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Hello hello!!! Many apologies for the extended (and unplanned!) break from blogging, but I was unexpectedly busy over the Christmas/new year period and then had to rush trying to finish things up at my (now) previous job. In addition, my 4 year-old laptop was painfully showing its age, but all is well now with my brand spanking new laptop! It feels so good to be blogging again and I have two or three photos to put up.
These were made using the templates from the PTI website, which I adapted slightly to make the middle bit a bit deeper and added ribbon to act as handles. These were simple and a lot of fun to make so try it if you have the chance. There are lots of other ideas from the PTI design team included when you download the template, providing plenty of inspiration and ideas.
I made these two cards for two lovely ladies who left one of the other labs, using glossy paper and Adirondack alcohol inks. I'm quite happy with the way the second card turned out, but the first was very so-so, to me. These inks are SO much fun to play with and are great for non-porous surfaces such as acrylic. I've really grown to love Ranger products, especially the Adirondack line.That's all I have to show you for the moment, but I'm working on a bunch of different things so I'll probably have a few things to put up over the weekend. So stay tuned, and thanks for stopping by! :)
Apologies for the lack of posts lately. One thing I've ticked off my to-do list is finish making my Christmas cards but I haven't sent them out yet. They've been sitting there waiting to be written in and, in some cases, mailed off and I've finally gotten off my backside and started.
I went with what I thought would be a simple card to make (similar to this one), but just doing 16 was a right pain! Each card takes almost half a metre of ribbon, so I went through 8 metres of red ribbon for this exercise. Thank goodness for the Bow-Easy, which is a fantastic invention that I can use to tie 16 bows in under 5 minutes. The paper on the front of the card is shimmery paper, but you can't see the sheen in the photos. Pretty paper, though. I can't imagine how people mass produce cards, as I don't have the patience. Take Jayne Mercer, for instance, who made over 300 cards! That's an insane number of cards to make! Then again, I've never been a one to give cards for birthdays etc, which I find hilarious seeing that I'm so into card making now. :D
Also, lookee what I bought!
I was given an Eckersley's (art supply store) voucher for my birthday last year and I had to use it before i expired. I normally buy loose patterned paper from there and you had to use the whole $20 at one go. Anyway, the amount bought be exactly 3 Copic Ciao markers so I gave in and bought them, adding in the extra for a colourless blender. I've yet to colour stamped images with them, but they blend together so easily and I love 'em!
As an aside, I was told two weeks ago that the lab wasn't awarded enough grants this year and they can't afford to keep me after my contract expires at the end of January, so I'm hunting high and low for a job. It's a bit difficult in Adelaide, as the market is smaller than cities such as Melbourne or Sydney and about half of the jobs advertised aren't within my area of expertise, so I don't qualify. So, the last two weeks have been a roller coaster and I'm really looking forward to the Christmas/new year break! I can't believe it's nearly the end of 2009!! Even though a lot has happened (like taking up stamping!), it feels like I've blinked and it's whipped by. Oh, another major thing that's happened is that I've finally gotten my learner driver's permit! This is a huge thing, as I'm 10 years over the age at which we can start learning to drive. Go me! :)
Anyway, enough of waffling on. I'd best get the housework done before I run out of weekend. Thanks for stopping by!
It's Makeesha's final sketch challenge for the year and I can't believe 2009 is nearly over!
I kept the card quite simple and used PTI's Everyday Button Bits, Polka Dot Basics 2 and Birthday Basics stamp sets. I hope everyone has a merry christmas and a fantastic new year and many many thanks to Makeesha and the design team for all their inspiration throughout the year! Thanks for stopping by. :)
I posted a blog entry yesterday and it definitely went up because someone else was able to view it......but it has since vanished into the vastness of the internet, never to be seen again. Oh dear. I'll try posting it again and see if it disappears again. Thankfully I wrote up the entry the night before and saved it (which I don't normally do!) so I won't have to write the entire post out again.
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I feel like a child let loose in a toy shop!!! I arrived home from work on Monday to find a parcel had arrived for me, and look at what was inside!
This is the second lot of stuff that I've been saving up to buy and bless my Aunt for having the patience to put up with all the boxes arriving on her doorstep and for posting the items all the way here! In fact, I had written off the non-PTI items as it looked like they had vanished in the postal system. I didn't know they had arrived at her place until I opened the box. So a massive THANK YOU to my Aunt for re-packing everything and posting not one, but two boxes over to Adelaide!! I can't wait to start playing with the PTI stamps, especially Giga Guide Lines, and I have so many ideas whirling in my head already. I just with I could take a day of leave off work just to stamp to my heart's content! :)
I came across some interesting 12 by 12 paper over the weekend, and bought two sheets to make cards with them. They're by a company called Stamp-It, and they have various different prints (eg. roses, tulips) on shimmery paper. The shop only had white tiger lily printed paper, so I bought them and made a really simple set of 9 cards, of which I took a photo of 4.
I like the simple and clean look, but in hindsight I realize that white lilies remind me of funerals (which didn't 'click' at the time). So now they look rather funeral-y to me. I planned on giving this set away with envelopes, but now I'm thinking twice. Opinions, anyone? I'd be glad to hear what you think. I took another photo to try and capture the shimmery-ness of the paper.
I think I'll try and get the paper with tulips on them, nice and colourful. We'll see. Anyway, thanks for looking!! :)
I was absolutely gobsmacked when I went to Keesh's site to have a look at the latest challenge, to find she'd picked my card as the winning entry for the inspiration challenge number #15!! I'm stunned, and thrilled to bits at the same time. :) Thanks Keesh!
And on to Keesh's latest sketch challenge. 
I pulled out PTI's Everyday Button BIts set again, using heart shaped buttons as flowers.
I wasn't planning to add the strip of ribbon, but I wanted to hide the 'join' between the circle element and the saffron band. It's very similar to this card, down to the butterflies and the DSP. Thanks, Keesh, for another fabulous challenge!
