Happy Birthday To You

I wanted to use the set Birthday Bash from Verve, for this card (newly purchased!), and I always love clear ballons to stamp on patterned paper! The sketch is Viva La Verve June Week 4, and after trying to do the sketch upside down, because I thought that would be easier, I decided on doing it the original way (with a few little changes ;) The balloon strings werent long enough to see under the corrugated piece so I just drew a little exta length on them.

Stamps: Birthday Bash (Verve)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Kraft, Whisper White (Stampin Up)
Papers: Be Amazing (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Stampin Up button and twine, Martha Stewart border punch, Kaisercraft pearls, crimper, sewing machine

May Your Birthday Be Special

So it's CAS time again, for Viva La Verve June Week 3. And I think mine's pretty clean and simple this time!! Yay! I turned the sketch side on, and moved the oval slightly. I used papers from one of my favourite collections - Portrait, from Crate Paper. The flowers are from Joyful Blooms (Verve), and I love how you can stamp them on patterned paper to co-ordinate with whatever you're doing! I stitched around the edge of the card, and zig zag stitched on the left hand side of the thin black paper, and distressed the edges. I just used a black marker to faux stitch around the border of the oval.

Stamps: Birthday Surprise, Joyful Blooms (Verve)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Very Vanilla (Stampin Up)
Papers: Portrait (Crate Paper)
Accessories: We Are Memory Keepers floss, Bag O Buttons buttons, Black marker, Tim Holtz edge distressor, Sewing machine

Viva La Verve June Week 2

I'm out of large white cardstock at the moment, so it's forcing me to use vanilla as my card bases, which I don't normally do, but it was nice to step out the box for a while! And rather than put a long sentiment on the rectangle panel in this sketch, I decided the butterflys would look great as the centre piece! The papers are from an older My Mind's Eye collection - Vanity Fair. I sponged the edges of each piece of paper with Old Paper ink. 

Stamps: Birthday Surprise (Verve)
Ink: Early Espresso (Stampin Up)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla (Stampin Up)
Papers: Vanity Fair (My Minds Eye)
Accessories:  Prima flower, We are Memory Keepers floss, Foof-A-La Button, Tim Holtz edge distressor

TCP Tuesday 214

Hi There! This is my card for the TCP Tuesday Challenge #214. The theme is "You Blow Me Away". And the idea is to use any stamp that could be "taken by the wind" or that you could blow on (including candles!), together with either the Cloud Border or Pinwheel die. I absolutely loooove the bunny stamps from TCP. I know I've mentioned that before, but you might say I'm a little obsessed! Lol! After making my first card with them a little while back, I can definitly say I'll be making MANY more! For this card though, I used the balloon from the Away We Go stamp set, with the Cloud Border die. I still had the "On The Bright Side One" papers out from an earlier card so used them for the balloon and scallop border. I stitched over the clouds, but faux stitched around the border, and coloured the bunny with copics.  
Stamps: Away We Go (The Cat's Pajamas), Hope Blooms (Verve)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Cardstock: Very Vanilla and Baja Breeze (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White 
Papers: On The Bright Side One (My Minds Eye)
Accessories: Cloud Border and Circus Border (TCP), large scallop border (MFT Dienamics), Foof-A-La Bag O Buttons buttons, Stampin up twine and ribbon, Spellbinders circle and scallop circle, white gel pen, sewing machine

Cupcake Diva

I just love this stamp. It's ADDYtude is a Cupcake Diva, from Stamping Bella. I have a few friends who love cupcakes, and make them all the time, and thought this would be a fun image for their birthday cards. The sketch is for Viva La Verve June Week 1.

Stamps: ADDYtude is a Cupcake Diva (Stamping Bella)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Early Espresso (Stampin Up), Copics
Cardstock: Early Espresso (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White
Papers: Blush (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Stampin Up ribbon, oval punch and scallop oval punch, Bag O Buttons Buttons, Spellbinders oval and scallop oval

Thanks a Bunch

I'm so excited! I won my first Mojo Monday contest! I love Verve stamps, and am very grateful I get to choose a stamp set for free now! In light of that, I wanted to make a thankyou card using some Verve products. The sketch is an old Verve sketch too! The sentiment is from their Joyful Blooms stamp set, and the leaf die is their Elegant Leaves Die (On Sale now over at Verve).

Stamps: Joyful Blooms (Verve)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Whisper White (Stampin Up)
Papers: On The Bright Side One (My Minds Eye)
Accessories: Verve leaf die, Kaisercraft pearls, Stampin Up ribbon, Prima Flowers, Spellbinders circle and scallop circle 

Flourishes 10 Minute Creations Challenge

Flourishes are just about to release a new Blossoms Collection of stamps. They all look so amazing, and I can't wait to try them out! To try and win them though, I thought I'd enter their 10 minute creations challenge. My cards NEVER take me 10 minutes. Usually and hour! So I wanted to enter this challenge just to see if I could do it! And I can't believe I did! I just bought a new Kaisercraft paper pad and wanted to use a page from that! I embossed a Spellbinders heart and sponged the edges with Pink Pirouette ink. The flower is  from the same paper and is 3 scrunched layers of the Stampin Up scallop circle punch and 1 of the boho blossoms punch flowers. I stamped the sentiment from the Flourishes Botannical Bookplates stamp set, and raised the left side with some dimensionals to create a wave.

Stamps: Botannical Bookplates (Flourishes)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Pink Pirouette (Stampin Up0

Cardstock: Whisper White, Always Artichoke (Stampin Up)

Papers: Sweet Nothings (Kaisercraft)

Accessories: Stampin up scallop circle and boho blossoms punches, Stampin Up white brad, Spellbinders heart, Cuttlebug embossing folder, dimensionals

It's Only Fitting

Hi there! This is my card for the Mojo Monday 244 sketch callenge. If you're visiting from the Mojo Monday blog, thanks for taking the time to click on my link to have a loook. I was rushing and clicked the wrong button so it only showed up as the linky tool icon. Woops! Anyhow, back to the sketch! I'm pretty pleased I was able to stick almost exactly to the sketch! I coloured the image with copic markers, and thought it deserved some pretty and girlie papers to match. My sewing machine is fixed, and I was able to sew around the yellow background, and also the smaller square (not sure how well you can see it in the photo). I painted the edges of the flower with white acrylic paint and adhered it over some white twine.

Stamps: Feminine Charm (Flourishes)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics,

Cardstock: Whisper White (Stampin up), Neenah Solar White

Papers: Howdy Doody (My Mind's Eye)

Accessories: Prima flower, We are Memory Keepers twine, white acrylic paint, Martha Stewart border punch, Spellbinders circle and scallop circle, sewing machine

Go For The Icing!

I am completely in love with these bunny stamps from The Cat's Pajamas! They are so easy to colour, and look great on cards! I thought I'd do this in "boy" colours, because I always need more boy birthday cards in my stash! I also made this for the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge, which was to use twine.

Stamps: Forget About the Cake (The Cat's Pajamas)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Cardstock: Whisper White (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White

Papers: Happy Days (Echo Park)

Accessories: Bag O buttons white buttons, We are Memory Keepers twine, Cuttlebug embossing folder, My Favourite Things pennant die

Celebrate Today

I needed a break form pinks and blues so decided to go back to my Sunshine papers from My Mind's Eye for inspiration. And this is what I came up with! The stamp is Cupcakeabella from Stamping Bella. I wanted to keep the colours neutral, and coloured the image with copic markers. I coloured her shoes and went over her hair with a black marker. Yep, my sewing machine is still jammed, hence the black faux stitching! Behind the main image is a label die from Spellbinders.

Stamps: Cupcakeabella (Stamping Bella), Joyful Blooms (Verve)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Basic Black (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White

Papers: Sunshine (My Mind's Eye)

Accessories: Bag O Buttons black buttons, We are Memory Keepers black twine, corner chomper, Prima flower, Stampin up oval punches and scallop edge punch, Spellbinders label, Black Stampin Up marker

Don't Mind Me - Take 2

I needed a birthday card for a girl I coach (tennis), and decided to make one the same as the one I showed you two blog posts ago. I think I like this one better! Unfortunately, my sewing machine had a terrible jam that day, and I couldn't sew around the grey panels, so I had to faux stitch with a white gel pen, but I think it still looks great.

Stamps: A girl and her cake (The cat's Pajamas)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Cardstock: Rose Red, Whisper White, Basic Grey, Pink Pirouette (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White

Papers: Blush (My Mind's Eye)

Accessories:  CThe Cat's Pjamas flower die, We are Memory Keepers twine, Bag O Buttons pink button, Spotlight (store) lace, The Cat's Pajamas cloud die, Cuttlebug embossing folder, white gel pen

Simon Says Fathers Day Challenge

I made this card for the Simon Says Father's Day Challenge. I'm from Australia, and Father's day here isn't until September, but I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to make a "Dad" card, that's not father's day, and give it to my dad. He's so wonderful, and among other things, he does so many jobs around the house for us, so I made this one with the tools on it as a thankyou to him for everything he does. I couldn't ask for a better Dad :)

Stamps: Mix 'n' Mugs (Flourishes)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Cardstock: Whisper White (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White
Papers: Dilly Dally (My Minds Eye)
Accessories: Bag O Buttons buttons, We are Memory Keepers twine

Don't Mind Me!

Hi there! This is my card for the Viva La Verve May week 5 sketch. It's supposed to be clean and simple, but I just couldn't help adding a few extra things :) The three back panels are cork, and are glued on to white cardstock with a glue gun - definitly not my favourite material to work with, but I just love how it looks! The cute bunny stamp is from The Cat's Pajamas, and is coloured in with Copic markers.

Stamps: A Girl and Her Cake (The Cat's Pajamas)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Cardstock: So Saffron, Whisper White (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White

Papers: Rosy (My Mind's Eye)

Accessories: MFT Dienamics jumbo scallop border, The Cat's pajamas flower and cloud border, Stampin Up twine, Cork, My Mind's Eye button

You Make A Difference

I love giving cards that are not birthday or thankyou, because they're not always expected and it always puts a smile on the recipients face. Sometimes the people around us should be reminded of how wonderful and important they are. So I made this card with that in mind.

Stamps: Bloom & Grow (Verve), All A Flutter (Verve)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Early Espresso
Cardstock: Vanilla & Early Espresso (Stampin Up)
Papers: Portrait (Crate Paper)
Accessories: Spellbinders heart, Prima flower, Martha Stewart border punch, Verve Leaf die, Sewing machine, Tim Holtz edge distressor

Happy 50th

We were invited to a neighbours 50th birthday barbecue so I made this card for him. I am just in love with these ballons from Verve's Party Time stamp set. So great for male cards! You can't really tell in the photo, but the edges of the circle are shaded with a very light blue. I stitched around the edge of the card, as well as the diamond in the middle. The balloons are coloured with Copic markers. 

Stamps: Party Time (Verve)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Grey
Papers: A Boys Life (Echo Park)
Accessories: American Crafts Thickers, Stampin Up ribbon, Spellbinders circle, Sewing machine

Viva La Verve May Week 4

I just love this image from the Zinnia's stamp set from Flourishes. I wanted to do the flowers a bright colour with a black/written background, and am really happy how this turned out. I had to faux stitch in black marker as I didn't have any black cotton! And I also went over the little leaf things on the vase with black marker to make them stand out a bit more. The sentiment is from Verve's new Joyful Blooms set.

Stamps: Zinnia's (Flourishes), Joyful Blooms (Verve)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Pink Pirouette (Stampin Up), Copics
Cardstock: Whisper White (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White
Papers: Portrait (Crate Paper), Postale (Collections)
Accessories: Stampin Up ribbon, Spellbinders circle and scallop circle, paper piercer, black marker, Tim Holtz edge distressor, Stampin Up oval punch

Mojo Monday 241

I made this for Mojo Monday 241. It was a good excuse to use some of my new Verve stamps! I love the sentiments on their Words Cannot Express set. But what I like most about the set, is that the sentiments are long and can be used on large circles or can be used to fill large spaces. I often find I'm stuck with smaller sentiments that look a bit out of place on a larger area, so I bought this stamp set specifically to help with that! I painted the edge of the flowers with white acrylic paint, as they were originally gold, and sponged the edges of the circle with frayed burlap ink. I stamped the butterfly image (verve), on the same paper as the backgroud paper.

Stamps: Words Cannot Express (Verve), All A Flutter (Verve)
Ink: Early Espresso (Stampin Up), Frayed Burlap (Tim Holtz)
Cardstock: Whisper White (Stampin Up)
Papers: Portrait (Crate Paper), Portabello Road (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Prima flowers, lace and ribbon (Fantasia Scrapbook store - Australia), white acrylic paint, sewing machine, edge distressor

Male Birthday

I've got a male birthday card for you today. Both my husband and dad love fishing so I bought this stamp set to do cards for them. I just got a few new copic markers, and thought the blue/green I used for the hat matched well with Stampin Up's Baja Breeze. The grey looked a little drab so I used a cuttle bug folder for the background piece, and a white gel pen for the two pieces behind the main picture.

Stamps: What a Catch (Flourishes), Occaisions (Kaisercraft)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Soft Suede, Basic Grey, Whisper White (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White
Papers: N/A
Accessories: Stampin Up button and twine, white gel pen, cuttlebug folder

Viva La Verve May Week 3

Hi there! have I told you how much I love My Mind's Eye papers? Probably! I love all the weathered wood patterns. They just make such great backgrounds for my cards! This one is from their Dolled Up collection. The sketch is Viva La Verve May Week 3. I coloured the image in with copic markers. My sewing is very wonky, as I haven't quite figured out how to sew around corners yet! But sometimes, having things a little imperfect just adds to the uniquness.

Stamps: Big Wish (Verve)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo black, Copic markers

Cardstock: Whisper White, Barely Banana, Marina Mist (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White

Papers: Dolled Up (My Mind's Eye)

Accessories: Doilie (my stash), Prima flower, Sewing machine

Simon Says Stamp Cupcake Challenge

In a post a while ago, I used a cupcake exactly like this. I intended to make a couple of those cards, but never did, so I have a few of these cupcakes already coloured and ready to use! When I saw the cupcake challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp blog, I knew it was the perfect time to use one! I decided to try some zig zag stitching using some paper scraps, and am pretty pleased with my fist effort! The two rows on the right were pretty wonky, so I decided to put the doilie and cupcake over that! Should I have said that? Lol!

Stamps: Cupcakes (Hero Arts)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Rose Red (Stampin Up), Neenah Solar White
Papers: Miss Nelly (Kaisercraft)
Accessories: Doilie (my stash), Ranger liquid pearls, Sewing machine

Pretty In Purple challenge

I made this card for the Flourishes Pretty in Purple challenge. I rarely use purple, as I find it quite a dificult colour to work with. And is it just me, or do a lot of the paper companies hardly ever have purple in their collection? I have over 50 paper colletions, past and present, and only one of those has purple in it! (Hence this card with no pattened paper on it!) Anyway, about the card! The image is from Flourishes Year in Flowers 3. I didn't have the copic markers to match the cardtsock, so I coloured them with watercolour crayons and blender pen from Stampin Up. The frame is painted white, and it only has one coat of white paint on it. I was planning to do several to make it extra white, I decided to leave it at one coat because I liked the contrast. I painted the edges of the purple cardstock with the same white paint.

Stamps: Year in Flowers (Flourishes), Small Phrases (Verve)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Whisper White, Perfect Plum (Stampin Up)
Papers: N/A
Accessories: Kaisercraft flower, Imaginarium Designs chipboard frame, Stampin up twine, Ranger liquid pearls, White Lace (Spotlight), White acrylic paint, Spellbinders diamond, Stampin Up watercolour crayons and blender pen

Monster Birthday

This is another card I made for my Nephews third birthday coming up in June. I like to keep kids cards relatively simple. At 3 years old, he's not really going to appreciate distressed edges, embossing, or embellishments! Lol! I did sew around the edge though! I coloured the monster with copics, but the balloon is stamped and cut out of the same blue paper in the lower panel.

Stamps: Monster Fun (Hero Arts)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Cardstock: Whisper White (Stampin Up)

Papers: A Boys Life (Echo Park)

Accessories: Paper piercer, sewing machine



Thanks So Much

This card is for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge, which was to use pink in your card. Before I really got addicted to making cards, pink was one of my least favourite colours. But I love using it on my cards now, and just adore it! I think my all time favourite paper collection is Blush by My Mind's Eye. I rarely use a whole 6 x 6 paper pad before I get sick of it, but I am down to my last few scraps of my Blush pad and I'm wanting more!!! So this card used up some of those scraps. Strips of scrap paper can be a quick and easy way to get rid of all those off cuts!

Stamps: Celebration of Thanks (Verve), Butterflies and Blossoms (Flourishes)
Ink: Early Espresso (Stampin Up)
Cardstock: Kraft (Stampin Up)
Papers: Blush (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Prima flower, Dusty Attic chipboard flourish, Tim Holtz edge distressor

Just For You

Hi everyone! It's the start of another month, and that means it's Mojo Monday contest time! I really love sketches like the one this month. I had to position the smaller flower a bit different from the sketch, but everything else is exact! I used Verve's Sweet Treats stamp set and My Mind's Eye paper! My sewing is get much straighter too! Woo hoo!

Stamps: Sweet Treats (Verve)
Ink: Soft Suede (Stampin Up), Old Paper (Tim Holtz)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla (Stampin Up)
Papers: Fiddlesticks (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Prima flowers, Bag o Buttons buttons, Stampin Up twine, All My Memories ribbon, sewing machine

On Mother's Day

Oh boy this sketch was a challenge! It's Viva La verve May Week 2. I really struggled with this one! I'm sorry the phot is so dark, I hope you can all see it okay still! The flower image is from the Cherry Blossoms stamp set from Flourishes. I made the flowers using the Boho Blossoms punch from Stampin Up. I punched 4 of the largest blossoms out, scrunched them, opened them flat again and joined them with a brad, then scrunched each layer individually to the middle and pulled them out slightly. I had another go at sewing again, and I'm realising that I need ALOT of practice!!

Stamps: Cherry Blossoms (Flourishes), Blooming With Love (Stampin Up)

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Cardstock: Whisper White

Papers: Dolled Up (My Mind's Eye)

Accessories: Lace (Spotlight), Stampin Up Boho Blossoms and oval punches, Ranger liquid pearls, sewing machine