It's nature time at Southern Girls Challenge

Today's challenge is all about nature.  Remember we are not just a card blog, we love to see scrapbook layouts, art journal pages and all types of papercraft.

The rules are pretty simple so do click HERE or on the LHS of my blog to take you to the challenge site & check out all the design team's cards  with some element of NATURE included and even if I say so myself we really have excelled this time. We also have a scrapbook page by the talented Kelly. Now how easy is this week's challenge.

Two people have the chance to win by just entering & by luck with the random.org generator a prize from our fabulous sponsors plus there's also the challenge favourite top 5 picks badge to earn.

I was extremely lucky that I was sent by Meetu from Krafters Cart the really cute Fall Mice stamp set by Gerda Steiner Designs to use for this challenge. I fell in love with GSD stamps when I saw them on the Krafters Cart site before Christmas & made some really cute tags with the Peeking Friends stamp set which I blogged about HERE.  These wee mice were so much fun to colour up & as well as pumpkins & gourds they had all sort of other goodies that could be "barrowed" about. I must admit the wee barrow caused me quite a lot of consternation as my first go at creating my scene was stamping barrow, masking barrow, stamp 1st set of pumpkins, then mask them then stamp more pumpkins & then the gourds. That didn't work when I removed the masks the veggies were all sitting behind the back handle. OK 2nd go I masked barrow & left the back handle unmasked, that also didn't work as the veggies had the line from the 2nd handle. 3rd go I stamped the veggies all by themselves then using my craft knife I slit the barrow & inserted them. I hate to think the only way it could really work would be to cut off the back handle, but 3rd time worked perfectly for what I wanted.

Recipe:
Stamp set: Fall Mice (Gerda Steiner Designs)
Paper: Natural White (SU!), Gumball Green (SU!), Tip Top Taupe (SU!), Xpress-IT blending card
Ink: Memento Black, Versafine Black Onyx
Other: Birch trees die (MFT), Landscape borders die (WPlus 9), Clear embossing powder, dimensionals, masking paper, black Memento marker (I ran the marker around the edges once I had cut everything out), sharp scissors!
Copic Markers Used:
Mice: W00, W1, W3, W5, W6, R20
Pumpkins: YR31, Y17, Y38, YR18
Gourds: YG67, G17, G28
Barrow: E33, E35, E29

Our awesome sponsors for this challenge are....

Polkadoodles

Krafters Cart

Many thanks to Polkadoodles & Krafters Cart for providing images for our design team to use on their projects.

I am so looking forward to seeing what fab cards are submitted this time by you all. 

✿ Karen ✿

Happy Valentine's day

Pete is a lucky chap or will be when he gets home as I must have been a stroppy class attendee lately demanding this time to make the planned Thinking of You card & matching box into a Valentine's card at a recent class I attended with Sally Williams. It wasn't too much of a demand as the stamp set I needed was on the table I just needed a block to mount it on to make my tag say hugs & kisses instead of thinking of you!

 You can see Sally's card & box & the recipe HERE & the saying & wee hearts I've used come from Sealed with Love stampset (Stampin' Up!).

I really like this colour combination of Sweet Sugarplum & Mint Macaron, it's the same colour combo from my last blog post.

Talking of Sealed with a Kiss stamp set, when I attended a class at Debbie Lamb's we got to make this wee treat for a loved one using the stamp set & the Love Note framelits dies. it was one Jaffa for the bag, one for my tum!

The wee envelope is so cute I almost don't want to give it away. Well I hope Pete enjoys his treats & you all have a fab V-day!


✿ Karen ✿

Wedding wishes - cute as a bird

Happy weekend everyone, it's a gloriously sunny day in the Waikato today which is just as well as we're off to a wedding this afternoon. I must admit I had a few ideas in my head for the wedding card but when I saw what my friend & Stampin' Up! demonstrator Debbie Lamb had planned for her last card class I thought it was perfect & transformed the "birthday card" she had planned for us into a wedding card.

Recipe (all products Stampin' Up!):
Stamp Sets: Builder Birdcage, Marry Me, Avant Garden (SAB)
Ink: Stazon black, Mint Macaron, Sweet Sugarplum
Paper: Mint Macaron, Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: Falling Petals Textured Impressions EF, Mint Macaron sheer linen ribbon, basic rhinestones, dimensional.

I love the new embossing folder falling petals but have to say they're very weird petals!! They look like wee hearts to me which is just perfect for my wedding card.

I hope everyone has a fab weekend, I plan to do some more of one of the online classes I've paid for with my Copic markers. That's one of the fab things about colouring I only need the image & the markers to play with. It's nice being away from home as I don't have to worry about housework that needs to be done on my days off.

Thanks for popping in.
✿ Karen ✿

The love affair with Beautiful You continues for me

I'm still trying to work out how I have so many birthdays in the next 10 days. I'm not sure what was going on in NZ many years ago about 9 months ago but I know it's mid-winter, so maybe I should say no more. I'll blame the stars as Arians get on really well with Aquarians! But enough digressing this is a card making blog!!!

Below is a quick collage of the cards I've created using up retired DSP from SU! which is just lying in a drawer. I think the DSP umbrellas are just too adorable and of course the beautiful girl stamp.

The DSP I used came in packs, so after I had die-cut out a mat there was more than enough to stamp the umbrella again & then fussy cut it out. I have used my Zig Real Color water brushes to colour the girl up.

I had bought myself a pad of Strathmore Bristol smooth surface card stock as quite a few bloggers had commented that this was their favourite paper for using with the Zig brushes. I'm not sure how you all colour with the Zig brushes but normally I lay down a bit of colour & then use my aquapainter to blend - whoa that don't work on this paper, as it seemed to be impervious to water & I had big puddles sitting on top which were  all mopped up real fast with one of my dry baby wipes that I have handy. Saying that once I knew I couldn't use water the markers blend well with each other  & also with the clear Wink of Stella brush. The end result is a much more vibrant look than my norm with the Zigs and water.

I used my Misti & a scrap of paper to work out the placement of the girl & words as the stamp set is a rubber stamp set. Once I was happy I stamped up 8 images real fast. I used Versafine black ink & then clear embossed as my original plan was to use water for blending.

Once I had my stamped image I used the 2nd largest stitched rectangle die to cut out the girl & saying. I used the largest stitched rectangle die for the DSP.

My favourite umbrella is the wee butterfly one, I decided the paper which is adorable was too dark which is why I made a mat out of Calypso Coral.

I only have the 36 set of the Zig real colour brushes so I chose colours I thought worked best with the DSP, it's not a perfect match but they are so easy to colour with making mass production a breeze.

Here's the cards all by themselves to see them a wee bit better.

My favourite umbrella, the small butterfly image is just perfect!

Who would ever think that this DSP which I have always gulped at before would look so lovely as a mat & also on the umbrella.

There's 3 delightful girl images in this set, so looking forward to creating some cards with the 2 other girl images real soon.

Recipe:
Stamp set: Beautiful You (SU!)
Ink: Versafine Black
Paper: Bristol Smooth (Strathmore), Fresh Prints (SU!), Pretty Petals (SU!), White (SSS), Calypso Coral (SU!)
ZIG brushes: Pale pink, light carmine, carmine red, mid green, olive green, persian blue, blue, flesh colour, oatmeal, blue gray
Other: Clear embossing powder, clear Wink of Stella brush, dimensionals, stitched rectangle dies (SSS)

I've used SSS white card stock which is a lovely heavy weight card & is sized appropriately for the rectangle dies. It doesn't matter who's die you use they all "American-sized" as that is the biggest market & yes I could cut my A4 card stock into 11" long by 4-¼" wide but it's easier to just take a piece of 11" x 8-½" card stock & chop in half. Even when making mats without a die it's easier to work in inches in my opinion but that maybe my age showing.

So happy birthday Debbie, Donna, Faye, Sally, Jo & Tracey I hope you all had a very lovely day when it was your day.


Karen ✿