Dinosaur Punch Art

 

 We have a couple of birthday parties to attend this weekend, so I am trying to get myself prepared (...I know, with a WHOLE day spare...WOW such preparedness ;-).

I made this card, after being inspired by Brandi's awesome dragon punch art here. Brandi got the idea from Kim here. Thanks for the inspiration girls!

  

List of Ingredients:

Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Summer Sun, Whisper White plain, Tangerine Tango Textured

Ink: Elegant Eggplant Classic Ink

Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts

Punches: Wide Oval, Large Oval, Small Oval, Boho Blossoms, 1/2 inch Circle, 1/4 inch Circle, 1 1/4 inch Circle, 3/4 inch Circle

Accessories: Tangerine Tango Patterns DSP, small circle metal-edged tag, Love Birds Rub-Ons, Tangerine Tango striped grosgrain ribbon, Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder, crimper, white gel pen, Dimensionals, Sticky Strip, Mini Glue Dots and SNAIL Adhesive.

I hope the recipient likes it. I know my kids do...so that should be a good sign.

See you,

(Blogged to: Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon).

I Heart U....

...I am still thinking about the fun Just Add Ink challenge - Just Add Hearts here. So this afternoon I sat down and made the following 6 x 6 scrapbook page:

... made using the Love Sparkles Simply Scrappin' Kit.

I also made the following little card..because all the stuff was already out, and the colours are so yummy looking, they were beckoning to me!

Well, Grey's Anatomy is about to start...so I've gotta run!

:-)

(Blogged to: My Kitchen Rules).

PS. In my rush to get to Grey's last night I forgot to mention that I have run a bunch of Pioneer Woman Photoshop actions on the scrap layout photo of hubby. The original photo is in colour, and was taken with my Christmas present, which was a little Canon PowerShot D10 (which is waterproof to 10m...and I was standing in water when I took the photo...but not in 10m of it ;-). But I digress...I think the actions were: Old West, followed by Soft and Faded, with some Quick Edge Burn thrown in for good measure...but then mostly cropped off.

Two challenges, one card...

...I love multi-tasking ;-).

I made this card with two challenges in mind. The first challenge is the Just Add Ink Challenge 2, and the challenge is to make a project and 'Just Add Hearts'....which I have done here...LOTS!

While I was surfing around last night I also saw Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #54, and decided I would use her sketch too:

I sketched out my card last night while I was watching the premiere of the new season of House (it was a very good episode IMO), and then made it up this morning (after we'd dropped miss 5.5 to her very first day of school...it was a fun, tearless event on both sides...just ;-).

List of Ingredients:

Cardstock: Textured Chocolate Chip and Whisper White, and So Saffron Plain cardstock
Accessories: Love Sparkles Simply Scrappin' Kit, Chit Chat Rub-Ons, Heart to Heart Punch, 5/16" Chocolate Chip Brads, Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities, miscellaneous plastic heart, Dimensionals, crystal effects and SNAIL adhesive.

The little brown 'petals' around the focal circle are the tops of the small heart from the Heart to Heart punch. Also, I've stuck the clear pink plastic heart on using Crystal Effects, which you can't see through the plastic...yeah!

I am very happy with the way this card turned out. Thanks for taking a peek.

Hope you have a great day!

(Blogged to: Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer).

Christmas Cards and Caprese Salad...

I have a few more beautiful Christmas cards that were sent to me by stamping friends, that I have been meaning to put up here to share with you.

The first one is by my wonderfully talented, blogging buddy Debbie (I loved it when I saw it on her blog, and it is even better IRL). Santa's beard and fur trim is all covered in Dazzling Diamonds...very sparkly!:

 

This next beautiful card one is from my good stamping friend (and sideline) Veronica. The reindeer panel is embossed gold....and it looks lovely:

...and last, but certainly not least, this very stylish card is by another good stamping friend, Di (another card that looks even better IRL...especially with all the bling that covers the tree):

 

Thanks again for your lovely cards and Christmas wishes girls!

I also just wanted to show you a picture of our lunch.......yummy Caprese salad (well, its almost a Caprese salad...I've used Cow's milk Bocconcini instead of Buffalo Milk Mozzarella...close but not exactly the same) on crusty bread stick slices. We LOVE this in my family:

Ingredients:

- crusty bread stick,
- extra virgin olive oil (I like trying out various Australian olive oils),
- roma tomatoes, or other extra tasty tomatoes,
- bocconcini (I like South Cape),
- fresh basil (YUMMY).....need to get some more growing in the herb garden, and
- salt flakes (I love Murray River gourmet salt flakes).

This is so delicious, :-).

(Blogged to: Hope For Haiti Now - Various Artists)

Hope you've had a trunkload of fun!

 Long time no blog. Sorry for just kinda falling off the radar there....but summer holidays will do that to you sometimes. I hope that you all had a lovely peaceful Christmas and New Year, and are looking forward to a fun and smile-filled 2010 (that still seems like a really weird number to me....2010....makes me think of George Jetson and space ships for some reason...Hhhhmmmmmmm)!

Anyhoo, here I am with a small blog offering. I made this card some weeks agao, but didn't have everything I needed to finish it at the time, so I put it aside, and kinda forgot about it (as I said before, summer holidays will do that to you ;-).

List of Ingredients:

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze and Whisper White
Ink: Baja Breeze and Tangerine Tango
Stamps: Animal Stories
Accessories: White Gel Pen, Sponge, Baja Breeze Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Crimper, Chocolate Chip 5/16" Brads, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Stipple Brush, SNAIL adhesive, Sticky Strip and Dimensionals.


Its been such a long time since I picked up any of my craft stuff that I had to go get the catalogue so I could work out what everything I used was called!

You probably can't see from the photo, but the Tangerine Tango background layer has been inked along the edges (with a sponge), in Tangerine Tango....probably why you can't see it, eh? Gee I'm quick today :-). Also, I've stippled the Baja Breeze elephant with Tangerine Tango on his back. Doubt there are many elephants coloured thus in the real world...but there are in my head ;-).

Take it easy this weekend!

(Blogged to: Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams)

I {Heart} Hearts...

I needed an engagement card today, so I've just been playing with one of my new stamp sets, from the Summer Mini catalogue, I {Heart} Hearts.

This is what I have come up with:

List of ingredients:

Stamps: I {Heart} Hearts
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette and Whisper White
Ink: Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette Classic Ink
Accessories: Riding Hood Red Satin Ribbon, Crimper, Dimensionals, Sticky Strip and SNAIL adhesive.

Gotta run now! Apologies for the short post.

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Best wishes,
Sam.

Thank you Susy and Rita...

...for inspiring me to create my new Christmas blog header!

I was blog surfing tonight and came across Susy's post about her new blog banner. I thought hers looks so fabulous that I wanted to make one too!

So, using Rita's CoffeeShop post for the 10 pic blog banner here... I did! The text that I have used is Scrap Twiggy, which I got from MyFonts.

I was surprised at how easy it was to make this banner, seriously, it took about 10 minutes (and that was only because I was being daft with Photoshop...it should have only taken 5!!)...I could make a new one every week...wouldn't that be exciting for you...NOT ;-).

Ciao ciao bloggers, thank you for visiting,
Sam.

Surprise Christmas card mail...

I just wanted to share with you some of the lovely surprise Christmas cards that I have recently received in the mail.

The first of these treasures was from my lovely blogging buddy Karen:

Karen's punch art Poinsettia is so pretty...thanks for making me smile Karen!

The other card I have to show you is from another lovely blogging friend, Leonie:

I let Miss 5.5 and Mr 3.5 open this one, and let me tell you...they were awed by the bling (in case you can't tell from the photo, the globe and snowflakes are covered with Dazzling Diamonds)! I even had to give them timed turns looking at this one...it was a real winner on all counts!

Thank you so much for these beautiful cards girls! You really made my day (well, days...as they arrived on different days)!!

Today, Miss 5.5 and I went on the hunt for a small Christmas tree...and I just wanted to share with you the little beauty we found:

 

It folds flat to pack away...WINNER!

Ok....I can smell the dinner burning! UGH...

:-)
Sam.

Christmas Elf Punch Art

I was browsing blogs this morning, and I came across this ever-so-cute Christmas Elf tag by Ros Davidson, and was inspired to make one too (an elf, not a tag):

List of Ingredients:

Cardstock: Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White and Blush Blossom
Stamps: All About Christmas Jumbo Wheel (retired)
Ink: Real Red Classic Ink
Accessories: 1 3/4 inch Circle punch, Large Oval punch, Scallop Circle punch, Word Window Punch, Trio Flower Punch, Large Square punch, 1/2 inch Circle punch, Real Red Polka Dot ribbon, Spellbinders Labels 8, Black brads, Old Olive brads, Paper Piercer, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots and SNAIL adhesive.

Now my chap does not look nearly as cute as Ros'... I couldn't find my bobbly eyes, and I like Ros' tall pointy Christmas hat, and her use of DSP...but I still think he looks ok in a comical sort of way (in fact, he reminds me of a South Park character or something like that). He was pretty quick to make too!

A few thoughts (and yes, they did hurt a little):

1/ All of these cards that I have been making with ginormous ribbon bows on them will never see the inside of an Oz Post pox...they are too darn fat, and won't pass the 'card only' test (although I could put them in a padded envie and send them oversize letter or parcel post!); also

2/ Don't put your candle for ribbon-end sealing under your ducted air-conditioning vent... the flame will flicker all over the place, and you are likely to scorch your ribbon or set fire to it! This is most likely obvious to everyone but me...but you never know ;-).

Glad you read on for those pearls of wisdom aren't you?!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day. I have another head cold brewing and feel like I have been practicing (unsuccessfully) my knife swallowing act...I don't think I'll get a job in a circus any time soon.

See ya!
Sam.

CoffeeShop Blogspot...

Just a quick post this morning, about the fabulous CoffeeShop Blogspot.

This awesome site run by Rita is also listed on my sidebar... because it (and Rita) ROCK! Rita gives away all sorts of free actions, templates, storyboards and tutorials for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom on her blog.

At the moment Rita has a blog competition running where she is giving away one of the CoffeeShop Watermarking Action Kits...and I'd really likey-like to win this!

If you like tinkering with your photos, and getting the very best out of them...you really should take a trip to the CoffeeShop blog...you KNOW you want to!

You can see some of the things I have done with my photos using CoffeeShop actions and templates here and here.

...and after a quick play this morning, I have turned this photo (a pic from the restaurant looking out over the pool towards the lagoon at the Musket Cove Resort, Malolo Lailai, Fiji) from a modern day holiday snap:

...into something that reminds me of the movie South Pacific...

I have used the CoffeeShop Butterscotch Vintage Action, followed by the CoffeeShop Rounded Corners 2 Action. I can just imagine the groovy vintage scrap layout that I could make using these actions on a bunch of my photos. So much fun!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!
Sam.

ETA: ...after more tinkering