Clean and simple

The weather in Adelaide today has been awful. Perfect for staying home and making cards! After such a long break in cardmaking, it feels like my brain is trying to make up for it by constantly thinking of possible card designs. I like fairly simple cards, so I decided to try a one-layer card. The challenge I find with simple one-layer cards is that if I make a mistake, it's not easy to cover the mistake up. Take for example, the card below.

 

Everything was going fairly well until I stamped the leaf! The poor placement of the leaf resulted in a fair bit of angst on my part because I really don't think it worked where it was. So I decided to flip the card over and try again, see exhibit B.

 

 

 

It still didn't work for me. Cue some swearing. I was tempted to throw the entire thing out, but I figured having a card handy would be better than wasting good cardstock, so I flipped it back over (lesser of two evils) and embossed the sentiment in black. If only I could just shift the leaf over and down slightly in the first try so it doesn't "clash" with the red.

 

This next card is a CASE from a card done by Maile Belles, who makes simple but elegant cards and whose style I love.

 

 

 

 

And then I decided to make one more card using many colours and the Polka Dot Basics II set from Papertrey Ink.

 

 

As I mentioned before, mistakes aren't easy to cover up and I really didn't want to start from scratch (or waste good cardstock!) so I left the splotchy stamping in the top left corner as it was. My original idea was to use my Scor-Buddy to score a line across which would've acted as the divider between the pattern and the white space, but that didn't work out so well. The addition of a thin strip of ribbon improved the look a lot, in my opinion.

 

 



 

 

I used a Fiskars stamp press for the first time, and it worked really well! I've had it lying around for a few years, so I thought it was high time I used it. It really helped me in keeping the dots straight horizontally, it was just my bad judgement that results in the uneven spaces between each line of dots.

 

Anyway, that's enough crafting for the day. I'm off to curl up on the couch and watch some TV! Thanks for stopping by!

 

 





 

FTL 123

Have I mentioned how much I loooooooove sketch challenges? The Clean & Simple sketch challenges, in particular. Love what the team does each week!! This week is no exception.



I had a look through my "inspiration" folder and came across a past challenge over at PPA. Love the colours!


And here is what I ended up with.



The colours look a bit off because the lighting wasn't very good. Love PTI felt!! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

FTL 117

It's really warming up here in Adelaide, with the temperature today at 32 degrees. Here comes summer! Anyway, here is the latest Clean & Simple sketch.

I used some of the fabulous PTI vintage cream felt for the flowers and what makes PTI felt awesome is it's so thick, soft and velvety. *swoon* I've been hoarding my stash of PTI felt, but it's high time I used some. Still, it did hurt a bit when I cut into the roll. ;)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Beautiful blooms II

Just a super quick post today as I've been really busy over the past week. The room swap happened last weekend and I'm now busy sorting out stuff and giving items a new home. It boggles the mind how much stuff I've accumulated!



Things I've learnt from making this card are to stamp before sticking the flower on (the button prevented a nice even stamp) and to stamp before using the impression plate. And I'm still addicted to Beautiful Blooms II and the matching dies. PTI rocks!

For Nichole

Divine felt

Ahhhhhh......I love PTI wool felt. It's so gorgeous and dies cut through it like a dream! I have to admit I'm a bit of a hoarder with some of my craft supplies, and I think PTI felt will be one of those things I won't break into as often. That is, unless I have a spare roll of felt handy. I really must break this habit. Any suggestions? :)

Enough rambling and on to a card. I used a past FTL sketch (#101) and my new Beautiful Blooms II dies.





Thanks for stopping by!

Linen & canvas

Greetings and salutations! I made a card last night, which is very similar to this one from a few weeks ago. I tested out my brand new Linen & Canvas impression plate from PTI, and I'm in love!! This plate is just awesome!!



I have the Canvas background stamp from SU!, but this plate is just so much better. I can't stop ooh-ing and aah-ing over the texture on the CS. However, it was only after I adhered the black strip on the card that I realized my stamped panel was upside down! D'oh!! I really didn't have the heart to pull it all up, so hopefully it's not really all that noticable. Wishful thinking. :)

Dusty

Helloooooo there! My, look at the thick film of dust on this blog. :) Apologies for not blogging sooner, but I haven't been making very much lately and things have been busy around here. I thought I'd finally update the blog and put up photos of some things I made last month.


This is a card I CASEd from the fabulous Susan Raihala. I can't find the link to her original post, but she used a different flower from the Echoes of Kindness set in Bashful Blue instead of Saffron. The photo is a wee bit blurry, but the sentiment is embossed with black EP.

My contract with my previous employer expired, and my last day was on the 29th of Jan. I've been very privileged to work with some awesome people, particularly those with whom I shared an office with (poor them!). I used Tim Holtz charm fragments and alcohol inks to make pendants and earrings for the girls, and a key chain for the guy. The flowers and ladybirds were stamped with Versamark and embossed with black EP. I found out the hard way that you shouldn't attempt to emboss too many at a time, for I melted one poor charm fragment. Unfortunately for me, it was one of a pair of earrings. Drat!

On another note, I've been trying to find a way to store sponge daubers without having them float around and getting ink on everything. I found this plastic container at a Big W store (like Wal Mart, for those of you in the States) and it fits PERFECTLY, with 30 going into an entire box. YEAH! I'm absolutely ecstatic! It's the little things that count. ^_^


I'm hoping to get back into the creative swing of things soon, so stay tuned for more posts!

Simplicity

I was blog hopping the other day when I stumbled across this fantastic blog by Susan Raihala called Simplicity. The woman is a genius and I find her work soooo pretty and inspiring, especially since I have a bit of a fear of empty white space on cards. Make sure you stop by and have a look at her blog and read this absolutely hilarious post, which I'm sure many of us can relate to!

I made a couple of things over the weekend, but the first card I made for Keesh's sketch challenge (which you can see here) was really bugging me. The flourish cut-out was just not right so I ripped it off and replaced it with a smaller square sentiment box. The photo makes it look a wee bit washed out, and the text stamped in pink isn't that light IRL.



I wanted to make a simpler card after seeing Susan's wonderful projects and I picked another paper from SEI's Mimosa collection called Mint Julep, which is also shimmery. It goes really well with Kiwi Kiss, but I find it a challenge to match it up with any other colour aside from white.



I didn't like the first one I made (top), so I tried again and I think it's much better. There is a boo-boo with the first card, but thankfully the paper is forgiving enough that I can get away with it. I tried (again) to capture the shimmer of the paper, and I think you can just about see it in the next photo.



And last of all, I started making my christmas cards. I think it's a bit too much, though. I'll try a simpler (faster) version next time. I entered this card as part of a competition, so I put a lot of glue and glossy accents on that darn bow to make sure it doesn't come apart. That bow is goin' nowhere!



Anyway, have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Mojo Monday 84!

I tried to stick to the sketch but the circle thingo I made really didn't look good at all, so I took it off.

This is what it looked like with the circle.

The colours I used were taken from the Fall Flowers DSP (Sahara Sand, Old Olive, Soft Sky) and I embossed the flowers using white EP. Thanks for stopping by!

Mojo Monday 82.

Just a really simple card for the latest Mojo Monday sketch.

I used Always Artichoke CS for the base and layered a piece of Brocade Background DSP onto Choc Chip CS. The lighting makes the Choc Chip look purple! I used Basic Grey ink to stamp both the image and the sentiment, but I think it'd look better without the sentiment. I had to use my new word window punch, though. :) Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Spring solitude bundle + happy mail!

Hi all! My bestie loaned me her Spring Solitude bundle which was a hostess set (with matching wheel) from the previous catalogue, and I've been having a ball with it. It took a while for my mojo to appear though, but it deserted me after I made the second one. I really love the wheel that comes with the set, but can't think of what else to do with it. Ah well, I still have two weekends to play with it. :)

All the cards use a mixture of Old Olive, So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie CS. I'm really liking that colour combo! I also used Choc Chip CS, a More Mustard inkpad, an Old Olive marker and a Choc Chip marker. I was trying to cut out some of the flowers (stamped on Pumpkin Pie CS) to stick on the Saffron strip of the thank you card, but it was just too fiddly. I also found it difficult to cut out because the flowers were overlapping and I gave up in disgust. Maybe I'll try again later.

I have to share some mail that arrived in my mailbox recently. The first card is by Dani Fender and I loooooooove the colours she used (my fave colour!) with the crayon resist technique. I can't wait to try the technique out myself. :)

This card was made by Makeesha Byl and I'm in awe of her watercolouring skills. I've been trying to brush up on my technique, but her watercolouring is wicked!

I came home from work one day to find a catalogue packed in this adorable envelope from Kim Gavarra! Isn't the little birdie cute?

That stamp set is on my wishlist, but it's been bumped waaaaaay down cos there is just too much to like in the new catalogue! Thanks for stopping by!

ARGH!

I was in the middle of typing a post when I lost the entire thing. GAH! *grumpy* Let's see if I can remember what I wrote......

These two cards were made with Purely Pomegranate CS and the branch stamped image was layered with Cameo Coral (left) and Groovy Guava (right). I used the Coral CS first and wasn't happy with the result, so I tried Guava instead. Still not happy! I think I'll try Regal Rose next, when I eventually get some. The branch image was stamped on Whisper White and coloured with a pomegranate ink pad and an aqua brush. I stamped the sentiment using the So Many Sayings hostess set in white and pomegranate, and amazingly, I managed to stamp it straight (which you can barely see) for the second card! I really must invest in a stamp-a-ma-jig.

I made the next card on a whim, using bright colours. I think I'll have to try again and add a layer of CS under all 4 flowers because it lacks something, to me. The CS isn't from Stampin' Up! and the colours used for the flowers are Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun and Wild Wasabi. The sentiment is also from So Many Sayings (love this set) and stamped in black.

I was thrilled to bits upon receiving a card in the mail on Monday. Snail mail is underrated, I tell you! The fabulous Makeesha sent me this card made with three colours that I love (Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky) and using the Ocean Commotion stamp set, which I've been eyeing for a while. It's soooooooo pretty! Thanks, Makeesha!

As an aside, can I say how awesome Quelches are? For those who haven't come across this, Quelch is made by a fruit juice company (Berri) and consists of sachets of fruit juice (and other stuff, I'm sure) that you place in the freezer and eat as ice blocks. They're heaven in this disgusting 39-45 degree weather (102-114 for anyone playing in fahrenheit) we've been having. A colleague brought a whole bag in to share. Sheer genius!

I had another 2 cards to add on, but they can wait for another day. TTFN!