Tuesday 29 June 2021

Pawesome!



This was a commission from a mother to her dog-loving son.  I saw this die in an Action store a few weeks ago and thought he might come in handy.  Action stores are the closest thing we have to dollar stores in Europe. The kerchief (from another doggy set - Marianne D. Scottish Terrier) fitted him perfectly and I used the bone die from the same set to focus his attention so he'd behave!  One of the bones and the kerchief were cut from a snippet of tartan DP (I wasn't going to waste a cm of this lovely paper also from Marianne D) which happens to be pretty close to this family's tartan.  I was going to go with the sentiment "Keep Your Eye on the Prize", but my friend asked if I could include a line from a family favourite song (Jason Mraz's Have it All).  So I created a banner using the computer.  The embossing folder is from Darice.  A coat of glossy accents later and he's a gorgeous glossy black Labrador puppy!

I'm entering the following challenges (click on the title of the picture not the picture)

The Alphabet Challenge Blog - "F" is for Furry

Make My Monday Challenge Blog - Cats or Dogs


The Sisterhood of Crafters - Anything Goes


Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies


NBUS Challenge #27 - The dog die is NBUS


Pixie's Snippets Challenge #406


Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll be over the moon!  I’ll also know you were here, so I can check out what you’ve been up to and we can get better acquainted!

Kate

Wednesday 23 June 2021

Twofer Sunshine


Firstly I have to apologise, these two cards weren't in the same room at the same time so I had to cobble together a photo of the two together.   They're both new (though the second is almost identical to one I made back in March) it's just that the first was needed before I had a chance to finish the second.

I'd also like to apologise for not posting very often lately, I just haven't had much time for blogging.  I'm nearing €1000 raised for the orphanage program I support in Tanzania.  The last few weeks have been pretty manic - word has been getting around and I've had more orders than I can really cope with but I know that will die down soon when everyone in Luxembourg goes back to their home countries for the summer - particularly as almost everyone is now fully vaccinated.  

Not that I can go home - Australia isn't too keen on letting anyone in as they try to keep their Covid numbers as close to zero as possible.  I really had hoped to see my poor old mum and if I kicked up enough stink (and paid enough money) I could probably get there but when there are so many Australians in much worse circumstances than mine trying to return, I'd feel a little guilty - only a few thousand are allowed in each week.

I really love the Twofer challenge - to use the same die or stamp differently!  It makes me look at all my dies and stamps in a different way.   This month the challenge prompt is is 'Sunshine' - either Sun or Sunrays.  My common element is this cute little sun die from a dinky little set called Village Sky from the Frantic Stamper.  When making the first Vintage Champers card back in March, I found the sun die was perfect for creating the wax seal you might find on the neck of a champagne bottle.  I have other suns, and initially I was weighing up various options, but then an order came in for another Vintage Champers card so that made my mind up for me.  


Here's a closer look at the first card - Vintage Champers Cheers.   The champagne bottle die I used is  a very basic outline die only.  But I found by selectively cutting just the neck from another textured card stock, wrapping a strip of black around the neck to hide the join and placing the sun die over the strip to bind it together, the champagne bottle starts to come to life.  The glossy accents also helped!  The first time I made this card, it was for a friend and I wanted to downplay her age but the person who ordered this card had no qualms about declaring her friend's age very boldly so I added two balloons with gold letters to match the gold accents in the patterned paper.  Cheers seemed more appropriate than Happy Birthday - and the fit was better!


 Here's a closeup of the label which I mocked up using Wordart within Microsoft Word.  I looked at various bottles of Champagne (hic!) to get ideas for what to put on the label.   The name, place of birth and year of birth were included to make it really personal.  


The second card was much simpler, again another order.  This was for a friend of mine for her son who is stepping out into the big wide world.  Apparently he loves fast cars so we thought the Vespa would be a wee joke. 


The scooter is from Taylored Expressions.  When I pulled out the set, I found I had cut several white ones on a previous occasion (must be about four years ago) so I went with that and cut the little parts from some blue card stock I had lying on my desk (from a project I'd just finished) with a coat of glossy accents once assembled for dimension and shine!  I grounded it on a sentiment banner carrying the a line from one of his favourite songs (Have it All from Jason Mraz).  A little grass (Crealies On the Edge Grass) separates the spotty road from the blue sky, with the sun and some clouds from the same set finishing off the scene.

I'd also like to enter this card in the Pixie's Snippets Challenge for June.  The clouds, sun and blue bits on the scooter were all snippets.  These tiny die pieces are a great excuse for hanging onto even the smallest pieces of card stock.  This month the challenge is honouring the memory of Ruby.


I'd also like to enter my cards in the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge


Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll be over the moon!  I’ll also know you were here, so I can check out what you’ve been up to and we can get better acquainted!

Kate

Sunday 6 June 2021

Grace Hopper Tag


 This Clean and Layered card was inspired by all these lovely nautical cushions in this photo from The Card Concept Challenge #156.


I'm also playing in Pixie's Snippets Playground - those zig-zag borders and nautical elements were a great way to use up snippets and the tag was cut ages ago in preparation for Christmas which ended up  very low key since nothing was getting through to Australia and I had to shop online and rely on the stores gift wrapping or my sister instead.


This week  Simon Says Wednesday Challenge and Little Red Wagon Challenge #604 have a Masculine theme so I'll be entering there as well.

Stamps used - Waltzing Mouse Stamps Ocean Bound and Waltzing Mouse Stamps Safe Harbour.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll be over the moon!  I’ll also know you were here, so I can check out what you’ve been up to and we can get better acquainted!

Kate