Retro Christmas Card

Hello again I made this card tonight, I only have a few more Christmas cards to go. I love this one as well. I had some Silver card left over so I turned it into a square card. I added a green foil layer and a spotted layer. I then stamped onto my red card both the sentiment and the retro lady. I then stamped the retro lady onto white and colored her in with my Distress ink pads and my water brush onto watercolor paper. I used my Print then cut feature on my Cricut to cut out the Christmas tree. So the lady is decorating the tree perhaps in the 1950s : ).

Reindeer card

Hello Happy Friday I hope you had a nice day, we had a nice warm day today although it's turning a bit stormy now but we can weather the storm together and we've had a few of our own this week but so far everything is ok.

Anyway I made this card today and I'm really pleased with it. I think it turned out lovely, so did Greg. I started with a green square card then a patterned layer. Then I stamped on white card with the snowflake stamp and he greeting in Versamark ink then I heat embossed with white powder. I then used my red and green distress inks over the top to bring out the white. I stamped my reindeer in brown ink onto that and then stamped another one on white card. I colored him in and cut him out apart from the antlers and he went on top of that. I added some blue perfect pears to his jumper and some glitter gel pen. Thanks for looking, have a nice weekend.

Fishing Santa

Hello we have a nice hot day here today so we'll take Ivy to the lake later, it will be nice to get out and get some sunshine and fresh air. I made this card for Darren for Christmas and he likes fishing so I came up with this idea with no inspiration from anywhere, it was completely my own idea. I started with a white shimmery card then I added a blue layer and cut some "sand" by hand. I cut out a Sun on my Cricut and wrote the sentiment with my pen. I cut out the Santa using the Print then Cut feature and then I cut out the boat, presents and fishing rod. So it looks like Santa has been out fishing and caught a load of presents : ). Thanks for looking today.

Santa flying over palm trees

Hello I have another Christmas card to show you today, I really love this one, it's probably my favourite so far. Instead of Santa flying over snow and pine trees, he's come to Cairns with the palm trees and is coming to bring us gifts : ). I used a green card then for the background I used 2 blue distress inks with a sponge and a tiny bit of light pink. I masked off the moon area by putting a circle over it so it would stay white. I went over this with some Perfect Pearls which is like a shimmery powder to make the moon silvery. I used a star stamp and white ink for the stars and went over this with a silver gel pen. I cut out the Santa and sleigh from the Christmas cartridge and the Palm Trees are from Doodlecharms. I cut out the sand by hand. Thanks for looking.

Bargello Christmas Card

Hello, I was going to say Happy Monday but realised it's Tuesday, I'm a day behind as we had a public holiday yesterday!

I made this card on the weekend, I just finished it today. I was reading my Quick Cards Made Easy Magazine that I subscribe too on my tablet and they had something new in there called "Bargello" it's using 3 types of patterned paper to make a nice pattern. If you google "Bargello technique cardmaking" you can find out about it. It looks complicated but it is very easy. So I used up scraps to make my pattern and I put this on red card on top of a green card. I cut out my bell from the Christmas cartridge and just went over the bow with a grey marker and then a gold marker and put this on 3D squares. I stamped my sentiment in the bottom left.

Stencilled Christmas Card

Hello Happy Sunday, we had a nice day today we went out for brunch at Yolk then we are home this afternoon. Greg is doing some painting in the apartment that the new owner has asked for so I made another Christmas card. I bought a few more colors in the Distress Inks and wanted to try them out. So I cut a green card 5 x 5 inches then another red foil layer and then I made my own stencil on my Cricut which Is a lot of fun to do. I cut out lots of Christmas trees, I then got my green and red Distress inks and sponged through the stencil with them. I then added some sparkly tape and stamped a greeting on a red circle and embossed with white embossing powder. Greg loved it and loved it that I'm trying a few different things, I like how this one turned out as well. Thanks for looking.

Pop Up Card

Hello Happy Friday, we have a nice long weekend coming up and the weather is going to be nice so win win! I am still going on with my Christmas cards in advance. I  made this one using the new Simple Pop Up Cards cartridge on Cricut. I don't have the cartridge but I can use it in my subscription. I chose this lovely reindeer card, it was a little fiddly to pop up but ok in the end. I decorated the front myself as the card only comes with the pop up in the middle. For the front I cut the Merry Christmas out and some stars and backed it onto some woodland patterned paper. I stamped my greeting inside, Thanks for looking today. Have a nice weekend.

Thank you Card

Hello another card I made today for Greg's Aunty Margo to say thanks for looking after some of our stuff which we hope to collect in August : ). I made a card A2 size from black card, I made it portrait style so it folds at the top. I then took a piece of pink cardstock and put it in my Anna Griffin Aviary embossing folder, I got this recently at Joann's on clearance for only $2. I then added a border of polka dot paper, I cut a banner on my Cricut and a flower and then stamped on the banner. I added some silver borders as well. Greg agreed that she will love the card : ), thanks for looking.

Cute Koala Christmas Card

Hello happy Hump day Wednesday! It's a big grey and chilly here today but we're getting warm weather towards the weekend. Here is another Christmas card I made using my Martha Stewart cut and fold punch but this time I went in a straight line rather than a circle. I added some silver borders down the side. The embossed reindeer circle is a bit I had left over from another card recently so waste not want not, I used it here. I used a peel off sticker for my greeting and my Koala is a clipart file I got for $1 (with other Koalas) from Digi Web Studio and I used my print and cut feature on my Cricut to cut this out.

A couple more Christmas cards

Hello Happy Tuesday, I'm still continuing to make my Christmas cards as we still think we are moving back to Australia at this stage so my plan is to get them made now as you would have read in my other blog post.

The first one I tried an on-trend technique at the moment which is foiling. I found a small roll of foil at Michaels on clearance so I thought I'd try it, I like how it looks but I probably wouldn't do it again, I'd just buy foil cardstock or paper as it's very fragile when applying it over double sided tape like I did here and you can have the issue like I did of when it doesn't quite transfer properly so I will just use up what I have but I managed to do what most crafters do and cover up where it didn't transfer so well and I covered that with a die cut. I added some green star patterned paper and some silver star borders as well. I used my circle dies and stamps to make the sentiment.

The second one I just love. I love the Martha Stewart cut and fold punches I bought a couple of months ago, the only problem was I was having trouble finding the two toned paper you need to use it with them. I had some that came with the punches but that won't last. So I was so happy to find some at Joann's on the weekend, I got 2 12 x 12 pads of it so I will make sure I am very frugal with it and use it wisely as I love these punches. So I used the punch to make the circle and mount it onto a red card I made 5 x 5 inches and I rounded the corners. I stamped a greeting and then stamped a little snowman (he's so cute!) and coloured him with my watercolor pencils and brush and he went in the middle. Thanks for looking, have a nice day.

Engagement card

Hello Happy Saturday, we have had a nice day just getting the groceries but the weather was warm and we have a special visitor being Miss Ivy with us today and she has been in the study/craft room with Greg and I today so she has been my special helper with this card, she seems to approve.

Greg's mum asked me to make a card for Hayley's engagement so I came up with this one it's modern with the black and white and the die cut on the front. I made the card from the Artfully Sent cartridge I liked the pop up card on there so I made this in black and white. I cut the couple in the heart from the Sweethearts Cartridge and used the slice feature to cut it out of the heart. I used my heart border punch to make borders for the top and bottom and I added 2 rhinestone hearts in the card. I also made a co-ordinating envelope to go with the card with a liner. Thanks for looking.

Another Christmas Card

Hello Happy Friday, I made another Christmas card for my stash yesterday. I love this one, it's not beach/Australian theme this is just a regular one. I started with a green card and then added a red woodgrain layer. I put some gold card through my reindeer embossing folder and cut a hole in it with a circle die. I added a Cricut cut of a Christmas tree, some gemstones and a greeting tag and brad. Thanks for looking.

Anniversary Card

Hello I have another card I made today, this one is for my Aunty Julie and Uncle Rick's anniversary card for October. I made my own decorative mat with the hearts on it on my Cricut, you could use it as a stencil as well but I chose to put some rainbow paper underneath (an idea from my lovely Greg) and I embossed the sentiment using a Sizzix embossing folder. I sanded the embossed sentiment with a sanding block to give it a bit extra. It all went onto a white card, thanks for looking.

Summer Christmas Cards

Hello I started making my Christmas cards yesterday. The reason I have started so early is because we thought we would be moving in August back to Australia and by the time my craft stuff arrived from shipping I wouldn't have enough time, so I started. Unfortunately we may have a problem now with our contract and the buyer so everything is hanging in the balance. We still don't know and I didn't really feel like finishing them because I wasn't in the mood really with all this stuff and stress of wondering if the approval process on this loan for our buyer will complete. But I did finish them, trying to keep busy until it was time to go out and walk the dogs.

I bought a clipart file from Etsy and it had some cute summer Santa and Christmas images so I used the print and cut feature on my Cricut to print and cut these out. On the hammock card I just used a banner from my Cricut library and used my pens to write my sentiment. On the other card I just used a sun from the library and used my pens again.

Who knows maybe completing these cards will be an omen for this problem we have today to be resolved and we can continue with the sale of our apartment. Whoever reads my blog please hope ofr us, we just seem to have not much go our way lately, it would be nice to have something go right for us. Thanks for looking.

my birthday layout

Hello Happy Friday! I have a layout today that I've been working on this week between work and having showings at our apartment so I couldn't have my craft stuff out so this afternoon it's out again and I was able to finish this layout of my birthday dinner at the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago with an amazing chocolate buffet, we had such a wonderful time together there.

My paper is from a stack I got at Michaels a few months ago. I used various Cricut cartridges and my pens to write my journalling. I got some cute wood veneer embellishments from Tuesday morning the other day and I love these. Thanks for looking today : )

Greg Anniversary Card

Hello Happy Monday I've been working on this card for about a week, just doing bits when I can as I've been busy working with the dogs but I did get it finished today. I have already made Greg an anniversary card for October I made it with a beachy theme in the hope that we would be back in Australia by then and I really hope we are but on the off chance that we don't sell our apt by then I have made a back-up card to give to Greg if we are here. If we are in Australia in 2016 instead I will cut another heart and put 16 on it and cover up the other one so I can still use the card. How fast does time go I think that every day but how wonderful to have already almost 15 years together.

I saw these cards in a magazine recently they are called stair cards, I found a file at the Lori Whitlock shop and I made it with my Cricut. It also came with the layers so I cut that out of spotted paper. I also cut a label and used my Cricut to write my message. I used Cindy Loo to cut out the birds and the Valentines cartridge to cut out my heart, I also used my pens to write 15 for our 15th anniversary. I cut my letters and heart on my Cricut too and then used my heart border punch to punch a strip which i cut out to put along the side. Thanks for looking!