Baby FUSION...

Loving this fortnights FUSION super sketch and gorgeous baby room inspiration photo! My CAS baby card was created using a combination of Hero Arts patchwork elephant, paper pieced with this super cute Lawn Fawn hearts patterned paper, in a gorgeous Lil Inkers stitched circle die, fittingly topped with Mama Elephants' sentiment.

To play along you can take inspiration from either the FUSION sketch or inspiration photo - or combine the two as I have!

Hop on over to the FUSION blog for some more super sized inspiration from our fabulous Design Team...

Becca Cruger - Betty J. - Jeanne Jachna - Jen Mitchell - Karren Johnson

Linda Callahan - Michelle Leone - Michelle Lupton - Michelle Williams

Hope you can join in the fun this fortnight @ FUSION.

Can't wait to see what you create!

Happy Holidays - Home is where the heart is...

I have to preface this post by saying this is one of those cards that looks better in real life LOL! Stamped Hero Arts Village in Silver embossing powder, paired with Technique Tuesday by Ali Edwards sentiment on American Crafts woodgrain background.

Playing along with Little Red Wagon Home is where the Heart is. 

WCD Vintage Joy...

Hope you all had a FABULOUS World Cardmaking Day on Saturday! I was lucky enough to have spent the weekend away crafting with some gorgeous crafty friends, Jenny, Cecilia and Iwona. I made a few cards, but only two so far that I'm able to photograph and share.

My first card was created to play along with this weeks Color Q, World Card Making Day Pattern Play Challenge at Winnie and Walter, Hero Arts Holiday Challenge Tag It, and as a reminder for this months Mixed Media Card Challenge Vintage. Created my own patterned paper inspired by the colours of the Kaisercraft floral paper by layering stamps including Hero Arts Postcard, Penny Black , Prima Vintage and Antiques stamps. Papers are a mix of Kaisercraft and MME, with green and brown Copics for the leaves and branches. Stamped in brown Archival Ink and aged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Pop dotted and added burlap ribbon.

My second card was created to play along with this fortnights Festive Friday, Little Red Wagon In Stitches, Lawnscaping Patterned Paper, Simon Says Stamp Transport It and Mama Elephant's Anything Goes. Loved the combination of white and green with natural timber, and that too cute sled in the Festive Friday inspiration photo. Paper pieced the Lawn Fawn bunny, added Lil Inkers Stitched circle and square (cut down), together with this fabulous sentiment from Mama Elephant, and clear stickles under the sled for snow.

Remember there is a huge World Cardmaking Day Challenge over on 

Winnie and Walter's blog, with 6 challenges, open til Saturday 11 October at midnight. 

 

Keep It Simple with Ombre...

I can't wait to see what you create for this fortnights Keep It Simple Ombre Challenge. I broke out my Gelatos again to create this watercoloured ombre background. The cute little owl and friend from Hero Arts Operation Write Home Lil Hoot, was stamped in Versamark Watermark and Zing Copper embossing powder and coloured with Copics (N0, N3, E00, E03, E37, YG03, YG17, B95, and BG11). The Hero Arts Find Joy sentiment, was also stamped in Versamark Watermark and Zing Copper embossing powder.

You can catch some more FABULOUS DT Ombre inspiration over at Keep It Simple.

Playing along with A Blog Named Hero Ombre Challenge and Crazy for CAS Watercolour too!

Happy Easter with Stencils...

 

 

Created the background of these two Easter cards using this gorgeous Studio Calico mask and Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry for the bunny card and Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn and Tumbled Glass for the sheep card. As a rule, I like to stamp my baby cards and Easter cards in brown rather than black inks, and this is no exception - stamped in Hero Arts Cup O' Joe using Hero Arts Happy Day Animals, and the sentiment combines Happy Day Animals and Lawn Fawn Happy Easter. The papers are from Lily Bee Designs.

Playing along with A Blog Named Hero Build Your Own Background, 

Virginia's View Stencil Challenge, Moxie Fab World Styling with Stencils Challenge, 

and don't forget you still have time to play along with Keep It Simple Stencil Challenge too!

A Little Trigger...

Playing along with this fortnights Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger, I knew I wanted to use this gorgeous WPlus9 Background Builders - Knit, but had no idea what would happen from there!  I stamped the background by repeatedly inking up the stamp with Hero Arts Red Royal and Orange Soda at opposite ends and layering Bubblegum Pink in the middle.  I had a leftover Memory Box Gorgeous Gardenia Outline in white from this card I made yesterday, and paired this with a piece of MME Cut & Paste ombre paper I had previously overstamped using Avery Elle All Squared Up in Hero Arts Tidal Pool for the flower background, and leaves.  I thought about adding a sentiment, but figured it had enough going on already!

Tuesday Trigger: Apache Tears in the Key of Autumn

Linking up with Moxie Fab World Handmade Cards Colour Week Challenge too!

Merry Christmas Smooches...

Had some fun adding to my Christmas card collection, playing along with this fabulous colour combo from The Paper Players Colour Challenge, and this versatile sketch from Paper Smooches Sparks Designer Drafts Challenge.  I thought this gorgeous snowman was perfectly whimsical and joined him in the fun at Festive Friday Whimsical Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Christmas / Happy Holidays Challenge too! Paper Smooches Freezy Fellas snowman, Christmas Sampler sentiment, Swanky Snowdudes snowflakes stamps are inked in Hero Arts Navy (the closest I had to Midnight Muse) and Soft Pool inks with Echo Park Winter Park, and Lil Inkers stitched polariod frame.

 

Freshly Pinspired Embossing Baby...

Started off playing with this gorgeous Freshly Made Sketch and my Hero Arts New Baby elephant and Baby sentiment to join in the fun at A Blog Named Hero - but somehow a day disappeared this weekend LOL! Lucky for me the CAS on Sunday Oh Baby arrived just in time, so I paired it with this fabulous Pinspired Challenge quilt to create this card.  This gorgeous Fancy Pants Childish check has been my go to paper for baby boys cards - now I'm down to my last scraps of it.  I love that the Lil Inkers Stitched Square mimics the stitching on the elephant and the Craft Concepts Diamond Shadows embossing folder mimics a quilted coverlet, perfect for playing along with Simon Says Stamp Emboss It, and cute buttons perfect for playing along with the Moxie Fab World Handmade Cards Week - General Craft Supplies Challenge, where you can join in the fun too until October 21st!

  

This made me smile...

You Can Always Count on Me...

9 minutes and 12 seconds later...

Following the theme of The Pink Elephants #215 Numbers Challenge, here's a post full of them!!!  

My card for today features... you guessed it - NUMBERS!  For the 10 Minute Craft Dash #25, this card was based on Clean & Simple Sketch #256, it took 9 minutes and 12 seconds to diecut six Dienamics numbers (this was my first attempt, I cut a second sheet as the one went a bit wobbly on this one, but then mucked up the stamping, so came back to this one LOL!), stamp two Hero Arts background numbers stamps in Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight (see previous explanation ;)) and one Simon Says Stamp "You can always count on me" sentiment in Hero Arts Cup 'O Joe, cut and adhere two pieces of Fancy Pants Child's Play patterned papers, with 4 strips of double-sided tape and 7 pieces of foam pop tape.  I realised after I had pop-dotted that in my rush I had forgotten to round the corners - I think it gives it a more polished finish, but cest la vie!  I LOVE this 10 Minute Craft Dash colour combo, so hope to revisit it later this week using Lawn Fawn stamps ;)

All this talk of numbers brings me to this FABULOUS Month in Numbers idea from Julie Kirk...

How did I get here?  Well may you ask!  And who am I not to answer?

Whilst skimming the internet for some inspiration for the first FUSION challenge for September, I discovered this fabulous blog post on Five Ideas for Scrapbooking with Pages from Old Books, which had in turn been sourced from Julie Kirk's blogspot Notesonpaper.

Intrigued with her Month in Numbers post, I thought wow, I've moved interstate since I started school - I wonder how many kilometres it is between where I first started school and where I am now.  And then it dawned on me, although I did most of my schooling in Australia, I actually first started school in Belmont Massachusetts (and yes I did have to look up to see how that was spelled correctly LOL!), we moved to the USA from Australia as my Dad was offered a position at M.I.T., and we stayed there for almost two years, til just before my baby brother was born. Co-incidentally I have lived in Belmont in Australia too (but that's a whole other story!)

So from Massachusetts to Melbourne is 17014.421 km and I'd have to say - you've come a long way baby!!!

 

 

Cute as a (row of) Button(s)...

When I saw this weeks Freshly Made Sketch I thought it would be a great canvas to use for interpreting this fabulous MUSE Challenge card by Laurie.  I recreated the line of buttons and the textured background from Laurie's MUSE card, using Fancy Pants Park Bench buttons and this Craft Concepts Diamond Shadows embossing folder reminded me of a quilted coverlet.  Joining in the fun at A Blog Named Hero Playing Favourites, using my favourite Hero Arts supply, Hero Arts Cup O' Joe Shadow Ink, together with this cute little stitched Hero Arts baby giraffe.  Added a sentiment from Mama Elephant, atop Lil Inker Designs Stitched Squares and pop dots!

Laurie's fabulous MUSE card

These made me smile...

The Red Pink Elephant and the Pink Little Red Wagon...

 

I created my first card drawing inspiration from this weeks photo challenge at The Pink Elephant, highlighthing the family home feel, colours, scalloped swag, vertical lines of the banisters and gingham.  The Echo Park Jolly Holiday house and Hero Arts / Junkitz sentiment are stamped in Versamark Dazzle and embossed in Red Tinsel.  

On closer inspection of the image I noticed the gorgeous pink and red colour combination on the parcels and created a second variation on my theme, using Basic Grey paper, perfect for this weeks Pink Christmas theme over at Little Red Wagon.

This made me smile...

The Paper Players on a CAS-ual Friday...

Loved the classic colours at The Paper Players this week... gorgeous navy teamed with white and silver, together with a very elegant sketch at CAS-ual Friday.

I used a sharp blade to cut around my angel outline (adapted from one I found on-line at Pink Paper Peppermints), leaving just a couple of millimetres gap for folding the image forward to make a 3D card.  Pop dots for the white angel image to give added depth, and my favourite silver tinsel embossing powder with Hero Arts sentiment stamp.

Think I might try another version with textured embossed cardstock next... and here it is!

Hope you are enjoying your Thursday too :)