Festive Friday #49 - Sketch Challenge

Good morning! Well we start off with some bad news first - Nicole has decided to finish the Festive Friday's, as we weren't getting too many entries. It such a shame as I was so organised this year at Christmas with my cards as I'd made them right through the year. Anyway, on to my final installment for Festive Fridays.

Nicole has another sketch for us to play along with at Festive Friday this week and boy is it a good one!
Here it is:

As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I hadn't had a chance to play much with the triple time stamping technique yet and this sketch just lent itself to it.

I've used "snow swirled" for the snowflakes and the colours are real red, old olive and crumb cake. I have also used my new favourite stamp set "jolly jingles" for my sentiment and a few rhinestones for the bling and I was done! I'm quite pleased with the result and this card has already made it's way to some special friends (have you sent out your Christmas cards yet?)

So go past Nicole's blog see what the other design team members have created and help us finish with a bang! Remember to link your creation up to the froggie - it's great seeing what you come up with!

Thanks for looking :)

Festive Friday #47 - Inspiration Photo

Hi Every one! It's time again for another Festive Friday and this week Nicole has given us an inspiration photo to work with.
Here's the photo:

Yes it's vintage, neutral colours with a bit of bling - well that is what inspired me any way - along with the cute little bird :)
So here is what I came up with:

I used very vanilla and crumb cake as my colours. I ran a piece of very vanilla through my big shot with the vintage wallpaper, but I brayered some crumb cake ink on to the non raised section of the embossing folder to create a soft coloured background to highlight the pattern (hope that all made sense!) and I've sponged all the edges. I pulled out my neglected bird punch for the little bird and the ring of leaves. I brayered some crumb cake ink over the bird which is punched out in crumb cake to get more definition for the bird. The sentiment was from the "jolly jingles" wheel and I added a few pearls to opposite corners. I was pretty happy with the result, that I've actually used the similar design in another project which I will share at a later date. This card has already gone to my parents as their Christmas card - thanks to the challenge I managed to be super organised this year!!

So why not use the photo to inspire you? We love to see what you create!

Thanks for looking

Festive Friday #45 - Colour Challenge

Hello! Well I know I've been a little MIA here on my blog these past few weeks - life just seems to be getting busier! Did you know it's only 40 days until Christmas - eeek!!!
Anyway it's time for another installment of Festive Friday's and Nicole has a colour challenge for us.

Here is how I used the colours:

Firstly sorry for the lack of definition in this picture - for some reason this card didn't want to be photographed!

Ok on to the card: I used my white craft ink pad and stamped the swirl from 'elements of style' all over a piece of midnight muse. I then took my versa mark pen and drew around all the white ink to create the shadow. The sentiment is stamped in basic grey and is from the 'jolly jingles' wheel, which I cut up and clear mounted all the stamps - love how I have so many different sentiments from this one wheel! I cut the sentiment panel out with my frame labels, sponged the edges in basic grey and then put some retired baja breeze pleated ribbon around the edge. I've also used some baja breeze seam binding across the middle. Not sure that you can see, but I have also placed some small pearls on the top and bottom points of the sentiment panel.

Go past Nicole's blog and check out the rest of the design teams creations and remember to link up your creation as well as we love to see what you create!

Thanks for looking

Festive Friday #43

Hi there! It's time for another Festive Friday and this week Nicole has a product challenge for us: Simply Scored. I dont actually own one of these babies, so I used my good old ruler and stylus to create the background on my card.

I found it hard to get a good picture of my card, but I'm pretty sure you get the gist of it :) I used baja breeze, very vanilla and early espresso for my colours (this has gotta be a favourite colour combo for Christmas this year - so luscious) The dsp is from festival of prints pack and my tree was stamped in baja breeze and is from 'Pennant Parade'. I scored the background on the diagonal both ways to create the diamond effect and then loaded up all the points with a small pearl. 

I hope you can find time to join in with us this week, as we love to see what you create! So load your card up to the froggie on Nicole's blog and get a head start on those Christmas cards!

Thanks for looking :)

Festive Friday #41 - Sketch

Good morning! It's time agin for a Festive Friday. This week Nicole has a great sketch for us to use:

 Here's my take on it:

I'm loving marina mist and bashful blue together for Christmas. I pulled out a new set 'Polar Party' which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it, and coloured the cute polar bear. Now here in Australia we're not really known for our 'white' Christmases, but I love how this card has turned out! The snow flakes are from 'Snow Swirled', stamped in white craft ink and white heat embossed. I then used my chevron embossing folder to add texture to the marina mist strip. I used my scallop edge punch border for the bottom of the strip and glimmer paper for a thin border around the image.

My sentiment is from 'Jolly Jingles' wheel. I bought this knowing I wanted to cut it up and use the sentiments separately. I mounted them onto cling mount foam and I was able to cut out every sentiment, with no waste.

This is a great sketch - dress it up or keep it simple - either way we love to see what you create :) So link up your creation to Nicole's blog and get a start on you Christmas cards!

Thanks for looking

Festive Friday #39 - Inspiration Photo

Good morning! It's time yet again for a Festive Friday challenge and this week is an inspiration photo.
Here's the pic:

Now I was inspired by a whole heap of ideas and it was a process to work out what I was going to create :) I tried to re-create the santa in the fire place scene, I loved the stockings, the 'embossed' fire place and even the ornaments on the mantel. I would walk away from the photo and come back to see what really inspired me and I kept coming back to the potted tree and the pot as it reminded me of some of the pots my Mum had in our garden when I was growing up. So here is my card:

In the end I've kept it fairly clean and simple. I used my 'lovely as a tree' set and stamped and fussy cut three of the pine tree out and I've glued them together down the middle and ruffled the leaves to get some dimension. You cant see it in the photo, but the background is actually scored with squares and the pot I hand cut and I use some dimensionals to give it more depth. My greeting is meant to be like the mantel and it's from 'curly cute'.

So why not join us this week? Go past Nicole's blog and link your creation up to the froggie, we love to see what you create!

Thanks for looking :)

Festive Friday #37 - Colour Challenge

Hi all! It's time again for another Festive Friday and Nicole has a colour challenge for us.

Now when I saw these colours I was stumped on how to put river rock into my creation, as I NEVER use it. So this is what I came up with:

I used the dsp from the paper stack for both cherry cobbler and always artichoke. I had run out of always artichoke card, so to border the dsp, I used some seam binding and I think it works a treat :) The snowflake and sentiment are from 'snow swirled' and stamped in cherry cobbler. I did a small border of always artichoke around my main image and matted it all onto the dreaded colour - river rock. I added some pearls along the sides for balance and I was done.

Come and join us this week and link your creation up to the little frog on Nicole's blog, we love to see what you come up with!

Thanks for looking :)

Festive Friday #35 - Designer Series Paper

Good morning! It time for another Festive Friday challenge, and this week its all about Designer Series Paper (DSP). I wanted to use DSP in another way, other than sticking a big piece on as a background. So I go thinking and this is what I came up with:

I cut out 1 cm strips of "Be of good cheer" DSP and cut them on an angle, so I could gat a 'fan effect'. I started with the center strip and worked out my pattern and followed through with it on both sides of the center. I LOVE how it turned out and I want to use this effect for other cards with different DSP. I wanted to emboss my greeting, but I dont have cherry cobbler embossing powder, so I stamped my greeting in versa mark then tapped it on my cherry cobbler ink pad, stamped it, then clear embossed it. I it looks great in real life, to finish off the panel I added some rhinestones for a bit of bling. The whole DSP panel is on dimensionals to really make it pop!

So we'd love to see how you used DSP, so upload your creations to Nicole's blog and while you're there check out all the other great design team creations. 

Thanks for looking :)

Father's Day

Hi! Well tomorrow is Father's day here in Australia, and this is a card which I CASE'd from Dawn Olchefske. I loved how simple it is - a few good elements with clean lines - my kind of 'guy' card :)

I made two of these - one for my Dad and my Father-in-law and it took about a half hour for both! The colours I used are not quite navy, crumb cake and whisper white. I used the ties and sentiment from 'Best Dad ever' - such a great guy stamp set :) 

My kids are going to give Hubby this card for Father's day. It's one of my Festive Friday design submissions. 

Thanks for looking and hope all the Dad's have a great day tomorrow!

Festive Friday # 33 - Sketch Challenge

Good morning! Nicole has a sketch for us this week for Festive Friday.

Here's the sketch:

And my contribution:

I challenged myself to use "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set, and the pine tree was perfect for this sketch. I used the framelits to frame my image, I used some silver glimmer paper for a bit of bling and the sentiment is from "Short and Sweet". I used a retired button and pushed a small brad through the button holes, so I have a green middle. My colours are old olive, real red and whisper white.

Pop past Nicole's blog and have a go at this great sketch.

Thanks for looking.

Festive Friday # 31 - Inspiration Photo

Once again it's Festive Friday time! For this week it's time to be inspired by this photo and make a Father's day card:

I must admit I struggled a little with this one. When I  first saw this photo I  thought "cars and vintage", but I have no car stamps and I'm not the greatest at vintage style. So I pulled my inspiration from the colours, I used cherry cobbler, basic black, soft suede, very vanilla and crumb cake and the I used "Best Dad ever" stamp set. 

I started by sponging all over the very vanilla panel with crumb cake and the same with the image panel. I then took my scissors to the edges of both pieces and 'roughed' them up a little. The image panel was then stamped with the ties in soft suede and cherry cobbler and layered onto basic black. I then stamped the background panel with the ties in crumb cake, but I stamped off the ties to get a softer look. "Dad" was cut out using my alphabet die cuts and I'm not sure if you can see behind each letter is a whisper white shadow, just like on the sign in the photo. I would say this is an attempt of vintage and I'm pretty happy with the end result.

So how does the picture inspire you? Link up your creation to Nicole's blog, we love seeing what you come up with :)

Thanks for looking.

Festive Friday #29 - Colour Challenge

Hey there! Well it's time again for another Festive Friday and this week Nicole has given us a colour challenge.  Here are the colours we have to work with:

Here's my creation:

I went with a joy fold card, but I turned it vertically. I used the lucky limeade for my base, and used some lucky limeade DSP from Nursery Nest for the bottom flap. I used my old faithful polka dot from the paper stacks in melon mambo, every thing has been matted on whisper white. I used my 'Tree Trimmings' and stamped them in tempting turquoise and clear heat embossed them to give them some shine and the two smaller ornaments are cut out and placed on dimensionals for a bit of depth. The sentiment is from 'Four the Holidays' and stamped in melon mambo and I used some retired melon mambo buttons. I've held the top card with a punched heart, which I embossed with the polka dot embossing folder.

So go past Nicole's blog and see the other great creations from the design team and have a go at this bright colour combo.

Thanks for looking!

Festive Friday #27 - Ribbon

Hello! For todays Festive Friday challenge, Nicole has asked us to use ribbon, but not in a bow or a knot. So my brain started to tick over and this is what I came up with:

I used always artichoke, cherry cobbler and very vanilla for my colour palette, and used the framelits labels for the mats. I then used a length of seam binding and hand stitched a running stitch along one side then gently pulled it to create a rosette. It did take a little primping to get the look I wanted. I then added a itty bitty button, with a very vanilla background and the centers have some tapestry thread from my stash to finish them off. I added some cherry cobbler seam binding to the base and ruffled it, the seam binding is great to work with for this. The sentiment is from 'four the holidays' and stamped in cherry cobbler. 

So now over to you. Get your thinking caps on and use ribbon in a way it's not normally used and link up your creation to Nicole's blog and while your there check out the great creations from the other design members.

Thanks for looking :)

Festive Friday #25 - Sketch Challenge

Well it's time again for another Festive Friday. Nicole has given us a sketch to work with this week.

Here's my take on it:

I went clean and simple for this one and a non-traditional colour palette. I used elegant eggplant, old olive and whisper white. The background panel is embossed with the perfect polka dots EB folder, I then added a strip of old olive dsp. I used the pine tree from 'trendy trees' which was stamped in old olive and crumb cake. The sentiment is from 'best yet' and also stamped in old olive. I then punched the trees out with my 1 1/4" circle punch and matted them onto a 1 3/8" circle of silver glimmer paper. The sentiment is also punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and was layered on to a scallop circle. I love this card and it would be an easy one to mass produce. 

To join in, go past Nicole's blog and link your creation by clicking on to the little frog and while your there check out the other great creations from the design team.

Thanks for looking.

Festive Friday #24 - Fabric

Good morning! Today I'm filling in for this weeks Festive Friday. The challenge is to use fabric in your Christmas creation. I decided to go non-traditional colours and used cherry cobbler, basic black and very vanilla.

I used the fabric from the timeless portrait to create my butterfly (I used an adhesive sheet to stick the fabric to my card) Then I added a cherry cobbler butterfly cut from the beautiful wings embosslit. I pulled out my new framelits dies-how awesome are these?! to create a mat for the butterfly sit on. Then I embossed the very vanilla panel with the perfect polka dot EB folder and tied some cherry cobbler seam binding. I added my sentiment from curly cute and stamped it in staz on, as I find it gives a better 'black' finish.

So now over to you, go past Nicole's blog and see the other great creations from the other design team members and why not join in?

Thanks for looking

Festive Friday #23 - Inspiration Photo

Hello! It's time again for another Festive Friday. Nicole has given us a photo to inspire us:

Here's my take on the photo:

I loved the garland around the mirror and I tried to stay true to the layout of the photo. I also picked up some colour from the red on the packaging. The garland was made by using my owl punch to create the different sized circles of glimmer paper, I then stuck them onto some crochet twine. The 'merry' is done by using my 'timeless type alphabet' in basic grey, the presents are made from 3.5 cm squares of glimmer paper, then layered with 1 1/4 square punch in bashful blue dsp and popped up on dimensionals. I used cherry cobbler for the pop of colour. To create the 'bows' I punched out a heart with my owl punch, then punched it again with the heart to heart punch. I stuck them all together and finished them off with a rhinestone.

Feeling inspired? Swing by Nicole's blog and check out the other amazing creations by the design team and join in on the fun.

Thanks for looking

Festive Friday #21 - Colour Challenge

Good morning! We have a great colour challenge for you, for this weeks Festive Friday.

Nicole set the colour of baja breeze, cajun craze, basic grey and either whisper white or very vanilla. Now when I was given this challenge, I sat for a very long time to be 'inspired', then I would think I had an idea and tried it out, only to have it look 'yuck'. Eventually after many pain staking hours I came up with this:

Looking at it now, it looks so simple and doesn't warrant the hours I spent on it! I think these colours together really threw me :)

I used baja breeze for my base and ran a piece of baja breeze through my big shot with the square lattice EB folder. I used cajun craze dsp to create a poinsettia looking flower, by using my blossom petals builder punch. I added a basic grey circle for the middle and highlighted it with my white gel pen. The white mat behind the flower is stamped with 'French Script' in basic grey and is slightly sponged around the edges. The sentiment is from 'Short and Sweet', a little bit of basic grey ribbon and I was done! Whew!

If you feel inspired, go past Nicole's blog and check out all the other great creations from the design team and join in on the fun!

Thanks for looking :)

Festive Friday #19 - Glitter and Glimmer

Hi, it's time for another Festive Friday. When this goes live, I will be in hospital having baby number 3! I think I may have blanked to mention I was pregnant on here :) I'm well and truly ready to have this one and hopefully I'll get some mojo back too :)

Any ways, this week Nicole has challenged us to use glitter or glimmer product. As soon as I knew this I knew I wanted to use the silver glimmer paper. This stuff is awesome! I'm not a huge fan of glitter, as it seems to get every where when I use it, but the glimmer paper has the sparkle with out the mess - it's a win win! So here's my creation for the week:

I was actually inspired by this card by Teneale - her creations are amazing! I knew I wanted to use a simple colour palette, so real red, whisper white and silver it was! I used the DSP from the bright paper stack and soft suede for the owl. I hand cut the owl's santa hat and the glimmer border was created using the Curly Label. The sentiment is from 'Four the Holidays' which has become a go-to for my Christmas greetings. 

So why not join us this week and pull out all that glittery bling, go past Nicole's blog to see what the other design members have come up with and have fun with it! 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Festive Friday #17 - Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone! I'm back today with another Festive Friday and this week we have a sketch for you to work with. I actually found this one quite a challenge to get to work... any one else have that problem from time to time? :) But eventually I was happy with what I came up with.

Heres the sketch:

And this is what I came up with:

I used Soft suede, crumb cake and very vanilla for my colours and used the images from 'Tidings of Joy'. I stamped the star twice, coloured one which I then fussy cut and popped up on dimensionals. Mary and baby Jesus are coloured with blender pens and ink pads, then also fussy cut and popped up on dimensionals. The sentiment was inked with markers, so that I could fit it into the circle. The very vanilla circles are 1 1/4" and layered onto soft suede 1 3/8" circles. I placed a length of crumb cake seam binding behind the circles. The very vanilla panel is embossed with the 'vintage wallpaper' EB folder. This is quite a simple card, but I really like how it turned out and I think it would be an easy one to mass produce. 

Now over to you to join in on the fun! Head over to Nicole's blog to see what the other design team members have come up with and have a go at the sketch.

Thanks for looking!

Festive Friday #15 - Inspiration Photo

Hi everyone, it's time for another Festive Friday and this time we are focusing on Mother's Day cards, as it's only a few week away here in Oz. For this weeks challenge we have an inspiration photo for you.

I loved this photo! Tulips are my favourite flower and the soft tones are just beautiful. However, when looking through my stamps, I dont own anything that remotely resembles a tulip, so I pulled out 'Field Flowers'. The colours I used were crumb cake, pink pirouette, certainly celery, rose red, so saffron and very vanilla. To get the two toned look on the flowers, I stamped off the base stamp once so it's a little lighter and then inked the detailed stamp using my stamp-a-ma-jig to line it up perfectly. I used my sponge dauber to add so saffron to the centers. I fussy cut all of the flowers and popped them up on dimensionals. The sentiment is from field flowers as well.   

So now it's over to you. Go and check out  Nicole's blog to see the amazing creations the design team have come up with and join in on the fun!

Thanks for looking.