Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Your weekly bird update...

Great news - the bird has flown the nest!
Three weeks he has been my cardmaking muse, my constant companion ... one day he was testing the sweet nectar from the honey suckle flower vine, the next I saw him swallow a live spider, and another bird feed him a morsel from its beak... and I knew it was only a short time to go.
He grew his flight feathers in a matter of a week and has not returned.
Our baby bird has flown off with the local flock of noisy minors and our home is a little quieter for the loss of him. I wonder does he miss our 6.45 am feed sessions of mushy apple sauce, cat biscuits and honey water? I'm not sure that I do.
How do you inspire yourself to choose a stampset for your next project?

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

So swirly, snow swirled ...

Did I mention I love embossing? You guessed!
This gate fold card is embossed with clear embossing powder and versamark on the front with the so swirly wheel.
Then the tree is stamped and embossed with silver embossing powder... on white cardstock.
My little pot is made from silver metalic cardstock (put through the crimper).
And, tied with a bow of elegant eggplant grosgrain ribbon.
Season's greeting sentiment holds the gate closed with a silver brad and the star is both embossed and covered with Crystal effects to make it shine.
Can you believe it only one month left of the current Spring mini ... many of these stampsets and products may not be available again, atleast not until the new catalogue that comes out in October 2010!!!

Seen a technique you'd like to try? Thinking of making Christmas cards?
Contact me : nerida_carter@hotmail.com and arrange a date.

Friday, October 23, 2009

It's still my Stamping Joy birthday!

Did you miss this one? I am re-posting this offer:
Just when you thought Stamping Joy had finished celebrating ... I thought I would indulge in a little interactive joy ...
Would you like to win a free stampset or ink?
I have been in business for 12 months - thanks to you I am getting through each quarter and enjoying a great hobby, sharing what I love and spending way too much of my time here ...
What will you win? 1st prize: A hostess stampset "Best Yet" and a sample of 6x6 Designer series papers.
2nd prize: A hostess stampset "Oh, so lovely" (from the 2008 IB@C) and a sample of 6x6 of Designer series papers.
3rd prize: A Classic Ink Stamp pad AND a sample of 6x6 Designer series papers.
What do you have to do to win?
  • Order and Spend $100 on stampin' up products purchased this month through me by email and mention this post:
  • Simply email or phone your order to me at nerida_carter@hotmail.com and you are automatically eligible to win.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Friendly words

We are still feeding our little noisy minor bird ... every couple of hours. Here he is only a few days after we found him on the first Monday of the school holidays.When I am making cards he is on the floor lookng at me, chirping at me and showing his pretty yellow and grey plumage. So I have made another friends 24/7 card using the markers direct to rubber and coupled it with the friendly words wheel. A portrait of our little bird as he grows.
The Marker Colours I have used are: so saffron, going grey and basic grey for the bird. Chocolate chip and Old olive for the branch he sits on.
I have distressed the edges of the white and chocolate chip card stock mounting with my distressing tool.... it gives a kind of shabby chic look and suits the watercolour effect of the stamping.
The friendly words wheel has a collection of quotes and lines about friendship ...my favourite is
True friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.Materials used:
Stampset: Friends 24/7, Friendly words wheel.
Cardstock: Sahara sand, whisper white, chocolate chip
Ink: chocolate chip.
Markers: so saffron, going grey, basic grey, chocolate chip, old olive close to cocoa.
Ribbon: choc chip taffeta.
Tools: Distressing tool, Circle punches: 1 1/4 ", 1 3/8"

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Enjoy life, enjoy the little things, enjoy every moment

This is my daughter enjoying a reptile display at a nearby business open day - she certainly enjoys every moment, the little things and the big things. I just couldn't giggle, myself while a diamond python wrapped itself around my neck ... but each to their own. This scrapbooking page just needed an embossed title to compete with the photos my partner took of our angel wrestling with wild animals (That Bindi has a lot to answer for). A fascination with snakes, spiders, lizards and crocodiles comes from her father's side I am certain... Here's my kiwi kiss Wild about you crocodile on the edge of the clear embossed friendly words wheel on pink passion cardstock. If these colours are looking familiar I recently made a card using them for the elite challenges site. (Passionate kisses ...)Jessica says, that her dad didn't get a photo of her kissing the blue tongue lizard ... eeewww!!!
How do you pretty up a reptile page? simple! with pink cardstock (to match her jacket) and frilly border punches with the odd flower scattered across the page.
The journalling is done with my basic grey marker on a silver embossed flower medallian from the same stampset. I have used the corner rounder as I don't have a big enough circle punch to cut that one out. The little white flowers were stamped in clear embossing powder on white cardstock , sponged with kiwi kiss ink and cut out with a small circle punch and raised on dimensionals.
What I used for this scrapbook page:
Stampsets: enjoy every moment, wild about you, friendly word wheel.
Basic black textured cardstock, kiwi kiss and pink passion cardstock. Whisper white.
Ink: Versamark , kiwi kiss and Basic black marker.
Other tools and accessories are: the eyelet border punch, corner rounder, silver brad, kiwi kiss striped ribbon and both clear and silver embossing powders, heat tool.

Another snow swirled card...

For snow swirling I am thinking white and silver ... white snow flakes on white cardstock and a shiny tree with a silver star on top... Hmm, who would have thought that clear embossing on white cardstock would be so difficult to photograph .... atleast the silver is showing in this sunshine and shadow angle shot. The pot is made from silver cardstock put through my crimper (must use this tool more!)... and the star is a build a brad.
I wasnt happy with the bubble on the top of the build a brad so I have put crystal effects over the embossed star which works fabulously well.
Cardstock is sahara sand, silver metalic and whisper white.
All the rest is embossing and versamark, email me if you have any questions.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Friends and friendship

Where would we be without our bestest, bestest friends?
They are there with us through our good times, and... (this is what makes them our best) They are there through the worst times aswell ... listening, sharing, comiserating, holding up the truth for us and taking it on their shoulders, sharing the load a little.
And they are still there, when you come out the other side!
Just waiting to celebrate the next adventure.
This is only the second swing card I have ever made. I modified the original dimensions to make it a square-ish card that then I realised I needed to make a handmade envelope to fit it. I love how when you open thise card the image swings around to show the sentiment... Thank you for your friendship. Then you can flip it over again and see the stamping on the back... not as exciting as the front, but shows you how its made. The little bird is coloured with markers direct to rubber, using the so saffron marker and the sahara sand marker (does it look a little bit like a noisy miner?), ... and the branch is in chocolate chip and the leaves in Old Olive. I huffed on the stamp to moisten it up before stamping. The Best is yet to be stamp is also multi-coloured with markers ... as are the flowers and damask image stamps aswell.I am an optimist always: the best is yet to be ... no matter where you are right now...Enjoy!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Embossed snow swirled joy...

I thought I would show you my latest embossed Christmas card ...
Gradually, building my collection for this years card mail out in November ... I am intending to post out my Christmas cards early this year!
November? you say. My thinking is that you have to give people atleast a month to hang and admire your christmas card ... especially when it is hand made. You took so many hours to design and make your card, so you want your recipient to enjoy your hand-made creation for as long as possible.
The letters are cut from the enjoy stamp and the "o" is a layered snowflake from the Snow swirled stampset. I can't keep away from the Designer series paper. It is a quick background layer for my stamped words and snow flakes... Yes, I know it doesn't snow in Australia at Christmas, but I'm thinking they look a bit like the twinkling christmas lights or stars in a dust red sky...

What I used to make this card:
Stampset: Snow swirled, enjoy
Cardstock: Riding hood red and whisper white.
Ink: Riding hood red and versamark
Designer series paper: Ski slope
Tools: Heat gun, Embossing powder (gold), small circle (1.3cm) punch and dimensionals.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Great friend butterfly ... the best yet!

This is the third card in this series... just had to load them one by one ... now I have a photo of all three of them together.Once again I have rock and rolled the butterfly in pink pirouette and riding hood red and used a brad to hold the buttlerfly in its place on the damask medallion on whisper white cardstock.

The Sentiment: to you from me is from Best yet stampset.... and raised on two circles punched out and placed onto the scalloped edge circle ... The paper is from the stampin'up designer series - Bella Rose.
Just loving these colours and girly patterns.

Which one did you like best?

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Forest friends ... a little something for a little someone

Today's card uses Forest friends and the Best yet stampsets:I have pulled out my embossing tools and done the bunny in silver embossing powder, he looks so cute for a baby card and shines in the light.The sentiment is from Best yet. The Best yet stampset is a hostess gift, you can only get it if you, and your friends host a workshop - either at your home or a virtual workshop (where you place orders to the value of $300). I love this little set it has words for nearly every occasion. I have used it constantly on my cards.
I like to use the circle punch and mat it with a darker coloured cardstock. To give some depth I have overstamped the sentiment with a pale pink pirouette damask stamp. The same one I have stamped in the background. The ribbon is Riding hood Red striped grosgrain. I chose these colours because they match with the Bella Rose designer series patterned papers.
And I can really only cope with monotone colour schemes atm.
Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Chistmas forest friends

I know that I am stretching the Christmas theme here but I do like to make cards with non Christmas stampsets and non christmas colours...
My forest friends deer is embossed in silver and mounted on kiwi kiss cardstock and chocolate chip. The strip of baja breeze is wheeled with the so swirly stamping wheel in baja breeze ink.
Then I have cut a strip of the Designer series Ski Slope patterned paper and added
Some brads for that studded metallic look .... I needed some more silver to balance bambi!
My second card is made from the same stampsets and Ski slope paper ... with a base of kiwi kiss this time and some paper piercing in the corners around the Forest friend tree. This tree in silver just shines ... Did I say that I love embossing? And I love this colour combination : baja breeze, chocolate chip, real red and old olive ... and I added kiwi kiss because it is much brighter and lighter than old olive but goes well with it. The sentiment : Seasons Greetings is from from the Snow swirled stampset and I have used the two ink pads for a two tone effect. A bit of blue a bit of green, a few holes in the corner, silver brads - It's another Christmas card: the layout could suit many different card occasions by just changing the sentiment.
Materials:
Stampset - Forest friends, Snow swirled.
Cardstock: Kiwi kiss, chocolate chip, baja breeze. DSP: Ski slope patterned paper (spring mini $16.95). Ink: baja breeze, kiwi kiss, Versamark. Tools: embossing powder and heat tool, paper piercing tool and mat pack, silver brads.

Another mouth to feed ... birds and friends 24/7

I had to share this photo with you of my daughter with our school holiday addition to the household. Her dad found the bird in the middle of the road, fallen out of it's nest and he couldn't leave it there. So after figuring out it is a native noisy minor, (not the brown introduced indian minor species), we rang wires and they said to feed it and try to introduce it back to the local community of noisy minor birds ... well so far they have completely ignored it and every hour or so it says "peep peep peep" (very cute) and needs another feed.
Daughter loves it by the way... and has named it "tweety".
And here is the card I made, inspired by bird on the weekend (there are several actually)...The background is stamped with the damask stamp from friends 24/7... rock and rolled in pink pirouette and riding hood red ink. I did the same with the bird ( a bit heavier with the riding hood red) and cut it out so that I could place it up off the page with a few dimensionals.
Then I coated the bird in shiny crystal effects. Its an adhesive that dries hard and clear and gives a great shiny coating to cardstock when you spread it with the nozzle.The sentiment "My friend" was stamped and embossed on white cardstock using the "friendly words wheel", cut out and attached with a dimensional too. The pink flower is a metal brad (from the Spring mini catalogue) and I have edged the two layers with the eyelet border punch.

There is a layer of Riding hood red cardstock under the white, and a layer of pink pirouette patterned paper under that. Inside I have placed another strip of Designer series paper (both from the Bella Rose paper pack). What I have used to make this card:
Stampset: Friends 24/7, Friendly words wheel.
DSP: Bella rose designer series
Cardstock: Riding hood red, whisper white and sahara sand.
Ink:Riding hood red, pink pirouette, VersaMark.
Accessories: Flower brad, Crystal effects, silver embossing powder.