.cards week craziness. February 26, 2010

If you are looking for some supersized inspiration, and countless amazing stamp-related prizes, (pretty much everything I can possibly think of in stamps that I would ever want – how did they know?!), then you really need to head over to Moxie Fab World!

There you will find info on the Stamp It! Magazine Cards Week which incorporates the Olympics of Stamping Challenge and the Stamping Royalty Contest.

Then there’s the Oh My Moxie Fab Stamp Giveaway which is equally as crazy as there are 43 stamps (sets & individuals) being given away! 

Wow, they are feeling madly generous this week!

Anyway, I, of course, felt compelled to participate!  Truth is, I had a birthday party for a sweet little 1 year old today, (Happy Birthday, Abby! xo) and as one of the Olympics of Stamping Challenge categories is Happy Birthday, I had to add it to their entries. 

Entries need to be mostly stamped so no patterned paper used here!

The dress design was inspired by this dress  shown on Paisley St Claire:

I also found a similar card concept on the Paper, Scissors and Superheroes  blog, by the seriously talented Betsy Veldman.  So gorgeous!

Well, have an amazing weekend ahead, and I will probably be chatting more when I’m a little bit older and a little bit wiser!!  (Cryptic, I know, but it’s as simple as I have a birthday looming that I can’t seem to avoid!)

Love Ruth x

Stamp sets used: Heart and polka dots from Stephanie Barnard’s Circle It! set

Flower and dragonfly from Stampin’ Up! Time Well Spent and Shades of Nature sets

Letters from Stampin’ Up! Rough Edges Alphabets

Vintage lace for sash

.get sketchy challenge #26. February 25, 2010

Get Sketchy have a layout challenge on at the moment – you can see the post here: http://getsketchy.blogspot.com/2010/02/gs-26.html

My card ended up like this:

Had any creative days/hours/moments lately?  Let me know what you’ve been making & how it turned out!

Love Ruth x

Sentiment is taken from Stampin’ Up! Word by Word background stamp

Branch with leaves stamp used on orange background is a lone anonymous stamp that I have in my collection!

.dimensions x2. February 24, 2010

Today it’s mainly just pictures of some projects.  I was inspired by the current Just Add Ink challenge, which is to include dimension in your projects.  {The challenge details are here: http://just-add-ink.blogspot.com/2010/02/just-add-ink-5.html} So here are two projects that have developed.

Felt flower hair tie

Mine (left) was inspired by a design (right) by my friend and artist Christine Buist

My second project is a card (surprise!) with a super-dimension heart.  I guess the idea is reminiscent of paper tole, but not nearly as complicated or involved or skillful!  But I like the effect regardless!

I saw this frame from The Paper Tie Affair store on www.madeit.com.au which gave me the idea for my card.

You can see this and other gorgeous paper items for sale at their  store here: http://www.madeit.com.au/storecatalog.asp?userid=8540

Hope you had a great Wednesday.

Love Ruth x

P.S. Happy Birthday Graeme!!!

.a good thing. February 22, 2010

Life if full of good things if you go looking.  Sometimes you barely have to look at all, other times, well, you might need some binoculars to see them.  It’s never about what is actually there, it’s always about perspective. 

Image from http://www.giftznmore4u.com

Sometimes in life, I wish I could take my good-perspective-self and bottle her, just for those times when I lose that perspective!  I am thinking a nice ornately styled bottle – I would quite like that as a little homestead!!  {Yes, I grew up in the ’80’s and wanted to be Barbara Eden from I Dream of Jeannie!}

So right now, I’m in a good perspective stage, and I’m planning on keeping it for as long as possible!  This little card I’ve made kind of reflects that. 

"A Good Thing" butterflies card

Butterfly and sentiment stamp from SU! Time Well Spent set

It was inspired by this gorgeous card on www.papercraftsconnection.com

"Sending you Sunshine" from PC Connection

It’s a shame the weather didn’t reflect my mood when I was taking my photos.  It was very overcast and is now raining and gloomy.  But thankfully, it hasn’t changed my outlook in the slightest.  I love this quote that reminds me of who is in charge of it all, anyway {‘it’ being life in general, perspective, weather etc. etc!}: “…those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”  {from the Bible, Psalm 34:10b}

Hope you are getting some great perspective right now.  But if you’re not, I hope it’s not too long before it returns.

Love Ruth xx

“A Good Thing” card has been entered in the Paper Hugs blog inspiration challenge, which can be viewed here: http://paperhugs.typepad.com/paper_hugs/2010/02/some-fun.html#comments and the Just Add Ink Challenge #5, seen here: http://just-add-ink.blogspot.com/2010/02/just-add-ink-5.html 

.sunshine and love. February 21, 2010

I love days like today when the sun is out but there is enough breeze to keep you sane.  Actually, it’s a bit more than a breeze here in Launceston, but it’s still a great day!  My boys have been having a blast on the trampoline with their Dad and I am loving the sound of their voices and squeals of excitement as Paul flips them up and around, passing on some of his trampolining expertise!!   (Seriously, he has a lot!  He did competition trampolining ’til he was 17 and was quite the expert!)

So I had a little chance to make some cards today and organise myself for the week ahead.  This card is for the Etsy Inspired Challenge #76 featuring products from Enchanted Beehive’s shop.  (If you don’t know, Etsy is a huge online central shopping location for artists and the handmade community to showcase their wares.  www.etsy.com).  A blog inspired by Etsy offers a crafting challenge each week – this week’s can be found here: http://etsyinspired.blogspot.com/2010/02/etsyinspired-challenge-76-enchanted.html

My heart stamp (SU! Gentler Times set) gets a lot of use!

Tag with sentiment from K&Company Tags to Go

String & staples make a good match for a quick effect

So now I’m off to enjoy the rest of our lazy Sunday evening, and I hope you are doing something wonderful too. 

Love Ruth xxx

.i can’t sleep. February 20, 2010

Unfortunately, I can’t sleep tonight!  Fortunately, I can always find something to do at 1am when I can’t sleep. {o:  At the moment, I am sharing my desk with nearly 4 y.o. Ethan, who is suffering from the same “can’t sleep” issue that I am!  Can’t say this has ever happened before, and it won’t be long before I take us both back to bed to try again.

So I found another Tuesday Trigger on www.moxiefabworld.com

See the post here: http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2010/02/tuesday-trigger-girly-gingham-and-perky.html

The image to be inspired by is from Dear Daisy Cottage blog (www.deardaisycottage.typepad.com ) and was submitted by Becky Garrison.  I thought I’d try this one out as I would rarely use yellow and red together, and I don’t often use big bows.  So this seemed a good challenge.  Here’s my card that resulted:

Yellow and red, bows & flowers

 

I used: Decorative and sentiment stamps from Stampin’ Up Pocket Silhouettes stamp set.

I just love using Pocket Silhouettes, which I’ve only had for a couple of weeks.  Nothing like a new stamp set to get you inspired.

So now it must be time to go back to bed.  Especially as Ethan is getting more & more talkative with every minute that slips by.  Goodnight, and I hope you are enjoying a wonderful night’s sleep!

Ruth xx

.just add ink homepage. February 17, 2010

I’m a bit excited that one of my creations has been featured on the Just Add Ink homepage!  It’s one of the cards that I entered in their current colour challenge, and it is there along with many of the other entries.  I just had to share my excitement!  You can see it here: http://just-add-ink.blogspot.com/2010/02/jai4-entries-so-far.html

It’s one of the last cards in the slideshow, so takes a minute to scroll through to it, but when it does, it looks like this:

Hope you are having a lovely Wednesday!

Love Ruth x

.just add ink challenge 4. February 16, 2010

Okay, so I’m going a bit mad on the challenges.  But they are such good starters for projects!  Especially if you are feeling a bit flat creatively.  So today I tried out the Just Add Ink Challenge 4, which includes these 4 colours together:

The challenge can be found here: http://just-add-ink.blogspot.com/2010/02/just-add-ink-challenge-4.html

With a half an hour break in my day, I made this card to contribute to the challenge…

Friend to Friend card

I’m not sure that the colours are very true in the photos, perhaps the time of day & the photo location, but I hope you get the picture!

I used:

Decorative stamps from the KaiserCraft Lilac Avenue set

Sentiment stamp from Stampin’ Up Pocket Silhouettes set

Okay, back to the real world now, enough blogging for today!

Ruth x

.moxie fab world tuesday trigger.

The title is a mouthful, I know.  Moxie Fab World is a great site that has loads of inspirations for paper crafters.  It’s here: http://www.moxiefabworld.com/

It is also the home of the Tuesday Trigger, which is a weekly inspiration challenge.  The picture below is this week’s very sweet trigger.

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger

See the trigger post here: http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2010/02/tuesday-trigger.html

So my efforts as inspired by all those pink lollies are right here: (sorry for the rather poor photos, due to fairly bad night lighting):

Heart stamp from 'Gentler Times' Stampin' Up set

If you have noticed that this is a very late post, it’s because this challenge closes at midnight Monday MST, which is 2 hours behind EST, and I nearly forgot all about it!  So now I’m off to bed to sleep tight.

Goodnight! Ruth x

.embellish magazine colour challenge. February 15, 2010

I have tried out the www.embellishmagazine.com  Colour Challenge for the first time.  They often suggest colour combinations that I would never think to use.  The challenge can be found here: http://embellishmagazine.com/blog/2010/02/embellish-birthdays-color-challenge-sponsored-by-the-stamps-of-life/

Colours of the challenge: pink, brown, blue & green

Colour Challenge theme - Celebrate Birthdays

Stamp from Stampin' Up 'Pocket Silhouettes' stamp set

My friend Heather, also discovered the challenge and tried it out.  She emailed me a pic of her card inspired by Embellish Magazine, and here it is…

Happy Birthday card by Heather

Thanks Heather for sharing this with me!  If anyone joins in a challenge that I have recommended anytime, or you just want to share something you have made/decorated/designed etc., then please send it to me at ruth.morrison@becc.com.au as I’d love to see it.

Ruth xx