AnnaBelle Bling Sketch Challenge ABSC034

Hello!!

Its time for another AnnaBelle Stamps Sketch Challenge which can be seen over at the AnnaBelle Stamps Blog. This one is a great one:

The set that I chose to use for this challenge is AnnaBelle's Jasmine's Cupcake which is a very versatile set and I had a lot of fun using it. Here is my card:

I used cream cardstock for my base and then layered my October Afternoon Thrift Shop paper on Real Red cardstock. The layer behind the image has some green cardstock layered on some more Real Red card which has been punched with my scallop punch. I then added some AnnaBelle Lime Sprinkles on the edges. The sentiment is also from the Jasmine's Cupcake set and my little banner has been popped up in the middle to give some dimension.

My main image has been stamped and coloured with my Copics. I then die cut and embossed it with a circle Nestability and while the image was still in the die I sponged on some soft blue ink to add a touch of sky. To ground my image, I used some Copic markers to create some grass. Now I have never tried either of these techniques before as I am always too scared that I might ruin my card (this is my perfectionist streak which frustrates my hubby all the time!). But I have to say that I will definately be doing both of these again. Lots of fun!

All of the edges were then inked with some tea dye ink and I added some vanilla ribbon behind the main image.

On the inside, I used another sentiment from the same set and some more Thrift Shop paper.

To play along with the sketch, just make a creation using the above sketch and link your project from your blog or on-line gallery over at the AnnaBelle Stamps Blog  for a chance to win a $20.00 gift voucher to spend at AnnaBelle Stamps! 

Click on the links below to view creations from the rest of the design team:

Belles
Andrea
Sue W
Kylie
Chupa
Ida
Jerusha
Rene'
Lisa
Sue K


Bellas
Liz
Kerry


Thanks so much for visiting and looking forward to seeing your creations!

Supplies
Stamps: Jasmine's Cupcake (AnnaBelle Stamps)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream (PTI); Real Red (SU); miscellaneous green cardstock; Thrift Shop designer paper (October Afternoon)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Baja Breeze (SU); Vintage Tea Duo (PTI); Light Blue pigment ink (Martha Stewart)
Accessories: Dimensionals, Very Vanilla satin ribbon, Scallop Border Punch (SU); Glossy Accents (Ranger); Lime 6mm Sprinkles (AnnaBelle Stamps); Copic Markers

Get Sketchy #71

Hi,
I find making cards so much easier when I have either a colour combo to inspire me or a sketch to get my started, so I decided to enter this week's Get Sketchy challenge. This is the sketch:

Here is my card:

I have been dying to ink up my Birthday Balloon Jolinne stamp and to accomodate this I had to flip the sketch. The image was stamped in Tuxedo Black ink and then coloured with my Copics. I then stamped a second set of balloons which I adhered on top and added Glossy Accents.

Some orange ribbon was tied around the bottom of the cardstock, with the sentiment added to a tag and threaded onto the ribbon. For the background I used Papertrey Ink's A Little Argyle set, stamping the solid diamond with my Lemon Tart ink and the lined diamond with Pumpkin Pie ink. I added some white pearls to finish off the front.

The inside of the card was kept very simple using another sentiment from the same set in Pumpkin Pie and the white layer was then run through my Cuttlebug with my Argyle Impression Plate to add some texture.

Okay, it is nearing midnight here so I had better head off to bed. Thanks for visiting!!!

Supplies
Stamps: A Little Argyle (PTI); Birthday Balloon Jolinne (MFT)
Cardstock: White Basics, Lemon Tart (PTI); Pumpkin Pie (SU)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie (SU); Lemon Tart (PTI); Tuxedo Memento Black
Accessories: Argyle Impression Plate (PTI; Glossy Accents (Ranger); Copics; orange ribbon; Tiny Tag Die (Cuttlenug);white pearls (Kaisercraft)

Love You card

Hello!!
Well I'm sure there are many other mums who had a day like mine today - my little girl started Prep!! All weekend I didn't know how either of us were going to handle it as she is my very last child to start school and it seems like only yesterday we were bringing her home from hospital! But she was more than ready and even mentioned that we could drop her at the gate and she would be fine!!! Of course we couldn't let that happen but after just 5 mins in the classroom, she was asking us when we would leave!! So there were no tears from any of us and she had just the best day. Here is a pic of her in her new uniform along with her two big brothers:

Anyway onto today's card. I chose to enter my card into two challenges. Firstly the  Color Cue Challenge 11 with the colours here:

Then I also decided to enter My Favorite Things Wed Sketch Challenge MFTWSC3:

 For this card I used the MFT A la Mode stamp set - Key To My Heart. Wow! This image was so fun to work with and colour!

So here's a run down on how I put this together. Firstly I ran some white cardstock through my Cuttlebug with my Papertrey Ink Linen Impression Plate. I then inked up the edges with some Vintage Tea Chamomile ink. To the top of this layer I added some Pink Pirouhette cardstock which had been cut with my scallop border punch. This was then all added to a Kraft base.

The next layer used some Baja Breeze card with Kaisercraft paper. The main image was stamped in Memento ink and coloured with my Copics. I added some Glossy Accents to the key and some white spots to the dress with my white gel pen just to give it some texture. I then cut some hearts from the designer paper and scattered them around her feet and covered them with Glossy Accents also.

To follow the MFT sketch I hand cut a heart ( I have to get a large heart punch!) and then added some glitter with my Heat and Stick Powder. On the other side I used some Kraft ribbon looped underneath. The edges of this layer were inked with Chamomile ink and matted on some Baja Breeze card.

To create the sentiment, I used the Banner Strip Die with Mini Alphabet Letters. I had found some glittery felt in my stash for the strip and then used my hole punch to cut the circles before stamping the letters. I pierced a hole at each end and threaded through some Kraft coloured thread. This was then mounted on some Pink Pirouhette card  and the edges were sponged.

 On the inside I used the same paper as a border and inked the edges of the white insert. The sentiment is also from the Key To My Heart set and the heart border along the bottom is from Papertrey Ink's Background Basics Heart Set.

So there you go - I was very happy with the end result of this card as I love adding the little interest features. The banner die will be getting a major workout. I do hope I don't bore you with my step by step rundown - I just know that when I see a card I like on someone's blog, I really like to know how they put it together for ideas etc.

Anyway I will be back in a few days with the Annabelle Stamps monthly sketch challenge.

Take care,

 

Supplies

Stamps: Key To My Heart, Mini Alphabet (MFT); Background Basics Hearts (PTI)

Cardstock: Kraft, Pink Pirouhette, Pretty In Pink, Baja Breeze (SU); Stampers Select White Basics (PTI); designer paper (Kaisercraft)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Versamark; Strawberry Fool (Elzybells); Vintage Tea Chamomile (PTI); Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouhette (SU)

Accessories: Scallop border punch, heat and stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Kraft ribbon (SU); Banner Strip die (MFT); white felt; Linen impression plate (PTI); hole punch; thread; paper piercer; white gel pen (Signo); Glossy Accents (Ranger)

Say It With Emboss Resist!

Hello,
I am back with some exciting news to share! Andrea from AnnaBelle Stamps has kindly accepted my application for a position on her design team as one of her new Bellas! That means that I will be creating for AnnaBelle Stamps weekly challenges and also the monthly sketch challenges which can be found on the AnnaBelle Stamps blog. I can hardly believe it... entering this world of blogging has been the best thing and it is now a very important part of my life - I have already made some lovely online friends who passionately share this love of stamping and cardmaking.

The first challenge I am participating in is this week's Say It With Emboss Resist. This was indeed challenging for me as I have never attempted this technique being such a clean and simple sort of girl. But boy was it fun!

For the main emboss resist panel, I firstly started with a 4 x 4 inch of white cardstock which I scored vertically and horizontally at 1/2 inch intervals with my ScorPal to form my grid. I then stamped every alternate square with the small flower image from Backgrounds By Design 1 set in Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. Once I had done this, I used a sponge dauber and sponged on some Plum Pudding hybrid ink all over the panel, which then exposed the embossed flowers. To break up the panel, I used a one inch square die and cut out the centre. I then used a small square of white cardstock just slightly larger than 1 inch square and stamped 4 flowers first in Versamark, then in Plum Pudding and heat embossed these also with clear powder just to add some contrast.

To assemble the card I adhered a square of designer paper to a white mat. The central image was then adhered to this and the main embossed square raised up on dimensionals over this. These layers were then wrapped with some Green Striped ribbon. Finally this was all adhered to the Plum Pudding base. The Happy Birthday sentiment was stamped in Plum Pudding ink from the Jasmine's Cupcake  set and cut to form a banner. Some Lime Sprinkles were added to finish the front.

The inside was kept very simple stamping the flower image in Certainly Celery ink on some Certainly Celery cardstock.

To participate, hop on over to the AnnaBelle Stamps blog and link your creation. Anyone who enters a challenge during this month will be in the running to win a gift voucher to spend in the store. Also if you use an AnnaBelle stamp for your main image and upload it to the gallery, you could be selected as a monthly Guest Designer. Check out all the details here.

Please be sure to check out all the other creations by the Design Team:



Belles
Andrea
Sue W
Kylie
Chupa
Ida
Jerusha
Rene'
Teresa
Lisa
Sue K


Bellas
Liz
Kerry




Thanks for visiting!

Supplies
Stamps: Backgrounds By Design 1, Jasmine's Cupcake (AnnaBelle Stamps)
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Plum Pudding (PTI); Certainly Celery, retired designer paper(SU)
Ink: Plum Pudding (PTI); Certainly Celery (SU); Versamark
Accessories: Green Striped ribbon, Lime 6mm Sprinkles (AnnaBelle Stamps); clear embossing powder, slot punch (SU);ScorPal;imensionals, sponge dauber

blog error

Hi,
Just letting you know that there is a problem with my blog header which I am working on fixing tonight. Fingers crossed!!

ETA. It appears that the problem was with the blog template as the site I downloaded it from seems to be having problems (photobucket bandwidth exceeded - a bit over my head!!). It is now nearly 1am, so I have found a temporary template to use as I am beyond exhausted trying to find another one, but it is a little busy and cluttered, so I will be changing it to something more simple soon. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions of a good site, can you let me know??

2nd ETA! I just woke up and it appears I can use my little template again which I have grown attached to. Unsure what happened there - I am a computer novice! This has made me very wary though and I am going to look into getting a customised blog template in future as this little episode proved very challenging for me!!

Cute AnnaBelle Stamp

Hello,
Sorry for my absence of late - I have been caught up with so much this week and have just started back at work today - only 4 hours a day which is great as I still have time to stamp each night!! I went to post this card yesterday, but lost power for the evening due to storms in Brisbane so here it is today.

The card I am posting is one I have entered in two challenges: Just Add Ink Challenge 51 which is the theme of monochrome. My colours are all different tones of pink obviously. I also used Keesh's Inkspirations Sketch Challenge 53 which is here:


This is my first time using this really cute stamp - Lil' Michelle With Teddy from AnnaBelle Stamps - it is definately a stamp I will keep coming back to - heaps of fun to use and oh so gorgeous!!

I scored the white cardstock with my ScorPal in one inch intervals and then machine stitched around the edge before adhering to a Pretty In Pink base. I used some Cristina Re patterned paper for the vertical strip which I added to a Regal Rose mat. These were then stitched together also.  For the main image, I stamped the Lil Michelle image once in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then again onto two scraps of designer paper which I used to paper piece the shirt and skirt. I then also stamped a second image of the teddy which I popped up on dimensionals once the rest of the image was coloured with my Copics.  To add a little sparkle I used my Clear AtYou Spica glitter pen to highlight the stockings, hair and skirt. Some Glossy Accents was added to the heart on her shirt to add dimension.

For the sentiment which is from the same set, I cut a tag from Cuttlebug's Tiny Tag set. I matted the image on some Pink Pirouhette card and then used my slot punch to make a small opening to feed my striped pink ribbon through. This ribbon is so pretty and really easy to work with. To finish off the pink theme, I added three blossom Sprinkles.

The inside of the card uses another sentiment  from the Lil' Michelle set which was matted on patterned paper and Regal Rose cardsock and machine stitched together.

I had a lot of fun colouring and making this card, and will be showing another card very soon which took me right out of my comfort zone. I will back in a couple of days with some exciting news!

Take care

Supplies
Stamps: Lil' Michelle with Teddy (AnnaBelle Stamps)
Cardstock: Stampers Select White (PTI); Pretty In Pink, Pink Pirouhette, Regal Rose (SU); Mia Collection paper (Cristina Re)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Strawberry Fool Hybrid (Elzybells - retired)
Accessories: Pink Striped ribbon, Blossom Sprinkles (AnnaBelle Stamps); Copic Markers; AtYou Clear Spica glitter pen; Tiny Tags die (Cuttlebug); Glossy Accents (Ranger); dimensionals (Stampin' Up); white thread

Very quick card

Hello,

I write this post as Brisbane and South East Qld is coming to terms with the devastation left from this week's floods. It is almost too much to comprehend when I see images on tv and our local suburbs we visit regularly just 10 minutes down the road are consumed with water up to rooftops. I have friends in these areas who my heart goes out to (as it does to everyone is the terrible situation) as their businesses or homes have been severely damaged or destroyed. Our family also lives in Toowoomba and we are so thankful that they are all safe, even though the effects of the ferocious flood that hit their town in particular will be with them for a very long time. We have been separated from our 5 year old daughter who has been staying with my mother in law and family for a few days at the Sunshine Coast but thankfully she is safe and we are able to pick her up tomorrow as the roads start to open.

Our suburb of Forest Lake was thankfully spared from the flood waters, however my husband is out on the frontline as well as members of our family who are in the SES, working around th clock to do everything they can to help with the mammoth task of the cleanup and keeping people safe. At the moment we are cut off from our friends and family who have been affected as the floodwaters still have their suburbs blocked off, but as soon as we can, my family and I will be doing everything we can to assist in the cleanup. Our hearts go out to everyone.

I have not been to my blog since the start of this week since this catastrophe has happened, and to be honest I have hummed and haahed all day about posting a card that I made for my mum's friend on here as it just doesn't feel right going on with day to day tasks while others are suffering, so I will make this a brief post. If anyone wants details at all about the card, I am happy to let you know. The card is made for made for Off The Wall Craftiness #40 and uses the colours burgundy, tan and white ( I have used Scarlet Jewel (PTI), Kraft and White).

Again, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone out there affected by this week's tragic event.

Take care and stay safe,

Another Crochet card

Hi!
I am finally back with the last of my three crochet flower cards using the Sign Language set from Papertrey Ink.  Its so good to use up any scraps of designer paper as well and I had the Doodlebug Designs paper I used here, sitting in my stash for months so finally I could put it to good use!

The Lavender Moon and Sprinkles paper were layered on Kraft and machine stitched aroound the edges. A strip of Kraft with a scallop border was then added to cover the join between the two paper. I had it in mind that I wanted to layer four small images with a glitter border in between, so I planned this out by using some Scor-Tape to create the dividing border. I didn't expose the sticky side until I had stamped the four images where I wanted them to be positioned. I then peeled back the tape and poured some Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the sticky border. After that I added a second layer of each image which had been embossed and mounted on dimensionals. I then stamped the 'Just for You' sentiment repeatedly in Lavender Moon ink along the bottom of the white cardstock and matted this with a Kraft layer.

To attach the ribbon, I punched a slot  in the top of these layers,threaded the white ribbon through and then adhered the image layer to the designer paper.  I made a simple white bow and hand sewed my flower and button through  all of these layers to finish off before adhering it to my Kraft base.

The inside of the card continues the theme from the front with the image stamped in Lavender Moon ink using a sentiment from the Birthday Basics set and a tiny flourish added in Certainly Celery ink.

I have enjoyed making these little crochet flowers and will definately be keeping some on hand for future cards. I now need to move on to some other projects including some monogrammed letters for my kids' bedroom doors, not to mention the first card for this year's Christmas!!! Busy busy busy!! I have a lot of time to accomplish these tasks though, as my husband has taken my two youngest children to the Sunshine Coast for a few days to give my some crafting (and supposedly spring cleaning ..ha ha) time!! I am very lucky to have such a thoughtful hubby, but I don't know how much cleaning will be achieved!

I hope to be back soon with more projects to share,

Thanks for visiting 

 



Supplies
Stamps: Birthday Basics, Sign Language ( PTI); Simple Serif (SU)
Cardstock: Lavender Moon, White Basics (PTI); Sprinkles paper (Doodlebug Designs); Kraft (SU)
Ink: Lavender Moon (PTI); Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze (SU)
Accessories: Apron Lace punch (Fiskars); Scor Tape;dimensionals;white ribbon; pink button;white thread; crochet thread- cotton perle 842 (DMC); Dazzling Diamonds glitter, white embossing powder (SU)



Aussie Cards For Sale

Hello again,
I have just found a fantastic site - Aussie Cards For Sale which has been started by Alicia at Time To Create. I have been making cards for my family and now friends are starting to approach me as well, so I thought I just might have a go at applying to sell my cards here as I think its a fabulous idea!!! These are the cards that I am going to submit:

I think this is such a great idea - I know my family would rather buy a handmade card than cards from stores - and such a great price!

See you soon with another card!!

Scallops and Bling

Back again,

I have been on a real roll and couldn't resist doing another card using my handmade flowers and some bling. Also, something I have been seeing a lot of lately is layers of scallops - I wasn't sure about them in the past, but now I am hooked! For this card again I used my trusty Sign Language set and some more Doodlebug Designs paper - this time Cherry Amour. I chose my colour scheme using the lovely colours in this paper and it all seemed to come together quite easily.

First, to my Kraft base, I added another layer of Kraft which was run through my Cuttlebug with Papertrey Ink's Linen Impression Plate. I then sewed a border around the edge. After I cut each scallop, I used my Scor Pal to add a slight bend to each one up a little. I layered my scallops from the bottom, starting with Certainly Celery, designer paper, Lavender Moon and some more Cherry Amour paper. This paper is so pretty!!!!! I popped up the lower Cherry paper on dimensionals - one under each scallop just to make sure that they had some pop.

I then added some Pretty In Pink ribbon and adhered this Kraft layer to my base with Scor Tape - just to make sure it would adhere well - I am a bit paranoid when it comes to adhering layers - I am always scared that the card could lift off, so I use way too much tape!!!

I stamped the images from Sign Language using Versamark and Real Red which I embossed and matted these on Certainly Celery card and Lavender Moon card and finally added some foam tape for extra dimension. I had some a strip of some tiny silver rhinestones in my stash so I added this above the ribbon. You can never have too much bling I say!! Finallly I adhered my three flowers with Glossy Accents and a coordinating rhinestone on each.

On the inside I used my Scallop border punch to create a border around all four edges. The sentiment is from the Heartfelt Basics set and was stamped in Certainly Celery ink and clear embossed so it is clearer.

I do have to apologise for the photo quality this time - I took this photo at night, so the colours weren't given justice here. This card was oh so much fun to make - very time consuming as I am not the world's quickest cardmaker as I am very critical, but I will definately be having a go at some more scallop layers in future. 

I aim to back in a couple of days with another card and want to keep my resolution to make Christmas cards starting now!

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies
Stamps: Sign Language, Heartfelt Basics (PTI)
Cardstock: Kraft, Certainly Celery (SU); White Basics, Lavender Moon (PTI); Cherry Amour designer paper (Doodlebug Designs)
Ink: Versamark, Real Red, Certainly Celery (SU)

Accessories: Linen impression plate (PTI); square punch, clear embossing powder, scallop border punch, Pretty In Pink ribbon (SU); square die (Cuttlebug); cream sewing thread; silver and pink rhinestones; green rhinestones (Kaisercraft); dimensionals, Scor-tape; Limeade floss (Bazzill); crochet thread- cotton perle 842 (DMC)

ABSC033 Challenge

Happy New Year!!!!
I hope that everyone is having a great start to 2011 - I have a good feeling about this year! Now that the Christmas rush is over, I have time to get back into my stamping and build up my card collection which has been depleting a little over the last few months. I chose to enter this card into Annabelle Stamps challenge -    ABSC033. I loved this sketch - I have a thing for bling and I have been creating some little crocheted flowers to use on a card or two (the pattern for this is here). This is the sketch:

Here is my card:

I started with a Kraft base and them matted some Lavender Moon cardstock (embossed with my Swiss Dots folder) and some Doodlebug Designs Sprinkles paper onto another Kraft layer which was machine stitched and distressed a little. Some Certainly Celery ribbon was used to cover the join between the papers. The Signpost and image/sentiment were stamped using the Sign Language set from Papertrey Ink. I love this set as it can be used in so many different ways, mixing sentiments and images to suit any occasion. The signpost was stamped in Baja Breeze ink and the sentiment in Old Olive ink. The image was embossed using Certainly Celery ink and clear embossing powder and then popped up on dimensionals. Some tiny white pearls were added to the flowers. The white cardstock was then cut with a circle nestability and matted onto a Kraft circle. The two circles were raised up on foam adhesive. To finish off the bling, I used some white pearls and then added my two crochet flowers with some Glossy Accents.

The sentiment on the inside of the card is from Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics set stamped in Old Olive ink. I used a tiny flower image from the Simple Serif alphabet set from Stampin' Up in Baja Breeze. A thin layer of the same designer paper was added along the bottom with a row of pearls above it. This layer was matted on some Lavender Moon cardstock.

I so enjoyed making this card that I thought I would go on to make a couple more cards using  a similar theme with crocheted flowers and the Sign Language set. Stay tuned as I have nearly finished the next one and will post it tomorrow.

See you then!

Supplies

Stamps: Sign Language, Birthday Basics (PTI)

Cardstock: White Basics, Lavender Moon (PTI); Kraft (SU); Sprinkles designer paper (Doodlebug Designs)

Ink: Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Versamark (SU)

Accessories: Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug); circle nestabilities (Spellbinders);white pearls (Kaisercraft); clear embossing powder, Certainly Celery ribbon (SU); distressing tool (Tim Holtz); brads (Basic Gray); white thread; crochet thread- cotton perle 842 (DMC)