One Day at a Time…
I received the February Unity Company KOTM stamp set the other day and looking through the stamp sheet, decided on choosing the sweet little umbrella stamp. It very much suited the day because it was pouring with rain outside. I’m not sure if it was raining because of the weather or if it was because I was using my Cricut Expression for a card finally. If you are interested in joining the Kit of the Month stamp club, talk to Colleen at Craft-A-Lot and she’ll be happy to help with any enquiries you might have. If you don’t want to join the monthly club, you can take a look here and browse all the Unity Company stamps Craft-A-Lot has in stock.
The base of the card and my version of clouds were both cut from American Crafts cardstock using Accent Essentials Cricut cartridge. I used Accent 48 and cut it at 5 inches from yellow cardstock. It was then scored down the middle, folded and creased. Using the same base shape, I cut it at 4 3/4 inches in blue cardstock and 4 1/2 inches in the flower patterned paper by October Afternoon. They were cut down the middle and layered ontop of each other. For the cloud (things lol), I chose Accent 46 and cut one at 3 inches in AC yellow cardstock and one at 2 3/4 inches in white.
I diecut a 2 inch circle from another October Afternoon paper and stamped the umbrella in Whisper dye ink. I then stamped it on the same flower paper and paper pieced it using 3D foam. I decorated the umbrella and the cloud with a couple of buttons. With a leftover piece of the white cardstock, I stamped the sentiment in the same black ink and attached it to the card using 3D foam. The buttons were adhered to the card using Helmar’s 450 Quick Dry glue.
Using the left over pieces of the blue cardstock and flower patterned paper, I lined the inside of the card.
ALWAYS & FOREVER:
For the next card, I used the same Cricut cartridge, Accent Essentials and this time used Accent 47 at a size of 5 1/4 inches and cut it from white American Crafts cardstock. It was scored down the middle, folded and creased.
I then cut the same shape in blue cardstock at 5 inches. I cut it in half then dry embossed it with the Budding Vine embossing folder by Craft Concepts. I accented the raised embossed parts using Memento Dew Drop dye ink in Summer Sky.
You will find this stamp also in the Feb KOTM kit and I coloured in the decorative A using a Sakura Stardust Pen. I love the subtle glitter effect. The flowers used on the card are both from Kaisercraft, white and buttercream and I covered them all in Kindy Glitz glitter glue.
The lace used was snagged from Lincraft and the other ribbon is by Stampin’ Up. Rhinestones are from Kaiser.
Thats it for now… I’m off to work on my next facebook giveaway which is happening once I hit 100 fans. Thanks for visiting and I’ll see you soon xx
Altered Coffee Tin…
As I emptied the last few remaining coffee grounds from our coffee tin this morning, I decided that instead of throwing it in the recycle bin, I would recycle it a different way and have a go at altering it.
AFTER:
BEFORE:
Just thought I’d include a couple of before photos – (I know, who doesn’t know what a coffee tin looks like) :)
After cleaning the inside with a few baby wipes, I was ready to go. I couldn’t clean it the conventional way as the sides of the tin weren’t really metal… I think they are cardboard or something that looks like tin but I know if definately wasn’t metal but anyway, on to the altering….
First off, I had to work out exactly what I was going to do with it apart from cover it with patterned paper. I wanted it to be based on 2 stamps from the Unity December 2011 Kit of the Month stamp set bought from Craft-A-Lot and since I knew I was altering it for my beautiful 16yr old daughter, I knew the main colours would be purple and yellow/lemon, 2 colours she loves. Next came the tough part (some would say not after rummaging through my craft drawers) – finding supplies in those colours which was easier than I thought as most of them I already had on my craft table – lazy me didn’t clean up after my last couple of crafting sessions.
The 2 stamps used from the December 2011 Unity KOTM stamp set are the sentiment and the heart which isn’t shown properly here, both were stamped using Whispers Archival Black ink. The first thing I did to the tin, was use 2 patterned papers from Kaisercraft and they were Buttercream from the Sugar Sugar collection and Lattice from the Garden Arabesque, both of which are old paper ranges but loved both the purples and the yellows/creams. I adhered the Buttercream to the base of the tin using Modge Podge and then I used a Cheery Lynn Die called Border Carnivale to diecut 6 x 8″ border pieces from the Lattice paper and adhered 2 of them around the top.
Next, which was quite daunting to me, was to stamp a border around the bottom of the tin. Not something I thought was going to be easy because of the shape but turned out ok. I used 1 of the stamps in the the Butterfly Garden – Impressions No.14 stamp set by Pink Paislee. I had to use a rolling technique because of the shape of the tin and there are a few parts that weren’t stamped perfectly but as they say ‘there is no wrong in art’. Again I used Whispers Archival Black ink because it gave parts of the stamped images a faded look but that could have been me not inking the stamp fully :) – either way, I love the end result. The purple ink sponged on the centre diecut is Dusty Concord distress ink.
Using the birdcage from the same Pink Paislee stamp set, I stamped a cage where the top border diecuts didn’t quite meet. I then punched some leaf stems using a Martha Stewart punch out of some Echo Park paper from the Victoria’s Garden 6×6 paper pad, adhered them to the join and then covered them with a few paper blooms from Kaisercraft. I then added a pretty purple Kaisercraft rhinestone to the cage to finish it off.
On some parts of the tin, I stamped a butterflies, again from the same Pink Paislee stamp set and then layered a Martha Stewart punched butterfly on top…
… then finished it with a little Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue. I did that to all the butterflies on the tin, including…
… all the Kaisercraft paper blooms.
I’ll finish with a few photos from different angles.
…and another view…
If you have any questions, don’t be shy, ask me :)
Thanks for visiting xx
Heart and Soul…
Another card using Unity’s Jan 2012 KOTM stamp set purchased from Craft-A-Lot. If you are interested in joining the monthly stamp club, contact Colleen at Craft-A-Lot for more information.
HEART and SOUL:
Using the chipboard hearts as a focal point, I decided to create the card around that. I used a patterned paper from Kaisercraft’s 6 1/2″ paper pad called Sweet Nothings on the Kraft card base.
I coloured the scalloped heart in Barn Door Distress Stain and the plain heart in Picket Fence Distress crackle paint. After the crackle paint had done it’s job and dried, I covered the heart in a light coating of Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue.
Using a scalloped diecut from the Sweet Nothing’s paper pad, I adhered a beautiful fabric flower by Bella! onto it and adhered them to the heart using 3d foam. I picked a few matching buttons from my button jar and adhered them using small Zots Dots.
For the flourish pieces, I cut them from a yellow patterned paper in Echo Park’s Victoria Garden 6×6 paper pad using a My Favourite Thing’s die called Vintage Flourish. I chose another diecut piece from Kaisercraft’s Sweet Nothings paper pad and stamped the sentiment using Onyx Black Versafine Ink then layered the diecut onto the card base using 3d foam.
Finishing off the card, I chose a couple of mini paper blooms by Kaisercraft and again, used a little Kindyglitz to give them a bit of sparkle.
OTHER:
A couple of other crafty things I’ve made lately…
Thanks for the memories card using a sentiment from Unity Company’s Jan 2012 KOTM stamp set.
That’s it for today so I’ll see you next time!!
Sweet Kind Nice Wonderful…
I wanted to show you a couple of cards I’ve made using the Jan 2012 Unity Company KOTM (Kit of the Month) stamp set which is called Heart and Soul.
CARD 1:
The sentiment stamp is from the kit and I love how it’s so versatile because you can more or less put anything on the end of it depending on what or who you’re making the card for. It’s stamped using Onyx Black Versafine ink.
I’ve used papers from the Times & Seasons Collection Pack by Echo Park. I’ve also used the alphabet stickers and the border sticker from the same pack.
The pretty fabric flower is from Bella! and it’s sitting on a couple of basic circles which I’ve cut using my Martha Stewart Circle Cutter (yes I still have all my fingers). I’ve distressed them using a Heidi Swapp edge distresser and adhered them to the card using 3d foam.
CARD 2:
All the patterned paper used is from the Be Loved Paper Kit by My Mind’s Eye. I’ve also used the squigly border diecut from the same kit. Of all the KOTM kits I’ve bought so far, this butterfly is one of my faves. I got a nice surprise when I stamped it onto the patterned paper because it has a beautiful watercolour effect. I’m sure it will become a stamp you see me use often.
The ribbon is from My Mind’s Eye, the button is from American Crafts and the pearls are Kaisercraft.
I’ve outlined the butterfly with a little Kindyglitz glitter glue and layered it using 3d foam. The ‘thank you’ stamp is from Stampin’ Up… both the butterfly and the other sentiment stamp are from the Jan 2012 KOTM stamp set. If you would like to learn a little more information about how to join the Kit of the Month club, visit Colleen at Craft-A-Lot and she will be happy to help you.
To finish off today, I just thought I’d show you a Card Sketch notebook I made using Kristina Werner’s video tutorial. It’s a nice way to keep all of your card sketches together and if you are a card maker, it will become your best friend especially when you need a little inspiration to kickstart a card or perhaps a scrapbook layout.
Here’s mine:
Thanks for visiting xx.
Notecard Giveaway – Day 3
Another 2 notecards to show you and only 4 to go. I will admit, I do struggle when trying to come up with different card designs and I am not used to doing more than a couple of cards a week, some weeks I don’t create any so I am enjoying challenging myself this week.
Again, I am using Unity Co. December’s 2011 KOTM stamp set from Craft-A-Lot and I was looking over the set to decide what I’d like to use and for the first notecard, I decided to use the buildings stamp where I could practice a tiny bit of copic colouring – I am still a beginner at colouring so decided to only do minor splashes of colour on the clouds and trees, practicing my blending.
NOTECARD 5:
I’m not sure I like the green in the trees because I wanted it a little more subtle but I was limited to what I could use as I am still building my collection of Copic Ciao and only have 3 greens. Looking at the card, the green is not as bright as the photo shows. I’ve used G05 & G07 for the tree tops, E21 & E35 for the tree trunks, B000 & B02 for the clouds &…
T4 – Toner Gray no.4 Copic Sketch marker for the road. I also used the Colorless Blender because I wanted it to be a pebble type road and I saw a technique in this book, where if you dot the blender around your image, it pushes the colour away. Unfortunately, you can’t see the texture clearly on the road as I have coloured over it in a ‘Clear Star’ Sakura glitter pen, which isn’t that clear… it’s more silver which was dissapointing (only because the pen said it was a clear glitter when it isn’t). If you win the notecard set, you will definately see the texture on the road – I just couldn’t photo it without the glare/shine.
I’ve used a strip of felt ric rac by My Mind’s Eye and added some pretty Kaisercraft pearls. I also paper-pieced the buildings because I wasn’t confident enough in my colouring to colour them in copics as well.
You can see a little of the colorless blender texturing better in this photo. I have layered the road onto the card using 3d foam.
I’ve stamped the matching sentiment inside the card using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.
…with the matching envelope.
NOTECARD 6:
Another pink notecard (geez, I hope the winner likes pink!!), kept very simple. I think the hardest part of this was punching a hole for the brad :)
The paper flower is from American Crafts from an older range of theirs called City Park. I have drew some pen lines around the outside because when I had finished the card, it was missing something.
I’ve used trim by My Mind’s Eye from the ranges Abbey Road (Whirlybird) and Lost & Found (Union Square) and adhered them to the card using Helmar’s 450 Quick Dry adhesive. Even though I find this glue messy to work with, I haven’t come across another that holds bulky type embellishments as strong as this adhesive does… I love it! I stamped the main sentiment (KOTM December 2011) in Versafine Onyx Black ink, drew pen lines around the outside, added a couple of Kaisercraft rhinestones and finished it by adding a My Mind’s Eye (Abbey Road) brad and layered the whole thing onto the card using 3d foam.
…with the matching envelope.
That’s it for today. Join me again tomorrow for day 4 of my notecard giveaway where you will find out if it’s more pink or something different :)
Thanks for visiting xx
Notecard Giveaway – Day 2
Continuing on from yesterday, here are the next 2 notecard and envelopes. Once again, I have used stamps from Unity’s December 2011 KOTM (Kit of the Month) stamp set called Filled With Love. Why not join the Kit of the Month Club at Craft-A-lot where every month, you will receive an A4 sized sheet of cling rubber goodness.
I sat down at 10.30 last night and hadn’t a clue what to make for todays addition to the set. I had made the envelopes and notecard bases on the weekend… I just had to embellish them a little. I’m trying not to add too many embellishments, as I want them to be simple, flat notecards, so here’s the next 2 and I hope you like them.
NOTECARD 3:
Both the jar and the sentiment stamps are in the latest (here in Oz) Unity KOTM stamp set. I haven’t filled the jar enough I don’t think, but what’s there was definately put there with a little love in mind… my partner is away at the moment and whilst I was making this card last night, I wished I could have thrown the bottle into the ocean and let it drift away to him because I really miss him when he’s gone….
The pretty ribbon and trim are by My Mind’s Eye, Lost & Found – Market Street “Adore”. It took a few goes, but I finally managed to tie a bow that I was happy with. If you saw me tying bows, you would have a good laugh… I never seem to have enough fingers to do it with!!
Instead of going through the process of applying Tombow glue to each heart, I ran them through my small Xyron… much easier and quicker and a lot less messy for me.
Again I have used paper from Bella!. I am glad to say, that by the time I have finished this set of notecards, I have used almost all of the 8×8 paper pad… a first for me. I am trying to use what I have and cut down on buying new papers because otherwise, I will never use it all and this year, I plan to make a dent in my older stash and try not to add too much new crafting goodness until I do.
NOTECARD 4:
Again using the December 2011 Kit of the Month stamp set, I’ve chosen the chair and matching sentiment. I stamped the chair onto white cardstock using Versafine Onyx Black ink then diecut it using a die I had in my stash.
The glitter trim came from MME Lost & Found, Portobello Road ‘Party’. The buttons are from my button jar which holds thousands of buttons (thankfully it’s nowhere near full) :)
Again I have used Whisper Dye Ink ‘Green Green’ to stamp the sentiment. I didn’t need an ink that ‘sticks’ to these rubber stamps because I find any ink I have does a great job but used it because it’s one of my favourite shades.
Here’s the notecard with the matching envelope. Normally, I would have skipped over paper with this pattern, but I’m trying to challenge myself a lot this year which for me, means to stop being so picky because I have obviously bought it for a reason other than to just look at it :)
That’s the 2 notecards for today and remember, if you’d like a chance to win the whole set, all you have to do is like me on Facebook. My international blog visitors are quite welcome to enter.
Thanks for visiting and I will see you tomorrow with day 3′s notecards.
All about love… & a Facebook Giveaway!
Since it’s Valentine’s Day next week, I decided to make a couple of cards around the theme ‘LOVE’ using the December 2011 Unity Company KOTM (Kit of the Month) Stamp Set ‘Filled With Love’. If you have joined the monthly Unity Stamp Club at Craft-A-Lot, you will have received this set by now. This stamp set is definately filled with all things love and I can’t wait to use more of it in the coming cards this week. By the time friday comes, I will have a set of 10 notecards and envelopes to giveaway to one of my lucky Facebook likers.
NOTECARD 1:
These are not the average c6 sized cards I normally make. They measure 14cm x 8.5cm, so they’re just a little smaller. I have used patterned paper by Bella! and stamped the Love sentiment onto the yellow paper in Whispers Port Wine dye ink. It was included in this set of 30…
…which I bought at Kmart about 6-7 years ago and have only really been using it the last year and a half. It’s one of my favourite sets of inks and I’m going to be sad when all the pads dry out (some have started to), because I don’t think it can be bought anymore and it has been my go to ink in the past when none other’s will ‘stick’ to my stamps how I’d like. I’m quite surprised they’re still able to ink my stamps but I’m happy about that :)
Instead of decorating the sweet little flowers with pearls, I decided to sew french knots in the middle of them, just to tie in with the sentiment you will see further down the post, not to mention that I find hand stitching therapeutic and I certainly have needed a little therapy lately lol (short version of a long story… 2 boys (3yr old & 10yr old), stubborn in-denial partner, his family history of adhd & austism = therapy needed for me ;) )
I think these are the neatest French Knots I’ve ever done and I love how they’ve turned out.
I have handstitched the bottom of this sentiment in DMC floss and as much as I love hand sewing on paper, I wasn’t in the mood at the time to handstitch the outside so I drew pen lines instead (forgive my laziness).
I made a matching handmade envelope which I have painted the flap with envelope gum (took me forever to find an online shop in Australia that sold it).
NOTECARD 2:
Also in the latest KOTM stamp set was the word LOVE in big, bold letters so I have used that as a focal point for this simple card. Just remember (if you win the giveaway), these notecards can be used in other ways than just be given as a valentine’s card.
I have used my latest die purchase from Craft-A-Lot which I really love (and have probably mentioned that already), some pearls and punched hearts.
Again I have made a matching envelope from pretty Bella! paper. I am finding that making envelopes is a good way of using up my patterned paper and I really need to make a lot more envelopes to reduce the size of my paper stash. I can’t believe I have bought so much in the past *blush*.
That’s it for today but each day this week, I will have another 2 notecards to show you, so I will see you tomorrow!!
Card and Matching Envelope
A quick post showing you a 13cm square card and matching 14cm envelope I made last night at midnight. Couldn’t sleep… too much coffee I think!!
I’ve used a sentiment stamp out of the Unity November 2011 Kit of the Month stamp set found at Craft-A-Lot.
All other supplies, I’ve used from my stash. Did a little machine stitching and finished with a few drops of Platinum Pearl Liquid Pearls.
I also made a matching envelope and if you’d like a short tutorial showing how I made it, leave me a comment. All you need is a paper trimmer, bone folder, scissors and some double-sided tape. The decorative punch is optional.
Thanks for visiting xx
Home is where…
Just a quick post today showing a card I made with the November 2011 Kit of the Month stamp set by Unity called ‘Take Your Time’. You can join the KOTM stamp club at Craft-A-Lot. (sorry about the photos… I was mucking with the settings on my new camera at 5am this morning)
Paper used are from the 6×6 paper pad by My Mind’s Eye from the Lost & Found range called Sunshine.
I made the mistake of thinking these cute little houses would be easy to paper piece but when it came to cutting the grass, I struggled. As you can see, I still can’t seem to stamp straight lol…
The last thing I did was add some punched hearts, glued them together down the middle and ‘fluffed’ them to give a little dimension.
This last photo was taken last night (early afternoon) when my partner walked into the lounge and found our beautiful son like this :)
Thanks for visiting xx
A little bling with lunch…
If you have joined the Unity Kit of the Month club at Craft-A-Lot, you would have received your November KOTM stamp set called ‘Take Your Time’. A great range of stamps this month and so I chose the ladies and the matching sentiment.
Haven’t we all had days like these where nothing seems to be going right… I know I have had plenty of those in 2011… hurry up 2012 :)
I made the rolled roses from wool felt (unsure of brand) using a MFT die and added some Kaisercraft pearls to the centre. The paper is from the A Botanical Christmas/Winter Fairy Tales paper pad from Craft-A-Lot. The ribbon was sent to me in my design kit from Colleen.
The rhinestones are from Kaisercraft, ink from Stampin Up and Memento and the diecut was cut from a cheap $10 set of dies… there’s 4 in this set and when they came in the post, I was a little worried because of the cheapness (yes I’m a scrouge :) ) but they cut and emboss beautifully.
Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas because I know I did. This year I decided to cook a baked lunch because we were having it at home and there were just the 3 of us (well only 2 who eats baked dinners). The last 3 years we have either travelled interstate or had it at my parents-in-laws but this year we decided to have it on our own. Last time I cooked christmas lunch it was over done and really not very edible (heavily pregnant with Kody, decided to have a nap and leave it in my partner’s capable hands (or so I thought lol))and apart from the fact that my 3yr old son woke up with a bad case of spoilt-brat-itis (although he did behave at grandma’s house for tea), we had a wonderful day ;-)
Thanks for visiting!!
My Name is Rhonda and I'm a SAHM who loves to experiment and make cards, tags, and other paper goodies. I have 2 beautiful kids who inspire me every day and a loving partner who's my best mate. I also love to digitally scrapbook and I hope you find some inspiration in the things I create. Thanks for visiting x.
