A quick one and an update

I am working on another couple of projects at the moment, one for a special birthday coming up and then for a group of cards for an upcoming class in December, so obviously I can't show you them yet.  

Here's a quick card whipped up using the negative space from dies.   Lots of people just throw the off cuts away, but sometimes they actually make an equally good card.  You will have to believe me that the colours on this card looked soooo much better in real life; Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush and Bashful Blue.

And remember I mentioned recently that I had been making something for Rachel Capps' fundraiser.  Here is an excerpt from the website about the amount raised on the day.  

So, what was the grand total raised on Saturday, from the raffle and craft sale.... I know you are all dying to find out....I have announced it to Shane and Rachel, they were overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone who contributed, and wanted me to pass on their thanks to everyone........ So thanks everyone........ And the total ........ An amazing ............. Twenty-two thousand and sixty-two dollars and fifty cents!!! ($22,062.50). Well done everyone!
This is double what we thought we might have a chance of raising, an incredible response for an incredible lady and her family. I am sure it will inspire Rachel to persevere on her long road to recovery.

Isn't that an amazing amount of money!  Still I guess realistically it won't go far with having to pay for all treatments involved, wheelchair and specialised equipment so she can go home.  But an amazing effort for all those who organised the event and worked so hard to make the day a success.   

Another wonderful friend's birthday

I am so lucky to have made some great friends through our mutual love of all things crafty and Stampin' Up.  There is something about papercrafting that bonds people together.  Funny how an incidental comment made about stamping at work  can change your whole world.  

Another one of my wonderful friends recently celebrated her birthday and this is the card I made for her.  It uses some of my favourite First Edition paper that I just cannot part with and  Summer Silhouettes stamp set. 

 
A little bit of cutting out required, but I actually find it quite therapeutic. 

A get well card

I recently made a get well card for a friend's husband and used the whale from Pun Fun set (now retired).  

Once again the photo doesn't show it too well, but the background is shimmered and sponged.  

And if you are wondering what I have been working on lately, I have just finished making a bundle of the Festive Flurry snowflakes for a fundraiser.  I was enjoying myself until the hot glue gun decided to pack it in and everything had to be glued by melting the glue on the outside of the nozzle and letting it drip down where needed. 

 

My mother in law celebrated her birthday recently and this is the card I made for her.  I wanted something crisp and clean so chose a white background with a border panel.  I used the dandelion from Summer Silhouettes with a bit of sponging on the edges for effect. 

I was a bit disappointed with the spacing on the bottom of the panel, but happy with the top.  The photo doesn't really do this justice, but the colours used were More Mustard and Rich Razzleberry - a nice combination.  

7 year old birthday

On the weekend we had a picnic birthday party in Glenbrook National Park for my 7 year old niece and also to watch the riders, and in particular my brother-in-law and nephew, come in from the Woodford to Glenbrook Classic Bike race.  Fortunately for all the day was much cooler than the Saturday - perfect conditions for our plans.  And both riders finished the race in good times too.  

This is the card made for my niece.  She is a lover of all things pink, and we like to please.  

 

I used three of the new in colours; Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana and Pistachio Pudding with Adorning Accents, Chevron and a (non Stampin' Up) Darice embossing folder for a little texture. 

 

 

My wonderful friend

One of my good friends recently celebrated her birthday and as she once admired a card very similar to this one I decided to slightly change it to suit her.  There aren't many people you can get away with having a saying like "My dear kind and wonderful friend" on, but I felt on this occasion I could.  It's from a set called "Occasional Greetings" which has now retired but I picked it up at one of the recent craft sales.  

I think black and white cards look quite elegant and that's the effect I wanted to portray for this very talented friend of mine.  

I also had to make an envelope to fit the card into.  I found this quite tricky to work out even with the diagonal scorer.  I have heard Stampin' Up have just released an Envelope Maker in the US which has templates of all different sized envelopes, so hopefully it will be in Australia before too long.

 

Seeing stars

Friday afternoon my darling son asked if I had a card for a birthday he was going to on Saturday.  Have been meaning to try something like this for a while after seeing something similar on Pinterest, so it didn't take much time at all to make.  As it was for a 16 old boy, grunge was the order ofthe day.  Lots of black sponging and stamping, and during the making I smudge one of the stars.  But you know what, it really didn't matter. 

The card I was copying was stitched to keep everything together, but I glued mine down and used the paper piercing pack to "stitch".
 

So as I enjoyed making this one so much and was pleased with the end result I made one for my darling husband who celebrated his birthday on Father's Day this year. 

Similiar, but different.  
 

Craft Sale Fundraiser

If you live in Sydney and are free on Saturday 14th September why not pop in to the Holy Cross Primary School in Meurants Lane at Glenwood and grab a bargain at their craft sale.  This is a fundraiser for Rachel Capps, a mum who has Locked in Syndrome as a result of a brain stem stroke, and her young family.

There will be lots of things for sale, obviously lots of craft stuff, but also cakes and gifts for Christmas presents, as well as lots of raffle prizes to be won.  The event will go from 9.30 to 4.30pm.  

If you would like to make some cards you can also book into a card class from 2-4.30pm or 6-8.30pm.  Cost is $20-00 and contact Belinda on 0400 119 499 to book.  

If you would like to follow Rache''s progress on Facebook, click here.

And this is the Father's Day Card for my father-in-law.  Same owl as my Dad's but a different design. 

 Believe it or not, the original cardstock was white, but I just kept on sponging to bring in the colour for the background.  Possibly went a little too far but I had fun.  I only had one image of the owl this time and a spare hat, so he has been cut out and then the hat mounted on pop dots to stand out.  And again you can see the Glossy Accents on the watch face and buckles. The branches are one of the trees from Lovely as a Tree that I borrowed and turned into branches.  

Happy Father's Day

This is the card my Dad will receive for Father's Day.  It is not a Stampin' Up image, and at the moment I can't actually remember which company it comes from.  A few of the sections have been stamped on different coloured cardstock and then stuck over the base design.  Some parts have also been highlighted with Glossy Accents to make them shine like the clock face, buckles on the bands of his hat and his bowtie.  

I still think the background is a little white even though there is sponging on the edges - should have done a little more. 

Wish I could be with my dad on Sunday but he is too far away to visit for a weekend.  Still, he knows I love him. 

Another interpretation

Think back to the cards designed for the class on Saturday a while ago.  I thought you may be interested to see the same design in different colours.  

Occasionally I just have the basics cardstock cut out and let people choose their own colour scheme for cards.  I find it interesting to see what colours other people put together and the way they think.  Now there was a bit of discussion about the colour scheme in these cards because they were my least favourite of the in colours; Pistacchio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe.  But I was proved wrong.  They do actually look good together.  Jean, a public apology - sorry for doubting you. 

 

And then the honeycomb card and its different versions. 

I have heard some people always make 2 versions of the same card, just in different colours.  Probably not a bad idea. 
 

Another bag with SU fabric

My sister has been busy again making bags with some SU fabric.  Thought you might be interested.  Her husband has told her she should make a few more and try to sell them on ebay, and she is trying to decide whether to or not.  

I was told that this bag has 6 different fabrics used on it - I only found 5 but obviously I wasn't looking hard enough.  Inside is a strip which has a key chain for keys and phone to be attached so you don't lose them.  Clever.

Welcome Baby Card

On Friday I became a great aunt again to my nephew's first child - a girl named Emily.  I have previously shown you the cards that I had made,  a blue and a pink one.  I still like these cards and will use them for someone in the future, but I wanted to make a more baby card for this latest addition.  

I pulled out Fox and Friends, an oldie but a good one and chose Pretty in Pink cardstock and ink with a touch of Sahara Sand.  The whole card was sprayed with shimmer so it sparkles.  

Welcome to the world Emily.  I look forward to meeting you one day. 

Triple Time Stamping

Now if you are like me and trawl the internet looking at other people's cards you will probably have seen lots of cards made using this technique, and possibly even a card that looks very similar to this.   Yes, I did copy her card pretty much the same, so much so that I had to order a stamp set especially for the leaf.  I tried to use leaves or grasses that I owned, but nothing looked as good as Sandi's card.  The original card was made by Sandi MacIver and here is a link to her website. 

Our version didn't use the extra colour flower of blue and we added a ribbon instead of a sentiment, but still it's very similar.  

Triple time stamping is where you cut out all the layers you need (and you do use a lot of cardstock with this one) and then you partly stick the white layers together and then stamp all three layers in one go.  Some of the images get a little blurred on the edges, especially the bottom layer, but most of this gets covered up with the, in this case, Crumb Cake matt layer.  After stamping is finished you just undo the white layers, add in the matt layers and then tizzy it up with sentiment, bling or ribbon.  Another clever technique to try.  

More Saturday cards

This week I will show you the final cards made last Saturday at our class.  I love our get togethers - they are such a great bunch of people, very generous, caring and clever.

Our first card was made using the Honeycomb Embossing Folder and then after chosing a colour scheme and embossing scrap cardstock, hexagons were cut out and glued randomly.  The hexagons were easy to cut out as you just cut inside the embossed edge.  I had to put some bees on for embellishments as it was honeycomb.

 

Now the colours don't look that great in these photos but it was better in real life.  But a bit pale.  So this is the more colourful version; Real Red and Night of Navy.  Much brighter, and a sentiment to match the hexagons.  I just photocopied the punch shape from our catalogue, enlarged it and then used that as a template for the sentiment.  

 

 

Morning Meadow

Morning Meadow is a hostess set from the latest Stampin' Up catalogue, and one I knew I had to get.  I really like all the images from the set, especially the flower and branch.  

I debated over using this card in the class for a long time as it looked a little plain, but there is a bit of work involved in it, especially cutting.  First the white panel had to be scored in both directions, then the two branches of blossom had to be cut out and then also some of the tiny flowers in pink needed to be cut.  I had already pre-cut a few for them to save some time. We used one of our new clay buttons in the centre of the flower and also the beautiful ruffle stretch trim in Strawberry Slush.  

I think it was well received.  I know I would like to receive a card like this. 

Weaving cardstock

Had a group of crafters over on the weekend to share a few ideas with and this is one of my favourites from the day. I remember doing this weaving technique at school with different coloured papers, but they usually ended up uneven and not very nice.  I saw this idea in a UK papercraft magazine and thought it deserved a stamping twist.  The original card was a lovely mauve and pink thing, but I wanted to go more male.  

First up I used a roller (Sassy Sparkes) in Versa Mark and then clear embossed it.  Next I used daubers and ink pads and sponged on the colour, using the lightest colour last and trying to blend it in a little.  Obviously you have to make 2 fronts so you have something to weave.  The trickiest bit is cutting the pieces into even strips.  My tip would be to glue the first 2 strips in place, and then weave away.  Try to keep it tight and pushed together, and glue as you go.  You may have to neaten up the final piece a bit which unfortunately made the pieces different sizes.  To prevent this the next one I made I left the last panel on each piece longer than the other 4 so I had a bit extra to play with and could then cut it all to the same size.  Lastly mount the panel on to a backing panel and then onto the card face.  

Now the 2 different blings - my family thought the first one was a bit feminine, so the second look is more male. 

I really liked this technique, so I made two more cards.  My nephew and his wife are expecting their first child soon so I did the pink and blue version.  At least it's almost ready to go when we hear the news.