Butterflys and Birthdays

Hi there,

It has been a little while, I hope everyone had a great March.  We didn't get all the assignments finished, but we made a good dent in them.  I have had a bit of a creative weekend, I also made a card today for a friends 40th and a card for an adult baptism we are having at Church on Sunday.  I thought I might share these with you.

 

 Okay, for whats and how to's:

I took pearlised blue A4 card stock and folded it in half (using a scorer for a neat fold), I then raided my scraps and off cuts and found some lime card and beige patterned card.  I cut them to size and edged each piece with Lapislazuli pigment ink from VersaColor.  Next I used the flower tag image and the birthday sentiment from the Apothecary Art set by Stampin'up .  I coloured it with my watercolour pencils and cut it out.  Edged with the same ink I used to stamp it (Lapislazuli), I then mounted it on the leftover lime card and cut that out as well. I added a Tim Holtz flourish in silver and a Tim Holtz sentiment, ribbon, flower and pearls.

 Inside I used more lime paper and a lighter mottled beige paper.  I used another Tim Holtz sentiment with the Lapizlazuli ink and a Tim Holtz butterfly stamp with the silver ink that I stamped onto a darker blue scrap of card front and back.  I have a Martha Stewart butterfly border punch (I got this for my wedding invites) I used to cut out the top of the lime paper, and another Martha Stewart Butterfly punch (just because I think I have a slight butterfly obsession) I used to cut out the silver butterfly. 

Now for the second card....

I found the picture on pintrest, I had never made an easel card before and had a bit of time.  I clicked on the pin and followed the instuctions. They were easy to follow and also included a free template.  I don't have a printer at the moment, so I drew the butterflies by hand.  I think it turned out as nice as theirs.

Here is the link: Paper Vine 

It is an excellent tutorial

  I added bible verses around the edges, a Tim Holtz flourish stamp in silver ink on the big butterfly and pearls.  The papers were from my stash (given to me by my Mum in law!).  I love this card so much, I am now going to have to make one for myself :-)

Bible verses:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; what is old has passed away, a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17
"See I am making all things new!"  Revelation 21:5
We do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day!  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  2 Corinthians 4: 16 - 18 

I hope you have a great week

Thanks for stopping by.

Please excuse me

Hi to you all out in blog land,

I am just letting you know I am taking a break this month as I have a heap of things to sort out.  Biggest one at the moment is study... My hubby and I took on a certificate in Youth Work last year and this year have started a Certificate in Ministry as well as a traineeship.   With children, work, pets and a house to look after as well something had to give.   I look forward to being back with you, hopefully in April.  I will let you know how we went with the Youth Work certificate!

 Exciting path before us

Have a great March!
Rachael :-)

Colour Me Happy

Hi to you all out there in Blog land!

I hope you have all had a great week.  Mine has been pretty great.  You know when you start saying yes to things an all of a sudden you have no time to do anything, and you start getting panicky and find it hard to breath... Well that was the start of my week, but thanks to God and amazing friends, it all came together and I am at least organised with the Church music for all of March!

My husband and I are Youth Group leaders and we did the Winter Olympics (in a Roxby summer too!)  It was such a blast and the youth joined in the crazyness of Winter Olympic charades and snowball competitions (marshmallows), Snowball competitions escalated into a full on snowball fight at the end... MAN marshmallows can hurt!  They did settle down in the middle of the night for discussion.  I loved every bit of it!

I did even get a project done (on Sunday night)!  And not a card this week!  I love my water colour pencils but the box was a bit daggy, so I jazzed it up a bit.

I was quite excited once I had made my mind up not to do a card!  I can use this and my craft supplies will start to look a bit groovy.

Ok, the whats and hows.

I took some purple cardstock out of the DCWV Jewel Colored Cardstock Stack, cut it down to fit the pencil box, measured and scored the fold lines (with a freebee scoring board and tool from Papercraft Inspirations Magazine) and then stuck it to the box with tape. I cut out the DP from DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies stack using a template from another magazine (had them for a while now, I can't remember which one), inked around that using Tim Holtz distress ink in Pickled Raspberry and stuck it on the box.  After colouring in Color Me Janette using the water colour pencils from the box, I cut her out by hand, then stuck her to more purple card and cut that out too.  The blossoms were from my stash and I made the sentiment in word, cut it out and inked around it with the same ink. I think that is it!

The beautiful image comes from our sponsor Kenny K

 

Digi and rubber stamps from KennyK are a fun and edgy way to add the perfect dose of attitude and style to all of your creations! 

The creator, the artist, the man: KennyK is a NYC-born professional illustrator who has brought his funky-but-slick, urban-influenced look to the cardmaking and papercrafts world.  His signature style can be seen throughout his various collections of sexy pinup babes, sweet 'n sassy girls, cool rockin' dudes, kid’s stuff, retro characters and more at KennyKDownloads.com.

So don't forget to link your work up at Make it Monday  and leave lots of love for the other linkies to be in with a chance.

Oops, I missed the deadline for image submission, so now linked through the Linky tool with  Make it Monday.

Also I linked up with
Milk Coffee Challenge - Girly Challenge
 

Again this week, SOOOOOOO many great creations, you are all making it hard to pick a POTW!

I did pick one in the end, Kathie from Kathie'z Kards  has an amazing card for the first day of school.  Stop by and check it out.

I think the white frame inside would be perfect for a photo of the first day of school.  What a great keepsake!

Well that's it for me,

I hope you have a great week

Rachael :-)

It is Raining!!!!!!

Hi there,  I hope you had a lovely week.

I have had a lovely (and bussy) weekend and Friday as is has been WET in Roxby!  After three or four weeks over 40c we had a beautiful overcast day on Saturday, the rain stopped for the market and then every now and then gave us a little light mist after every one packed up and went home.

I would like to share my next card for the Make It Monday design team.  I am starting to experiment a bit more with brighter colours and busier layouts.  I love this Image, it reminds me of when I used to have time to kick back and craft with friends.

In the second photo I am trying to show how I layered their legs and knitting to give the image a bit more dimension.

The card I used is from the Christina Re* Paris Chic Collection, it is a green flocked design over a shimmery cream card, I got the pack as a pressie from my Mum in Law :-) The pink card was also in a gift pack as were the makings for the flower (I am a very lucky girl!) Um... the punch for the sentiment is a Stampin' Up punch and also from my wonderful Mum in law.  (I live in the middle of nowhere so I get a few care packages every now and then - Thanks Mum xx)

The cut out for the image is traced around a Spellbinders Nestabilities die cut shape (the actual shape was too small for the image so traced around it and cut out by hand) - This one was from my stash as were the ribbons!

I have entered this in
Scribble and Scrap - Anything Goes

Now to the wonderful image and sentiment set, Close Knit Friends..... From our lovely sponsor for the week

http://www.bugaboostamps.com/

They have such cute designs!

Now for my POTW,  with all this lovely weather I couldn't go past Dance in the Rain by Laura Nehring at The Crafty Sister.  Check her out!

How beautiful is this?!

Don't forget to link up your creations at Make It Monday and leave lots of love for others that do too and you could win some awesome images to play with.

Have a great week

Rachael :-)

Hi there,

Time for yet again another design team post.  Is it just me or do the weeks seem to be speeding up?!

I think the time I spent with Mum last week helped get my creativity flowing again and I am pleased with how my card turned out this week.

The image is from our sponsor of the week Scrapper's Delights  and is called Winter Elf.
She is coloured using Micador Colourush pencils and then Kindy Glitz for some sparkle.  The red card is from Stampin' up and the shimmery purple card and blue ribbon was from a discount store (love them for craft supplies!) I cut out the purple card by hand and wrote on the ribbon with a fine line permanent marker.  The scrap book paper was a freebee with a magazine. I thought I would turn it into a Valentines card, but I guess it could really be used for anything.


I have even entered my first challenges!
A Gem of a challenge - All you need is love
MilkCoffee Challenge  - Valentine's/Love challenge
Open-Minded Crafting Fun Challenges - Show Some Love

.

http://www.scrappersdelights.com/store/

Janice is generously offering our winner 3 images of their choice.

Remember, to be in the running to win the prize from our sponsor this week just leave a 

comment for another entry. Be sure to mention you saw them on Make It Monday. The 

more entries you comment on the more chances you have of winning!

So head over to Make It Monday and check it out.   

Now for my POTW.  I love this one, it is a bit edgy and I really want to have a go at the embossing paste technique.  The image also makes me think of Dr Who! Awesome work Pia.  Check her out at Pias Papir og Perler .

Above is a photo I took from our hotel in Adelaide last week.  A beautiful time of night looking over the city.  I was so happy with the way it turned out, I just wanted to share it with you.

Have a great week

Rachael :-)

Many a splendid thing

Hi there!

I hope you have had a great week.  Mine has been busy and we ended it with a trip down to Adelaide.  While here I got to spend some time with my Mum (in Law) Shirley and had some help and encouragement with my next card for the design team.  I even got to play with her Copics!!!

I got to play with Tiffany playing violin.  She is exquisite.  I came up with so many ideas and one I really wanted to do, but with work and study I ran out of time.  I was so happy to get to do this with Mum.  It made it extra special - we don't get down to Adelaide very much, it is a 6 hour drive each way.

The green and brown cards are from Stamin up and I used Copic markers to colour Tiffany. 

The little pearls and the music paper are from Mum's stash!

The shimmery card Tiffany is printed on is the back of a Christmas card I recycled.

We thank our sponsor this week

Milk Coffee

and are so thrilled to have the opportunity to work with their adorable images.

 

They are generously offering our winner

3 Digis

of their winners choice

Remember, to be in the running to win the prize from our sponsor this week just leave a comment for another entry. Be sure to mention you saw them on Make It Monday. The more entries you comment on the more chances you have of winning!

On to my POTWs, yes there are two again.  We are getting so many good links on our Make it Monday Linky party, it is getting even harder to narrow it down.

This lovely tag is by Wendy at Wendy's Card Craft.   I love the colours and the  Tim Holtz stamps.  Check out her blog!

Next is a fun card at Nicole at Nicole's Craft Nook.  I love the shape, colours and the fun theme.

Have a great week

Rachael :-)

Ode to a happy memory

Hi there on this very fine Monday morning.

Happy Australia Day for yesterday!

Today's card was inspired by a trip we took to visit my sister in law Michelle (before she was my sister in law!).  While we were in Cairns, we took a trip out to Green Island and went snorkeling.   I took a million photos (well almost!) and we had a magical Day.  Our oldest, Taylor, was the first to spot a sea turtle!  I think the Beach boy image looks a lot like him, so this is my ode to our family adventure a few years ago.

I left the back ground very plain, I tried a few different things, but it kept distracting from the boy.  I drew the turtle and fish from photos I took while on green island and all were coloured with the water colour pencils.  Micador is the brand I have been using if you were wondering.  The delightful image (that looks like Tay) is Beach Boy  from our wonderful sponsor

We are very excited to be sponsored this week by the wonderful

http://www.scrappersdelights.com/store/

Janice is generously offering our winner 3 images of their choice.

Remember, to be in the running to win the prize from our sponsor this week just leave a 

comment for another entry. Be sure to mention you saw them on Make It Monday. The more

 entries you comment on the more chances you have of winning!

This now brings me to my POTW Live Inspired.   There were Sooooooo many to chose from, but this one made me think of cool shady gardens, beautiful old houses and my home state Tasmania.  And I love the sentiment (which Desire made herself)... and the dragon flies... and the colours.  So pop over and visit Doing Life

I also would like to share an amazing 3D card by Diana Larson called Thank you for the Music. 

 Go over and check it out :-) 

Thanks for checking out my blog.  I think I will work on my card a bit more and post another photo later.

Have a great day and don't forget to share your paper creation with us at Make it Monday Linky Party.  

Rachael :-)

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Welcome to my little bolg.  Safest way to visit me at the moment!  

We are in the middle of a heat wave in Roxby - and in most of Australia - and it has been very hard to want to do anything.  It has hovered around the mid 40s (Celsius) for the last week and the aircon doesn't keep up during the day.  I get a huge spurt of energy at night, but most of that is just spent cleaning up.  It is too hot for the dogs out side and they dribble the water form their bowls all over the floor!  I have even been putting ice in it for them.  Anyway, I don't mean to winge.  There are many people in Australia who have lost houses because of the bush fires.  There are many emergency services personnel who have to be out in the heat and fire.  Hats off to the paid and volunteer staff who give up their own safety for others.  Keep them in your prayers and those who have suffered loss.

On to something exciting... that is today's card for the Make it Monday Linky Party  design team.

I have recycled Christmas cards on this card, printing the digi image on the blank side of one and cutting out the silver star from another!  The black card is just standard card stock I picked up from the newsagent and double sided tape and glitter for the stripes.  Scrapbooking paper from my stash for the yellow star.  The image is coloured with water colour pencils and I "Smooched" his glasses with silver firefox.

The image Rock Star Boy is from this weeks sponsor Bugaboo Stamps.

http://www.bugaboostamps.com/

Bugaboo Stamps are offering a very generous prize of winner's choice of 7 single digis!

So get over to Make it Monday and link up :-)

This now brings me to my POTW.  There were so many great creations to chose from but not only was this one a beautiful card, it is a beautiful cause and blog.  Please pop over and have a read.

This little beauty is Shelly by Karen from Kaleidosopic Sparkles

Thank you for stopping by my blog :-)

Hope you stay cool if you live in the heat, stay warm if you are in the cold and enjoy your days if you are experiencing nice temperatures.

Rachael

What a week!

Wow, what a week!  I have been trying to keep on top of my hope for the year... to "get my stuff sorted".  I finally got the dining table back to being a dining table (might not stay that way for long, but for the sake of marital bliss I need to find a way of packing up easily and quickly); AND I even got the bedroom sorted!!!  Thanks to pintrest I even sorted the dresser draws and found a bit more room in them (Shopping anyone?).  I am even managing to keep the lounge and kitchen tidy whilst working a bit more.  On top of all that I even made home made dog food, gourmet happy dogs now.  Yay, for the Thermomix!  I really don't know how I am finding the time to do all this, but I am and I am enjoying it too.  Which gets me to the icing on the cake...

Another card!

This weeks sponsor for the design team challenge is Lacy Sunshine Stamps and I found a beautiful butterfly girl... Anyone guess my favorite theme? ;-)   She is Emily's Monarch Butterfly Umbrella and I love her.  Now I need to get to my sewing machine so I can try and make a dress like hers!

 Again I used water colour pencils to colour her in.  The scrap booking paper and card is from my stash and the little butterfly is a Stampin' Up punch that I painted with more water colour.  

She is very summery which suits me at the moment as we are having temperatures ranging from low 30s to low 50s, Celsius  by the way. (that is 86 to 122 Fahrenheit)   I need a parasol too.  I had lunch with family in Whyalla last weekend and ended up painfully sunburnt on my shoulders and back.  Oops.

Another good thing about being on the design team, is looking through the links for the Make It Monday Linky Party   


Lacy Sunshine Stamps

"Lacy Sunshine  Stamps offers  beautiful original and imaginative  digital stamps  for all your paper crafting needs.  

All images from Lacy Sunshine are  hand  drawn and designed by  myself, Heather Valentin, a professional artist, muralist and  illustrator  and my dad, professional artist, G.P. 

From the art desk of Lacy Sunshine's creator....

"I am one  who loves creating timeless pieces from my heart and  soul, creating an extraordinary world filled with magic and whimsical friends.... one drawing at a time.  Come  journey with me now into my Lacy Sunshine World".

Thank you for taking the time to visit. Enjoy your stay!

~Heather"

They are offering our winner 3 images of their choice from the Lacy Sunshine Shop 

My POTW comes from Kelly at KO Scraps4u 

Kelly has put together a very cute album with lots of pockets and flaps to put many memories in and on.  I would have so much fun searching for all the hidden surprises in there.  The elephant on the front is so cute too.  Check it out.

Thank you for stopping by

Have a great day
Rachael

Cards for Guys

Hi there,

I would like to share some male influenced cards with you.  You may notice a slight obsession with Tim Holtz stamps in some of them and I apologize for the poor quality of photos, they were all taken on my phone, just for my records at the time (or to put on facebook!) 

 

 This card I made at a workshop in Andamooka, we were given a layout sketch and had to make a card using it.  All papers, stamps, inks and embossing powders were provided at the workshop and I don't know the brands I used.   

Here are photos of Andamooka, again only taken on my phone.  The blog is called a Adventures of a Crafty Traveler after all!  I should include more of my Traveling.  Andamooka is a half hour drive from my home, but completely different from anywhere.

The church has had a huge second roof built over it to offer extra insulation inside and shade outside for gathering under.  Quite necessary when temperatures get over 40c (104f).

 I love the clouds!

All the piles of dirt are from the opal mines, some you can noodle through and hopefully find your own piece of Andamooka to take with you!

 The above three cards are the Tim Holtz inspired cards using his stamps and distress inks.  I actually love the clashing colours and messiness!

This card I made for a friend who is army soldier mad!  And yes, he is all grown up.  I took a few of our boys army soldiers and sketched them.  I then cut them out and mounted them on army soldier green card.  I had a light brown embossed card in my stash and got out the chalks and tried to make it look like army camouflage.  Inside I had made a dog tag out of silver card and added his details.  

I often try to think about making cards for guys, then get distracted and make something girly.  Going through these photos, I realize I had heaps of fun making the guy ones too.

Hope you enjoyed them.

 

Have a great weekend. 

Rachael :-)

I hope this is a sign of things to come

Hi there,

Today I finished an assignment! Another first for the year.  It looks like my plan of getting things sorted this year might actually work.  Although if you were to see my dining table at the moment, you may have your doubts.  It is covered in stamping and card making bits and a heap of school work for me and my wonderful husband. 

I just wanted to share a card I made for a friend's farewell.  Living in a mining town, there are a lot of farewells that occur this time of year.  This particular friend is one of the older members of our town (with an average age of 35, it's not that hard!)  and has been here for 25 years so is also a longer serving member of our town and community.  She has been there for me and many others through our tears and shared in our joy and celebrations.  She is a loving, fun, inspiring woman and has lead the Women's Bible study group, probably for as long as she has been here, encouraging many others in their ministry.  I will miss her hugs and her smiles and advice... but there will be visits!

The Post Card, Swallowtail butterfly and sentiment are all from the Stampin' Up range of stamps, as is the purple card stock and the lilac ink, the scrap-booking papers were from my stash, also used an archival black pigment ink and glossy accents.  

Well, its just hit midnight here so it is way past my bed time.

Night all :-)

First Official Design Team Post!

 As a member of the Design team for Make It Monday I have had the joy of making a new card, playing with a digi image and looking through the entries for the very first linky party of the year. 

The image from our sponsor that I got to play with was New Year Resolutions.

I think she is very cute! Coloured with water colour pencils and used card stock from my stash as well as fine glitter and glue.  

The sponsor this week is Time for Tea Designs

 

Time For Tea Designs is the home of my digital creative world! My name is Jo Davies & I'm a digi stamp designer,doodler & tea drinker from the UK :) T4T is a part time venture that I do around my full time 'proper' job. My dream is to one day make this my only job as it brings me so much happiness seeing other peoples creations with my designs. I hope you enjoy my artwork & are inspired by the creations of the Design Team. Happy Colouring!

Time for Tea Designs are giving away a prize of 3 images of the winners choice.  Thanks guys!

Now, I am also supposed to comment on a card from the Make It Monday linky party.  Well it was very hard to pick a favorite but I did narrow it down

Karen C - Home of the Busy Honey Bee





 I love the use of colour, sparkle and images, as well as a great verse to start the year off with!

So that is it from me.

Night night and hope you have a great and crafty year ahead!

A new year, a new challange

Hi there and happy new year!

Long time, no posts.  Nothing new about that!  (Sorry)  This year though, I have accepted a new challenge that came in the form of an opportunity to be involved in the Make it Monday design team on my sister's blog "Pink Paper Paradise" 

I now have to get organised, get my time sorted and start posting once a week.... Can I do it?  I hope so.  My first card is using the Digi stamp "New years resolutions" from "Time for Tea Designs".  I have never used a digi stamp before and found it to be easy and a big plus is that you can make it any size you want.  I thought the New years resolutions image would be a perfect start for this new adventure.  So here is my card, hope you like it.

 

A fairly simple start, the image is coloured using water colour pencils and the dress has been cut out and laid over a piece of scrap-booking paper, then embellished with glue and glitter to try and look like fire works. 

Till next time :)

New Years Resolutions

Pink Paper Paradise