Friday, June 18, 2010

A Friend Like You


Today I was so inspired by a challenge on StampTV.  Brenda had a beautiful picture of a Bed & Breakfast place (see above), and I love the colours of the plants in the pic.

I wanted to use a lovely floral stamp from GKD's new set Friends are Forever, stamped on watercolour paper.  I had a sketch in my mind of a card with lots of flowers.  Here's what I came up with:


The focal image was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black, and coloured with an aquabrush and watercolour pencils.  I used 3 shades of pink for the petals, and yellow and orange for the flower centre and 2 shades of green for the stems.  I also stamped a whole lot of the flowers onto another piece of watercolour paper for the cut-outs.  The horizontal strip border was punched with Martha Stewart's border punch (forgot the name).  Then the cut-out flowers were adhered to the strip, some adhered with scor-tape and others on small foam squares for some added interest.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Here For You


Today's card is a simple card - it was made with all the scraps I've saved up.  The stamped images are from Unity's KOM April 2010.  The main image was stamped on GKD White cardstock, and coloured with watercolour pencils.  Most times I would use the pencil direct on paper, but this time I used an aquabrush to pick up the colour from the pencil onto the stamped image. 
Other tools used : Nestabilities Squares & brads.

Thanks for looking.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Memories of Good Times...

Yesterday, on Gina's blog (http://blog.ginakdesigns.com/) she invited readers to share a favourite summer memory.  As I read her posting, a number of wonderful childhood memories came to mind, plus a reason  why "memory" is important to me, and my family.

My father has Alzheimer's and he struggles to remember simple things most times, but I'm glad that his long term memory is still more or less intact.  This year spending time with my father has been precious, I guess I feel as if I'm getting to know a new person.  Even though he has been my dad, I only know a part of who he is.  He tells me many stories (stories I've never heard before), e.g. of himself, as a kid growing up in WWII days and also of my grandfather & great grandfather whom I've never known.  As a result, I have come to treasure simple but wonderful memories in life & to hope that I never will forget.

Since I live in the East, we have warm climate every day of the year, so I guess special summer days for me would be like days when we have school holidays or when  we go on vacation. 

My favourite memory during school breaks would be times when my parents would take us out to the beach.  When I was young, I lived in the north east where the beach has really strong waves and while I loved being on the beach I was a little intimidated by the waves.  I would spend time playing on the sand and collecting seashells.  I would be so fascinated with seashells and their beauty. 

Here is my card, inspired by this memory and the lovely stamp set Gifts From the Sea.  It's a simple trifold card with a belly band.  The card measures 4.25" x 6".   The card base is a piece of cardstock weight, handmade paper (I can't recall the manufacturer - it was purchased on a vacation).  The belly band was stamped with the shells & sand dollars border stamp, then stitched around the edges.  One end of the belly band was punched with a scallop punch and secured with a brad.  A tiny stamped & cut-out shell was adhered on top of the brad.  The front panel of the card was stamped with various stamps from the Stamp set and lightly coloured with Dewent colour pencil ( Yellow Oxide).  On the front edge of the trifold, a strand of lace was adhered as shown, using 1/8" scor-tape.  The sentiment was stamped on a cream coloured cardstock, with some lightly stamped shells & corals on the background then adhered with foam squares to another peach coloured cardstock cut & embossed with Spellbinders Fancy Tags.

Hope you like the card, I certainly had fun making it - and thanks for dropping by.

The Lord is good..

Today is a CAS card I made a week or so ago - really simple with a bible verse printed onto the cardstock from my printer.

When I signed up for Unity's KOM, I received 10 free random stamps and the sheep stamp was one of them.  I kept it as I wasn't sure what goes with it.  Usually, when I'm stuck wondering how to use a stamp, I'd have to stare at it, and let the image settle in my mind, then an idea would come.  For this stamp, the image of love came to mind and I felt it would be great to have a Bible verse to go with it.  My choice of bible verse was from Nahum.

I stamped the image on white cardstock, added watercolour pencils and cut out the image. Added Glossy Accents on top and let it dry for about 1 hour or so.  Adhered the image with foam tapes onto the card.
Thanks for looking.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Any man can be a Father...

Today's card is for Father's Day.  I love the sentiment on this card because the saying is so true - any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a DAD.  To cultivate a close relationship with a child requires time, patience, lots of love and most of all to be a great role model. 

The card is made using Unity's KOMs - background (KOM May 2010), birds & sentiment (KOM Feb 2010).  Some paper piecing was done using October Afternoon's papers from Cherry Hill, Farm Fresh and Ducks in a Row.  Images were lightly coloured with watercolour pencils.  The main card was cut using Nestabilites Square die and the sentiment was cut using the Petite Ovals. Thanks for stopping by.

Some sewing on card

I haven't done any real sewing a long time now.  I have 2 sewing machines and the older one is now used for sewing paper.  Here's a card I made recently - the inspiration was the Spellbinders' nestabilities Labels One and of course my favourite stamps from Gina K Designs - a set called Hope Grows.  I wanted to make a card where the focal point is stamped on Labels One, and I wanted to decorate the edges of the die-cut with stamps.  I also wanted the colours to be soft in blue, green and cream.  I used watercolour pencils to colour the centre and the butterfly.  So, here's the card:


Thanks for dropping by.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Fairy Tales


















I love this sentiment stamp from Unity's May KOM.  I love fairytales and I treasure my fairytale books. I think they are stories of hope, and it's important to have hope in life.  We have to consciously seek for the "good" in everything and that's why I love this sentiment.  My father has alzheimers and he has good and bad days - but sometimes when I least expect it, he can cheer up my day.  The trees are from Unity's Sep 08 KOM - I think it goes so well with the sentiment.  Enjoy!