Sew Sweet

Hey there,

Just wanted to share the last of the cards I made using Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl collection.

Again, it's a big A5 card with a matching envelope.

I know, these big cards cost more to post - I don't know why I do it to myself sometimes. I guess it's about the making and not the posting and hoping that maybe the occasion of "card giving" will be a giving one, not a posting one. Plus, who wants to make normal-sized cards all the time? I just kinda make what I want to make at the time pretty much...you?

:o)

One of the other cards I made

Hi there!

This is another of the cards I made from Cosmo Cricket's Materal Girl.

Loving that green check paper. It's funny, when I buy a collection, I'm usually drawn to a couple of papers in particular. The one I liked was Measuring Up with the tape measures on it. I ended up not using it at all, maybe the colours were too strong? I used the back on every card I think - the back's the green check. It became the one I reached for the most.

The other paper I liked in the collection was In Stitches - the one with all the different stitches on it. It's a nice one and I did end up using it a lot.

Enjoy the card and your day!

PS. A day spent crafting is sweeeet!

The other card I made...

...to fit the envelope I cut too small.

It was only small by about a 1 cm or so, but too small is too small!

It's pretty simple.

(All papers etc are Cosmo Cricket - Material Girl)

Green background (love that green).

Red strip.

Border strip (from the border strips paper - it has the quote on it).

Scissors (self-adhesive even) underneath.

Corners chomped.

7 mins.

Less.

Who doesn't love a big pair of chipboard scissors?

Andrew, that's who.

I showed him the cards I made and he thought they were kiddy. Like, what's with the chipboard and stuff? He didn't get it.

I get why he didn't get it because I guess it's kiddy in a way and I can see why he would think that.

I never thought about it, I just used it and liked it.

His reaction surprised me a bit because he was quite definite about it in his laid back, but definite, way. I didn't mind that he didn't like them, but I would've liked him to like them! Oh well, can't win 'em all. Maybe I should've signed the card to my sister from just me, and not him :o).

He always likes my punch art though, so yay for me.

Yay for him is all I can say.

Thought this was a nice quote.

It's a goodie.

At least it's not kiddy.

A card for my sis

It was my sister's birthday over the weekend (hi, Sue!) and this is the card I made for her.

It's a biggie, it's A5. I like 'em big. More room to stick stuff.

I ended up making this on the kitchen bench, rather than in my room. No room in my room, no time in my room (ie. sitting at the desk means committing, standing at the bench is more free and easy. Anyway, it's all another story that you know I'm gonna tell).

This is the card.

I used Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl line.

Sue's into patchwork at the moment, so it was perfect for her.


My sister doesn't look like this.

My sister has brown hair. And she doesn't wear pigtails. Her head's not that big either.

Crafting = taking liberties. Liberties I took.

Actually when Pete (brother) saw the card he said, "That's Dirt Girl. Jack (his son, he's 8), look, it's Dirt girl."

Dirt girl?

She's on the ABC - one of those kids' shows. I had no idea. Ben 10, Dirt Girl - who makes up the names? In my day it was Astro Boy. I didn't care for him.


When you make your biggie card, you need a biggie envelope.

This was the second version because the first was too small. I thought I had it down pat. I didn't.
Do not fear though, I made another card to fit the smaller envelope. Waste not, want not.


Sue was given a sewing machine for her 21st birthday. She's not 21 now. She's a fair bit older and in all that time her sewing machine hasn't had a lot of use.

After sitting around in the cupboard for so long, it's gone into shock because it's being hammered like nobody's business now.

Is this true, Sue, or am I just making all this up?


Sewing notions.

Cute.

The whole card needed the thread to finish it off.

Pink? Didn't have the right colour.

Green? Nup.

Yellow? Yes. Nice.

Finished the whole card with the WeRMemory Keepers Corner Chomper on the corners. Love that thing 'cause it punches through lots of layers and I don't have to think ahead.

Sue liked the card. Glad she did.

She liked what was inside too - a spelling mistake from me. She liked that with me being a writer and all. Ha ha.

Hope you had a good birthday weekend, Suzanne.

Was good to spend some of it with you!

Trends and stuff

Hey there,

Do you like being in the know?

If you do, have a look at Nancy Nally's site called Scrapbook Update and she'll keep you up-to-date with all things scrap related!

I linked you over to her earlier this week to check out the sneaks from CHA July. See anything you like there?

One set of articles that she does around CHA time is about trends and what's going on in the industry. She usually does a preview of what's happening and then a wrap up of observations from the show. She talks about trends, favourite products etc. They're cool.

Recently, on July 16, she did a CHA Summer 2010 Trends Preview. You can read the entire article here.

Here's a quick overview of what she's expecting to see at the show in these categories...

~ Colour - a move from pastel to bright.

~ Theme - home arts ie. cooking and vintage sewing.

~ Products - electronic die-cutting, manual die-cutting, stamps, buttons, flowers, journalling products. Rub ons are on the down low apparently.

~ Design/Style - Vintage, faces, wood, birds, cute, peacocks, banners, glamour/Paris.

~ Project - cardmaking, kits, ATC's (artist trading cards).

Being someone who likes bright colours, cooking/vintage/sewing themes, manual die-cutting, banners and cardmaking, well, I think I'm covered!

What about you?

Cute

Are you a cute chick?

Funky

Are you a funky chick?

Fun

Are you a fun chick?

Making time for craft

Hello to you today...hope you're doing well.

You know what?

I had a realisation the other day...

I realised I need to spend more time crafting.

Not for selfish reasons, but for selfish reasons!



Not because I want to, but because I need to.

I was a bit of a cranky pants recently - too much to do, too little time - you know the drill. Washing, cleaning, ironing, work and regular life stuff - it never ends. The clock keeps ticking and the washing machine keeps spinning!

(Well, actually, my washing machine's not spinning at the moment and that's a problem! It's about 17 years old now, so it's been good, but I think it's about to go completely)

Anyway, I found myself doing a bit of craft at my desk recently and all the stress went away. I was enjoying myself and realised I was being re-fueled.

Of course, I know this.

I know craft is fun to me.

I know I love it.

I know I get itchy fingers and have to make something now.

But what I realised was:


I'd made craft an option in my life...which meant I'd made all the benefits options too.

How dumb is that?

Craft isn't first in my life, but it shouldn't be put last either.

Know what I mean?

We have to be intentional about everything in our lives nowadays in order to get some good stuff in there somewhere. And that, for me, includes craft.

I decided then and there at my desk that day, that I was going to give craft more of a priority in my life - not because of the paper and glue, but because of what it does for me.

It makes me happy.

It brings me joy.

It relaxes me.

And I want those things in my life! What about you?

And if craft is one way I can intentionally reduce stress, shouldn't I go for it? Shouldn't we??

And if I'm (we're) happy and relaxed then maybe I (we) can go and do the grocery shopping without being a cranky pants...

I'm not saying you're a cranky pants or anything, but are you with me?

:o)

Let's make time for it, girls.

We need to.

I, for one, am telling you you're allowed...

The Stepping Stones of Creativity...

Yesterday I mentioned the stones. The stepping stones of creativity. I made that up, but I didn't make up the truth of it.

Case and point...

Months ago I made this brown butterfly card. Is it a moth? No, it's a butterfly. It could be a moth, but it's not.

It's a butterfly, and unfortunately, it happens to be brown, because that's the colour I chose that day.

Wouldn't chose that colour the other 364 days of the year, but on that day, I did.

It's brown.

But look what happened a few days later...

I made the card under it and the butterfly is pink. Oh, nice. Definitely not a moth!

And thus, I started walking the stepping stones of butterflies. Well, the stepping stones of creativity, but in this case it's butterflies we're yakking about. Or I'm yakking about.

Okay, here's where you start scrolling!

And look where the stones led me! Everywhere, man. Bright, matchy, not matchy - all over the place. A brown moth led me to something I like a lot more...a red butterfly, and butterflies aren't even red.

(The music paper butterfly was a bit of a left field ring-in to the process, but it was worthy of being included, so I included it)

So, there you go. Step on those stones!

Only if you want to, that is.

Only if you dare.

Been on that walk to find other interesting envelope paper options yet?

I've got another one for you...

Music paper.

I rest my case.

Another butterfly...

Hey, another butterfly for you today.

Can't go wrong with a butterfly, now can you?

I've used two layers of butterflies and added glitter to the middles of the flowers on the top one.

All of the papers are Cosmo Cricket - Girl Friday. Except the butterfly, that's from October Afternoon's Cherry Hill line (the paper called Recipe Box). Hey, mixing and matching is a good thing!

What do you think? Do you mix and match too?

I love this photo. Bright and pretty and just nice. A lot of people don't like to use too many colours at once, but I'm happiest when I've included them all on the one card.

Red

Blue

Green

and

Yellow

then

Pink

and

Orange

with

Cream as a base!

What's your favourite colour combo? Are you a minimalist, or do you like 'em all like me?

Butterfly

Hello everyone,

Just a quick card share for you today.

I like simple and this is simple. It's Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper and the punch is from EK Success. It's the Whale of a Punch butterfly.

And in other news - I no longer have wires coming down the wall under my desk. So great!

Bye now,

Debra

Father's Day

Well, hello again!

Father's Day this weekend and that's two days of celebrations for us this year.

Andrew had the brilliant idea of taking my dad (and mum) to Coochie Mudlo for the day on Saturday with special transportation in our boat. Great idea, and I know just the embossing plate I'm going to use on the invitation! Andrew just laughed, but I got excited and went to my room and made this.

Remember the Fiskars texture plates? Because the design is vertical, I had to make my invitation as wide as the design. It ended up being quite small, but it worked.

On that note: have you noticed that they make all the embossing folders with vertical designs? We make cards both vertically and horizontally, but I just noticed that all the specific designs are vertical ones. I mean you can switch your Swiss Dots, and a few of the others around, but a lot you can't. Interesting.

Here's the invite. Gosh, wavy. Hopefully we won't hit waves like that on the way over!

Note the use of the ledger paper for the clouds? Love it. Dad questioned it, and the words, but I simply explained that it all added to the art of it. :o)

So we're going on Saturday, do you think we're going to be rained out? What's our plan B? We've got one, we've always got one. We thought a civilised coffee and cake at the shopping centre might be in order. And an IOU boat trip.

And this is the card I made for him. Made this literally months ago. Gotta strike while the iron's hot, the inspiration is there, and the paper is within reach and not annoying me because I can't find it. Or can't find it quickly enough.

Don't worry, the quickly enough problem is solved, so I won't mention it again.

It's actually a tri-fold card. I didn't intentionally sit down to make a tri-fold, I think it was just on my desk. Like I said, made it months ago and can't remember!

I used Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel line. I love the guy diving on the front. Of course the Snorkel paper suits the outdoorsy, watery theme we're going for for the day tomorrow. Hopefully it's not water from the sky...

And for day two of the Father's Day celebrations, we're having a lunch together with Andrew's family. This is the card I made for my father-in-law. Rustee is his dog, so a dog card kinda makes sense.

More lined paper. Can I get enough of it? Let's all shout, "No!" Will I use it again? Let's all shout, "Yes!"

Have you got yourself some lined paper? My favourite is the scrapbooking paper (in lots of brands), but you can use notebook paper, it's just thinner.

The dog paper and the dot paper are one piece. Dogs on one side, dots on the other. I made three cards using that one piece of paper. It's from Basic Grey, but I don't know what it's called. Hang on, checking...it's called June Bug - Aggie. The line is June Bug. The actual paper is Aggie. Three cards, one piece of paper. Not bad. And two of the cards are A5 fronts. Even better.

I used a scallop edge punch to do the brown edge. You can use any scallop punch. Mine is Stampin Up!, but there's a Fiskars one that's just scallops too. Or you can use deco scissors, which I did too. I'll do a quick post and show you the other two cards I made as well.

Okay, hope your weekend is great, whatever you're doing, and whatever the weather!

:o)

Hey

Hey everyone,

Just a quick card share for you today. These chooks are from my third book, Punch Art Fun for everyone 3, on pages 8 and 14. The card above isn't in the book, just the chooks. Cute, huh?

And that's Early Bird paper again and some Making Memories ledger paper behind. I like mixing and matching papers, but only if I don't have to try too hard. And those are my favourite basic alphabet set from Hero Arts.

I use a lot of the same things over and over again...do you do that too?

Like them, paid good money for them, want to use them up! All good reasons that they keep appearing on the old cards.

Bye for now,

:o)

PS. When I link you over to things on the net, I usually choose the site for the picture of the product. I didn't buy my Making Memories ledger pad from the shop I linked, I just liked that they had a picture of all the papers inside. If you like what you see, you can do an added search to find it somewhere else online, or in a shop near you. Just wanted to mention that.

PPS. Blue Bazaar currently has some of the ledger pads for about 10 dollars (under September restocks 2), which is a really good deal. And if you read their newsletter there's some specials going on. The newsletter came out today, so it's current info. And they're a Brisbane based company. Enjoy!

More Early Bird

This isn't meant to be a week of repeats...

I shared this photo very early in this blog when I said something about colour I think it was.

I'm sharing it again today for a completely different reason. See that blue plate? I love it. It reminds me of my granny.

See the edge on the blue plate? I really like it. The slightly scalloped (is it scalloped, you think?) shape is lovely and I wanted to make something using the pattern.


So I traced the plate and made this. It's Early Bird paper again, with a bit of text paper in the middle.

The yellow is Bazzill bling Bling. Yep, bling Bling. It's Bazzill bling, ie. the sparkly paper, and the colour is called Bling. Bazzill bling Bling. Funny. If it's not called Bling (which I know one of the yellows is), then it's Bright Lights. That would be Bazzill bling Bright Lights. Either of the yellows is nice.

The thing is...it's not a card, it's obviously not a scrap page, it's not a picture...it's just a thing I made, and I just display it on the shelf, and I like it.

I knew I wanted to make something using the pattern...I just didn't know what.
Then I made something with the pattern...and I didn't know what it was.
I thought, "What am I going to do with this?" I mean, I liked it, but what was I going to do with it?

I just put it on the shelf.

And you know what? I liked it just being there on the shelf. It wasn't doing anything, it was just there.
And I still like it being there.

I look at it often as I go in and out of the room. I still wonder what it is, but I like it...whatever it is.

I guess it reminds me that not everything I make has to have a purpose and a reason for living. You know?

Some stuff just needs to be made. That's it. That's all. End of story.

And it can even be chucked. Chucked! I know, chucked. Things can even be chucked.

My plate thing isn't going to get chucked, but it could. (It won't)

Some craft is just about play. It's just about making something, enjoying the process, and that's it.

And I like that.

I don't do it enough.

I should.

What about you?

I like my plate thing. I'd make it again. And I'd put that one on the shelf too. And I'd look at it and go, "Well, plate thing, here you are reminding me that not all things I make need to have a purpose and a reason for living. Thanks for that."

Yep, thanks for that.
One of the reasons I love craft so much? Because you get to do fun stuff, play with fun stuff, buy fun stuff and make fun stuff. Yes, fun stuff. But in the midst of all that fun stuff, there's a lot of learning and processing going on. I've learnt a lot of interesting things while crafting that can be applied to lots of different areas in life. It's just paper and glue, but it's so not.
Of course I can't be telling you any of those great things I've learnt right now because they've completely slipped my mind, as things have a tendency to do right when you need to recall them...BUT, they're there. They're there, be assured of that. And they come out right when I need 'em too. It's amazing. It's God, actually. He rocks. And He's interested in craft. He created the whole world afterall, so why wouldn't He be interested in what we create, and how we create? Of course He is. He's interested in it all. And passionate about it all, and us, and you!
Ah ha, and we thought it was just a plate thing that sat on the shelf...
Not.
So not.
:o)

Card for Jack

I've shared this card before, but I wanted to again because it's the one I sent to Jack after he sent me the pyramids.

I love making cards.

I love having a card stash.

I love it when my nephew sends me things and I can go to my stash and find just the card for him.

Inside I said, "You're special and I ain't lion."

A bit of ha ha never goes astray when you're addressing a 7 year old.

:o)

I hope you're having a great Monday!

A bit more Early Bird

Do you like Early Bird as much as I do?

Do you love polka dots as much as I do?

Once again, these are big A5 cards. And I found some big A5 envelopes at KMart to send them in. Nice.

The little cup is cute, hey?

Hope you enjoyed...

:o)

Hello, Early Bird!

I'm excited to share some Early Bird cards with you today. The people at Cosmo Cricket really nailed this line.

The paper and chipboard stickers were so fun to use. I'm happy to say too that I've still got some left for some more cards in the future. Nice.

I made this first. It's one of the borders with the toaster chipboard sticker on it. Went straight on my fridge. I'm not a morning person!

This one is my very favourite. Love that toaster with the toast. Very cute! Used the Fiskars Apron Lace punch for the striped border.

The photos don't really show the sizes of the cards very well. This one is an A4 folded, so it's an A5 front. Nice and big. And fun.

Love how the Cosmo people have added the vintage element to everything lately. I love artwork from the 40s/50s/60s era.

And some simple ones to finish. Cherries are everywhere right now. And the scallops are still going strong.

A bit of hand-drawn stitching, a bit of double matting (haven't done that in a while) and a bit of paper piercing. I like easy techniques that help finish a card.

And just a note on that. If a card needs finishing, and I can't figure out what it needs, it's done. Simple.

I've decided it's not worth agonising over those cards that just aren't working. Yes?