It's that time of year...

Things have been flat out here in the lead up to Christmas, and I don't think I'll have a chance to make anything for a couple of weeks until the chaos settles down again. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy 2009!

FS97 - Cards by America!!!

This week's Featured Stamper on SCS is Cards By America!!! She has the most stunning gallery for you to check out!! Normally it takes me forever to decide on which card to case, but as soon as I saw this card I knew it was the one for me!
I changed the colours, the image and sentiment and kept the layout, similar corners and the ribbon underneath. I just had to use scallops though!! :)
I started with a white card base, matted with Bashful Blue (pierced of course!) and topped with some beautiful paper by Little Yellow Bicycle (I've nearly run out of it, so I have to track some more down!!). In the corners I've used the dies from the 'Vintage' Cuttlebug die set and cut them out in white (in hindsight, I guess I should have used blue...) and put pearls in each corner. The main panel is made of the largest circle scallop nestabilites and cut out two white scallop panels and offset them and pierced the scallops. Topped with some Bashful Blue cut with the plain circle nestabilities and pierced around the edge and stamped the sentiment to one side in Close to Cocoa. The image was stamped in versacolor black and clear embossed, coloured with markers and a blender pen (creamy caramel, brocade blue and a soft grey tombow), cut out and popped up on foam tape to the side of the sentiment. The whole circular panel is popped on foam tape on top of some sheer white organdy ribbon. The beautiful image and sentiment are from Our Daily Bread Designs and were part of the order that arrived this week!!!
Thats all for today, thanks for visiting!! :)

A Christmas Church

This week I received some brand new toys in the mail!!! Firstly it was fours sets from Our Daily Bread Designs , the second was the Martha Stewart Branch punch which I bought via ebay since you can't buy MS products in Australia. :( Sadly I didn't get the chance to play with them sooner due to end of year events, end of school etc...
Finally last night I set to work! The base is some red Bazzill I found in my box, matted with white (I must have been tired I forgot to paper pierce it!!!!), then topped with a piece of Soft Sky that I embossed with my 'Devine Swirl' embossing folder and cuttlebug. I added some paper by Wild Asparagus to the bottom.
I then stamped my brand new church (from ODBD's 'Worship the Lord' set) in black and embossed with clear powder. Then I used markers and blender to colour the image. I don't have any liquid applique (I really must find some), so I settled on highlighting the snow with Liquid Pearls (opal) by Ranger and then matted it with red. I also don't have any poisettia flowers, so I had to settle for a couple of red flowers centred with a gold brad with some green branches (MS punch) that I put in the top corner. Finished off with a big red Christmassy bow.
That's all for today, thanks for visiting!! :)

Featured Stamper - Annascreations!

I am loving the Featured Stamper challenge each week. This week the honour goes to Annascreations who has an awesome gallery!!
I chose this card to case. I changed the colours, embellishments, sentiment, added some paper, took away a layer and made the butterfly panel a circle instead of a square.
I started with a base of blue/aqua card, matted with sage green and topped with Very Vanilla that had been embossed with 'Swiss Dots' embossing folder through the cuttlebug. The middle panel is some paper by DCWV, matted with the blue/aqua and then again with the sage green. I used the 'Daisy Chain' border punch by fiskars for the edges and then put silver circle brads on the sides. The sentiment is from 'All Year Cheer 1' (now retired), stamped in Sage Shadow on Very Vanilla, matted with the blue/aqua card, punched out with circle punches and placed under the floral panel. The centre panel is Very Vanilla cut with circle nestabilities (3rd circle) and matted with the blue/aqua card that was punched out with a 2in circle punch (also fiskars) and popped the panel up with foam tape. The butterfly is from SU's 'Touch of Nature' which is still available in the Australian Catalogue, stamped in Sage Shadow, cut out and popped up with foam tape.
This one is heading out to a special person needing cheering up. That's all for today, thanks for visiting!! :)

Another Teacher Thank You...

What do you do when someone calls and desperately asks for a really nice card....oh, and can you have it for me in a couple of hours??? YIKES!!! Well, I turn to other designers for inspiration and that was the case here. I found this most gorgeous card by the incredibly talented Amy Sheffer aka Pickletree . I just love her elegant style and thought it would be perfect for what I needed. I managed to make this in time thank goodness!!

I started with a Close to Cocoa base, matted with a very pale pink bazzill and topped with some Chatterbox DSP. The middle layer uses the same brown and pink and topped with white that I stamped the branch from SU's 'Artfully Asian' set which is still available from the Australian SU catalogue. I stamped the image in Close to Cocoa and coloured with markers. The butterflies were punched out with the Royal Butterfly Martha Stewart Punch (which a kind friend sent me from the USA, since you can't find MS stuff ANYWHERE in Australia.....and believe me, I've looked!) in the DSP and put some little Kaiser pearls down the body. The sentiment is from Pocket Silhouettes (not in Australia yet) and punched out with the Curly Label Punch set (also not in Australia yet). Finished off with some white and brown organdy ribbon and paper pierced the corners (there had to be piercing there somewhere!!! LOL!!!)

That's all for today, thanks for visiting!!! :)

A Teacher Thank You

Here in Australia it is the end of the school year and my son is finishing grade one! How the year has flown. I was asked by the Mums if I would make a card on behalf of the class to give to the teacher.
I started with a pink bazzill base, matted with white (with piercing of course!), matted again with some deep green bazzill and then topped with some striped paper by Clover. Then I put some pink through the cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder and matted it with white (with more piercing), placing some green gingham that I found at Bee Crafty in Maryborough (QLD) across the bottom. The sentiment is from the now retired set, 'Short and Sweet' and punched out with oval punches by SU.
The main image is from 'Bloomin' with Beauty' (or Bloomin' Beautiful in the US), stamped in stazon and coloured with markers and then cut out with circle Nestabilities, piercing the scallops with a paper piercer. The corners are made using the 'Vintage' die set by Provocraft and run through the cuttlebug and embellished with white pearls.
I hope they are happy with the finished product!!! That's all for today, thanks for visiting. :)

Another Featured Stamper and a Birthday...

I needed to make my cousin a birthday card for her 40th! Now she's not normally into the 'girly' types of cards so I thought I'd pull out the super cute 'Smells Like Cake' swanky set by The Cats Pajamas , then I thought I combine it with another Featured Stamper challenge over at SCS .

I chose this card by Flowergal36 to case. Changed the background from embossed to stamped, changed the image and sentiment and changed the colours.

I started with a blue bazzill base, matted with a dark pink/red bazzill and matted again with an apricot/yellow bazill. Then I put a white layer on the top stamped with the streamers from the TCP set in stazon and coloured them with markers (Brocade Blue, Rose Red, Apricot Appeal, Old Olive from SU these are still available singularly in Australia until Dec 14th! I really loved the way my 'DP' turned out!! The main image was stamped in black versacolour and clear embossed for a shiny finish and coloured in the same markers, adding Creamy Caramel for the cake base and a soft grey tombow pen for the surrounding shadow. The sentiment comes from the same set, stamped in black and cut out with my circle nestabilities and popped up at the corner. Finished off with some cute blue spotted grosgrain. I think this will appeal to her sense of humour!!!

That's all for today - I've come down with a bad headcold so I might go and lie down. Thanks so much for visiting!! :)

Can you believe it????

I actually won second place for this card that I posted on my blog last week!!! WOOHOO!!! I was the second person drawn out of the hat and win a prize pack worth $25 which should be sent out this week! Many thanks to Bec from Bizzy Becs !!!! What a fabulous way to start the week!!! :)