Welcome to a new year

Afternoon crafters,

Happy new year

I know it is a fraction too late, but this is the first time this year i have been back and visited my blog, slack i know but i took a holiday away from my crafts, and even blog surfing.

Apart from the occasional card i had to make during the break, i have enjoyed this time to sit back relax and enjoy the precious sun that we got, when it showed. I think someone forgot to tell the weather god that it is summer here in NZ. I hope you all have had a relaxing safe and happy holiday season, i worked through but did manage 3 days up at the beach this past Monday

 From here on in until June i have a very quiet time on the card front, so this is normally the time i end up trying out new techniques and ideas.

I have already seen a few new ideas i want to play around with, oh exciting times ahead.

The card i want to show today is one i did recently for my F-I-L's 60th birthday.

I got to play with my new stamp set "The Open Sea"

 I really enjoyed making this card, the ship and the anchor has been clear embossed. The background of the ship is a piece of cardstock that i stamped then just rumpled up and then flattened back out.

Well i must get back to my blog surfing i have alot to catch up on......oh and my paper work i supposed i had better do that as well

Try stampin on Tuesday #40

Morning Stampers,

It is once again that time of week, 

Try Stampin on Tuesday 

has released a new sketch, and it is a good one

Yesterday was my Brother-in-laws birthday, so i used this sketch to do a male themed card, i also got to ink up a new stamp, well it is not new i have had it for a while but it was yet to see ink.

This one isn't one of my finest pieces, there are many boo boo's

Next time i will have to lock the cat out of my office, as he always insists on a pat or cuddle just as sit down to create.

So go on over and have paly with this weeks new sketch

Another male birthday

Afternoon stampers,

On Monday this past week, my son celebrated his 17th birthday. I am starting to feel old now, my two children are growing up so fast, it wont be long before they spread their wings and venture out on their own...i will admit that i am not looking forward to that day, im sure there will be many private tears when it does happen. heres hoping there are still a few more years yet before i have to cross that bridge.

I had alot of trouble with his card, as in some ways he is still young, but in other ways he is so much older now.

So instead of settling for a teenage card, i went for a more mature card.

Next year for his 18th i have a fun card already picked out for him.

I hope everybody is enjoying this wonderful spring weather, well today here in Hamilton is is a wonderful day, almost a shame i have to sit here in my office and do paper work, lets hope it lasts until the weekend so i can go out and at least enjoy some of it.

Happy Birthday to the man in my life

Afternoon stampers.

This week was my darling husband's birthday, and i swear each year it is getting harder and harder to buy for him. he is not the easiest person to buy for.

After being together for nearly 24 years, i have run out of all ideas on gifts for him. But this time i ended up taking him out to the movies at the La Premiere theater, which has very comfortable leather lazyboys, we had a snack while watching the beginning of the movie, then bout half way through the movie they brought us in our desserts. It was a very enjoyable night and the movie "Crazy stupid love", was great.

I have struggled with male cards, so it is always even harder to make that special card for that special person in your life.

But i think i managed to get it just right 

Now the next challenge will be for my son's 17th on Monday, oh boy what to do there.

 Wherever you are tonight enjoy the All Blacks game, if you plan on watching it.

 I know my town is going crazy about this game, they have been all week, It is a big deal for us here in Hamilton.

"GO BLACKS"

Yes i am still here.

Hi Stampers,

Boy has it really been 3 weeks since my last post....i guess it has been.

 So much has been happening. 

I have attended a SU big day out, and boy oh boy it was so much fun, i got to met ladies that i have spent the past few months talking to online. It was just brilliant to put faces to names.

Here is a photo of us CA ladies.

FRONT: Helen Williams

SECOND ROW: (Left to Right) Dee Sturgeon, Narelle Hoggard, Louise Hopman

THIRD ROW: Raine Walton, Debi Ryan, Bev Poultney, Julia Leece, Heather Stewart, Shona Davy, Sally Williams.

FOURTH ROW: Rhonda Fawcett, Cindy Backhouse, Kristine McNickle

BACK ROW: Sharna Russell, Baby Holle & Claire Mason, Judy Kilmore, Faazia Sherrard, Karen Williamson, Katrina Bongers

Life has been so busy that it has been very hard to find time to create. I am also suffering with a sore arm, and when i do spend time stamping or creating, i seem to be spending just about as much time with an aching arm afterwards.

I can honestly say that i have only made about 1-3 cards lately.

i still have not got much mojo happening, but i have been busy doing a project or two.

Over at Crafters anonynous (CA) we have an up coming secret sister swap, so i have been busy trying to get it all finished so i can get in the post to my lucky swap sister.

I do have a card i want to share today, i was asked to make a card for my daughters new boyfriend, it was his birthday on the weekend, but with mojo lacking i went back to an old favorite of mine, but just used a different layout, i have lost count the number of times i have now used this particular stamp in this way.

So here is the boyfriends card

i am so hoping the mojo returns soon, as from here until Christmas i have a busy time with birthdays starting tomorrow it is my husbands birthday, i do have a card made for that, so i will post that in the upcoming days.

But that raises a bigger question...what to get him, he has no hobbies(too busy with our business), no real interests and if he wants anything he just goes and buys it for himself.

Anyway i must go, and rest my arm i had to make Hubby's card this morning, and the arm is showing me it is there, As if i didn't know that already

Out of the blue challenge FTL145

Hello Stampers,

The other night i got to talking to my sister online over at Crafters anonymous, 

and out of the blue she set a challenge.

 She gave us both 1 hour to do and complete this weeks sketch over at 

Clean & simple

Here is the sketch

at first i didn't want to do it, but i caved in and gave it a go.

Here is my attempt.

this is the result of being put on the spot ...a yuck moment, i don't do well put on the spot

I didn't like this at all.

So i gave it another go, when i wasn't put on the spot

This time i had my nephew in mind as it is his birthday next Monday.

This one turned out really great.

you can see yet again i went for punch art,

the idea came from

here.

It is an UK demonstrator. Lisa from Norfolk.

Today i'm off up to Auckland, in fact by the time this post goes live i will be up there and attending the SENZ craft show. so i will be back to tell you all about it maybe show you a new thing or two.

For the handyman in our lives.........

Afternoon  Stampers.

Afternoon, i thought i would pop in to post the card i made the other night in a moment of boredom.

While searching through a few saved favorites over at Splitcoast stampers

i came across this great one from Donna Cook

I used her idea of the pin board for the tools but used my own layout.

i haven't added a sentiment yet, as i don't know if i will use this for a fathers day card, or for a male birthday card, at this stage i'm not sure which, so the sentiment will come later.

anyway i'm off to go and have some lunch before there is none left,

See you

Happy 60th Birthday

Morning Stampers,

What i have to share today is a card i did for my dad's upcoming 60th birthday.

My younger sister turned 21 last month and my dad is turning 60 next month so on the 14th of this month  they held a combined party.

I gave my sister her card on her actual birthday, and i gave dad his card when i saw him, as with him living in another town, i don't see him that often at all.

I had a blast at the party catching up with a few family members who i haven't seen since my kids were babies, they are now both in their mid to late teens, so it has been a long time between visits.

Also i learn't a very important thing, don't send the men out to get you your wine...

Well it did taste a whole lot better with a little bit of juice added.....

Here is the card i made for dad

Over at try Stampin on Tuesday, i again made the top three this week. Congrats also go to Helen Williams and Sarah for their top three picks as well.

 I urge everybody to go on over and have a play, CherylAnn's weekly challenges are fantastic.

Here is my badge

The card i did for last weeks challenge was done with a new friend in mind.

i have been part of this round of U Stamp with Dawn and Friends.

And through this site i have been chatting to some amazing people, from Australia, America and of course right here in NZ.

I wanted to send a hello to Helen Williams, a demonstrator from Timaru, NZ, also to thank her for her kind words when you ask those silly questions all newbies ask.

So i made the card with her in mind.

here is the card

Anyway i am sitting here writing this and trying to figure out what i am going to do for this weeks challenge,

Again i have a another special new friend in mind, this one is going to go further abroad though.

But i am not going to say who in case she pops in and sees her name, then it won't be a surprise

Till then take care all of you out there in blogger land

Try Stampin on Tuesday #13

Morning Stampers,

This is a quick post this morning, i have lots to do , and i am in the middle of creating again.

This week over at Try Stampin on Tuesday, they have a another great sketch.

As i have been really busy this week, i have gone for completely simple, in fact i started this sketch with one of my Twin nieces in mind, it is their 2nd birthday this Saturday.

 but i found it is not girly at all so it was back to the drawing board.

Anyway here is my creation

if time allows i might give this sketch another go, as i have a another card or so i have to come up with.

In the mean time i am busy creating a couple of cards for my twin nieces for this weekend which i will showcase later on.

Take care and if you are in the wet zone stay dry, (and Aucklanders ...stay safe).

Have a great weekend ahead

A card for all occasions

Afternoon stampers,

Well it was yet another cold day here in Hamilton, but thankfully we didn't have the rain today.

 Heater on in the evenings, winter blankets on the bed, is a sure bet that Mr Winter has arrived.

Well the card i have today to show is one that i did a while back as a thank you card, but i gave that oner away before i took a photo of it, so i had to re-create it.

This is an easy card suitable for any occasion.

Hense why i haven't added a sentiment yet.

The background was done using my Stamp-a-ma-jig sheet, and drawing/scribbling onto it the size i needed and then placing upside down on to the card stock and rubbing gently to transfer the ink, and the outcome is a slightly washed out background, i want to experiment a bit further with this and see what i come up with.

It is a really neat effect, i like it.

The tree was done using my markers and two different greens and Early Expresso 

Give it a try and see what you can come up with.

Try Stampin on Tuesday #11

Evening Stampers,

I hope every body had a sweet and fun filled long weekend.

I had a mixed bag of a weekend, between work being lazy and of course eating too much of that sweet stuff.

Any just a quick post tonight as in sitting here waiting for my very first online chat class to begin.

This week over at Try stampin on Tuesday is another great sketch

i will admit that this one stumped me real bad.but in the end i gave it a go and i even created two cards with this sketch, 

The first one i do not like at all, im not sure why.

Here it is

But i am a bit happier with my second attempt, it was made for a friend of mine who is 21 today, hense the little key, i used to look after him when he was a baby, he was also the first newborn i ever held onto.

So here is the second card

He drives a mini sprint and last year was 2nz.

 His sprint car is blue, so i decided to go with the blue truck.

As i said i like this one better, but i have to admit this sketch has me stumped still.

Any way must go, i will pop back in tomorrow to showcase the outcome of tonights blind online chat class

Just Add Ink....... Happy Anniversary

Afternoon Stampers.

Yesterday my husband and i celebrated our 23rd year of being together and also our 13th wedding anniversary.

We started "going out" when we were only 14&15 years old

We had an adults only night out on Saturday night, but last night we went out as a family.

The kids really get involved in our special day every year, this year was no difference, they gave us a night off from chores, and gave us lots of hugs and kisses.

So the card i made yesterday was a quick and easy one, as my husband and i had a busy day sitting in Auckland traffic trying to get to a place we needed to be at, but due to an accident holding things up it took us just over an hour to travel 3kms along the road. But we did get there in the end, and the silver lining on this was that we got to spend a bit more staff free time together.

Yes those of you who visit the great site of "The Paper Crafters Library" will recognize this as her latest technique video, as soon as i saw it i thought it would make a great card to CASE.

I did change it a bit, i used a different stamp set, and i used my pads not the pastels she used, but the colours are the same as hers, as i was in too much of a rush to find my own colours.

Here is my card.

Also over at Just Add Ink this week their challenge it to 

"Just add stamps",

 that means no ribbons, brads or extras just the stamps and cardstock, so part from the one little brad i think i will enter this card.

yes i know there are a few boo-boos, so don't look too hard, but i will be re-doing this one at a later date, as i really like the layout and the design of this card.

Enjoy your day :)

Try Stampin on Tuesday....& Top 3 pick

Afternoon Stampers.

Well, i have had to have a few creative free days, due to a bad infection under my nail.

But the worst part is i have a false nail on the finger and haven't been able to get it removed due to the pain, so i can treat the infection, but with lots of soaking i have managed to bring it under control, and i have been able to create again....ya!!!

Yesterday over at Try Stampin on Tuesday, they released their second ever challenge, and once again i gave it a go. In fact i made two different cards using the same sketch

Woohoo!!!

I made the top 3 last week, i was so pleased as this is my first top 3 pick,
see my badge on the Left hand side
Click here to see the Top 3 Pick entry

Here is this weeks sketch

For the first one i went for that ever hard to do Male card.

Im not sure of what i think of it, i like it but then again i don't,

 i think it is the sentiment that needs re-doing, but this is what happens when you attempt to do things late at night when you should be going to bed.

back up and running......

Afternoon stampers.

Yay me.........

Thanks to my son i am now back up and running, he managed to re-install all of my hard drive so now im away again.

As i said in my last post i had to do a birthday card.

This card is for an uncle of mine who is turning 60, and as always i find male cards very hard to do, i have found less is best.

But i did have to laugh while making this, in the past i used to moan if i had to make a male themed card, as i didn't have any stamps for the purpose really, so i brought the stamp set " Lovely as a tree", as this is a great stamp set for male themed cards.

 But as you will see i didn't even use this set for this card. 

I am really pleased how this turned out, as out of all of the colour combos you can use i would have to say this combo is my favourite.

What the camera does not pick up is the fact that i used Crystal effects on this card,

 i used it in the centres of the round background stamps, on every other line of the DSP, and also on the 60 to highlight the number.

On the inside (opps forgot to take photo) i placed a piece of the matching DSP along the bottom to tie in the front of this card.

i almost forgot to post this today as i have been having fun over at the new exciting site of Andrea Walford

Click on the blinky on the side for Paper crafters Library, there is so much info on this site for beginners and for experienced crafters

Hot on the tails of Christmas

Afternoon Stampers.

I hope everybody out there in blog land had a great Christmas day.

With the usual to much food and maybe a drink or two.

I know i had a great day, this year was our first quiet Christmas day, with a BBQ brunch at home then a relaxing time for the rest of the day.

In fact we all ate so much for brunch that for dinner we ended up only having dessert, and eating our dinner the next day for lunch.

Well now that Christmas is over with for another year, 

 I have been hard at work creating a few birthday cards,  one of them is going to be a bit late, as every year im not organised enough to this card out on time due to the silly season. 

It is for my Father-in-law his birthday is on the 4th of January, but the problem is he lives over in Australia.

But never mind at least i do send him something.

This card is one that was sent to me in an email from Jacque Pedersen, from her "twelve weeks of Christmas", i decided to CASE it and instead of making it a Christmas card i made it a birthday card.

Well over the next few days i will post the other two cards i also made,

until then see ya and enjoy the rest of this wonderful holiday time, before our real lives begin again

Techno stamper 144

Afternoon Stampers,

I hope everybody out there in blogger land had a great day today, i have had a mixed bag kind of day, at least it wasn't as bad as yesterday.

 You don't realise how good you have things until you loose them, i'm talking about broadband, thanks to the Daughter and her ipod we have gone over our allowance and we still have two weeks to go, so instead of being able to get this all done in a jiffy, it is taking me quite some time, boy dial up is soooo slow

For today's post i decided to have a go at the challenge over at Techno Stamper. As i have a friends son 21st birthday this weekend i thought i would combine the two. here is the challenge sketch.

Here is the card i came up with, again i feel it needs something

I decided to add a sentiment, but im still not happy with the outcome, Oh well you can't win them all

I'm not the best at colouring so i like to use the paper piecing method, as i have done so with this card

CardDSP: So Saffron, Sage Shadow*, Whisper White, Windsor Knot DSP*

Stamp:  Happy moments

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow*

Other:  SU punches, Dimensionals,  SU Markers

* denotes retired items

+ 

Just jawing........

Morning stampers,

In a blog last month, i mentioned that i had a busy time for birthdays from September on, today it is a good friend of mine son's birthday, So i know he doesn't read this but anyway happy birthday Dylan.

At the last moment i realised i didn't have a pre-made card to suit a cool kid, so i sat down and in the hurry i was in made a card just for him, and managed to create this one in a very short period of time, and i can say i like the outcome and boy so did he.

This photo was taken before i managed to go and buy the lollies to put in the sweet treat cups, once i did i filled it with red skittles. i also added a "wish big" saying from the Short & Sweet set in the bottom right hand corner

Cardstock:  Basic black, Real Red, Whisper White

Stamps:  Just Jawing, Short & Sweet, Single Skull Xbones stamp

 Ink: Basic Black, Sliver Versamark spot

Other:  Sweet treat cup, SU punches, Dimensionals

Clean & Simple 110

Afternoon stampers,

 I had a great day today, my niece went home yesterday, i love her very much and she behaved very well. 

but boy it is hard to get use to a 4yr old in the house when my youngest was her age 10 years ago. She was lot of fun, with her here i slept as well as she did, i just didn't get the sleep in i'm use to, the beauty of teenagers and school holidays.

But now to the creative side of things.

I have had a very productive afternoon, i sat down and before i knew it i had completed three different cards, which i will post over the next few days or so.

At first glance i thought the new sketch for the clean & simple blog, was just that simple, so i dismissed this for a while, but after looking again and thinking about it, i thought no this one is perfect i have just the idea in mind and the stamp set i wanted to use.

i have used my favourite colour out of the whole range, yes i know it has retired, but i have stocked up on it.

I just adore Green Galore, i find it a fantastic green to use for flower stems as it is such a fresh colour.

Card:  Green Galore*, Basic Grey, Pacific Blue, Whisper White.

Stamps:  Circle Circle, Short & Sweet

Ink:  Green Galore*, Basic Grey, Pacific Point

Other:  SU punches, Dimensionals,

Poker Card

Evening Stampers,

Well he is back.... My son arrived home last night to freezing temps, after spending 5 weeks in oz with daily temps of 30oC and above, so boy he felt the cold especially as he was only wearing a short sleeved business shirt and his trusty jeans.

I have finally managed to get hold of his birthday card long enough to take a photo of it. As this was his Sweet sixteenth, i wanted something a little bit special.

He uses the name Agent Spades when gaming and he enjoys playing poker, so i combined these in his card, which i must say went down a treat.

This card only uses a few Stampin Up products, the sweet treat cup and the card stock. the rest of the card is using single stamps, and some computer printed images.

I used the Versamark and a single Spade stamp to create the background, the only thing he was disappointed with was the fact the sweet treat cup wasn't filled with lollies, but i fixed that problem by sending along with this card a couple of boxes of his favourite fudge

One for the boys

Afternoon Stampers,

This afternoon i set out to create another card for my husband as i really didn't like the other one i did.

Again this one is sponged, as im really liking this technique at the moment.

Card:  Soft Suede, Basic Black, Whisper White

Stamps:  Pocket Silhouettes,

Ink:  So Saffron, More Mustard, Basic Black, Soft Suede

Other:  Brads, 1 1/4 Circle Punch, Dimensionals, Sponges