MerryMade Crafts etc ...

Some more of my crocheted flowers. I just had a quick look to see where I found the wonderful tutorial for these flowers and here it is ....... Capture the Moment. Once again I used orange card for my base card. Some wonderful paper my Mum gave me from a magazine giveaway. First time I have used my prize from last months card sketch challenge over at Craftmad . Yes, I was so lucky to win the Octagon Nestabilities . I cut and embossed the first octagon from SU River Rock the next octagon from white card. I then ran the white card through my new Cuttlebug embossing folder "Victoria". I used gold pen and ruler to create the gold edge. Then added three of my orange crocheted flowers with white button centres and a little yellow thread tied through the holes. Finished the card with a white "Thank You" sticker.

Time to use some of my crocheted flowers. I have used and orange card for my base card. Then ran a piece of white paper through my cuttlebug using the Stylized Flower embossing folder. Added three of my crocheted flowers with buttons for centres. Finished with a white Happy Birthday sticker on another piece of orange card.

Morning everyone, I have found this wonderful blog - Template Mama . This lady does the most amazing blog templates I had a hard time choosing. Best thing is she had 3 column templates available which I have been on the look out for.....and great instructions on how to install them. Only thing is I didn't save my Blog Candy links and pictures in my sidebar which I should have....like she had instructed. lol I had fun yesterday creating these little cupcakes and finishing off the flower pincushion. I always find it very relaxing. Hope your weekend was great.

I spied this sketch challenge over at caardvarks for their Sketchfest Friday. Thought this was ideal for my birthday inchies . Then I saw the challenge #28 over at Colour and Create Challenge Blogspot this was to use Hot Pink, Dusty Pink and Ice Chocolate. Perfect colours once again for my inchies . So this card was created. Thanks to the above blogs. Back again! I just had to have a go at these two challenges which I spied on two seperate blogs yesterday.

Finally had time to have a go at the Craftmad September Sketch Challenge . I used this wonderful image that Cathy from Cathy's Creative Corner shared with me. I really like how this card turned out as all the way through doing the different stages I seem to muck up what I was doing....but seemed to cover up pretty well. :-) I used SU Brocade Blue for the base card. Added the wavy oval cutout then cut the image into an oval freehand.....amazed myself. Coloured Tilda with watercolour pencils and an aqua pen and added glitter to her wings. Used some white pre -embossed paper flowers which I rubbed across the SU Brocade Blue inkpad then added a spot of bling to each centre. Finished the card with a lovely silver Happy Birthday sticker .

This weekly inchie challenge theme for Craftmad has kept me busy all this week. Thanks to Sherry who sent me her wonderful 3D inchies here and suggested it could be this weeks theme. Hmmmmm .... not sure if I will listen to her in future. lol . Trying to think of an image to use on the inch square was hard enough but then cutting out the teeny tiny pieces almost did me in. lol I almost called my Mum who loves doing 3D paper tole and always cuts out so neatly. But I stuck with it and cut out three tiny cupcakes that I had coloured with T ombow pens. Two of the icings I covered with dimensionals and cut out and added the smallest red dot to as a cherry. I was all fingers and thumbs. Finished these two inchies with a little Kindy Glitz. The middle cupcake I added three seed beads to. Dust has gone today but has been replaced by a thick layer of smoke. Yay!

If you are in Australia.....remember the dust that was on the news and down in Sydney NSW yesterday. Well it is up here in the tropics now....thankfully not as thick as what you guys down south had to go through. It may look very smokey in these photos but it smells very dusty. I am just amazed that dust can travel so far and really in such a short time. Check out Jhet's photos over at My Crafts and Stuff of the dust in her area of Sydney yesterday. I have more cards coming....I am working on the weekly inchie challenge for Craftmad at the moment. The theme is 3D.......I am finding it very hard. Wait until I catch up with Sherry who suggested this idea and sent me such wonderful ones that I posted here .

This card I tried out some brayering which I have been seeing around the web a bit. Also one of the ladies at the retreat was showing everyone how to do this and does beautiful work. I have had a brayer sitting in my collection of things to use for a very long time. Probably used it twice but only to roll something flat. So I grabbed a white gloss card and rolled a layer of SU Pretty in Pink, then masked a rectangle and rolled the next layer of SU Regal Rose and lastly went around the edges with SU Rose Red. Fun to do. Next I punched out medium and large Retro Flowers of the same Stampin Up card and Designer paper. Coloured and cut out the Hanna Stamp heart 'Think Pink' and finished with some wonderful wavy clear glitter border stickers . Tried another technique here that I have seen over at Ikki's Cupboard a couple of times and love the effect. I ran my white base card through the the cuttlebug using the Swiss dots embossing folder. I just embossed each...

Morning everyone, a little slower this morning as this is the kids first week of two weeks holidays. My days are a little disorganised but nice and easy. This morning we have been setting up the campervan ready for sleepovers. Yay ! Here is another card I have created for our Breast Cancer Fundraiser . I have used a white gloss card for the base. Pink card which I have run through the cuttlebug using the new Victoria embossing folder. A layer of wonderful glitter paper and topped with an image from Hanna Stamps. Have a fun Tuesday everyone.

We are planning a Girls Night In ( GNI ) over at Craftmad which we have done for the last couple of years. We normally have someone to teach us a card technique.....lucky me did one year. I must say it is very interesting and fun trying to show people how to do a technique via MSN chat. This year there are a few of us that are making cards up to sell and the money goes to Breast Cancer. Actually, the night now will be held in memory of one of our very special members - Julie - who lost her fight with cancer earlier in September. It's sad and strange losing an internet friend. So yesterday I was playing with cards and this is one that I have created using Kellie Winnell's wonderful sketch from her Challenge #3 . I will be using this sketch again it was so much fun. I have used white gloss card for the base. SU Mellow Moss which I ran through the cuttlebug using the Victoria embossing folder. Pink card with a scalloped edge (scissors) and faux stitching. Then...

Yes, I am back with another waterfall card, they are so much fun to make. This card is for my September swap partner over at Craftmad . My partner (Mandy) is not too keen on pink and I was looking at one of the cards I plan on sending her and it is very pink. So decided to make a third card in blue, using papers and stickers from her shop Blue Edge Crafts . Also I made the waterfall card as Mandy has shown an interest in others I have posted and thought she could have a template for herself. Oh and I know that Mandy is a cat lover.

*Sorry for all the edit posts this morning. I had a real problem spelling NATURE in my title. :-0 I have done it......completed a inchie challenge in the week it was announced. :-) Yes, this week over at Craftmad the theme for the inchie challenge is "nature". I used Designer Series Papers from Stampin Up called 'Walk in the Park'. The stamped images are also from Stampin Up Pocket Silhouettes .....so pretty. To finish off I used the wonderful bird stickers I bought from the Sticker Store .

This is the second of my September Swap cards for my Craftmad partner. I really love how this one turned out. I created this on my retreat weekend. It all started at about 11pm and finished at 1.30pm. Yes, there was a little bit of chatting and eating in between. I am thinking maybe I should stay up late and create more often. lol . I used a bland white card base. Stamped on the flowers from the stamp set SU Fifth Avenue Floral. I masked the front flower adding the two behind and the stamps . I used my Soft Subtles inkspots and an aqua pen to colour the flowers. Papers used are from the Walk in the Park DSP from Stampin Up......so pretty. I used my nestabilites for the bottom circles added two brads and a little silk ribbon to tie them all together. For this swap card I had to have spring time paper, two circles and three flowers. All ticked off. Check out Ruth's blog for photos of our fun retreat.

I just had to try out for this candy as it looked like so much fun. To enter you have to draw and elephant.....but there is a catch. To help celebrate the launch of Ellephantastic Cards and Crafts they have offered a candy. Be sure to visit and get all the details and have a little fun.

Isn't this card great...I just love the colours and the fold was so much fun. The papers are from Stampin Up and are called Walk in the Park. The pretty butterfly, leaf image and 'for you' are from the SU set 'Great Friend'. The flowers I have just bought and fitted in perfectly. The card looks the way it does because of our card swap this month over at Craftmad . The card had to include spring papers or card, two circles and three flowers. Just hope my swap partner doesn't visit my blog.

Trying to catch up. I have finally completed last week inchie challenge over at Craftmad ...the theme was Music. I have used Double Dipped Buffet papers and wonderful gold corner and bell stickers. Now to move on to this weeks challenge of ....... Nature.

Two more cards I created on the weekend. Waterfall Christmas Cards. I used SU Perfect Plum for the base card and SU River Rock for the pull tab of the waterfall. All the paper I have used in this card are from the Double Dipped Paper Collection - Treats and another sheet Banquet. Beautiful papers I picked up over at BlueEdge Crafts . I didn't have the right coloured split pins so one card I covered them in white-out and the other I used a gold metallic pen. This card I used my new 'With Love' borders embossing folder. It fit perfectly. Yesterday, the mailman brought me a bunch of goodies. I received this cushion cover from my August sewing swap partner over at Craftmad . Hard to see in this photo but even the shells have the detail sewn on. I received these amazing inchies from my Craftmad partner for our August Card swap . The theme was inchies . The bottom two inchies here are 3D.....I am still amazed that someone can cut something out so small. See it is all la...

Hey everyone, I'm back!!!! Had a wonderful time and put my name down for next year. Above is all that I created during the weekend. Spent lots of time talking and admiring other peoples work. Food was great (I didn't have to prepare it). Beds were vinyl coated and ready for school kids so a little cold and noisy. Not that we got much sleep. First night I tried to sleep at 11pm but then listened to everyone returning until 3am. Then back up at 6.30am. Next night I decided that I might as well stay up creating and chatting so got to bed around 2am and up at 7.30am. So last night I was in bed by 9.20pm and crashed. I have learnt that I am not a bulk card maker and really enjoy creating the one card and moving on to the next technique or paper combination. I am a bit prehistoric just using a metal ruler and craft knife to cut things....everyone else has those cutting things. Also learnt how lucky I am to be able to look at something and be able to create it without ha...

Morning everyone, I am just a tad excited this morning as at 4pm I will head off with a car loaded with my craft gear and pick a friend up and head off to Tinaroo , Atherton Tablelands until 3pm Sunday. Yay !!! I can't decide what I am more excited about. The fact that I can create card without interruptions or the fact that someone else has to think what we will be eating and have to cook it. :-) These cards are the last that I have made to swap this weekend. Making all these cards I to swap in the last four days I hope I am not all carded out. 26 in four days. Six of which are not coming with me as they used an old stampin up set. So for these cards I used SU Pink Pirouette as the base card, added a strip of Night of Navy which I ran through my sewing machine without any thread. Added some SU felt flowers. On white card I stamped a flower from the 'Good Friend' set. I used Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink and Night of Navy inks. Finished with a 'So ...

Kylie over at Kylie's Craft Corner posted a beautiful card she created using the layered illusion technique. I was looking for one more type of card to take away with me this weekend for my retreat so had a try. This one of those cards I look at and say 'yep, I really like that'. Then next time I look at it I think I should of done things a little different. Anyways, thanks Kylie for sharing the link for the technique I have had a wonderful time creating this. Tutorial for the Layered Illusion technique can be found here at Michelle's blog - Freedom in Creating . For my card I used SU Basic Black for the base card. Stamped the three butterflies onto white card using SU Teal and Perfect Plum. I then heat embossed the flourishes around the edge using a clear embossing powder. The images are all from the SU Priceless set. Then I sponged layers of SU Pale Plum, Lavender Lace and Perfect Plum.

Let me lose with a stamp and that is how a bird becomes a whale. I spied this idea over at Splitcoast Stampers . I saw a couple of cards so not sure who the clever original person is. If anyone does I sure would like to acknowledge them. I did make a couple of changes and made it my version. The bird is from a Stampin Up set called 'Good Friends' which I have stamped here using Rose Red. Tadah !! Now we have a whale. I stamped the whale up in SU Brocade Blue made sure not to ink the middle feather of the tail. Added a dot of black for his eye. For the water spout I inked up the birds tail with SU Bashful Blue and added kindy glitz. Now for the rest of the card. All the card and papers are from Stamping Up as this is another card front to offer for the swap on my retreat this coming weekend. Base card is Baja Breeze, then Pacific Point followed by Kiwi Kiss and then a torn bit of paper from the 'Good Morning Sunshine' set and more Pacific Point. I did the greeting ...

Good morning everyone, I have been busy creating card fronts for the retreat next weekend. Since posting the six yesterday I heard from a friend that they would prefer card fronts usin g curre nt catalogue Stampin Up products. Darn! Oh well, I will have six cards ready to go into my auction store by about Wednesday now. :-) Now I have made six of the above ca rd fron ts using the Stampin Up stamp set 'Good Friend. I spied th e idea at Splitcoast Stampers and had to try. Grea t fun. I used SU Basic Black for the bas e card, a layers of SU So Saffron. The grass strip I t or e from a piece of SU Always Artichoke. Stamped up the flowers and the stems (which are actually birds feet) from the 'Good Friend' s et using Rich Regal inkspots. The two yellow flowers I stam ped again and layerd up with 3D foam tape. Finished the card with a small ta g using white and SU Rose Red and a little raffia. Be sure to come tomorrow to see how I can turn a bird into a whale......MA...

Happy Dad's day to all the Dad's in Oz.......hoping you are all spoilt. Now for my card fronts. I am of f to th e retreat at Tinaroo next weekend. I mentioned it here . There is still room I believe. Anyways, part of the weekend involves swappin g card fronts using Stampin Up products. I had a wonderful time yesterday creating these six card fronts......I hope this is what they are after...if not I will keep them as I am so happy with them. I must say I real ly enjoy the Stampin Up product and how e verything cordinates. Makes my life sooooo much easier. What I did was stamped up three images twice each on to white card. The im ages are from the SU Nice and Easy Notes set. I then got out my aqua pen and the inkspots of have whi ch is a set for th e SU Ric h Regal and SU Soft Subtles colour groups. Proceeded to colour one of each image in from each colour group. Then I pull ed out th e matching cardstock groups and found the background card for each image. For ...

Morning everyone, I am still here. :-) Just been doing a bit of real life stuff at the moment which has kept me away from my card making . I do intend on getting back into my craft area today now that the weekend is here. So definitely will be posting a card tomorrow. Have a great day and weekend everyone.

This card is definetly out of my comfort zone....it's square and has way more things happening on it than I normally do. I used the sketch from Delightful Sketches #4....I created the scarecrow card here earlier. My intentions when I started creating this card was make one of my swap cards for Craftmad . Well I have the two circles and three flowers but totally went off track with the papers, they are meant to be spring. I started in spring. lol I have used SU Bravo Burgandy as the base card, a layer of SU Always Artichoke. Along the top is SU Rose Red Card and Paper. Down the left is SU Night of Navy which has gone through the cuttlebug in the Stylize Flowers embossing folder. Layered on top is Always Artichoke which was run through the Swiss Dots folder. Bravo Burgandy for the base circle and topped with white and stamped with with an image from the SU Nice and Easy set. I used my aqua pen and Rich Regal inkspots to colour the cute girl in. Then topped with ...

Hi, I have made it....I got a little sidetracked over on ebay this morning. :-) Still have all my money, just browsing. Also made some Anzac Biscuits and Patty Cakes to fill lunch boxes for the rest of the week. This card I created a couple of days ago using my butterfly inchies from here . I used SU Garden Green for the base card. the Inchie topper I used layers of SU More Mustard, SU Ruby Red and SU Cameo Coral. I pin pricked around the Cameo Coral layer and added six More Mustard Faux Brads. The Faux Brads I just used my hole punch, drew a little black highlight on each of them and then add Dimensionals . To finish the card off I ran a piece of SU More Mustard through the Stylized Flowers embossing folder and then again using the Swiss Dots folder. Topped this with a lovely Happy Birthday Sticker. Cheryl over at My Cardmaking Haven ....very kindly gave me this award - Thanks! Be sure to pop on over to her wonderful blog and see her latest Pixie cards...they are amazing. ...

Thought I would share this information in case you happen to be in town. Ruth and friends over at Arty Inker have organised a wonderful Crafting Retreat up at Tinaroo on the Atherton Tablelands. Details in brief: Dates: 4pm 11th September 2009 to 3pm 13th September 2009 Where: QLD Sports and Recreation Facility, Tinaroo Road (After Caravan Park) Demonstrations throught the weekend. Card front Swaps - bring your card front/topper prepared and swap with others. Recipe Swap - food recipes that is. Receive a goodies bag on arrival. Bring all your crafting needs although kits will be available. For more details and a flyer please contact Ruth via the 'contact' section on the Arty Inker site .

I am really happy with these inchies . The photos are little blurred I am thinking that is because of the shine from the stickers. I used a cornflakes box to cut into the 1 inch squares. Then covered them in thick black paper. I added some red sticker border stripes which I had just ordered.....these are great. Finished with these wonderful red sticker flowers that I have had in my collection for a little while but never sure how to use them...perfect for here. The stickers all came from the Sticker Store . Even had time to create a card with the inchies ....on a roll. I used black leather craft card for the base card. I layered the inchies onto red card, and gold jak paper. Finished off with a red ribbon along the bottom.