Thursday 30 April 2015

Thanks a Bunch Hero Arts


Today is our last day of the current challenge over at Die Cut Divas.  The team have all put together some cards to say thanks....

Here is my card...


A little scrapling card.  It was to be one layer but I ended up adding the scalloped die cuts (Pretty Pink Posh) at each end which meant I had to add the panel to a base.

I have enjoyed playing with some Hero Arts stamps, dies and stencils over the past month...


Wednesday 29 April 2015

Use your favourite die/s

My New Zealand card group has a monthly technique challenge.  April's challenge was close to my heart... Use your favourite dies.  I LOVE my dies and have LOTS.  How to choose a favourite? 
Well I just went with my go to Floral Oval and some roses dies.... and here's what I made


Simply but I was really happy with the results and so was Suna when I hand delivered it in it's own little box envelope.  Suna works in the same office as me... I'm on the 8th floor and she works on the 7th floor. 

My dies were a Spellbinders Floral Oval and three sizes of Cherry Lynn roses dies.  Sentiment from a Clearly Besotted free set.

Enjoy your week.  I've got some fun things happening over the next few days... some exciting news come May 1st and of course the National Scrapbook Blog Hop on the 3rd 

Saturday 25 April 2015

Lest we Forget


Today is ANZAC day- a day of remembrance and thanks to those who gave their lives and served in wars for our freedom. This year is particularly poignant as it commemorates 100 years since the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) landed at Gallipoli at what is now know as Anzac Cove.   All week there have been commemoration services and this morning there were thousands attending Dawn Services around the country.


This photo is of our local Museum that was lit up.

The poppy is an international symbol of remembrance.  Last Friday was Poppy Day here in NZ and we bought poppies to wear on our lapels.  So today I am sharing this card I made to commemorate the day.


From the Ode of Remembrance

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we Forget

Sunday 19 April 2015

Cat's Scramble...Use your favourites

This morning (8.00am) the Hero Arts Flickr group had it's 2 weekly Scramble.  This week it was Cat who hosted.  Her challenge was about Favourites... she shared three cards and challenged us to be inspired by her colours, techniques etc and add our own favourites.  One of Cat's cards had a watercolour background - a favourite technique of mine and I added my favourite Hero Arts stamp  to create


I started by wetting my watercolour paper with water and adding some blue and green Kohi Noor paints. I then stamped and embossed the Poppy stamp.  I used a red paint to colour them.  The sentiment was then overstamped and embossed.  I did have a bit of an Opps - the stamp dropped off the block and left a smudge.  

This card reminds me that come 25th April, we will be celebrating ANZAC day and it's been 100 years since Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli.  We celebrate by wearing a poppy.  The red poppy has become a symbol of war remembrance the world over. People in many countries wear the poppy to remember those who died in war or who still serve. In many countries, the poppy is worn around Armistice Day (11 November), but in New Zealand it is most commonly seen around Anzac Day, 25 April.

I've been busy over the last few days working on a special project for the National Scrapbooking Day Blog Hop.

Here's a bit of a sneak peek


Be sure to come back 2nd- 3rd May to check out the full reveal.

And I leave you with a photo of the dessert I made for dinner last night.



Tuesday 14 April 2015

Coming up Roses



Today I'm sharing another card I made for Die Cut Divas. 


I coloured this in a few weeks ago while I was away.  I white embossed the roses from Hero Arts and used aqua crayons to watercolour them.  I die cut the watercolour panel with a Lil'Inkers die and layered onto some PP.  I finished it with some sequins and a die cut sentiment from Winnie & Walter.

Entering into the Embossing Challenge at A Blog Named Hero 

Thanks for stopping by.. and do come join us at Die Cut Divas

Saturday 11 April 2015

Don't ya just love.....

when you get an awesome set of stamps free with a magazine...
this week I got two magazines with awesome stamps... Cardmaking and Papercraft had some lovely stamps that matched a Spellbinders circle die (still have to ink these up) and Simply Cards & Papercraft has a Clearly Besotted stamp set.   The Clearly Besotted set has some Fuchsias, a jar, some butterflies, a rose and three lovely sentiments.  It is a mixture of stamps from a number of sets available from Clearly Besotted.

Anyway, this set really got me excited.. I just had to start creating.  I CASE'd a couple of the cards from the magazine

First up is using the Rose from the set

I used the basic design - changing my background to PP rather than plain colour.  I also used a Heart shaped doily and some cream cotton thread.  I coloured my roses with Copics and fussy cut using some foam tape to add dimension to the roses.

Entering this into the Layering and Dimension Challenge at Virginia's View 

Next I used the Fuchsias

Once again, I followed the design from the magazine.  Stamped and coloured with Copics and then fussy cutting.  I decided to add a Mother's Day sentiment to change it up.   Slightly misjudged the placement of my sentiment.  Should be a bit lower on the card.

And then today, I used some watercolour paper and distress inks to colour up the Fuchsias

I stamped the leaves with Peeled Paint and used an aqua brush to move the ink around.  Once it dried, I went round the edge with a black fine line pen.  On another piece of watercolour paper I stamped and used Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord distress inks to colour the Fuchsias and fussy cut.  The sentiment is from the set.  Finished with some sequins.

I'm entering this post to Simon Says Stamp - Spring flowers challenge.

We had our carpet cleaned this morning which meant that I didn't/couldn't do much housework, hence getting into the craft room (carpet there not included in the cleaning) to play this afternoon.  Luckily it was nice and sunny so I could have all the doors and windows open to aid with the drying process.

Off to play some more.  Take care and have an awesome weekend.

Friday 10 April 2015

Birds and Butterflies


I have a project over at Die Cut Divas today.  Birds and Butterflies...


I used a template I found in a magazine.  My base and part of my butterflies is Kaisercraft PP.  The vellum butterflies are the Hero Arts stamp and die set, embossed in white EP.   Used a Flourish die for my leaves.  I did have some issues with my bird... the template one was way too big for the birdcage so had to do some improvising.  I punched a Stamping Up bird, trace around it onto some plain paper, photo copy on enlarge and then used to cut out my card.  I used an embossing folder to emboss the wings.


Had fun trying something a little different.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday 9 April 2015

You're a Star!

Our latest challenge at Southern Girls Challenge is up and running... Starry starry night.

Our sponsors this month are
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Ijw3Lg4v7BvB7PnaObIy-GCOOIT9Dh8GKMqDCnJS6L2Ct-L4e0CMoOQhuRxqkdFl9R-005ZgmEbxW1lsOyJ0-SZuYvc0Ihr2rG1kB9Ko2Zq5UXY5YT3z3fqnXOftgEo_I6wTUzwAQ_4/s1600/GetAttachment.jpg 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbigTm9bEPdNPA-70mvoJgPKGjDaynbcHv3g7sWJ2CNSnDkMxVTkn-IoW7M7_7VnUdIuhyphenhyphenb62bFE65pC49IA2yYnLNUCWdJSVQrvRWGZjYvPbAiKYBNz4Ze2JO1d_VNBOmTGjrqUC7H6g/s1600/593570351_orig.jpg
I got to choose an image from Lacy Sunshine and chose to use Selene Moonbeam Goodess.


 I printed out the image and coloured with Copics, and trimmed out.  My matting was made by colouring some white card with blue Copics.  I used my Tim Holtz ruler to add the dots around the edge. Added a few blue sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to finish the panel.   My card background was embossed using a stencil and versamark with Liquid Platinum embossing powder.  The stencil and the sentiment stamp came with a magazine I got last month.   

Thanks for stopping by and we'd love to have you join us at Southern Girls Challenge with your project that include STARS!

Tuesday 7 April 2015

Use a Die Cut... new challenge at Creative Craft Cottage

Yes, the latest challenge at Creative Craft Cottage is up and it's right up my alley... use a die cut on your card.   As you know I have a TON of dies and just love using die cuts on my cards.

We have two sponsors this fortnight...
   

I used an image from Lemon Shortbread for my card

         
I started by making my base card.  I used a Clearly Besotted leaf stamp to make a patterned background.  I put the image in a Word document and cropped it.  Once I coloured it, I use a Spellbinder to cut the oval and then the  Floral Oval in purple.  I did a little paper piecing on my image to make her hairband and bow.  I added a Cherry Lynn bow die in the same PP.  Finished with some large pearls.  I haven't added a sentiment... that will go inside when I decided who and when to send it. 

So if you love using die cuts on your cards and projects, do hop over and join us at Creative Craft Cottage.        

Monday 6 April 2015

Stencil Time

One of my goals this year is to enter every month's challenge at A2Z Scrapbooking.  I like this challenge blog as it uses my favourite Hero Arts goodies and there is always lots of inspiration...

So this month's challenge is STENCILS... I have a couple of Hero Arts Stencils and yesterday had fun just playing....

I laid the stencil onto some card and used Fireworks Lulu Lavender and Grape Jelly glimmer mists and my homemade gold mist.  A little found it's way under the stencil, but hey, I liked the look I achieved so just went with it.  Add a stripe of patterned purple paper and some grey strips and the Hero Arts sentiment.  Add a single large gem to the centre and all done... Nice and CAS.

Have added now to this to the following challenges:
A2Z Scrapbooking ~ Stencils
Simon Says Stamp (Wednesday challenge) ~Happy Birthday


Sunday 5 April 2015

Hero Arts Scramble Time...

It's not often that the Hero Arts Scramble timetable fits in with mine... but today Charlene scheduled it for 3.00pm EDT which was 7.00am Sunday my time... (Daylight Savings finished last night) so I woke in time to play along with Scramble #106

Charlene challenged us to use this photo for inspiration
So much to chose from for inspiration.

My card drew on the colours and the trees

 I used a variety of distress inks on some Fog card stock and added some splashes of water.  Once it dried, I stamped the Leafy Vine stamp in black Archival ink.  I had butterflies all over my desk so chose this one to bring in the lighter pinky colours.  Finished with the white embossed sentiment on black cardstock.

As Charlene gave us a bit extra time as she was a few minutes late starting, I decided to do a tag as well


This time I picked more on the pinky colours for my distress background.  I cut a tag from Pretty Pink Posh die.  The stars were added with a Uniball white gell pen through a stencil.  Sentiment is HA and was white embossed.  The purple flower was quickly made with some punched flowers I had on my desk already stained with Fireworks Lulu Lavender mist.

I was pleased to have gotten up early to play along, even more so when I saw that I got picked for the HA Digi prize!

Hope your Easter is going well.  There was some Chocolate for me today... not a lot - just one little bunny, but enough to enjoy.  And another day off tomorrow so that's even better... a nice long weekend.  Maybe a bit of a sleep in seeing as how I missed one this morning :-)

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday 3 April 2015

Butterflies in the Garden

Happy Easter all.

Today I have two cards to share with butterflies.  I LOVE Hero Arts Butterflies and the stamp and die set I used are really awesome


As you can see there are lots of die cuts and layers with this one.  My background was one I made in the weekend.  I used Hero Arts Square Pattern (CG453) first stamp in Cracked Pistashio distress ink then in Chipped Sapphire ink slightly set off.  The Butterfly is from a stamp and die cut set called Antique Flowers and Butterflies. (657773) I was inspired by Jennifer McGuire to fussy cut the butterfly, then use the die to cut the white layer and then fussy cut around the outside of the die in vellum.  I then cut a Spellbinders circle to layer it onto.  Sentiment is on a Simon Says Die cut and is from Find Joy (CL497)


This one uses the same HA butterfly with a Quietfire Designs sentiment and the frame is a Couture Creations die.  The background is watercolour paper that has been painted with Pearlescent paints.  I put the pinks and greens in the right hand corner as I knew that was where the die cuts in the frame are.  The rest of the background is pale blue.  I used Distress Markers to colour the butterfly then die cut.

These can also been seen over at Die Cut Divas where Hero Arts is our sponsor this month



Wednesday 1 April 2015

In the Garden...

our theme over at Die Cut Divas for April.  And we have an amazing sponsor too...

http://heroarts.com/global/images/nav/site/images/logo_425x45.jpg 

 

Great prize too....

Now this challenge is right up my alley... I LOVE Hero Arts stamps, dies and stencils and add them with die cuts/embossing and it's a match made in heaven... and an awesome theme... think florals, birds, butterflies and whatever else the theme inspires you.

I chose to use an older stamp and die set 657773  Antique Flowers and Butterflies.  This time I only used the Dogwood stamp


I stamped onto some watercolour paper with distress inks and the used some water to move the colour around.  Then over-stamped in black in.  I used a Lil'Inkers die to cut it out.  Sentiment is another Hero Arts set.

Do hop over to the blog and see what the others have done... so fabulous work