30 November 2012

Super simple Christimas cards




Some more super quick Christmas cards.  Elves and Mrs Claus are from the Paper Doll Dress ups cricut cartridge.  Faces are Peachy Keen stamps (love them!)  Simple patterned paper with some stitching around the edges, whack on an Amy R sentiment and I'm done!  I'm all for quick and easy this Christmas, that's for sure!

Thanks for looking!

29 November 2012

Friend card



I made card for my girlfriend who has two sick kids at the moment - she is housebound and ready to tear her hair out I think! 
I made the tag using Tim Holtz distress inks - the wrinkle free technique.  I love how these colours turned out on the tag.  I then stamped some images on the top.  The sentiments are Amy R stamps, the images are Basic grey stamps.

I am entering this card in the Perfect Sentiments challenge - Challenge/Twist: create a card to recognize that special someone. Be sure to include a sentiment on the front.

Thanks for looking!

A couple more Christmas cards...



Another couple of super-quick and easy Christmas cards.  I am sticking with basic, flat designs for my Christmas cards this year, just making it easy to post.

For the first card I cut out a star on my cricut machine (I think I used Birthday bash cartridge).  I used the star on a separate card.  I used the negative space for this card.  First I flipped it over and laid it on top of my card base, so that I could align my stamps and make sure they were in the right spot.  Then I stamped the two Amy R sentiments, then attached the paper with pop dots.  I think it's ridiculously simple but effective - just how I like it when I'm on the verge of December and haven't started my Christmas cards yet!  This would be a good one to mass produce, especially when I could also make cards with the stars that I cut out.

The second card is also very simple.  I cut out Santa from the Paper Doll Dress ups cartridge and attached him to the Kaiser patterned paper.  This paper was perfect as I felt I didn't need to do any other embellishing at all!  I stamped a 'Ho ho ho' sentiment (another Amy R stamp set) and glued a pom pom to his head and I was done.  Too easy!

I am entering my star card into a couple of challenges:
Scrap Creations - This weeks challenge is "Merry Christmas"! We want to see what you are creating for the holidays.
The Paper Girls Challenge - our challenge this time is for you to create something Christmas or winter themed!

I've never played along with these two challenges before, so I'm looking forward to browsing all the entries and getting some more Christmas card inspiration!

Thanks for looking!

Some distressing with my boys!

My boys (aged 5 1/2 and 3 1/2) have been eagerly watching me use my new distress inks and were not too happy that were not allowed to touch them under any circumstances!  In my defence, I share almost all of my scrapping supplies with my boys and am happy to sit with them and help them make their special creations and cards.  They have their own inks to use and free access to my stamps, they have plenty of lovely scrapbooking paper (my leftovers).  I decided that the cost of distress inks was too much for me to share with them...but I had a weak moment yesterday and decided that under careful supervision, they could have a go at the wrinkle-free distress ink style.  And boy did they love it!

They chose two colours, spritzed with water (so much fun!), and smooshed their tag in the ink.  They oohed and aahed when they lifted their tags up and saw the results, then had fun dipping the tag back in the leftover bits of ink...anyway, they did a super job and I thought I'd share their little creations with you.  Two of these are heading to their Gran for her birthday in a couple of weeks.



Pretty, aren't they!

Thanks for looking!

A Christmas card


A super-simple Christmas card made using the EveryDay Paper Doll cricut cartridge and Amy R sentiment stamps.

I'm entering this in a couple of challenges:
CWC #114: Anything Holiday with Red and/or Green
Paper Playtime:  Anything Goes

Thanks for looking!

27 November 2012

Distress ink cards

 
Still playing around with my distress inks when I get the chance.  I got my new pink and blue distress inks (worn lipstick and broken china) so they are adding a nice touch of colour to my cards now.  This card was inspired by a Christmas card I saw and loved on this blog
The background was made by sponging on distress inks then spritzing with water.  Once dry I stamped a sheet music stamp in a light yellow/gold colour, then stamped some swirls in sepia ink.  Finally I stamped the butterflies and sentiment in black Staz-on ink.
 


 This second card was inspired by one I saw and loved on Pinterest.  A link to the original card can be seen here.  I copied the colours and stripes of the distress inks.  I then stamped the flower stamp in black ink.  I restamped the flower sections on a scrap of paper that I had covered in 'barn door' distress ink, then fussy cut the flowers and stuck them on the card.  The largest flower was stuck up with pop dots to add some dimension.

Thanks for looking!

15 November 2012

A little bit of inky fun

I've still been playing around with my distress inks - they are so much fun and very addictive!  I have had mixed results while mucking around with the inks - some turned out lovely and I was thrilled, others had colours sort of 'smoosh' together and turn a kind of 'murky, browny, blah' colour!  Ah well, you live and learn!

Here are some of the results of my inking fun:


I really love how this 'Friend' card turned out.  It is my favourite so far - love the colour combo and the marbled effect.  Once the ink dried I simply stamped the bird cage image (Kaisercraft) and the 'Friend' sentiment (Amy R) and it was done.

 This next card I like too, although I wish the colours were brighter and not quite so brown.  I love the splatters of colour all over the panel, just wishing that background was lighter and brighter.
And a little close up of those lovely, inky splatters!
 
 This little birthday card has me torn.  I love the yellow and I quite like the red splatters but I wish the green was a lighter shade, it just seems too dark next to the yellow and too dark for the stamp that I placed on top.  I also wish that I'd placed the sentiment just a little further to the right of the card.
 

And this last card, well, I almost didn't post it because it is pretty awful!  And no, I'm not after sympathy comments and I'm not looking for sympathy praise...it's just one of those cards that turned out NOTHING like I had pictured in my head!  And here it is, hold your breath...if it were a plant it would be called something like 'Cardeous Horribilious' or 'Cardeous Totally Muckedupeous'...you get the picture!!

My grand vision was this:  I masked off an area for a sentiment, then I wanted to marble the lovely colours of yellow, orange, green and purple.  However, I think I smooshed the purple way too much with the other colours, causing a bit of a murky, horrible browny colour.  But the worst part of it all?  Well the worst part was that I had said to my husband, "Hey, come and watch this, this is so awesome.  I'm going to make this really cool effect on my card, it's going to look so good".  Yes, I talked it up and then I did my excellent demonstration in front of my attentive hubby, who really didn't know what to say once I lifted up the card and had these feral looking colours all over it!!  He simply said, "I think you might have mixed the colours a bit too much!" 

Anyway, I let it all dry, pulled off the mask, sat the card down (face down unfortunately) and got a few little splotches on the white masked area.  So annoyed!  So of course I tried to fix it by adding some yellow splotches to make it look deliberate...you know sometimes when you just keep trying to fix something and you just need to tell yourself to stop, there is nothing more I can do to fix this!!  Well, this was one of those times!

So, what have I learnt from all of this? 
1.  Don't brag about your work until it's finished and you actually know it looks OK!
2.  It's much easier to use the distress inks onto a panel than directly onto the card itself.  You can attach the panel if it looks good, but you can't fix the card itself if you muck it up.
3.  Use the darker colours a bit more sparingly than I have been.
4.  Practice makes perfect!

Thanks for looking!

14 November 2012

Distress inks with acrylic blocks

 
And here's another card for the CASology challenge.
 

I'm having so much fun playing with my new distress inks!  The technique on this card was made by applying the distress inks directly to an acrylic block, spritzing a couple of times with water, then stamping.  It's so easy!  I watched a youtube tutorial that showed this technique.  You can see it here.  I love that you never really know how it's going to turn out - that's half the fun of it in my opinion.

Thanks for looking!

CASology Thanks Challenge

 
I made this card for the latest CASology Challenge
 

I needed to make a thank-you card for my MIL who has been very lovely and helping out with some babysitting for me, so the cue card this week was perfect.  Plus I needed an excuse to play with my new distress inks!  I've been having lots of fun with them and learning heaps from online tutorials and you tube videos - so much information out there!  It's kind of hard to know where to start and which technique to try first!  I actually wanted this card to have a rainbow background with more colours, but I'm still waiting for my blue and pink distress inks to arrive at my LSS...so impatient! 

I'm finding heaps of inspiration online, particularly from a couple of blogs that I mentioned yesterday.  If you want to see some awesome cards then you really should visit these blogs - you will be blown away!

Ardyth's blog:  Maskerade
Marion's blog:  Made Marion

The inspiration is endless!

Stamps:  Kaisercraft
Distress inks

Thanks for looking!


11 November 2012

CASology 'Orange' challenge


Here is my first attempt at using distress inks.  I have seen then used lots and lots on different blogs and on pinterest and LOVE how they look, but I've always been a bit scared of them!  I finally decided that I HAD to have them, and yesterday I made an investment (as opposed to a large impulse purchase!) at my LSS and bought five distress ink pads and some of the basic tools to use them.  Here is a link to two of the cards that I found very inspiring:  MASKerade blog and Made Marion blog.  Both are gorgeous blogs, I spent plenty of time drooling over their cards!  The MASKerade blog though, oh boy, I think I pinned just about every card that she has made!  WOW!  Her cards are absolutely stunning...I could look at her board on pinterest all day long!

The card is far from perfect, I made a number of errors, but given that it was my first ever attempt, I am so pleased with how it turned out!  I used post it notes to mask off the area of card that I didn't want ink on.  I used the red, orange and yellow distress inks to create a sort of 'sunset' backdrop.  I then spritzed it twice with a mini mister to give it a gorgeous, slightly distressed look.  Once it was dry, I simply stamped the bird cage image, took off the post it notes and stamped the sentiment, then it was done!  So much fun!

Some of the errors I made included not having one post-it note stuck down properly at the top, therefore you can see where I accidentally got red ink at the top left corner of the card, kind of spoiling the whole 'nice straight line' effect that I was going for!  When I pulled off the post it notes, my three year old immediately informed me that "Mum, look, you made a mistake at the top.  You need to rub it out!"  Thanks for pointing that out mate!  I also forgot about the back of the card and so when I'd finished inking and I sat the card back down on the 'messy mat', I got little ink marks on the back!  Oh well, I'll call them 'character marks'!  Also, the second birdcage didn't stamp as well as it could have, I need to make sure I press harder near the edges.

Anyway, all in all, not a bad first effort, and I am dreaming of all the possibilities!!

I am going to enter this card in the CASology challenge - I have been quietly drooling over this blog for weeks and weeks but been too scared to enter!  The cards on here are just incredibe - so inspiring and so beautiful.  Their challenge this week is:


 so I think my card will fit in nicely with this challenge.  Click here for the CASology blog - definitely worth a visit!

Stamps:  Kaisercraft bird cage image
Sentiment stamp:  Amy R stamps
Distress inks:  Barn door, Spiced marmalade, Mustard seed

Thanks for looking!

20 October 2012

Clean and simple Christmas card

I just purchased two new sets of Amy R stamps.  I love them!  They are both Christmas sentiment sets which should come in handy over the next couple of months.
While looking at this set, I noticed that the sentiments were all slightly different lengths and wondered if I could make a Christmas tree shape from them...and here is what I have come up with. 

Stamps:  Amy R 'Big Christmas Wishes'
Twine:  Whimsy Farm Twine

Thanks for looking!

17 October 2012

Butterfly thank you card


I made this card in about 5 minutes - got to love that!  I love yellow, it's such a happy, cheerful colour.  I wanted to stamp the sentiment in yellow also, but I was worried that it wouldn't stand out enough.  I copied the idea from this blog, Ink it up.  Their card was a one-layer card and so lovely, but I thought that my card needed a solid colour as the base.  I also made one in red, another in purple, and one more in green.  Took no time at all!

Here is my green version of the card - I made it slightly differently and had a go at stamping on a dictionary page.  I found and purchased a second-hand dictionary for $1 at a local Vinnie's store.  I thought the words would make a nice backdrop for the butterfly stamps.  I thought I was very clever and used the page that had the definition for 'thank' on it.  The word 'thank' was nicely placed down the bottom to the left of my stamped 'thanks so much' sentiment.  Ah yes, just perfect.  I thought I was very clever until I was about to take the photo and realised that the first word at the top of the card was 'tes'tis' and in the definition were words such as 'sperm' and 'scrotum'...hmmm, not so clever after all!  Oh well, let's just hope the recipient of the card does not look too closely at it!

Thanks for looking!

13 October 2012

Mucking around with my stamps

So I have been inspired lately by all things Pinterest.  In particular I have been enjoying seeing some 'clean and simple' cards and cards with stamping on them.  I have limited stamps at home, I really must make a few more purchases because I am really loving all these cards that I am seeing.

So it is this whole 'clean and simple' thing that has got me intrigued.  I love all the cards on the clean and simple stamping blog, they are so beautiful.  I also love to look at the Less is More blog, which also has beautiful cards.  They look so simple, so quick and easy...but they're not that easy to make!  There is a real art to making a clean and simple card look so good.  It's all about the white space, the clever design, the particular choice of stamp or embellishment...anyway, this is all a big learning curve for me and I hope to improve in this area over time.  For now, I think I will stick to being inspired by the cards I love!

So here are a couple of cards that I have been making today, mucking around with ideas that I have found online and seeing how they turn out.  Some are kind of clean and simple, others not so much, but all of them were quick and easy, that's the main thing for me!

 This card was pretty easy but I'm happy with how it turned out.  This photo is a bit dark, the actual card looks nicer in person (of course!)  I simple stamped my flowers, stems, leaves and sentiment and ran the white piece of card through my cuttlebug with my swirly embossing folder.  I tied a piece of sheer ribbon around it, then attached the white piece to a slightly larger pink piece of cardstock, then stuck that to my white card base.  Voila - we have a card!
I got the idea for this card by watching a great tutorial on Stamp TV.  They used different stamps but the end result is pretty much the same.  Great tutorials on this site. A direct link to the tutorial I watched is here
How cute is this twine!  I just purchased five spools of twine from Whimsy Farm Twine, an Australian owned and run business.  They sell 100 metre spools of twine for $5!  Bargain!  No, I'm not paid to promote them, I found an ad for their business in a cardmaking magazine.  I just thought I'd give them a shout-out because their service was very friendly, their delivery was super fast (and postage was very reasonable), and their product is fab!  Oh yeah, and did I mention they're Australian?!!  Looking forward to using all my other coloured twine on later projects.  (Oh and they also make tri-coloured twine).

Another simple, stamped card, run through the cuttlebug and attached to a card base.  So simple.  Love this embossing folder.  This card was inspired by a card I saw on...wait for it...Pinterest!  I found the card that inspired me, but unfortunately when I clicked on the link it just took me to flicker, not to the actual card, so I don't have a link to share for the original card and I have no way of finding the original person's blog.  I can tell you though that their card had butterflies, embossing and a sentiment. 

Stamps: Basic Grey
Embossing folder:  Tim Holtz
Sentiment stamp:  Amy R Designs
Twine:  Whimsy Farm twine

Thanks for looking!


Perfect Sentiments Critter challenge



I made this cute little critter card for the Perfect Sentiments Challenge that is happening at the moment.  Their current challenge is:  Create a card with a sentiment for Christmas; include a critter somewhere on your card. We are looking for animals, bugs, mice, etc. Not humans. You can have a human on your card but, there must be evidence of a critter somewhere. For example: A little girl holding a puppy would work fine. Don't forget to include your sentiment on the front!

What a great challenge!  I am trying to build up a stash of Christmas cards this year so this was a great challenge for me.  I have admired this cute little penguin from the Create a Critter cartridge for a while now, but haven't had the chance to make him.  Isn't he adorable!

I was also chuffed to find out that my Happy Birthday to Moo card was chosen in the 'top 3' in the Perfect Sentiments challenge a couple of weeks ago.  Thanks! Our friend who received the card had a giggle when he opened it, but it was the children who thought it was hilarious!  Got to love a good pun!

The layout of this card was inspired by a card (or a sketch, I can't remember) that I saw on Pinterest.  I am busy trying to find the link now and will update this blog post when (or if) I find it.  Always so much inspiration on Pinterest!
Found it!  The link to the card that I copied is here.   Here is a direct link to her blog,  Stampin Shauna.   She has lots of beautiful cards with gorgeous stamping on them.  Definitely worth a visit to her blog if you are looking for some inspiration.  Thanks for inspiring me Shauna!

Papers:  Kaisercraft
Sentiment:  Kaisercraft
Penguin:  Create a critter cartridge

Thanks for looking!

7 October 2012

New baby cards




My cousin is expecting a baby any moment now so I got busy and made her this pink baby card (I don't know why but I am convinced she is having another girl!)  Then I figured I better make a blue one as well, usually I guess incorrectly.

I love embossing on cards and these squares were quick and easy to emboss.  I inked over them in white ink just to make them stand out a little bit more.  I rarely make cards in pastel colours, I much prefer bright colours, but I enjoyed the change and think they look very 'babyish' and appropriate for a newborn.

I followed a sketch from the Clean and Simple blog,  I've never been to their challenge website before, so I hope that my cards are considered 'clean and simple'!  I guess it refers to not having too many embellishments or lumpy bumpy things?  Anyway, I really liked the sketch, so I rotated it and used it for these cards.  I thought I may as well enter their challenge and hopefully the cards fit the bill!  This is the sketch:

The monkey is from the Create a critter cricut cartridge.
The rose is a rolled rose MFT die.
The little rocking horse dies were purchased from my LSS.
Baby stamps are 'Amy R Designs' stamps.

Thanks for looking!

6 October 2012

Boy robot cards


Here's a couple of little boy cards that I have made today.  The cards are 3.5 x 3.5 inches - I love this cute little size - perfect for adding to a birthday present.

Cricut cartridge:  Boys will be boys - robot and circle
Patterned Paper - Kaisercraft - Technologic - one of my favourite boyranges of papers.
Thanks for looking!

20 September 2012

Starburst Christmas card



 I saw the idea for a Starburst card on Pinterest (of course!).  The link to the original card and a tutorial on how to make it is here.  The tutorial is excellent, and it is much easier to make than I first thought.  The card on Pinterest is just gorgeous, beautiful colours and beautiful design.  As soon as I saw it I started thinking about Christmas and knew I had the perfect papers to make this card.  I love these Kaisercraft papers and love using pink and blue on a Christmas card!  So happy with how it turned out.

I can't help but think of the hundreds of possibilities with this starburst design - boys cards, masculine cards, birthday cards, thank you cards...the list goes on.
Thanks for looking!

3 Cheers for you

And one more masculine card for the Perfect Sentiments Challenge.
Again, this card used images from the Birthday Bash cricut cartridge.

I embossed the red cardstock with a Tim Holtz embossing folder then inked over the top of it with a white ink pad to make it stand out.  The brown cardstock was embossed with the Swiss dots embossing folder.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday to Moo!

I made this card for my very good friend's husband who is turning 45 in a couple of weeks.  He owns a farm so I thought it was pretty appropriate.  Love the sentiment - always makes me smile!
The cow image is from the Birthday Bash cartridge - a cartridge I turn to a lot.

I am entering this in the Perfect Sentiments Challenge 50 - Masculine birthdays.  This is a challenge blog that I just stumbled upon today, so I look forward to seeing lots of great masculine cards.  There challenge is:  Challenge/Twist: make a birthday card/make it masculine/include a sentiment on the front.  I think I have ticked all the boxes with this one!


I had to hold myself back from adding flowers to this card.  If it was for a girl, then I would have had heaps of bright flowers going up the fence...but it's not really appropriate for a masculine card!  So I have stuck with this simple card and just stitched around the edges in red instead.

Thanks for looking!

16 September 2012

Baby boy helicopter card

I made this baby boy card to have in my stash.  I prefer to use bold colours rather than pastels for boy cards, don't know why, I just love a pop of colour I guess!  I think the helicopter is rather cute.


This card is going in the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge - make a project using some sort of transportation.  I used the helicopter cut from my Boys will be Boys cricut cartridge.  Love this cartridge!  Would also make a great birthday card for a young boy too.

A little bit of stitching around the edges and a couple of sentiment stamps (Amy R Designs 'baby' stamp, and Kaisercraft 'Bundle of Joy' stamp). 

Thanks for looking!

15 September 2012

For the love of Pinterest!

Ahh Pinterest, I tried to avoid you.  I tried to pretend that you didn't exist.  I tried not to think about you.  I tried so hard.  I knew how addictive you would be.  But I have finally succumbed, and oh how I love you!!  So much inspiration to be found.  So much pinning to be done.  So many beautiful card making ideas and craft ideas for my boys.

This post shows a couple of cards that were inspired by things I found on Pinterest.  Well, to be totally honest, they were copied from ideas I found on Pinterest.

The first is a butterfly thank you card that I made.  I copied the idea from here, at a blog called Colorful Om.  I loved the original card as soon as I saw it.  Loved the coloured butterflies and loved the beautifully cut edge of the card.  Plus it was so quick and easy to make.  Would be a great one to make in bulk or to make sets of cards for friends or family.


The second cards were inspired by a very cute caterpillar card I found on Pinterest.  The link to the original card is here.  Her blog can be found here.  Again, the gorgeous bright colours and simple design drew me in straight away.  My boys had a fabulous time making these cards.  Their Nana will be so impressed when she receives these for her upcoming 60th birthday!




My 3 year old declared that his wasn't going to be a caterpillar, it was a worm, but it had to have legs.  No amount of discussion about the body parts of a worm could convince him that worms don't have legs...therefore, we now have a new species of leggy worms!  He also didn't think they required noses or mouths!

Thanks for looking!