Wishing you a fantastic 2019 - See You Later

This is a photo of our last evening of 2018 and what a beautiful one it was.  We have had torrential rain for the past week and a half. It was so lovely today to see sunshine and hang the washing out to dry and get that sunshine smell. Also terrific  for my husband to mow today and have nothing to do tomorrow on his birthday other than enjoy the manicured lawn and possibly watch the rain fall. 

Happy New Year everyone.  I wish you the very best for 2019. 

Thank you all for your visits throughout the year although my posts and visits to your blogs have been sporadic.  I've decided to re-open my card store on Made It (smaller Australian version of Etsy) - www.madeit.com.au/MerrymadeCards My thinking is that this will allow me to sell cards that I  create after being inspired by others through Pinterest. Ultimately, I'm trying to reduce my stash which seems impossible as my Mum and an elderly friend also think they should reduce their stashes and have been passing crafting items on to me. I will miss blogging and although I have tried for the last couple of years since commencing full time work to continue blogging I find that now that I work on computers all day I don't want to be on them when I get home.  You will be able to find me on Pinterest.....link is over there to the right where I share from time to time what I have been creating.  I  will no doubt also be browsing through the many creations stored there for inspiration for my next project. 

So its not goodbye, but see you later when I have more free time in at least five years.

A special thanks for you visits and sticking with me as posts got thin - I have always appreciated your visits and comments. Monica, Brenda, Loz, Janette, Kaye, Gail, Cathy C, Sandra H, Lorraine (cold waters), Mrs A, Linby, Dr Sonia, Judy S.

Merry Christmas everyone

Wishing you all the very best Christmas, I hope that it all goes according to your plans with some relaxing,  family, friends with a touch of fun and of course yummy food.

Sharing the cards I sent out this year the last couple are on my craft desk now ready to be completed tomorrow.

Graphic 45 Paper Challenge - Cathedral Window

I spied this design in Pinterest ages ago and have always wanted to give it a try with my scrap papers.  So I used my scraps from the Graphic 45 paper pad while doing the challenge.  This card took a little longer than I first thought it would.  First punching out the required number of circles, amazing how many you can fit into such a small area.  Then folding each circle in on four sides to create a square.  I scored the lines using my scoreboard no measurements just purely by sight.  Next I thought easy….I will just pick up a circle as it is all random but no I wanted to make sure that the patterns and colours were evenly spread on the front of the card.  So that took a bit of sorting then I adhered each circle and found some bling, buttons and flowers to embellish the card.

Thanks for passing by.

Graphic 45 Paper Challenge - Pink Flowers

Another card I made for the Graphic 45 paper challenge I was part of.  I really do love the end result of this card.  The images I have had had stamped up and waiting in my stash for a couple of years ready for that right moment.  I have coloured them with my Copic Pens added a touch of bling to each flower and raised the leaves with 3D foam tape.

These are all the colours I used for these images.

I have now given this card to my very good friend from school years on her birthday at the start of December. 

Graphic 45 Paper Challenge - Birthday Candles

I do like adding birthday candles to a card, such a fun way to use up scraps of paper.  Inspired by this card from Pinterest. All these candle papers are from the Graphic 45 paper pad - 'At the Races'. The flames are created by punching out a heart and cutting that in half.  I have added some clear Wink of Stella to each flame, if you squint you can see on the second candle. :-)

Fancy Fold Christmas Card

Another Christmas card….I'm so loving the feeling of Christmas this year to have a couple of cards already made and in my stash.  I used to be organised like this about 10 years ago and it is a good feeling. I made this card for a Craftmad Sketch challenge earlier this year.  

To me the papers are everything Christmas - green, red and gold.

The card all folds down to this lovely compact size ready for mailing.

Thanks for visiting.

Mums Birthday

Yes, I'm doing a bit of catching up as this year winds up, I thought I should try and share all my creations for the year before the end of the year. :-)  Mum's birthday was way back in March but I don't remember sharing this at the time so better late than never. :-)  I coloured this peacock die cut from Blue Edge Crafts with my Copic Pens then added some shimmer chalk and bling.  Found this perfect background paper in my stash.

Mum turned 81 this year and I think she has helped raised some wise cracking children.  My brothers gifts to her her were the tiara and the 18 today which he asked her to wear upside-down as it then says '81'.  From me Mum received the 'Jar of Nothing'.  For the last few years when her birthday and Christmas roll around and I ask what she would like she says "Nothing".  So this year Mum got what she had asked for and was so happy and couldn't wait to show the ladies at church the following week. 

A jar of nothing.

Have a terrific day.

Christmas Tree Card

I have used Graphic 45 paper for the background of this card.  The christmas tree is a die cut from Blue Edge Crafts which I layered on top of some lovely green glitter card stock.  Finished with some die cut borders and the Merry Christmas wording.

Have you got your decs up?  I'm keeping it simple this year as my husband are visiting our son and girlfriend for Christmas.  I have put the tree up with lights and decided that I will make a few paper ornaments to put on it as well as a garland or two.  A homemade Christmas decoration year. 

Daffodil in Purple - Thank You

A friend of mine recently had a clean out and passed on her crafting items to me as she no longer makes cards.  The majority of this card is from her stash….the purple base card, the beautiful purple fabric type textured background and the shimmery lilac card stock.  The spotted paper is from Stampin Up.  I have adhered the daffodil sticker to some white Xpress It card stock and coloured this with my Copic Pens.

Happy Tuesday everyone.

Paper Teapots

I made 30 + of these paper teapots for the Biggest Morning Tea function that we held at our local High School back in June.  I spied the design on Pinterest where people had used Stampin Up frame-lits - Keepsake Box.  I don't own any frame-lits so I went in search on Pinterest (again) for a template to use and viola……I then started hand cutting these cute little boxes.  The handle is just a strip of paper approx 8cm x 1.5cm and the spout I cut from my own hand drawn template.

The papers are from a Kaiser Craft pack which Kaiser Craft kindly donated to occasion.  Inside each teapot we placed a cupcake for the guest from the local retirement home could take home with them.

The rest of the decorations ready for the Biggest Morning Tea guests

The guest in all their refinery……the theme for the day was to where your best Tea Party hat.  The lady in blue forgot hers and adapted her serviette for the event. :-)

Have wonderful day.

Mother's Day

A bit of a blurry photo and yes, I'm doing a catch up with my cards.  I made this for Mum who just loves butterflies.  I used some new papers from Cocoa Vanilla.  They are so pretty and it was nice to play with something new.  Have a great day.

3D Pots and Succulents

I have found a new love this year and that is succulents. I have been slowly transforming my unused vegetable garden into a succulent garden which sounded easier than what it is going to be.  I have discovered that although succulents don't need as much water and don't mind the sun.  They don't really like the blazing afternoon sun which my garden gets.  I'm also concerned I will lose the lot during our wet season as they just don't cope with a lot of water.  I have now put one of each type I own into three pots so I have a plant in reserve at all times.

I was having so much fun growing new plants from leaves of my other plants I thought they would be a great christmas gifts to people at work and other close friends.  So I asked my son to create some small pots for me on his new 3D printer and the photo shows what he came up with.  I was only expecting one design but he was having so much fun creating new designs the collection grew.

Have a wonderful day.

Edit:  Thought I should show and explanation about 3D printing as I too had not heard about 3D printing until our son bought himself a cheap one to have a try.

3D Printing - 3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file.

The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.

3D printing is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing which is cutting out / hollowing out a piece of metal or plastic with for instance a milling machine.

3D printing enables you to produce complex (functional) shapes using less material than traditional manufacturing methods.

You Tube video of a 3D Printer in action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcgPRTBPm9o

November Craftmad Swap - Backgrounds

For our November card swap over at Craftmad we had to swap two cards creating our own background.  I had fun with paints and salt and a little rice for this background. Added some flower stamps, more doodling and some rub on words and smudges of gold ink.

I spied this design for a background on Pinterest unfortunately, I did not save the original post so can't link….if it is yours please let me know.  A design I thought would be pretty quick to do but I was wrong. I doodled the black lines in the background- easy part and then coloured with my Copic pens. Colouring the sections took way longer than I imagined but fun and relaxing, each column has three different row stripes and to colour those stripes each had three different Copic pens.  Coloured the robot with my Copic pens too.

Wow - 10 years of blogging

I was just checking out different things on my blog as I have day off due to our son and his girlfriend coming for an overnight visit.  Lovely surprise.  

I just spied that I have now been blogging for 10 years…….unbelievable!  I started 18th November 2008 after visiting other peoples blogs and being inspired to CASE their cards, I thought it would be fun to share my results.   

Something I didn't do was blog to get the most amount of followers.  My friend from school kindly commented on my very first post below and I made it 2 comments because I replied.  The majority of posts for 2008 have no comments. :-)  I was looking through to see at what date someone that comments now first visited my blog. CrafteeCC aka CathyC commented way back in February 2009 and is still commenting today…..thanks for sticking with my Cathy. :-)  2009 was the peak of my blogging with 358 posts.  2018 has been a bit of a comeback year for me with 48 posts so far and a month to go.

Below is a screenshot of my very first post - http://merrymadecardscrafts.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-to-blogging.html

How long have you been blogging?

Happy 50th Birthday

I made this for my friend Tracey who turns 50 today, party last night.  As well as friend Tracey is my and a couple other ladies exercise group instructor - so sometime we are thinking she is not our friend. :-)  During the exercises and then again two days later when we can hardly walk.

I had fun making this card, I used a 12" x 12" piece of card stock and had to extend it with the darker green card stock to fit all 50 candles on, hence the three strips of gold washi tape.  I then rolled 50 scrap piece of paper 7cm x 3cm on a chop stick placing double sided tape on the closing edge of the rolled paper.  For the flames I punched 25 gold hearts and cut them in half - the is the best tip I have found on Pinterest this year.

Thanks for visiting, hope your weekend is good.  I'm off for coffee with another group of friends this morning.

Black and White Card Swap

Our October swap at Craftmad was all about Black and White.  I found this wonderful paper in my stash and layered it on black and white card stock.  Then on the front strip I attached these black sticker mandala which I thought teamed up with the paper well.  Added a bit of bling and finished with a sticker sentiment.

I really do enjoy doodling or zentangle as they tend to call it these days.  I started this by working in pencil first, drawing and outline of the star from one of my dies.  Then I drew lines to make sections around the star and filled that with a different doodle design in each.  Finally went over the pencil with my fine tip pen (a finer one is on my Christmas wish list).  So relaxing and makes you forget about the world as you fill the sections.  I layered my design on some black glitter card stock to give it a bit of a shine.

Orange Flowers

This card came about as I was sent the cream die cut background piece with the birdcage already attached.  I thought the side of die cut had to much open space so I added to rows of rub-on borders, attached some felt flowers to the bird cage as I could find no birds that suited the cage.  Then attached that to card stock and paper layers.  Finished with a sticker sentiment.

Here we go into another week I wonder what it will bring?  Hope all is going well in your part of the world. 

Pink Hearts

The card base I received from a friend who had started the card but never finished.  So all I had was the card covered with this pretty flower paper.  I have added all the embellishments from my stash and I think gave it a little retro or hippy style.   I have enjoyed completing the couple of cards my friend sent me as it has had me delving into my stash to find something that matches…..probably things that I would not normally think to use. Maybe you could do a swap with friends of your cards half done and see what they come up with.

Graphic 45 Paper Challenge - Christmas and baby

Another couple of cards made from my Graphic 45 Paper Pad - Off to the Races for the my challenge.  I spied this paper folded design on Pinterest which led me to this blog and had to give it a go.  It is so simple and I will have to do it again as I don't think this paper was quite right to do the design justice.  However, I am happy to have another christmas card in my small stash. I added versa mark clear holly stamped leaves around the border of the card as it looked to bare.

As well as trying only use papers from this paper pad for the challenge, I added one of my own and that is to use up my pre-stamped images I have gathered over time from friends or extras I have had and not used.  So I enjoyed finally putting these cute images to use that I have had for years.  The card stock they are stamped on was white so I grabbed my Copic pens and coloured them to match the papers.  A little lace and ribbon, a bit of layering and finished with a couple of gold stickers.

Well it's Thursday already and smack bang in the middle of November.  I have a feeling the days are going to just fly by now and suddenly we will be saying Happy New Year. :-)

Thanks for stopping by.

Craftmad Swap - bike and embossed flowers

This swap over at Craftmad was all about using dies.  Out came my bike die that I haven't used too often - ran it through pink and grey for the wheels and pedals.  Added some punched flowers to the basket with a touch of glitter.  Finished with my Happy Birthday die.

I attached different sized die cut circles to this card stock and a couple of die cut leaves then ran it all through an embossing folder.  Next I layered up some paper flowers and finished with the pretty purple sequins and Best Wishes sticker.  

Sunday for me and I'm off to have breakfast in town with my husband possibly along the Esplanade somewhere.  Do a bit of people watching - always fun.  Then picking up Mum to take her to the local Christmas Craft Fair. Good times. Wishing you a nice day too.

Graphic 45 Paper Challenge #3 - Fishing

The the third card I have made for my Blue Edge Crafts Graphic 45 paper pad challenge.  I have teamed the papers with fishing stickers which I attached to blender paper so I could colour with my Copic pens.  I then cut out the smaller images and attached to the brown tabs that I found in my collection - from a stampin up that is years old.  Finished with the Happy Birthday sticker.

Life is good here, waiting for a bit of rain to make things green again otherwise great.  Hoping your part of the world is good too.

60th Birthday

One of the ladies from work turns 60 on Sunday. This lady is always on hand to help anyone out so we are throwing her a surprise morning tea. I volunteered to make a card and just love this type of card for big celebration birthdays.  I created 60 candles using yoo some of my scrap papers.  To create the flames l punched thirty hearts from various yellow card stocks then cut each heart in half.  I painted each flame with clear Wink of Stella. Across the top edge I added gold stickers to say Happy Birthday. 

Thanks for passing by. 

Bright Birthday Balloons

I brought out the bright card stocks for this fun birthday card. The balloons I have paper pieced. Finished with vellum tabs and a little bling.

Have a terific day

Graphic 45 Paper Challenge #2 - orange kids

This is the second card card I created for the Graphic 45 Paper pad challenge.  I was given this image in a swap years ago, it is nice to put it to use.  I coloured the image with my Copic pens.  Finished with some brads and a Happy Birthday sticker.

Graphic 45 Paper Challenge #1 - Dragonfly

This was my first card of 11 (so far) for a challenge I am taking part in.  I was given a pad of 6 x 6 Graphic 45 "Off to the Races" papers and we are to see how many cards we can come up with just using the papers from this pad.  We can add our own embellishments and matching card stock.  I will share the remainder of my cards over the coming days, weeks.  We have until beginning of December but I don't think I will catch a couple of the ladies who up to 20 cards already.  You can see all the creations in the Facebook album here for Craftmad Challenges.

I added an extra challenge for myself.  I have a collection of stamped images that I have stashed away over time.  My challenge is to only use these as the image on the card.  It has been nice to finally put them all to use - well I'm about half way through them.

Have a great day everyone.

Nephew's Birthday

I made this card for my nephew's birthday back in April (wow, too long ago).  I started with the April Craftmad sketch…..these sketches have really helped me get motivated with making cards.  I then found the papers in my stash and these papers are old….possibly as old as Jed (19).  :-0  They are special papers and I'm glad to finally put them to use.  I dug out all my star punches to add a variety.  Finished with black sticker words.

Another Aussie Christmas Card

Hi everyone, I'm back with a second Aussie Christmas card using Beccy's digital stamps.  This time it's a wombat helping out with Christmas.  I have used the October Craftmad Christmas All Year Round sketch for this card.  Coloured the image with all the Copic pens pictured above, found the papers in my stash and layered away.  I am really happy with the end result.  

Thanks for visiting and hoping your weekend is a good one.

An Aussie Christmas

Hi all, I'm back again with an Aussie Christmas card. I am so loving colouring and using my copics again.  Oh, I must tell you I discovered this wonderful tip on Pinterest where you weigh your Copic pens to see if they need refilling and how much.  I was so not filling my pens enough.  Now, I just have to slowly build up my supply of refills from four to the amount of pens I have.

Back to the card, I spied these wonderful digital stamps just released over at Beccy's Place.  I do like to try and find images for Christmas that don't include snow as that is so not my type of Christmas.  I used all the copic pens above to colour this image and then used the October Sketch challenge from Craftmad with Alison Ellis papers (another Aussie).  Finished with a Christmas sticker top and bottom from Blue Edge Crafts.  

Thanks for visiting.