Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone

I think this will be my last blog for this year so I just made a quick card to post.

Love this stamp from The Ton called Cozy Poinsettia has this wonderful stamp and a few sentiments to pick from being in the Christas and Holiday flow.

I stamped and heat embossed with gold on vellum then I painted with my Zig brushpens though I dont know if we can call it painting as no water is used in this technique. I lighten the colour using the lightest colour in a colour range pulling the darkest colour that I have just run in one thin line along the edge of the flower. If I want to lighten more and also to add bling I use my Nuvo Shimmer brush pen.

Its really hard to get a decent photo of vellum and the shimmer so you will just have to believe me ok. Thats three cards made for Christmas next year lol.

And with this card I wish you one, and all, a very very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May you all get to see your family/friends and treasure every hug and kiss you share.

Next year, if your lucky the cards will flow, my humour will burst forth and I know, don't be too shocked, but you could even get a card in the mail. 

To all my friends here in Australia and those Overseas I thank you one and all for the lovely cards I have received throughout this year and Christmas. You have all helped me through a very hard year and in extension Elysha too.

Crafty hugs and kisses to you all

Aileen

Die Cut Flowers and Distress Oxide Backgrounds

I decided that since I havent made any Christmas cards to send out this year I would concentrate on Thank You cards to send to all the wonderful people who sent me cards for whatever reason this year.

If you follow me on Instagram you know that though I haven't been making cards I was being very industrious, making backgrounds for cards, cutting numerous die cuts and colouring in images. I think I have enough for a couple of hundred cards give or take.

So these cards were easy once the idea popped into my head.

The flowers on each of the cards all came in the same set. I die cut piles of them, then glued layers together (four at a time) as this lifts them and makes them look better. The die cuts are from

Pink Fresh and are called Floral Square Frame Dies

There are six in the set and you can do so much with them. Here I have kept the cards simple.

I used backgrounds with Distress Oxide each time in three colours. I then die cut the lifted section with the Tim Holtz Deckle Thinlits  Die I then found that the outside frame fit a 4.5" x 6" perfectly. So I attached the outer frame.

I then die cut adhesive  fun foam with the same die so I could lift the inner section slightly. I the process of sticking these layers on I managed to damage two card fronts where I pulled off bits of coloured card.

Not this one the other two which I then covered up by adding a little colour then a gem or two

in the strangest places but at least It covered the mistakes up.

Finished each off with a little die cut 'Thank you'. Sorry cant remember where these were from.

Now don't forget The Flower Challenge this month is all about using Die cuts. Still time to join in if you want and don't forget there is a prize for the winner.

So wonderful to be back and card making. I hope to see lots more of you all.

xx Aileen

The Flower Challenge #39 Reminder Use a Die

Sorry for the delay in posting. Lucky I couldn't sleep and decided to come on line. Too busy playing with my grandson yesterday to notice the date.

It's time to remind you all that we have passed the half way mark for The Flower Challenge this month. It's such an easy one too and remember this month we again have a prize available for the winner. So a card with flower/floral being being the main ingredient and somewhere on your card a die cut piece, the flowers, background, decorative piece or sentiment.

In this instance I have gold embossed on vellum then coloured direct to the front of the image with my Zig watercolour pens but not used water.  After colouring I diecut then I also cut a layer  in fun foam to lift from the front of the card. 

I couldn't find a die cut sentiment that fit with the centre of the die cut so I used a chipboard 'Christmas' sentiment that I added glitter to, then found a sentiment to go with it and layered that up with red glitter cardstock. Finished it off with some red gems.

My Christmas card stock is very low and late this year and will end up being used next year as my return to the craft room has been so late this year.

Now its time to go to The Flower Challenge Blog and check out all the amazing creations from the Design Team. Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you join us in this last challenge for the year. 

Crafty hugs xx Aileen

The Flower Challenge #39 Use a Die

I'm back to card making  and chose to use this amazing flower

image from The Ton. I coloured with Copics and just love how it turned out.

I then cut a layer of white glitter cardstock that I purchased to make lots and lots of white

glitter diecuts from that I could leave white or colour. Of course then I realised that it was hard as hell to cut with my machine, just too thick for me. So now I am using for backgrounds and still looking for that perfect white glitter card thats not too thick to cut easily.

After adding the white glitter layer to a white card base then I added the white layer with the coloured image. Lots of tape for each layer to hold in place. The came the silver die cut Merry Christmas that I layered up with an additional three layers of white die cut. I still felt it needed something else and came across this die cut corner from a Hero Art Kit, its so delicate and elegant I felt it was a perfect finish for a Christmas card.

Now its time to go see all that amazing inspiration from The Design Team and our Guest Designer Nancy Penir who makes the most amazing cards. Go and see what die cuts they have used and get inspired.  Remember your flowers can be for any theme you just need to include die cuts on your card. 

Also remember there is a prize again this month this time from 

the amazing Crackerbox & Suzy Stamps.

A small update for those of you overseas, fires are still burning right across Australia with over 130 in NSW alone. The closest to us is 7kms away and under control. Winds are so strong and the drought just feeds it. Cant see the sky or sun for smoke haze and the air is very hard to breath.  Please send lots of positive thoughts our way.

xx Aileen

Happy 7th Birthday Sophie

I'm back I think, well. I've just spent two days making cards so I'm pretty sure I am. 

There are cards for www.theflowerchallenge.blogspot.com.au but you don't get 

to see one till tomorrow and the other on the 15th.

Today's card is all about Sophie, my granddaughter who is 7 today. As well as my

granddaughter she is my crafting buddy and loves everything that is rainbows, flowers,

glitter, sparkle, fairies and unicorns and she is my sweet tooth friend too. When you go out

for lunch or dinner, and its just Nanny and Sophie its dessert first and if you are really hungry 

after then something savoury.

Todays birthday card is all about fairies and rainbows and glitter.

This may look like two cards but it's one with a special inside. The outside was very quick and easy. All the ingredients are Hero Art Kit from last year and I love this kit. The main kit is not available now but a lot of the add ons are so worth a look if your into fairies.

I first Distress Oxide blended some rainbow colours then attached the panel to a white card.

I die cut this fairy scene twice, once in black for shadow and once in gold glitter for the top layer.

I cut the black layer down the middle and trimmed a little from both sides (probably should have trimmed more but its a learning process).

Glued it in place, checking with my gold layer that black would show as I went. Then I spent 10 minutes looking for that little black piece which is her face yes cause the middle cut took off her face and I should have realised it would look funny without it. Found eventually and glued in place.

Then attached the gold layer. Finished it with the 'Happy birthday' die cut which I ran the Nuvo clear glitter brush over.

Inside is the fairy from the Hero Art kit, which I die cut and coloured with Copics.

Glued her in place, Found the sentiment I wanted then found some itty bitty

gold stars from a die cut background and glued them in place.

I love how the blended background looks, wasn't going for a proper

coloured background just bright and happy.

The fairy looks so pretty and there is sparkle on her wings want

and little flowers on her dress it doesn't show up in the photo.

Tonight to go with the card is her first set of Alcohol Markers 48 + another set of 24 with all the skin tones and a book to practice in.  Now she can join me with the colouring sessions and hopefully will get lots of use out of these markers. Found them online and they ended up around 50 cents each. Not refillable but what a great way for her to learn and see if this is her style.

Great to be back and I hope you will all stick around for more posts to follow. Thank you to everyone who continues to follow my blog and Instagram account. You have all been wonderful this past year and your love and kind words has been appreciated.

Crafty love

Aileen

Challenge Me a Christmas Card with Michelle Lupton & Friends

I am so excited to be back with this Challenge again with Michelle. I have participated in this challenge a few times now and look forward to being asked each year thinking about what to challenge Michelle to. 

This year I chose Using the same stamp; Using Distress Oxide on the card base, then using colouring with pencils for the stamped image.

Yes might as well jump right in on my first card after such a long break. Really give myself a challenge, then as the date got closer I started to panic as I haven't made a card in so long and each time I went in the craft room I just couldn't get past just sitting and looking around. Organising, reorganising, swatching that was easy. 

But luckily Michelle's invitation got me motivated.

I really pushed myself here, as I stamped the image first in grey ink using the Misti. I stamped on Multimedia card as I like that it barely warps with lots of water on it and also works with pencils and/or copics. I then loosely added Distress Oxides letting the colours run and spread. Boy was this hard, I am such a control freak wanting the colours only where they are meant to be.

 Anyway once I was happy with the layers of Distress Oxide I left it to dry then re-stamped this time white heat embossing. I then cut the piece in half, using one half for this card and saving the other half or another card.

I bought this stamp set last year from Simon Says and it arrived too late for last Christmas so this is its first time out of the packet. 

I added the panel to a white card base and added a strip of silver washi, a die cut 'Merry Christmas' from Stamplorations and then a bit of sparkle here and a bit of sparkle there with some sweet gems.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out and cant wait till to see what Michelle has done. Please go and check it out too and if you have time leave some love.

I'm still awol from the Flower Challenge and luckily the Blog Coordinator  is so amazing and the Design Team create so much beautiful inspiration that I dont feel Im letting anyone down. I am hoping this post will be enough to get me blogging more but I cant promise this at the moment. So please be patient with my grief and stick around cause I will be back and miss you all.

Yes Im still around, but......

I just wanted to pop in and say hello. It has been a while since I posted on the blog and I don't want you all thinking I am gone. I have been taking a short break as life has been fairly hard in the last year.

As you would know from previous posts, my husbands father passed away a year ago, then in January I lost a very very precious friend, Brad then my amazing wonderful mum a week later. I felt as though my world had fallen apart but also knew with mum it was the best thing as her Alzheimer's had reached the stage she was no longer able to get out of bed or stay awake.

Brad, well I will continue to struggle with that as he was too young by far and it was so sudden. He had always been my other sounding board along with mum. Always ready to listen and just be there. We enjoyed the same movies, books, food, dancing  and ogling the same guys (mind you I was just looking and commenting). He found my sense of humour entertaining if a little rude at times and I often stayed with him in town just to have a break from family life.

Four months after mum passed away on the 17th May (my birthday) dad decided to leave us as well. Though health wise he was doing ok, when mum died and we weren't sure how much he truly understood because of his dementia, he just seemed to give up on life. He disappeared into himself very quickly and at least he didn't end up going like mum. In my trying to understand all this loss when my brothers said how sorry they were dad had passed away on my birthday, I turned it round and told them it must have been because I was his favourite child and wanted me to know that...... really at 61 I don't think it matters so much as a birthday is really just another occasion to eat cake and celebrate.

Just a month after loosing dad, we found out that Johns mum had a very aggressive cancer and there was nothing to be done. They said probably three months. Two weeks after finding out she had cancer Fern passed away peacefully in her sleep. 

I cant believe that in one year we have lost 5 so important to us members of our family. I still colour and go on Instagram constantly looking at all the beautiful creations there but I have been unable to create lately.  I started on 'Thank you' cards to send to people who sent cards or flowers and haven't even been able to complete these.

To those who sent a card or cards or flowers to our family I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will get to sending cards, just not sure when. I miss everyone and all your wonderful comments that always make me feel so good about my hobby. I miss The Flower Blog card challenge too and see the girls are continuing to turn out amazing cards.

I have a wonderful husband, children and grandchildren who are all very patient with me and my lost moments, my crying and my wanting to be around them all the time.

My grandchildren are fantastic little humans who always seem to know when Nanny needs an extra cuddle and kiss and I thank god for blessing me with them.

This last years joy, was of course, the birth of Koby who I now babysit twice a week and my soon to be born next grandchild (number 7) and I look to them and hope I can fill them with lots of memories for their future.

I hope you are all well out there.

Hugs Aileen

Johns mum with Koby at Easter

Mothers Day with Mason(4) Koby (6months) and Sophie (6).

Just had to add this one as its so sweet.

The Flower Challenge #32 Reminder

It's time for a reminder post, for this months challenge at The Flower Challenge Blog and don't forget there is a prize for someone who enters the challenge this month on The Flower Challenge Blog and another here for someone who leaves a comment.

There is a restriction on my blog, the person needs to be from Australia, Tasmania or New Zealand but other than that just say hello and your in with a chance by commenting here or on the post for the start of the month for The Flower Challenge.

They are beautiful stamp sets on both my blog and the Flower Challenge. The one on the Flower Challenge Blog has been donated by Altenew and you know you love Altenew as much as we do.

The prize on my blog was a prize from Altenew when they came to Melbourne and turned out to be a set I already have so I decided to share the love. Check out my other post to see the set I'm talking about.

Now for this post I have another two cards still using that large background stamp (Rose or Succulent depending on how you use it). I decided to use the other two backgrounds to add some more inspiration.

With these two cards I used Zigs again and lots of loose colour put down then added lots of water.

I have heat embossed the design in gold then added yellow and orange each time just loose scribbles, mostly yellow with bits of orange. I then work petal by petal with lots of water on the brush and gently push at the colours. I just love how the colours blend together.

I let each colour dry on its own. No effort and very quick. Looks amazing when its dry and also when you add the water and watch the colour move from a single line on a petal to spread out. I then trimmed the edges and added to a 5" x 4 1/2" card base that I covered with a piece of sparkly glitter cardstock to first. Used a bit of glue to adhere the multimedia cardstock down as well as tape to get a good hold.

IRL the spacing is balanced, my photo makes the card look crooked.

I finished off with a die cut 'just because' in gold mirror card and a vellum background. No gems needed I felt.

This was the first card I did when I was colouring the four cards and the colours are in reverse of the other rose card. Loved them when I saw this done on Jennifer McGuires blog. I just scribbled loosely with my Zigs then added lots of water and watched it move.

I also added some shimmer for a bit of sparkle.

I nearly threw this one away as it was my attempt to improvise as I was babysitting and didn't have my heat gun. I borrowed Mel's hairdryer and put it on lowest speed and BOOM I have watercolour flicks and splatters flying everywhere. Lesson on this one learnt. But I decided I still liked it even with the purple flicks here and then so used it. Highlighted with Purple glitter card stock and finished off with die cut 'Awesome' and background vellum.

I had a bit of cleaning up to do and apparently I missed a bit (or a lot of the flying flecks) from my little experiment but hey, I babysit for free so whats a bit of paint here or there lol.

So there you have it the stamp used for 4 cards, each totally different to the next in colouring. I hope you enjoyed them. Don't forget to comment and then go check out the beautiful cards the rest of the Design Team have made. They are all amazing and have given me lots of ideas for other cards, just need to find that ever elusive 'time'

Thanks so much for coming to visit

Aileen

Birthday, Miss You & Hugs

I have so many images coloured that I decided I needed to get some cards made just so I feel as though I have accomplished something. I've been so busy moving craft stuff around, reorganising, labelling etc then colouring but not finishing cards off. I felt like I was avoiding this so it was time to get some actual cards done.

New stamp set, so very sweet with the little girls with the dogs and sympathy sentiments.

Stamped then coloured with Copics, nice clean design.

I then decided to add glossy accents to the hearts and you can see that here then decided to add

a couple of gem hearts (to cover those darn black smudges that creep onto the card when your not looking).

Finished it off with a Miss You sentiment rather than a sympathy for this card. Layered die cut, love that little panel behind that highlights the die cut word.

This is a stamp set and die I bought so long ago I would be embarrassed to say when especially as this is the first time used. I actually stamped the frame on the card as well that you see here in the die cut. 

But then I remembered I had the die so used that  as well, cut three times, first in wood look, then decided I liked the mirror card more. First version got glue on the top, tried to remove with the wrong rubber and it removed the mirror finish. So another added. Looks wonderful and finished off with some pale little sequins. 

This was a work of wonder as I added more and more as it grew. First I coloured my mermaid, love this new stamp. She is just so sweet. Coloured with copics and a bit of glitter pen. I decided to go with green hair I dont know why but happy enough for now.  after colouring her and the shells and seaweed I decided it needed to be dimensional so did another layer and added with dimension tape. Then I thought just a bit of Copic light colour around her so added some masking tape and removed the layered pieces and covered them.

Can you see that bit of sparkle I caught with the close up. And continuing her tail colour up her body a bit. (I saw where someone else did that and loved the look). 

I then decided then to go with blending and a stencil rather than copic colouring so used a mix of Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Oxides as I didnt have all the oxides. They work beautifully together. I put a light layer of colour first, then added the stencil and did the same colours in the same areas then removed the stencil and added colour again on top here and there to balance out. Removed the mask and had a bit of fixing to do round the mermaid and it worked out ok. Added those layers again, some clear gems and finally squeezed in a birthday sentiment die cut. 

She actually comes with some great sentiments but I had crowded things out a bit and then stuck on my gems before thinking of the sentiment (as you do!!!) I love how she turned out as Im not a big scene person and pretty much prefer to just colour and keep things pretty CAS. 

Anyway thats three cards done and only about 200 to go to use up some of my colouring.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and see you again soon for the reminder post for The Flower Challenge Blog. Also don't forget to comment on my previous post for a chance to win that wonderful stamp set I am giving away.

Aileen

Personal Note

This is a drawing my youngest Aaron had done for me for Mothers Day. My first without mum.

I had no idea he was doing this and of course when he gave it to me I cried my heart out. Mum never got to hold Koby as he was born just as she went into final decline with her Alzheimer's. So he gave the artist a picture or two of mum and the latest of Koby and the fella drew them in together. He caught the light and beauty of mums eyes to perfection and I see so much of us all in her. Such an amazing gift. 

Bruch with three of the grandchildren on Mothers Day.

Mason, Koby and Sophie.

Here I am with Koby and mums picture.

A wonderful start to the day with three of my children. Who could ask for more?

The Flower Challenge #32 Embossing (Dry or Heat)

Not only have they chosen my favourite type of stamping (heat embossing) but also it's one of my favourite stamp companies. I love using Altenew and this year I got to meet Tasnim at the Melbourne stamping workshop. I also got to meet Therese and many others that I had only ever talked to on line. It was a real buzz to meet all these wonderful people.

Tasnim I have followed since before she started Altenew as I love her style. I have many stamps ( and sadly I have some that haven't seen ink yet and I am working on fixing that.

The challenge this month is

and it is Sponsored by:

Over on The Flower Challenge there is also a stamp set that has been donated by Altenew 

all you need to do is enter a card with dry and/or heat embossing (please note it does not have to be an Altenew stamp used to enter but it you have any it would be great to see)

I went through my massive collection and the cards I made today (two of the six  I coloured) I have used a large Rose background stamp that I hadn't realised I had not used. Love it, LOVE IT embossed on watercolour paper, vellum and alcohol ink card stock. Todays are the watercolour versions.

All roses for me though others have used as a Succulent Stamp which is also suggested.

I have done both heat and dry for my first card.

I heat embossing in silver on multimedia paper. This was probably the easiest and quickest card as I used my Zigs the dark blue and purple then just scribbled loosely in each petal with the blue and bits of purple. Then I loaded my paint brush up with lots of water and just dropped it in each petal on top of the Zig watercolour and pushed with the tip of my brush to make the paints move until I was happy with them. If you look closely up the top of the flower I started out moving the colours with my Nuvo Glitter brush but it just wasn't working for me, I didnt like the look and realised I needed to save that for Vellum. I managed to fix the petals slightly when they had dried and was happy enough to leave as they were.

I cut the image using a die cut that gives this old paper edge look, sorry I don't keep them labelled.

I cut another layer in black fun foam to lift the layer a bit. I have taken this close up to show the embossed background paper that is a wonderful green colour just perfect with the blue's and purple's of the rose.

Finished it off with this pretty little gems that came for free (like a bag of approx 300) with my new Pick Up tool I purchased on Amazon. Love when you get those little extra's. Also added a 'Celebrate' die cut layer up three times, last layer silver mirror card.

Now this next one was inspired by one of Jennifer McGuire's videos and I love it. I did two in this style but I was babysitting my grandson at his house and forgot my heat-gun. So I borrow a hair dryer,

my goodness what a laugh, I had paint shooting everywhere and had to quickly turn it off. So one didn't turn out so crash hot and this one is better but I had to go with natural drying so its not as good as it could have been.

I white heat embossed on multimedia cardstock then added rings of colour with my Zigs. Nothing perfect in the colouring just rough circles each colour running into the next. Then spray with lots of water, its amazing to watch the colours soften and mix. I had to work fast to get rid of those total mixes which ended up looking like mud colour. Some of my colours mixed a bit much with the next one but next time I will go with the Heat-gun.

I only had plain water but it still looks beautiful. I trimmed the piece down and was going to use the Fine Frame finest layer to outline the image but I had misjudged my cutting and to save the day (after an hour and a half of different ideas) I decided to use a couple of the thicker fine frames and just lay them at angles on the card front.

I love how the improvisation worked. I can see some areas on the frame I will need to get ride of smudges which I didnt notice till I took the photos but I love how it ended up. Its another Birthday card as I have requests for many many Birthday Cards. I just added a small die cut 'Happy Birthday' layered up three times, the last layer in bronze glitter card.

So I'm very happy with how they turned out and I hope they give you a little inspiration. I painted 4 watercolour cards in less than an hour, I love the Big Background flowers as they are perfect for messy and relaxing paining and when my granddaughter got home from school she wanted one. I said pick one out and I will make it for you, she did a lot of thinking then came and said 'Nanny can I just have them all cause its too hard to pick one?' Love my admiration squad.

Now as a special surprise I have a stamp set here for a lucky person who leaves a comment on my blog. I am afraid I am limiting the person to Australia/Tasmania or New Zealand as postage is ok for these areas. I'm sorry to everyone else but it would cost me more to send the set than the cost of this stamp set.

But dont forget we also have a stamp set over on The Flower Challenge Blog and that has been donated by Altenew and they will post to anyone worldwide. Not for leaving a comment over there, it will be for the winner of this months Challenge.

For my blog, its for comments left. 

Dainty Bouquet Stamp Set

I have added some of the pictures that come with the stamp set showing examples of what you can achieve and I think they are simply stunning.

I won this stamp set amongst a number of amazing items at the Altenew Card Workshop in Melbourne (I could not believe the items in the bag and cant wait to try them all.).

I didn't realise I already had this stamp set (I told you I have too many I have not inked up yet!!). If I had I would have given to someone there so I am doing the next best thing. 

Now off you go to check out The Flower Challenge Blog and see what the Design Team have been up to. I have already seen the cards and I can tell you lots of amazing inspiration there.

On a personal front

  A picture or two of my youngest son and his son (my youngest grandchild till August anyway:)

For those who follow the family Aaron is also Elysha's twin and she who is 4'10" tall loves him to pieces and calls him 'my little twin brother' 6' 2" (because he was born after her so she is the Boss!!)

 

On a picnic with mummy and daddy and sitting on the couch. Just started sitting up unsupported but still with  someone to catch for those topples. Six months old now and can you see the little toothy peg , nice sharp little bugger. Looks like he has just been for a haircut but its actually growing like that. In the photo he looks so grown up but really he is so little (very tall but smallish in the weight area). Always ready with a smile  and very ticklish but still needs work on the sleep front.

 Next week I start 2 days a week looking after Koby and I was looking at him checking out Jake (Elysha's dog) the other day with a gleam in his eyes. He is really watching Jakes every move and I have a feeling Jake will be going on the missing list 2 days a week lol.

Well its been nice to catch up. See you all again soon I hope.