Cricut/Flourishes cards

Good morning to all! Hope you are all doing well and for those who have started with their weekend - enjoy! 

Today I would like to show you two cards I have done with my Cricut Expression and on which I have used Flourishes stamps. The backgrounds for the cards I got from Birds Cards. She has some beautiful cutting files available - Free!

The stamp I used on the first card is from the Flourishes Letters in Bloom set. I was requested by my Sister-in-law to make a card for a wonderful lady whom they are having dinner with next week. I had the backgrounds cut already and thought putting her initial on it would give it a nice personal touch. 

Colored with Spectrum Noirs as well as Twinkling H2O's. I added a little flat back pearl just for that little extra rounding off.

The next card will go to the shop where I sell my cards. The stamp used is also from Flourishes and is from their A year in Flowers 1. It is the Crocus flower for January. There are 3 of these sets and each set has 4 flowers in it with the month of the year for each flower.  I think a very good buy.

These were colored with Twinkling H2O's. Both cards centers are layered and lifted with foam tape.

Hope you enjoyed what you saw here.

Thanks for visiting and leaving your kind comments.

Flourishes Violets

A very good morning to all!

Just a quick post today. This is another card done with my lovely new Flourishes stamps and colored with Spectrum Noirs.

 I am just about to finish a card I did with my Cricut Silouette - hope to show it tomorrow.

Have a wonderful day!

Thanks for popping in again!

Stamp Camp Cards

Today I am back with some of the cards that was made for the stamp camp cards. As said before our theme were cards for men. I don't do too many male cards, but have enjoyed doing these.

This stamp is from a local company called Great Impressions. It was the owner, Blanche, who gave me my first stamp lesson. Thanks Blanche! Colored with Spectrum Noirs.

This stamp is also by a local company and is available at Country Crafts. I've used about the whole grey range to color this car but do love the outcome.

This stamp is from Micia. I don't see this on their website any more but I bought this locally. This was my very first image that I colored in with my Spectrum Noirs!









Thanks so much for visiting! Hope you will have a weekend full of lovely crafting!

Spectrum Noir October challenge

Today I am doing a post to enter a challenge. I have not done that in ages. A while ago I spoilt myself  and added Spectrum Noir pens to my coloring medium collection. They are having a challenge over on their blog and for October the theme is 'Flowers'. I have done quite a few cards already seeing that I am enjoying my pens so much. But for this challenge I will enter these cards. It is an image by Flourishes called From the Desk of. Not sure if I am allowed to enter two, please do tell me if not and I will remove the one card. Unfortunately I do not remember which colors I used. The pinks were probably PP5, 3 & 1 and the greens were more than likely DG4 and CG3. The greys would have been a whole selection of the greys. For the purple card the purples were more than likely HB3 and HB1, but there could be some LV2 with it. The greens could be DG4 & CG3 again.

A little feedback: Stamp Camp is something of the past - boohoo!! It was great, as always. I will now use products of mine that has just been sitting on the shelve most of the time, more often. Thanks to all the teachers, all the organiser as well as the people/shops that donated goodies. You have outdone yourselves again. Sometimes I wish it could rather be a week than just a weekend. I will post some of the Male cards we had to do for charity at a later stage.

Hope everybody is having a wonderful day with lots of  time to craft. We are having horrible weather for summer so I am staying indoors and doing lots of crafting.

Thanks so much for visiting!!

More Prick-n-Stitch Cards

Even though I have not posted anything in a long, long time, I have been rather busy. I have done quite a bit of Prick-n-Stitch cards. I love doing this in front of the television at night and then when I have a whole pile of them, I would take some time out of my day and put some cards together.

A while ago I bought some beautiful patterns from Ann's Paper Art. Here are just three of the patterns I have already worked:

I've got another pattern with champagne glasses, but this one just looks so 'alive' with the bow and the twisted stems. In stead of working the sparkling bubbles, I added some gold flat-back pearls.

I have also done the pram in blue, but that was snatched up by a friend before I could do a scan of it.

I loved this tree pattern the moment I saw it. Just something different! Thanks Ann! I enjoy working your patterns. There are a whole stack more that needs to be put together.












 Then I have also done some patterns I got from Pin Broidery:

I loved doing this tree and have done more of it. So easy to work and such a lovely picture.

These two patterns from Stitching Cards also attracted my attention immediately and they were also 'had to have's'.






























 There are plenty more, but I will leave you with these only.

Friday it is off to our annual Stamp Camp! Jippee!! My cards for the competition is done and some of my goodies are put together already. Guess what I will be doing over the next two days? Next week after camp I will show you some of the cards I made for camp. Our theme this year is - Cards for males. I had fun doing them as I trying out a new coloring medium. But more about that next week.

Enjoy what is left of the week and have a great weekend! Thanks for popping in for a visit!

Prick-n-Stitch Cards

It is still bitterly cold here in Heilbron in the Freestate. There is still some snow all over the veld, the wind is blowing at a speed and the sun is only peeking out every now and then. Suppose it is a good reason to stay indoors and craft - VBG! That's exactly what I intend doing today. How far I am going to succeed in doing that, is a different story.

Here are some pics of cards I have been making in the last couple of weeks. I have to give a class to a couple of ladies towards the end of the month - these are for examples. I am going to let them make a corner bookmark with just a butterfly to work on a little triangle. Unfortunately there won't be time to make a whole card, but I think they will be able to make good use of the bookmark. Plan to finish the whole bookmark for them, they can just stick their finished butterfly onto it. Will show an example of that at a later date.

This was also the first cut-out that I did with my new Cricut! What a nice toy to have!

Done in silver/gold variegated cotton.

I just love this pattern and have done it many, many times already.

Another versatile pattern done many times.

This is the little butterfly I am going to teach them to work. It can be done quite quickly and I am sure it will give them an idea of what Prick-n-Stitching is about. I think this is one of the more affordable crafts that one can do, but still very satisfying.

I will post some of the bookmarks I've done as examples at a later stage.

Thanks for visiting! Stay warm or cool and happy crafting!

Snow!

We woke up to a cold day this morning and by 06H45 snow started to fall. Looks like we are living in a winter wonderland!

It is still snowing on and off. It is now just after 14H00 here. There's a horrible lazy wind blowing and that is making it very cold.

For those in the warm areas - enjoy the heat! For those in the cold areas - stay warm!

Xmas in July Swap

I recently took part in an Xmas in July card swap with our Rubberstamp group. We had to do a slider card. A first for me! The colors we had to use were black, white and either silver or gold with as little as possible coloring or no coloring. I opted for the silver with the black & white.

I stamped the Xmas Father (a stamp I love from one of our local ladies' collection - Niki from Paperchain) in silver on shimmery paper and added some bling to the buttons and hat tassel. The Happy Holidays were stamped in silver and the trimming on the left is also silver. Some of the snowflakes were cut from coffee can sealers. I have been hoarding these sealers not really knowing what I was going to do with them and here they came to good use. The part behind the Xmas Father was bugged with the Swiss Dots folder. I rather enjoyed doing this kind of card and will probably try it again.

Thanks for visiting! Hope you will all have a very creative weekend.

Parchment Craft Card

A warm HI to everybody from a very cold Freestate in South-Africa!

This morning when we woke up, it looked like fairies were playing around outside with white paint! The frost was thick and it was cold!! It is now just after 14H30 and it is still cold. Heaters are working overtime - VBG.

I have not been able to craft as much as I would like to, but I have been busy. I took part in an Xmas in July swap in our RSA stamping group. Our hostess have received my cards - I will show them when all have been received back. In the meantime she's also had her birthday and I made her a parchment craft card. Susan use to make the most beautiful parchment cards! I still love to go to her parchment website for inspiration. The pattern for this card I got from Lovely Bags in Parchment Craft (by Amanda). I did change the center and am quite happy with how it turned out.

Okay, that's it from me for today! I am busy with preparations for a Prick-and-Stitch class I have to give in August. Lots of examples to make - my card stash is totally depleted! Decided I will teach the ladies to make a corner bookmark with not too much stitching on, as the time available to teach them, is very limited and none of them have ever done it. Will show some examples I am making as I go along.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Happy crafting.

New Unmounted Stamp Storage

A very good Monday morning to all!!

A while ago a fellow stamper and friend, Moz Roberts from ...all things Moz, offered us some clear DVD cases after she saw it on the website of Becca Feeken from Amazing Paper Grace in this post . Becca's post was on storing your dies. When I saw Becca's post I thought these clear DVD cases would work perfectly for my unmounted stamps and ordered some from her. Her service was prompt and my cases arrived all intact.

Guess what I have been doing?! Jip, I've sorted through some of my stamps and transferred them to their new homes. I am so happy with these cases. In the old DVD cases some stamps got damaged :-(( In time, I will get rid of these horrible DVD cases and hopefully have all my stamps stored in these beautiful clear cases. I labeled the cases with Brother labeling tape. I asked Hubby to make me the storage unit for the cases and made sure there are more than enough space for plenty more. He also made me the storage unit for my ink pads & their refills. Now I have everything right at hand.

 

In the one pic you can see some of the old DVD cases as well as some CD cases that I still have stamps stored in. These will be sorted out at some or other stage. (My dies are stored on a magnetic sheet that has been attached to the inside of a cupboard door and I am rather happy with storing them that way).

Thanks so much for visiting!

Hope you will all have a wonderful week filled with lots of time to craft!

Winnings!!

Looks like Lady Luck has turned her path towards me for a change!

Earlier today when I checked Facebook, I found this on there:

Yes, that is MY name right at the top! This sure was a wonderful surprise! I played the Egg Hunt with The Wholesaler in the beginning of April and have completely forgotten about it. (There are 5 more hampers to be won - the hunt only ends on the 25th of May). I cannot wait for the hamper to arrive! Some more new goodies to play with. I just hope they include a packet with some Rubber Stamping MOJO as well! I have done some parchment craft, but NO stamping. Bad, very bad!

And a while ago I won a lovely set of Hampton Art stamps from Holley's Blog. This is the stamps I won:

Thanks so much again Holley!! I do not have many bird stamps - these will definitely come in handy.

Just wanted to share my good news with you people.

Enjoy what is left of the week & happy crafting!! Thanks for your visit!

Red & black shoe card

Good morning blogland friends! We have a beautiful sunny morning here in South-Africa. Very hot weather is however forecasted for us again. That means - I will be sitting right in my craft room in front of the fan - creating. This morning I have some of our Garden Club ladies coming over to play. It is our groups turn for the meeting for February and it being Valentine this month, we will be creating a little gift box/holder for the ladies. It will be filled with all kinds of goodies. I am rather looking forward to it - have a couple of easy make examples ready for them.

In the meantime, I have created another shoe card. This is with a stamp from Papercraft 4 You. Another plain and simple card! That's my style - I am not one for cards with lots of thingies on it - but I love the cards that people create with lots of flowers and things on. It always amazes me how they can put so many things on a card and make it look stunning.

That's it from me for today.  I hope you will all have a fantastic weekend full of the joys of crafting.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Butterfly with bow

Jip, I have been busy crafting these last couple of days! Looks like my mojo is back from an extended holiday :-)) I just hope it stays.

This is a card that I made for our RSA stamp group monthly challenge. One of our ladies will give us a theme every month and you are free to make as many cards with that theme and post them on the groups Yahoo page. On the other hand, if you don't want to make a card - you are not forced to. I think it is a brilliant idea. It certainly got me making something other than a card with a shoe on it!

The stamp used is from a local company - Great Impressions in George. It was colored with Distress Inks & then I added a couple of layers of UTEE. It is a technique that I haven't used much, but I thought it gave it a very nice look. Papers, pearls & ribbon are from my stash.

Well, I hope everybody will have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting!!

A card for a man

A warm welcome to all my visitors - from a VERY hot South-Africa. We've been having very hot weather - fans are working overtime :-)

This is the male card I had to make for our Women's Agric. Union. It is a stamp from a local stamp company - Country Crafts. The striped paper is also from a local company - Scrapsheets and is called Scarlet Stripe.

 

I don't have any shoe stamps for a man (remember our theme is Fleur de Shoe) - but I am sure this would do. This was a nice quick card to make - CAS! 

Thanks for your visit to my blog! Hope you are having a wonderful productive day.

More shoe cards

A warm welcome to everybody reading this post! Just a quick one to show some more of the shoe theme cards I have made. These were done in the Prick-and-Stitch or Card Embroidery method. I love doing this technique - not always enough time to do this though.

Thanks so much for your visit! Hope you enjoyed what you are seeing.

Have a fantastic day - full of beautiful things and with lots of time to craft.

Shoe cards

A warm hello to all my blog friends. Even though the year has walked on a bit - I do hope that one and all of you will have a wonderful 2012 full of wonderful things.

No real valid excuses for not blogging - I have just been very busy with a hundred-and-one things the last two months. Things not craft related. And my mojo were on looooong leave too. But it is back and in the last couple of days I managed to make 9 cards. Whooppiii! Won't show them all at once though.

I am still busy with the things for our Women's Agricultural Union Conference for the 1st of March, and these cards is for that too. I have to make 10 cards - 9 for ladies & 1 for a man. Will probably make more to give them a choice, and because my mojo is back. What they don't take, will go into my stash.

The stamps used is from Hero Arts - High Heels.  Coloring was done with either Twinkling H2O's or Tombows. Pearls & other embellies were bought all over the country.

That's all from me for today. I am off to do a card for a man. Not an easy task, but I am sure somehow I will come up with something acceptable :-)

Thanks so much for visiting!! Have a great day!