Sunday 29 March 2015

A weekend of colouring.

We've just had a weekend away at Mangawhai for the Walking Weekend.
Hubby and our friends did two walks over the weekend while I stayed at the house and did some colouring...


Saturday:

Did some watercolouring with different  watercolours

This one was using some aqua crayons.  And you can see my Kohi Noor paints there too.

I also made some Chocolates and made some Ciabatta buns



The day started a bit drizzly  but ended up quite nice so much so that once the others got back we all went for a surf swim.  Water is still very warm and the surf was really good.  Had a ball.  And this is from a woman who usually only swims around 3 times a year.  This summer I've had so many swims - more than ever.

Today the weather was stunning so I spend some time outside reading.  I also did some colouring of butterflies

I was inspired by Betty's butterflies on her post at A2Z Scrapbooking blog today and tried out some Distress inks and Copics.  The top one is the distress inks coloured onto smooth card and the bottom is the Copics.


Here is another one.  The right hand side is also distress inks, but done on watercolour paper and using an aqua brush to spread the colours about.    Amazing that the same colours can end up so different.

Finished the day with another surf swim.  Ended up getting tossed 360degrees in one wave... but fun all the same!  Then a snooze on the drive home,

I did get a couple of cards made - one for a DT sample and one for Easter - but I'll leave that for another day to share.

thanks taking the time to visit today.  Hope your weekend was as productive as mine... now just to make all my colouring into cards! 

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Cute kids at Die Cut Divas

Today over at Die Cut Divas there are three cute kid cards..... one of which is this one...


I started by printing out the Kidz Flower Basket onto my card stock and coloured with Copics.  The background was then coloured with blue and green chalks.  The Spellbinders die cut was edged with blue chalk ink.  I then cut a larger brown die cut and then used the largest die to cut the card base.  I put it through my cuttlebug with an embossing folder and then inked with a chalk ink.   The little added daisies finish it off. 

Hop over to the Die Cut Divas and see what the others came up with.  There are just a cute!

Happy to say that the NZ Black Caps (our cricket team) beat the South Africans on the second to last ball of the game with a BIG 6!  Very exciting and all of NZ is really buzzing today.   Onto the final on Sunday.  Still waiting to see who the other finalist will be.  Australia or India.  That came is on Thursday.

thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday 24 March 2015

March CCC - a card for Lizzy

I was really on the ball this month with my CCC card (I'm sure you all know about Deborah's CCC - make a card and sent it someone and get one back)  My card winged it's way to Lizzy in Australia.

March included a sketch, a colour scheme and theme's of Easter  or  Trees  or  Friendship plus a product - watercolour paper.

I sort of followed the sketch, used the Friendship theme and watercolour paper...


My background was made with a faux letterpress technique.  I inked up my embossing folder with inks and pressed it with water colour in it.  I just pressed it with my hands and not through the Cuttlebug.  I then used the distress inks to sponge on colour.   My butterfly is also die cut from watercoloured paper.   My sentiment is from Winnie & Walter.

I'm watching the Cricket World Cup Semi finals tonight.  New Zealand are playing South Africa.  We are chasing a total of 298 and are not doing too bad... but it will be a close game and I'm hoping we will win.  I'm not sure I will stay up till the end as there's still a couple more hours to go.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Monday 23 March 2015

Finally done my homework!

I've been very slack with my homework for the Online Card Classes I'm taking...
http://onlinecardclasses.com/SYD/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/SYD_participant.png 

There has been lots of amazing different ways to use your dies... I've downloaded the class PDF's but haven't had much time to try out lots of the techniques.

I did manage to try out a couple of them.


For this one, I used some watercolour paper and stamped the sentiment then die cut the daisy die from Simon Says Stamp.  I coloured it with watercolour paints and then inlaid it back into the sentiment.  

My next card uses edge dies

This card was inspired by one from Debby Hughes and one from Karolyn. I used a Pretty Pink Posh stitched edge die and cut stripes of colours and then stacked them together on an angle.  The sentiment is a Winnie & Walter die together with W&W stamps.

I've got lots of ideas for using my dies - now just to find time to put them into practise. 

Sunday 22 March 2015

Flower Blooms

This week I was asked to make a 60th birthday card for a friend of a friend.... as I don't know this person, I decided CAS flowers would do the trick.


I used one of the flowers in the Clearly Besotted set " Take Good Care" and white embossed onto some cream watercolour paper after printing the sentiment on the computer.  I used my Koh-i-noor watercolour paints and a wet on wet technique to colour.  Love how this gives lots of shading and colour dimension. Finished with some splatters of the paints to balance the card.

I am entering this intoo CASology this week - cue being Blossom
 

Thanks for visiting.  

Saturday 21 March 2015

Three of a Kind....

well it's been a very hectic and tiring week - still not fully recovered from my virus and feeling very tired at night, so nearly a week since I last blogged.   Have done a few cards -mostly for DT work and I have one to share today as it's a new challenge at Creative Craft Cottage.

Our sponsor this fortnight is  The East Wind

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/theeastwind

I chose to work with an image called Aurora Floral Kiss


I printed her out and used Copics as my colouring medium.  My dots are a la Kathy Racoosin. I die cut the panel out with Die-Namics stitched round rectangles The sentiment is from a Kaisercraft set. My three of a kind are the three orange and red flowers.  I made these with punches.  The background flourish is a holly die cut with some watercoloured paper.

As this fits the theme (Spring in her step) for the Challenge at The East Wind Blog  I am entering one. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have an awesome weekend. 

Sunday 15 March 2015

A touch of Green and a Tag Card

Two cards to share today.  I am FINALLY feeling better- still got a cough but coping with that as I managed to sleep all night with out coughing.

My first card today is for the Addicted to CAS challenge - cue word GREEN


I've been seeing the Bokeh technique a bit lately and thought to try it with some new Cracked Pistachio Distress ink, Spun Sugar and Shaded Lilac.  Made a template with some die cut circles on acetate and used my Frost White Colorbox ink to sponge over top.  IRL it does look stunning but not so clear in the photo.  My sentiment is from Kaisercraft and finished with some punched butterflies (Martha Stewart) and some 4mm clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

My second card was inspired by Gayatri who is the inspiration at Tag You're It! challenge blog this time round.

 

Isn't this a gorgeous card.  I was taken by the different elements - the cut out and off skewed tag, the flower design and colours.  Here's my take on the card


I used leaves from a Clearly Besotted set in Peeled Paint distress ink, then used a couple of little flower stamps from a Hero Arts set in Picked Raspberry ink.  The sentiment is from another Clearly Besotted set.  My die cut is from Pretty Pink Posh and I finished with some Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

Thanks for stopping by.  We are in watch mode as the weather is expected to get a bit windy tonight with the passing of Cyclone Pam off the coast.  It's been a dull sort of day so far.  Ideal for being in my craft room.   Take care all.

Saturday 14 March 2015

Happy Spring to "ewe"


I've a card to share from Die Cut Divas latest challenge

Spring is making it's way to the Northern Hemisphere so here is my card for my Northern Friends;


Using the Happy Spring to "ewe" image.
Dies: Lil'Inkers stitched rectangles
Background stamped with  Distress ink - Cracked Pistachio and a multi striped Winnie & Walter stamp.
Sheep fleece - Opal Liquid Pearls

Happy Spring my friends (from a still very warm Southern Hemisphere)


Thursday 12 March 2015

Boys, Boys, Boys


New challenge up at Southern Girls Challenge today.  Our theme this fortnight is Boys.

I got to work with a cutie little boy from Inky Impessions.


My background was made with a technique that was the challenge this month on my NZ crafters forum.  You add paints to your embossing folder and then close the folder and press with your fingers to transfer the paint to your watercolour card.  Once it all dried, I ran it through my Cuttlebug with the folder lined up.  My grass was a scrap of card that I'd used to sop up some inks from my craft mat.  I keep these little bits to use when needed.  This one I punched with a Fiskars punch. 

I printed and coloured my little bloke (Back to School Nicholas) and then fussy cut him out.

Hop over to the SGC blog and see what the rest of the team have come up with.

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Stamping, sponging and stenciling.........

Still not well and after spending most of the afternoon sleeping I tried out a card using stamps, a stencil and some sponging.  STAMPloration is having a challenge that is Stamping and Stenciling and one of the design team's card (Sari) inspired me

I started by using small stamps from a Hero Arts set and distress inks and stamped them randomly through the stencil (Hero Arts Birds and Leaves) then used the distress inks with sponge daubers to colour the stencil.    Finished with an embossed sentiment from the HA set on the vellum. 

Entering this into the challenge at STAMPloration  
- the Nature Challenge at Hero Arts
A2ZScrapbooking - Colour it challenge.
- A blog Named Hero - Bright and Bold

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday 9 March 2015

Who inspires You???????????

For me today it was a card from Joy Taylor (here is her card)
What inspired me?
- the design
- the watercolouring

I was home sick today - a very heavy head cold and after having a sleep in the morning, I decided to play a bit.


I white embossed some flowers from Clearly Besotted onto some ranger watercolour card.  Once it was all embossed I added water and some Distress Inks in Seedless Preserves and Peeled Paint.  The sentiment is from a Hero Art set.  Finished with some enamel dots. 

I'm entering this into the following challenges
Simon Says Stamp -Girly
Virginia's View - All things Embossed

Feeling really rotten now... sitting shivering and coughing and sneezing... so a few more blogs to check out, then off for an early night. Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday 7 March 2015

Not quite Straight...

That was what we were challenged to at Creative Craft Cottage this time..

 

Our sponsor is  Rick St Dennis and I chose to work with a sweet  Pierrot image.


 I printed and used Faber Castell pencils to colour.  The black was them coloured with a black Wink of Stella.  The red rose was coloured with some sparkle gel pens I have.  I used Platinum embossing powder on the sentiment from Clearly Besotted.  I die cut with a Die-Namics stitched rectangle die and added a gold die cut - both were added on the angle (not straight) onto the PP background. I cut all the corners with my Corner Chomper.  

This card went off to a work colleague who is off at the moment not very well.  

Hope over to the blog to  Creative Craft Cottage and see what the others have come up with.

EDITED:  I've been nominated for Pick of the Week over at Rick St Dennis blog for this card.  You can go and leave a comment to vote for my card.
 

Friday 6 March 2015

No line colouring with a Digital Image.



Yes you can do no line colouring with a digi image.  This technique is usually done by stamping in a very light colour then colouring with your medium.  I wondered if you could do this with a digital image.  I added the image into a Word document and recoloured to Washout.  Once it was printed I coloured it... and YES you can do the no line colouring! 

I used Watercolour paper to print my image and coloured with Memento Inks.  I was inspired by my friend Isha, who did a video in the StampNation class I've been doing.  She made it looks sooo easy...but I found it a bit harder.  I'm not too great at shading and blending... I used my new Die-Namic stitched dies to cut out the focal piece.

So there you are people... digi images are so versatile. 

Thursday 5 March 2015

Technique Tool Box - Dye Inks

I've been taking the Catherine Pooler online class - Technique Toolbox - Dye Inks (available here)- You get heaps of videos and inspiration on how to use dye inks of all sorts... and it's AMAZING...

starts18th 

I am just about finished looking at all the videos and tutorials and have had fun trying out a few of the ideas.

First up is a sponging and masking technique



I used Distress Inks to make my background.  I first made a circle mask for the moon and used a torn paper to mask and sponge the black ink and dark purple ink.  I used the same dark purple ink to 2d generation stamping of the flourishes around the edges.  The fairy was stamped with Versafine ink.  The flourishes and fairy are from a free set (with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine)  The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz set.

Next up is a 2nd generation stamping technique.  This card is a CASE of Maureen's sample... using same stamp and design but different colours and sentiment.


I used rainbow colours of distress ink.  Maureen used two lines on her card but I used a straight line and a dotted line from Winnie & Walter as is the sentiment.

I have tried another technique... but will leave that for another day.

Thanks for peeking in today... please feel free to leave a comment if you wish.

Tuesday 3 March 2015

February Card Chain Challenge

Deborah has shared all the CCC cards for February (here) so I can share my card for Lucille.

Deborah always give lots of choices in the challenge.  Use a sketch, or colours or a theme or use a particular product..  One of the themes this month was sewing and one friendship, one of the products twine and this was the sketch

2015-02
And so to my card


A little shabby chic using PP from Couture Creations. The die cut is also from Couture Creations and I used PP for it as well.

And here is the amazing card I received from Shawna

Shawna 

There is still time to sign up for March CCC over on Deborah's blog  It is so much fun to receive a card in the post. 


Sunday 1 March 2015

Die Cut Divas are heading to spring with kids....

Our new challenge is up at Die Cut Divas... our theme"  Spring/Kids"

our sponsor is once again Bugaboo Digital Stamps


Bugaboo have so many beautiful children images and spring flowers.  


I coloured her with Copics and die cut.  The Happy Birthday die cut came in one of my magazines.  This was the first time I've used it and am really pleased how it looks. 

Do hop over to the blog and see what the others have come up with...