WMS Pyjama Party

Today has been the hottest winter day in Brisbane on record, reaching 30C.  This does not bode well for summer!  The past few weeks my daughter has been completely immersed in school assessment, her first real experience of what the years to come will hold.  For her, the holidays can't come soon enough.

So, to my challenge cards.  Unfortunately, I placed my WMS order too late to be able to play with all the new goodies but no matter, I had backup plans.

Challenge 2:  Get Nauty

This card possibly also qualifies for Golden Oldies as Vintage Labels 3 was my first WMS stamp set and I most particularly loved this rope label.  It is Father's Day in Australia tomorrow, so this is for my Dad and it will be an especially great day as they come home from a month's holiday in Europe.

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white, Pure Poppy

Patterned Paper - PTI Men of Life

Stamps - WMS Vintage Lablels 3, Compact Sentiments

Ink -  SU Real Red, Early Espresso; PTI Ripe Avocado

Twine - HA

Challenge 4:  Golden Oldies

While Vintage Labels 3 was still on my desk I decided to use one of the smaller images as a border.  I think Big Bloom Chrysanthemums came to live here not long after.

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white;  SU Rose Red

Stamps - WMS Big Bloom Chrysanthemums, Vintage Labels 3, Fancy Phrases

Ink - SU Rose Red, Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Baked Brown Sugar

Gem - SU 

Challenge 3 and 5: Colour challenge and Bedtime Story (sketch)

I really wanted to attack both  of these individually but time isn't on my side.  I have to say I am really pleased with the outcome.  Ooh and my first go at "generational" stamping.

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What you need

Cardstock - SU black, basic grey,white, cherry cobbler; PTI soft stone

Stamps - WMS Fine Feathers, Vintage Labels 10

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black;  Memento Bahama Blue;  SU Cherry Cobbler

Die - MFT Bows

Gems - SU

PTI August 2013 Blog Hop

My how the months have flown!  We have almost finished our outdoor work, now it is just those little finishing touches of tidying up and working out what we want to go back there.  It could probably do with some new plants .... if I remember to water them.  

This is the colour palette and sketch I picked, seem to be a sucker for the neutrals at the moment, add to that my Mother-in-law has requested a few more masculine cards.  Really happy with this one, the plan had been to just use one of my new acquisitions - Sketched Shapes, but there we a couple of other designs I wanted to incorporate.  Alot of masking going on here and I cut small notches in the sides so the twine would sit better.

What you need

Cardstock - PTI cream; SU Early Espresso

Stamps - PTI Stylish Sentiments Birthday; Sketched Shapes, Background Basics: Retro

Ink - PTI Fine Linen, Classic Kraft;  SU Early Espresso; Versafine Onyx Black

Twine - Hero Arts, SU

I'll bet there are a few craft weary people after the all weekend Stamp a Faire, but I am sure there will still be plenty of wonderful inspiration on show.

Some old and some new stamps

We have had a beautiful week of warm to hot weather, highly unusual for August.  But it has been great for getting some outdoor renovations done.  We are only part way through but hopefully by next weekend we should be all done, then I will have a long awaited undercover area to keep laundry dry during our summer storm season.

I saw the cue word for this challenge and new exactly what I would do.

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white, New Leaf; X-Press It blending card

Stamps - PTI Vintage Picnic

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Copics

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Right at this moment, my daughter has 2 friends over and they are decorating a cake for Book Week at school this week.  Now this has been a challenge, as I have only very basic knowledge in this department and we had to find black icing, as the theme is All things to do with the Universe.  In the end it wasn't hard to find, and we are using cake pops for planets.

Oh Boy, the noise!!

So here is a peaceful card.  This is my first foray into the Clearly Besotted Challenge - a palette of my favourite colours.  Love the variety of butterflies in this set 

It's a little bit hard to see the pale pink stamped butterflies and they haven't shown up well in the close up.  

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white;  SU Pear Pizzazz

Stamps - Clearly Besotted Happy Everything, Butterfly Wishes

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black;  SU Regal Rose, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink; Memento Rose Bud

Dies - Clearly Besotted Butterfly Wishes

SU gems

Case This Sketch #40

Just dropping in with a quick card tonight - when I say quick it really means unexpected but the diecut took forever to get right.  At the risk of boring people with our ongoing orthodontic saga, my daughter had her braces tightened yesterday and all teeth now connected.  It caused her alot of grief overnight and as we can't allow school to give the pain relief that would work, she had to come home at lunchtime.  So that gave me a bit of crafting (and Pinterest) time.

Always one of my favourite sketch challenges and inspired by a card from Maureen Merritt, colour-wise, this is my entry.  It reminds me of SU Urban Garden DSP, one of my all time favourites.  

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white;  SU Bashful Blue, Kiwi Kiss, Night of Navy

Stamps - Cas-ual Fridays Woot Woot

Ink - SU Old Olive

Die - Memory Box Dancing Tulips

Uniko Studio Inaugural Challenge

The theme for this challenge is just to say "Hello"

Things have been slightly hectic in this household.  My daughter had school camp last week, so we took the time for a few days away in Montville, about 2 hours north of Brisbane, in the mountains (such as they are in Australia).  The cottage was decorated Balinese style and had everything we needed, including a view to die for.

Camp went well, she love abseiling and kayaking, but could have done without other children running around screaming during the night.  This week we have our periodic orthodontist visit and afterwards a trip to see a "Dance Physio" - who will hopefully give us some pointers in ankle strengthening before she goes on Pointe next year.

To the challenge ... Bev's stamps are just so elegant, I have had a couple of sets for a while, and acquired a few more recently, this flower set for instance.  I look forward to many more stamping sessions with it.  I was drawn to the colours Ren-Yi used for her card and really just wanted to give the card a pop of pink.

What you need
Cardstock - PTI white;  BB Grey
Stamps - Uniko Studio Time, Beautiful Blooms 1, Background Builders Lattice
Ink - Memento London Fog, Rose Red;  Versafine Onyx Black
SU Basic Grey marker
Gems - Kaisercraft

Inaugural Waltzingmouse Pyjama Party

It's been a while ...... not  idle but nothing blog post worthy.  Thought I would get one post in for July and Claire's Pyjama  Party was ideal, particularly as my shiny new stamps arrived last week.

One challenge is to use feathers.  I knew I would be up against some very clever card makers, so tried for the clever my self.  I am particularly slow at taking on new trends, witness the chevron thing.  Not something I have embraced but the lovely Bev at Uniko studios has come up with a stunning stamp set which I shall save for a future post.  In this case - feathers - could take it or leave it TILL I saw Funky Feathers - love at first sight.  I can see so many opportunities for this set to see ink.

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white;  BB grey

Stamps - WMS Funky Feathers, Asian Gardens

Ink - Memento London Fog,  Grey Flannel;  SU Real Red;  Versafine Onyx Black

Gem - Kaisercraft

The other challenge was the Russian dolls (I am not trying to spell the proper name at dinner time).  I couldn't get the idea out of my head to use them in a slightly Scandinavian style.  Always been a big fan of the red and white pattern, so here is my version of the classic Danish pattern.

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white, red

Stamps - WMS Say it Loud, Nordic Winter, You're a Doll

Ink - SU Real Red

Gem - Kaisercraft

So, just an peek at what I have been up to, apart from cards.  last week at my daughter's ballet school was a fund raising day for the Baden Clay children.  This post last year can't really convey the community disbelief or the coming together that has happened in the year since.  Alison's parents have custody of the girls and we regularly see them around the ballet school.  The eldest daughter has real ballet potential, and I hope this helps her through the next few difficult years.  

So back to the fund raising bit.  The girls could wear yellow and donate a gold coin for the opportunity.  We have nothing yellow, but there is a Pinterest world out there with any number of tutorials.  So my daughter chose the top hair piece, but the other is there for future reference.

All very CAS

I would like to be able to say that we are having a rare sunny weekend but, we aren't.  Gloomy and rainy again.  A quiet weekend punctuated by a 60th birthday celebration last night.  It was one of my husband's former triathlon friends, so it was wonderful to catch up with a few familiar faces from the squad of 12+ years ago.  It's a bit surreal to see these men and women now, married with children, when the squad were training hard, they were just out of university, coping with new jobs and relationships.  

So, these 2 challenges dovetail nicely.  This stamp set is about the only one I have with anything vaguely balloon like.  I used vellum for the background to create the illusion of sky, perhaps it worked.

What you need
Cardstock - BB aqua;  PTI vellum
Stamps - PTI Everyday Button Bits
Ink - SU Early Espresso, Real Red
Buttons - PTI
Thread - DMC

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One for my Christmas card collection. 

I hadn't tried to emboss with this die before, but knew the effect would be lovely.  Just wanted to keep it simple, with just a touch of red and black

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white

Stamps - PTI Mega Mixed Messages

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Die - Memory Box

Gems - ?

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And just to finish, a quick card for the Stampin' Royalty challenge.  The theme  

STRIPES

I saw a design similar to this on a quilt (Pinterest).  I forgot to pin it, unfortunately.  

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white

Stamps - Avery Elle Knotty, To the Point

Ink - Memento Lady Bug, Nautical Blue

The Paper Players #151

Here's a quick one for Friday.  I had to try this very interesting sketch, so had a quick flick through my Pinterest colour palette board, and decided on this combination.

It's a bit hard to see the orange stamping (yes that colour again), and I have loosely interpreted the large diecut with 2 half circles in the reverse paper and a Martha Stewart doily.

What you need

Cardstock - PTI white, black

DSP - SU Brights Collection

Stamps - SU Pocket Silhouettes;  Avery Elle Blossoms and Blooms (sentiment)

Ink - SU Pumpkin Pie

MS doily

Various Punches

Ribbon - SU black satin

PTI June 2013 Blog Hop

Gold...Hmmm..... 

I had a couple of ideas from Pinterest that I was keen to use.  But too much gold can just look cheap.  Initially the black panel at the bottom was plain, which did please me, but may not have suited the Papertrey challenge, just using an alphabet set.

Well, this is my card, for better or worse (HA, really bad pun)

What you need

Cardstock - PTI black, white

Stamps - PTI Trajan: Monogram Basics, Background Basics:  Vines

Ink - Versamark

Embossing Powder:  Zing! glitter gold and black

Ribbon - Craft Supplies

Now that's just way too much orange!

But that, at times, isn't a bad thing.  And on the whole, have very much enjoyed getting out all my various oranges.

This first one uses a set that hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while, and don't know why it popped into my head, but very glad it did

What you need

Cardstock - BB Brown/Orange;  PTI white

Patterned paper - SU Brights Collection

Stamps - HA Everyday Sayings;  SU Pocket Silhouettes

Ink - Brilliance Rust, Memento Rich Cocoa

Die - MFT Fishtail Flag Stax

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Another Cardablities sketch I missed coupled with the Summer Camp challenge 1 colours.  The idea was to use at least 4 of the 5 colours

I think this is my favourite of the last few posts and I don't think I have used grey and orange before but I really like it.

What you need
Cardstock _ SU Basic Grey;  PTI Orange Zest, white
DSP - SU Neutrals Collection
Stamps - HA Everyday Sayings
Ink - Memento Tangelo
Dies - MFT Fishtail Flag Stax