Happy New Year's Eve!

Today in Melbourne has been a beautiful warm but not too hot day - perfect really for the end of the year! The day started with some early morning baking - ok after a quick trip to the supermarket when we realised we were out of brown sugar!! And then we had a lovely morning tea/ lunch with some good friends while our dogs enjoyed a social time as well. Dear Sally is still not allowed to play with her best friend Monty as she is still recovering from surgery a month ago to remove a tumour from a leg but she is otherwise well and happy and she spent the morning teasing him and tempting him to start some vigorous play as I think she knows it's not on and brings them both immediate attention from respective "parents"…just like human kids :-) And as is was also Monty's teenage "brother's"  birthday today it was the perfect inspiration behind this week's card for The Paper Craft Crew :-)

A great sketch this week especially for a teenager! The Team have created some great and varied cards for the sketch so I hope you have a moment to check them out. Here is the sketch:

And here is the Teen boy card :-)

Ok so the flower probably isn't so appropriate here but it IS red :-)

But I am pleased to say the Birthday boy did like his card and was quite keen to see how it all was put together too - an engineer at heart possibly :-)

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black, Gold Foil

Inks: Real Red, Encore Gold, Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Stamps: Really Good Greetings, Amazing Birthday, # Hello, Gorgeous Grunge

Accessories: Big Shot, on Film Framelits, Square Framelits, White EP, 11/4 Circle Punch,

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to check out all the great cards this week by the Team at The Paper Craft Crew. And I wish you all a wonderful start to the New Year and may 2015 be a special year for you and all your families!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Amazing Birthday for the Paper Craft Crew

Welcome to another Spring Wednesday in Melbourne - we have had a warm start to the day but the clouds are gathering for the forecast storms. I did manage to get some summer veggies planted before needing to retreat from the rising wind so that was good!!
And as it is Wednesday I have a card to share with you for the sketch this week at The Paper Craft Crew. The Team have come up with some fabulous cards this week so do go and have a look  :-)
So here is the sketch:

Quitte classical this week and really open to interpretation I think :-)

And here is my card:

I decided to go for a masculine card this week and use some images I stamped when I recently borrowed this set from a friend. Both the Midnight Muse images are up on dimensionals and I used the Large Polka dots EF on the white card to compliment the cake image :-)

Card stock: Midnight Muse (Retired), Whisper White

Designer Series Paper: Maritime

Inks: Midnight Muse, Real Red

Stamps: Amazing Birthday

Accessories:Big Shot, Large Polka Dots EF, Midnight Muse ribbon, 11/4 and 13/8" Circle Punches

When I was at the garden centre the other day I came across this interesting plant called Pretty In Pink 

And was really taken with how unusual it is and had to bring it home where it fits in quite well in my "potted corner"  :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I do hope you have time to check out the Team's cards at The Paper Craft Crew this week and maybe you too might be inspired to join in the fun!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Happy happy happy Father's Day

With Father's Day being this weekend it seemed the perfect theme for my Stamp and Chat evening last night. Just a couple of good friends made it but it is more about the chat and fun of catching up with friends than numbers. And I see that the wonderful Just Add Ink team are also having a "Just Add Dad" theme this week to celebrate Father's Day too! Do go and check out the great inspiration they have for you this week if you have a moment :-) And I will share the card I designed for the ladies to make last night -  they did have fun :-)

As I have been making a few Shaker cards of late there was a request for one for this theme so the Ladies could join in too. And so here is what I came up with: And apologies - this card has been shaken A LOT!! :-)

Now the process did contain a few elements which kept them busy for a little while but for these Ladies who stamp and scrap all the time I like to provide a bit of a challenge - and they do keep coming back for more :-)

The card base is Bermuda Bay embossed with the Arrows EF.

To make the shaker frame I used some Real Red card and cut and embossed it with the frame in the On Film Framelits. So great that this adds a bit of texture as well as cutting the frame! The base and the acetate to place in behind the Framelit are simply cut to the outside measurements of the Framelit.  Next the Happy's are stamped once in each colour and fussy cut out and adhered to the white base. 

For the adhesive to contain the "goodies" I have tried several things lately but my favourite is indeed the SU Shaker Frame adhesive (silly me, it's all in the name isn't it?!) These come as different sized circles but I just snip one side of the circle, and remove the paper backing and then you can mould it easily to any shape you like. And because they are all the same thickness and height it gives some uniformity too. 

The colourful shaken not stirred additions are mainly punched with the new Confetti Stars border punch: lots of card stock scraps and a few sequins for some always present bling!!

Then a little more fun with the greeting - stamped using the Alphabet Rotary stamp! I just thought the script looked like it was echoing the Happy's and it was fun to play with though is good to practice a little first :-)

Card stock: Bermuda Bay, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point
Stamps: Amazing Birthday, Alphabet Rotary
Accessories: Big Shot, On Film Framelits, Arrows EF, Shaker Frame Adhesive,Window sheets, Confetti Stars Punch, Hexagon Punch (for flag ends), Silver buttons, Cherry Cobbler Twine, silver and blue sequins (Non-SU)

With our Stamp & Chat nights the usual plan is I provide and prepare everything for one card (this one last night) and then they get to play with any other Stamp, ink, or tools I might have for the rest of the evening. But as an added extra last night we also had an introduction to using Photopolymer stamps - such fun! I love them and how easy they are to line up etc - a true convert as they say! So a fun night - lots of chat and lots of stamping!

Thanks for stopping by today and please do go and check out the great challenge and inspiration at Just Add Ink this week and maybe you might be inspired to be the next to enter :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Amazing Birthday

Good afternoon! Well after our warmest Winters' day on Wednesday today is the coldest for 33 years!! With snow in Melbourne's suburbs and rain, sleet and hail in the City it is a good time to be inside :-)
Today's card is a male birthday card with a more layered look and uses the stamp set Amazing Birthday which I was able to borrow from a good friend. It is such fun stamping with friends - we all have slightly different tastes with which to inspire each other and a larger stamp collection to pool :-)

And because I was teaming the stamp with the Maritime DSP the colours were already chosen for me - so easy!

Initially I used both Real Red and Night of Navy markers on the stamp before stamping. But some parts of the image seemed to stamp better than others. So I also stamped the two colours separately and added the red" Make" on dimensionals - and the "Amazing" banner is also cut out and layered on top.

The little banners on the side are simply punched with the Banner punch and their ends slipped under the main panel. 

And the cute birthday cake is punched out and layered onto Navy card too. 

Card stock: Not Quite Navy, Whisper White

Designer Series paper: Maritime

Inks: Not Quite Navy, Real Red,

Stamps: Amazing Birthday

Accessories: 11/4" and 13/8" circle punches, Banner punch, Real Red Grosgrain ribbon (retired), dimensionals

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan