Monday 28 September 2015

Final week for September Challenge 50: Unstampabelles

Challenge 50: Unstampabelles

Boys will be Boys

The twist is to say what you thinks makes a good male card

I made two cards because I didn't really like the first one and ended up  not liking either. 
Oh well.......


It started Ok with embossing a piece of SU card and then using some yellow string and SU DP paper scraps to make some flags and a banner.  I have a small banner punch but didn't remember until I had finished making this! Consequently these are made by hand.


Well, the sentiment says it all on this one - had a go at the blackboard/chalk thing that is popular at the moment an hand wrote my sentiment.


I added the sequins to try and lift it and give it some sparkle.
Perhaps the flags should be allowed to flop over the blackboard? 

I was working with geometric shapes and strong lines and then being a bit messy while still keeping it simple as....

The second card started because I was showing someone how to diecut and diecut out this new Disire die in a scrap of green card - I put some black behind it to make the HB sentiment stand out. It grew from there.......


I had also purchase this new die (oh, alright, I purchased two packs -8 dies - off eBay because I couldn't find them at Paperific. They are from Memory box and I love them) and I had decided to test them out on a distressed style card. This was a practice cut on some orange card floating around....


I added the two things together.
I saw a card that used a flag with washi tape under it and so added that to the mix.....


Dirtied it up with ink and some pen marks and then added the enamel dots

I had to stop because it was getting more disastrous each step I took......not sure what will save it. Any suggestions?

The aim was keeping it simple, strong geometric shapes and a bit dirty/distressed

If you haven't entered this challenge yet, why not?
This is the random prize.



Saturday 26 September 2015

A Pink Christmas!

The newest Challenge at 

is 

Anything Goes!


I decided to use one of the many small images I have coloured with Copics and other mediums and not used. I think this one is from last year. So another Christmas card was born......


He is an image from Lily of the Valley and is stamped.


I also wanted to use my newest punch from Stampin' Up which is a poinsettia creator. I punch out 5 times I believe to get the right number of leaves, scored them in the middle and built them up.  I used a piece of DP called in bloom by artsy which has been in my Christmas stash for several years. 


Mmmm, need practice I think.......


I added lots of bling and some shimmer to the image but you cannot see that in the light I photographed it in


I added the bling late - this was it before, but I decided it needed a bit more???

Anyhoo------that was my story for this fortnight.

I will enter this in the following:
Crafting with Friends: Anything Goes
QKR Stamped: cats or dogs - he is a dog!
Blog Quick Quotes: Anything Goes
Southern Girls: whimsical, cute, fun


Monday 21 September 2015

Stop Toolin' Around........


You cannot beat a good pun!

Males cards  - apart from being fairly simple and clean looking - often work well with a funny line attached, and if you can build the card around a pun - home and hosed, my friend!

This card being made for Unstampabelles Challenge #50 Boys will be Boys, for September has used a pun around the word "tool". 

When I was still teaching, and in particular teaching young teeenage boys, this word had to be avoided at all costs - who knew it had some much capacity to reduced a classroom of teens to sniveling, sniggering, giggling wrecks with no ability to concentrate left. I was reminded of this fact a few days ago when a young person I know, and who has just started teaching, inadvertently used the wrong word in front of Year 8's and they lost the plot. She will be scarred for life I suspect. 



Still, it set me thinking about my unfortunate use of "man's prehistoric tool" in front of a similar group and then reminded me of the many uses applied to that particular word when talking about males. I had some die that would be appropriate, so set to work. 


This is what I created


Showed it to hubby - he sniggered - they never grow up!


This is what is say's inside


So, punny or worse - add a funny line or crack a joke and you have created a good male card.

Why not make one today and then enter it 





Monday 14 September 2015

Second post for Unstampabelles Challenge #50

Remember that over at 

there is a challenge#50 called 

Boyz will be Boyz

This is the prize pack

The twist is to write a few things about what makes a good male card - to share the information around and help out those of us who are a bit too challenged by these cards. 

I recently came across the UK company called Acid Drops and Whatnots, and may have purchased a few things from them when my fingers accidently skidded on the keys......
Anyway, they were selling sheets of funny images and sayings to make up into quick cards

This is an example of one of them


I had one for males - so made two quick cards from them to show that making a male card is not always that difficult, if you think a bit outside the square, and use printed images


The images were even coloured for me!


You can get these images in stamps too - and I have some of them as well - but for fast action, these two cards took me a whole 10 minutes for both!


I grabbed the sheet of left-over paper on the desk from my last male card venture for last week....


The sheet itself cost me about $3 with the exchange rate, and I made in total three cards from it. I also used a blank card from a freebie pack for the tall one, and the other is recycled, so in all these two cost me just over $1.10 to make - bargain I think!

Again I have used that principle for male cards that I tend to stick to quite a bit - KISS!
Keep it Simple Stupid

Why not pop over to Unstampabelles and see what the other team members have created for their male cards as well, and also to check out our September Guest!

Saturday 12 September 2015

Magical Dragonflies Challenge

Hello Peeps!

Over at 


there is a new challenge

Something Magical


There are many magical moments in our lives, from a sunrise to a birth to something one of the kids do to faeries at the bottom of the garden to things in nature.........lots of things fit under this theme....



This little girl has not had any love lately - she is a fairy from the LOTV family from a while ago


I coloured her with Copics


Another LOTV stamp set for the sentiment



As this card is for a young girl, I made it very bright and used up some plastic button flowers from my stash in doing so


Her wings have lots of sparkle and she has a bit of Wink of Stella applied to various pieces to for a subtle sheen in places.

I will enter her at the following challenges:
The Pencil Case: Bright - she is coloured with Copics
Artbymiran: Anything goes
Really Reasonable Ribbon: things with wings and ribbon


Friday 11 September 2015

Apropos of nothing.......

I am posting today several things which will explain why I have been a bit quiet lately and why the posts that should of happened didn't happen as well as they should......

The expert and I went to the mainland, like all good islanders, by boat. We took the car and drove to the other end of the state and caught the night ferry to Victoria (Melbourne) and I send him by taxi to his sisters, and took myself off to Paperific at the Showgrounds. I was booked into a multi-media course there which took over 3 hours, and left me little time to shop, but I did manage to buy some things........


The stash....

I made a multi-media canvas pretty (already given away to my 12 yo Granddaughter Lily)


There is lots of painting, stenciling, layering and painting, stenciling and layering on here...


It was a big class, taken by Limor from Canada, a multi-media expert......


Yes, that is me on the right, er, I mean left.......I need a haircut badly......


We went on from this day, to spend several days with family, including one where we went to this at Ripponlea.....if you were wondering was this worth it - YES!






 Later in the week we drove up to Canberra stopping one night in Wodonga to visit friends. We arrived in Canberra to fine warmish weather, and got to see the exhibition Bare at the National Gallery........

The David Walsh painting was in the Archibald and acquired by the gallery- aren't you glad I cut off the bottom of the photo....

....... and the WW1 Australian Life at the National Museum....

I love the angles in the buildings in Canberra

In between we celebrated the 12 years of Lily with a Maltesa cake - definitely look it up on Pinterest - a bit dry, would take some liqueur or some cream or both but yummy! 



I made the card for Lily the morning we left Tassie - many things had interrupted that week and lots of things ran very late indeed, but I will not touch on them here except to say I lost two friends that week to cancer before we left on Friday morning......


I do love Tim Holtz's crazy birds!


Suited me really - a crazy few weeks!

A highlight of this trip was being able to purchase a DRESS for the 12 yo - not worn one since she was 6.....but she wanted to wear one for her piano recital. She picked it out and wore it with her mothers tights, hightops and a hoddie! Still, it was a dress. White too....the piano recital was excellent and the pianist looked a picture. She went on to play a game of netball, and piano practice, and then home and we went off after the recital to watch Mr 9 play hockey! In the afternoon - more shopping! I was exhausted! We came home today (Friday) after returning to Melbourne for some more time with family and friends there.

I will sleep well tonight, I assure you! 

Monday 7 September 2015

New September Challenge #50 for Unstampabelles


So sorry I am late with this folks -long story, one for next time...

What is the Unstampabelles challenge #50 for September? 
Boyz will be Boyz!

Boys and Men: create a perfect card for the male in your life. What do you think is essential to make a card a male card? The twist this month is to ponder this question and provide some thoughts in your blog!

There are quite a few sticker sheets and decoupage sheets being provided for this challenge as the prize.

What do I think makes a male card a male card?
Simplicity usually - take an idea and apply the KISS principle
(Keep It Simple Stupid)


A bit of scruffiness works too - so making it a bit punk or distressed or aged......

I like to go to my stuff from Tim Holtz....he is always good for ideas and his various bits and pieces of ephemera are very useful for male cards. My card today is very Tim Holtz - stickers and die cuts and such.....


I have a couple of vintage brothers who are having birthdays in the latter part of the year......


The background papers are over 6 years old and are from Basic Grey - I added some ink and a bit of roughly drawn lines, some cogs and the vintage car, and a bit of bling


I hope that you have some ideas about creating a male card to add to the ones we have over at Unstampabelles: remember, we have until the last Friday in the month to enter.

Tuesday 1 September 2015

What is Hidden in Your Stash?

Do you know what is hidden in your stash?
I think I am too scared to make a full inventory!



Over at Eclectic Ellapu the PURPLE TEAM is challenging us to use stash that is 
6 months or older! 

About three years ago I purchased a Kaiser wooden kit to make a recipe box
I had ideas of making a Christmas present or two.....


This is what I think it looks like in the raw, although mine is a bit squarer

About six months ago I found it in the midst of looking for something else, and dragged it out, painted it with three coats of white gesso and left it sitting on my table - obviously to mature!

It has not been sanded or anything - and my painting had left it difficult to put together easily, so I had to call in the expert to assist


The expert put it together and then we realised it was backward, and so we had to take out two sides and replug them back in.......


Can you see the vise on the bottom right? 
It was given to said expert when he turned 15 by his father
Expert is in his 81st year.....


He used it to put the sides in tight!


Plus the wooden mallet of course.....yes, he is a left-hander....


Lid goes on last


Finished and together (with only a few little gaps)


I used SU Designer Paper and some bits of ephemera, and a Prima flower - most well over 6 months in the stash




Such pretty paper - I know somewhere in my stash I have some nibs: do you think I can find them!!!!!


I used the SU dies for file edges to create dividers, with a double glued together pieces of card

A stationary box - or to keep cards in - or to just store "stuff"!

What stash do you have that is over 6 months old?  
Time to get it out and use it!

You can enter at 
don't forget to scroll down to the Purple team link-up