My first ATC!

I have been looking at ATCs for a while, and have been wanting to try making them. What I enjoyed the most about making this one is that it was SO QUICK! From whoa to go, it took me 15 minutes. And it was so much fun... I knew what I wanted to try adn I just tried it, without worrying to much about whether it looked "right" or not.

This little ATC is for this week's One Stop Craft Challenge.

ABC Christmas

The challenge for ABC Christmas this week is to make your card black and white. Plus you have to use the little digi freebie they have posted on their site. It's very cute! I enjoyed being forced out of my confort zone and using something new - so thank you ABC!

Plus I tried something else new too - I have been wanting to try making a tri-shutter card for ages, and I found this tutorial online. It was easy to follow and the measurements worked very well. Thanks!

The cardstock and Designer Prints are all Creative Memories. I made the scalloped edge around the main image by punching a scallop circle and cutting it into pizza segments, then glueing them around the outside of the back. The sentiment stamp is a local Montarga favourite.

JAI Inspiration challenge

Just Add Ink's challenge this week was to be inspired by a very pretty picture of a Sunflower. I loved the bright fresh colours, but have so little in the way of brights, that I decided to go with the theme of flowers instead. So here is my floral card - Whisper White cardstock, Cottage Garden DSP, and the Scallop flower is the wonderful Rich Razzleberry. I tied a ribbon on the card! Yay! This is the very first time! (Shhh!)

I used a sketch from a magazine I borrowed form the library.

Chocolate Chip Box and Bow

This was so much fun! I used a guide in a Paper crafting magazine that I borrowed from the library to teach me how to make these cute (and surprisingly sturdy) origami boxes plus the bow ontop. Actually, the measurements for the bow were just ridiculous (240mm x 150mm??), and the instructions were undecipherable, so I went online and found a tutorial here. Great! Thank you Kim.

I am entering my "bowed" creation into Pals Paper Arts challenge this week. I think their rules are any project - I'm not sure if it has to be a card. I hope not. Anyway, the box is for fudge, which is something I have been perfecting recently, and I have to say - my oh my - after the third batch, it's tasting pretty good.

Ingredients for the project: Chocolate Chip DSP and Chocolate Chip cardstock. Both Stampin Up.

Birthday Bird

I used the sketch from Peachy Keen Stamps this week to design this little square card for a friend of Mum's whose birthday is this weekend.

The papers are from SU's Cottage Garden pack, the punches are CM's double circle punch and SU's XL Bird punch. A cute and simple card, it was very quick to make.

Card for a Male

Here's a card I made last night for a lovely friend who starts a new job soon. He's renovating his house, hence the strange looking picture - yes that is a house in the back of the truck!

This is for One Stop Craft Challenge this week.

Baja Breeze Thank you card

Last night I looked up a few challenges and rolled them into one. This card is for Just Add Ink's Monochrome challenge and also Clean and Simple stamping's sketch. Unfortunately I didn't have the specified blues for Diva Coffee Break design's colour challegne, so this is my closest: I have used Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy and Very Vanilla. The cute stamp is from the Pocket Silhouettes set and is one of my favourites.

New Beginnings

The theme at One Stop Craft Challenge this week is "New Beginnings". I'm still on a Christmas kick, and decided that babies tie in well with new beginnings, so I used my lovely Mary and Jesus stamp. I used papers from the Kaisercraft "Dear Santa" set and also the flourish stamp from teh same set to add a bit of fanciness to Mary's garment. I love the effect of paper piecing with this stamp.

I am also entering this card into the ABC Christmas challenge this week. I am determined to keep up with them this year, so "A is for Anything" seemed an easy one to do.

Tea Party

More of Nancy O'Dell's lovely Hummingbird set! This time I scrapbooked an afternoon tea

that we held for Mum and Dad on their 4oth wedding anniversary. It was a fab day. I think the papers complement this event really well. The setting was absolutely fantastic - we went to Sweethearts at Berryfields in Christchurch - it was a gorgeous garden on the edge of town, almost in amongst the raspberry canes and apple trees. Fabulous!

Emma's Baptism

I am finally uploading some pages I completed at the end of last year. This is a layout that I did for Emma's baptism at the end of October. The photos were taken by lovely Ian - they capture the event so beautifully, and he is just magic wtih his camera. The papers and ribbons and die cuts and lettering is all part of Nancy O'Dell's beautiful "Hummingbird" line. I adore this set. I love the colours and the patterns and the wee hummingbirds which appear right through the range. They are just delightful.

Still loving my Christmas Cards!

I am determined to get ahead with Christmas cards this year, so I went along to Artfull Crafts when they had their Christmas crafts sale. I have lots of lovely Christmassy papers and stamps - and I'm all set up now to do the ABC Christmas challenges all year. Well, that's my intention, anyway!

I had fun last night with two sketch challenges. This is the first one, for the Mojo Monday sketch. I'm particularly proud of it, because I used a stamp I designed and had made for myself. I used flourishes from the Kaisercraft Dear Santa collection to add a bit of fanciness. The cardstock and ink are Stampin Up's Not Quite Navy and Baja Breeze. The DSP is from their Urban Garden pack, sadly now retired.

The second sketch is from the Stamping 411 site. I used the Dear Santa papers and mini ink pads. The Christmas tree stamp is an Inkadinkado one I have had for a while - I like the ornate style very much.