The Beauty of Flowers

On holiday recently, I took this picture of a climber on a pagola. Stunning!   I love the rich colour and the beautiful shape of the petals.   These flowers also start out as tight little buds that look like berries.  Isn't nature clever?   Interestingly, a lot of the flowers were full of bees - some had as many as 3 bees collecting pollen deep inside each of them.  It was so cute to see them popping out!

At our last Darling Stamp & Scrap Club we were treated to a demonstration of paper flowers by Michelle Hughes, fellow SU! demonstrator and PaperLicious team member.   Michelle is a whiz at making gorgeous flowers and showed us some lovely techniqes and ideas for projects.

Kristen, long time friend and fellow crafter came to club and learned how to do the flowers with the idea of using them to decorate boxes.   She's used some SU! DSP to make these.   Aren't they lovely?   The colours are Concord Crush and Real Red.     

That's the beauty of club.  We share the love!  Why don't you come along next month and see what we're up to?  Visit the Darling Stamp & Scrap page for more details.

Have a good weekend.

Karen

Mojo Monday 238

I got a bit carried away with this sketch and have made 3 Mojo Monday cards!
Here's the sketch:

My first sample:

To make the squares I started with a piece of Tea Party DSP (R) measuring 96mm x 128mm.  I stamped it with the flourish from Baroque Motifs using Versamark and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I don't think it showed up in the pic but it has added a nice detail to the card.   I then used my paper trimmer to cut the piece into squares measuring 3.2mm x 3.2mm (which is the same as the 1 1/4" square punch).   Then I layered each one onto Marina Mist and then onto folded Whisper White card. 
Other products used:   Marina Mist ink, Wide Oval punch, Decorative Label punch, White organza ribbon, crocheted flower, Rhinestone Jewels and the sentiment is from Well Scripted (R).


My second card:

In an effort to keep it simple I decided to punch stars out of various colours of blue cardstock; Baja Breeze, Island Indigo, Bashful Blue & Night of Navy.  The Whisper White cs went through the Big Shot in the Polka Dot embossing folder before being punched out with the 1 1/4" punch.   It's all layered on Certainly Celery, then onto folded Island Indigo as the card base.  The Designer Label punch was used for the greeting which is stamped with Night of Navy.  I used some bits of Mizuhiki cord and some retired buttons to complete the look.


Lastly;

Instead of representing the design with squares I decided to let repetition stamping define the grid pattern.   I've used a stamp from Spiced Paisley in Melon Mambo on another scrap of Tea Party DSP (R) .  It's layed onto Tempting Turquoise, then onto folded Whisper White cs.   The white organza ribbon looks gorgeous with the pleating and because of the white satin strip you can't see the adhesive (Sticky Strip).  Felt flowers long retired, a brad and a couple of stamps from Tiny Tags punched out with the Jewellery Tag punch complete the look.

Hope you get to craft something today!
Karen

The Liebster Blog Award

I am the happy (& lucky!) recipient of the Liebster Blog award this morning!  What a nice surprise to find this little treasure amongst my morning mail, awarded to me by Nerida - thanks lovey!
What is this you ask? 
Well, to quote my friend and talented fellow crafter, the word Liebster is German for "Dearest".
The award is a "Share the love arrangement", given to inspirational bloggers with less than 200 followers, to bring attention to their blog, and increase their following!

Here's what you have to do if you are a recipient of the Liebster Blog Award.

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award.

Thanks so much Nerida!

2. Link back to the blogger who presented you the award.

http://www.stampingjoy.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/liebster-blog-award.html

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

(See the cute award above and on my sidebar)

4. Present the Award to 5 other deserving bloggers with less than 200 followers.

Here's my choice of inspirational gals:

http://www.paperalchemy-susie.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.stampinsamsgarage.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.inkyart.com.au/inkyart/

http://creativeaddinktion.blogspot.com.au/

http://handmadebyjuliaquinn.blogspot.com.au/ 

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.

 

What a lovely way to share the love and the wonderful talents of so many people out there in blogland.  Especially as these are all people with skills that inspire us in our daily crafting pursuits.

Thanks again Nerida!

 

Happy Tuesday everyone.

Karen

First Prize!

Back in February I had a crafty day at home with my friend Lee all the way from Minnesota.  We're new friends as Lee found me at Glebe markets last October, but since she was here in Sydney to support her hubby who was working here, we became fast friends - lots of memories of me doing a similar thing in San Diego with Matthew.
Anyway, Lee has recently "discovered" craft and it's been quite lovely watching her "aha" & "wow" moments as she learned all sorts of new ways to express her creativity.   It's very contagious and I got inspired to make a purse to hold some cards.  It was intended as a gift, until I got asked if I'd like to submit an exhibition piece for this year's Sun-Herald Family Show at Fox Studios, Moore Park. 

Thinking, "what the heck, I'll have a go", the card purse and it's contents seemed like a nice submission.  So I sent it off last week.
We visited today, took the kids, had a bit of fun on the rides & sideshow alley, bought a couple of show bags and then wandered over to the craft exhibitors area.......and guess what?  There was my little purse complete with a blue "first place" ribbon.   Woooooooohoooooooooo, I won!

I'm so excited.
Cheers
Karen
Award winning PaperLady.....LOL  :-)))

Decorations

I've only recently started to use my papercraft for decorations.  Sure I've done Christmas stuff - mostly tree ornaments, but there's a lot of very talented crafters out there that make lovely home decor and seasonal items and I guess I got inspired by them.

Stampin' Up!'s motto is to  Inspire, Create, Share.   I've made two items for my craft space in that vein.........

This gorgeous banner hangs directly over my head while I'm "working"!   It definitely inspires me and I feel so relaxed and at peace when I'm in my craft space.

This is another of those wooden pieces that I love and although I've used the less is more technique I think it turned out really nicely.  It hangs above all my punches.

.......and the third, Share, is what I do right here in blogland!

Hope the bunny hops your way tomorrow.
Cheers
Karen

Not cards.

My love affair with Spice Cake began when the summer mini catalogue arrived last December (Nov for us demo's).  Anyway, over the summer I was lucky enough to be able to renovate my craft loft space.  I chose Spice Cake for my decorations.    I still have some work to do so won't be photographing it all just yet, but thought I would share a couple of nice decorative touches I've made.

Here's the first;

The heart is made from craft wood and they are available in all sorts of sizes & there's lots of different shapes too.    I love it with the Pool Party Spice Cake DSP in the back.   The flowers were made using the Boho Blossoms punch.  I scrunched and ruffed up the edges a bit to give them some texture.   The colours are Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard, Whisper White and Soft Suede.  SU mini brads make cute centres. 

Enjoy Good Friday and have a lovely long weekend.
Karen

Spice Cake Overload

Gotta use every scrap of my Spice Cake paper because it's no longer available :-(( 

I think this is one of my favourite card layouts.  I'm sure I've used it before.


The Postage Stamp punch is the perfect way to use scraps.  And don't you love that stamp from Heard from the Heart?  Linen thread bows frame it nicely too.

The button is one of those from the Summer mini.  They are so yummy I could eat them!  I punched out a 1" circle of paper and layered it on top with a centre from the Lace Ribbon punched flower that I cut out.   I'm loving that dotty scalloped ribbon too.  MMmmmmmm More Mustard!   The pearl jewel is coloured using a sharpie. Yay me!

Happy mid week.
Karen

Lace Ribbon Again!

So my last post was all about the Lace Ribbon punch and how I struggled with that technique.

Well, while cleaning up, I had to decide what I could "save" from the various disastrous attempts.   This is what I did:

I've used Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla & Choc Chip.  The I Heart stamp set is stamped with Elegant Eggplant & so are the Tiny Tags.  The ribbon is Perfect Plum.  And I've added some pearl jewels to the centres of the punched lace flowers.

So cute!

Karen