Arty Aspirations

An (almost) white Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:06:00 +0000

Hi there, how was your Christmas? Hope you all had a wonderful day spent with your loved ones! We hosted our Christmas celebrations at our home this year, it was lovely seeing how excited Annika, our 3 year old grand-daughter, was opening all her presents. She even got to open her baby brother's presents too....I think it's more about the unwrapping than what's actually inside that excites her!

We had the strangest weather on Christmas Day! It started off as your typical Aussie summer's day, I think the temperature reached somewhere around 30C, then the weather turned very nasty! We had a bit of rain, followed by a hail storm......the hail was the size of golf balls! It sounded like someone was throwing big rocks on the roof. Both sons-in-law made a mad dash for the cars to put them undercover, one of them looked up at the wrong time and copped a few hail stones on his face...ouch! There's a photo below of the hail still sitting on our lawn and nature strip taken well after the hail storms finished......we ended up having at least 4 of them, along with some torrential rain! Luckily we are on top of a hill and the only damage was where some hail stones came through the laserlite sheets on our back veranda. Others fared much worse with flooding, car windscreens broken and broken roof tiles. I was really worried as my 82yr old Dad had only left 5 minutes before the storm hit, but thankfully he was OK and only had a few dents in his car from the hail.

Here's my last Christmas card for the year! I made this one for my grandson Ben's first Christmas! The little bear stamp is by Stamp-It, the greeting is from a Kaisercraft clear set. I coloured the bear with Copic Markers, put some Kindyglitz around the hat fur and cut him out and popped up with dimensional dots. The DP is also by Kaisercraft.

I'm linking this card up with the Forever Friends December Challenge - It's all Christmas!

I had a last minute crafting frenzy on Christmas Eve as I still had more gift-card holders to finish and I made my own Christmas Crackers (Bon Bons). Thankfully my daughter Hayley helped me finish off the Crackers......and wrapped my gifts for me as well, or I would never have finished everything! I didn't get around to taking photos of those last projects though!

I can't believe New Year's Eve is tomorrow! Hope you all have a Happy New Year, I'll be back next year!

Nearly there!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:48:00 +0000

I've almost finished making my Christmas cards, only one more to go! These cards are for my two daughters and the fun rudolph card is for my 3 year old grand-daughter. She was singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer a few nights ago............so cute! Luckily I don't need to mail these ones!

I'm linking these cards up to Annabelle Stamps for the 'Say It With......Christmas Cards' challenge.

I still have a few cards that I haven't shown here yet, I'll put them up when I have time.

Gingerbread house and a gift card holder.

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:44:00 +0000

Hi there! Christmas is getting closer and closer and I still have heaps to do! Here are 2 more Christmas projects that I recently completed.

The first one is a gingerbread house that I gave as a hostess gift at the Aussie Fiskateers Christmas party that I was lucky enough to be invited to last week. Fiskars Aussie lead ambassador, Lyn D, sure knows how to throw a party, we all had a fun day!

This is not my original idea, I saw something similar on a blog, I think it was a Norwegian lady, I'm afraid I didn't save the blog address though. It's made using a milk carton, the roof is only adhered on one side so you can flip it open and put some goodies inside. Papers are from Kaisercraft's 'December 25' range.

I used a Fiskars border punch for the roof edges. The Christmas tree is drawn free-hand and cut out with scissors. The roof requires a bit of weighting on the open side, so I used a jumbo sized square brad - it looks a little like it's a skylight.

The second project is a gift card holder. I made a few of these last year, but forgot to take a photo of the inside, so I've remembered to do it this time! I used a jumbo sized brad as the closure and just wrapped the bakers twine around it to secure. Papers and die-cuts are all from the Kaisercraft 'Be Merry' range.

I'm linking these projects up to Papertake Weekly's challenge - Last Christmas projects/cards for the year.

Holly Jolly!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:06:00 +0000

The December challenge at Inkurable Stampers is "Holly" - use some holly somewhere on your project.

I had heaps of holly to choose from for this challenge, but I ended up using a holly stamp by Kaisercraft, some punched holly leaves and if you look closely you'll see some holly at the top of the metal brad just above the bells.

For my background I misted some tissue paper with some home-made glimmer spray (made using re-inkers and Pearl-Ex powder). I stamped the image after the tissue had dried, then scrunched it up to make it all wrinkly and adhered it to a piece of spotty Kaisercraft DP using Mod Podge, then painted the leaves with Twinkling H20's and the berries with a marker.

My main image isn't a Christmas stamp at all, but I thought it would be fun to use the Laurel and Hardy photo stamp (by The Stampsmith), I added some extra distressing with TH Distress inks to make it look really aged and adhered it to the background piece using dimensional dots on only 2 adjacent corners, so it was slightly curled up on the non-adhered corners. It was a no-brainer to also use the 'Holly Jolly' greeting (Penny Black) in keeping with the holly theme! I distressed it with TH inks as well.

Other bits added :red ribbon, red machine stitching. The red berries on the punched leaves had some extra Mod Podge over them.

I could never seem to get decent photos of cards using photo stamps with my old camera, they usually turned out too grainy, but I'm quite pleased with the photo taken using my DSLR camera!

I have a few more cards and projects to show you that I've finished over the last week or so, hopefully I'll add them here soon! Still have so much to do before Christmas!

Clean & Simple #169

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:10:00 +0000

Clean and simple is the way to go when you're in a rush to get your Christmas cards out on time! I used this week's sketch from the Clean & Simple blog to make not one, but two cards using the same stamp!

Stamps by Kaisercraft and Hero Arts (Joy). Patterned papers from Kaisercraft and Little Yellow Bicycle. Cheery Lynn doily die and Kaisercraft star brads also used.

That's all for now folks!

Christmas Trees.

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:24:00 +0000

Hi again, I'm back onto my Christmas cards today.....time's running out!

I used a trees stamp from Annabelle Stamps Hooo Loves Christmas set and a greeting by Stampin' Up, both stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia ink. The trees are stamped onto a scrap of Basic Grey patterned paper.

I'm entering this card for two challenges -
Annabelle Stamps ABSC044 bling sketch challenge using the sketch below and,
CC351 Colour Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers - Kraft, White and Pizazz (green)

Other stuff used:
Annabelle Stamps - Lime Sprinkles (bling)
Cuttlebug - Swiss Dots Embossing folder
Nestabilities - Circle dies.
Stampin' Up - Kraft cardstock and word window punch
Bazzil - green cardstock
Kaisercraft - 'Be Merry' 6 x 6 paper pad.
EK Success - corner punch
Other - white organza ribbon, brown velvet braid.

It's officially the first day of summer here today, but you certainly wouldn't think so! It's been quite cold all day, I might even have to use my electric blanket again tonight! It was only a few days ago we were sweltering, I wish the weather wasn't quite so changeable! Hope you're having a great day in your part of the world, thanks for your visit!

ps. I think I'm going to colour those baubles on the trees red, it really needs a splash of something bright don't you think?

Advent Calendar.

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:43:00 +0000

Hi there, I've been madly trying to get this advent calendar finished before December 1st and I've finally made it.....just!!

I started this ages ago, I've had the box part painted and glued together, then painted the inside of all those boxes and stuck them together. It seemed to take forever to finish those little boxes though! Each one has patterned paper adhered all the way around then the front piece is attached, the little half-circle finger hold has to be cut around (I found curved nail scissors were best for this), then sponged with Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress ink.....oh, then the numbers had to be stuck on......whew!

If you are wondering, this is a kit Advent Calendar by Kaisercraft. It comes in a flat pack and you add your own paint, patterned paper and other decorations. The wooden pieces, reindeer, sleigh, presents in the sleigh and free-standing tree, are also by Kaisercraft, I painted them with acrylic paints and spritzed with some glitter sprays. The presents in the sleigh are covered in patterned paper and backed with red foil.

Included in the kit are raw chipboard numbers, which are a bit large, I only used them on the 6, 12 and 21 drawers, the other numbers are a mixture of glitter stick-ons, Thickers foam, MM rub-ons (a bit tricky to apply once the box is made up!) and tiny stick-ons.

I needed something else in the bottom left corner as it looked too bare, so I made some little 'gifts' out of patterned paper and tied with ribbon.

Patterned papers are all from the Kaisercraft 'Tis The Season and December 25th ranges.

OK, let the countdown begin!!

Pickled Frog!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:44:00 +0000

Here's a fun card I made for my DH's birthday this Thursday! The image is from Sparkle'N'Sprinkle, coloured with Copic Markers. The greeting is by Hero Arts.

I'm entering this card for this week's AnnaBelle Stamps challenge - Say it with .....Buttons and Bows. Well, OK I only used one button and one bow, but who's counting!

I had some cream coloured twine which didn't match the black and white ribbon (from AnnaBelle Stamps), so I coloured it with a green Copic Marker and it matched the button perfectly!

I don't think my DH will be enjoying his birthday quite like the frog did though!

Going Dotty!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:58:00 +0000

Hi there, my card today is for Scrapbook Boutique's November Challenge - using the photo as inspiration and adding dots & spots.

The pine bough stamp is from Hero Arts, I've stamped it several times using Tim Holtz Crushed Olive and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks, the greeting is by Denami stamps - I've had this one in my stash forever, but I love the font!

The scalloped edge is a die-cut from the Kaisercraft Christmas Carnival collection, and the ornament is a puffy sticker from the same product range. I used a silver gel pen and ruler to draw my thread and bow.

Just used a CAS design similar to the card I made last week, hope you like it!

A very blingy Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:18:00 +0000

I seem to be getting into the swing of Christmas card making at the moment, here's another one today! This one is a bit "out there" with a very different colour scheme and lots of bling! I used this weeks' challenge from Annabelle Stamps - Say it in.....Lime, Black and White.

I couldn't find a piece of lime cardstock that looked right so made my own with a piece of canvas paper and some lime acrylic paint, I even found some ribbon that was a perfect match in my stash. The canvas paper is textured so I was a bit worried that my stamp wouldn't imprint properly, but it turned out OK. I even heat embossed it with some glitter embossing powder.....although you may not be able to see it very well unless you click on the photo to enlarge it. I found some forgotten about black glitter cardstock, I thought it gave a nice elegant look to the card. The card looks much better IRL, I couldn't really capture it properly with my camera.

I also glitter embossed the greeting. Stamps are both by Kaisercraft.

CAS143 sketch challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:08:00 +0000

Hi there, here's a card I've made to fit CAS143 sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers. I've made a vintagy Christmas card, the large holly stamp and the greeting is by Kaisercraft, the smaller holly stamp is by Inkadinkado. The images are stamped with Memento ink and water-coloured with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Old olive cardstock by Stampin' Up. My lone embellishment is a single red Kaisercraft rhinestone to dot the "i" in Christmas.

I think I should have stamped the large holly just a little to the left, otherwise I'm happy with this card. Hope you like it!

Glitter Tree.

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:17:00 +0000

Just another quick card today........it's all I seem to have time for lately!

Kaisercraft tree stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia, then sponged with Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters and Crushed Olive Distress Inks, then cut out and glittered to within an inch of it's life!

DP by AED (Alison Ellis Designs), sentiment from Pink Paislee.

This is another entry for Annabelle Stamps say it with .....sentiments challenge.

Thanks for your visit today!

RSS Feed Readers?

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:31:00 +0000

I'm guessing that most people who read blogs have them organised in some kind of a RSS feed reader, the most common one being Google Reader.

If you use Google Reader, what do you think of their new interface? Supposedly the makeover is to make it more user-friendly! I don't know who they tested the new interface on but they couldn't have got it more wrong - and from what I've read on the Google discussion groups, there are hundreds, probably thousands, of users who agree with me! All that white space is just too hard on the eyes, and as for those narrow disappearing scroll bars.....pfft!

I decided it was time to search for a new RSS reader and have discovered one called FeedDemon. I downloaded the free version, but there is another paid version which is ad-free and has other features. I don't really need the other features and the ads aren't annoying, so I'll stick with the free version for now. After using it for a few days I quite like it. It was easy to import all my feeds from Google Reader and I like the way you can set it to show various views of your feeds - I have mine set to show unread items, but you can set it to several other views as well. It's fast to use and I can also make comments on blogs without having to open a separate window. I can also switch between FeedDemon and Google Reader and both readers update the feeds that I've already read. I guess the downside is that it's only available for Windows computers and it uses Internet Explorer as it's browser. I'm using FeedDemon on my desktop computer, but I can't download it to use on my HP Touchpad because of the different operating system it uses.

If anyone uses a different RSS reader and likes it, I'd love to hear about it too!

Another vintage Christmas card!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:41:00 +0000

Hi again, here's another Christmas card, I've made it to fit the following challenges:
Annabelle Stamps - Say It With.....Sentiments.
Basic Grey - Anything Goes. (Wassail and Blitzen patterned papers used)
CPS Sketch #242
The Pink Elephant - Distressing.(Distressed PP and Distress ink sponged on the images.)

CPS#242

The Basic Grey papers are from the Wassail and Blitzen ranges, some oldies I still have in my stash.

Stamps, ink and the flower embellishment are by Kaisercraft. Images are sponged with Tim Holtz Old Paper Distress Ink.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you're having a great day.....it's VERY hot here today!

Vintage Santa

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:38:00 +0000

Hi there, just another quick card today.........thinking I better get a move on with my Christmas cards or I won't get them all done on time!

I've used this weeks sketch ABS043 from Annabelle Stamps - I flipped it on it's side.

The stamp is by Crafty Individuals, I stamped it in Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and distressed it with some Tim Holtz Old Paper Distress Ink and given Santa's hair and beard a little bling by coating it with Ranger Rock Candy Distress Stickles.

Patterned Paper is by AED - very glittery! Cardstock is Stampin' Up Almost Amethyst, I've also used silver mirror board as a mat for the image and PP, dark blue organza ribbon is the only embellishment.

Hopefully the close-up below shows the bling on Santa a little better.

This card also qualifies for the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes plus add some bling.
Crafty Individuals - Winter Wonderland.
The Pink Elephant - TPE123 Distressing.

Thanks for looking, as always I appreciate any comments you might leave me!

CAS Christmas Card.

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:57:00 +0000

Good morning, it's a beautiful Spring day here in Melbourne, I hope the weather is as nice where you are today!

Here's a card I've combined into two different challenges! The first challenge is for the sketch FLT162 for Clean & Simple blog, the 2nd challenge is for The Craft Queen blog's first ever challenge using the colours of the Craft Queen logo.

Since Christmas will be here before I know it, I've made a Christmas card!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps - Flourish background by Darkroom Door, Christmas tree from 'Joyful Christmas Season' cling set by Hero Arts, Greeting from 'Be Merry' collection by Kaisercraft.
Designer Papers from Kaisercraft 'Christmas Carnival Collection'.
Cardstock from Stampin' Up - Creamy Caramel and Bravo Burgundy, pink and green cardstock by Bazzil.
Inks - Versafine Vintage Sepia and TH Distress Ink Aged Mahogany.
Bling - Kaisercraft rhinestones (wine) and Annabelle Stamps Sprinkles (lime)

Have you missed me?

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 04:09:00 +0000

I know, I'm a bad blogger, I haven't posted anything for over a month now! There's been a lot going on around here, not all of it good, but I won't load you up with all of that right now. I haven't had much time or inclination to craft for ages, but I've finally managed to do a card at long last!

I've used 2 challenges for my card, the colour challenge of Say It I......Yellow, Lime and Chocolate from Annabelle Stamps Blog and I was in the mood for Oriental, so I used the Card Layout Challenge #141 from OSA.

The colour scheme was a little challenging, I really don't like yellow at all, but I sponged Scattered Straw TH Distress Ink for my image background, my Lime Greens don't quite match, but that's the best I could come up with! My image is the lovely Lynne Perrella's Acey Deucy stamp (now made by Stampington) called 'This Scented House', the Oriental script stamp is by Kaisercraft, I stamped it onto some green handmade rice paper. The chocolate card is embossed with a Cuttlebug Asian embossing folder.

I couldn't find a large brad in the colour I wanted so I used one of those big brass headed one's that you find in office supply stores and used several layers of Opals embossing powder to give it a new look. FYI, Opals is an Aussie brand of UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel).

Thanks for stopping by today!

Dad's Day Card!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:38:00 +0000

Happy Spring everyone! Today is a special day in more ways than one, we now have a new grand-son as from about one hour ago! Woo-hoo! His name is Ben, I'm about to go and visit the hospital, so will make this a quick post. I made this card card using the Annabelle Stamps sketch ABSC041.

Stamps are all from the Crafty Secrets Classic Car set, except the background stamp I used on the chocolate chip cardstock strip, which is from the Annabelle Stamps Background Stamp set. Also used Stampin' Up cardstock and Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

This card is for my hubby, a car nut!

Catch you soon, hope you're having as good a day as I am!

Annabelle Stamps 2nd Birthday Celebrations!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:08:00 +0000

Annabelle Stamps is about to celebrate their 2nd birthday! If you'd like to join in and have a chance to win some fabulous prizes, head on over to the Annabelle Stamps blog to find out how.....................so what are you waiting for, go now! Anyone can win, it's easy!

p.s. Annabelle Stamps is also having a blog hop right now, you can win some great stamps just by leaving a comment!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:26:00 +0000

Hi there! I really don't seem to be having a lot of creative time lately, just making the cards that I need to at the moment. This card is for my nephew's 18th birthday in a few days time.

I tried out a resist technique on glossy cardstock for my background. The stamp is a large birthday text by Hero Arts and I used a few different shades of Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The greeting is from a Stamp-It set and the martini glass is from a Fiskars clear stamp set. The Nestabilities die cut piece behind the numbers is made with some more Distress Inks and misted with Bronze Glimmer Mist. I painted some plain chipboard numbers with black acrylic paint, then gave them a thick coast of Dimensional Magic. Added a little bling with some Kaisercraft rhinestones.

Thanks for stopping by today! It's very cold and wintry here today, I'll be glad when Spring arrives!

Christmas in July!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:56:00 +0000

It has been so cold here today, it feels like I'm at the Nth Pole, LOL! It actually wasn't too bad a day as it was lovely and sunny, but once the sun went down it was back to freezing again!

My card today is for Annabelle Stamps 'Say It In......Red, Cream and Chocolate' challenge. I immediately thought that combo would be ideal for a Christmas card, so here's my first Chrismas card for the year!

Nothing fancy with the card, it's pretty straightforward and quick, although my fingers were so cold I had trouble tying the ribbon!

Stamps: Darkroom Door
Cardstock: Stampin' Up
Ink: Versafine Vintage Sepia, TH Fired Brick Distress Ink
Other: SU ribbon, Kaisercraft pearls, SEI button.

Hope you're having a great day in your part of the world!

Where did the last three years go?

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:30:00 +0000

My sweet little grand-daughter had her third birthday yesterday, it hardly seems any time at all since she was just a baby! Time certainly does fly! She was full of excitement and now knows all about presents and birthday cake, and managed to blow out all her candles without help.....she is growing up!

Here's the card I made for her, the image is from Rachelle Anne Miller, called Lily - From the Heart. I coloured her with Copic Markers. The DP is by Kaisercraft.

I've entered my card in the following challenges - The Pink Elephant Inspiration Challenge TPE108 using the photo below. I used the colours for my card.

Annabelle Stamps challenge - Say it with.....Circles.

I hope you're not getting sick of all the cute cards, it's all I seem to be doing lately. Thanks for stopping by today!

Swirly Peacocks!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:59:00 +0000

Hi everyone, I found a little time for a couple of quick cards! I've joined in the challenge at Less is More - a one layer card and use 'something with legs'.

I've ended up making two cards using images from the Hero Arts 'Beautiful Peacocks' clear stamp set. I used a white card for the first one and coloured the image with gel pens and Marvy Markers and Dove blending pen. I haven't used those markers in quite a while, but since it was only a one layer card I couldn't use the Copics as they would bleed through. The greeting is from the same set.

I used a turquoise coloured card for the 2nd one. I only highlighted a few areas on the peacock with a gold gel pen and some Peacock coloured Liquid Pearls. The greeting is from a Stamp-It set.

I'm starting to really like CAS (Clean and Simple) style cards! They're really quick to make and, even better, not bulky to mail.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Another birthday card!

noreply@blogger.com (Lyn S) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 06:55:00 +0000

I'm back again! This is the card I made for my daughter Joanne for her birthday!

I used another Forever Friends bear image, coloured with Copic Markers, the greeting is by Heidi Grace. The purple doily is cut using the French Pastry die by Cheery Lynn - I rather like how it looks! Papers are by Heidi Grace.

I've entered this one also for the Forever Friends fortnightly challenge - Birthdays, and also for the Forever Friends monthly challenge - Stripes.

Hope you're having a great weekend!