Ticket to ride

Sunny Challenges and Creations have a sketch to use this week along with a background stamp.  The lovely "Feeling Sentimental" stamp set was still on my desk so that is what I have gone with.  I used the large woodgrain stamp on Sahara Sand cardstock and used Island Indigo and Naturals Ivory as well.

Stamps:  Feeling Sentimental; Ticket wheel; Pretty Petites

Card:  Sahara sand; Naturals Ivory; Island Indigo

Ink:  Baja Breeze; Midnight Muse

Hopefully I have ticked the boxes for this challenge.

Mary

Cream in my coffee

I have left my run a bit late with this entry for the challenge over at Unscripted Sketches.  After many different ideas and much wasted time, I had almost given up hope of making anything work, and then the new challenge at Just Add Ink went up and the colours were so lovely that I knew what I wanted to do.  So I am  combining the two challenges in this one card.

 

Stamps:  SU Hearts a Flutter and Patterned Occasions

Card:  SU Whisper white

Ink:  Crumb Cake; Early Espresso

Tools:  Big shot; Hearts a Flutter framelits; scallop punch; Very Vanilla seam binding; Crumb cake scalloped tulle; embossing

 

Thank you for dropping in

Mary

Easter bunny bliss

Since 1952 the Lindt gold wrapped chocolate bunny with his red bow and tiny bell, has been a much coveted gift at Easter - as familiar as the foil wrapped eggs.  Just a few days ago the company lost a long running court battle to trademark the bunny, but hopefully he will be here again next Easter.

This week at Just Add Ink, the challenge is to add a bunny, and what better bunny than the SU Chocolate Bunny.

Stamps:  SU Chocolate Bunny (retired); Bliss (retired)

Card:  SU Real Red; Whisper White

Ink:  SU Real red; Versamark

Other:  Gold embossing powder;

Tools:  SU embossing folder vintage wallpaper; Framelits labels collection; big shot

 

Hope you all received lots of chocolate treats over the last few days

Mary

On yer bike !

I have always thought of "on yer bike" as a piece of Aussie slang, but just 'googled' and found that it is, of course, quite probably English in origin, along with 'sling yer hook" no doubt. 
 

Many of the challenges seem to be male oriented at the moment - or maybe it just seems that way because they require a bit more thought.  However, the latest challenge at Seize the Birthday certainly is for a masculine card and this is my entry.

 

I loved the look of the "Feeling Sentimental" stamp set from SU as soon as I saw it and have managed to make quite a few cards for the guys in the last week or so.

 

Stamps:  SU Feeling Sentimental

Card:  Basic Gray

Ink:  Stazon jet black; Gumball Green

DSP:  Howlstooth and Scaringbone; Print Poetry

 

I'm still wondering if the green should have been at the bottom, but too late now because  I am pedalling off.

Mary

Just called to say hello

Hello again hello,
joining in to the The Paper Players challenge at the very last minute.

Stamps:  SU Feeling Sentimental; Pretty Petite; Happiest Birthday Wishes

Card:   SU More Mustard; Pacific Point; Naturals Ivory

Ink:   Pacific Point

Tools:  Honeycomb embossing folder

 

 

Thanks for calling,

Mary

60th Anniversary

Wow, my lovely neighbours are celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary today and I couldn't let it pass without a card.

 

I was still in clean and simple mode but I did add a little bit of bling in the way of pearls.

 

Stamps:   Hearts a flutter; Memorable moments

Ink:   Creamy Caramel (retired)

Card:   Crumb Cake, Whisper White

Tools:   Framelits; Hearts a flutter; Honeycomb Embossing folder; big shot; 

Flower trim; Pearls and Crumb Cake Tulle.

 

Happy Anniversary folks,

Mary

Flying umbrellas

Thanks to Christine I have caught the 'challenge bug'.

 

While I love the look of "clean and simple", I have never been happy with any of my attempts - probably because I can't leave them alone and keep adding bits, so when I saw the theme for the current Paper Players, I just had to give it a go.

 

Even before I had finished my card I realised it would also fit the bill at Sunny Challenges & Creations where they were looking for a get well card.  I don't have a 'Get Well' stamp but this should suffice.

 

Stamps:  Rain or Shine

Ink:  Marina Mist

Card:  Whisper White

Other:  Ribbon from my stash

 

We sure don't need an umbrella in Melbourne today - we would get blown away.

 

Mary

That's the ticket

There is a new challenge at Seize the Day so since I was playing with some new toys I decided to join in.

 

 

I started with one of the great images from SU Feeling Sentimental ( a free set during Saleabration), but got a bit carried away with the ticketing!!

 

Mary 

Paddy whooo ?

A happy St Patrick's Day to all - or Beannacht La Fheile Padraig!

All I have in the way of suitable stamps are these two shamrocks, so this was my card for friends this year.

I used retired SU dsp because I preferred the shade of green.

 

I thought I would add it to the challenge at Just Add Ink #57 - Just Add Green.

 

Hope you like Paddy Who!

Mary

 

All boxed up

While waiting for new supplies to arrive,  I spent some time re-organising and found quite a few left over stamped images.  A few weeks back I made a box (see page 166 of the current Stampin Up catalogue) to hold a set of cards and rather than use current papers, I used a retired pack of SU Secret Garden Kit.  The finished box had been residing on my desk since then and I realised that many of the images would work well with that set. 

I did get rather carried away with the project and the set now comprises 12 cards, and I have the perfect recipient for it too - a lovely neighbour who is always so effusive about my cards.  I know she will appreciate it for her Birthday.

and here are some of the cards:

 

 

 

  

I am trying to get into the habit of using more of the beautiful dsp instead of hoarding it.

Cheers,

Mary

Roll up, roll up ....

I enjoyed playing with the lovely bright Big Top circus papers from SU, so I decided to use them again for Owen.

The name doesn't stand out so well in the photo.  I had originally intended putting it at the top of the card but decided the greeting looked better there, and as I had already cut the letters and covered them in gloss, I wasn't about to redo them. 

Got a bit carried away with the glitter in an attempt to simulate sawdust!! lol 
Although you can't see it, the Lion and seal are popping up from the page.
Lots of fun making kids cards, but I have to keep reminding myself that they are just that - kids cards! and not spend so much time on them.
Cheers
Mary

Popping Up

That would be me popping up with a Pop Up card. 

A friend mentioned there was a challenge this week at Just Add Ink to make a pop-up card and since I had just made one for my Grandson I thought "why not give it a go".  As I had already given the card, my Daughter has taken the photos for me, which was probably a good thing given my lack of skills in that department.

 

The elephant and the clown are the pop up bits and the elephant is looking a little off balance as the card has been opened and shut quite a lot.

Those beautiful papers are SU Big Top Birthday and the matching stamp set  is Under the Big Top.

Now lets see if I can add this to the challenge.

Mary

Edited to add:  I was lucky enough to get an honourable mention for this card.

Halloween

Day two and I thought I would show you the cards I made for the Grandchildren for Halloween. 

The spiders are cased from blogland - not sure whose idea it was originally, but it was an easy one to do if you don't have specific Halloween stamps.

 

I loved the cat stamp as soon as I saw it - SU Frightening Feline !!  Took the idea for this one from "Frenchie"

 

and lastly SU's Bootiful Occasions.

 

 

Saw a little poem while blog surfing that started off : "Trick or treat, smell my feet" but when I went to write it in  the boys' cards I couldn't remember the rest of it!!  Old age is more frightening than Halloween!

Mary

Hip Hip Hooray

it's my special day today and as I had lots of spare time I thought I would update my neglected blog.  Unfortunately, to do that I had to upload card photos to my computer and that proved to be a very long process.  I got a new computer back in May and it does not recognise my camera software so have been taking photos with the iphone and ipad and these do not upload as I would wish- ie in date order!! - so there are photos all over the place and to add to the confusion every time I connect the ipad to the computer it loads ALL the photos again.  Yikes, I am out of my depth here.

 

I have a friend who posts one photo of Melbourne a day and maybe that is an idea I will run with for a while.

 

This card was for a very special friend in England who celebrated her 80th birthday back in September.  A friend of hers made her a birthday cake decorated with "Toy Boys" dressed only in top hats - I do hope she sends me a photo of that.

 

 

Back soon,

Mary

 

"Fun Birds" and February birthdays

Most of our immediate family celebrate birthdays and anniversaries in January and February.

My oldest Grandson starts the ball rolling on 21st January and this year I made him an Angry Birds card.  I had seen a few on the blogs and picked bits and pieces from them to create my own version with the punches and papers that I had.  The card proved very popular and I ended up making quite a few more:

and, yes, I did go a bit overboard, but they are disappearing fast !!

One with the lot !

finishing off with a large circle card which was totally my own design and which I loved.

Then it was birthday time for our princess:

Beautiful butterfly:

 This one is a case of a card I saw some time ago on the blog of Laurie Zoellmer.  Such a simple design but quite lovely.  I had some trouble with the Elegant Lines embossing folder cutting too deeply and had to add an extra layer of card to correct it.

Thanks for dropping in,

cheers till the next batch,

Mary

A final fluttering

of cards to formally farewell the year.

This one was a belated birthday card but it is also very appropriate for today:

The picture was taken from a calendar which has a different picture and thought for each day of the year - they are all far too cute to throw away so I recycle them when I can.

Here are a few more of them:

I find these cards much easier to design - not just because there is little or no stamping, but more because when I am using a stamp set, I have usually seen many cards made with the stamp and in an effort not to copy/case them, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get something original. 

Here are some of the stamped cards I have sent out in recent months:

This one uses "Jolene" by My Favorite Things.  Is it just me or does she look sad ?

The ice cream cone worked well for twins:

Tilda for a little girl:

and one for the guys - a quick one using Birthday Bash Sentiments from Papertrey!!

and I nearly forgot to add my Christmas card for 2011 - the Ornament was originally to have been very much a 3D item but time beat me and I had to settle for this version.

these were two of the cards I had originally intended to make for Christmas - not sure why I changed my mind as these seem much brighter than the one above.  Oh well ......

and a shoe or two (or three):

Funny, how they are all red - having a love affair with everything red at present.  They actually look great as I covered the red with glass finish and they look so shiny.

And last in this marathon is a teapot ( Papertrey - Tea for Two) in slightly unusual colours.

Well that's it from me.  Maybe 2012 will see me better organised with posting - that's not a resolution, just a vague hope.

Hope you have a very happy New Year and that 2012 is filled with good health and much happiness.

Mary