The Play Date Cafe #126

Oops!!! I did not realise that the PDC challenge was closing in 20 minutes!  I thought I still had a day to post!  So this is going to be very short.

I love these colours and here is a card I created using a PTI Year of Flowers set: Lily of the Valley as well as their Chevron set.  I coloured it with copics and fussy cut it until I was perspiring like crazy with nervousness that I was going to cut right through those little stems!

The tab at the top is created using a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die.  The cardstock is PTI except for the grey which I have no idea where it came from, and there is a little bit of Hero Arts designer notecard in there too!  I love how this turned out!

Thank you for looking.  Have a wonderful evening!

Tuesday Trigger: Sweet Surprise

Cathy found another beautiful inspiration photo for this weeks' Tuesday Trigger challenge over at Moxie Fab World.

My inspiration came from the two colours and also the embossing and gingham design.  I came up with a very clean and simple card and actually put a fabric flower on my card!  It's fairly unheard of for me to put anything kind of bulky items on any card, but this was a smallish flower and I think it turned out really pretty!

The designer paper comes from a 6X6 MME pack called "Everyday Flair".  It has some beautiful designs and Spring like colours in that pack.

The paper flower is made using a PTI flower die.  It's in 3 layers which have all been dry embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder and then softly inked around the edges with some Tumbled Glass distress ink.  Then I was thinking about how I wanted to embellish the centre and I went from bakers twine, to gems and finally settled on this pretty lacy flower with a gem centre from Recollections.  I feel that it softness the entire card.

The sentiment is from PTI's "Simple Sentiment" set, I partially inked up the sentiment as I did not want the remainder of the words that were on it.

And lastly, but not least, Happy Easter to all!

CR84FN Color Challenge #51

It's time to play with the colour challenge over at CR84FN!  I have not played for a while which is really a shame because they do have some awesome color challenges, and I love that it's only 3 colors, that's about the max I can handle!  Here is what I made.

I pulled out a very, very old piece of patterned paper for the pink layer, so I have no idea who the manufacturer is and it was purchased in South Africa.  The peach layer is made using some PTI card stock on which I stamped the PTI Houndstooth in Versamark and heat embossed.

The light blue layer is once again some very old paper from way back when.  The sentiment is from WPlus9.  That rose bud is from a PTI Year in Flowers set which is inked up with some distress inks.  It took me a while, but eventually I decided that I liked it!  I would never dream of combining those colors together, but actually, they don't look too bad. 

I did get the idea for this layout from a card in the Papercrafts Magazine called 365 Cards ( an older issue). I liked this sketch so much that I actually used it for my card which I posted on Sunday.

Wishing you the most fabulous day!

You Are Fabulous

I made this quick card, trying to stay true to what I said a few posts ago, using up the scraps of patterned paper lying around my desk once I cut into them. In this case the piece was quite large so I managed to use it to cover the front of the notecard after distressing the edges a little.

Paper: cardstock (PTI); patterned paper (BasicGrey)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Stamps: PTI
Other: Tim Holtz Distressing tool; Heart Sticker (EK Success); corner chomper

I think the card is quite self-explanatory so I won't ramble on about it.  Actually I need to rush off and finish cleaning up the house as we are Closing on our house tomorrow, even though we will still rent it from the new owners until we leave on the 8th of June!  It feels really weird!

I am so thrilled that my post of yesterday about Marcy & Bobby touched so many people, just like it touched me.  Thank you all for your lovely comments and heartfelt thoughts about what Bobby did.

Play Date Cafe Challenge 125

I decided to try something for this colour splash challenge over at the Play Date Cafe.  We are to use the colours black and white with a splash of brown.


My card is a bit unconventional as one would expect hearts to be red or pink, but in this case they are a light brown (using up a little scrap from an MME pack).

The beautiful black and white patterned papers are from BasicGrey's "little black dress" 6 X 6 pad.

I used a PTI Mendhi Medallion impression plate for the white panel and then used the stamps and dies from Back Pocket Basics stamp set.  I love the look of that impression plate, I hope you can see it in the photo.  The white panel and pocket are both popped up with some dimensional squares.

The Half Marathon this moring was tough!  Mostly because it was really hot for April 1st with 85% humidity!  But, we did it, and I think that will be my last race until we move back to South Africa, so I can relax a bit and try to enjoy my running a bit more.  It's also been an exercised filled week, Lisa and I have been to the gym every day  except the weekend, and we start again tomorrow morning.

I hope that you all had a fantastic weekend!  Mine was so busy, with very little sleep so I am really looking forward to some solid zzzz's tonight!

Hello Dear Friend

Just going to share another card I made about 2 weeks ago and had not posted yet.

As you can see I truly love that little birdie die from Memory Box as he/she has been featured several times latelly! I used some scraps of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye and a few stamps from PTI, all added to a notecard from Hero Arts.

I was very happy to be awarded a Froggin' Fantastic Four for THIS card at Lily Pad!  And I just found out last night that I was awarded a Honorable Gnome mention at Lawnscaping Challenge for THIS card!

Now I will leave you with a small collage of a few pictures from Disney.

Left to Right:some very tired feet taking a rest on the Jungle Cruise; awesome Cirque Du Soleil show - La Nuba; how they serve a Disney dessert to kids; a low key but fun roller coaster ride; one of maybe 3 pictures of Micheal and I together, taken by Natasha; the rain we left behind in Houston last Sunday; Natasha & Stitch playing drums at Epcot; Stitch taking a much needed drink break.

Hugs to you all. (My friend Lisa is just about home!)

Happy Birthday to You

Another pre-planned post for you just to keep the blog moving along and also because I had made a few cards a while back which I had not posted yet.  Sometimes I get lucky and I can make about 4 different cards in one sitting, but not all the time!

I used the leftover strip of paper from my 6 X 6 sheet from two days ago and die cut it with a PTI large scalloped die.  The butterfly and sentiment are both from PTI.  I enjoy this CAS design!

Have a fun filled day!

You Make Me Happy

I hope you can't tell that this is Christmas paper! 

I just really like the colours and the stripes, and it was a left over piece in my scrap basket and as I am still hung up about trying to use those up, well, here it is!

Love that HAPPY font from PTI!

Have an awesome day and thank you for visiting!

Forever Loved

Hi everyone!  We should be starting our first full day at Disney World today, I can't wait to tell you all about it!

For this card I used some lovely designer paper from Sweet Threads (Basic Grey).

The stamps are all from PTI.  I used one of their small rectangular frame stamps and by stamping it twice it now looks like a square frame.  I then overlaid it with another frame from their 2011 Anniversary set. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit!  I hope  that your Spring Break has gotten off to a spectacular start!

You're Special

A very simple CAS card made with some MME papers and PTI birdie dies!

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches, love that font.

I love that grey polka dot paper, almost wish I had a whole pack of it!  Not that I really need more paper!

We are off to the airport in about 2 hours, I hear that it is total chaos out there but hopefully there will not be any delays!  Have a fabulous day!

Love You

I was very touched to find out that Agata has nominated me for the Liebster Award!  That was so sweet and kind of her, and I will make sure to pass it on to those creative people out there who constantly inspire and motivate me, some of them unknowingly!  (I'll do that in another post as I need to rush off to my daughters Rodeo Show at school today!)

As we browse through blogs our brains pick up on ideas that we then use in some shape or form later, without making the connection where that inspiration comes from!  Of course, sometimes, when we are very LOW on mojo, we ask permission to CASE someone to give us a kickstart!  I am thankful to so many of you out there for constantly inspiring me and helping me to look at something in a different way, thank you! 

Here is a card I made using a Purple Onion Design stamp.  It's one of the beautiful flowers that came in the Pot-a-Flower set!  It's nice and big and I did not want to add anything to it.

(Edit: it appears I forgot to mention that I was adding this card to the current SSS Challenge which is Anything Goes!  Sorry!  Thank you Mandy for pointing it out!)

I simply coloured the flower with my Copic markers and matted it on a piece of patterned paper (still trying to get rid of all those scraps) before adhering it to my notecard which was stamped with the Hero Arts Envelope Pattern stamp in their Iris Chalk ink.  That bold sentiment is from Papertrey Ink!  I eventually got that set, I have been looking at it since it was released, a LONG time ago!

Ok, got to go, or else I am going to be late!

Have a really super Friday!

Love You Forever

I'm still being good about trying to use up those 6 X 6 designer paper packs!  From one sheet I am making two cards.  On the first card I try to cover the entire card front with patterned paper, and on my second card I use the left over strip down the side or bottom of the card.  (I'll show you the 2nd card tomorrow.)

There is a new challenge this week over at Simon Says Stamp and it's "Anything Goes", so I will add this card there.

Paper: Basic Grey (Sweet Threads); Neenah
Ink: CTMH
Stamps: PTI
Other: Corner Chomper

Look at that gorgeous patterned paper, isn't it beautiful!  This card looks like it could be a notebook cover to me.  And I am really loving the stamps ,and especially the sentiments, in the new PTI Anniversary stamp set.  As you can see I did not do much work here, the flower and leaves are popped up and the card corners are rounded.

It is so warm out today.  It's actually going to get into the 80's this week!  Wow, already!

Wishing you a spectacular day and thank you so much for taking the time to visit me!

A Thank You Card

This is another card I made which was added to my MIL's box.  I used a Unity stamp from one of the KOM sets.  I used some coloured pencils to add a touch of colour to the birdies.  It's a very simple card.

I also thought it was about time I used up some of those little paper flowers I seem to have collected over the years!  The designer paper is from MME and I used a PTI large scalloped die to die cut it.

We had a showing early this morning at 9h00 and now we have another this afternoon at 1h30.  Just had the shipping company come in to give us a quote!  Went to gym and worked out really hard!  It's a busy day!  And....I am so eager to craft!  Maybe I can slip in one hour quickly before they come again!

Have a fabulous day!

A Good Race

Well, we went to Austin this weekend to run the Austin Half Marathon.  My running buddy was supposed to run with my husband and I but she had to cancel at the last minute because her little one was ill.  That meant that I could take it easy!  Had she been with me we would have tried to race it instead of enjoy it!  So, hubby and I just enjoyed all of the 13.1 miles!  And, the bonus, we did an awesome time for a hilly course, he bettered his previous half marathon by 11 minutes! Here are just a few pics:

Us goofing around at the start!  The crowds outside the Capitol Building waiting for the race to start (about 22,000)!  We went to Lance Armstrong's bike shop, he is my hero! And the day before, we decided to break my rules, (I never, ever drink the day before a race, alcohol that is), and we had a Mimosa and Michael had a Mojito, yummy!

Onto something more crafty....the night before we left for Austin I was busy making my MIL a set of cards, she likes to have Sympathy and Thank You cards on hand and I am so thrilled that she likes to use my cards!  So I made her a little gift box (the tutorial is provided by Betsy Veldman) and I put in a few cards (I won't show all of them now).

This is the box, I managed to fit 8 cards in there, but you could put more.  I did not have small enough envelopes so they went seperately.  I will probably alter the size of the template for myself so that in future I can include my envelopes.

The stamps are PTI.

And here is one of the cards I made:

Paper: cardstock (PTI); designer paper (Pink Paisley); Neenah
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Hero Arts shadow ink
Stamps: Pink Paisley; PTI
Other: Mat Stack die & Leaf die (PTI)

I hope you all had a great weekend!  And hopefully you have an awesome week coming up!

Merci

I made this quick card the other day with some pretty papers I had lying around from Making Memories "Je t'Adore" collection.  The only stamping I did was the sentiment which is from PTI.

On another note, I did manage to make my 22 + 3 cards (teacher X 2 plus the busdriver) yesterday for my daughter to take to school today!  I went very, very simple thanks to a PTI set called Tiny Valentines and my Spellbinders Circle die.  We were not allowed to put candy into the little goodie bags (now I have packets and packets of candy to get rid of - if only they had mentioned this two weeks ago!), so I did have some Valentine pencils and a little heart notebook.  It's the thought that counts right.

Here is what I made, not the best photos, I apologise!

And lastly, I just discovered Instagram!  I have seen it mentioned so many times by Alexandra on her blog, and came across it on someone else's blog this morning so I thought I had better get with the times!  What a fun app for the iPhone and it's free!  So I test drove it with this picture this morning of my daughter writing some last minute Valentine notes to her teachers:

Wishing you all a fabulous Valentine's Day!

So Proud....

Having just gotten back from a two week vacation it is a challenge summoning up the creativity to produce something of significance.  However, today is a very special day for me and I simply HAD to make a card for a very special person.....my Nephew back in South Africa received his matriculation results today (that's final year at school) and he passed!  I am the happiest Aunt in the world right now!

Some children love school and manage the academics, but for my nephew the 12 years at school did not come naturally!  He is one of those super talented individuals who excels with his hands, he sees something and he can make the exact replica, very often a much more improved version.  But schools don't really cater for the non-academics, in my opinion that is extremely sad!  However, I concur with my nephew when he posted on Facebook today, "I never, ever, want to go through that again"!  That one sentence, for a young man of few words, spoke absolute volumes to me.  I could hear the struggle of the last 12 years and it really touched me.

So today is dedicated to my nephew, and those ohter students out there who have had to deal with a purely academic learning environment.  Callan, I am so proud of you!

I am not sure about the design, but it says what I wanted to say and it also says , now, go live your dream Callan!  Because he has a vision of what he wants to do and I am so proud that he knows what his talent is and will be pursuing it!

So that's it.  I want to visit a few blogs and collect inspirational pearls along the way so that I can spend some time in my craft room over the weeks to come and put one of my passions to paper!

I am emotional today, so forgive me when I say, I love you all!

Boy Birthday

Here is a brithday card I made for a little boy down the road who turned six a few days before my daughter.

The patterned paper is so old, it dates back to many years ago in South Africa so I could not even begin to tell you the manufacturer.

I die cut a star using a Spellbinders die and also a Skateboard die from PTI.  The stamps are from PTI.  I put the Happy Birthday sentiment on the inside of the card.

Another quik post.  By now I should be back home and it will take me a little while to get back into my craft room I am sure!

I hope that your new year started with a wonderful BANG!  See you again soon!

Still Inspired

As I mentioned yesterday, Joy's card really inspired me and I landed up make a few different ones using the same basic design.  Here is another:

Paper: Cardstock (PTI); Designer Paper (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Tea Dye & Victorian Velvet distress ink; Versafine Onyx Black; Copic markers
Stamps: PTI
Other: PTI die; gems; dimensional squares

The main panel was inked with distress inks lightly around the borders for depth and then adhered to the notecard using dimensional squares.  The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed.  And the pattern on the ornament was stamped with Victorian Velvet distress ink and I also added a few gems to the design with a little PTI bow at the top.

It's lovely to see some new followers, thank you!  We are back into the 60's here today, cold one day, warm the next!

I hope your day has got off to a good start!  I am off to finish the gift wrapping and to see if it all fits into my suitcases!

Miss You Still!!!

I know, you must be wondering what's the matter with me posting so many "I Miss You" cards.  Well, actually, this is one of the most popular types of cards required by OWH for our service men to send back home to their loved ones, so I do find myself wanting to make these the most.

Paper: Hero Arts Notecard; Neenah; My Mind's Eye
Ink: PTI Aqua Mist; Versafine
Stamps: PTI; Paper Smooches (sentiment)
Other: MFT Flower die; Dimensional squares; PTI frame die

Extremely CAS!  I really wanted to use that flower.  I actually made the flower first from some paper scraps that were lying around my table, then it took me over an hour to decide what to do with the flower!  OVER AN HOUR to come up with this very, very CAS design!  I know you must be laughing!  I am too!

We should be heading back to Houston tonight and then I will spend the week trying to catch up on all your blogs!  I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Tag Attempt

I have been busy with this tag for about a week, not continuously of course, but thinking about it, which is definitely not like me.  I normally get an idea and I make it.  But this was different because it came about after browsing on Pinterest and looking at some fabulous tags.  I just decided to give it a bash.

Of course, let it be known, that I have absolutely NO IDEA what I am doing here as this is not my style.  But it was fun thinking about it.  I am sure that I could have embellished it to death, but I totally ran out of ideas, so it's remaining this way.  I still think it's pretty in its minimalistic kind of way!

I used a Tim Holtz tag, those big ones, and covered it with text paper from an old book I had purchased second hand especially for doing these types of projects (which of course I do not do).  Then I inked the edges with some Tea Dye Distress ink.  I stamped a flourish here and there from Papertrey Ink.  I also added three strips of glitter at the bottom for some sparkle.  You know, stick down some Score tape and cover it with glitter.

The oval scalloped frame is made using my Nestabilitie die (two dies in the cuttlebug at once) and then covering it with a white puffy paint that had glitter in it and allowing it to dry.  I then applied some Tea Dye distress ink (hardly noticeable) to take the bright white edge off.

I stamped, inked and trimmed the butterflies from the Hero Arts "Antique Engravings" set and adhered them to some punched circles.  I then proceeded to get cramps in my hands whilst I squeezed and squeezed that Crackle Accent bottle to death trying to cover those circles.  Once dried I applied a bit of Vintage Photo distress ink to the edges and the cracks. 

The dangly bit was made by me from my stash of beads and tools which used to be a little hobby many years ago. I tied a little heart sentiment tag from PTI's "Tiny Tags" and some crinkle ribbon at the top.

Wow!  That's a lot of stuff if you ask me.  Not something I'll make often but I had a person in mind when I made it and it was worth it, just to bring a smile hopefully, to her face.