Gone to China

Back in February you may remember my post Love from China when my cousin Penny brought me back some fabric. 
Well she took the scrapbook page I made as a thank you to the lady in China. Here is a photo of the lady happily showing off my framed scrapbook page that she is going to hang in her little market shop.

I am rather thrilled at knowing that a piece of my art work is in China and being viewed by heaps of people just wandering around a market.

Reason to smile

I don't need much of a reason to smile as everywhere around me I see plenty of reasons to smile. My lovely husband sitting beside me. New flowers coming up in the garden. Dinners with my children. My cat Gus chatting to the new neighbours cat Ginge. Yes they really are chatting. My interpretation of their conversation goes something like this.
" Hi I'm Gus, you must be new here? You are gonna love it here as my parents are crazy about cats"
 "Yeah, hi my name is Ginge short for Ginger and I can see I have a soft touch in that lady that keeps coming out and trying to pat me".
"Yeah that's my mum Zena you think she is a soft touch, well wait till you meet my dad"
"Oh great I think I'm gonna love this neighbourhood, see ya Gus"
Anyway that's what I think they are saying.
These cards are made using the Reason to Smile stamp set. I am finding so many uses for this set.

Cardstock: River Rock, Very Vanilla, Whisper White

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango,  Early Expresso, Old Olive

Baker's Twine: White

Stamp sets: Reason to Smile, Fabulous Phrases,

Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Whisper White

Ink: Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango

Organza Ribbon: Tangerine Tango

Stamp sets: Reason to Smile, Short and Sweet

Punch: Bo Ho Blossom

Embossing Folder: Stripes

Big Shot

This panel card was taken off a similar card I received at convention. I just changed the flowers to use the Reason to Smile set.
Cardstock: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Whisper White
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Soft Suede
Organza Ribbon: Lucky Limeade
Stamp sets: Reason to Smile,
Embossing Folder: Square Lattice
Big Shot

Convention background

While at Convention one of the Workshop WOW's presented by Liz Hicks was a special background. Now that we are back home Ursula, one of our Paper Angels tried it out and created some georgous scrapbook pages. So I have decided to give it a go myself and make some unique cards. I chose Vanilla card stock. Then I randomly sponged on Calypso Coral, Old Olive and Soft Suede all over the card. Next I rolled over the card randomly with the Jumbo Stampin Around. Then I stamped again randomly with  bleach and a background stamp and then filled in a few spots with a smaller stamp.

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Whisper White
Tools: Big Shot, Designer Frames, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Jumbo Stampin Around
Ink: Old Olive, Soft Suede, Calypso Coral, Rich Razzleberry
Ribbon: Crumb Cake Seam Binding

Invitations to 'owl about

Ha ha bet you wondered what you were looking at with a title like that. I was just trying to be a wee bit creative. I made these invitations for a very sweet little one year old.

Isn't it just the cutest. I really love the Builder owl punch. Of course I couldn't just hand them over in a plastic bag so I decided to try and recycle some of our yards and yards of brown paper that we get with our packaging. I made the paper bag and then using the Simply Scored plate I scored and pleated the top of the bag and then pulled it together like a fan. Then with the Big Shot (did I mention I love my Big Shot) I cut out some flowers from the Fun Flowers Bigz L die and added to the front.

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Early Expresso, Whister White
Designer Series paper: Pocketful of Posies
Tools: Owl builder punch, Big Shot, Fun Flowers Bigz L die, Paper Crimper

Love from China

My wonderful cousin Penny who lives in China is back for a holiday. She always brings me some lovely goodies and this time she excelled herself.

I am now the owner of some beautiful fabrics. Penny wanted to buy 6inch strips so that I could use them for my crafting and cards. Nobody would help her out but one shop decided to sell her 1/2 metre of each with the promise that I would make something to show what I do.

I decided on a scrapbook page as I thought it could be framed. I traced this cute girl out of a magazine and then found some thank you text on the net. I copied the text several times into a Word document, changed the font, then printed it out. I then rubbed over the page using my paint dauber and Crumb Cake ink. Cut out my girl and then dressed her in the fabrics.
The flowers I cut from the Fun Flowers Bigz L Die on my wonderful Big Shot. The leaves I punched  from the Bird Builder punch and then glued them following the curve of the design.

The background paper is from retired card stock Le Jardin which used to be one of my favourites. Yes I know what your thinking, "every thing seems to be a favourite."

 I cut a semi circle of the blue fabric and pleated it like the girls skirt and embellished it with a flower.

You may not be able to see the birds from the Carte Postale stamp set as I wanted them to look like a watermark across the page. I stamped them with bashful blue ink.

Also stamped a possum very lightly on a branch. (had to have something Australian.)
I had fun doing this girl so might try a few more, so stay posted.