Off the Scrap Desk

This weeks challenge at tickled Pink is one to get you thinking! It is called 'Off the scrap desk' and the challenge is to embellish your card with items that are not intended for card making.
I must say that I found this one really tough, as there is not much that I have NOT stuck on my cards at one time or another. Eventually I turned to the outdoors, as I often do if I'm stuck for ideas. Always in nature there is inspiration of one type or another, you just have to open your eyes and look around!

This is what I took back inside with me, an empty drink tin, from the back of our son's truck, a handful of acorn ends and tiny cones.

 ...and I also picked up a hunk of chicken coup wire, don't ask me why. I just thought it looked useful!

After a whole day of fiddling around I finally come up with this....

 I made the leaves by cutting out shapes from the tin can and carefully rolling the sharp edges under. I coloured the tin (and the chicken mesh) with Alcohol Inks. The little acorn ends made perfect little flowers, I just glued a small beads in each one.

 From 'off of my card making desk' I also used string, corrugated card,and craft wire, but these are items that I have used before. Check out the stamps on my card, I just had to use more that one! The sentiments, little boarder, swirl, and heart are all part of a set, called Pink Valentine Sentiments, from Tickled Pink Stamps. These stamps are awesome to use, and they leave a lovely fine imprint (just check out the word 'love' on the little hearts) There are no high pieces of rubber to leave messy smudges on your work either. Check them out!

Molly Mittens is a rubber stamp as well, and also from tickled Pink stamps, like the sentiments, the rubber is cut nice and deep so you get a lovely clean, crisp and fine impression every time you stamp.

I'm not sure that my colouring has done Molly justice, but I will keep tiring to improve. practice makes perfect, well, that's what my Nana use to tell me anyway. Sure hope she was right!

Now I'm going to have to put aside card making for a week or two as I received my NZ Paper Chase brief today, and I am also supposed to be illustrating a book for a friend.

Don't forget to take a peek HERE to check out more 'takes' on this challenge, and join in if you can!

Shining Bright

Over the past couple of days I've squeezed in a little bit of scrapping.

This page was created for two reasons really, mainly because this song called Stay the Night by James Blunt makes me think of my lovely daughter, and her flat every time I hear it. There are that many similarities that I just had to scrap this song.

Reason number two ...Birds of a Feather, I created a page for this months blog, but somehow managed to scrap the wrong month, January instead of February, so this page (well one side, anyway)  is take two!

This page uses the Birds of A feather Sketch, check it out, and join in the 12 months scrapping challenge with us if you fancy doing so :-)

I decided to add in a second page after I completed my first page simply because I had so much more that I wanted to say to Aimee.

I gold embossed at random over scrunched up vellum paper, to add 'Gold' and 'Shining Bright'.

I had fun and flicked paint (before I added anything else to my page).

This challenge called for a button (or beads) so here is a button...

To check out the sketch and other layouts,click HERE to be directed to Birds of A Feather 

Hi all, I just wanted to let you know that Kylie, from one of my favorite Blogs (Tickled Pink Stamps) has this adorable 'Blog Candy' up for grabs! Pop over to Kylie's blog for details, (just click on the picture below to get there).

Black and White with One

This weekend was a little slow on the crafting front, but I did manage to get a card on the go for the latest challenge at Tickled Pink Stamps. This time around  I challenged myself to keep this card uncluttered!

My sentiment clips off, I have my cards up to date at the moment (thanks to the on going Tickled Pink Challenges, and ever increasing choice of exciting stamps), so just in case I'm in need of a card for something other than a birthday I can simply unclip my sentiment and replace it with another one.

The challenge this week is to use black and white + one other colour only.

This sweet image is called Mollie Mittens with Flower you can purchase her, and her friends here.

I'm happy to say that at last I have Pay-pal sorted!

Tickled Pink have a Blog Hop on, show casing the new release Lil lad stamps. You really do not want to miss these, they are totally yummy! If your after the chance to win stamps, or just want to liven up your creative juices be sure to check this blog hop out, you will not be disappointed!

Love Blog

 I recently received an award from the very talented Lyn, her blog is called  Arty Aspirations. Lyn is a very talented card maker. Check out Lyn's lovely blog HERE .

Thanks so much for the award Lyn.

This award is to showcase some of the not-so-well-known blogs. We have some talented crafters out there and this is one way for you to find new and interesting blogs. All I have to do is nominate three to five blogs I read and want others to get to know .

If I tag you and you want to participate, create a post where you post the 'LOVE BLOG' image. You should also blog the persons link that gave you the award and inform her/him that you accept the award. You can then choose 3 - 5 favorite blogs which you also link in your post, then inform each blogger  that they have been tagged.

I have many favorite blogs that I visit so here is just a small collection of them....

http://karen-strange.blogspot.com/  this lady can turn her hand to anything crafty.  Karen is quite new to blogging so pop by and say hello.

http://bevsscrapbookingworld.blogspot.com/ who not only scraps, but can make amazing cakes as well (check her latest blog post)

http://pittapittas.blogspot.com/ who lives far away in Germany

http://whinneys-whims.blogspot.com/, a very talented papercrafter

http://donnabrisbois.blogspot.com/, whos photos I adore.

and...and I know this is 6, but I really need to mention my very good friend Carol, who is not only clever but super kind as well....check this out...
http://4carol.blogspot.com/




Special Note from the Originator:
Dear bloggers:
The aim of this action is that we bring unknown, good blogs to light, so I would ask you not to blog fellow bloggers that already have 3,000 followers.
I chose 3 that I think deserve more followers than they have, because in my opinion they are very talented and make stunning creations...Please pop over to see their blogs - I promise you will NOT be disappointed.

Sunshine and smiles

Wow, I was very surprised to receive an email telling me that my LO submitted to The Scrapbook Awards had made the 50 vote mark, what a buzz , I did think I'd be lucky to get any votes at all.

Well, the sun is shinning brightly here today, work is finished for the day, and our Mechanics crew have had their day at the garage. This term we have 22 children in our 'Mechanics club', a very big crew indeed. Several of the children are working on Go-carts, three are working on a motor bike, another couple are working on a tractor and the rest all have Steam-Punk projects on the go. Steam Punk is new to our group and a little out of hubby's comfort zone, but I think we are all going to learn heaps, and have alot of fun in the process.

Now, I'm off to clean out the spouting along one side of the house and to mow our ever growing lawns.

Crafting is sadly on hold for the rest of the day, sometimes you just have to do stuff you wish you could forget about I guess.

Im still making cards!

I know I did tell myself I was going to scrap, but I just cannot get enough of Tickled Pink stamps !Perhaps I will use one, or two on a scrap book page, that should get me motivated!

In the mean time here is a card for the latest challenge (sewing) that I  made using one of the lovely stamps I was lucky enough to win in the Fabric challenge.

This sweet little image is called 

 Birthday:Cherrie

For this challenge there has to be sewing of some type, somewhere on your card.

I have sewn a vellum overlay over my background paper, which, by the way I downloaded from a gorgeous site called Bearly Mine.

I have added a little hand sewing in the way of swirls beside some of my flowers.

There is more sewing in this corner, some machine, some hand and even rub-on faux stitches.

I have sewn my centre pieces together on the machine using a floro orange, which I thought would be a fun contrast to the pink paper. The paper in the foreground is also from Bearly Mine

If you look very closely you may spot a little more stitching in amongst my layers. The tiny little rose buds are made out of paper.

I have carried the sewing theme through to the inside of my card as well.

Thanks for looking.

Now I really do need to get some scrapping done, not tonight though! Where O where does the time disappear to??

A taste of Christmas with Tickled Pink.

We have had the pleasure of youngest son's company, for a short time anyway. Camden come home on Saturday afternoon, dropped his washing off and promptly disappeared again with his mates, only to reappear again in time for lunch today. And now, hes on his way back to Dunedin already.
Camden was here long enough to tell us he was buying a horse...I am not thrilled about that, we only just found a home for Aimee's horse, but there you have it. Horse will be staying in Mosgiel, so long may it stay there!

This weekend I had planned to catch up on some scrap booking, but instead i spent the weekend making a Christmas card, crazy I know, but Tickled Pink had a free give-away on their blog last weekend, a cute little elf which I really wanted to have a play with, and they are running a Christmas challenge with an awesome prize up for grabs, so I just had to have a go!
So, without further a-do here is my first completed Christmas card for 2011....

Check out the wee elf, isn't he super cute, and he looks so concerned about his little snow- man, that is perhaps about to melt??

My card has many layers, as usual! I decided to sew tiny gold beads onto my 'tulle' layer, to add a little more interest.

I've added red lace...

... and a bow, complete with a bell, cherrie's and gold beads, which I threaded onto craft wire.

Below is a wee look at the layers that make up my card.

I began with this...

Next I have gold embossed two pieces of torn paper  and added Rub-ons, by Fancy Pants.

 Behind the paper I attached tulle, then I hand sewed the tiny beads into place.

I used more rub-ons over paper, attached this to card and sprayed with glimmer- mist.

Next I embossed a chip-board shape, and attached it to some Christmas paper, which I swiped with ink.

Then I created my festive bow.

and then I put everything together, and added  a few more bits and pieces, including my elf.

Wow! That's a long post!

Now I'm about to clean up, I have created a huge pile of mess while I've been making this card.

Thanks for looking and Happy Crafting to you all.

If your need a little inspiration then check out Tickled Pink, I'm addicted to this site!

There is a freebee HERE, so why not grab it and join in on a challenge.

Coming soon...

Check this out...the first release of  NZ Paper Chase, and look close'ly, I have made the cover in more ways than one! I hate seeing photos of me, I got the shock of my life when Steph Milne (editor) told me this was going to be on the cover. My little niece and nephew on the other hand look very cute.

Get your copy soon and check out the line up of talented ladies who have made this years Elite Team, I'm a huge fan of all of these ladies.

February's Sketch for March

February's sketch is up over at Birds of A Feather, well its the sketch for March, but we are scrapping February, am I confussing you, I'm confussing me!

Anyway, click HERE for details
Take a peek  at Carols adorable page, (I'm sure Carol will not mind me sharing it).

And, here is my page.

 The challenge this month is to use a 'song title' for your 'page title'

 ...and to add at least one  button,or bead. My button was big enough to pop part of my title on!

 I had a play with the sewing machine, paint texture, paste and Glimmer Mist.

We would love you to join us this month.

I would also like to send a huge Thank you to everyone out there helping make Gift Bottles for the Earthquake Appeal. Carol has been inundated with empty bottles and gifts. There is still time to help out if you wish to. Details can be found on Carols Blog

Tickled Pink Tag

This weeks Tickled Pink Challenge is to create, or use a tag, on your creation.

My first two attempts ended up in the rubbish bin, but I got there in the end. I have made a Tag Card using the Tickled Pink image called Lil Lolita Willow.

 I have used a piece of a Dusty Attic fence as a backdrop for Willow and added a tiny heart charm and punched butterfly's.

 This tag card 'pulls' apart a little way so you write a message in the centre. This was my first attempt at making one of these cards, but I intend on making more as they really are a very cool idea, and would be perfect to pop on your gifts.

Thanks for looking. Do take a peek at the other Tag creations that have been created by the Design Team and by some very talented crafters, You can find them HERE. Tickled Pink also have a Christmas Card Challenge running, What a great idea to inspire people like me to get some Christmas cards made before the crazy season hits! 

Happy Creating