The Three Little Pigs

I just finished this card today, for my Mother-in-law Margaret who's been unwell. Some of my card friends love owls ~ owls seem really popular! Another friend loves sheep, and yet another, pandas!
Margaret loves piggies! Cute little piggies who would never think of rolling in mud, or other stinky stuff.
This card took a long time ... most of one day and half of a second, but I was pleased with the result and very glad I made this card for her.


It's a large card, basically A4 folded in half. So I had four surfaces to work on.
I used stamping, which I coloured with Copic markers, some die cuts [the Orchard Tree Frame by Memory Box is one of my current favourites. I also used Twiggy Tree, a punch for the flowers, a fence die, Butterfly Delight, which I love as the tiny butterflies a various sizes, and also a die for the little birds. The bees are also from Memory Box, and even though they take time to put together, I think they're worth it.


Here's the card :

Cards ...

On my last visit to Durras Lake, just north of Batemans Bay, I think it was back in June last year [2013] ~  I ran out of things to do! Pretty unusual for me, but I went out to the bead shop at Mogo, looking for a new embossing folder for metal discs so I could make some earrings.
None!
'Try Amanda's down the road', said Annie.
A short walk later, I wended my way into Amanda's of Mogo! Only once have I seen so much stuff crammed into the one space, at that was in the general store in Hammondville back in 1992!

Now, I've written about doing this card course before, but not in detail ...

OMG! Stuff everywhere ... but no new embossing folders.

Now, Amanda's is a card and papercrafting shop ... filled to the brim, overflowing the eaves, with lovely, pretty, beautiful stuff!

There is no passing in the aisles at Amanda's!

I've always been a sucker for pretty papers, coloured pencils, stamps! Being a teacher I already had lots of stamps and stamp pads in basic 'teaching' colours! BUT THEY COME IN RAINBOWS! Who knew? Not just rainbows, every shade of every colour of the rainbow!

What a discovery!
So I booked myself in for a card-making morning ... all things supplied!

Jill is a lovely girl and taught the class well and with great patience! The only thing about the morning was the 'closeness' ... I prefer to have a little more space around me, but what a learning experience it was.
We walked away with three cards, and I walked away with three stamp pads, two stamps and some 12" x 12" papers that I had absolutely no idea what to do with!
For a long time I didn't do much with my new 'skills', just added a few photos to cards ... but at least I knew now which card to get and how to score it.
I started buying things I thought would be handy ...  a few stamp pads ...  and stamps of course ... never thought in a million years I would buy flowers or lace, but lately, yes, I've even been into that! Pearls too!

After joining StampTV and meeting a group of wonderful Aussie girls my knowledge has grown. I've posted a few photos.
Everyone seems to have a blog and show how they make their cards ... not me! I just like sharing my photos.

This stamp by Michael Powell, was sent to me by my dear friend Sue in Weston Super Mare. So I stamped it, coloured it with Copics and sent it back to her as a 'Thank You' card.

Emboss Resist Ferns

I loved doing this, but had no idea till I thought I'd finished, that you had to the back as well. I'll be better prepared next time.

This was fun!

Dad! Age : 16-and-a-half!

Learning to use my new daisy edge punch.

Learning to use Designer paper!

This one went to my friend Janette in Sunderland! Winter there is a pretty bitter affair!

 

 



Journal Cover

Recently I completed my first Journal Cover.
I've wanted to begin an Art Journal so I can keep a record of all the fantastic ideas I come across, but can take absolutely no credit for the design of this one.

This was designed a couple of months ago, by Gabrielle Pollacco, a Canadian lady who featured this on her blog : Such a Pretty Mess, and kindly gave instructions so others could do this too.

I wrote and thanked her for the inspiration, and can I just say, if you love Shabby Chic as a style, have a look at her wonderful blog.

Here is my attempt at recreating her Journal Cover!
This is a mixed media piece, but not difficult. The first step was to remove the covers from the Strathmore journal I'd bought, and give them a couple of coats of gesso.
Then I added the texture work using stencils :
* Art is ... [Crafters Workshop]
* Checkers [Prima Sunrise Sunset collection].
* Tim Holtz 'Measured' is the strip on the right of each cover.

Then it was adding die-cut gears ... and all these cogs and gears are by Cheery Lynn ...
And then gesso again ...

At this point I'll say a big 'thank you' to the Lovely Ladies in my Facebook card group ... I posted photos every step of the way and they encouraged me every step of the way. Thank you Girls, I really appreciated it. Venturing into new territory isn't easy.

This was early on in the colour-adding part, and I was a bit worried! My browns didn't look right at all.

THINGS GOT BETTER AS I WENT ON!

 

 

Things looked up though, and by the time I'd toned things down, added the gold highlights [Twinkling H2O ~ Egyptian Gold] and added the gems, [BoBunny], I was thrilled with the end result.

Thank you again to Gabrielle Pollacco for the inspirational ideas she posts on her blog, and thank you all so much, Ladies of the Down Under Stampers, for your support!

The Opening of a Sunflower ...

I took this series of photos over the last week, to show the opening of this self-sown sunflower in one of the pots in my yard.
My friend thought it was an artichoke, and it sure did have that look about it ...

So I thought it might be interesting to follow a sequence, showing the opening of this lovely flower.
As I write, it's completely open now, and the seeds would be growing and ripening, but this will take quite a while. They won't be ripe till late Autumn, and it's now only mid-February.

I remember when I was a kid, husking the sunflowers my Pop grew, for his galah, Joey. He would grow the sunflowers and we would rub out the ripe seeds, my brother and I.
And that would be Joey's mainstay for the coming year! He also ate arrowroot biscuits and gnawed on chop bones, that bird! I've always had my suspicions about him!
But Pop loved him dearly and he lived to a ripe old age. Sad life, a bird in a cage ... but Joey was let out every day and used to side-step along the tin fence at the side of Pop's, terrorising all who ventured down the lane! Many a time we only got so far and had to scream for help as the little winged bandit bailed us up turning into the gate!

This is a female Galah ~ you can tell by the eye ... the females have a redder eye ... same with a lot of Australian birds!

My 'Artichoke'!

It's a single flower, and you can get doubles, and others with many, many layers of petals ... and lots of colours too, but I like mine! I've become very attached to my little artichoke over the last week!

When is 'enough', ENOUGH?!

It really surprised me when I looked through my photo files at the cards I've made over the last six weeks or so.
At the moment I think I'm buying for the sake of buying, and not using what I'm getting. Some stamp sets I still haven't used which is pretty ridiculous!
It's hard when you first start off .. you can't make this, because you don't have that ... and it's a constant moan ... "Oh, I wish I could make that! ~ but I don't have the stuff!"
But now I do ... I have basic cardstock in white and Kraft, a bit of black and quite a few colours that could be used for bases.
I have a lot of middle weight card too, the one that's used for adding a strip of colour between the main focal image and the card base! Lots of colours, cheap stuff from Officeworks, but sandwiched in there, it doesn't matter!
And as for top layers, will I have enough Copic card, and plain card and watercolour paper to last quite a while.

I have stamps, and enough inkpads ... I have flowers ... I pick up feathers every day from the myriad birds that visit our yard ... beads and charms ... diamantes and pearls ... OK ... ENOUGH!

So, sharing a few cards that I've made over the last few weeks .....

This didn't work at all ... but it led to the next ones, so I was happy ...

I loved doing these. Once I switched from black to green, [the rubbing over the embossing in the background], I was much happier. These were inspired by the road into Depot Beach on the south coast of NSW just north of Batemans Bay ~ see photos below.

I used the tiny shells that I find at the north of Depot, and some sand from my photo tray.



It took me a while to work out how good the raffia looks when you unfurl it ... better late than never, I guess! I used a double-drilled green seaglass to act as the button.

The road into Depot Beach ... you wind downhill  through rainforest and through the palms ... the road is sandy, often full of sloshy pot-holes, but it's one of those places that fuels and nurtures the soul and a place where I'm always assured of some good photos. Whether it's the plants along the way, an odd Lyrebird, which I'm never quick enough to catch on a photo, or the sea itself. I've taken some of my best dawn photos here ~ it's just a beautiful place to be.  And now I'm taking inspiration for making cards.

Sun through palms ...

Sun through palms ...

Sun through palms ...

Sun through palms ....

 So now I have to say ..."I have enough!" ... and just get on with it ...

Cards for January ...

I'll get by with a little help from my friends ...................
and with their help my confidence has grown! Not sure my skills have, but at least I now know what I do and don't like!

I've surprised myself actually! I never thought I'd be the hearts and flowers type, and the hearts can jump off the nearest cliff, but I DO like flowers!
I've bought three lots now from iamroses in Thailand. The next lot though, I'm going to get from Wild Orchid Crafts in the UK as I WANT [NEED!] some of their poppies! What an 'acquirer' I am!

Playing around with an image from Clip Art and the Reversed Nestabilities video from Gina K on StampTV!

THIS IS WHY I WANTED TO MAKE CARDS IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! Happy Christmas to my Dear friend Rob in the UK! This is his wonderful dog, Lucy coming out of the surf in the North Sea! The Sentiment just HAD to be "JOY"!

I think this was pretty much the first insert I ever did! Well, decorated anyway. The whole thing of adding inserts was a total mystery to me!

A couple more of the cards I made at Christmas. Nothing special, but this die  [the tree] came in the Australian Simply Cards magazine and was the most intricate one I'd ever used! Stuff got stuck everywhere! Friends to the rescue once again! Ahhh.... baking paper! Whoever would have guessed!

My dear friend Sue, in Weston Super Mare sent me this stamp! By Robert Powell, I'd never coloured anything like this ... was pretty pleased with the end result, but didn't have a lot of the muted browns, ochres and olives Powell used in his artwork. I've got most of them now, and next time I do this one, I think I'll be a bit closer. I know it's not the aim, to replicate something in it's entirety, and it's OK to do your thing, but no one could do this better than Powell, so why try!?!! Sent it back to her as a card!!

I had fun doing this silly verse and working out the sizes for a portrait card in 5" x 7" size using Office!! Sue now shares Nikki and my birthday on January 8!

Wow I did a  terrible job on those palms! Never mind, my heart was in it and it was for my wonderful friend Janette, who has helped me in this carding game so much! The weather was pretty bad in Sunderland, {still is!], so this Aussie Sunshine card made her smile. You'd think with this much sun and strong colour there'd be some shade and shadows somewhere ... oops! Next time!

Oops! Next time! This could well become my motto! I could engrave it on my shield! My family crest!
At the moment though I'm having too much fun learning new things to go back and fix all the mistakes!

Onwards and upwards!

Cards for November and December ~ Yes, I know it's now February!!

I've been making cards for a year, on and off, now.
After starting out with a morning lesson with Jill at Amanda's of Mogo, and enjoying it so much, I've come along slowly, made some wonderful friends who have helped me a lot, and watched Youtube till it's coming out my ears!


Some days I've made nothing, preferring to concentrate on my simple silver-smithing and jewellery-making, but just lately I feel I've turned a bit of a confidence corner, and have started turning out a few that I'm pleased with!


But with the help and support of my lovely friends at Down Under Stampers, I've done these over the last few months.

Using the Lovely as a Tree set from Stampin' Up! And lots of glitter!

Practising sponging. I like the work of Theresa Momber from StampTV, and watch her often. This was one of my early efforts and it's pretty obvious that I still have a lot to learn, but ... getting there!

This set I was happy with! I made a few of these and sent them as my Christmas cards this year! Yes, I was sooooooo born in the wrong hemisphere!

I loved this stamp, from Inkadinkado, I bought it from a lady in England. This is one of my first goes at Copic colouring ... something else I'm not very good at yet, but getting there slowly!




















Here are a few others from around that time ...

Well, the attempt at the Southern Cross totally sucked, but I was happy with the rest of it. Had to hand-draw the windmill ... still haven't bought a nice one ,but have found one. On the list!

This one I loved!

Adriana's Birthday card!

Gave this one away at Christmas.

This card went absolutely nowhere! I really don't like the whole 'sliding ink around on glossy paper' thing! BUT, I love the Stampscene [Stampscape?] stamps and will use them way better than this! Sponging is the way to go with these .... for me at least!



This is such a sweet little fairy! I've had her since I was teaching ... bought from the Fairy Shop in Windsor about 20 years ago, it still stamps perfectly1 I loved the way the copic colouring turned out in this one too!

Well, these were my cards for November and December! A mixed bag as I grew in confidence.
A huge thank you to Cheryl, Marcelle, Liz, Karen, Ina, Lindsay, Lorna, Tricia, Sharon and Sally ~ the Down Under Stampers!