November and invitations

Well my Christmas cards are almost finished and I'm back to playing with colours other than those I've chosen for the 25th Dec. Yeah!!


I decided to make these invitations ... and got carried away - but they are in my favourite colours. I saw something similar on splitcoaststampers (for a child's invitation) and went from there. The invite isn't the exact one I saw - but you get the idea.

Hope you like this and it inspires you to future projects - thanks for stopping by

one sheet wonders

I was on one of my groups recently and saw the term One Sheet Wonder - and didn't have a clue what it was. Over to my favourite websites Google and   Splitcoast stampers and typed in OSW and WOW the light went on. I make cards for my local hospital foundation and because I've been away they've run out of everything. I thought I'd make a start with baby cards and take it from there. Having done my first one I'd be a little more adventurous next time. But the main drawback can be that you get bored repeatedly using the same pattern - as you can see I got 13 cards out of one 30x30 cm sheet of paper. Next one i intend cutting the paper, then getting the basic components together and making them up as I feel urge. Christmas cards should be a easy peasy. Thanks for stopping and having a look. Feel free to comment.

Julie

new technique - sliders

I had to make a card for a special young man (birthdays are always special) and try each year to do something very different. This year I decided to try a slider card - and after some googling (what did we do before google?) I found this site to have the easiest explanation. This was my first attempt at a slider card - and I know where I made the mistakes - but I would be keen to try again. I just have to remember to follow ALL her instructions. Rushing a new technique is not a good idea.

Thanks for looking 

Julie

updates and cards

Well I'm finally back here after a fantastic trip - and a few dramas. Kuala Lumpar gave us all our adventures, while Italy just felt like we had returned home. I bought a stamp in Rome that screamed that I had to buy it but other than that lots of fun. We also managed to get to Paris for a week - and fully intend returning.

We were supposed to be having lunch with an Italian family (didn't happen in the end) but I took some cards with me - just in case I needed a small gift for my hostess. The interesting part was keeping verse off the front as the intended hostess was Italian. In the end I gave them to my sister 

I made this one using stickers and aqualip pens. I originally had the entire background CB herringbone but that was too overpowering.

 This started as a plain white sheet of paper - chalked it, ran it through my best friend cbug, then Stayzon Forrest Green with metallic rub-on ink. I'll be trying this one again that's for sure.

This was a quick one - I just used a patterned paper then overlaid it with embellishments. Sometimes I think you don't need to be fancy to be effective. I had made ten but don't want to bore you. Please feel free to comment


Julie

sympathy cards

It has been a while since I was here- we have been preparing for our trip to Europe (Italy and France) and I've been on jury duty - no case yet (insert a sigh of relief here).

I've also bee trying to get up to date (and ahead) with my swaps as I'd like to continue while I'm away. Recently I needed to make a sympathy card for a friend and thought make two while I was at it. Because these are always hard to do I thought I'd share the results.
The first card was stamped with a Blockheads UMS  www.blockheadstamps.com :" Nature Full Sheet 1 IN1001" using Versamark. I covered the seed heads with fabric butterflies - then just used a Fiskars border punch and stickers

The second one is fairly plain with glass jewels in the corner and ribbon from my stash with a rub-on pressed flower.
 

playtime

I saw something the other day - and have been playing (OK so I've been putting off making one of my swaps)

This is my first attempt - I cut out the dress template then fed it through my cuttlebug - a bit of DTP and then think about it. In hindsight I'm not happy with the eyelets - too fussy and too many. But hey you learn along the way.

I like my second attempt better - but then I'm more comfortable with stronger colours. Same principle - cuttlebug and DTP. The 'skirt' is a white flower that I sprayed with Glimmer Mist Oriental Poppy; then I highlighted the skirt with Crystellina Kiddy Glitz. Much happier with this one!

And yes I know I promised to show my white scraps solution. Just gives me another excuse to play

stuff ups and hot weather

These two just so go together. It's really hard getting the correct placement (on ANYTHING) as perspiration drips down into your eyes. The other day rummaging through my stash of goodies I realised that I had some leftover purple cardstock - from when I'd attempted to sell red hat cards (only 200 to go). Cut them to size and found some coloured scraps that I then put through my Cuttlebug (I LOVE my bug for exactly that reason - no scrap of paper is safe from me). Enter perspiration ... and I didn't match up the edges. And they were uneven to boot.

Went to my now well organised ribbon drawer and found some deep purple ribbon and glued it. I always wanted an image in the middle and to show a narrow purple border. Finding the right image was the hard bit - all those stamps and not one was right - but I got lucky in the end. I rubbed over the image with Lyra crayon - and lightly misted it (took two goes as I've never tried it before). Dabbed the edges with lavender fluid chalk and added a gem.

I'm not real sure about this - I can see the bits I'm not happy with but there you go. Next time I'll show you what I do with my white scraps.

Julie

A new beginning

Well I've finally done it - set up a blog. I am now really in the land of crafty bloggers. I'm still finding my way around here in bloggers land and hope to have some of my cards to show soon. in the meantime I thought I'd show my ribbon storage. Up until several days ago they sat spilling out of drawers and looking a total mess.

After a hints email from some cyberspace friends I found my old embroidery spools and got busy. Now I can see everything easily ... and I have heaps more space for more stuff.