Stampin' Up! Oz-Style....Sketch Challenge #1

I'm a member of a Yahoo! group for Aussie Stampin' Up! demonstrators, and it is called Stampin' Up! Oz-Style or SOS. It is a fabulous resource and the members are a wonderful group of people. If you need to know anything about SU or even if you have general crafting questions, you can just ask away and there is bound to be another member who can help you out. You rarely have to wait long for an answer or ten :-).

Check out the home page here. You need to submit a request to join the group, but it is pretty fast and easy to do. Hope to see you there!

Anyway...the reason I am posting this morning is that SOS is hosting its first Sketch Challenge, and this is the first sketch:


I decided with the retiring list just around the corner (it should be released tomorrow, Sunday 1st March)...and anticipating that my most 'favouritest' Simply Scrappin' kit in the whole world (Crew Kids Girl) would be on the retiring list, that I'd better make best use of it now. So my card uses pretty much only that:


As you can see I have also used a small square aluminium edged tag, three silver brads and some Stampin' Up! rub-ons (for the 'thinking of you' sentiment), but other than this it is all from the Crew Kids Girl Simply Scrappin' Kit. The colours are: Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi, Regal Rose and Whisper White.

I also wanted to show you this little photo of one of my cuties:


Doesn't she have a lovely little smile? I think you can tell it was taken last weekend after our trip to the Snowy Hydro SouthCare open day...you can see she went into the pool face paint and all....but it is obviously not waterproof :-).

Hope you have a fun-filled weedkend. We are off to the Canberra Show tomorrow. My favourite exhibit is always the cows, and my favourite cows are the Belted Galloways....Humbug Cows! I'll try and get a snap of them so you know what I mean.

Hasta la vista!
Sam.

Oliver

Here is another card I have made with one of Bizzy Bec's lovely new designs...Oliver:


Bec supplied a package of lovely designer papers in black, silver and grey and some paper flowers, buttons, ribbons and brads. They all loked so beautiful together that I tried to use as many things as I could on the one card :-).

The base cardstock is black and is folded to form an A-frame card. I punched out a variety of the designer papers using a 1 1/4 inch square punch and adhered them to the background cardstock.

I stamped Oliver on some Stampin' Up! Watercolour Paper in Black Stazon and coloured him using an aquapainter and Classic Inks (Close to Cocoa, Blush Blossom, Basic Gray, Going Gray, Real Red and Old Olive). I really wanted to apply some Crystal Effects to the flowers and bow tie, but I have had some bad luck with Crystal Effects on Real Red...it seems to leach all the colour out and you end up with pink Crystal Effects and orangey pink underneath..ICKY...if you know how to stop or get around this I'd be very interested to hear about it.

The 'Be mine' sentiment is from the Papertrey Ink Heart Prints set.

I have mounted the flowers together using a brad and then adhered them to the card with a dimensional.

I guess this would have been a great Valentine's Day card...but there is never really a wrong time to give a special someone a card like this!

Thanks for dropping by :-)
Sam.

Men of Life - Papertrey Ink

I made these two cards a while ago, but forgot to upload them here (at least I think I have not uploaded them before....couldn't see them anywhere).

I have used the Papertrey Ink Men of Life stamp set (LOVE IT):


This card is a CASE of this card by Melissa Bickford, that I found on Nichole Heady's blog:



Also wanted to share a few pics from our big day out today. We went to the Snowy Hydro SouthCare base open day here in the ACT...and had a ball!

We sat in a helicopter:


We sat in a firetruck:


We sat on a Harley (it was idling...so yes, we were pretty nervous ;-):


We put out a fire:


We crawled through a tunnel (and yes, that is dad in the background):


We got our face painted:


...and we finished the day with FAIRY FLOSS...what more could you ask for?


Hope your weekend was a fun one too!
Sam.

Bella Butterfly

Thought I'd show you another card I have made using one of Bizzy Bec's lovely new stamps.

This little cutie is Bella Butterfly! I have cropped her a little...to give a portrait feeling. I love how this card turned out so bright and pretty:


Here is a little close-up so you can see some of the detail. I have coloured Bella's dress using a Copic marker and then I have painted over it using Liquid Pearls in White Opal. There are also Liquid Pearls on the central spots on her wings.

I have added some Stampin' Up! chunky sprinkes in pink over her headband, and have also cut out a second set of her wings and mounted them above the first using dimensionals:


Here are the Copic colours I have used:


Ingredient List:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Rose Red, Summer Sun and Whisper White
Ink: Basic Brown Classic Ink
Stamps: Bizzy Bec's Bella Butterfly and Stampin' Up! Canvas background
Accessories: Swirls cuttlebug folder, edge distresser, 1 inch Rose Red double stitched ribbon, styled silver Hodgepodge, Stampin' Up! rub-ons, Copic markers, Liquid Pearls in white opal, Stampin' Up! chunky sprinkles, crystal effects, dimensionals, SNAIL and sticky strip.

Thanks for dropping by :-).
Sam.

Hippy Girl Jewels

Hey there fellow Crafters!

Sorry it has been a little while since you've heard from me. I've been beading...and kinda got sidetracked. I did a little class on the weekend, and I LOVE it. When I'm feeling braver, I'll pop a pic of my very first creation on here for you to check out. I have a LOT to learn, but it is so much fun...might have to dig out my jewelers loupe or a large magnifying glass though...the eyes are not nearly as good as they once were ;-).

Last week I received my first-ever Bizzy Bec's stamps in the mail too, and on the weekend I cracked them open and gave them a whirl. Here is my first creation, made using Bec's lovely Hippy Girl Jewels stamp:


I have used the faux silk technique (for the first time) on the main background layer..check out the tutorial here. I did mine a little different to Beate, I stamped my image on the background textured Pumpkin Pie cardstock, instead of the tissue paper, and it shows through once you glue the tissue down.

I have used Copic markers to colour 'Jewels' in, and the colours I have used are:


The full ingredient list for this card is as follows:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Kraft, Summer Sun, Whisper White, Really Rust and Textured Pumpkin Pie
Stamps: Bizzy Bec's Hippy Girl Jewels and C.C. Designs Sugarplum Sentiment set
Ink: Stampin' Up! Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black Classic Ink
Accessories: Doodlebug Buttons, White Tissue Paper, Yellow DMC embroidery thread, Crimper, Crystal Effects, Copic Markers (as shown above), Stampin' Up! Styled Silver Hodgepodge, dimensionals, SNAIL, sticky strip and anywhere glue stick.

Here is a close-up of Jewels, so you can see where I've whacked on the Crystal Effects:


Isn't she cute? I am very pleased with how this card turned out :-).

Thanks for dropping by!

Sam.

Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #29

Last night while I watched NCIS, Lie To Me and Eli Stone, I also made a card using Mercy's latest sketch challenge:


So...there was rather a lot of TV watching going on, and not all that much crafting...but hey, I had fun! This is what I came up with in the end:


Now...as you can see I have omitted Element # 5 from the sketch...that'll be Eli Stone's fault. That show was fun!

I have coloured the focal image with stampin' Pastels (including Ruby Red and Bashful Blue), but one of the Ginger Blossoms DSP colours is River Rock, and we don't have a pastel in that shade. So I mixed Close to Cocoa and Old Olive together and got something that doesn't look too far from River Rock IMO. You can hopefully see that I have painted the flowers and vase water with crystal effects, for a crystal-like effect ;-).

Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Ruby Red textured and Whisper White
Paper: Ginger Blossoms Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Sassy Stems
Inks: Basic Black Classic Ink
Accessories: Spellbinders long rectangle plain and scalloped dies, Metallic Eyelets, Crop-a-dile, River Rock double-stitched grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Pastels, crsytal effects, The Robin's Nest Dew Drops Poinsettia set, A Perfect Day rub-ons, SNAIL, sticky strip and dimensionals.

Another avert-your-eyes warning to dieters...

I made this cake yesterday. It is my favourite banana cake recipe, and is from Nigella Lawson's book 'How To Be Domestic Goddess'. That title always makes me grin...like YEAH....look at me, a DOMESTIC GODDESS...hehehehehehehe..NOT!!!!!!!!

I take the optional route that she mentions at the very bottom of the page (like it is some sort of disgraceful thought, best kept far way from the other ingredients), and substitute good ol' choc chips for those rummed up raisins (that's just a no-brainer for me ;-). Nothing wrong with a little choc-chippefication of your banana cake I say. Be proud Nigella!

Anyway..here is the cake...I couldn't decide whether to eat it or photograph it first...the photo impulse won (obviously):


...and here is another little happy snap which makes me smile:


BTW that is not cake smeared all over his face...promise!

Nighty night all,
Sam.

Crew Kids Girl Simply Scrappin'

I have been meaning to play with the Crew Kids Girl Simply Scrappin' kit ever since I saw this card (third one from the top of the post) by Nancy Riley.

So yesterday I got my Crew Kids Girl out and started chopping it up (for some reason that really, really hurt...I love pretty papers...WHOLE...but I got over it ;-).

I have made two cards with it so far...and I am sure there will be more on the way. I LOVE the colour combo so much!




Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up!):

Cardstock: Wild Wasabi textured, Regal Rose textured, Whisper White, Basic Gray textured

Paper: Crew Kids Girl Simply Scrappin' Designer Series Paper

Accessories: Crew Kids Girl Simply Scrappin' kit, circle and square metal edge tags, circle rhinestone brads, cutter kit edge distresser, crystal effects, A Perfect Day rub-ons, chunky sprinkles, wild wasabi double-stitched ribbon, SNAIL and dimensionals.

Have a great day,
Sam.

The Princess Bride

This week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge movie is The Princess Bride:


Now, through some unbelievable turn of luck we happen to own The Princess Bride (considering we own about five non-animated movies, that's pretty darn amazing), BUT, it is on a VHS tape.....go to your local museum if you don't know what I am talking about. I was worried we wouldn't have anything here to play it on, but as luck would have it our DVD unit has a second slot (I had always assumed this slot was just for the <3 year olds to post vegemite toast in).

So I popped it in this morning while hubby was having a sleep-in (sheeeeeesh, its a nice life for some ;-). I was a bit concerned about how Miss almost-five would handle the torture scenes...so we fast-forwarded through them (and the attack of the mutant oversized rodent...AND the screaming eels [I'd forgotten all about them Kim]). I hope we don't have nightmares tonight. It really was like watching an ancient film though...all that VHS fuzzy crackliness...Gee I don't miss that at all!

SIDETRACKED...AGAIN! I'll get to the point. I really loved Buttercup's lovely Wedding Day crown:


I was mesmerised by it in fact. All those pretty silver flowers and leaves and baubles...so I used that as my inspiration, and here is my creation:




The final card measures approximately 4.5 x 5 inches, and opens from the bottom (A-frame). I used an oval punch to create the scalloped top, being careful not to scallop it all as this also forms the hinge of the card IYKWIM? I've used a truckload of Clear Rhinestone Brads, from the Stampin' Up! Pretties Kit. I thought it would be a lovely card for a little girl's birthday...especially if the party theme was Princesses...and it is probably safe to bet that there'll be one of those sooner or later (in fact five princess parties doesn't seem out of the question).

Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Brushed Silver cardstock
Accessories: Boho Blossoms punch, Spring Bouquet punch, Five Petal Flower punch, Large Oval punch, Pretties Kit, glue dots, SNAIL, Cuttlebug Swirls embossing folder.

Now, if you are on a diet..AVERT YOUR EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what hubby brought home for me for afternoon tea yesterday:


(DON"T SAY I DID NOT WARN YOU) It was soooooo YUMMY...what a sweet guy! I had to get the camera out. I figure I should be able to dine out on the picture alone for a few days at least :-).

Hope you are having a peaceful weekend.

Sam.

PS. Check out this site that Carol recommended...great for some close-up shots :-)


Now you can actually see what the real crown looks like!