Saturday 28 February 2015

A most relaxing holiday

I'm back from my week away on Kawau Island.  This island is located in the Hauraki Gulf, just north of Auckland.  Once you get there... it's reasonably isolated.  We went over by ferry which dropped us off at the wharf belonging to the people whose Bach we were borrowing.  We had to take everything with us.. food, drinks and linen, everything else was there.  Coming back we have to bring our rubbish and empty bottles back. 

Here are a few photos I took...

Where we stayed.
 
Bring the vital supplies!

Yes... the steps up to the house

View from the deck in the evening.
Great way to finish the day!

Had a bit of rain one morning followed by this awesome rainbow.

And this is what the setting sun looked liked 

We had a very relaxing time... three mornings we went for a kayak around the harbour and then across the harbour to Mansion House Bay.

 While we were there we did a half hour bush work before paddling back. 

I managed to get 5 books read on my Kindle, went swimming twice most days and came home feeling very rested.

Oh, and here's a pic of a fabulous Kereru (native Wood Pigeon) I saw out of the window one morning

So it's back to work on Monday.  But the bonus is that we did get our airfares to Europe in June/July sorted so the next holiday is organised!

Have a great weekend and thanks for taking the time to visit today...



Saturday 21 February 2015

Use a sentiment....

Creative Craft Cottage has it's fortnightly challenge up and running and our theme is Use a sentiment.

Our sponsor this fortnight is Karleigh Sue

And here is my card


The sentiment stamp I used is from a Tim Holtz  set I got last week with my Simon Says Stamp order.  As you know I like to use dies and embossing on my cards and this one certainly does.  The brick wall embossing folder is by Sizzix and the die from Spellbinders.

As you read this, I am enjoying a holiday break away on Kawau Island... We arrived Friday and are staying till Thursday.  We are staying in a friend's bach (holiday house).  To get to the island you came over by ferry.  Our bach is then 49 steps up the hill from the wharf and  51 steps down to the water... so nestled in the bush.  I've got some photos on my iPhone so once I upload I'll do a post showing you the seclusion. Not a lot to do but read, swim and occasionally catch up with blogs... don't have a whole heap of data on my phone which I'm hotspotting so I can use the computer.

Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

The Moment a Child is Born

Quietfire Designs

I did promise another baby card... This one is for Die Cut Divas, using a lovely quote from Quietfire Designs.  


I made this card for my niece who had a baby boy in December.  I used this adorable image from Mo's Digital Pencil. It's called Hush.  I coloured it with Copics.  The dies are by Spellbinders - Fancy Labels and the original labels.  I sponged the die centre with the die in place.  

Do pull out your words/quotes/sentiments and joined us at Die Cut Divas.

Monday 16 February 2015

"Sometimes said Pooh........."

Quietfire Designs

I'm back with another card for Die Cut Divas  Did I tell you I've fallen in love with the amazing sentiment/Quote stamps from Quietfire Design.


I used the stamp " Sometimes said Pooh"...and a die from Sue Wilson's Scandinavian collection
I used some PP from a Couture Creations and a very simple design.  I embossed the quote and cut out the frame.  Finished with a little bow with ribbon that came as an extra from my order from Ellen Hudson.

We would love to see you join us at Die Cut Divas with your sentiment/quote cards.

Sunday 15 February 2015

I've got Butterflies on the Brain!

or so it would seem... for days now I've been dreaming up a butterfly shaker card so I could enter into the challenge at Virginia's View.  Took some time this morning to get it done...


It turned out just as I had hoped and dreamed it would.... I used a pile of chunky glitter that came as a freebie with a magazine.  My die cut butterflies are from Memory Box... the Tristan and Chloe butterflies.. one a solid die and the other the filigree one that matches.  I used some fun foam for my dimensional layer.  Inlaid the filigree die over the acetate layer.  

and here are some photos of the butterflies in my garden.


these two were fighting with each other.

Off to the beach for a swim now... just LOVE summer!

Saturday 14 February 2015

Inpsired by Catherine Pooler and Jill Foster....

I've joined Catherine Pooler's StampNation... an amazing online site that has lots of videos and techniques and a fabulous forum.

Catherine is a fabulously talented lady - very real too... you'll often see her making mistakes and bloppers and then showing you how to fix them.  I really enjoy visiting... On one of my recent visits to StampNation, I watched a video by Catherine that was inspired by one she'd seen Jill Foster do.  Jill is another extremely talented artist.  The technique both ladies used was a Ghost background... a very simple but effective technique where you stamp a background in versamark ink and let it dry.  Once dried, you sponge on distress ink and paints.  It give a very subtle background.  I CASE'd the card that Catherine did...

Can you see the subtle background.  It's a Hero Arts background stamp.  My green colour is Bundled Sage.  My focal panel is made using a Penny Black Sunflower stamp. I used Distress Markers to colour the stamp and spritzed with water before stamping.  I then used Wink of Stella to move the colour around a bit.   The sentiment is from a Winner and Walter set.  I used a Fiskers punch to cut the panel edge and added some PP down the side.  Finished with some Pretty Pink Posh sequins. 

Here's a close up of the beautiful background. 

This is will be a background technique I will be trying again. 

Friday 13 February 2015

Live your Dream with Passion

That's one of the sentiments in one of the new Tim Holtz stamp sets...

Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2015 PERSPECTIVE cms213 

I got this set in today's parcel from Simon Says Stamp together with  couple more stamp sets, a die set from DieNamics, a stencil, some sticky adhesive sheets, a new Wink of Stella pen, micropore tape, SSS Fog card stock, mini brushes and the January Distress ink colour Cracked Pistachio... 

So what's girl to do.... but create.


I took some Strathmore watercolour paper and used distress markers in Spiced Marmalade and Walnut Stain to colour up the stamp.  Spritzed with water and then stamped onto the paper.  Used an old Wink of Stella pen that I've added water to, to move the colour around.  Lots of sparkle in real life.   The die was cut with the watercolour paper and the sentiment stamped in Versafine black ink.    Once the butterfly had dried, I fussy cut it and added with some dimensional tape.  I finished it off with some gems.  The panel was added to a kraft card which had been embossed and inked with Antique Linen distress ink.  

I have added this to the "Favourite Quote or Saying" at Crafting When We Can blog.

Thursday 12 February 2015

Winged Things at Southern Girls Challenge

It's another challenge day over at Southern Girls Challenge blog and our sponsors this fortnight are -   Stamps by Aurora Wings and Retail Girl.
  The DT got to work with some of Mitzi's images and I chose a ballerina

  
I printed off the image a bit larger and then cropped it.  I then used a circle die and a scalloped fancy die for the frame.  I distressed the edges of the background PP and the die.  Added some Prima flowers and some punched leaves.   The PP is from a pack from Couture Creations.

We would love to have you join us with your "Winged Things".                        

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Embossing at A2Z Scrapbooking

Been playing this afternoon and made this card for A2Z Scrapbooking challenge... hope just using a Hero Arts sentiment is okay.


I used an embossing folder to make the centre panel.  My sentiment is from Hero Arts and inked in Versafine Black.   My flowers are from a stamp by JOFY from PaperArtsy.  I stamped it three times, coloured the flowers with Copics and fussy cut.  Added some enamel dots to the centres.

I'm also entering this into the challenge at City Crafters - You Matter.  Thinking of you seems to fit the theme I hope!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday 9 February 2015

New baby card

One of my colleagues became an Auntie last week and asked me to make a card to celebrate the birth of Liv Florence...


I just adore the this image from Mo's Digital Pencil... It can be for a girl or a boy depending on your colour scheme.  Here I've gone with the pink scheme.  I used some PP which I embossed with a folder.  Once I printed the image and coloured it, I cut it with a Spellbinders oval die with a scalloped frame.  Sentiment has been printed on the computer.   Finished with a Cherry Lynn bow die cut.

And pop back on the 18th to see a boy version I did for my Die Cut Divas sample.


Sunday 8 February 2015

Trying out some more techniques from CAS 4

I have had an awesome long weekend - Friday was a public holiday here in NZ.  I didn't take any crafty stuff with me to the beach - just my Kindle.  Friday was a bit wet and windy, so got a bit of reading down... Saturday much nice and had a lovely swim in the afternoon before heading about 45 minutes south of Managwhai to Matakana to go to the concert... It was totally awesome!  Don McGlashan and Dave Dobbyn were fantastic especially when you are dancing and singing just three people from the stage.

We came back early today as Hubby is off to Sydney for the week.  He gets back late of Friday evening.  He got picked up at 3.30 to head out to the airport.  That mean I had a bit of time to finish off a card I'd been working on using techniques from CAS 4 card class.


The technique involved double embossing with stencils.  I didn't quite get a good embossing on the second go... so used the vellum leaves to cover it up a bit.   The inking in the corners was done first as well as the splatters.  Added some white cotton twine and finished with a Britannia dies sentiment and a white embossed sentiment from Winnie & Walter.

And here is a card I finished up on Thursday before we left.

The technique used on this one involved masking and sponging.  I used a panel of Simon Says Woodgrain card.  I decided to make this my main focus and just added the flower embellishment and a white embossed sentiment (also from Simon Says Stamp) I added Hero Arts Envelope pattern to my textured card base to give even more texture.

Still a few more techniques to try out... I really want to try the Velveteen stamping technique.

Have an awesome week all.

Saturday 7 February 2015

"Grant me the Serenity"

I'm here today with a card that's my design team sample for both Die Cut Divas and Creative Craft Cottage.

Our theme at Die Cut Divas is Words and we have the amazing Quietfire Designs  as our sponsor.
Quietfire Designs

I've totally fallen in love with with their stamps and I've combined with a gorgeous digi from All Dressed Up, our sponsor at Creative Craft Cottage 


Our theme at Creative Craft Cottage  is "In the Garden"  My garden is made with my PP. I used the God give me the Serenity sentiment stamp from Quietfire and stamped in black Versafine and clear embossed.  I added an Obsession Impression fence die behind my little girl.  I finished with a bow.

I'm at the beach at the moment as we had a public holiday yesterday and about now I'll actually be at a concert at the Ascension Vineyard in Matakana listening to some New Zealand artists - Dave Dobbyn, Anika Moa, Don McGlashan and Supergroove  Hoping the weather is good as after a long time of fine weather, we've had a few days of rain.

Wishing you all a great weekend.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

CAS 4 more homework.

 

I totally enjoying watching all the videos for the class and wish I had time to try out all the techniques, but with working full time and then coming home and spending time down at the beach swimming..... not a lot of time.  

I did have time the other night to try out one of Kristina's cards.  


I CASE'd Kristina's card with similar edge dies and ink colours, but used an anchor die and a birthday sentiment.  The edge dies are from Pretty Pink Posh, the anchor die from Couture Creations and the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.   I finished with some tiny red hearts that were the pieces from Simon Says Stamp Falling Heart die.  

I've also done another card based on a technique done by Tasnim but this afternoon after a long spell of fine weather, it rained!  So no decent light to take a photo.   It's a long weekend coming up with Friday being a public holiday.  We are heading up to Mangawhai and going to a concert on Sat night.  No crafting goodies are going with me this time - just my Kindle with lots of books on it.

Take care

Sunday 1 February 2015

It's all about WORDS

Over at Die Cut Divas February's challenge theme is up......  It's All about Words...

Our sponsor is Quietfire Designs... and the lovely Suzanne allowed the design team to spend some money and get ourselves some stamps or cut files....  When I went to chose my samples I couldn't stick to my allowance so ended up buying some more.  I simply fall in LOVE with the beautiful sentiment stamps...

So here's my first sample


I used QuietFire The Perfect Pair of Shoes stamp together with  a Tattered Lace Shoe die and some pretty PP from Couture Creations (Vintage Rose Collection)

And for another sample that's for my Chalk'n'Stock design team...


As usual, Bugaboo are the sponsor for Chalk'n'Stock.  I coloured the Bugaboo digi stamp with Copics and then used a chalk pastel to colour the background.  The quote is "Sometimes, said Pooh" from Quietfire Designs.  The frame is a Spellbinders die.  The background of the die cut is coloured with a pastel chalk in pale blue.  I'm adding this to the challenge over at Crafting When We Can ~ Favourite Quote or Saying

I've had so much fun using the fabulous quotes from Quietfire Designs.