Maggie's Crafts Blog Candy

Well I find it hard to say this but I did not complete any projects today, OMG!  I know I must be feeling sick or coming down with something! Lol

Nevertheless I did have a productive day! I finally got my package from Paper Wishes today and instead of assembling cards and pieces I was busy trying out all my new templates! Oh it was fun and I am building up a good stash of flowers and butterflies (one can never have enough of either).

I even found some time to perusal the www. and I stumbled (as one does) across this lovely little site called Maggie’s Crafts and she has some stunning cards, and her work is beautiful.

She is also holding a Blog Candy and it’s a great little stash of prizes, well worth popping your little eyes over to have a peak at.  I will even make it supper doper easy for you and all you have to do it click here and it will lead you straight there! And YES it is open to international bloggers as well! Now you can’t get any cooler or better than that!

So why are you still here? Go! GO NOW!  I hope you all have a wonderful evening as we pass through Hump Day (2 more closer to the Fankful Friday).

Fair seas and following winds,

The Navy Wife

A chalet in the snow

I have to say I had the most enjoyable time making this card and yes surprisingly 8 weeks out from Christmas this card got me singing ‘I’m dreaming of a White Christmas’ as I crafted and played away (lord help my children as I sing them to death with this song for the next 8 weeks lol).

I am loving this card for so many reasons!

I love how well the image turned out with my water colour pencils and with the glitter highlighting the snowy rooftop, trees, sidewalk and skyline, it really sparkles and shines adding that cool wintery yet warm fuzzy feeling you get inside.  I love the soft mauve glitter swirl backing paper with the glitter reindeer, with the swirl pattern circling around in the foreground it looks to me like the snow has lifted out of the image and is being blown about in the wind before it lands on the cottage.

The copper sticker boarder, snowflakes and sentiment just scream classic and difference to me, and having the snowflakes on the font and inside folded of the acetate, looking through with the snowflakes behind gives the eye an elegant trick as if snowflakes are actually falling.

I added a single copper sticker boarder on the front acetate fold as well to keep the eye in focus of the card and keep the appearance of the snow falling on the cottage.  I added a large yellow jewel to the front snowflake at the top to bring the eye into focus and as you look at the large snowflake with jewel on the inside fold towards the bottom, it also helps to give the effect of falling snow.

(Excuse my fat fingers in this one but I had to hold back the acetate to get a good shot of the glittering)

I just love love love this card, even with my practising water colouring and the glitter nearly making my colors run! (I have asked Santa for some Copics and he has given me a personal assurance that there is going to be some under the tree for me this year! I love having that direct line to him lol).  I even think it is going to be hard for me to part with this one and send it out!

Challenges I am entering this card in are:-

 365 Cards (Monday) – Day 239 All that Glitters

Craft Your Passion - #29 Add Glitter and Sparkles (Mondays)

Papertake Weekly - Sparkly & Bright (Tuesdays)

Delightful Challenges – It’s beginning to look at like ... Christmas (Thursdays)

Crafty Purple Frog - #1 Anything goes (Thursdays)

Other Lovelies - #31 H day (H is for Holidays) (Thursdays)

Theme Thursday - Winter (Thursdays)

Fussy And Fancy - #22 Winter wonderland (Fridays)

Bah! Humbug! - #41 Elegance (Friday)

Gingerloft Challenges - #5 Winter (Saturdays)

 Paper Garden Projects – 4th Friday Challenge – Holiday Cards(Fridays)

2 Sisters - #10 Anything Goes – (Saturdays)

The Crafty Pad – #94 Christmas (Sundays)

One Stitch At A Time - #36 All Celebrations (Sundays)

The image is Stone Cottage from Beccy's Place (Beccy Muir). (A free digi image, HUGE thank you Beccy!)

Fair winds and following seas,
The Navy Wife

Oh Baby ! - Wallpaper sampler

On one of my Wednesday evenings when my darling petal hubby was around I took the opportunity as I always do and went to a Scrap & Chat night (I soo miss them! And while I love when Ms Sal comes over for a play with me it just is not the same as being in the shop and having hundreds of papers and bits and whatcha ma callies all at your fingertips). 

On one particular evening I came one with a stunningly gorgeous card that I had made.  And, as petal does, I had to produce my hard work for show.  I was given the response of ‘hmm it’s a card, I can see that’, ‘it looks like a wallpaper sampler you get from Bunnings with the way it all folds down and all the colours, looks pretty though’.  And hence among all crafters at Dreamswork the wallpaper sampler card was born, created and shall hence forever be known as. Thanks hunni!

I have a friend that has just had a baby girl and I wanted to give her something extra special as I wanted to include a gift card voucher and this perfectly came to mind. (For the record I hate doing gift vouchers but she lives interstate and the cost of postage along with the fact that I was not sure of what she had or not, it was the safer bet to go).

I apologise as there is lots of photo’s but it’s a very detailed card.  Also as I have made it ready to post and some embellishments needed to go on around photo’s to finish it and as I do not have a real trendy photo editing program I just stuck a sticky note over some parts of the pictures for privacy reasons.  (thanks for understanding).

The card has a total of 4 folds and five individual ‘panels’ each panel is 14cm wide and 16 cm high.

Here is the front of the card. – You can use a Velcro dot but I prefer to use a square of foam tape as it doesn’t interfere with the overall finish of the card once hanging (and I design all my cards to finish being hung (usually with photos of the kids). 

It then folds out to like this (front view)

And like this (back view)

Following is individual close ups of the front 5 panels. - Starting at the top and working down.

This is a chipboard baby girl that I glittered in Clear and it so sparles and looks stunning.

Here I added glitter highlight dots to the patern papper and the flower centres.

I love this huge big glittered flower put together with a brad.  It really brings focus to bubs.

Flowers and glitter again. The whole card sparkles like a gem!

I love this peice of patterned paper.  The bird I have actually paper toiled from a second piece and placed over the bottom layer so it stands out more.  And the butterflies floating up the side set the bird as if it is itching to catch one of them and eat it.

Following is individual close ups of the back  5 panels. - Starting at the top and working down.

More butterflies

 I have put the giftcard in the top pocket but you could use any of them.

My message.

A pocket with a tag insert. (tags below)

2nd pocket with a tag - Tag picture below.

The two tags in the photos above

 View from the side

When all folded together the card is no more than 2cm deep making it still perfect to be posted in a padded envelope or in a box.

Close up of the flower (opening tab on the front) I love how this came up with the glitter that I just had to add a pic :$

I love this card! It came up so beautiful and I love the fact that it has an additional purpose being able to hang on the wall for display.  With the addition of the photos it makes a great wall hanging and the photos can be changed in future to update them if one wishes. I have also made this card without adding photos and instead using/adding more pockets and added more tags and it looks stunning that was as well. I also love the fact that I was able to use the photos emailed to me with their birth announcement and the recipient is so not going to be expecting to see their pictures in a card.

Challenges

Melijen's Designs - #30 Anything goes (2^nd Entry)  (Wednesdays)

 Flutterby Wednesday - #127 - (Wednesdays_ I have bytterflies on the front and throughout the project.

Penny’s Paper Crafty- #40 So long as it flies (Wednesdays) There is the bird on the front along with the scattered butterflies thoughout.

Southern Girls Challenge - #4 Glitter it up (Thursdays) It is glittered, sparkling and shining.  I have used Kindy Glitz  along with patterned glittered papers and jewels.

Aud Sentiments Challenge - #13 Anything that has to do with a baby  - It’s a Girl sentiment on the front. (Thursdays)

Tuesday Throwdown – #22 Anything goes (2^nd Entry) (Tuesdays)

Top Tip Tuesday (2^nd Entry) - #7 Anything goes (Tuesdays)
 I Did It Creations - #26 Surprise me (Fridays)
If The Shoe Fits - #52 Chipboard - I have the Chipboard and then glittered "Baby Girl" (Fridays)

 Totally Gorjuss – #53 - Sparkle - It is glittered, sparkling and shining.  I have used Kindy Glitz  along with patterned glittered papers and jewels. (Saturdays)

Fair winds and following seas.

The Navy Wife

Back to basics with the Classic Swirl

In honest I had one of those weekends where nothing went right, beginning with my printer having ‘issues’ so for my crafty time on the weekend I had to think back to the basics witch in a way suited the 365 Cards challenge for Saturday – Stamp a card with a matching envelope (the only one I had left to do to make it for the week).

I don’t have many rubber stamps either. In truth I have a cupcake birthday set and a fern swirl that actually isn’t mine as it’s borrowed from a friend (but I SOO LOVE IT and I think she will have to borrow it from me as I never want to part with it and I use it in nearly all my projects lol).
So rubber stamp fern swirl it was going to have to be and I was going to have to make it work – and I think I did.

I took 4 velum hearts and stamped them with the swirl and added both hot and light pink jewels to the ‘dots’ of the stamp image.  I edged & distressed the edges with hot pink ink and embossed them to make them curl like flower petals and then played with the hearts to interlock them to make a flower like everyone does with the spellbinders hearts (but I don’t have spellbinders :( – I DO NEED THEM though lol).  I added a silver flower button and highlighted it with hot pink jewels to make the flower centre. 

For the feature paper behind the flower I wanted to keep the swirl pattern in the card so I took some glitter gold swirl stickers and stuck them to wood grain embossed white and then backed that onto a handmade embossed gold and then matted it all on the wood grain white again and embellished with a think hot pink ribbon.

For the envelope I so wanted to keep the hot and light pink jewel feature going ... but ... expense wise it just was not practical and if the card was to go through the mail with how graciously Australia post handles our mail they would most likely get damaged, fall off or catch and tear the envelope open :( So ... I thought it best to go with hot pink Kindy Glitz instead and the result is just as nice.  Additionally for the envelope as I did not want the focus to be taken from the card so I stamped the swirl in charcoal and not black so the swirls are lighter in colour. 

All in all I think the card and the envelope came up really well and it could quite possibly be at the moment my favourite card.

Challenges
365 Cards – Day 237 – Stampin Saturday – Stamp on a card and stamp on an envelope to match.
(Woo HOO I did all 7 ! )

Fair winds and following seas.
The Navy Wife

Gingerbread man cooking!

For this card I had the 365 Cards – Day 236 –Friday Five in mind (Select any five items to put on your card, and aside from the cardstock, there can be only five items on your card.)

I went with a base of acetate (doesn’t count as it is my cardstock).

I went with the following

A green ‘Celebrate’ rub on. (1)

A paper star pyramid toil picture (gingerbread man) (2)

A strip of green glitter paper just up from the bottom (3)

A thinner strip of red over the top of the green (4)

And for last but not least gold repetitive ‘Merry Christmas’ sticker on top of the red strip. (5)

I am really happy the way it all turned out, with the acetate it really looks fantastic ,and I think that Christmas cooking gingerbread man is just dandy!

Now if memory serves me right I should be one day away from being a Weekly Challenge All Star over on 365 Cards.  I am patiently sitting here refreshing and waiting for Saturday (last day needed).

A card a day that is an achievement in itself and then throw in some other cards I have managed to tape together :) Surprising a good week.

Challenges

365 Cards - Day 236 –Friday 5 (Fridays)

Fair winds and following seas,

The Navy Wife

An angel in my Eggnog

I have been practising my image coloring this week and found this super cute little guy that I thought would be great for Christmas.  He is a Desiree Markus image and I believed called momentsprecieux_3_0073 (well that is what he saved under on my computer) and yes he is a free image! Love those free images, especially as I am still not sure if coloring stamps is for me or not yet. 

Using the Super Sunday Sketch for Day 231 over at 365 Cards and

Thursdays challenge of Pick 3 (Day 231 -3 patterns, 3 colours and 3 embellishments) I went with the colors being green, red and cream and I embellished my card with glitter, a tea stained cottonwool ball and the holly leaf (a Christmas decoration I picked up from the $2 shop) (love a bargain!)

The stained cottonwool ball to me gives the effect of the Eggnog being spilt over the cup and I do so love that metal holly bunch.

Challenges

365 Cards - Day 231 -Super Sunday Sketch (Sundays)

365 Cards – Day 235 – Pick 3 - 3 patterns, 3 colours and 3 embellishments (3 patterned papers, 3 colors – green, red and cream and 3 embellishments – Holly leaf, tea stained cottonwool ball and glitter.) – (Thursdays)

Fair winds and following seas,

The Navy Wife

Message in a bottle

365 cards challenge for Day 234 is Imagine This - For this one, all you need to do is think about are Palm Trees.

I don’t need to think about Palm trees as this is what I see every time I look out my kitchen window.

Pretty all around the pool hey?

Well NO! They are a headache to me, I want to run away and just stay inside when I look at them... Why?

Because of this! – And that is work! (less time for me to play NOOO!)

Hard to find inspiration in something that you dislike but I did find some.  For me when I have to think about palm trees (forgive my misspent youth in front of the TV watching cartoons) but I think of that lost little island in the middle of nowhere with the lone little palm tree leaning to the side with coconuts falling on my head as I drunkenly watch parts of my shipwrecked boat wash up on shore.  (The comical sharks circling around would be my children).

So palm trees all I can say is give me a shipwreck on a deserted island and “preferably” a full bottle of rum :$

The message on the bottle outside and the poem inside is computer generated and printed onto light yellow card stock.  As I wanted to get a real feeling to it I burnt the edges around them both along with random sections of the paper and then distressed both with black ink.

To suit the challenge I added the message into the bottle, but I am actually giving this as a gift to a friend, she is having a bad week like me with a teething child so I thought the sentiment is perfect and I added some rum to the bottle and attached the tag around the bottle neck.  It can’t all be that bad as I made one for myself as well ;))

 Hic, Hic Challenges:

* The Corrosive Challenge – Get rid of White (Mondays)
* Simon Says Stamp and Show – Anything but a card (Mondays)

 365 Cards – Day 234 Imagine this (Wednesday) Spotlight Designer for this day!
Lots to do (2nd Entry) -  Plain and Simple  (Fridays)
Craftalicious (2entry) #10 Anything goes   (Sundays)

And now I finally have a child sleeping (Grandma always says to dip some rum on the dummy

and a swig for mummy) this Navy Wife is off to bed.

Fair winds and following seas
The Navy Wife

Thank God for Teachers

My little man started school this year; he is growing up so fast! So being his first year in school and knowing how hard it must for their teachers in a room full of little people who have never been to school before I really must give them praise!

So first year at school calls for a very special Christmas card. I was not after the traditional type of Christmas card, I wanted something that was children and school related and that really was going to thank them and I came up with this.

I love how it combines the red and white of Christmas but with the splash of the Orange and the yellow still really makes it ‘school like’ and a great little thankyou card.

The pencil boarder was from a School days scrapbooking page I had laying around and the red is corrugated cardboard that gives the piece some really nice texture and stands out against the white.  I taped it onto a yellow card stock for the base and to frame it.

The image is from Meljen’s Designs (I Love My Teacher).  I coloured the image in with watercolour pencils and to add focus to the sentiment I touched the TEACHER with Kindy Glitz and edged the edges in black ink.

Love this card and how the colours all came togther.

Challenges:
* Crafty Cardmakers (2nd entry) - use a freebie  (Mondays)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesdays – FTTC 89-focus on the sentiment (2nd entry do not know if this is ok or not, have left a comment in the comment section) – (Tuesdays)
Tuesday Throwdown - Anything goes (Tuesdays)
* Melijen's Designs - #30 Anything Goes (Thursdays)
* Lots to do-  Plain and Simple  (Fridays)
* Card Positioning Systems - #189 Sketch   (Sundays) 

Fair winds and following seas
The Navy Wife

I so just want to eat you!

I soo loved the sketch over at The Sweetest Thing that I knew I had to make a card with it this week as it is so adorable and dropping cherries on cupcakes just screamed at me to do it!

I wanted to make this card ‘girly’ as it’s for my best friend – no special occasion just a note of Hi & thinking about you so I went with my favourite mix of colours that is pink and brown. 

With the layout of the sketch I was able to make the bottom look like a cupcake and then I found some of my old Santa’s beard fur from last year and ... It HAD to go on the top!  With the white fluff adding the gorgeous dimension to it, it also looks to me like yummy fresh whipped cream on the top!   Only problem I had with this was my once all together cupcakes hid the fur and I had to show off the fur :( so .. I cut them up singularly and added them on. (It breaks slightly from the sketch).

The 3 falling round cherries make me just want to pick one of them right off along with a  cupcake  and start eating it all!  I added some sprinkles down the right hand side (experiment that went right!), they are a mix of beads mixed in with some glitter.

I coloured the images with my watercolour pencils – I added pink Kindy Glitz to the cupcakes tops, the cherry circle edges and cherry dots.  I added red Kindy Glitz to sections of the cherries and I added dimensional paint over the top of my cupcake bases to make them stand out and as it does makes them dimensional.

I really do just so love this card! All I can think of looking at it is pick a cupcake, grab a cherry, run the cupcake through the cream and pick up a handful of sprinkles for the top!

A huge thank you to Meljen’s Designs for both FREE images Reto Cherry and triple treat cupcakes.  Again I hope I did them justice – I sooo want some COPICS as watercolour just doesn’t give me the ‘bright’ I am always looking for.

Challenges I am entering are

Charmed Crafts – Copic Blog Candy – GO AND CHECK THEM OUT! They are giving away, as blog candy 72 marker pens for FREE!  All you need to do is colour a image, blog it, give them a plug and then add your link. TOO EASY so DO IT!  (But I am going to win as I not want I NEED COPICS lol)

* Crafty Cardmakers - #32 Use a Freebie – Yeah thanks to Meljen’s Designs (Mondays)

* Incy Wincy Designs - #62 Pink & Brown (Mondays)

* Fab N Funky Challenges - #44 Yummy yummy yummy (Wednesdays)

* Totally Gorjuss – PINK (Saturdays)

* Craftalicious - #10 Anything goes (Sundays)

* The Sweetest Thing - #89 Sketch (Sundays)

Fair winds and following seas

The Navy Wife