Black & White

A new month brings a new challenge at Creative Craft Cottage, the theme this time is 'Black & White'.  This really made me put my thinking cap on for a while, but I'm happy with the choices I made.

 

I've always wanted to try a page with this quilted look, so when my sister decided to visit, I took advantage of her sewing skills and put her to work with me hand stitching all these squares. 

Once the background has been completed it took a bit of thinking as what to do next.  The doily broke up the black nicely, then luckily I managed to find this gorgeous photo of my grandmother. 

I've used a mixture of flowers from Retail Girl, Dusty Attic, Petaloo & I am Roses along with feathers & pearls.  The scrabble tiles, although not strictly black & white, match the vintage photo.

 

Thank you for visiting, come & join in with us at Creative Craft Cottage for the chance to win a wee prize. 

Art Journal 8

Its quite amazing how fast we are getting through these journals, as here we are already with No. 8 done.  Not long now until I get mine back all filled up with loveliness from all the wonderful new friends I have made.

For this journal the theme was 'Things with Wings'.  All the other ladies have done birds & butterflies, so I decided to try something different.

I painted the background, then ripped up music paper and stuck down, then gesso'd.  In my stash I have some lovely 'Flower Fairy' party tablecloths, so that was the source of my inspiration. Lots of fussy cutting & modge podge later, the page was finished with ribbon & lace on 2 of the edges then I stamped & coloured the longer sides.  Glitter has been stuck in random places.

Gotta love doing these journals, its a great chance to try something new.  To see all the other pages I have done in this challenge (1 per month) they are all labelled 'CD'.  Let me know what you think.  Think about joining in a similar group yourselves.  It is so much fun with people you've mostly never met before.

Forbes Museum

Here is my entry for this months sketch challenge at Artfull Crafts.  Its great to take advantage of these sketches that require more than one photo.  Here are some more of my holiday snaps taken last year.

 

This was a quaint little disused railway station that had been converted into a café & museum, that we came across in NSW, Australia (hence all the gorgeous lush plants).

 

All the papers I've used here are only random unnamed papers from my stash, that I've distressed, stitched, inked & stamped.  The colours work well with the photos I think, and the handmade flower fits in with the sketch well.

 

One of the prizes in this challenge is a paper pad of the new Kaisercraft collection 'Blubelle', which is stunning, with all the colours I enjoy using.  Wish me luck with this.

Mar.IARDC

Today I've made a quick card using my favourite colours - blues & yellows, on top of some brown kraft card.  This is my entry for the monthly colour challenge over at I am Roses.

 

Firstly I embossed my piece of kraft cardstock, then rubbed over the impressions with chalk ink.  Next I stitched around the distressed edges, before attaching to my blue card.  The sentiment came from a Heartfelt Creations collections (gotta love these).  Lots of IAR flowers finish the card, here I've used Daisy's, Cherry blossoms & the little S-10 blooms.

 

I make very few cards, so have enjoyed this challenge.  Thank you for visiting, please leave me a comment.

Another Gift Box

It was time to send a friend some goodies, so I thought they would look much nicer packed up in a lovely little gift box, than just wrapped up in bubble wrap, what do you think?

 

Lots of 'softness' in these colours.  G45 Secret Garden paper used over a painted paper mache box, finished with luscious lace, pearls and some I am Roses flowers.  This was made in an evening.

 

I hope the recipient likes it as much as I do.  Thank you for visiting.

New Design Team

I have real exciting news to share with you all today.  I have been chosen to be part of the new Design Team for Jo over at Imagineif/FixDesigns.

This is a great little New Zealand business producing designer laser cut craft, cardmaking & scrapbooking supplies for crafting, of which my first package of goodies has just arrived for me to play/create with.  Keep an eye out as our first creations go live on April 1. 

To get the ball rolling we are having a giveaway, all you need to do is visit all the DT's blogs, follow our blogs and leave a comment.

A lot of you may be familiar with some of the other lovely New Zealand ladies that have been selected along with me:

Tash

Beth

Katrina

Ngaire

Carol

Lilian

Year of the Horse

Here we are with a new challenge at Creative Craft Cottage, gee how time flies.  This challenge has the more serious theme of  'the Year of the Horse', so I thought it was a great opportunity to dust the cobwebs off some of the old photos of my beautiful pony I had as a young girl.

 

Earlier today I was bouncing emails with a fellow crafter about different gorgeous paper collections, she uses the absolute, most gorgeous of papers Maja and Websters, just to name a couple whereas I have a more limited access to the 'names' and use mostly Kaisercraft or G45. 

Where I'm going with this is . . .  this page I've done here today is actually made with only random 'no-named' papers that have been growing dust in my stash forever, and I think it is just as nice as all those fancy collections we all drool over (mind you I'd not say no to any of those fancy papers tho).

 

After distressing the edges I was thinking about stamping or stencilling, then I came up with the idea of adding this ripped script paper - I LOVE how it looks, and inking the edges has really lifted it as well.  I wanted to keep the flowers to a minimum, or at least keep them grungy - FAILED miserably.  I did at least make these burlap flowers and this is my 1st attempt at zipper flowers.  I've left the DA chipboard raw as the colours matched the page perfectly.  Pheasant feathers finish the embellishing.

 



I hope to see you over at Creative Craft Cottage with your horse projects.  The other DT's have some lovely projects to inspire you as well.  Thank you for visiting.

Nana's girls

Banners & Pennants is the theme for the latest challenge  at Southern Girls Challenge, where we are spoiling you again with some fabulous prizes from our awesome sponsors.  The DT's have created some fabulous projects to share and inspire you.

For this layout I have tried to keep it clean and simple and let the paper show off its magnificence by itself.  I rarely get to do 'girly' pages, so I've loved the opportunity. Sadly the photo is not a very good quality as I 'borrowed' it off my girlfriend facebook page.



This  absolutely gorgeous paper is from the Kaisercraft 'Key to my Heart' collection, which I  altered very slightly with a little light inking & stamping, using Spun Sugar & Shabby Shutters distress inks.  Random papers were used for the banners & pennants.  I LOVE how the green 'pops' and really lifts the page.  I have kept the flowers to an absolute minimum- again wanting to keep everything very simple.  The letters were coloured with Dylusions Ink Spray 'Dirty Martini' then stickled.

I love how this page has turned out, and will use this style a bit more when I want a quick & easy page.
Thank you for visiting, have a happy, scrappy day.

Nana time

Well I'm really on a roll getting thru all my challenges well before the end of the month for a change.  For this layout I've followed the sketch from Dusty Attic and used another gorgeous photo 'lifted' from facebook of my pommie mate with her grandchildren.  This photo is 'oozing' love which is also part of the challenge.

I started with a Kaisercraft 'Key to my Heart' paper (have I said how much I LOVE this collection), then layered lots of banners on top of stamping & inking.  The DA Skeleton Clock face DA0430 was painted white then finished with crackle paint (not easily seen on the photo). I've used a mixture of flowers from Retail Girl, I am Roses & Dusty-in-Bloom Champagne kisses DA801.  Lettering is DA0476 & 477 mini words #2 & 3.

I love the colours in this layout, which are suitable for both male & female I think.
Thank you for visiting, have a happy, scrappy day.

Feb IARCC

This months challenge at I am Roses is of course 'Valentines' with a colour challenge of pink & yellow (not 2 colours I'd usually put together too much), they also ask for ribbon to be incorporated.  As usual their criteria is to use 2 or more of their gorgeous products . . . easy.

 

Immediately this tag came to mind, with lots of layers oozing texture and prettiness.  I adore the hearts and how they've all come together so well.  The mixture of colours on the ribbons compliment the flowers nicely.

IAR flowers I have used are:  Daisy, Cherry blossom & small S-10 (which I absolutely adore).

 

Thank you for visiting, have a happy, scrappy day.