Time to Use Your Dies for the Card Mania Challenge

I can't believe more than (another!) week has gone by since I posted on my blog... I've been spending a lot of time over at Bonesmart... sharing recovery stories with my fellow Hip replacees, time to think about bigger issues, like Craft, lol.  There's a new challenge starting today at the Card Mania Challenge, my third already as Guest DT, the theme this time is "Use Your Dies"... I love dies, not a problem; here's my contribution, a boxed set of note cards.

Now this project was a lot of work, very fiddly, so I'm going to bore you with a lot of photos... even if it's "more of the same" :-)  The main thing to note (as this challenge is about using dies) is that the dies I used are from the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Curved Borders 2 set. 
I love these things as they nest really well, but getting the "lining" behind the scrollwork lined up with the fancy edges perfectly was harder than I thought it would be... and of course I was committed to doing it seven times once I started!   I used very heavy weight textured brown card.  The orange paper is textured too, but light weight; it was a peachy shade originally... I coloured it with a YR Copic. Clear It Out has Theme: Orange  Stash: Use orange things so I'll be entering there. The patterned paper is from my "go to" shop for gorgeous paper; Starfish Lane.  Hiding in my Craft Room and Sparkles Monthly Challenge have Autumn colour challenges, so I'm entering there too.

Front of Box

Box Open

Back of Box

Here's the box, the front matches the note cards, the back uses the plain edge die used along the edge of the orange paper on the front of the box to cut the brown card as a flap,  I used some Velcro as a closer.  I'll pop back and post a template for the box... I just can't find where I hid, err I mean 'put' it at the moment!

The "pearls" are gold flatbacks from my stash coloured to suit using the same YR Copic I used for the paper.  The little brown bows were part of the fabulous basket of goodies my son Chris bought as my birthday gift, again from Starfish Lane
The note cards themselves are... well more of the same.  The only hiccup I encountered when making them was that I cut the top layer of first one with the "grain" of the textured card going in the opposite direction to the base of the card... so I had to cut the others the same, it meant I used more card in the end, ah well.
Crafty Cardmakers want to see something Cut Out for their challenge so I'm in, and the cut outs I have are Swirly and Curly so they'll fit in the Delightful Challenges Swirls and Curls Challenge.

I added patterned vellum to the inside of the cards, I had just a panel of it initially but it just didn't look right. I added another "loose" layer with a strip of the orange paper to hold it on and I think it works well.
Catch The Bug, Through the Craftroom Door, Divas by Design, Simon Says Challenge and Anything But A Card challenges all have Anything Goes themes this time around so I'm entering them all.
Well that's it for today's project, I hope you liked it... and aren't sick of all the photos, lol.  Pop over to the Card Mania blog and check out the rest of the DT's inspiration, and I know we all like our Dies so why not get cutting and enter the challenge too.... there are great prizes from Marianne Design and Hobbisimo!
I'll be back in a day or so with a card from my drafts... I really thought this hip replacement would have me crafting and blogging every day - but for one reason or another I just haven't made it yet... and I can drive in less than two weeks so I'll defo be out partying then, lol
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Grab a Pencil: It's Time For Di's Digis Back To School Challenge

Yup, it's time for a new challenge at Di's Digis Challenge blog... we have a "Back To School" theme.  I decided to make something "useful" as my project, so I grabbed one of the pencil tins I got in a sale (2 for $1) some time back and decorate that. 

As it will probably get shoved in and out of a bag or shelf countless times I thought it best to keep the layers and embellishments to a minimum; that's when I came up with the idea (not really that original!) of printing all the elements on one layer, so that's what I have done... with the exception of the twine of course.  

I used Microsoft Word; I made a rectangle by cropping a sheet of digital paper from Nitwit's Live n Learn 2 collection, then I added an oval, filling it with one of Word's inbuilt textures (cork)  adding the bevel edge and dropped shadow (using Format Shape, just in case you're not familiar with the process)  I then added the fabulously cute image, Back To School Bunny -available here for only $2. I had already removed the white background from the image and saved it as a .png - I do this with all my images so that they layer well.    Crafty Little Fairies wants to see Cute and Cuddly, I'm in, and Pile It On wants Primary Colours, I've got the red yellow and blue as my main colours so I'm in there too.   

Next I added "Pencils" using Wordart and printed the whole thing out, voila! I coloured the image with Copics, with a bit of Prismacolor pencil shading, and added gloss to the pencil and to the Wordart - I added a really thick layer to make the letters stand out, it looks much more even in real life, and surprisingly effective.  All that was left to do was add a bit of twine from my stash. Crafts 4 Eternity wants to see Something Old, the tin is at least a year old and the twine is more like three - hopefully old enough! 
Here's my pencil tin doing what pencil tins do :-))

I think it fits the sketch from Seize the Sketch so I'm entering there, and Whimsy Inspirations Challenge has a Back to School challenge so I'm entering there too.
Through the Craftroom Door, Crafty Girls Challenge, Crafty Calendar, Stamping Sensations and Little Miss Muffet all have Anything Goes challenges running so I'm entering them as well.
That's it for today's project, a very simple little thing it was too - but still I had fun making it.  Check out the rest of the team's inspiration, awesome as always.  I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too, we have a great prize from the Frantic Stamper and as always, if you use one of Di's fab images you go into an extra draw with a prize of it's own.
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna 

Time's Just Flying By!

Well my life is still flat out hectic... can you believe my beloved Twinnies turned ONE yesterday - pics to follow (but you knew that, lol)  Hard to believe a whole year's gone by already.  They had a big party today, for which I made a cake; even though I say so myself it was pretty super - I'll post pics when my son sends me them.  All of this Twin-based activity has cut into my crafting time (well along with the building of rock walls in the pool area and the making of my hubby's birthday invites - he turns 60 in two weeks OMG! talk about time flying... and yet another cake to come up with for yet another party) 
This doesn't change the fact that a new challenge starts today over at Di's Digi Challenge.   It has the nice and easy theme of Welcome Spring, I managed to make time to alter a little notebook for it, here it is

It started life pretty plain, just like this one (only green!)  I love the nifty little pens that came with these notebooks.  So clever. 

I covered the front and back with this pretty floral paper from Prima (Faerie Florals, I think) then coloured up the lovely Daisy's Delight image with Copics, adding some (hard to see) Liquid Pearl highlights to the centre of the flower and some Stickles to the butterfly and bows on Daisy's shoes.  Then I fussy cut the image out and stuck it on the book.  Instead of trying to do impossibly intricate cuts (such as the one between Daisy's face and the leaf and her leg and the stalk) I leave the white background in and colour it to match the background paper... it works particularly well on a mottled background such as this one.  I also add some Copic shadows around the image to help ground it and make it look more 3D - especially when you are trying to keep the whole thing physically flat, as you would with something like a notebook going in and out of your handbag all the time.

 Here's a link to another one of these altered notebooks, completely different but just as simple.

Anyway that's it for this little project, I'm entering in the following challenges

Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Paper Crafting Journey	Anything Goes
The Crazy Challenge	#167 Flower Frenzy
Cupcake Inspirations	#253 Garden
The Paper Shelter	#251 Spring Delights
Kaboodle Doodles	#216 Dreaming of Spring
My Mums Craft Shop	Spring and Easter
Paper Creator Crafts	21 Spring is in the Air
Clear It Out	Theme: Greens Stash: Anything Green

I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge, great prize (from Really Reasonable Ribbon) on offer as always, and if you use one of Di's fab images you get entered into an extra draw... what are you waiting for?!

I'm trying hard to get some Blogging time in to post some of the projects in my drafts - not having that much success tho', lol.  With any luck I'll be back in the swing soon, Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Notes for Mother.

Today I have something a little different, I've made a set of note cards in a presentation box as one of the little gifts I plan to give my Mum on Mother's Day - which is next Sunday here in Australia; Mum's always needing a card for this or that so I made them with different sentiments.  Warning; Photo-Heavy post coming up 

I made the box by cutting up a box that one of the presents to my grandbabies came in, it holds six cards, six envelopes and I made some envelope seals by printing on self-adhesive paper which I mounted on a piece of card on the inside of the lid. Here's a picture of them...  

Gem of a Challenge has Recycle for their challenge theme, so I'm entering there, That Craft Place wants to see an Altered Item, hopefully this is fine to enter there too.

The patterned paper is silver grey, the black is flocked and has silver glitter detail, very pretty IRL.  The ribbon is from my stash, it's glued on up to the slider and to the edge of the base, the bow keeps the box shut (the lid is "hinged") 

The whole idea came about when I saw the theme at Less is More is this fab Sketch - I really love a sketch and thought this nice Clean and Simple look is easy to replicate to make a set of cards like this!  Easy it was, but time consuming nonetheless.    

I used a digistamp from Digistamp Boutique one of  the Black Floral set.  I used word to change the colour so I could have a set of six variations, I added six different sentiments (Thinking of You, With Love, Just Because, A Note To Say... and For You)  I'll be entering the Digistamp Boutique Monthly Challenge

I mounted each image on cardstock to match the image and sentiment (made on the computer) and added pearls from my stash to match too - those I didn't have a match for I coloured to suit with Copics.

I used my Versa Mark pen, traced over the image and embossed with Clear Detail EP - it's hard to see in the photos, but it's there!)

I did a simple embossed border using my score board, mounted the image panel on foam pads then the sentiment on to that with more foam pads.  
Simon Says Challenge theme is "Happy Mail" - cards that are for Just Because rather than specific occasions, I'm in - in spades!  Sweet Stampin' has Anything But a Birthday so I'm in there too :-)
I used the same image on the inside of the cards, scaled down and flipped (I love digis!) to "fit" the outside edge of the card. Bearly Mine Challenges and Paper Crafting Journey  have Anything Goes challenges so I'm entering there.
That's (finally!) about it for today's project, I'll be back on Sunday with my latest offering for the Here Come The Boys challenge.  I

I've had a lovely day today, we went in to Perth to the Mint to buy some gold as a birth gift for the twins; Perth Mint is world renowned, it holds over 3 billion dollars worth of gold reserves from countries around the world,half of that from the US alone!  It's a beautiful old building and it has a most drool-worthy jewellery shop.  The watch I got for Christmas came from there, made with a 1959 (yup, I'm that old, lol) Australian sixpence as its face and a fob chain - it's gorgeous!  We had lunch at one of our favourite haunts and I've done nothing but craft/blog since we came home - perfick!
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

...and an Emu in a Gum Tree (!)

I cut and decorated this egg a few years ago to give to my mum - then couldn't bear to part with it (anybody else ever do that? lol)  It sits on the hall table in my entry year 'round... but I do only open it at Christmas, well usually!  I've never "shared" this before, I hope you find it interesting.
One of the songs we have here for Christmas is an Aussie version of the Twelve Days of Christmas, where we have "an emu in a gum tree" instead of a partridge in a pear tree...   this is an emu egg, in a Christmas theme so it always brings that song to mind.  There's a lot of photos, but with this sort of project it's all about the detail so I hope you forgive me, the inside of the egg was the most work, so feel free to skip to them, lol

Emu eggs are between a Goose and Ostrich egg in size and are a gorgeous dark teal colour, unfortunately that didn't go with my theme so I painted the outside of the egg (after cutting it; very smelly and very fiddly!) with Warm White Jo Sonja acrylic paint, then sealed it.

The poinsettias are made from goose eggs, using the natural curve of the egg makes them more lifelike somehow.  They were painted pale pink then loads of very fine Star Dust glitter was added, very fine gold cord outlines them, the centres are tiny hole-less gold beads with some Swarowski crystals added for even more bling!  The  duck egg leaves were painted green with a Gold Crystal very fine glitter, gold cord outlines and "veins" .

 The "loops" on the front were finished with clear beads AB Crystals and Siam Crystals,  I added Texture Paste to the swirls on the sides before adding Star Dust glitter to them too. 
The findings all came from my local craft shop, which has unfortunately closed down now - it had such a wide range of products I miss it dearly! 
It's where I did my fabergé egg classes and got the pattern for this egg from too.

The back of the egg was cut in a lattice pattern like the front but plainer ;-)  I put a scene inside made from a Christmas card, it's hard to see in the pics.  
I then decorated the inside of the egg to look like a living room on Christmas morning - just without all the wrapping paper and people in pjs, lol.I painted the inside of the egg pink, adding detail to make it look like wallpaper. I made a fireplace from card,there's a photo of Santa in a gold frame over it, and candlesticks made from toothpicks too!  It's trimmed in true Christmas fashion with holly and (red bead) berries.  There's a toothpick fire in the hearth.  I made the rolled ribbon roses for the little tree, and added tiny bows too. 

The pièce de résistance is the lights on the tree, they light up when you press a button hidden under the (fabric) carpet.  A Christmas medley plays and the lights flash for about a minute.  I put a red globe in the fire too, so that flickers.  Every child that presses that button has a look of such wonder on their face, it fills my heart :-)  I've taken a picture, it is of necessity dark and sort of captures it, but as with most things crafty it's much nicer in real life!

I'm entering my egg in a number of challenges - I did try and weed out the challenges I thought were only for Papercraft -  if you think it's not appropriate for your challenge, please feel free to remove my entry, I hope you enjoyed looking at my project anyway :-)

Those challenges are:  
Papertake Weekly Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Anything Goes

Craft Us Crazy Christmas/New Year

Joanna Sheen With Love at Christmas

2 Sisters Challenge Anything But A Card

Cutie Pie Challenge Cute Christmas (the inside is cute, and it's for Christmas)

That Craft Place Christmas

Oozak Anything Goes + Pink and Bling

Creatalicious Challenges Christmas (non traditional colours)

By the Cute and Girly Cute and Girly

My Mums Craft Shop Anything Goes

I'll be back in a few days with a card - and a lot less photos, promise!

Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna 

Tissue Tubes and Titivating

Tissue Tubes and Titivating.... that's what's been taking up my time this week, mainly the "titivating" (Hubby and I have both been sprucing up our front porch area - well, we've made a good start anyway) but this little Tissue "Tube" took a disproportionate amount of time, I'm tellin' ya!! 

 

When I saw these tissues in my local supermarket, my crafty eyes lit up!  

The lids are removable, so when it comes to refilling - easy peasy, lift off old lid, insert new tissues, replace new lid!!  I've made this for our bedroom, as the really rather gorgeous (IMHO - H for Humble, lol) tissue box cover got ditched when hubby helpfully replaced the tissues - and as he dismantles everything for recycling thoroughly it was definitely a gonna :-(  I have left instructions re this one, lol.It really shouldn't have taken that long - but it did, don't know why, I think I was probably a bit distracted.  Anyway all I've done is cover the tube with some luscious Chiyogami  "Autumn Maples" paper from Starfish Lane- I've loved this stuff, particularly this pattern, since my son and daughter-in-law used it for their engagement invitations about six years ago!  I cut the DCWV cardstock scalloped circles with Nellie Snellen dies, and the plain ones with Nestabilities Standard Circles.  The strip around the tube is cut with  Martha Stewart's Doily Lace border punch, the gold cord trim is from my stash, the metal butterfly is also from my stash, but I remember getting it in a pack from Spotlight - for some reason the gold ones are big and the silver ones smaller, go figure! 

Crafty Cardmakers has a No Cards challenge, so I'm entering there, Craft Your Passion  has an Anything Goes challenge as does Creatalicious Challenges so I'm entering there too.  Sassy Cheryl Show Me Thursdays  like to see what you're doing, so I'm showing 'em, lol.

That's it for my Tissue Tube, half an hours work, eh? HAH!

What did take quite a bit longer was the decorating at our front door, I don't have any "before" pictures, suffice to say it was looking tired and the Indian Red Oxide/Cream combo was a bit dated.  Stripping the paint back was the worst bit, seriously it took days.  

 

Anyway while we were there, we thought we'd add a stone feature panel and some new pots, the plants are "fake" (good move if they're coming to stay at my house, I tend to love pot plants to death by over watering) but I'm really happy with them as they are so realistic, which is why they cost over $80 each!! three times the price of the pots.

We had some stone left over from when we did our al fresco area last year,and thought we'd use it up, only problem is we bought too much again, so we've still got some left... may stop trying to use it up now, lol.  I thought I'd add a photo of the al fresco because back in October I said I would when we'd got our new furniture, but forgot, so here it is.  We'll add cedar lining to the eaves at the front door the same as in the al fresco - time and money dictate when! 

 

Essential Equipment

 Well that's what I've been up to, I'll definitely be back with a card soon - it's more fun than dusty stone cutting, that's for sure!  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna