Sneak Peek

My blogging has gotten really slow latey hey! Well, I thought I would let you in on a little bit of what I have been doing. I haven't really been crafting too much but when I have, I have been working on a couple of cards for Cardmaking, Stamping & Papercraft magazine. They asked me to make a couple cards in certain themes and I finally finished them tonight!

Here are a couple sneak peeks. It's all I can show you and I am not sure which issue they will be assigned to but I'd say it would at least be a few months. I really hope they like them! This is the second time I have made cards for them and I find it slightly harder doing commission work because it is different to making cards for the sake of making them and then submitting them and being accepted/rejected. I am much harder on myself! I had such a great time and this time was certainly easier than the first lot! I really hope I get to make more!!

Wonderful Adventures

It's challenge time again and I am hosting it! I'm a bit late in posting it hey! Well, this week we are sponging. I went crazy sponging this week. I used my nestabilities to cut a big circle from a post-it note, stuck it on as the moon and then brayered the sky. I did a lighter blue around the moon itself and darker to the edges. Then I removed the post-it and replaced it with the negative so that it masked the blue sky and sponged the moon. After that I sponged the clouds using Michelle's tutorial. I have been meaning to try it for AGES because she is just the queen of clouds and they always look great. My biggest issue was drawing a cloud shape that I like!

Here is the inside with a daytime sky and some more clouds:

Remember, if you join in the challenge, leave a link on the High Hopes Blog and a random winner will receive a prize of First Ride and the Wonderful Adventures sentiment! Woohoo!

High Hopes New Release

WOOHOO! It seems like it has been a long time coming... for me anyway! The new release from High Hopes Rubber Stamps is out and they are online and ready for you to go crazy! There are so many to choose from so good luck choosing!

This release has a few different themes, mainly gorgeous, cute, funny, Farmyard stuff along with a few gorgeous (and big) bunnies, a cute chef called Luigi that has stolen a pizza my heart and a special mention to the mooody cow, Bossie.

So, hop on over to the High Hopes website to pick yourself up some new rubber and see the entire range that is Hot Off The Press today!

I made this card today so you can see some of these cute stamps in action! I used Farm Background, Maribelle Cow (hey, we used to have a cow called Clarabelle!) and Here a Moo.

The image ended up quite big in the end, the stamps are a really good size, some are huge... none of this tiny image in the centre business you're gettin' ya' dollars worth! After hours of watercolouring I put it all together, rubbed a bit of Super Tack glue on some linen thread and then curled it on the corners to add a bit of interest.

A Hoppy Easter Challenge

Hoppy Easter! It's challenge time... gee there is a lot going on today! This week Nikki would like us to make Easter cards... I have never made one before but I had such a great time with this one, I might make some more. I even used my Cuttlebug embossing folder and metallic rub-ons! I never use my embossing folders so this was a real change for me.... I actually used it without sitting for an hour trying to work out how to incorporate it on my card! Breakthough!

High Hopes Hullabaloo

What's a hullabaloo? It's the craziness the Divas are creating to celebrate the fantastic new release of High Hopes rubber stamps.... 'WHEN? WHEN?' you ask?? THIS SUNDAY!

Here is a sneek peek of one of the stamps:


If you want to see more... and who doesn't, hop around to some of the other High Hopes Diva's blogs and you will have some more sneak peeks of what Tina, Bethany and fabulous Crissy have to offer us this time! The Diva links are on my sidebar!

See you tomorrow for the BIG RELEASE! WOOHOO!

Guest Designer Call

Do you want to be a guest designer for High Hopes Rubber Stamps?? If you called out 'yes!', hop on over to the High Hopes Challenge Blog for more information on how you could become a High Hopes Diva!

A letter from Frank White

I am flat out this week so posts might be far and few between but I thought I would stop by quickly to pass on this letter from Frank White, aka Grandpa Frank... Tina's grandpa. You might remember this post for a call out for birthday cards for Frank to make this birthday a truly memorable one, well it worked!

Here is a personal thank you letter from Frank:

Dear Friends,

I am most grateful to all the people who took the time, effort, and expense of sending greetings for my 88th birthday. My son Frank initiated the idea abetted by my granddaughter Tina, that caused an avalanche of cards totaling over one hundred and fifty. I received 46 cards on one day alone!

Many were from relatives, but a great number were from people I have never met. Quite a number of different states were represented as well as many Canadian Provinces. Many customers of Tina's stamp and card business in other countries were nice enough to send greetings. Represented were Australia, Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Scotland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and the Union of South Africa. All these were hand crated and showed effort and originality.

My heartfelt thanks to all who sent these many greatly appreciated greetings. They made this a birthday to be well remembered.

Sincerely,
Frank White

More bubbles than troubles...

I made this card a few weeks ago for our lovely Diva Devine, Kimmie. It was her birthday yesterday!

This is Burt's Bath... isn't he funny as?! He puts a whole new meaning to 'bird bath'. Inside the card I stamped the sentiment, 'May your day be filled it more bubbles than troubles'.

I stuck with my tried and tested SU inks and a blender pen for watercolouring and an aqua painter and Twinkling H2O's to highlight.

In the highest room....

I worked on this pop-up card ALL weekend and it is by far my most complex card EVER. I worked it out and it took me about 18 hours all up! My sister, Kelly came over to stay on Saturday night so I had some company for some of it.

In the begining my 'Shrek' card wasn't so full on but as I went I added bits here and had more ideas there it evolved... in the beginning it wasn't even a Shrek card... that idea came half way through so I had to redo the knight with a green face and a red and purple dragon instead of green. Then in the end I ended up drawing a book for the front and everything (gee, that took a couple hours in itself!) I got that idea when I started watching Shrek last night and at the beginning he is reading the story of Princess Fiona being guarded by a dragon in the highest room of the tallest tower. The idea of the pop-up card came from Moonlight Inker. Sophia's card is just fantastic so you should pop on over and take a look... its worth it!

When the card is open, there is so much to look at and I am so pleased with how it turned out! It ended up better than I was expecting when it was just an idea in my head!

I looked everywhere for instructions on how to put the acetate so it folds down and sits flat when you close the card but no luck. The front stays proped open a bit but it doesn't really matter if you just sit it up like a normal card. It sits perfectly then!