testing out my new signature :)

oh...and a HUUUGE thank you to my gorgeous hubby Matt who came home today with a $100 voucher for my local scrapbooking shop--FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN HE'S THE BEST--love you baby!!!

Sympathy card & Stationary box

Hello!!! Ohisashiburi!! (It's been a long time)

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged, but this week's gone so fast I've barely had time to blink!

I've been playing a lot this week and I'm halfway through two mini-albums and I've made a couple of starts on cards but my mojo has gone AWOL (along with my immune system--enough of the winter sniffles!) so I've not finished much.

Anyhow. I recently read about Virginia's father passing and she's headed home on such a difficult trip to farewell him. She's such an inspiration to so many of us and is always so cheerful and funny, I hate to think of her suffering in any way or so sad. Life can be so full of happiness and laughter but also so sad and difficult at times. I was thinking of her when I made the card below.


As I look at it now, I think it would work as a birthday card/non-specific card for maybe someone older/more 'refined' but it is intended as a sympathy card--so this is for you Virginia.

I love the regal purple and I'm still playing with my nestabilities dies but I'm happy with the result.
I don't use sentiments on all of my cards because sometimes there just aren't words to express how you feel and I also like some cards just to speak for themselves--allowing the colour, images and shapes etc to do the 'sentimenting'.

~~%~~


Next is a cute little stationary box I made following the instructions from Splitcoaststampers.
I used the DCWV "The Green Stack" paper stack. It's so adorable I just want to shriek. :) the owls, the beavers, the whimsical little birds--just too cute. Their enormous eyes make me giggle like a schoolgirl too. You're best to use a nice thick paper/cardstock but I'd stay away from the textured Bazzill as it tends to tear/rip when really well scored & brandished...



I made the cards, tags and notecards all pretty non-specific as I wanted this set not to be for anything in particular, but you could DEFINITELY make a gorgeous themed box...back to school/end of year/CHRISTMAS!!! (I'm thinking this will be a Christmas gift many people will be getting from me!! lol
I'm thinking I'd like to try it with a 'fabric' covering (or even some stickyback canvas.)

It's actually super easy to make, the box only took about 20 minutes total. The tags/cards etc would take another 20-30 minutes in total if you were organised and had papers/embellishments already chosen. It took me around 2 hours in the end because I was tired and had no clue as to what I was going to do with the tags etc.

anyway, that's all from me for now!! I'm off to try to make something out of these few not-quite-finished cards I've made :)

have a fabulous few days until I see you again in bloggy land!

Linda xx

3 cards and entry for Hero Arts monthly challenge!!

PHEW!!! WHAT A WEEK!!

Hope all of your weeks have been much less stressful than mine, I've had two sick little kids and then when they finally got over it...my youngest got it again!! Darn cold and flu season!!

Anyhoo, I've got three cards to show you tonight. I've been crafting away busily all week and I'm halfway through a mini album and I've even kicked out the sewing machine (gosh I'm a terrible seamstress...I hate to even use that word in regard to my ...ahem...'talent' but sewer just sounds awful...though sewer is about where my sewing skills are!! lol

anyhow, the first two are just playing ones.

This first pretty little thing is a result of me playing with my new PTI shipment that arrived two days ago. The colours...*sigh* I could just drown in them. All colours are Berry Sorbet. I just used the Hero Arts High Heels Collection for the stamped shoe and sentiment. I coloured the shoe in with coloured pencils too and added a little prima e-line pink bling to the toe...what's a gorgeous pair of high-heels without some bling?! I also used my new nestabilities labels die for the centre white and the sentiment pieces. Sentiment was stamped in black archival ink (of course!( and the white circles were using white VersaMagic ink. Oh...the dots are PTI too. I'm no Dawn McVey but I'm trying :)



The second card is MUCH more my usual style (despite it being the first of its kind on this blog!) and more leaning towards Kristina Werner's style. All paper cutting and colour. I used the GORGEOUS Kaisercraft 6x6 "Made with Love" collection pack. So beautiful. The 'sentiment' letters are ...*hiding from me on my desk...WHERE ARE THEY!?!?...oh, here...American Crafts Thickers in Patchwork. My goooooooooosh they're so cute, they're fabric!!! *squee*
I outlined the card with faux-stitching with my white uni-glo pen and rounded edges with my corner chomper...


Ok, and now to my piece-du-resistance (how DO you spell that?!) ...Hero Arts blog has a new challenge up for the month and the moment I saw "4th of July" I thought of fireworks and my mind (bizarrely!) went immediately to the gorgeous Hero Arts Dandelion and Silhouette Spray stamps and I thought...hmmm they kinda look like fireworks....*let the creating begin!*

so after a couple of trials getting the look right and playing around, this is what I came up with for this months' Hero Arts challenge...




Do you like it!!?? I stamped the Dandelion and Silhouette Spray stamps with white Versamagic ink, avoiding the stems and stamped around the top of the card. Then I used Fired Brick, Mustard Seed and Broken China Distress ink in a soft circular motion around the 'bursts'. The white versamagic ink was still a little too pale so I went back over the stamens (??) with my white uni-glo pen to highlight the fireworks bursts.
I inked the card with Pumice Stone, a touch of Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress inks for the night sky and then did the tiniest spritz of water, waving the card through it to bring a look of stars in the sky.
NOW came the really hard part. I wanted to get the look of the land below with a row of houses but I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in my stash that looks remotely like houses...until I found my Cricut cartridges. Using Paper Pups and Stretch your imagination, I was able to cut out the little house, trees and dog house (plus the cute little puppy looking up at the fireworks--isn't he adorable!!) all out of black card stock and I adhered them to the bottom of the card. To make them look like they're in shadow, I re-inked the base of the card in Black Soot Distress Ink, slowly moving up the card pressing lighter and lighter with my (homemade) inking tool.

On the inside of the card is a gorgeous little plane and banner saying "happy 4th July!!"...too cute. I'm guessing there are little planes with banners and such on 4th July in the USA...I've heard there's fireworks so here's hoping I heard right!!

Anyhoo, its almost midnight and I'm pooped!!!

I really hope you enjoyed the cards today...please comment!!

thanks for looking and visiting me in bloggy land :)

L xx