.no baby blues. July 1, 2010

Well, I have attempted baby card number three – for a boy, once again featuring the Embellish Magazine’s colour challenge, and it was tricky!  But I avoided using baby blue as the feature, as I always do for boys, and only added one tiny little blue button just for the cuteness of it!

Tell me honestly – too girlie?   I am kind of thinking yes, but still like it anyway.  What do you think…?

Only one more to go and then it will be time to say goodbye to this challenge, as fun as it’s been.

Love Ruth x

.boys and birthdays. May 31, 2010

Not only do I have my own boys’ birthdays now, but a thousand other little friends who keep having birthdays!  The question I have to ask myself is, why make a card for a 3 or 4 year old who possibly won’t look at it at all and may even trash it in the pursuit of the birthday present?  Well, I’m not sure I have a good answer, just the fact that there are so many cute kids cards out there and I keep getting the bug to make one.  Not sure that I’ve succeeded yet, but having fun trying.  And my theory is, when you find an easy design, use it again. 

So I’ve needed a couple recently, and at the same time, InLinkz were having a colour challenge for boys’ birthday cards, so here are their colours:

And here are the cards:

Maybe I will grow out of making kids cards as my children grow up, but for now, it’s kinda fun!

Love Ruth

.wise or just really cute?. March 10, 2010

Owls seem to be everywhere in design at the moment.  Why the fascination, I wonder?  Apparently it’s not because they are wise, as is the typical association.  I read online at Big Site of Amazing Facts that for its size, the owl has a small brain, and is not as smart as geese, crows, and ravens!  Huh, disappointing.

Perhaps we have been fooled by the serious look on the owl’s face or those large, wide-awake eyes, and the ability to turn their entire head 180 degrees without moving any other body part!  Now that would be a very useful skill to have!!

So I have been caught up a little in the owl fascination, (in craft form, of course), and have my own little owl card to share.  This one will end up in the Embellish Magazine Colour Challenge with Borders.  I will have to make this one into a little felt hair accessory or brooch as well, I think!

 Embellish Magazine is a wonderful source of ideas and creativity.  I’ve been following their challenges for a while now, and am amazed at how they keep coming up with new ideas/combinations.  

One of my favourite bloggers, Tina Fussel (a.k.a. Traveling Mama) is part of the Embellish design team, and I’m stoked to see she commented on my last Embellish Mag challenge entry!!  Her blog was one of the inspirations for me starting my Molto Piccolo blog, so I have just LOVED having her visit every now and then!   {Thanks heaps, Tina!} 

Hope you are finding plenty of good ideas around you, and also finding the time to put them into action!  Don’t forget to let me know what you are up to, too…you know I love to hear about it all!

Love Ruth xx

.keep the colour coming. March 6, 2010

I have found one of the happiest mood boards I’ve seen in a while, and the colours have inspired a project or 3. 

Inspiration Board by Kelly Oshiro via Santa Barbara Chic

This image is the current Tuesday Trigger: Sweet on Spring at Moxie Fab World  submitted by Kim Wilson.

At the same time, I found the Colour Combination Just Add Ink Challenge #7, which has very similar colour themes.  Such a great blog with so many ideas to get excited about! 

So I am playing along with both challenges.

I also tried something new with these 3 cards…I made the second one from the offcuts of the first, and the third one from the offcuts of the second.  It is amazing to me how much use you can actually get out of paper scraps without too much effort!  I think my little experiment worked, however, it could go against me as my paper hoarding tendencies could rise to new levels now!

CARD #1

This was made at a Stampin’ Up! party a few nights ago, so all thanks to Anna Wilson, the SU! Consultant, for the wonderful design.

Embossing done using an amazing Cuttlebug machine

Punched & scrunched never looked so good!

Love those turquoise-y brads

CARD #2

There were so many beautiful scraps left over that I couldn’t throw them out, but instead, created this next design making the best use of them that I could.

The papers I punched the flower petals from (Card #1) become the feature

Letters from Rough Edges Alphabets (SU! set)

Left over embossed card & a simple knot of ribbon

CARD #3

So now, using up the little fiddly bits wasn’t hard with this layered and scalloped dress that I would surely wear, if only I get convert it into material!!  I added the peach colour so that I can include it in the Embellish Magazine Colour Challenge with Borders as well as the Moxie Fab’s Sweet on Spring Tuesday Trigger.

http://www.embellishmagazine.com

'Merci' card

Layers made using scallop-shaped scissors

Flower from tiny scraps; handmade wire coathanger

Love the green rhinestones

Now that I’ve gotten my molto piccolo (‘very tiny’ in Italian in case you didn’t realise!) fascination out of the way for the day, it’s off to two birthday parties & then dinner with friends.  Have a great long weekend, talk next week!

Love Ruth x

.beautiful turquoise. March 2, 2010

Wow, have just sighted the most amazing turquoise biscuits I’ve ever seen! 

Turquoise Bickies!

Actually, I should probably add that I’ve never seen turquoise biscuits before at all, ever!  So these are a feast for the eyes.  I love the colour turquoise.  In fact, I love most blues, but turquoise and aqua are my favourites. 

Perhaps these biscuits are melting moments (my favourite biscuit of all time) but whatever the flavour, they are so beautiful to look at that I don’t think I could ever eat them!  So it’s very apt that they are from a site called Pretty Foods and Pretty Drink, whose sub-title is “too pretty to eat, too lovely to drink” – I see why!  

My friend and her daughter recently came to visit and we made some earrings together.  I showed her daughter some very easy jewellery making techniques, and she was incredibly fast at picking it up.  She has sent some photos of the pair she made at my place, and some extras that she made at home soon after.  They fit beautifully here because they are, yes, (mostly) turquoise!

Well done, Rachael, they are all beautiful!

So now for some fitting craft projects to include here.  Hope you like these cards that I made recently since being inspired by the colour of the cookies!

The images on the following two cards are just sketches that I did, copies of images from the Stampin’ Up! For Everything set.

For some serious turquoise beauty, visit House of Turquoise, an absolutely gorgeous spot for all you blue lovers out there, like me!  (Well, for anyone really!)

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