News from All of Us...

Inspired by the fortnights The Alley Way Stamps BE Inspired, with The Alley Way Stamps No Peeking penguins all in a row in black and white with a splash of orange, perfect for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Black/White & a Splash of Colour, and what could be better to represent books than stamping on text paper, perfect for this weeks City Crafter Challenge - Book Paper.  The orange penguin and stylish TAWS Monster Mash bow tie are heat embossed with Zing Orange glitter, perfect for playing along with this weeks Addicted to CAS Lets Get Embossed Challenge too. Finished with some Kaisercraft bling and TAWS The Gang sentiment.

City Crafter Challenge - Book Paper

A Moxie Red Dash of Smooches...

Playing along this week with Paper Smooch Sparks Challenge - this week is this cool Vintage theme incorporating a this instruction page for inspiration.  I have included the dash of red, large and small repetition of shapes, the circle elements with the pearl chain and circle beads, and the vintage birdcages as my vintage focus.  The gorgeous snow bird is from Paper Smooches Swanky Snowdudes, and the sentiment is adapted from Warm Hearts, it originally read "You make my heart melt" but I masked the "melt" and wrote "sing" to follow the bird theme.

Challenged myself to a 10 Minute Craft Dash too - and this one came in at 8 minutes 49.  To speed up the process I used Kaisercraft pearls for the birdcage chains, as they are pre-glued, and easy to adhere in a straight line using the side of a ruler as a guide.  The Prima birdcages were adhered to the checked paper using a glue pen, then I cut around the outline of the birdcages to avoid double handling the paper.

The gorgeous pearls and glass beads make this perfect for this weeks Little Red Wagon Bring on the Bling Challenge too!  I had originally made this for the Moxie Fab World 75 Creative Card Challenges Week - 10 Different Embellishments, too, I've used 15 but some are repeated, you should check it out anyway - there is some FAB inspiration!

 

Bring on the Bling

You give my heart wings...

When I thought about being brave and putting my name forward for the 10 Minute Craft Dash Design Team Call, I realised that even though I have participated a number of times, more often than not I had stretched the 10 minute deadline.  So I thought I'd get in some more practice, and luckily this one came in at 9 minutes 25 seconds, although it almost missed out on the buttons as they kept wanting to stick to each other rather than the card LOL!

I do love my "Ginghnam Style" chicken from Purple Onion stamps, and as I am in the midst of clearing up my crafting space, he was handy, so it was an easy choice.  I thought I'd make a real feature of his heart wing, perfect for this weeks The Paper Players Love is in the Air Challenge, together with some fabulous inspiration from the gorgeous colours and chevrons from this weeks Stampin' Royalty photo and Jen's versatile Freshly Made Sketch, I was ready to create.

Some tips for a quicker card:  As I knew I was going to be pressed for time, and my L'il Inkers photo frame die cut was fresh from Santa, I thought I'd run it through my Cuttlebug with some plain cardstock first for a test run.  Very impressed with the fact that in one roll it came out clean and the cut frame fell out, without me having to wrestle with it at all - and the bonus was I now had a template to work out my framing of the stamp, and to practice writing my sentiment! 

If you use papers with a a straight line pattern, it's much easier and quicker to cut and adhere in straight lines too :)

Just a general tip for using chevron paper, if you want the pattern to look like arrows pointing upward, rather than down, as I did, then just make sure the arrows on both side edges of your card are pointing upward - it works!

 

 

Only a couple more days to go!

My Top 12 for 2012...

Just for fun I thought I'd join in the Top 12 for 2012 over at Catered Crop.  Looking back at 2012 I have chosen my favourite creations for the year, and linked them back to their original posts too.  As I only started making cards toward the end of 2011, I was amazingly fortunate to have been accepted on my first DT with The Alley Way Stamps, so many of my favourites feature their stamps.  I couldn't limit it to just 12, so here are my Top 12 plus a few...

January...

Fun with a pun!

February...

Discovering negative die cuts...

and Paper Smooches

Life is pun!

March...

A time for growth...

And thinking outside the square.

April...

Discovering a Moxiefab new world!

May...

Aim high...

Strive for your dreams

They just may come true

June...

Try new techniques

July...

 Love this one!

Life is beautiful...

When some bunny loves you!

August...

My first one layer card!

and more new techniques

September...

Black is the new black!

 October...

Just in time for Spring

What a Lifesaver!

November...

Thankful for a fantastic year

December...

No longer so intimidated by one layer cards,

A fan of the 10 Minute Craft Dash

 I still LOVE mixing patterns and puns!

I'd love to see your favourites too.  Leave me your link if you have one, I'd love to stop by!

Optimise...

Verb	1.	optimise - make optimal; get the most out of
	2.	optimise - act as an optimist and take a sunny view of the world

After much thought this is my word for 2013.

Optimise.  

A word of action.

To be thankful for all I have, and to make the most of who I am, with a dash of sunny disposition.

HAPPY NEW YEAR & Happy Birthday too...

Wishing you all a FANTASTIC NEW YEAR!

Do yourself a favor & stop by the The Alley Way Stamps Blog to join in their 1st Birthday celebrations too, heaps of prizes to be won, with 13 days of give aways starting January 1st...

You Light Up My Life...

Wishing you all have a fabulous and safe Christmas / Holiday Season!  

I decided with my new job that I would step down from The Alley Way Stamps Design Team after completing my first term with them, ironically because my card making skills were taking too much time - but now with fab 10 Minute Craft Dash my cards seem to be getting made a lot quicker!  So for now this is my last official TAWS DT card - it has been a blast :) sending out a huge THANK YOU to Alison and the team!

Sweltering here in 38 degree heat, what could be more appropriate than a snowman card LOL!  Inspired by this months Trendy Twine Holly Berry Tag Challenge and Ribbon Carousel Holiday Spirit Challenge, together with this weeks Little Red Wagon Christmas Tag Challenge.

I created this tag card using The Alley Way Stamps Jolly Holiday snowman and Christmas lights - I stamped the lights onto American Crafts shimmer cardstock, cut the cardstock out roughly in a rectangle around each light, then folded the rectangle in half along the base of the light and cut around the folded cardstock so you end up with a mirror image of the light - this allows you to fold the light over the Holly Berry Trendy Twine and adhere the front and back piece together to secure the light around the twine.  The snowmans arms are die cut from a Memory Box branch and trimmed to size.  The sentiment is from The Alley Way Stamps Fa-la-la.