Blog Candy

Would you like some 6x6 Stampin' Up! Pattern Paper and a couple little surprise gifts included? If you said "yes", make sure you leave a comment on this post before 30 December 2008 and you will go into the draw!

Updated:

THE WINNER IS HEATHER "HEV"!

Thank you everyone for your comments!

No Worries!

Hooray for Ace! He is such a cool dragon! I made this card to give to my High Hopes Blog Hop winner, Tamara. I wanted to wait until she had received it to post a photo of the card and I just realised that I still haven't posted it! I assume she would have the candy by now so here he is... ACE!

Best Fishes

Well, I am nearing the end of my Christmas cards now. That is provided I don't make anymore in the next couple days! This is the second last one I have made. I can imagine what you are saying right now... "what... more flowers and wire?".... yeah, I promise I will work on moving away from them very soon! I usually find a good thing then stick to it... especially when I am a bit restricted by time or I am a little low on stampin' mojo.

WOOHOO! Christmas Eve... only one more sleep!!

BEST FISHES FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HO, HO, HO

Ever wondered what Santa gets up to on Boxing day? This apparently! This Santa is a pretty cool one! This is pretty much what our Christmas is like here in Australia... you wake up, put on the air con to cool the place down and then you try not to go outside to much in the heat of the day! Well thats our Christmas anyway, some people are more keen than us and go to the beach and stuff... meh... it's to hot there!

Well, its getting closer to Christmas.... YAY! I have been so excited for days. This is the very first Christmas or birthday EVER where Matt and I have not chosen out own presents... he keeps teasing me and saying that I will love it and I will never guess it. The pressie is in medium sized box... there is a big bit that slides from side to side and a small bit that rolls.... YEP... I have spent some time under our stick tree shaking it! As for the stick tree bit, we were going to get a real tree this year but didn't get around to it so we ended up getting a dead stick from the park out the back and hanging decorations on that. It's very 'Aussie'. Next year... I'M GETTIN' ME A REAL ONE! It's rather exciting... I've never, ever had a real tree in my entire life... just plastic ones.

Watercolouring Tutorial

I often get emails asking how I watercolour... gee are there A LOT of different ways out there and I have tried dozens of them! I remember when I first started, I read and read and still didn't know where to start. This tutorial shows how I watercolour and techniques I personally find the best at giving me the results I like.

What I use:

• Stampin' Up! Blender Pen
• Stampin' Up! Watercolour Paper
• Stampin' Up! Classic Ink Pads
• Jet Black Stazon Ink
• Twinkling H2O's
• Fine Aqua Painter

1. With the classic ink pad closed, press the lid hard into the ink pad to transfer ink onto the lid. This will be your palette. Use a blender pen to pick up a small amount of ink and then watercolour as if you are using a marker. Scribble the blender pen on scrap paper to clean and remove the ink and change colour.
Tip: Start with your lightest shade first, allow each layer to dry fully and then work on building the colour rather than trying to watercolour the shade you want it straight up. This way you will have more control over the tonal variation of your image.

2. Watercolour a light wash over the entire image. Think about the lightest area you would like, and do the whole image in that light shade.
3. Allow the first layer to dry then apply some thick colour where the sun would be casting a shadow. Without letting the ink dry, quickly wipe the blender clean and then in small circular motions, blend just the edge of the colour in with the lighter areas.

4. Continue over the whole image returning to areas when they are dry to apply more layers if you would like it darker again.

5. Decide on a secondary colour to really bring your image to life. Watercolour lightly on the shadow/dark areas.

6. Continue over the whole image then add other colours.

7. Apply a small amount of Twinkling H2O's with an Aqua Painter on the dark areas to accentuate them further.

Tip: try not to let too much water leak onto the paper. Lightly wet the entire area to spread the H2O's properly and to avoid having little water line marks left behind.

8. Apply your finishing touches to the rest of your image. I put some Kindy Glitz on Huggable Hank's wings and a bit of H2O's on his scales in blue to make them stand out.

I hope this helps! GOOD LUCK!!

Merry Kiss-Moose

I made this one for my boss. He went to Canada in November to look for polar bears... I don't know if Canada was right where he was looking but he came back with moose presents! A pen and a pencil I have named my Bullwinkle pencil! I thought Merry Kiss-Moose would be a great card for him. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE Twinkling H2O's? They make any watercolouring look fantastic! It's just subtle but the little shimmer really gives it a little something!

G'Day Mate Kanga

I made this card a while ago too for the fabulous Crissy! I decided that even though she drew the gorgeous kangaroo, she would still like to receive a card with him on it... from Australia! I love these Aussie stamps! I couldn't possibly love the little Kanga and Sydney more!

Now, it was somewhere around watercolouring Kanga when I realised that I couldn't possibly live without my H2O's. All I had used them on before this was Kimmie's 'Sydney Koala' card below... they seriously hide so many little bits of colouring that I am concerned about and they make the colouring look so much more vibrant.... ohhhhh I love them! I just use them to accentuate the shadow/dark areas so it also means I don't have to do so many layers of colour trying to get it dark enough for my liking.

G'Day Mate

I made this card quite a while ago for fellow diva, Kimmie. I needed to send her a stamp that I had one extra of and thought that I should put a card with it too! What better than a little koala card from Australia!

This was my first attempt at using Twinkling H2O's properly and when I was finished I was so happy, now I use them on everything I watercolour!

Product of the Month

How sweet is the High Hopes POTM this month?!

M-042 Branch 10.70

F-155 Nest 6.70

E-150 Perched Birdie 6.00

H-186 Landing Birdie 8.00

H-185 Love Nest Valentine 8.00

The regular price for this set would be $39.40 CDN mounted but for the month of December you can purchase them on sale for $29.55 CDN mounted, $14.80 unmounted or $22.15 on cling foam, which is 25% off!!!

Flower Power

This is the very last High Hopes Challenge for the year! I can't believe how close it is to Christmas! As always, some great stamps will be given to one lucky participant of our challenge and all you have to do is use flowers... stamps, pattern paper, punchies... any flowers!

This card served two purposes this week. I made it for the challenge and also for my boss to give to his wife for their anniversary. She loved it apparently so I am really happy!

Owl Clock

I made this clock on the weekend and I am SO happy with it! I borrowed a couple ideas from Jane Jones' owl album (which I love so much I am going to get some more paper and make one too!) Jane's ideas were the extra little owls on the main tree and cutting out the little trees to the right. I was so glad I came across Jane's album because up until then I had only glued down the main owl piece to the clock and I had hit a wall! I just couldn't be happier with this... it was even good enough to make it to the lounge room for display rather than just my shelves in my stamp room!

Metal Madness!

It is challenge time at the High Hopes Blog! This is the second to last one for the year so make sure you put a link to your card on the HH blog to be in the running to win some rubbery goodness from Tina.

This week is my turn to challenge you and I thought it would be good to see how people use metal differently to embellish. I have used 24 gauge black wire and used a pair of pliers to twist it coming out from under the flower and around the candy cane and bell. There are also some red brads in there too! So, pop on over to the HH blog too see what the other Diva's have come up with.

Sweets & Treats are Published!

I made these chef cards at the beginning of the year and they have finally been published! I have three High Hopes cards in the next issue and I am so excited to see those! I can't wait!

Candy Cane Reindeer!

This little project is one I have been working on for a couple weeks now. I have been gluing noses and eyes at night when I have been watching telly with the idea of taking them to work to give to people for Christmas. Aren't they cute little reindeer??

When I started these little guys I had no intention of making a whole sleigh! Last night I was about to decorate a container to put them in when I thought it would be fun to put little sleigh sides on the box to make it look more interesting. One thing lead to another and I ended up building a whole sleigh! I got the template for the sides from here and then I just muddled my way through the rest, making it up as I went! I absolutely LOVE it... I want to take it to work still but I love every little reindeer so much that I don't want them eaten!!

Happy Birthday

I made this card for my niece's birthday at the beginning of November... I had completely forgotten the photo was there! For the 'Happy Birthday', I watercoloured it, cut it out and then raised it on foam tape. I really like that stamp... I don't have it personally, I stamped it a few times when I got together with a few friends to do a bit of a stamp share.

I'm feeling a bit lost today. My last blender pen ran out last night and it's just making a mess without enough liquid so I am twiddling my thumbs trying to work out what to do with myself until my blender order gets here next week. A WHOLE week with no watercolouring!! Oh dear. What is going to become of me!

Snow Seeds

This is a little seed packet and as soon as I saw the template in this month's Stamping & Papercraft mag I thought Crystal Snowlady would be perfect! As I have said before, its summer this time of year for us so I just think it would be so amazing if you could actually plant snow seeds and have them grow! This little packet would be good for a gift certificate or some little goodies... makes a change from a regular Christmas card anyway! I am so chuffed with it... I might even keep it for myself!

I spent HOURS watercolouring her. All up it was about three hours and then I put Twinkling H2O's on her. If you haven't tried these on your watercolouring... they look GREAT! In person they are more noticeable... they are a little bit hard to capture on camera but you get the idea (you can see it bigger if you click on the picture).

Lumpy!

Lumpy is WAY up there on my top 3 favourite animal stamps! I love him! This card is really simple but it is one of the ones I am most pleased with recently. I made it weeks and weeks ago but I lost it under all of the paper on my desk and completely forgot about him. This is the first time I have made a card where the image has sit outside of the card base... I like it... it gives it a different sort of look and makes it quite interesting if you ask me.

Christmas Decoration

I made this Christmas decoration last week. It's pretty much straight out of the Kaisercraft Workshop booklet with a few changes like the order of the paper and the decorations. I really have not a single idea what I am going to do with it but that doesn't really matter I suppose... it was fun to make! I am so hooked on the Pear Tree papers this year and I still have so much left over I will probably have to make a few more things before Christmas to use it up!

Hop to it!

Just a quick reminder not to forget to HOP, HOP, HOP... the High Hopes blog hop is STILL going so make sure you track it down to find the goodies!

Happy Holidays

I was a bit late in posting this week because our internet was down last night!

It's Challenge time again! This week the challenge is to use brads and buttons on a card. I have been trying something new lately and trying to think 'scrapping' a bit more with the layouts of my cards because I was a bit stuck on matting everything so here is an attempt!

For this image I stamped the small Christmas hat first and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the Sydney koala. He does look cute with a little Christmas hat! I attempted to use my brand new Twinkling H2O's on this card and they are so fun! They colours are just gorgeous. I watercoloured Sydney first and then put on some H2O's on his hat and the leaves to add a bit of sparkle! I found it was REALLY hard to get it to show up nicely on camera bit here is a bit of an idea. If you click on the pictures you will be able to see them bigger.

Pick of the Patch...

Hooray for Gardener Bunny! I found this cute vegie paper at my local scrapbooking shop a little while ago and thought it would be perfect for this little guy. I really, really enjoy watercolouring and I have to say, this is the best I have done this little guy yet. At some stage though, I might have to try and move away from Old Olive don't you think? I only noticed yesterday but it seems it is the only colour I am using at the moment!!

A Friend Like You.....

It's High Hopes challenge time again! YAY! I had a great time making this card this week. The challenge is SPARKLEMANIA! I used some pattern paper I got with a Secret Santa gift last Christmas from Susan. It was lining a box that she sent the gift in so I put my Cuttlebug alpha in the box and put the paper aside for just the right occassion. The paper is so cute, it has glittery bits all over it so it was perfect. The stamp is called 'Lenny's Love Me Not's' and it is one part of this month's Product of the Month so its 20% off when you buy it in the set!

THE BLOG CANDY IS HERE!

*UPDATED*

A HUGE thank you to everyone that entered my blog candy and to those who took the time and effort to let their friends know! I had a great time reading all of your comments and it is fantastic to see how many High Hopes fans there are out there! I am so pleased to let you know that the person who has won this candy is going to LOVE it and I hope to see an entry in one of our weekly challenges now she has her very own dragons to play with.

The winner is.....

Stamping to De-stress - TAMARA!

Here are your random numbers:85
Timestamp: 2008-11-10 22:57:57 UTC

Thanks again everyone and don't forget to keep hopping! The High Hopes Blog Hop is not over yet!!

WOOHOO! The High Hopes Blog Hop has finally stopped right here! Would you like some candy??

These are my favourite of the whole bunch... I love these guys! Here we have Ace and Baby Dragon and 'It's all good' to go with the litte thumbs up groovy guy himself! All you need to do to go into the draw to win this rubbery goodness is post a link on your blog to this candy and leave me a comment and they could be yours! Entries close midnight, Monday 10 November 2008 (Australian time)!

Let it Snow.....

Yeah... I know, its not likely to snow in Australia at this time of year but I just like this little cowboy snowman so much it just doesn't matter! This is my card for this week's High Hopes Challenge which is to make a card or project that is using non-traditional Christmas colours! I was a bit slow making this one this week because we spent all weekend outside doing house stuff... not as fun but it had to happen at some stage... we couldn't even fit the car in the car port anymore!

REMEMBER, the High Hopes Blog Hop is STILL going! Talk about a lot of a good thing! Well, a new diva has her blog candy up now so be sure to hop around and see if you can track the sweet stuff down!

Amy ~ Anna ~ Crissy ~ Ila ~ Inge ~ Janette ~
Jeanne ~ Katharina ~ Kimmie ~ Lacey ~ Michelle ~
Niki ~ Nikki ~ Ying

What kind of pet would I be? a cat!

Hmm... CAT sounds ok to me. I'd love to have Kitty's to-do list... sleep... eat... sleep... go inside... sleep... sleep.......... ah...... sleep. How lovely it would be to do nothing then sleep afterwards.

Independent and aloof, you don't like to be dependent on anyone.
And as for other people, you can take them or leave them. You often don't care.

You live your life by your own rules and you have deep motivations that no one truly understands.

Why you would make a great pet: You're not needy or greedy... unlike other four legged friends. (hmm... I think I am rather needy!)

Why you would make a bad pet: You're not exactly running down to greet people at the door

What you would love about being a cat: Agility and freedom

What you would hate about being a cat: Being treated like a dog by clueless humans

What kind of pet would you be?

Bewareth Ye of Dragons

I love this! It's a 7"x7" piece of cardstock so I didn't have to worry about trying to squeeze the stamps in like usual! I made this little sign for a lady at work. We have a new staff member in our office and he sits right in front of one of our existing 'rebels'. Sometimes she gets a little short with him so he calls her a snappy dragon... that's why I made this sign. They both think its fantastic! He is completely bald and says that it was because she burnt all of his hair off! We have it on the wall now warning people to beware... just in case a snappy dragon comes out!

High Hopes Sketch Challenge

This week over at the High Hopes Challenge Blog we are doing a sketch challenge! Pop on over to find out more and if you join in, make sure you leave us a link to your card!

My card this week is using Bethany Angel and she is nothing short of adorable don't you think? Once again, I used my Nestabilities but this time I also pulled my old Creative Memories Wave Ruler thingy! I haven't used it in years!

Remember, the High Hopes Blog Hop is STILL going and isn't going to end for a few more weeks yet so keep hopping through our blogs to make sure you track down the sweet stuff!

Bewareth Ye of Dragons..

I LOVE this saying! It makes me laugh every single time and the cute little chubby Albert to go with it! I have been pretty hung up on using this pattern paper with the fairytale stamps for a while now but it just goes so well! It is exactly the colour scheme I love with these stamps so I hope you like it because I will be making more until the paper runs out!

So with that, I will leave you with the tip of the day... Bewareth ye of dragons... for thou art crunchy! You never know, you might need that bit of advice one day!

but, thankfully, I doubt it!

High Hopes Blog Hop!

Want some blog candy??

Haha did I need to ask?? There is HEAPS flying around in all different directions... all you need to do is find it! Every few days a different High Hopes Diva will be offering FABULOUS blog candy! This candy shower is something you wont want to take lightly... there are some amazing stamps from High Hopes new release up for grabs so... get hopping and find that candy... don't forget to come back here though... I will be offering some sweet stuff too!

Anna ~ Crissy ~ Heidi ~ Ila ~
Inge ~ Janette ~ Jeanne ~ Katharina ~
Kimmie ~ Lacey ~ Michelle ~ Nikki ~ Ying ~

Think Pink

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and its time to think pink. To help raise awareness, please take a minute to post this little penguin on your blog or get yourself a pink ribbon.

Nikki from Bunny-Zoe's says this... and I couldn't have put it better myself...

Take a few minutes to just think... smile at the next person you see, tell someone you love them, give your kids a huge hug, send a distant friend an e-card to let them know you care, send a friend an unexpected RAK or maybe you would like to make a pink card to to send to someone special to put a smile on their face!

Visit Nikki's blog to read her lovely post and if you make any pink cards during october, be sure to let her know.