.

I would encourage all my readers to stop by these five blogs - you will be so glad you did!

Thanks for stopping by! And thanks again Roxy for thinking of me

Jocelyn

Stampendous Bear Safety Pin - a new baby girl card!

2012-01-26T22:38:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

One of our neighbours had a baby girl and this is the card that I made for the occasion:

I used my Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and Odourless Mineral Spirits and paper stumps to colour the cute little teddy bear nappy pin image which took oh, all of 5 minutes! I used my pearlescent chalks to add blue, pink and lemon around the image which added a lovely, sparkly yet subtle sheen - alas, very difficult to pick up with the camera but I hope you can see a little bit of soft colouring - it looks so pretty IRL.

The sentiment is by Stampin' Up from their Nursery Necessities set. I added a line of Basic Grey pink rhinestones underneath and used my Arrows Border punch to punch the tiny little pink hearts around the image (the leftover punchies from using the punch look like tiny hearts). I added some pink Kindyglitz to the bear's cheeks, the pin itself and the tiny pink hearts. Here is a close-up of that cute little bear:

The gorgeous embossing folder I used on the white cardstock is by K Kingdom called 'Flowers and Dots' which originally came from Fat Cat's Card Corner in Australia but is no longer on their website. I did a bit of a search on the web, but couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe it has been discontinued?

And here is a pic of the card inside which is the same layout as the card-front except that I reversed the colours:

I used the same embossing folder for the pink cardstock and the sentiment is from the same Stampin' Up Nursery Necessities set - there are lots of fantastic sentiments in this set. I added a Basic Grey pink rhinestone at each end.

Lastly, I added the white dotted pink organza scalloped ribbon (LOVE this ribbon!!), sewed on a pink button and added some Fray Stop to the ribbon ends, then glued on the pink organza flowers which I have had in my stash forever! They came with the white pearl already sewed on in the centre.

And here is a pic of the gift that will be accompanying my card. More teddy bears of course......sorry it's such a lousy photo. I took it really early in the morning and the light wasn't very good at the time. Just LOVE that cute teddy bear bib and the teddy rattle. The gift bag was bought as I have no idea how to make such a large bag!

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday - F4A100 - Have a heart or two - where you project must have at least 2 hearts. I have 6 hearts around my image.

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Simon Says 'Anything goes'

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampendous B061 Safety Pin (wood mount), Sentiments from Stampin' Up! Nursery Necessities

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories: Big Shot, Spellbinder Circle + Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, K Kingdom Flowers and Dots KEM117 embossing folder (retired?), Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits (OMS), paper stumps, organza ribbon, fray stop, pink flower button (Spotlight), pink sewing thread, pink organza flowers, Basic Grey pink rhinestones, pink Kindyglitz glitter glue, I-Kan-dee pearlescent chalk, cardstock: KW Doggett 'Knight' white, pink

Punches: EK Success Arrows border (tiny pink hearts), Stampin' Up! corner

Taylored Expressions: You're my Hero - Girl's Rock!

2012-01-21T17:20:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I have been taking part in an online Card Class called Clean and Simple Cardmaking this month and learning lots of fabulous ideas and it's been great to watch the videos as I am a visual learner.

On Day 5, the class was Watercolour Blocking using Distress Inks and Blending Tool by Jennifer McGuire - and this is my one-layer-card inspired by that class - you might need your sunglasses for this one!

I cannot give you a link to the classes as you have to have paid to view them but here is a link to the website in case you want to check it out and other classes that they have.

To do the vibrant background, I inked up my Ranger Ink Blending Tool/foam pad with Wild Honey Distress Ink, sprayed some water using my Ranger Mini Mister onto my Craft Sheet, put the inked up Blending Tool into the water then dragged it across my watercolour paper. Using another clean foam pad, I did the same with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, then did the Wild Honey again, and so on, and so on, until I had covered my watercolour paper. I love the way the water made the inks blend into each other to create new colours.

Using Versafine Onyx black ink, I stamped the Girl Rock Star image from my Taylored Expressions set "You're my hero" and did the same with the sentiment (note I used my Stamp Positioner to make sure they were in just the right spot). For any black bits that didn't quite stamp cleanly, I went over them with a black Bic Mark-it texta.

I used the grungy element stamp from the set to the do the 3 corners and stamped several times without re-inking then used my Ranger Tool/foam pad and the Onyx black ink to darken all the edges of the card.

Added the 2 small black brads each side of the sentiment, punched 2 stars from Rose Glitter Cardstock then added the black grosgrain ribbon.

I will be giving this card to my grown-up niece for her birthday which is in a couple of months time; good to get ahead!

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

The ABC Challenge - H for Happy Birthday which can be cards, gifts, invitations - anything you like

Anything Goes Challenge Blog - Challenge 58 - Anything goes - which runs for 2 weeks

Thanks for stopping by! I will be sharing a baby card on my next post - watch this space!!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Taylored Expressions 'You're my Hero' foam-mounted red rubber

Ink: Versafine Onyx black, Ranger Distress Inks - Worn Lipstick and Wild Honey

Accessories: Ranger Ink Blending Tool and foam pads, non-stick craft sheet, Ranger Mini Mister, 2 x black brads - Basic Grey, black grosgrain ribbon, black Bic Mark-it texta, Stamp Positioner, Acrylic blocks, 140lb watercolour paper, Rose glitter cardstock

Punches: Stampin' Up corner, Carl CP-1 and CP-2 Star punches

Taylored Expressions: You're my hero - nephew's birthday card

2012-01-10T20:37:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

One of my grown-up nephew's is a Musician and this is the one-layer card I made for his birthday:

I broke out one of my more recent purchases from Taylored Expressions called "You're my hero" which is an awesome set - lots of different rock images for guys and gals, sentiments and grungey elements: very cooool! This set is rubber mounted with that foam stuff so you will need something to mount it on for stamping eg: acrylic block, and a stamp positioner comes in very handy! I have no connection to the company other than loving their stamps and dies - fantastic quality and great value for money IMHO.

I inked up the grungey background image with Faded Jeans Distress ink, misted it with water using my Mini Mister then stamped it on my white cardstock base and stamped it again in a different spot (without re-inking) so I had another image but looking more faded. I then inked up the same image with Wild Honey Distress ink, misted it with water then stamped that over the blue image and then again without re-inking. Because Distress inks react with water, I ended up with a bit of a mix of the two colours in various spots which I really like.

I rounded the corners on the top and bottom RH corners with a Stampin' Up corner punch then stamped the bottom LH corner and top RH corner the same way I did the grungey background.

I used my Ranger Ink Blending Tool and foam pad with Wild Honey ink and went around the edges of the card then did the same with Faded Jeans ink.

Once I had done that, I used a heat-gun to dry off the card then used my Stamp Positioner to stamp the guitar, guitar neck/fret board and the sentiment using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I used a black Bic Mark-it texta to colour in the tuners so they would stand out better from the background.

I wanted to add some glittery black stars so punched out some stars from black cardstock, added Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue but after it dried, they didn't look as nice as what I hoped as the glittery bits looked all uneven - and then - LIGHTBULB moment - I grabbed a piece of scrap black cardstock and inked it with Versamark Watermark ink, poured on some Polysparkle clear embossing powder and heat-set it. Voila! Nice and sparkly but the glitter was set in the embossing powder so a) it wasn't going to come off and go all over the card, and b) it was nice and even - which I hope you can see from the close-up photo below - hey, it looks just like the night sky!!

Then all I had to do was punch out the stars - easy, peasy! Great way of making some glittery cardstock - and quick - and when you think about it, you have a way of making glittery cardstock in any colour to match your project if you were needing just a small amount for punching or making an embellishment. If you don't have Polysparkle clear embossing powder, just pour some of the embossing powder into a little container and mix in some glitter and use that.

Here is a close-up of the glittery stars on the card itself:

Lastly, I added two tiny matching raw sienna brads next to the sentiment to balance the card.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Crazy 4 Challenges: C4C118 - New year….new ‘toys’…..new techniques. Do or use something NEW on your card/project. My 'new' technique is the glitter cardstock I made for punching my stars PLUS I am using this newly purchased stamp set for the first time.

Splitcoaststampers - Ways to use it WT336 - Versamark - from a while ago. Note SCS Challenges have no time limit - you can play anytime.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Taylored Expressions 'You're my hero'

Ink: Versafine Onyx black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Faded Jeans and Wild Honey, Versamark Watermark

Accessories: Brads - raw sienna, Polysparkle embossing powder, heat-gun, Ranger Mini Mister, Ranger Inkssentials Blending tool and foam pads (one for each colour), stamp positioner, acrylic block, Black Bic-Mark it, cardstock: KW Doggett "Knight" white, black

Punches: Stampin' Up corner, Carl CP-1 (small) star, Carl CP-2 (large) star

My Favourite Cards - July to December 2011

2012-01-05T12:10:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

If you missed my last post, I am sharing my favourite cards from 2011. My last post HERE were my favourite cards from January to June 2011. And now, I am sharing my favourite cards from July to December 2011.

You can click on any of my photos to have a BIGGER look and if you click on the link in the card name, it will take you to the original post on my blog where you will find the Card Recipe and the details on how the card was made.

*****************************

July saw me playing with a new set of watercolour pencils by Derwent called Inktense - oh how I loved how vibrant they were - and this card entitled "Standing Seagull" I made especially for my husband's birthday.

In August, I made a birthday card called "Fetching Slippers" for my BIL with my one of my favourite Penny Black stamps called "Fetching slippers" - so cute with the dog wearing the cat slippers. I would love to have some just like it!

In September/October, I made a Christmas Gift Set for my DD of a card, matching tag and a snowglobe - so fun! And my DD loved it!

November saw me very busy with making Christmas cards plus I made one birthday card for my nephew's 8th birthday - so I have picked 2 favourites from this month. First my nephew's birthday card "Dinoraur birthday wishes". Just loved how it all came together with the textures and colours.

And my other favourite was this Christmas card I made with an Elzybells stamp called "Elzybells Teddy and Snowman". Just loved that dotty designer paper (I LOVE dotted designer paper) and loved the image as I am also nutty about snowmen and teddy bears! I gave this Christmas card to my DD's teacher together with some shortbread that my DD and I made together and decorated with red and green M and M's (yum!).

I was very productive in December and made more Christmas cards than I ever have in the past. I also picked 2 favourites from this month. The first "And if you ever saw him...." was a clean and simple card that came together quickly and easily using my newest stamp "Dasher" by Stampin' Up! Just love that stamp!

And my 2nd favourite card for December was "And the angel said...." which was a card that "happened" when I was in a mad rush to make some extra cards as I still hadn't made enough Christmas cards. I ended up making this card in silver and purple as well as the gold and made a whole lot of them in one sitting.

So, that's the end of my favourites for 2011. Hope you enjoyed my little walk back in time. Now I am flat out making cards for my extended family's January birthdays - four birthdays in the first 10 days of January - eeeek - plus I am "trying" ("trying" being the operative word!!) to make a masculine 90th birthday card - wish me luck with THAT one!! I am a little stumped for ideas........

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn

My Favourite cards from 2011 - Part 1 - January to June 2011

2012-01-02T14:30:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Not sure what the weather is like where you are, but here it is already 38 deg C (which is 100 deg F) - hot and windy! And it's only lunchtime!! Definitely an inside day which is perfect for blog-hopping and cardmaking.

Lots of bloggers at this time of year pick their favourite cards from the past year so I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and share some of my favourites. I'll do my favourite January to June cards on this post - then do the July to December cards on my next post.

You can click on any of my photos to make them larger and you will find the link to the original post on my blog by clicking on the underlined (ie: linked) card name where you will find the Card Recipe and details on how I made each card.

First up is my January card called "It's for you". It was fun making a circle card and I love this Penny Black image - AND I was pleased as punch when Penny Black Stamps "tweeted" my card to their blog followers!

My favourite February card was "Star Lilies Easel birthday card" which I gave to my mother for her birthday. I really went to town with all the various elements on the card - and there is something so special about making a card for a loved one.

March saw my first use of watercolour pencils for colouring images and it was love at first stroke! My card "You are the Best-est" was the first card I put together with an image coloured with my pencils and was one of the Splitcoaststampers Favourites for that week which blew my socks off!

My card from April "Purr-fect Message" was another Penny Black image that I coloured with watercolour pencils. This card came together really quickly and easily - one of those cards where everything flows - yay! This card went to my niece for her birthday.

May had me still playing with my watercolour pencils and I made this card "Hello - how are you doing?" for a very special and dear friend who was going through a very difficult time and I wanted to brighten her day. I was so excited that one of my favourite, favourite cardmakers, Sue Nelson aka Susie B on Splitcoaststampers left a wonderful comment about my card. Sue has had a huge influence on my cardmaking and is a really lovely lady.

In June, I made a birthday card "Happy Birthday Teddy" using a teddy bear stamp from an old Stampin' Up! set from the year 2000. I also enjoyed using my watercolour pencils in a slightly different way to make teddy have loads of texture. I think teddy bears are timeless and even an old stamp can still look just as good more than 10 years later.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'll be back with my favourite cards from July to December 2011 on my next post.

Jocelyn

Hero Arts Christmas Reindeer - a final Christmas card

2011-12-31T12:20:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I have decided to post one last Christmas card whilst it is still technically Christmas season.

The image was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink onto watercolour paper and coloured with watercolour pencils and a paintbrush. I stamped some snowflakes which are from the same Reindeer set around the image with Versacolor Polar Blue pigment ink and added silver rhinestones to the centres.

Here is a close-up of the reindeer - isn't he adorable?

The side panel was embossed with a Basic Grey/Sizzix Snowflakes #8 embossing folder and my Big Shot. I added the organza ribbon in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

I added some Kaisercraft Crystal Sparklets to the bottom RHS. LOVE this new Sparklet range by Kaisercraft! Here is a wee close-up - I tried to capture some of the sparkle from the sunlight (I always take my photos outside). They look just like diamonds!!

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Crimbo Challenges - Challenge 5 - Snowflakes - this is a Christmas Challenge website and your entry must be festive and Christmas-related.

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Simon Says "Anything Goes"

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Hero Arts Christmas Reindeer clear set

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Versacolor Polar Blue pigment

Designer Paper: Echo Park - Wintertime

Accessories: Big Shot, Basic Grey/Sizzix Snowflakes #8 embossing folder - #657251, light blue dotted organza ribbon, Bow Easy, Kaisercraft silver rhinestones, Kaisercraft Sparklets RS408 Crystal, 140lb watercolour paper, Faber-Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, small round #2 paintbrush, Spellbinder Circle + Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, cardstock: burgundy, ice blue

I am so NOT dreaming of a white Christmas......

2011-12-30T12:58:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa brought you some fantastic presents. The start of Christmas Day was lovely and we spent it with family and went home late afternoon, but we ended up having a "White Christmas" because we had a series of terrible storms that afternoon with very large hail, flooding and much damage to properties and cars in our area. I couldn't believe how quickly our area became flooded and I have never seen anything like this in my life.

We got off lightly compared to other people and we have family who have lost their cars and suffered significant property damage. Sure we have holes in the laserlight roofing over our decking, plants shredded, the garage had some flooding and we had minor flooding in our kitchen - but honestly, that's nothing compared to other people. It was scary being in the house watching the storm, seeing and hearing the hail pound the house and wondering what was going to happen next.

Here are some videos taken by a family member just down the road from us who lost their cars - the video footage is taken from the front yard of where they are living. Where the water is rushing down is meant to be bitumen road.

It was hard to believe that an hour before that, we were sitting around with these same family members enjoying Christmas festivities. The rain and hail was just relentless - and unfortunately, we had storm after storm which just added to our woes. Just when you thought it was all over, another storm hit. At 10:30pm that night when we heard yet another beginning of rumbling of thunder, my DH opened the front door and yelled at the sky "Enough already.....!" which I think echoed everyone's thoughts. We just wanted it to stop!

We spent much of the late afternoon and early evening checking on our immediate neighbours - they all seemed to suffer the same sort of damage as us with broken skylights and smashed laserlight roofing from the large hail and hail damage to cars (fortunately our cars were in the garage and are OK). Here is a photo of the size of the hail and some photos of our yard - the garden looked like it had snowed:

Yep, the hail was BIG - and this is somewhat melted!

Hail in the front garden

Hail in our trailer

Look - it's snowing......

And here is video of the main road which our street runs off: pretty scary stuff......

Today the weather has been beautiful - sunny and a clear blue sky and the floodwaters have receded. The naturestrips are piled high with carpets and other flood-damaged items. We cleared out our garage of all the water damaged items and washed the muddy concrete floor - it was rather smelly - but at least nothing of any value was damaged unlike so many residents, businesses, schools and kindergartens who have lost so much more and have the hassle of dealing with insurance companies that are closed for the holiday season which leaves them in limbo.

I am so NOT dreaming of a white Christmas......

Thanks for visiting my blog. I'll be back soon with my final Christmas card sharing of the year.

Jocelyn

Hero Arts Framed Snowflakes - the blue version

2011-12-24T12:38:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

This will be my last post before Christmas. I do have some other Christmas cards that I haven't posted on my blog yet but I am not sure whether I will - I'll have to think about it.....

I made another Christmas card using Stamp and Bond powder and glitter - such a fun technique even if it is rather messy (or maybe it's just me who is messy LOL!!) If you want to see my first card using this particular technique, click on THIS LINK and you will see my purple version. There is also a video tutorial by Kristina Werner on how to use Stamp and Bond powder at the link.

So onto how it's done: I lined up the 3 individual Hero Arts Snowflakes (note: comes as a set of 4) on my acrylic block, inked them with Versacolor Sky Blue pigment ink (you have to use a slow-drying ink for the Stamp and Bond powder to work - and you really want a juicy ink pad - not one that is getting a bit dry as the technique doesn't work as well), poured on the Stamp and Bond powder and removed the excess from around the images, then heated it with a heat gun until the powder melted which takes very little time. As soon as it was melted, I poured on fine Ice Crystal glitter and of course, shook off the excess and used a small paintbrush to remove any surplus glitter from around the card. It is helpful to have everything ready at hand - any delay might mean it doesn't work.

Next, I inked up the sentiment with the same colour ink, poured on clear embossing powder and heat-set it. I have no idea who made the sentiment - it is wood-mounted but there is no name or number on it. I suspect I bought it in a sale box at Riot Art and Craft.

I corner-punched this panel then added some Kaisercraft blue rhinestones underneath the sentiment and on the snowflake centres. Here is a wee close-up - isn't it just so sparkly?!!

The white card base was embossed with my Big Shot and the Snowflakes embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set then I corner punched the bottom corners. I tied on the gingham ribbon and popped a scrap piece of white organza ribbon through the knot and popped the main panel up on dimensionals. Finished card size is 5" x 5".

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Simon Says Challenge - Let's Play Bingo - where you have to make an item using 3 items in a row from the choices available like tic, tac, toe. I chose the 3 items from the 1st line across: ribbon/twine, gems and glitter/sparkle.

Stampin' for the Weekend - Challenge #23 - Anything goes

Lastly, I wanted to wish all of you a very happy Christmas and may all your dreams come true in 2012. Thank you for all your comments, support and encouragement - I really appreciate them. I am acutely aware that for some of you, Christmas can be a very difficult time and if you have lost someone you love, your grief is intensified and my heart goes out to you.

Thanks so much for stopping by and looking forward to catching up with you again soon! My extended family and friends have a lot of birthdays coming up starting from the 1st week in January so I will be very busy making birthday cards - although I need to clean up my Craft Room first - it's a disaster in there at the moment LOL!!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Hero Arts Four Framed Snowflakes cling rubber, Sentiment - unknown

Ink: Versacolor Sky Blue pigment

Accessories: Acrylic block, Big Shot, Snowflakes embossing folder from Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set, heat-gun, clear embossing powder, Stampendous Stamp and Bond embossing powder aka Heat-and-Stick in other brands, fine .008 Ice Crystal glitter, small round paintbrush, dimensionals, blue gingham ribbon, white organza ribbon, Kaisercraft blue rhinestones, cardstock: white

Punches: Stampin' Up corner

Christmas Tree Shadow Trapunto Embroidery

2011-12-23T21:10:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

Apart from my cardmaking, I dabble in other crafts and I thought I would show you a photo of my Shadow Trapunto embroidery. I bought the kit at a Craft Show from a lovely lady called Annie London of "Designer Stitches" - an Australian designer who has revived the art of Shadow Trapunto embroidery and is now the world's leading supplier of kits and patterns - and thought it would be a good idea to finish my embroidery in time for Christmas. Annie was so helpful and showed me how to do the technique and honestly, I could have sat there all day and watched her - Annie is truly amazing!! The embroidery is so different to anything I have ever tried and I found it so relaxing to sit there and stitch away whilst watching TV.

It is actually far easier than it looks and I really love the quilted effect. Here is a close-up - and you can always click on the pictures for a bigger look:

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Stampin' Up Dasher Christmas Gift Card holder

2011-12-22T17:55:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

Well, my little Stampin' Up Dasher stamp is getting a work-out this Christmas season - you will be tired of seeing him! I was really looking for an excuse to use my new Marianne Design die (an early Christmas present for me!) - oh my goodness, I LOVE it - it is so pretty and lacey - and as I have stamped a whole lot of circles with Dasher ready to pop on cards, the image was going to fit the diecut perfectly. A match made in heaven!! Love it when that happens!

This particular card is going to the family member that we picked out of the hat from our family's Secret Santa Sibling draw. We don't buy presents for each sibling/sibling-in-law at Christmas. Every November, everyone fills in a form of their "most eagerly desired gift" (we usually list 4 choices) and we put all the forms in a hat, pick one out and spend a decent amount for that one person. With family spread all over Australia, many of us just ask for a Gift Card because it is much cheaper to post than something big and heavy.

Of course, all the little nieces and nephews get a Christmas present - and I LOVE to watch the delight in their little faces as they tear open the wrapping paper - and honestly, if I got nothing for Christmas, it wouldn't worry me: just seeing my own daughter and the nieces/nephews have so much fun is a gift enough in itself. They are only little for such a short time! Anyway, onto the card itself............

Dasher is stamped with Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment ink and heat-set with Satin Pearl clear embossing powder. And I popped the usual tiny red rhinestone on his nose to turn him into Rudolph. This main panel is up on dimensionals.

The burgundy side panel was embossed with my Big Shot and one of the folders from the Sizzix Winter Set #3 which I thought matched Dasher's antlers really well the way the embossing looked all swirly.

I diecut some snowflakes and inked the edges with Sapphire Silk ink, added Ice Blue rhinestones and popped them up on dimensionals, then added the same colour rhinestones to the bottom RHS.

Before I did the card inside, I picked up the card to show my DH only to realise that my card opened backwards! Yep, my frequent trick of NOT checking that I am layering the front of the card the way that I should. Ack - I can't believe how many times I do it!! Still, it is not hard to fix as I just cut the front panel off and stuck it to another card base; it's just annoying and takes up time - and at least I didn't do the card inside before I found out - or you would be hearing my screams from here 'cos it HAD to be in the mail THAT DAY!!

The card inside:

I used the same Marianne die for the sentiment panel and inked the edges of the white cardstock circle lightly with the Sapphire Silk ink and heat-set it so I didn't smear it (it takes quite a while to just air-dry and I have no patience!!). The sentiment is a Kaisercraft clear stamp and was stamped with Sapphire Silk ink and heat-embossed with Satin Pearl embossing powder. This Kaisercraft sentiment set is good value as they are around $2.00 and you get 4 different Christmas sentiments all in different fonts - plus they have a good range of sentiment sets to suit every occasion so I have a whole bunch of them.

Where the gift card tucks in, I stamped the Hero Arts Holiday Background stamp with Versamark Watermark ink onto the burgundy cardstock, diecut the ice blue cardstock using a Nellie Snellen border die which seemed to match the other Marianne die quite nicely and adhered just the bottom and sides of the panel so that the Coles/Myer Gift card tucks in nicely. Here is a close-up pick of this section:

Finished card size is 5" x 5" or metric about 12.5cm x 12.5cm

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

The ABC Challenge - F is for Frosty - Use snowy scenes, snowflakes, a snowman, or anything you can think of to get your frosty fun out.

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Last Christmas Card of the Year - this is their final festive challenge for the year.

My daughter is hoping for a white Christmas but the way the weather is shaping up, this is about the snowiest thing I think we will see......

From Millan.Net

My daughter loves snowmen and all things snowy as much as I do and this year, she wouldn't let me display my two (stuffed) snowmen that I always put out with the Christmas decs; she has taken them to bed with her every night instead! They are about 12 inches (30 cms) tall and I usually put them up high on top of my buffet and hutch because my cat Ruby likes to grab them in a smothery hug and kick them with her back feet and bite them like it is some sort of prey that she has caught. Looks cute but they wouldn't last long with that sort of treatment. I have a sneaking suspicion that when all the Christmas stuff is packed away, they will still be sleeping with my daughter!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampin' Up Dasher, Kaisercraft Mini CS926 Christmas clear stamp set, Hero Arts Holiday Background CG-324 Cling Rubber

Ink: Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment, Versamark Watermark

Designer paper: Echo Park - Wintertime

Accessories: Big Shot, Marianne Design die CR1201 (lacey circle), Nellie Snellen border die MFD 023, Spellbinder Circle Nestabilities, satin pearl clear embossing powder, heat-gun, Basic Grey red rhinestone, Kaisercraft Ice Blue SB774 rhinestones, dimensionals, sparkly ice blue ribbon, Spellbinder Circle Nestabilities, Sizzix Textured Impressions Winter Set #3 embossing folder, My Favorite Things 'Let it Snowflake' Die-namics dies, cardstock: burgundy, ice blue, white

Stamp-It: The Angel Said - CAS Christmas cards

2011-12-21T12:25:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I have made so many cards these past 2 weeks that I probably won't be able to share all of them before Christmas as I am running out of time to blog them. And then last night, I had this "sudden" idea in my head for some clean and simple one-layer cards (well, one layer other than the border I attached at the bottom of my cards) - and it all seemed to go smoothly. Sometimes I come up with ideas but nothing seems to work and I get frustrated - but not last night - it was smooth sailing all the way and it is SO NICE when that happens!!

So here is the result - well, actually I made a gold, silver and purple one, but first is the gold. It is really hard to photograph gold embossing but I think you will get the idea.

The image is from Stamp-It Australia called "The Angel Said" and was stamped with Versamark Watermark ink and heat-embossed it with Stamp-It Queens Gold embossing powder.

The dry embossing is a border folder from the Sizzix Textured Impressions Christmas Set #6 and I love how the embossing just seemed to tie in so beautifully with the Fancy Letter "A" on the sentiment.

There is a Scor-Pal line above and below the embossing and below the gold cord. The gold cord is wrapped twice around the card. I added some Fray Stop to the ends of the cord so they wouldn't keep unravelling as this cord tends to do.

The bottom gold border was made with a Martha Stewart Arch Lattice edge punch (LOVE this for Christmas cards) and was punched out of gold glitter cardstock - which the punch didn't like too much as the cardstock is a bit thicker than regular cardstock.

Now, here is the silver version:

Again, it is really hard to photograph silver embossing but I just managed to get a bit of shine on it so you can see the silveriness. The silver ribbon is also wrapped twice around the card and the bottom silver border was punched from silver Mirri card which the punched liked a whole lot better than the glitter cardstock. It looks very dark in the photo but trust me: it really is SILVER!

Now here is the purple version. I love purple and white for Christmas cards; I know it's not traditional but it just appeals to me I guess because purple is my favourite colour.

The purple ribbon photographed a bit dark but matches the image perfectly IRL (in real life) and actually has gold flecks through it but you can't really tell from the photo. I picked it up from Riot Art and Craft yesterday and is by The Paper Mill. The sentiment was stamped with Heliotrope pigment ink and heat-embossed with Satin Pearl embossing powder.

Challenges:

I am entering my cards into the Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge CHNC #51 of "Anything Goes".

And on a final note for today: here is a little pic of my cat Ruby catching up on some zzzzz's before the big day.......

Thanks for stopping by - I really appreciate it! I will be back soon with another card.

Jocelyn

Gold Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stamp-It Australia 'The Angel Said' 2143F self-cling rubber

Ink: Versamark Versamagic

Accessories: Big Shot, Sizzix Textured Impressions Christmas Set #6 - border embossing folder, heat-gun, Stamp-It Queens Gold embossing powder, gold cord, Fray Stop, Scor-Pal, cardstock - white, gold glitter

Punches: Martha Stewart Arch Lattice edge

Silver Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stamp-It Australia 'The Angel Said' 2143F self-cling rubber

Ink: Versamark Versamagic

Accessories: Big Shot, Sizzix Textured Impressions Christmas Set #6 - border embossing folder, heat-gun, Silver embossing powder, silver Mirri card, Scor-Pal, silver ribbon 1/4" wide, cardstock - white

Punches: Martha Stewart Arch Lattice edge

Purple Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stamp-It Australia 'The Angel Said' 2143F self-cling rubber

Ink: Colorbox Heliotrope pigment

Accessories: Big Shot, Sizzix Textured Impressions Christmas Set #6 - border embossing folder, heat-gun, Satin Pearl clear embossing powder, Scor-Pal, purple ribbon by The Paper Mill - from Riot Art and Craft, cardstock - purple, white

Punches: Martha Stewart Arch Lattice edge

Penny Black Teddy Santa - number two

2011-12-17T15:08:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I have another Christmas card to show you using one of my favourite Penny Black images. I made a similar one a few weeks back but I changed the layout and changed around a few of the colours. Here is a link to my post so you can see the original one.

The image was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Faber-Castell plus Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils.

I added some Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the hat using Designer Dries Clear adhesive - and added Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue to the present.

The tag was diecut using my Cuttlebug and a Cuttlebug Tiny Tags die and the sentiment is from a retired Elzybells clear set which I stamped using Versamagic Tea Leaves chalk ink. I glued the tag underneath the ribbon knot to hold it in place.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #113 of Santa's Hat.

I think that's about it but if you have any questions, please feel free to either leave a comment and I'll update this post - or you can email me - my address is on my LH sidebar. Have a fab weekend and not long till.........

From Millan.Net

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black Teddy Santa 3549F, Elzybells Mini Messages - Christmas 20-054 clear set (retired)

Ink: Versafine Onyx black, Versamagic Tea Leaves chalk

Designer paper: Kaisercraft 'Be Merry Collection'

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Tiny Tags die, Spellbinder Labels 12 dies, Sizzix embossing folder from Powdered Sugar/Snow Globe Textured Impressions set #657065, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive, sparkly green ribbon, green button, green sewing thread, Basic Grey red rhinestones, dimensionals, 140lb Watercolour paper, small round paintbrush, Faber Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, Kindyglitz Crystalina, cardstock: red, green

Hero Arts Merry Christmas Trees

2011-12-14T13:07:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I am back today with a Christmas card that I made for my Godfather and his partner.

Both the trees and sentiment are from a Hero Arts clear set called: Merry Christmas Trees and were stamped using Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment ink and heat-set with Satin Pearl embossing powder. I hand-cut them, popped the trees up on dimensionals (note: the one on the RHS is up slightly higher than the LHS tree) then added some tiny Basic Grey red rhinestones.

I diecut some snowflakes and popped them up on dimensionals and added some Kaisercraft red rhinestones to the centres.

By the way, the sentiment is stamped onto the LYB Delightful Collection - blue lace designer paper.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenge -

Papertake Weekly Challenge - I'm dreaming of a (your fave colour) Christmas where you have to make a Christmas card or project in your favourite colour scheme. My favourite colour scheme at the moment (which you will have noticed by some of my most recent posts) is teal, white and red.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Hero Arts Merry Christmas Trees clear set

Ink: Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment

Designer paper: SEI Glitzmas - Frosty the Snowflake, Little Yellow Bicycle - Delightful Collection - D-110 Blue Lace

Accessories: Cuttlebug, My Favorite Things 'Let it Snowflake' Die-namics dies, satin pearl embossing powder, heat-gun, Basic Grey + Kaisercraft red rhinestones, dimensionals, cardstock: white

Elzybells Teddy and Postbox - another Christmas card

2011-12-11T15:05:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

Hmmm, it's been an interesting weekend for me so far. Last night, I pulled some potatoes out of the cupboard ready to peel for dinner. One of the potatoes was actually rotten at one end but the skin looked perfectly intact. When I pressed on the end while I was holding it ready to peel, it burst - yes, really!! Must have had some gas from it rotting built up on the inside and when I mean it burst, I mean it literally exploded and I was COVERED in rotting potato flesh - it was all over my face, in my hair, all down my clothes and splattered all over the kitchen. I couldn't believe how much it had spread around! It felt and smelled disgusting!! I yelled for my husband and he rushed in thinking maybe I had cut off my finger with a knife - but of course, I told him that the potato burst and "Could he get some paper towel to get it off my face?" which he lovingly did all the while trying not to laugh!! He even posted about it on Facebook today! So I headed for the shower to wash my hair and he cooked dinner instead. I mean whoever HEARD of a potato bursting LOL! Isn't it just the silliest thing and very funny in hindsight.

Today, at the local shopping centre, I tripped over my daughters foot as we were walking in the car park and I landed heavily on my knee and both hands on the bitumen. I had several kind people rush to my aid as well as dear hubby to see if I was OK; of course, I said I was fine because I felt so stupid and ridiculous but I really wasn't and when the passers-by left, I cried because my knee hurt so much and I was annoyed because I ripped the knee out of my only pair of jeans and I was bleeding. Needless to say, I'm not doing much this afternoon as it is very, very sore and swollen as is my left hand because I whacked it where the arthritis is It is just as well I have all-but finished my Christmas shopping! Anyway, I guess I have done enough moaning......onto a Christmas card which is definitely more cheerful.........

Because I loved the layout so much on THIS CARD from one of my recent posts, I made another card the same except that the card is a larger square size.

Again, I have used a very cute Elzybells stamp and coloured it with Faber-Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils and a small, round paintbrush. I added Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the snow on the postbox, the falling snow and on the ground using Designer Dries Clear adhesive then added some Kindyglitz Crystalina to the holly plus the letter that teddy is posting. Here is a wee close-up of the image:

I diecut some snowflakes using my fabby My Favorite Things 'Let it snowflake' Die-namics dies and my Cuttlebug, popped them up on dimensionals and added a red rhinestone to the centres.

I attached the ribbon in two separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy - lastly I glued on a red button.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenge -

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything goes with the option of adding something dangley (I didn't have anything dangley so didn't do that bit).

Thanks for stopping by - have a fab weekend!!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Elzybells teddy and snowman (retired)

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: Kaisercraft Be Merry Collection

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Circle + Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Faber Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, paintbrush, 140lb Watercolour paper, Kaiser red rhinestones SB711, Stampendous Cotton White fun flock, Crystalina glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive, white acrylic paint, dimensionals, green organza ribbon, Bow Easy, red button, red sewing thread, My Favorite Things Let it Snowflake Die-namics dies, Cardstock: white, green

Punches: EK Success Scalloped Scallops edge

Stampin' Up Dasher - a nice and simple Christmas card

2011-12-09T13:45:00.001+11:00

Hi blogging friends,

From Millan.Net

When I saw that the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple CAS147 Challenge this week was "Twine", I just had to play along - I love twine and it is one of my favourite things to pop on a Christmas card.

My card is very simple as I didn't do any colouring with my pencils. I stamped my favourite SU stamp "Dasher" with Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment ink, poured on some Satin Pearl embossing powder and heat-set it with my heat-gun. I added a tiny red rhinestone to his nose so of course, now Dasher has become Rudolph.

The snowflakes dry embossing was made with a folder from the Cuttlebug Winter Borders set. I added a Scor-Pal line above and below the embossing to hide the folder marks that I always seem to get. There is also a Scor-Pal line underneath the twine.

I used my Scalloped Scallops border punch to punch some light teal Bazzill Bling cardstock (I don't actually know the colour name - that's just what I call it!) plus some white cardstock and attached them to the bottom of the card.

I diecut some snowflakes using my Cuttlebug and Snowflake #2 die set, attached some ice blue rhinestones and glued the snowflakes to the card except that I didn't glue the tips of the snowflakes down so I could bend them up and give them a bit of dimension.

Lastly, I wound the twine around the card twice and tied a bow.

Challenges:

Splitcoaststampers - Clean and Simple Cards - CAS147 - Twine

ABC Christmas Challenge - Y is for Yippee - Anything Christmassey goes

Thanks so much for stopping by!

From Millan.Net

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampin' Up Dasher

Ink: Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Winter Borders embossing folder, Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die, Kaiser Ice Blue rhinestones, Basic Grey red rhinestone, heat-gun, Satin Pearl embossing powder, Scor-Pal, Twine - Maraschino - The Twinery, Cardstock: white, Bazzill Bling light teal

Punches: EK Success Scalloped Scallops border

Stampin' Up Dasher - a quick and simple Christmas card

2011-12-06T17:45:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I have made up a couple of quick and simple cards which are easy to mass produce and not too bulky for mailing overseas. This first one has no colouring and uses one of my favourite stamps by Stampin' Up called 'Dasher'. I will share my other cards in a later post.

I stamped Dasher with Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment ink, poured on some Satin Pearl clear embossing powder and heat-set it with my heat-gun. I added a tiny red rhinestone to his nose so I guess my 'Dasher' has now become 'Rudolph'!!

The sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear set called 'Snowman Christmas' and was stamped and heat-embossed using the same ink and embossing powder. Love the font on this sentiment!! The designer paper I stamped on is by Little Yellow Bicycle - Delightful Collection - Blue lace.

The main image panel is up on dimensionals. That's about it - nice and simple.

Challenges:

I am popping my card into the following challenge -

The ABC Challenge - E is for Embossing - can be heat or dry embossing

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampin' Up Dasher, Sentiment - Hero Arts Snowman Christmas clear set

Ink: Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment

Designer paper: SEI Glitzmas - Frosty the Snowflake, LYB Delighful Collection - Blue Lace D-110

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Circle + Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Basic Grey red rhinestone, dimensionals, satin pearl embossing powder, heat-gun, cardstock: white, ice blue

Stampin' Up Dinoraur - a boy's birthday card

2011-11-28T20:52:00.001+11:00

Hi blogging friends

My nephew's 8th birthday was late last week and this is the card I made for him:

I used one of the newer stamp sets by Stampin' Up called "Dinoraur" which I really, really love and I couldn't wait to bring one of the images to life with my watercolour pencils. I added some Glossy Accents to the black markings on his back plus his claws. Here is a close-up of the Glossy Accents - you will have to peer closely as it isn't very easy to see but I can tell you that it "feels" all bumpy IRL.

As you can probably tell, I did a ton of aging with Vintage Photo Distress ink and a seasponge. This colour is one of my newer purchases of Distress ink and I think it is awesome.

The sentiment I made from the Stampendous Typewriter Alphabet clear set and I had a hard time trying to line up the letters all in a row so went for an uneven line which I think looked more fun.

I used my Spellbinder Pinking Circle Nestabilities (LOVE the pointy bits!!) to diecut the rust and pale olive cardstock and popped them on top of each other to get the double-spikey effect then popped this image panel up on dimensionals.

The designer papers are one of my all-time favourite papers called "Archaic" by Basic Grey.

For the side panel, I ran the designer paper through my Cuttlebug using my Mesh embossing folder then distressed it with some sandpaper. The pale olive cardstock border was made with a Martha Stewart Embossed Zigzag edge punch. The ribbon is from my stash; sorry I don't know who made it. Here is a wee close-up of the side panel:

Lastly, I added 3 Kaiser Daffodil Sparklets to the bottom RH corner - aren't they just so cool?!!

When I stamped the Stampin' Up sentiment on the inside of the card, I did my usual dumb trick of not centering it on the cardstock and also stamped it crooked!! Ugggh!! The number of times I do that.......so I decided to re-stamp it on a panel similar to the one of the card-front except I reversed the order of colours and glued it over the crooked sentiment. Because this panel was up a little high, I thought it would look better if I added the bottom panel which matches the side panel on the card-front - other than the fact I again reversed the colours - and of course, these panels are all aged the same as the card-front. Here is a pic of the inside:

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Cooking it up with Katie - Challenge #85 - A piece of pie - this week's recipe is: use a Punch, add some Ink, include some Embossing

Mark's Finest Papers - Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge #83 - Make it Masculine

Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge #312 - Glenna Jean website - I chose the picture on the top row, 2nd from the left called 'Carson' as inspiration behind the colours on my card.

Thanks for stopping by - I really appreciate it!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampin' Up Dinoraur, Stampendous Typewriter Alphabet SSC014 clear set

Ink: Versafine Onyx black, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress ink

Designer paper: Basic Grey Archaic 6" x 6" paper pad

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Mesh embossing folder, Spellbinder Circle Nestabilities + Large Pinking Circle Nestabilities, seasponge, sandpaper, 140lb watercolour paper, Faber-Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, small round paintbrush, ribbon from stash, dimensionals, Kaisercraft Daffodil Sparklets RS410, cardstock: rust, pale olive

Punches: Martha Stewart Embossed Diamond edge

Penny Black - Before the Snow - clean and simple Christmas card

2011-11-22T22:03:00.001+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I whipped up a couple of Clean and Simple Christmas cards in non-traditional colours that will be nice and flat for mailing. Here is my first one in purple:

There isn't much to explain - I think you can see for yourself. And here is my turquoise one:

The only difference between the two cards (aside from the colour) is that I used pigment ink on the purple card and heat-embossed it with Satin Pearl embossing powder; the ink on the turquoise card is chalk ink and (of course) is not heat-embossed. Easy peasy!

I wrapped the twine twice around the card and added matching rhinestones to the tree. The main thing with these sorts of cards is that you stamp everything on straight, ie: if the sentiment is slightly crooked, it really stands out like a sore thumb - and it can be a good idea to use a stamp positioner if you have one so you don't waste your cardstock.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Splitcoaststampers - Clean and Simple Challenge CAS145 of Christmas/Winter

Allsorts Challenge blog - Week 130 - One Layer Cards

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe - Turquoise card:

Stamps: Penny Black - Before the snow 3993K, Sentiment from Hero Arts - Merry Christmas Tree clear set

Ink: Versamagic Turquoise Gem chalk

Accessories: Kaisercraft Island Lagoon rhinestones, The Twinery - Carribean twine, Cardstock - white, Stampin' Up corner punch

Card Recipe - Purple card:

Stamps: Penny Black - Before the snow 3993K wood-mounted rubber, Sentiment from Hero Arts - Merry Christmas Tree clear set

Ink: Colorbox Heliotrope pigment

Accessories: Kaisercraft SB705 purple rhinestones, The Twinery - Lilac twine, satin pearl embossing powder, heat-gun, Cardstock - white, Stampin' Up corner punch

Elzybells Teddy and Snowman Christmas card

2011-11-22T11:09:00.001+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I have another Christmas card to share with you today using a very cute little bear and snowman:

Isn't this just the sweetest little image? I coloured it with Faber Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils and a small, round paintbrush. I added some dots to the teddy's scarf with white acrylic paint and added my usual Cotton White fun flock mixed with Crystalina glitter using Designer Dries Clear adhesive to the snowman's hat and the snow around + underneath image which is my favourite way of adding some texture. Here is a wee close-up:

And here is another angle so you can (hopefully) see the dimension on the card a little:

I added the bow in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

Finished off with some My Favorite Things snowflake diecuts which are popped up on dimensionals. I didn't think it was necessary to add a sentiment as I thought the wording on the ribbon would suffice. This is my last piece of that ribbon (sob!).

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following Challenges -

Just us Girls Challenges - JUGS #111 - Colour Challenge of red, white and green

Scrapbook Boutique - Adding spots and dots - November challenge (note: only open to Australian residents)

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Elzybells teddy and snowman (retired)

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: Kaisercraft Be Merry Collection

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Circle + Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Faber Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, paintbrush, 140lb Watercolor paper, Kaiser red rhinestones SB711, Stampendous Cotton White fun flock, Crystalina glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive, white acrylic paint, dimensionals, ribbon by TPC Studio - Deck the Halls, Bow Easy, My Favorite Things Let it Snowflake Die-namics dies, Cardstock: white, green

Punches: EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge

Elzybells Rudolph and Robin - Season's Tweetings

2011-11-19T10:01:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

Here is another card I made using my all-time favourite Christmas image by Elzybells - it's just so adorable!! It's a shame that Elzybells are no longer around as I really love their stamps.

The image was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Faber-Castell and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils. I added some Kindyglitz red to the reindeer's nose and Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter along the snowline.

The sentiment is also by Elzybells and is from a clear set which has no name on it. This main image panel is up on dimensionals.

The snowflakes stamped around the image are from a Studio-G clear set and were stamped using Versacolor Laurel Leaf pigment ink. I heat-set the snowflakes with my heat-gun then added some Frosted Lace Stickles to the snowflake centres. Here is a wee close-up - you can always click on the pic for a larger view:

The burgundy panel was embossed using my Snow Dots embossing folder. I decided to punch the ice blue cardstock with my Icicles punch, but now it looks a little lost against the dp background - oh well - it was a nice idea........maybe I should have added some stickles to it to make it stand out? Too late now as I would probably make a mess!

I kept thinking I needed to add a ribbon somewhere but in the end thought it best to leave it off. I find it really hard to not use ribbon on a card - it just doesn't seem to feel right somehow but I don't know why!!

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Challenge #109 - Snowflakes
Winter Wonderland - Awwwwww, what a cutie - any cute Christmas image

Thanks so much for stopping by - I really appreciate it at this busy time of year.

If you are in a hurry, you can always click on the "Reactions" at the bottom of my post.

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Elzybells Reindeer and Robin, Sentiment - Elzybells clear set (name unknown), snowflakes by Studio-G VS5701 clear set

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: Echo Park Wintertime - Snow

Accessories: 140lb watercolour paper, small round paintbrush, Faber-Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, Stampendous Cotton White fun flock mixed with Crystalina glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive (for flock), Kaiser Ice blue SB774 rhinestones, dimensionals, Frosted Lace stickles, heat-gun, Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Snow Dots embossing folder, Spellbinder Circle + Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, cardstock: ice blue, burgundy

Punches: Martha Stewart Icicles edge

Penny Black Teddy Santa Christmas card

2011-11-14T20:45:00.001+11:00

Hi blogging friends

My craft room has been a hive of activity with my Christmas card making. I do love making Christmas cards - there is just something so special about the whole process of choosing the papers, stamps and ribbon etc - it just seems to make me feel so happy inside going through my stash. So onto my card......

The cute little Penny Black teddy was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Faber-Castell plus Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils. Here is a closer view of the teddy:

I added some Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the hat using Designer Dries Clear adhesive - and added Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue to the present. Here is a wee close-up of the flocking - don't you just want to reach through your computer screen and have a feel of how soft it is LOL!!

The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

Did you notice the three green Sparklets in the top RH corner? Oh my gosh - I love them so much!!

They are a newly released item by Kaisercraft and come in lots of different colours and 2 different sizes in the pack and are self-adhesive like rhinestones and pearls. The larger ones are 15mm or 9/16" in diameter and the smaller ones are 8mm or 5/16". Here is a picture so you know what I am talking about -

The designer paper is also by Kaisercraft - Be Merry which was released last year.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenge -

Penny Black and more at Allsorts - November challenge - All creatures great and small

Problems with leaving comments on other Blogger's blogs

Not sure if it is just my computer, but I have had alot of trouble in the past month getting onto Blogger blogs including my own. It takes absolutely forever for them to load and most times, I am not able to bring up the blog - it times out. And then I might try a few minutes later and all is OK. I have also had a very difficult time leaving comments on other blogs, particularly when it is an embedded comment form ie: loads within the blog - not a separate window or page. I keep getting an error message saying something about "not having permission". So I have been visiting you my lovely followers but often not able to let you know I have been! And it is very frustrating when you leave a lovely comment here but I am not able to reciprocate!! It is driving me crazy - and is such a great timewaster! I am waiting on an answer from Google Help, but haven't had anything that has helped so far

That's about it for me! I have finished a couple of other Christmas cards and will share them very soon. Thanks for stopping by and thank you for any comments you care to leave - I really appreciate them

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black Teddy Santa 3549F

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: Kaisercraft 'Be Merry Collection' P561 - Delight

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Seeing Spots embossing folder, Spellbinder small and large Deckled Rectangle Nestabilities, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter, Designer Dries Clear adhesive, Bow Easy, ribbon from TPC Studio 'Deck the Halls' collection, dimensionals, 140lb Watercolour paper, small round paintbrush, Faber Castell + Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, Kindyglitz Crystalina, Kaisercraft Sparklets - Fern RS419, cardstock: red, green

Punches: Fiskars Scallop border punch

Hero Arts Snowflakes card using heat and bond powder

2011-11-08T17:26:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends - and a special welcome to my new Followers

I do have a Christmas card to share today, but you will have to scroll down past my holiday snaps.

I have just returned from a holiday at Bright, in north east Victoria. We had lovely spring weather and it was wonderful to see how green and lush it is up there after our awful 10 year Victorian drought. Note you can click on any of my photos if you wish to have a bigger looky. The holiday house we rented backs onto the Ovens River and here is a view of what we looked at every day: beautiful, isn't it?!!

And this is where we walked through into the township every day: hard to take, isn't it?!!

Bright was resplendent with azaleas, rhododendrons, spring bulbs and roses - truly a glorious sight.

There was a little family with 2 ducklings which stopped by every day for a feed. It was really hard to take a photo of them as they were always moving! The mother is on the far left; the father has the darker brown head.

There is an awesome Scrapbooking and Giftware store at Bright called "Little Shoppe of Memories" run by Cindy Cherry and I spent a lot of time in there! Cindy is a lovely lady and a very talented scrapbooker - and loves all things vintage. Cindy doesn't have a website but is on Facebook here and has uploaded photos of her store - definitely worth a peek - and if you are ever in Bright, I would encourage you to visit - you will NOT be disappointed!

Since I returned, I have been laid low with viral gastro and are still not 100% - ick - but I need to get my skates on with Christmas just around the corner and I don't have many Christmas cards done yet.

The card I am showing you today is a quick and simple card that would be easy to mass produce. I have actually done a couple of cards in different colours which I will show you over the coming weeks.

To achieve all the glittery goodness, I used Stampendous Stamp and Bondpowder which is my first time using this product. I have recently "discovered" Kristina Werner's blog: KWerner Design, and on Day 12 of Kristina's 25 days of Christmas cards 2011 videos, Kristina used Stamp and Bond powder so this is how I learnt how to use it. I will say, that if you don't want to have glitter and mess everywhere (note that I am a pretty messy cardmaker!), I would recommend doing it somewhere like outside on a verandah or decking in nice, calm weather (or maybe in hubby's garage if he doesn't mind all his tools and his car being glittery LOL!!) - and you will need to have access to a powerpoint for your heatgun. By the time I tried different types of ink and different coloured glitter and had a good old play to see what worked and what didn't, I had glitter absolutely everywhere!! And I mean - EVERYWHERE!! Next time, I will definitely do it outside!

So onto how it's done: I lined up the 3 individual Hero Arts Snowflakes (note: comes as a set of 4) on my acrylic block, inked them with VersacolorViolet pigment ink (you have to use a slow-drying ink for the Stamp and Bond powder to work - and you really want a juicy ink pad - not one that is getting a bit dry as the technique doesn't work as well), poured on the Stamp and Bond powder and removed the excess from around the images, then heated it with a heat gun until the powder melted which takes very little time. As soon as it was melted, I poured on fine Crystalina glitter and of course, shook off the excess and used a small paintbrush to remove any surplus glitter from around the card. It is helpful to have everything ready at hand - any delay might mean it doesn't work

Next, I inked up the sentiment with the same colour ink (I masked off the star which is after the word 'Wish' as I wanted to add a starbrad instead), poured on clear embossing powder and heat-set it.

As my purple star brad wasn't quite the right shade of purple, I held the prongs with a pair of tweezers, inked it with the same ink,added the Stamp and Bond powder, heated it with my heat gun then poured on the same glitter. Yay - now it matched! You do not want to handle the brad till it cools down of course and you don't want to handle the brad too much anyway because it is very easy to scrape off the glitter/embossing. I usually cut off my prongs with a pair of pliers and glue brads to my cards with Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue as I have a hard time poking a hole in just the right spot on my card and lining my brads up - it's just easier for me that way.

The white card base was embossed with my Big Shot and the Snowflakes embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set, corner punched the top and bottom RHS, wrapped some Lilac Twine around it (LOVE my twine!!) and popped the main panel up on dimensionals. Finished card size is 5" x 5".

Here is a close-up of all that gorgeous sparkly glitter:

Challenges:

I am popping my card into the following challenges -

Splitcoaststampers, Free for all Friday F4A88 - 'A True Free for All' - nice and easy

Winter Wonderland Challenge - Make your card sparkle - use lots of glitter or glitter card

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Card Challenge CHNC45 - Bright colours and/or sparkle

For those of you who (like me) are a visual learner, here is Kristina Werner's video from You Tube where Kristina demonstrates how to use Stamp and Bond Powder on her Christmas card (Kristina is using Stampin' Up brand which is called 'Heat and Stick' - it's the same thing). Enjoy! (And thanks Kristina!)

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be back in a few days!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Hero Arts Four Framed Snowflakes cling rubber, Sentiment by Stamp-It Australia - A little Christmas Wish 1607C

Ink: Versacolor Violet pigment

Accessories: Acrylic block, Big Shot, Snowflakes embossing folder from Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set, heat-gun, Stampendous Stamp and Bond embossing powder aka Heat-and-Stick in other brands, Fine .008 Crystalina glitter, small round paintbrush, Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue, dimensionals, star brad (from stash), The Twinery lilac twine, cardstock: white

Punches: Stampin' Up corner

Hero Arts + Sizzix Collage background Distress Inks card

2011-10-21T14:34:00.000+11:00

Hi blogging friends

I have been very busy these past few weeks with 2 weeks of school holidays and then my DD was off school sick = almost no crafting or blogging time.

I also celebrated my mother's birthday, my birthday and watched the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race (I love car racing!), visited the cinema and Melbourne Aquarium among other things. Any wonder, I only managed to make 2 cards! I must admit I been a feeling a little "dry" cardmaking-wise, however, I went to a Craft Show last weekend which is the first one I have been to for a few years and it was AWESOME! Came away with loads of ideas (and loads of really cool stuff thanks to my birthday money) so I shall be diving headlong into my Christmas cardmaking. Yep, Christmas displays are already in KMart and mince pies are in Woolworths.....{sigh} seems to get earlier and earlier every year.....anyway, I am waffling as usual.......

Whilst I was at the show, I did a fantastic free make-and-take workshop and made a vintagey tag using several different coloured Tim Holtz Distress Inks and was really happy with what I made. So I pulled out a recent purchase of a Hero Arts Background Collage stamp/Sizzix embossing folder combination set (if you click on this link, you will see what it looks like at JG's Nook - it's out of stock at the moment but you will get the general idea of what it looks like) and thought I would give it a whirl. It took me a few try-outs to figure out what cardstock worked the best for me and what colour choices worked well together - so here is the final result:-

Now I have to say that this sort of cardmaking is totally out of my comfort zone and I am not about to throw my coloured pencils away, but it was really nice to try something different especially as I have been feeling so stale.

To get the background effect, I used 3 Distress ink colours and smooshed them across a non-stick craft sheet keeping the colours all separate, spritzed them with a bit of water using a Ranger Mini Mister till I saw little droplets, then wiped my cardstock through it and moved it around a little to mix the colours but not too much or you will get a browny-kind-of-mess. I used 140 lb watercolour paper as my ordinary white cardstock couldn't handle the amount of water. I used 3 different Distress ink pads: Spun Sugar (pink), Bundled Sage (green) and Tumbled Glass (blue) . I dried off the watercolour paper using my heat-gun. I actually did 2 sheets of watercolour paper so I could stamp the butterfly again* (see below) and cut it out.

Using a Ranger Inkssentials foam tool and pad, I went around the edges with Antique Linen Distress ink, then did the same using the Spun Sugar Distress ink. I inked up my stamp with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and stamped it over the top. Next I ran the watercolour paper through my Big Shot using the Sizzix Textured Impressions embossing folder that came with the stamp. The embossing doesn't show up super-well in the photo and looks heaps better in real life. You can see it a bit of embossing around the sentiment and butterfly but that's about all. The large flowers around the edges are also embossed but you can't tell from my photo. I then sprayed the watercolour paper with Pearl Glimmer Mist to give it a bit of sparkle which again isn't visible from my photo but looks very yummy in real life.

I then inked up just the butterfly* and stamped it onto the 2nd sheet of watercolour paper and cut it out, inked around the edge with Antique Linen Distress ink then smothered it in Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue and popped the butterfly centre up on dimensionals and bent the wings up a little.

Using some Kraft cardstock, I rounded 2 of the corners and went around the edges with Spun Sugar + Antique Linen Distress ink. I pulled out some pink seam binding which I dyed myself a while ago using Jo Sonja acrylic paint mixed with Jo Sonja Textile Medium and attached this to the watercolour paper in 2 separate elements (the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy), then layered the panel onto the Kraft cardstock.

I decided to add some Hero Arts heart pearls to the sentiment to make it stand out a little more.

Now it all sounds like a lot of steps and fiddling but now that I know how to actually do this type of card, ie: what colours look nice together, what cardstock works etc. etc., to make another card the same would probably take 1/10th of the time it took to make this one! And I do love how it turned out and it was sooooo much fun to make a mess (which I am really good at doing!!) and make something totally different. I am not sure where you would call this card Distressed, Shabby Chic or Vintage (or something from my compost bin??) - I am a bit clueless so I'll pop this card into all 3 categories on my blog sidebar.

I found a video made by The Master himself (Tim Holtz) which shows how to do the inked background. The type of background I did starts at 1 minute 56 seconds into the video. Enjoy!

Challenges:

I am entering my card into the following challenge -

Splitcoaststampers - Free for all Friday F4A85 Make your own background

Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of the world!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Hero Arts Collage background stamp #657766 (in set with emb.folder)

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Spun Sugar, Bundled Sage, Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen, Versafine Vintage Sepia

Accessories: Big Shot, Sizzix Collage background Textured Impressions embossing folder #657766, Ranger Inkssentials Blending tool and foam pads, Ranger Mini Mister (filled with water), non-stick craft sheet, 140lb Watercolour paper, hand-dyed seam binding, Bow Easy, Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist, Hero Arts CH173 Heart Accent pearls, Kindygliz Crystalina, dimensionals, heat-gun, cardstock: American Krafts

Punches: Stampin' Up corner punch

Stampendous Snuggly Kitties Christmas card and Tag

2011-10-01T12:37:00.001+10:00

Hi blogging friends

I have finally finished the matching Christmas card and tag which matches the Snow Globe that I showed you on my last post. Here is a little pic in case you missed it:

The cute little kitties on the card were coloured using paper stumps with Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and Odourless Mineral Spirits. I tried to add little stripes on them so they would look like ginger tabbies. I added some little dots of white acrylic paint using the head of a pin to the kitties' hats and scarf, then added some Polar White Flowersoft using Aleen's Tacky glue to the hats and the snow. I lightly chalked around the image with Kaisercolour blue chalk.

I punched some snowflakes out of blue and white cardstock using a Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch (they are the leftover punchies after you use the punch) and attached them to the card using dimensionals, then added some light blue rhinestones to the centres. I added the same blue rhinestones either side of the sentiment. Note that the sentiment and kitties are all one image, ie: they are both on one stamp.

The snowflake embossing is a folder from the Cuttlebug Winter Borders set and I added a Scor-Pal line both above and below this embossing as well as underneath the ribbon. When I tied the gingham ribbon on, I threaded through a little piece of blue organza ribbon just to add "something extra" - plus it's a good way of using up little ribbon scraps.

Just as a little tip (and I learned this through experience), I would recommend before you stamp your image, to make the Scor-Pal line at the card bottom first, then butt your embossing folder up against this line so you know it is straight, then add your Scor-Pal line on the other side. There is nothing more annoying than colouring your image only to do the embossing or Scor-Pal lines all crooked because, trust me, being a clean and simple card, they really stand out like a sore thumb!!

The bottom blue cardstock border was punched with an EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge punch.

Now here is the matching tag. I need one of those florist's spikey flower holder thingies that lots of cardmakers use to pop their cards/tags on as I had to lean my tag against a card so I could photograph it as it obviously won't stand up by itself!! If you know what the spikey thing is called, please leave me a comment.

The tag was diecut using my Cuttlebug and one of the dies from the Spellbinder Shapeabilities tag set. I actually diecut the white cardstock using the die, then traced around the outside of the die onto blue cardstock and cut that out by hand and punched the 2 bottom corners with a corner punch. I did this so that I could have a narrow blue border. I masked the sentiment from the image before I stamped it and coloured it using the same method as for the card. I added Stampendous Cotton White fun flock mixed with crystal glitter for the white bits on the hat plus the snow. The blue snowflakes were diecut using a Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die and the white snowflakes are from the MS Snow Flurry edge punch. I added some blue rhinestones to the snowflake centres and I popped the snowflakes up on dimensionals.

I punched a hole at the top with a 1/4" circle punch and threaded the gingham and blue organza ribbon through then tied them together with some silver cord.

Here is the back of the tag:

The sentiments are from a Waltzingmouse clear set called "Sewing Box - Christmas" which you can find at this link here. The snowflakes were made the same way as for the front of the tag and popped up on dimensionals.

So here are all my 3 projects together which I will have to hide from my DD until Christmas!

Challenges:

I am entering my card and tag into the Truly Scrumptious Challenge #66 of Clean and Simple.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampendous F166 Snuggly Kitties

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Winter Borders embossing folder, Scor-Pal, Kaiser blue rhinestones, blue gingham + blue organza ribbon, Derwent Coloursoft + Prismacolor pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits, paper stumps, white acrylic paint, Polar White Flowersoft, Aleen's tacky glue, Kaisercolour blue chalk, dimensionals, cardstock: KW Doggett "Knight" white, medium blue

Punches: EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge, Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge

Tag Recipe:

Stamps: Stampendous F166 Snuggly Kitties, Waltzingmouse Sewing Box - Christmas clear set

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Shapeabilities Tag die, Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die, Kaiser blue rhinestones, Kaisercolour blue chalk, Derwent Coloursoft + Prismacolor pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits, paper stumps, blue gingham + blue organza ribbon, silver cord, dimensionals, white acrylic paint, Stampendous Cotton White fun flock, crystal glitter, cardstock: KW Doggett "Knight" white, medium blue

Punches: 1/4" circle punch, Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge

Stampendous Freeze + Snuggly Kitties Christmas Snow Globe

2011-09-24T22:17:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends

I have been working on a little Christmas project to give to my DD for Christmas. You may think it's too early for Christmas things, but the way the year is flying by (or should I say: "speeding up" LOL!!), I thought I should get myself into gear.

Late last year, I bought a couple of "do-it-yourself" Snow Globes from Riot Art and Craft but ran out of time to do them, so I pulled them out the other day and set to work. They are very easy to do and so much fun - and so darned hard to photograph due to the reflection! So forgive me for the bit of reflection - this was as good as I could get it after taking tons of photos at all different times of the day and on different weather days, ie: cloudy or sunny - in the shade or with different backgrounds - oh well! In the end, I found my deck chair with the black background seemed to yield the best photo. Here are a couple of photos of the various bits of the snowglobe so you can see the different elements. This one is the underneath of the snowglobe with the base taken off:-

In the photo above, you should see the foam which is in the centre of the globe and you use it as a template for cutting your cardstock to just the right size. Of course, you do 2 images - one for either side of the snowglobe - and I decided to do 2 different Stampendous images. You must make sure that any embellies like the snowflakes, pearls etc. do NOT stick out too much or you will have trouble fitting the images back in with the foam. I used Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock with Crystal glitter mixed in for the snow underneath the images, the mitten cuffs and on the hats - which worked out perfectly because it doesn't stick out much. I love how soft and fluffy it looks. The images slot in either side of the foam. Here are some pics of the two images ready to slide into the globe:

This next photo show the round plastic base that you put on the bottom of the globe which will stop your images from coming out. It just clicks on.

And here is a photo of the other side of the globe once I had put the 2nd image in. I tried to capture some of the glittery snow falling. Are you dreaming of a white Christmas?!! Bet you're singing it now (I know I am LOL!!).

Both pictures were coloured with Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and Odourless Mineral Spirits. I masked off the sentiment on the Cuddly Kitties stamp. Here is picture of the stamp so you know what I mean:

Image is copyright Stampendous

I used the head of a pin to add small dots of white acrylic paint to the scarf and hats on the kitties plus the scarf on the snowman. The snowflakes were punched with a Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch (they are the leftover punchies) - and I added green rhinestones to the snowflake centres on the teddy and snowman image - and white pearls to the snowflake centres on the cuddly kitties image. I only glued down the centres of the snowflakes and bent the snowflake outer bits up a little to give them some dimension. I lightly chalked around the images with Kaisercolour blue chalk for the sky. And as mentioned above, I added Stampendous Fun Flock mixed with glitter for all the fluffy white bits. I adhered it with some craft glue.

Challenges:

I am entering my snow globe in the following challenges -

Sweet Stamps - Challenge #33 - Anything but a card
Anything Goes Challenge Blog - Challenge #50 - Anything goes

On my next post, I will share the matching card and tag that I am working on. Stay tuned!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Snow Globe Recipe:

Stamps: Stampendous F166 Snuggly Kitties (masked off sentiment) + Stampendous D145 Freeze! (snowman and bear)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories: Blank Snowglobes - Riot Art and Craft, Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits, paper stumps, white acrylic paint, pin (for dipping in paint to make the dots on the scarf), Kaiser green rhinestones, Kaiser Snow white pearls, Kaisercolour blue chalk, Stampendous Cotton White flock, crystal glitter, craft glue, Cardstock: KW Doggett "Knight" white, sky blue

Penny Black: Butterfly Bear Birthday card

2011-09-12T22:16:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends

I made a birthday card for my Godfather's partner who is a bright, bubbly and happy lady who means the world to me. As this particular lady loves bright colours, I went for a bright lilac colour which I know she will love.

The background designer paper was a rather plain looking lilac sheet from my Prima 'Sweet Fairy' 6" x 6" pad so I decided to jazz it up a little by stamping all over it with a little butterfly stamp from the Penny Black set 'Garden Friends'. I stamped it using Versacolor Lilac pigment ink as well as Versamagic Pretty Petunia chalk ink (the Pretty Petunia colour is the darker purple shade that you can see if you peer closely!).

Then I grabbed a flower from my Penny Black set 'Wonderful' and stamped that all over with Elzybells Sugar Candy (white) pigment ink. I then heat-set the paper to dry off the pigment ink otherwise it would have smeared. The effect of the stamping is very subtle but made the designer paper look a little more interesting than just using it as it was. Of course, much of it is covered by all the other stuff on the card now - but it was really an experiment at seeing what I could do with a plain sheet and it was fun to play around.

The teddy (also a Penny Black stamp) was stamped onto watercolour paper using Versafine Onyx black ink and coloured with watercolour pencils and a paintbrush. I added some Kindyglitz Crystalina to the butterflies which you might be able to see in this wee close-up (note you can click on it if you want a bigger piccy). This image panel is also up on dimensionals.

The side panel was embossed with my Craft Concepts - Budding Vine embossing folder and the gorgeous border punch is a Martha Stewart edge punch called 'Vintage Floral'. Isn't it fab?!! The white lace is over 30 years old which I inherited from my parent's wool and haberdashery store. I should use more lace on cards - I really love how it looks. It was sheer luck that the Lilac Twine matched the card perfectly. Usually I choose my ribbon when I pick my cardstock colour so that I am not left with a card and no matching ribbon which makes me crazy! I love it when everything you find just seems to match perfectly.

I diecut a tag and stamped the sentiment which is from the Penny Black 'Critter Party' clear set. I added two tiny hearts which are the leftover punches from using my EK Success Arrows border punch - the punchies look like tiny hearts to me. I added some Kindyglitz to them as well.

The paper flowers are from Enthaily Wholesale (an Aussie company) and the dark green foliage was made using a Martha Stewart Branch punch. I did actually remove the green base from underneath the flowers because the green didn't match my card (it was too yellowy-green) so I punched some stars with a Carl CP1 Star punch using the same dark green cardstock as for the foliage and simply glued them underneath the flowers. I attached the foliage and flowers with Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue (LOVE this stuff!).

Lastly I glued on some heart-shaped buttons.

Challenges:

I am entering my card into the following challenges -

Makin' it Colourful - Challenge #34 - Make it purple

PaperPlay Challenges - Week 36 - use 2 or more stamped images. I have used the teddy stamp plus the other 2 stamps (butterfly and flower) to make the background designer paper.

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On a completely different topic, I have stepped down from the Fat Cat's Design Team which I have been part of for about a year. Thanks to Kaaren (the owner) for having me - it's been a fab experience and I have learned so much! Of course, I will still be blogging and cardmaking - nothing will change in that regard. In fact, here is a little sneaky peak of part of a project I have been working on........hmmmmm.....I wonder what it might be.........

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As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me. You will find my email address on the LH sidebar of my blog - just scroll down till you see the little smiley face. Or just leave a comment below and I will update this post if need be. Thanks so much for stopping by

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black clear sets - 'Make a wish' sentiment from Critter Party 30-013, 'Flower' from Wonderful 30-029 and 'Butterfly' from Garden Friends 30-021, Penny black wood-mounted 'Butterfly Bear' 3696H

Ink: Versafine Onyx black, Versamagic Pretty Petunia chalk, Versacolor Lilac pigment, Elzybells Sugar Candy (white) pigment ink (no longer available)

Designer paper: Prima Sweet Fairy 6" x 6" pad

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Tiny Tags dies, Craft Concepts Budding Vine embossing folder, Spellbinder Labels 12 nestabilities, Kindyglitz Crystalina, paper flowers - Enthaily Wholesale, lilac twine - The Twinery, lace - stash, 140lb Watercolour paper, Faber-Castell and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, paintbrush, Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue, heart buttons - Spotlight, dimensionals, heat-gun, Cardstock: lilac, lavender, forest green

Punches: Martha Stewart Vintage Floral edge, EK Success Arrows border, Martha Stewart branch, Carl CP-1 Star

Stamp-It Australia - Riverbank - Father's Day card

2011-09-03T13:57:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends

Sorry I haven't been around. My mother was rushed to hospital with severe chest pains and of course, the first thing I thought of when I received the phone call, was that she was having a heart attack, but thankfully, it wasn't and she is home again now and the pain is gone. The doctors still don't know why she was having the chest pain so it's all a bit of a mystery. She has had a ton of tests, CT scans - you name it, she's has had it - but nothing came up. I am not sure whether I am more worried now or less worried - at least if we all knew why she had such severe pain, we could deal with it and of course, we don't want her to be sick - it's just, not knowing is stressful for Mum and for the rest of the family, and it robs Mum of her confidence for going out to do shopping or just hop in the car and drive down the street. Needless to say, I have not had my mind on cardmaking or even had time to nosey around blogs. Thank you for all your wonderful comments you left on my last card - they really made my day. I shall hope to catch up on visiting you all very soon!

I suddenly realised 2 days ago that it was Father's Day this coming Sunday and I hadn't done a card for my husband. I even thought about buying one (eeek - oh, the horror - not to mention the how expensive they are!) and then thought that maybe sitting down doing some colouring would be good therapy and take my mind off things now that Mum was home and seemingly OK. So, I dug out a recent purchase of a stamp by Stamp-It Australia which is a typical Australian country scene with the river red gum tree and a creek/river and attacked it madly with my watercolour pencils. I have never coloured a "scene" before so it was a quite a challenge and certainly was stretching my abilities with watercolour pencils that's for sure!! Waaaay out of my comfort zone! It nearly ended up in the bin numerous times!

I did actually add a few extra lines/squiggles with a fine .005 waterproof black pen to widen the scene at the horizon and a little bit around the river bank here and there because once I trimmed the scene down, it had little blank areas that looked unfinished which didn't reach the edges of the watercolour paper. I was so tempted to draw in a few cows or a bird but thought better of it in case I made a mess of it.

I have to say that when I ordered this stamp on-line, I didn't realise how HUGE it was until it arrived! Oh my gosh - it's massive! I bought it unmounted and I struggled to find a stamp block large enough to fit all the design on - so my card is definitely NOT your average-sized card by the time I added the designer paper and cardstock borders. Just as well I am not posting it in the mail - I would be paying extra-postage that's for sure LOL!

The sentiment is by Lili of the Valley (UK) and was stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink. I masked out the 3 flowers underneath the word "Wonderful" when I inked it up and added 3 brown rhinestones to fill the gap. I diecut the pale olive and brown cardstock with my Cuttlebug and Spellbinder Scalloped Circle Nestabilities and arranged the diecuts so that the scallops look like they are kind-of-intertwining (if that makes some sort of sense!). It also adds a bit of extra colour to the sentiment but you are not making the sentiment any bigger in diameter.

I attached the ribbon in 2 separate pieces and the double-bow was made with my Bow Easy (LOVE this thing - so cool for making double-bows!).

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Crazy for Challenges - C4C102 - Male themed cards

Cards for Men - G is for...... - and in my case, G is for gum tree.

Thanks so much for stopping by - I really appreciate it!

If you are in a rush to leave a comment, scroll down past the Card Recipe on click on one of the "Reactions"!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stamp-it Australia - Riverbank 662I, Sentiment from Lili of the Valley (UK) - Circular Sentiments - For You

Ink: Versafine Onyx black, Versafine Vintage sepia

Designer paper: Crate Paper - Static Collection - Gravity

Accessories: 140lb watercolour paper, Faber-Castell and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, small #2 round paintbrush, Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Circle and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, .005 fine waterproof black pen, Kaiser Rhinestones SB776, Bow Easy, gingham ribbon, Cardstock: pale olive, raw umber

Penny Black: Where's Dinner? - a birthday card for my Godfather

2011-08-22T22:48:00.001+10:00

I have re-uploaded the photos on this post as for some reason the card photos didn't upload properly and people were seeing black boxes instead - so if you are seeing this post TWICE, that's why. So, we shall try this post again.......

Hi blogging friends - and a very SPECIAL welcome to my new Followers - so lovely to have you

I made a birthday card for my Godfather who holds a very special place in my life. He was my late father's lifelong best friend and has always been there for me and was a tower of support when my father passed away suddenly in 1996. Even though my Godfather lives a couple of hours by plane away, we talk to each other often and he is the most gentle and kindest man you could ever meet and ALWAYS makes you feel like you are wrapped up in a warm blanket. I am so blessed to have him in my life! And I love that I have that special connection to my father through him which I treasure. So, onto my card......

Isn't this dog sweet? I know I say that about all my Penny Black stamps, but I *love* the quizzical expression on the dog's face! I stamped him onto watercolour paper and coloured him with Faber Castell and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils. I tried to give him lots of texture by scribbling different coloured brown Inktense watercolour pencils on a scrap piece of watercolour paper, adding water with my paintbrush and "dabbing" the dog with little strokes. Once that had dried, I then made a wash with a mustardy-coloured pencil on a scrap piece of watercolour paper and applied that over the strokes to tone them down and blend them into the dog's fur. I added used my clear Sakura glaze pen to add some shine to his collar, but you can't tell that from the photo - oh well! The sentiment is from my Penny Black clear set: Make a Wish - which seemed the perfect choice for this image. This main panel is also up on dimensionals. Here is a wee close-up:

I diecut the image with my Square Nesties - but trimmed around the tail first so the tail wouldn't get cut off. This technique is called "Out of the box with nestabilities" and you can find the step-by-step tutorial here on Splitcoaststampers. I did the same with the mustard and black cardstock layers. If you are not a member of Splitcoaststampers, you will not be able to see the step-by-step written tutorial on their website, however, here is their video tutorial for this technique from You Tube:

Please note: if you are reading this post in a Reader (such as Google etc.) or have received an email and you just see a black screen, you will need to come to my Blog to view the video.

The black paw border on the side panel is an EK Success punch: Paw Print - isn't it fab??!! I attached the ribbon in two separate elements and glued the paw print button on - the button had a shank which I cut off with pliers.

Lastly, I added the 3 black brads.

Challenges:

I am entering my card into the following challenges -

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C101 - Bingo - where you have to pick 3 items in a row/diagonal line from the choices on their bingo board. I chose Square card, Embossing and Brads.

Penny Black at Allsorts - August Challenge of Free and Easy

Before I go, I wanted to share some happy news that the card below was one of the top 3 at the Craft your Days Away Challenge #25 so I have another little blinkie which I have added to my blog sidebar. Woo hoo!

And that's not all! This next card was picked as one of the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Favourites for the week ending 31st July - that sure rocked my socks off!

If you want to leave a comment and you are in a hurry, scroll down to under the Card Recipe, and click on one of the Reactions.
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black - Where's Dinner 1705J, Sentiment from Penny Black - Make a Wish 30-052 clear set

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: Rusty Pickle - Cap'n Jack - Black Pearl RP718 (probably retired now - it's been kicking around my craft room for a couple of years).

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Square Nestabilities, Crafts Too Dots 5" x 5" embossing folder, black grosgrain ribbon, paw print button by Buttons Galore and more - Pet - Little Paws #4120, black brads by Basic Grey from Urban Prairie collection, Faber Castell and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, 140lb watercolour paper, small round #2 paintbrush, dimensionals, clear Sakura glaze pen, cardstock: mustard, black

Punches: EK Success Paw Print edge

Penny Black: Fetching Slippers - a masculine card

2011-08-12T22:35:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends Long time no post! I received a phone call from one of my closest friends late last week to let me know that their father had passed away. I worked with my friend and their father for many years in their family business and although it wasn't unexpected, it is still a shock when it actually happens. The funeral was last Wednesday (2 days ago) and the weather was really terrible: wet, freezing cold and miserable - most of us still got wet under our umbrellas because the wind was blowing it under. It was like the angels in heaven were crying along with the rest of us.

I started this card last week but only got as far as colouring the image before the phone call so I put it aside and only finished the remainder of the card in a bit of a rush last night as I had to pop it in the mail today. Hopefully my BIL should get it in time for his birthday this coming Monday.

The adorable image is by Penny Black - a stamp which I bought very recently from PB Stamps in the USA. Dick Robinson, who runs the on-line store, has all the current PB stamps as well as many retired ones that you can't get at other stores. When I saw this image on someone's card a few months ago, I just HAD to get it - I LOVE it and it makes me happy to look at it Check out those cat slippers!! Cute as a button!!

I stamped the image onto watercolour paper and coloured it with a mix of Faber-Castell and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils and a small #2 round paintbrush. You can't see in the photo, but I added some clear Sakura glaze pen to the dog's collar. Here is a wee close-up:-

I wish I knew who made the designer paper. It is a fairly recent purchase but there is no name on the back which is rather unusual for dp's these days. If you know, please leave me a comment or drop me an email, and I will update this post. Plus I would LOVE to know so I can get some more of it: I do really like it as it is so perfect for masculine cards IMHO.

The sentiment is by Lili of the Valley (UK) and is from their circular sentiments set: For you. I stamped it with Indigo pigment ink, poured on some clear embossing powder and heat-set it The sentiment originally had flowers where the sparkly red star brads are, but I couldn't have flowers on a man's card, so searched through my stash to find something I could pop over the top to hide them. Here is a close-up so you can see:

Both the main panel and sentiment panel are up on dimensionals.

Challenges:

I am entering this card into the Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #14 of Spots and Dots. I tried to use as many dots and spots as I could: my dp, embossed dot red cardstock panel across the centre and the dots on the border punched panels.

I am also popping this card into the Stampalot August Challenge of "Anything goes".

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you have a fab weekend!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black Fetching Slippers 2085F, Lili of the Valley (UK) Circular sentiments - For you (set of 7 stamps)

Ink: Versafine Onyx black, Artnic Indigo pigment

Designer paper: I haven't a clue!

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Crafts Too dots square 5" x 5" embossing folder, Spellbinder - rectangle, circle and scalloped circle nestabilities, 140lb Watercolour paper, #2 round paintbrush, Faber-Castell and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, red sparkly star brads by Making Memories - Stars in Bloom - shimmer, navy blue ribbon, Sakura clear glaze pen, heat-gun, clear embossing powder, cardstock: navy blue, red

Punches: Fiskars threading water

Stampin' Up - Gift Tags - a teddy bear birthday card for my niece

2011-07-31T22:19:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends

I made a clean and simple one-layer card for my niece's 6th birthday. Not much to explain really. I coloured the image with Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and Odourless Mineral Spirits (Gamsol Magic technique) then added some Kindyglitz Crystalina to the ribbon and heart on the teddy plus the present. I lightly chalked around the image with blue chalk. Here is a wee close-up:

I dragged out my Cuttlebug 'With Love' embossing borders set (which I don't use often enough!) and used the flower folder underneath the image, then added some pink rhinestones to the flower centres.

There is a Scor-pal line underneath the ribbon, under the image and above the pink cardstock punched border. The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy. I sewed through the button holes then glued the button to the ribbon.

Quick, simple and easy-peasy.

Challenges:

I am entering this card in the following challenges -

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week 114 - Free and Easy July

4 Crafty Chicks - Get your bling on

Splitcoaststampers - Free for all Friday - F4A75 - 'CAS-tastic Summer' where you have to whip up a CAS card.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my little world

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampin' Up 'Gift Tags' (retired)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug 'With Love' embossing folder set, Scor-Pal, Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils, OMS, paper stumps, Heart button by Trimits, pink sewing thread, Bow Easy, gingham ribbon, Kindyglitz Crystalina, Kaisercolour blue chalk, pink gems by Basic Grey

Punches: Martha Stewart Doiley Lace edge

Stampendous Beachfront Boat - a housewarming card

2011-07-27T11:45:00.001+10:00

Hi blogging friends

My BIL and SIL have just finished building their dream retirement home by the sea in another state. I am sure they will love being away from the hustle and bustle of city-life and never tire of looking out on the ocean every day. It is a long-realised dream come true for them - and this is the card I made for them as a "Welcome to your new home" - so that is why I chose a beach-scene and tried to make it a nice, warm inviting scene imagining them having a sail on the calm ocean on a summer's day with the first hints of the sunset in the sky. Ahhhh - bliss! Wish I was there right now......

I stamped the image onto watercolour paper and coloured it with watercolour pencils. To add the white highlights on the ocean, I used a scalpel knife to scratch the surface of the watercolour paper then used my Sakura clear glaze pen to add some shine. I also used the same pen on the red sail on the boat. I know you can't really see the glaze in the photo but it makes the sea look all sparkly IRL - but you can see the effect of the scratching with the scalpel knife. Here is a wee close-up:

The side panel was punched with a Scallop Diamond edge punch then I added a Scor Pal line which made it easier to line the designer paper up straight. As the panel looked a little uninteresting and flat, I decided to emboss it using my Cuttlebug and Sizzix Ribbon embossing folder then sanded it a little to highlight the embossing - ahhhhhhh, much better to have a bit of texture and it seemed to match the dp and rope perfectly. I grabbed two pieces of rope and tied a knot in each end then glued the ends underneath the panel with fabric glue. Because the rope was bulky, I popped the panel up on dimensionals. The sentiment panel and the main panel are also up on dimensionals.

The sentiment is by Elzybells from a clear set of sentiments and images but there is no name on the set or a number; unfortunately, no longer available....sniff.....I miss my Elzybells......

I punched two tiny hearts from the orangey-red part of the designer paper using my Arrows border punch (the leftover punchies look like tiny hearts) and added them to the sentiment panel.

Lastly, I glued on 3 matching buttons. I did sew threw the buttonholes with matching sewing thread before I glued them on.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

Allsorts Challenge #113 - Free and Easy July - Anything goes

Craft your Days Away Challenges- CYDA Challenge #25 - Summertime

The Pink Elephant - Challenge #TPE109 - Fun in the sun

Thanks for stopping by! If you are in a hurry to leave a comment, click on the "Reactions" at the bottom of the post after the Card Recipe.

Have a great week!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampendous Beachfront Boat CRN234 cling, Sentiment - Elzybells (name unknown)

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: K & Co. Seaglass diecut small mat pad, code 626621

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Sizzix Textured Impressions Ribbon embossing folder (comes as a set of 2 folders - #656980), 140lb watercolour paper, Faber Castell watercolour pencils, small round #2 paintbrush, 3 x buttons with matching sewing thread, rope, Scor-Pal, Sakura clear glaze pen, sandpaper, Cardstock: teal blue, pale olive

Punches: EK Success Scallop Diamond edge, EK Success Arrows border edge

Lili of the Valley: Cuddly Teddies card topper girl's birthday card

2011-07-23T13:18:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends

With so much sickness going on in my household (yep, I now have the dreaded 'lurgy' too) and in need of a quick card for my soon-to-be 4 year old niece's birthday, I thought I would make a card using one of my Lili of the Valley (UK) diecut card toppers. I have had these toppers for a while and forgot I had them (you know how it is LOL!). When I originally bought the topper which I used on my card, the A4 sheet had the same picture but in different sizes, but they are now sold slightly differently by LOTV and the A4 sheets have 6 different images all the same size. This teddy is now on the Cuddly Teddies DC007 sheet.

You can find the LOTV diecut sheets here.

My Prima "Sparkling Spring" 6" x 6" paper pad matched the image perfectly (don't you love it when that happens?!!). I was having a ball making this card as everything I reached for just went together like a match made in heaven - which is much nicer than fiddling around trying to find the right colour ribbon, cardstock etc. It was like all the planets were in alignment or something and I tell ya, it made it so much quicker even for a s-l-o-w cardmaker like myself.

All I needed to do was stamp the sentiment (also by LOTV) - no colouring other than the flowers on the sentiment which I coloured with some Prisma pencils. I added some Kindyglitz Crystalina to the flower centres on the sentiment and most of the flower centres on the image.

After I added the green scalloped circle to the sentiment, it looked a little lost on the card, so I diecut a red scalloped circle and glued that underneath to just add a bit more colour without making the sentiment panel any bigger.

Here is a wee close-up of the image - isn't it cute and adorable and make you go "awwww"?!! I am nuts about teddy bears as you can well see LOL!!

The sentiment panel and the main image are popped up on dimensionals. The bow was attached in 2 different elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.

See the button? It is old shop stock I inherited from my parent's Wool and Haberdashery shop and is 35 years old! All I had to do was cut off the shank with a pair of pliers then glue it onto the bow centre. Here is another wee close-up. Doesn't it just match the image and designer papers so amazingly well {happy sigh.....}?

Not sure if you can tell, but on the bottom panel, I added a Scor-Pal line just above the punched green cardstock border; I find it easier to get the designer paper straight when lining it up with the Scor-Pal line rather than the punched border. I am usually pretty terrible at lining things up straight so I need all the help I can get LOL!!

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Challenge: Getting Cute - Anything goes as long as it’s CUTE and has the ‘awwww’ factor. I think my teddy bear fits the bill as being cute IMHO.

Allsorts Challenge Blog: Week 112 - Free and Easy July - Anything goes

Well, that's about it from me. Thanks for stopping by!

If you are in a hurry and want to leave a comment, click on the "Reactions" at the end of this post for a super-quick way of doing it.

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Lili of the Valley - For you circular sentiments - S213

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: Prima 'Sparkling Spring' #842178 6" x 6" pad

Accessories: LOTV A4 diecut sheet: Cuddly Teddies DC007, Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Circle and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, yellow and red Prismacolor pencil, green gingham ribbon, Bow Easy, Kindyglitz Crystalina, dimensionals, button, Scor-Pal, Cardstock: soft red, pale green, white

Punches: Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop

Four Awards! Yep - count them - FOUR! Woo hoo!

2011-07-22T13:10:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends,

I have 2 cards made but waiting for the drizzle to stop so I can photograph them - but in the meantime, I thought I would share some "happy news".

My card from my last post won the top 5 at the Allsorts Challenge Blog which I was tickled pink about and totally surprised!! Here is a little photo of my card in case you missed my last post:

Funny how I only just noticed that I had put "Image copyright Stampendous" at the bottom RHS instead of "Inkadinkado". I had the stamp name and brand right in the Card Recipe at the end of my original post - just messed up the name on the photo for some reason (I'll blame it on sleep deprivation from my DD being sick for a good deal of the last 2 weeks - now DH is sick - but I am still carrying on as as Mum's do). My DD was off school again yesterday with a cough which I pray isn't a new virus and won't get any worse - poor little thing :-( Her birthday party is in a week so she needs to be well!! So far, I have escaped the dreaded lurgies!

This card was also nominated twice in the Splitcoaststampers Favourites for the week - so I was pretty chuffed about that!

And my last Award is from my blogging friend Shaz from Shaz in Oz - Cards Calligraphy:

Shaz in her post wrote the following to describe a Versatile Blogger which originally was written by Hettie of Hettiecraft - quote:- "...capable of or adapted to many different uses, skills etc, liable to change.."and wrote some lovely things about my Blog - thank you sweetie!!

Now the Rules of accepting this award.

In accepting my award I must place a link back to the person who awarded it
Share 7 random things about myself
Award 7 recently discovered bloggers and contact them to let them know

7 Random Things about me:

1. I started researching my Family Tree about 5 years ago and discovered that all the family history that had been passed onto me through the generations on my late father's side was all made-up to hide the convict history - my family actually first came to Australia on the 3rd Fleet!!

2. If I don't have a real cup of home-made plunger coffee in the afternoon, I don't feel right.

3. I used to be scared of heights until I went tandem hang-gliding a few years ago (my DH paid for it in advance so I didn't want to waste the money!) and now I have been hang-gliding numerous times. I discovered that it was only the fear itself that I was scared of! And it's AWESOME up in the sky!!

4. I used to sleepwalk when I was a child right up into my teens. It was weird and scary waking up inside my wardrobe or somewhere else in the house.

5. I play the piano, sing and write my own music, as did my late-father and his mother (my Gran). My Gran wrote hundreds of hymns and Dad was a child-prodigy pianist and studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music beginning at the age of 9!

6. I am THE clumsiest person on the planet and always manage to spill tomato sauce on my top or drop food or drink somewhere on myself. You wouldn't want to take me to a fancy restaurant that has a white tablecloth - it would be excruciatingly embarrassing LOL! I trip over air and are always bumping into things.

7. I am so slow at cardmaking and I have no idea how people make and post a card every day and still manage to be a Mum, go to work and do the housework.

So, I am passing this award onto:

1. A load of pickle by Kerry Cox - a blog which I recently discovered. Wow - what a multi-talented lass!

2. Buttons for Brains by Liz - one of my favourite, favourite blogs. Love Liz's style. So unique and her cards always make me smile.

3. Fong crafty place by Cathy Fong - also a recent discovery. I don't think Cathy realises how talented she is!

4. Scrapcollector by Yenni Natalia - another discovery I made a few months ago - super-talented and a lovely lady.

5. The voices in my head by Lim - wow - Lim's vintage style just blows me away. I could look at her cards ALL day and never tire of them!

6. Snail's Space by Linda - Linda is a beautiful, kind and gentle lady - I can only dream to watercolour like Linda! Linda has also been a wonderful supporter of my blog (thanks sweetie!!)

7. Cards Calligraphy - Shaz in Oz - who gave me this award and who has become a very dear blogging friend. Shaz has always been ready to lend an ear and has been so incredibly encouraging in my cardmaking. And Shaz is a super-versatile blogger who not only does beautiful calligraphy but makes all styles of cards with all different mediums. I am truly blown away by Shaz's creativity!

So, that's it from me. I should be back tomorrow with a quick card I made for my niece's upcoming 4th birthday. The sun has just come out so I will go and photograph it outside while I still can.

Jocelyn

Inkadinkado Standing Seagull - a masculine birthday card

2011-07-12T14:22:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends

If you read my last blog post about my wrist and having cortisone injected into it and not being able to craft after it for a little while - well, I had to cancel my doctor's appointment as my DD has been sick with a nasty cold which just won't go away - poor little thing. So I have been housebound and managed to do a bit of cardmaking here and there. My wrist will have to wait until my DD is all better and back at school.

Anyhow, I finished a birthday card for my DH whose birthday is next month. I have been having a play with my Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils which is what I coloured my image with and boy - I sure do love them. The colour is so vibrant and really brings things to life! They do take a bit of getting used to in comparison to my regular Faber Castell watercolour pencils. Once I had finished colouring, I added a little bit of clear Sakura glaze onto the seagull's eye, beak and legs - alas, completely oblivious in the photo - but adds a bit of shine in real life.

Because I had chosen a "sea" image, I wanted to make a frame that kind of looked like a porthole so I diecut an oval with 2 oval nesties, added the brads, then popped this frame up on doublesided foam pads. Here is a wee close-up of the image - you can click on the image for a bigger pic if you wish:

The designer paper is by My Mind's Eye - Stella Rose. Gorgeous papers - and even though a lot of them have flowers, the non-flowery ones are just so perfect for a masculine birthday card IMHO. I decided to add some stitching just to add a bit of texture. I pierced the holes with a paper piercer then hand-sewed all the stitches - yep, all hand-sewn.

The side panel was punched with a Martha Stewart Embossed Diamond edge punch then I added some rope tied in a sailor's knot. I learnt how to do the sailor's knot from Lynne Phelps blog Savvy Sisters Studio (thanks sweetie!) after seeing her amazing tri-shutter Father's Day card here - and this is the link to an animated gif which Lynne provided which helped me enormously. This type of knot is also called The Anchor Bend, Carrick Bend and Full Carrick Bend. According to the description on this website, it's easy to tie, does not slip easily in the wet, and is among the strongest of knots - it can't jam and is readily untied - and I actually used four pieces of rope instead of two as two just seemed to look "lost" on the panel - the four made for a bolder statement. Both this side panel and the main image are up on doublesided foam pads.

To finish, I tied the same rope through the button then glued the button on, then glued on the "happy birthday" metal sentiment which I have had forever. I got it free with an order from some store that I bought something from ages ago. I "think" they are by Print Blocks; they came in a pack with other sentiments like Happy New Year, and Happy Christmas etc. but I no longer have the packaging so I can't be sure. If you know, drop me a comment or an email and I'll update this post. Here is a close-up - pretty cool tag isn't it? So perfect for a masculine card - and I was so rapt that it matched the brads - a happy coincidence:

I am entering this card into the following challenges -

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge #159 - Sewing (faux or real)

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week 111 - Free and Easy July - Anything goes

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything goes with the optional extra of buttons

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - A stitch in time - real or faux

Thanks for stopping by my little world and thank you so much for any comments you leave

If you are short of time, scroll right down to the end of this post past the Card Recipe and you will see a heading that says "Reactions" where you can just click on an automatic comment. This is something I only just recently added and thought it was pretty cool for busy people especially those on DT Challenge blogs that are visiting all the entrant's blogs - what a huge task! So it's easy to just do one click and your done and you can move onto someone else's blog.

I have been working on a "Welcome to your new home" card for my BIL and SIL who have moved states and built their retirement dream home by the sea so I hope to share this in my next post.

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Inkadinkado Standing Seagull INKA-99205-DD wood mounted

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: My Mind's Eye Stella Rose 6" x 6" pad

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Oval Nestabilities, 140lb watercolour paper, Derwent Inktense pencils, small round #2 paintbrush, paper piercer, teal sewing thread + sewing needle, Sakura clear glaze pen, doublesided foam pads (dimensionals), clear blue button - from Basic Grey Granola set, string, Happy Birthday metal tag - Printblocks (?), brads by Printblocks, Cardstock: teal, mustard

Punches: Martha Stewart embossed diamond

JustRite Christmas Treasures - quick and simple Christmas card

2011-07-05T15:43:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends and welcome to my new followers - it's lovely to have you!

No, your eyes are NOT deceiving you: it really is a Christmas card. As there are a few Christmas Challenges popping up here and there (not to mention Christmas in July sales - yippee!), I thought I should jump on board and make my first Christmas card for the year. I went for quick and simple - and this one would be easy to mass produce.

The white cardstock embossed panel is one of the embossing folders from the Sizzix Winter Set #3 which I ran through my Cuttlebug using the same sandwich as for Cuttlebug folders. I love this folder and it seemed to match the image perfectly with its stars - a match made in heaven! I added the purple brads in each corner then popped the panel up on doublesided foam tape to attach it to the white cardstock base.

The main image and sentiment is from my JustRite Christmas Treasures 3-1/4" diameter set. I love how you can mix and match the main images and the sentiments. I stamped the image with Heliotrope pigment ink, poured on some satin pearl embossing powder and heat-set it with my heat-gun. I inked around the circle lightly so the panel would stand out a bit from the white embossed background then popped it up on doublesided foam squares (dimensionals) to attach it to the cardstock.

The organza ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy. That's it - easy peasy. No colouring for a change! Finished card size is 4-1/2" or 113mm.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts's weekly Christmas Challenge (CHNC) #27 - pinks and/or purples - where you can use any materials, any techniques - anything goes - as long as the end result is a Christmas card and it has pink and/or purple somewhere

Sir Stampalot July Challenge - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge - Week 110 - Free and Easy July (anything goes)

On a totally different note, I finally went to the Doctor last week because my left wrist and thumb has been swelling up and getting very sore. It has been sore for quite a few months, but particularly sore when I was doing some embroidery these past few weeks. The doctor sent me for an X-ray and ultrasound and it showed arthritis in the thumb and wrist joint. Nuts! I am waaaaay to young to get arthritis (I think so anyway!) and as a classical pianist as well as all my other crafty endeavours, I am NOT happy! At least I am right-handed so I am thankful that it's not my right hand but I do use my left hand alot nonetheless. Many years ago, I dislocated this wrist (twice!) and the doctor thinks maybe that my wrist was damaged from it. I am having some cortisone injected into it this Thursday so my crafting will come to a standstill while I am not allowed to use my hand. I have almost finished my DH's birthday card so I should be able to post it here on my Blog next week (well, as long as it stops raining and blowing a gale and I can photograph it!) .

So, I shall leave you a happy note. If you love cats, this video is for you. It is a Simon's Cat video (there are around 14 on You-Tube) and there is even a website for Simon's Cat books, mugs, calendars etc. I have no connection with them, but I do have the first book that came out that had me in stitches. Enjoy!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: JustRite Christmas Treasures set 3-1/4" diameter

Ink: Colorbox Heliotrope pigment

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Sizzix Textured Impressions embossing folder set - Winter Set #3 - #656586, Bow Easy, 1" or 25mm wide purple organza ribbon, foam tape, doublesided foam squares, heat-gun, satin pearl embossing powder, purple brads - Franceville Australia - from Love Mini Brads set #130004, Cardstock: white

Stampin' Up - Gift Tags - a teddy bear birthday card

2011-06-23T13:35:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends

I have been wanting to upload this card all week but the weather has been terrible: extremely windy and rain then drizzle and all dull and dreary - rather useless for photographing outside and not even bright enough to use my kitchen bay window. Anyway, I managed to get a photo or two today as it was brighter for about ten minutes - and now the drizzle has set in again . I am hanging out for spring, that's for sure.........

I made this card for the Splitcoaststampers 'Free for all Friday' F4A68 Challenge of 'Give me your tired, your poor unused stamp sets'. The image I used is from an old retired Stampin' Up set called "Gift Tags" which I bought second-hand on EBay ages ago for a song - mainly because I loved the teddy and one of the other images that had snowmen (I am nuts for snowmen and teddy bear stamps) - but sadly, I hadn't got around to using the set at all - and I don't know why because I really love it.

I stamped the image (the sentiment and teddy are all on one stamp) onto watercolour paper and coloured it with watercolour pencils. I really wanted the teddy to have lots of texture, so instead of colouring directly onto the teddy, I scribbled various browns/yellow hues onto a scrap of watercolour paper and used a wet paintbrush to dab into the colours starting with the lightest colour first, touched the paintbrush onto some paper towel so it wasn't so wet, then dabbed it onto the teddy, and kept building up the layers of colour. You can see the technique a little better in this close-up of the teddy:

I added pink transparent glitter to the teddy's bow and present and lemon transparent glitter to the bow on the present. The main image panel is popped up on doublesided foam pads.

The pink cardstock side panel was run through my Cuttlebug using a Caramello embossing folder. The ribbon was attached in two separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy. The button originally had a shank on it, but I snipped it off with a pair of my DH's tinsnips from the garage (ssssh - don't tell him....). I then glued the button on with Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue.

The plaid designer paper has no name on the back so I have no idea who made it. If you know, please leave me a comment and I will update this post. Lastly, I added the gorgeous plaid fabric brad - here is a wee close-up:

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

SCS 'Free for all Friday' F4A68 (as already mentioned)

SCS 'Ways to use it' WT188 'Mad for Plaid'
Stampin' B's Challenge #115 - Use a border punch

I had best be off. My little cat Ruby is banging on the computer room door and miaowing incessantly. It would appear that she doesn't like the cat food I gave her and she is certainly letting me know. I don't know why they don't just make mouse-flavoured catfood.......

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampin' Up Gift Tags (2000) - retired

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: unknown

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Caramello embossing folder, Spellbinder Scallop circle nestabilities, 140lb watercolour paper, Faber Castell watercolour pencils, small round #2 paintbrush, pink gemstones, Art Institute pink and lemon transparent glitter (from Shabby Chic set), Designer dries clear adhesive (for glitter), gingham ribbon, Bow Easy, pink button, doublesided foam squares (dimensionals), fabric plaid brad, Crafter's Pick Incredibly Tacky glue (to adhere button), Cardstock: brown, pink

Punches: Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop

Penny Black: Frolic - birthday card for my daughter

2011-06-14T17:29:00.001+10:00

Hi blogging friends Welcome to my blog and an extra-special welcome to my new followers - it's lovely to have you join me

It will be my daughter's birthday in a couple of weeks and I have finished her card already! I think that's the first time I have finished her birthday card so early. But I have most of my extended family's birthdays coming up in July and August (lots of them men....sigh.....) and are trying to get ahead. I have a family birthday party to organise for my daughter too so that will keep me very busy! Anyway, onto my card......

I love Easel cards - they are fun to make. A bit more time consuming than a regular card but worth the extra effort IMHO (in my humble opinion). Now tell me that you are NOT smiling at that happy cat with his bunch of flowers! Isn't she just so sweet? I stamped the image onto watercolour paper and coloured it with watercolour pencils; I added some areas of pink and blue around the image which shows up better in the next two photos. I stamped the image again and cut out just the wings on the butterflies and glued them on top of the butterflies on the main panel to add some dimension. I added some orange gemstones to the flower centres and both the butterflies and flowers have been glittered within an inch of their lives LOL! Here is a close-up photo of the butterflies so you can the dimension:

And here is a close-up of the image itself:

The bow was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my fabby Bow Easy. I sewed the heart button to the bow centre before I glued the bow on with fabric glue.

For the sentiment section of the Easel card: I added some Doodlebug velvet brads but didn't quite push them all the way through so that they would stick up a little and hold the front panel in place more securely. The sentiment panel was diecut using my Cuttlebug and Spellbinder Labels 10 nestabilities. Here is a little close-up of one of the brads so you can see how soft and velvety they look:

And here is a close-up of the sentiment panel. I coloured around the edge of the white panel with a pink watercolour pencil.

Not sure if you can see, but the designer paper is very glittery and sparkly. I almost couldn't cut into it - it's so gorgeous. I picked it up from a scrapbooking store in Bright when I was there on holidays last year - yes - it's taken me 8 months to use it! How's that for hoarding?! Now, go on: admit that you have done it too so that I will feel better.......

Challenges:

This card fits the following challenges -

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes with the optional extra of white

Penny Black at Allsorts - June Challenge - You're my favourite (my card uses my favourite things: PB stamps, glitter, butterflies, cat, ribbon, pink + green colour combo - well everything on my card!) plus it's going to my favourite person in the whole wide world (my daughter)

My Creative Moments - Word Play Weekend #6 - Birthday

On a slightly different note: here is a gorgeous card made by my blogging friend Samantha Post of Ryemilan's Blogspot. Sam sent me this card to say thanks for the baby card and present I sent following the recent birth of their new baby boy.

Isn't Sam just so talented?!! Sam is a whizz at punch art cards too and making jewellery, cake decorating, sewing - wow - the list goes on......! You can check out Sam's blog here.

As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me - my email addy is on the LHS of my blog sidebar - just scroll down a little. Or leave a comment below.
Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black - Frolic 3972K, sentiment from Penny Black - Party Time 30-049 clear set

Ink: Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper: Best Creation - Once upon a time - Item #GP362

Accessories: 140lb watercolour paper, Faber Castell watercolour pencils, small round #2 paintbrush, yellow gemstones - Hero Arts CH126, ribbon, Bow Easy, heart button - Trimits, pink sewing thread, Kindyglitz Crystalina, Doodlebug crushed velvet brads - 1884 pastel, Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Labels 10, Cardstock: green, dark pink

Punches: Martha Stewart Doiley Lace

Penny Black: Bundle of joy - baby girls are so sweet!

2011-06-07T11:27:00.000+10:00

Hi blogging friends It feels like forever since I last posted. It all started when I dropped a Spellbinders die down the back of my chest of drawers which holds most of my craft stuff.....nuts.......which meant I had to move my plastic boxes which contain more craft stuff off the top of the chest of drawers so I could move the drawers away from the wall....and then I thought I should have a tidy-up while I was at it......yadda yadda yadda.....and before I knew it, a week had gone by before I finally retrieved my die! But, my craft room looks so much neater and I was able to get together a nice pile of crafting magazines which I put in the magazine swap box at my local library. I was so pleased that after I dropped the magazines off and went into the library for a browse, by the time I came out, most of the magazines had already been snapped up by a very happy little group of ladies

Anyway - onto my card........ I made this CAS (Clean and Simple) card for our family's Osteopath and his partner who have just become a parents for the first time to a little girl (obviously). He and his partner had a bit of rough time with the pregnancy and the baby came very early and is still in hospital in a humidicrib. The baby is doing very well but they are not allowed to hold the baby yet and had to go home without the baby! I can't imagine how that must feel - to go home without the baby - but they are keeping busy buying baby things and setting up the baby's room as they had virtually nothing ready.

The gorgeous embossing on the pink cardstock was done with one of my fav folders by K Kingdom (I have a link to the folder at Fat Cat's Card Corner in the Card Recipe below). I coloured the image with OMS and Prismacolor + Derwent Coloursoft pencils and added some Kindyglitz Crystalina to the teddy's bow and the nappy pin on the hedgie. I cut out the image and popped it up on 1mm doublesided foam squares.

The tag is a fabby new die and clear stamp set by My Favorite Things. The set comes with several sets of dies apart from the tag itself including the baby growsuit which I have used on my tag. There is also a variety of sentiments and other images in the stamp set. Love it! The dies use the same sandwich in your Cuttlebug as for Spellbinder dies. I added a strip of pink rhinestones underneath the sentiment.

Once I tied on the ribbon, I glued part of the tag to the ribbon so it would stay in the right place then glued a heart-shaped button to the bow centre. Here is a little close-up peek:

This card fits the following Challenges:

ABC Challenge - V is for variety - use 3 different types of embellishments on your card. I have used rhinestones, the button and the ribbon.

Splitcoaststampers - Ways to use it WT325 - Dying for Diecuts - where you have to show them your diecuts. Of course, I used my new tag die set.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black - Bundle of Joy 30-043 clear set, My Favorite things Notched Tag clear stamp set

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black

Accessories: Cuttlebug, K Kingdom KEM117 Flowers and Dots embossing folder, My Favorite Things Die-namics Notched Tag die set, pink gingham ribbon, pink heart button (Spotlight), Kindyglitz Crystalina, Basic Grey bling-it rhinestones, Odourless Mineral Spirits (OMS), Derwent Coloursoft pencils, Prismacolor pencils, paper stumps, 1mm double-sided foam squares, Cardstock: pink, KW Doggett Knight white, American Crafts kraft

Punches: Stampin' Up corner

Penny Black: Hello Dear - card for one of my dearest friends

2011-05-21T22:12:00.000+10:00

Hi and welcome to my Blog

I made this card for a dear friend of my mine who is going through a tough time to hopefully bring some happiness into her day and let her know that I am thinking of her.

The image is one of the more recent releases by Penny Black and I love it - but then again, I say that about all my Penny black stamps, don't I LOL?!!

I stamped the image onto watercolour paper and coloured it with Faber Castell watercolour pencils. You can't tell from the photo, but I added some Kindyglitz Crystalina to the centres of the orange flowers. I punched a butterfly and added some tiny gemstones to the body.

I sewed the button onto the sentiment panel then popped the panel up on foam pads. The ribbon was attached in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my trusty Bow Easy. I didn't really want to add anything else to the card because the designer paper (a gorgeous NEW release by Kasiercraft) is rather busy.

This card fits the following Challenges:

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Challenge 152 - Anything goes

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #83 - Anything goes

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black 'Hello Dear' 40-062 slapstick, 'Hello' sentiment from Wendy Irving J6412.01 clear set

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Designer paper: Kaisercraft Bubblegum Hills Collection - P635 Candy Confetti

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Oval Nestabilities, mulberry mauve button + matching sewing thread, ribbon, Scor-Pal, Kindyglitz Crystalina, Bow Easy, Faber Castell watercolour pencils, #2 round brush, 140lb watercolour paper, foam pads, Kaisercraft pink gems, Cardstock: mulberry mauve (American Crafts), light teal

Punches: Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop, Carl Butterfly-A

Penny Black: For you - a birthday celebration

2011-05-16T11:00:00.000+10:00

Hello blogging friends! At last, I have been able to get into some cardmaking after what seems an eternity!! Funny how when you haven't made a card for ages, it takes a while to get back into the groove and get the old mojo happening.

It has been difficult to blog anything with Mr Blogger having some issues which I read about in Blogger Buzz and Known Issue for Blogger which I subscribe to. If you don't subscribe to either, I would heartily recommend that you do so you know if there are any issues going on with Blogger. Or check out the forum via the Help button at the top RHS of your Blog. They have had to "roll-back" to an earlier version at their end and are now gradually restoring posts done since that roll-back. I have noticed that some Bloggers have done their latest posts a couple of times probably not knowing what was going on and now their blogs have the same post several times over as Blogger is restoring them. Anyway, I don't envy the Blogger Admin trying to fix what has obviously been a major problem - I imagine they would be very stressed and I'm grateful for all the work that they do behind the scenes.

As usual, I am digressing........back to my card.......

I started with a very simple masculine card for my nephew - which actually took me a silly amount of hours to do! I just couldn't make up my mind about the sentiment panel and the ribbon. Sometimes it takes longer for me to do a CAS (Clean and Simple) card than do a card with layers - it seems easier to "balance" the different elements on a layered card. Rather ironic really when CAS cards are supposed to be quicker....... But it's a style that I enjoy when it flows - plus it's a style I would like to master! My blogging friend Robyn from Rainbows by Robyn is fantastic at CAS cards - check out Robyn's Blog here - you won't be disappointed.

I daresay you can see how I made my card, but I'll explain it in case you are new to cardmaking. The kraft cardstock was run through my Cuttlebug using the Happy Birthday embossing folder and I rounded the corners with my corner punch. I stamped the dog using Versafine Vintage Sepia ink, heat-set it then coloured it with pencils + OMS, added some blue glitter to the present, cut the image out and popped it up on foam pads. The sentiment panel was diecut using one of the Spellbinder Tags Trio dies and I inked around the edges with Sky blue pigment ink, heat-set it so it wouldn't smear, added the brads then popped this panel up on foam pads as well. The sentiment actually says 'Celebrate All Day' but I masked off the words to just leave the word 'Celebrate'. Lastly, I tied the ribbon on the card, slipped it off again and sewed the button to the centre, then slipped the ribbon back on - much easier than trying to sew the button on when the ribbon is already on the card.

Here is a little close-up peek of that cute little dog that I love so much:

This card fits the following Challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 151: Clean and Simple

Moving along with the times - Challenge 98: 2 B's - at least 2 items on your project beginning with B, but you can have more. My 'B' items are brads, blue, button and birthday. And unfortunately belated as I got my weeks mixed up and I thought my nephew's birthday was THIS coming week, not last week! Oops....

So that's about it. Don't forget that you can email if you have any questions - my address is on the LHS of my Blog - just scroll down a little till you find it.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon. Hey - I just learned how to add smileys to my Blog (bet you can't tell LOL!)

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Penny Black 'For you' 3446E, Sentiment from Hero Arts - HA-CL292 Celebrate All Day clear stamp set

Ink: Versafine Vintage Sepia, Versafine Onyx Black, Versacolor Sky blue pigment

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder, Spellbinder Tags Trio S3-147, doublesided foam pads, blue brads, gingham ribbon, blue button + sewing thread, blue glitter - Art Institute (from Shabby Chic set), Designer Dries clear adhesive (for glitter), heat-gun, Prismacolor and Derwent Coloursoft pencils, OMS (Odourless Mineral Spirits), paper stumps, Cardstock: American Crafts Kraft, KW Doggett "Knight" white

Punches: Stampin' up corner punch

Sorry for my lack of posting + some photos of my garden

2011-05-09T22:04:00.010+10:00

Hello blogging friends. Sorry for my lack of posting - sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and I have been very busy with helping my elderly Mum and of course, life is always busy with a young child - plus I have been plagued with migraines of late which hasn't been fun. Anyway, you didn't come here to hear me moan so I shall stop now ;-) On to more important issues......

The other reason is that I couldn't do any posts!! Every time I tried to do a new post in Blogger, I would just get this non-stop spinning wheel where you would usually type your text. I thought maybe Blogger was having some maintenance done making it go "off-line", however, after some research I have found that the new editor program on Blogger isn't working for my Blog (other Bloggers are having the same issue apparently) so I have had to modify my settings to go to the 'Old Editor". I have never used the Old Editor before so are still finding my way around it. I can't seem to make pictures very big - but it is certainly better than nothing!

You can read about the problem at this post here at the Blogger Help Desk and you can read some more information about what Blogger are doing to fix the issue at this link here.

I am glad that it is not me - I was thinking that I had messed up my Template modifications and was tearing my hair out thinking that I wouldn't be able to fix it.

Anyway, I hope to resume my regular posting very soon. I am working on some of those hard-to-make masculine cards and finishing off my ribbon dyeing tutorial.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a couple of photos that I took in the past week:

These daisies appeared in my garden bed after digging in some home-made compost. They are so pretty and just keep flowering. I love daisies - they are so cheerful! They are actually really small flowers - probably about half an inch in diameter.

This second photo is the view from my kitchen window. The sun had almost set and this double-rainbow appeared through the misty rain. The colour was so intense in the centre of the first rainbow that I just had to take a photo. It hasn't been enhanced with any photographic editor - this is just how it was.

This last photo is of my pink bottlebrush which has been looking spectacular and keeping the bees very busy - so it wasn't hard to find a flower that had a bee on it for my photo :-)

Since I took these photos, the weather has turned very cold - like mid-Winter - and it was very frosty here this morning - below 0 degrees C (or 32 deg F). Brrrr - I felt like a blimp wearing all my layers of clothes when I took my DD to school. I am wishing for spring already.....

Thanks for visiting - and I hope to resume my regular posts very soon!

{{hugs}}
Jocelyn

I need to edit some posts on my Blog which will give you email updates.....please read.....

2011-04-22T12:59:00.001+10:00

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that I need to go back and edit some of my posts over the next few days - I need to add some HTML code but I won't bore you with the details - it is do with preventing my photos from being copied or downloaded.

My understanding about Feedburner is that if you subscribe to my Blog via EMail/Feedburner, when I go back and edit posts, you will then receive an email. I looked into disabling the Feedburner while I am doing the editing, but you can't do it.

If you subscribe to my Blog in other ways, you may also find that these older posts that I am editing may appear as the "latest" post when they are in fact, older.

So please accept my apologies in advance if you get a few EMail updates or feed updates that have older dates on them over the Easter break (don't worry - there won't be hundreds) - they are not SPAM and I am not SPAMMING you. Nothing has gone wrong with your subscription - it is unfortunately in the nature of Feedburner and Blogs in general, that when you edit your posts, people will get the updated post. Handy for some things - not so for others!!

Update re copyright

If you read my last post (from a few days ago) about Copyright and how someone wanted to use one of my cards in an ad and I had said "no", well the personal concerned chose another card from my on-line Gallery, cropped it so my personal watermark wasn't visible and then used it in the ad with their rubber stamp at a particular website where you can buy/sell (not Ebay)! I was positively livid and astounded at the cheek!

So I immediately contacted the website who were fantastic! They sent me a link to a legal form called DMCA Notice of Copyright Infringment (DMCA stands for Digital Millenium Copyright Act) with instructions on how to fill it in which took me a few hours and all I had to do was email it back to the website. The listing was pulled straight away. Some hours later the stamp was re-listed minus the picture. I hope the Seller has learned their lesson.

I also contacted the Administrators of my on-line gallery from where the card was copied from (I had made the card before I had this blog) and informed them of what had transpired and they are dealing with it. It is a breach of their Terms of Service to use someone's work in this manner. I felt it was no use my contacting the person again as they had not complied with my original wishes anyway - the boss pointing the finger will hopefully have more force!

I would urge you to read about the DMCA at Wikipedia - even if you only read a little bit about it as you may find yourself in the same boat as me and not know what to do about it. Perhaps even Bookmark it so you can go back there if you need to one day (and I hope you don't have to!!). I know of another Blogger whose cards were used without permission as samples at an on-line store pertaining to a brand of stamps the store were selling! I am just dumbfounded that people will do these sorts of things!

******************************

Thank you for your patience while I make these little Blog adjustments and I hope they don't cause you too much angst!

Jocelyn

I have a new email address - and some Copyright explanation

2011-04-20T14:25:00.000+10:00

Hi there! Just wanted to let you know I have changed my EMail address for any enquiries relating to my Blog or cardmaking only and have updated the relevant parts of my Blog to reflect my new address.

It is: insteadofironing@gmail.com

This only applies to my Blog and is specifically set up for my Blog.

For family and friends that use my other EMail addresses, please continue to use those other addreses.

Copyright Issues

Did you notice that at the top LHS of my Blog a new little box that says "My own free copyright registered and protected" plus the details underneath about my Creative Commons License? Read on....I will explain.....

In the section on my blog called "Hello and welcome to my Blog", I have a few lines (which most bloggers put on their blog) about their artwork being copyright to them and is not to be used for personal or monetary gain or used for contest submission etc - which I think is fair and reasonable.

But a little while ago, I was contacted by someone via another on-line forum I am part of, who loved one of my cards that had pink flowers. They told me that they had the same floral stamp that I had used and was planning to sell that stamp - and wanted to use my card as a sample in the ad. Whilst it was flattering that they liked my card so much, I replied very politely that I wasn't comfortable with the idea as I had no control over where my image would be used and as they were an accomplished cardmaker, perhaps they could make a card with that same stamp and sell the card with the stamp?

I received a rather upsetting reply as they were rather indignant that I should need some sort of control over where my image would be used and just "forget it - they'll look elsewhere".

I felt it was important that the person understand my position as they didn't seem to - and I replied that I have a note on my Blog that my cards are copyright to me and are not to be used for personal or monetary gain - which it would if they were using my card as a sample to help sell their stamp.

I also pointed out that the reason I chose the colour pink for my flowers on the particular card in question was because the lady concerned has been battling breast cancer (pink being the colour for breast cancer) and that they will not live to see their next birthday - this is the last card I will ever do for them - and to have someone use that card to sell their stamp would be very upsetting to me; that often my cards have a story behind them - they are not JUST cards to me!

It must have struck a chord with the person and they were very nice to reply and were very polite about it and they seemed to then understand my position. And, in all fairness to this person, sometimes people just don't realise the implications behind what they might be asking and have little knowledge of copyright.

So, as I have seen others Blogs display their Copyright, I thought it was time I registered my Blog and it's contents via a Creative Commons License so I have some sort of recourse if someone uses my Blog content for their own benefit.

Thanks for listening and have a great week!

Jocelyn