Black and Gold Christmas

At Dynamic Duos this week the colors are Gold and Black, not my first thought for Holiday cards but I have now used the combo for several cards and love it!

Stamps: SU Happy Hour heat embossed in gold, cardstock, mesh, brad from stash.
Other challenges: Simon says stamp - Merry Christmas

Happy Hour

Christmas cards are my favourite cards of all.  I havn't got very far with making my christmas cards for this year, I spend too many hours looking at the many lovely designs to CASE on Pinterest !! I havn't entered any challenges for ages until today. I saw the sketch on Mojo Monday (Mojo270) which I love.   I stamped the SU images in gumball green, lined them all up with the stampamajig, I am getting a lot better at stamping now I have one. I cut the drinks out of glittercardstock I have had for EVER. I love the little finishing touches in the set and can see me using it a lot (nothing to do with hubby with in the wine trade of course LOL).

Lydia 18th

Close up of shoes

Soon my 'baby' will be 18. She would only wear shades of purple, and the more velvety and flittery the better! If I dressed her in anything else off it came and on when the purple dress, purple socks, purple cardi...
I made the little shoes from a svg I made ages ago for a card for my elder daughter Sophie.   It does not show too well but they are made from a scrap re-cycled of velvetely brocade paper I found in my stash, I think it was originally from a doll dressing up pack. Black glitter cardstock, bows and ribbons, bling, rub-ons from stash.  Brocade embossing folder. SU punch out of purple plum cs, nestie and I made a key SVG and cut it on the e-craft. It is bit fussier than usual for me but Narelle on FMS did say she likes layers and 'fullness'!!
Challenges: I used the layout from  Freshly made sketches #58
Unstampabelles # recycled
Sir stampalot October-challenge - Punch Away

Mum's birthday

A bit fussier than my usual style, but my Mum will love it! It is a horrid day here today, 95 km per hour winds, tiles falling off the roof, wheelie bin blown 100mt in the orchard!
I do think this Penny Black stamp is teriffic. Coloured with Promarkers.
Flowers from Wild Orchid
E-craft die cuts and SU punches and sentiment. Paper and ribbons from stash.
Challenges: Penny Black Saturday - sketch
Cr84fn Colour challenge - pink, tan, cream
I Love promarkers #139 anything goes

Flourish

This week at Less is more #71 it is one layer week and add a flourish!  After several ended up in the bin (the punch was sticking) I was left with these two.  I had wanted the SU set 'Snow Swirled' for ages but it has never been in the UK catty so I got it off e-bay.  The entire tree is made of flourishes and on the 2nd one there are even some on the ribbon.  I quite like one layer week, I actually find it quite hard to be able to add layers now! LOL  I have had a lovely time looking at the cards of the Limettes this week, I can't always comment as I can't type on the ipad thingy but I do look and admire :-)
SU stamps and punch, ribbon, bling from stash, gold embossing powder.

MOJO245 Engagement

This week I have been 'home alone' and recovering from having visitors.  the fact that it hasn't stopped raining all week has given me the opportunity to get some cards made.  Mojo Monday  is a challenge I often look at as I like the sketches but I don't think I have entered a card before.
I used the colors from this weeks dynamic duos #6  I had a nice box of Stampin' up! goodies arrive from Alison including the new Twitterpated DSP so I just had to use it!  The heart and sentiment are highlighted with a sakura clear star sprarkle pen but it does not really show up on the picture. Seam binding, bling, grey cardstock  & punches found on my desk! I would also like to enter the ribbon girls Challenge

Mellow Yellow

At Less is more Week 69 We have a very simple recipe this week and that is simply to make a card which is

NOT A SQUARE

nor a rectangle for that matter.

For once I am not uploading at the 11th hour!  This card was a total accident, I have been trying to get the E-craft working i.e. not chewing up my cardstock and paper! I can never remember the pressure for each paper and although it is supposed to be 'matless' some kind of mat IS needed, I found a cropper hopper plastic 12x12 divider. I hardly use the e-craft as it takes so long to get a good cut. Don't even get me started on the crappy software it comes with, lucky I have SCAL!  

Anyway enough of a ramble, I was using this svg file 'Hibiscus stencil card' (I cannot remember where it came from, there is no TOU and no name on the file.  If anyone knows please let me know and I'll add a link.)  I was using cardstock in colours I never normally use to test the machine.  This was the 4th attempt..... the sentiment is SU.  I used stick and spray to attach the red front to the yellow but then realised that the yellow cut outs were sticky ...Doh!  so I had a brain wave and poured crystal glitter over the card and volia! a shaped card !!!

Edit: the file was from here

Baby

Less is More week #68 theme - A baby or a child

51 mins to go! SU baby tees stamp taken off its wheel, odd bits of cardstock embossed and punched , promarkers, seam binding (it is rose pink but looks odd on the scan)  I had to scan the card as my battery was dead :-(.
Lots of white space, I think the longer I spend on a card the less white space there is! I have been planting tomato plants today, it was sunny for a change!

LIM week 66 yellow

This week at Less is More This week we are back to a colour challenge and the chosen colour this time is

Y E L L O W

Other colours may be in evidence as long as the main focus colour is yellow.

Yesterday a box arrived with a Sew Easy, and some punches, 2 for stamens.I had been playing with the SU mixed bunch punch off and on all week and liked the embossed look on the flower.   I made the card from  kraft card  from my stash, so this week Chrissie and Mandi my 'white space' is kraft!

It has been abusy week here, Ella had her first 'toiletage'... I nearly cried when I saw how short her hair is now .  She absolutly hates being brushed but her long hair really needed to be shorter for the summer. at least now I can brush her without a fight, hopefully by the time it all grows back for the winter she will be more co-operative!  She likes to dig and roll and it was a nightmare keeping her hair from getting all matted up. 

Before..

So much hair going..

Ella is unimpressed with her first bath....

After blowdrying..

After.. I wonder what Toby thinks of my new hair do???? 

LIM week 65

It has been a busy old week. 3 seasons in one day, this morning it was sunny and 18c, lunch time it clouded over and just now we had a hail storm with 1-2cm stones!
this card is for my nephew Ollie's 3rd birthday.  I used the SU cupcake punch with craftworks card blank and scraps from my stash.  If you look really carefully you will see a tiny shrink plastic charm with a SU punch pals (I think?) stamped with stazon and shrunk.  I did this last week for LIM 'charms' but didn't manage to get the card uploaded in time so i used it one this one.

This is Stumpy 'helping' me to tidy up my desk........

Green......again! #2

Another 11th hour card forLess is More #62 - three shades of green My white space on this card is green!
I have been on a bit of a paper flower fix this week, I was trying to made a hellebore/christmas rose like the ones in my garden..........

(this one is a bit dead after a day on my desk!)  my three greens are: Artichoke chaud, old olive on the Paisley petals DSP border punch and dark green leaves from wild orchid under the flower.  The petals on the flower are from the fab build a blossom SU punch, yellow liquid pearls in the center and tiny beads.  I swiped the petals with ink and drew the lines with sakura gelly and stardust pens.

Oh.. folded Christmas Tree!

Less is More this week is Three Shades of Green.... not my favourite colour AT ALL. So green made me think of christmas, hunting for green paper I found the lovely SU Paisley petals and a bit of white card all ready embossed with christmassy words.  I used Old Olive (i think) cardstock, the tree pot is the bottom of the SU cupcake punch and the folded tree idea I have seen a few times on pinterest but think originally it was Vicky's blog I saw it on.  This didn't work out with enough contrast between the layers so I will hopefully have another attempt this week with different paper Less is More #62 colour.

11th hour again for simply less is moore week-61-lucky-dip colour
I have this week we have had, girlie puppy neutered, big dog ear drops daily at the vet    (YOU try getting ear drops into an 8stone dog that does not like his ears touched! I had a fibro flare up and 2 days in bed getting my 'spoons' recharged.

New SU punch. Terrible picture inside my cave.
Stampin! up cupcake, ,modern lable, word window punches, Ecraft and nestie dies, cardstock and raffia twine from stash.

LIM 55

EDIT:  Thank you all for visiting and commenting, I have had a complication with my eye surgery, we had to go back to the hospital yesterday,there is a bit of  stitch sticking out of my eye and making my eye really incredibily itchy,sore and weepy.  so |I can't see very well to type & read blogs :-(


This week at Less is Moore #55-theme - Die cuts! Hooray! Finally my e-craft got collected and I have been playing with it. The cut file is SVG Cuts butterflies and blossoms (I think) I use SCAL 3 as the software that comes with it is absolute PANTS!   I have used masses of cardstock working my way through turorials but once you get used to the differences between it and the cricut it gets easier. No more mats! the cut is quite clean too. Cardstock, bow and bling from stash. Craftworks cardblank. SU punches and LOTV part sentiment. I also used promarkers to shade the flowers, liquid pearls in yellow in the centre, smudged them (can't see very well close up at the moment) so stuck on black gems. It must be a record for me uploading a card on Saturday... Mr D was at the Rugby though :-) he is currently in the attic looking at our water pipes that have more holes than a colander at the moment after the big freeze.  Looks like we are going to have to re-plum half the house so I will be on a stash diet for a while........ :-(

Magnum

This is my 3rd card for Less is More #53 colour-aqua my lovely new Magnum 1/2 price stamps arrived this week, shame the same could not be said for my Ecraft which is stuck at some La Poste near the armpit of beyond and will probably end up going back because the Lazy ******* courier could not be bothered to actually deliver it! As I'll be busy getting my eyes cut open next week I can't go and get it. This is the last time I bother trying to buy crafting goodies in France, except from Alison's SU :-)

I masked off the main stamp with post-its so I could have more palm trees and Aqua sea!, coloured with Promarkers. the sentiment is computer generated. There is lots of white space on this one!  I used my lovely new SU border punch. I could not resist adding the dead fish from the 'add on' set. I did the embossing on my long neglected Crafters Companion Pro, it looks a bit wonky on the pic.
Other challenges:

Happy birthday Mr D.

As I am snowed in this week (-8c) I have decided to try and do a few more challenges using my newly organised stash and get ahead with this years cards.  I used the sketch from Mojo Monday #227   I think it is the first time I have actually entered although I have liked the sketches for ages.
I used: Stampin' Up! image, sentiment and punch, Pink Petticoat swirly paper, lined paper, ribbon and kraft card from stash, oval nesties, Friskars texture plate in the Wizzard for the embossing.  I would also like to enter these challenges:

http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ anything goes

 Cards for men #3-seeing red 

Here come the boys favourite song Born to be Wild 

Ribbon carousel - anything goes

Craftyribbons for the Men or Boys         Pals Paper Arts - Any reds  Birthday sundaes

Stampin up flowers

As usual I'm doing my Less is More #week-52-sketch at the 11th hour.  I am using my lovely new Stampin' up! goodies from the lovly Alison , this is actually marina mist but because of the odd lighting in my attic it looks a darker blue even Picassa could do nothing with it!  I heat embossed the flowers and punched them out with the lovely new punches. The tiny buttons are from my stash, I think they were Papermania, the card looked a bit bare without them.
Also: Hotshot craft - Flowers  Do you stack up? - anything goes  

Feeling Blue

Less is More  this week is 'cut it out' Chrissie and Mandi want to see cards with apertures. Sir Stampalot January is Monochromatic so I have used shades of Blue.Papertake - happy-highlights (bling on the flowers, heat embossing on the stamped sentiment.
I used: Old Blue pearlised card, bling from my stash,  DP inside is Papermania, X-cut embossing folder (which also cut out the aperture, New SU sentiment stamp from  'Happiets Birthday Wishes'.
(My cameras battery has died so this is scanned and the aperture does not show up too well, but it is there!)

Purple

As my other half is away this week I get more time to play in my craft room.  I'm still half way through a major re-organisation EDIT and hoping to keep it a bit more tidy in 2012! (some hope :-) giben up now and hidden it all in a cupboard.

So this week at Less is More we are on week #49, Predominantly Purple
 I love purple so had a good old hunt through my scraps box.  I found this lovely handmade paper and used my new Triple Treat flower stamp embossed with WOW grape, sentiment and punches from my mega Stampin' Up Christmas order. the sentiment is actually straight but looks odd as I tried to straighten the photo. I always have photo problems as my craft room window is below the roof overhang over the terrace so I don't get much direct light. 
: Lady Bugs - New Stash (SU stamps & punches)
Clean & simple - Sketch  FTL172 Teriffic sketch this week
One stop craft challenge - Bingo  (Heat Embossing, punches, flowers)
Simon says stamp - New something  (New Stampin' up punches and stamps)

First card of 2012!

As usual I am uploading to Less is moore # 47 at the 11th hour even though this challenge has run for 2 weeks...Well I always did my homework on the bus :-)
  This week Chrissie and Mandi want us to make a card with:

JUST ONE WORD

( the sentiment must consist of simply one word)

I have had a lovely time in between house training the puppy in 60km wind/gales/driving rain, getting her first lots of vaccinations , chipping and  passport at the new vets and spending half a day at the eye hospital , playing with lots of lovely Stampin Up goodies I forced asked my family to get me for christmas!  I even got the free Paisley print papers and stamp set as it was my turn to 'hostess' for the lovely Alison's super 6. The downside of all the new stash is that I have had to tidy up the Messy Desk and its room... 2 bin bags so far!

Ella the puppy

I used the colours from Pals paper arts #126 Baja Breeze, Not quite Navy & Very Vanilla I havn't entered this challenge before.