Celebrate NSBD with Scrap Whispers!

We're going food-crazy this year for NSBD at Scrap Whispers! Hop over and celebrate with us this year, for your chance to play games, scrap, craft, exercise your brain, and win prizes.

I'm a LIMette!

That's our new name over at Less Is More. I think it's funny - it makes me think of 1970s female soul singer groups!

I will say that this clean and simple lark is addictive. Did I say that before? I don't think I've made one card for the LIM challenges that hasn't lead to a bunch more the same, and bless my soul, look what's happened this week. I swear I only made a couple to start with. They must have bred overnight while DH was asleep, and they even produced their own little envelopes as well, all matching colours. Haha!

This of course, is the natural result of spending yesterday tidying up, and cleaning out my scraps folder, and punching out a few hundred shapes out of those annoying little off-cuts from cutting files and punches that hook themselves to each other. I have a mark on the heel of my hand that looks like a love bite now.

I also found a pack of A6/C6 cards with envelopes that I got from Paperchase in Singapore a while ago. I went to open them yesterday and was irritated to find that they are not card blanks, they're blinking postcards. Gah. Who buys postcards with envelopes? Well me of course, obviously, but I mean on purpose?  So these got scored midway and made into mini-notelets, but then the envelopes were too big, so I had to work out how to use my Enveloper to make new ones in a size NOT on the instructions. THAT was interesting. I had to write out new instructions/measurements, and make templates out of scrap paper....

LIM's challenge this week is "off-centre: little or no symmetry but perfect balance". The greeting stamp is from Quixotic Paperie, the punch from the $2 store in Singapore's Plaza Singapora, and Diamond Stickles.

Another wedding card

I'm enjoying the holiday time over Easter. We've been to 3 services at church, eaten lots of chocolate, and now DH is working on his stuff upstairs, so I can play with my toys downstairs. Good, isn't it? I've been sorting out my scraps file, punched out about a hundred leaves with the bits that are too tiny to make into anything else, and planned two dozen Christmas cards as well as a bunch of thank you cards.

And with all this reorganising I managed to make things too. I loved the wedding card so much that I decided to make another one, in a different colour this time. I used my Cuttlebug Paisley folder as well as the Swiss Dots one, and I'm going to need to get some more pearls as I've used all mine up now. The background paper is Echo Park from the Life is Good collection.

Cute Card Thursday: no text
Simon Says Stamp: emboss it
A Spoon Full of Sugar: let's celebrate

Scrap Whispers April Blog Hop

Hello and welcome back to the Scrap Whispers Blog Hop - thank you so much for taking part, and I hope you enjoy what we have for you to do!

This month we're focussing on scrap-lifting. Well, that's what the game is all about, after all! Georgina has given us this funny page showing what happens when you leave your brother alone with your camera, and has asked us all to lift it.

Firstly Georgina's page, then mine:

I've used my brand new Bo Bunny's Midnight Frost collection pack which has just arrived. I've been drooling over this for months, and obviously anytime after last November, so has everybody else because it's been out of stock everywhere. Now I couldn't wait to crack it open. Aren't those dots in with the snowflakes just delicious!

I made this as close a lift as I was able to. I didn't have the same papers, but I chose the closest that I could, and it's pretty obvious that this is an imitation of Georgina's work. And as such, she should be credited with the design if I post this whether it be on my blog, or in a gallery somewhere completely different from Scrap Whispers. If someone has produced a design that you love and would like to copy, it's only fair that permission should be asked of the designer for a copy to be made if possible, AND that they be credited when you post your own version.

This is something that we don't really emphasise in Scrap Whispers, and maybe we should. The game is all about lifting the design of the previous player. So when we post our own lifts, we really ought to be linking back to the Scrap Whispers blog site so that anyone viewing our lifts is aware of where they came from. By the same token, if we see a design somewhere on the net that we want to lift: in a gallery, or someone's blog, at the very least we should credit the source. And if they have lifted it themselves, it's always fun to be able to link back to their source and see how it has changed. Which if course, was how the whole Scrap Whispers game began in the first place.

So what we want to see this month is very simple. Just scrap-lift Georgina's LO, post both the original (with a link back to where it came from) and your lift on your blog, leave a link back to the Scrap Whispers blog, and leave some love on each of the DT's blogs as well as the main SW blog:
Georgina
Nilsa
Kelly
Rosey (here!)
Helen
Kimberly
Sherri
Scrap Whispers

Happy lifting, happy blog-hopping, and a Happy Easter to you all!

Willow for Sarah

It's late so I'll just post this quickly before I go to bed. Here's Whiff of Joy's Willow with her basket, and this time she's wishing my friend Sarah a great spring birthday. Also used on this card is my Fiskars threading water punch, diamond Stickles and a greeting from Lili of the Valley, as well as ribbon given to me by Georgina and some buttons from my stash. Oh and the image is die-cut with the largest of my new Spellbinders deckled oval set, and coloured with Copic markers.

Basic Grey "spring" (Lemonade collection papers)
Creatalicious "pink, green, yellow and blue" - and it's supposed to be an Easter card, but I don't do Easter cards so I hope this card for an Easter birthday will be acceptable.
Creative Card Crew "spring"
Sketch Saturday's sketch
Whiff of Joy "recipe": 3 buttons, 2 papers and 1 ribbon

It's nice to feel better after the cheerful bunch of flu germs I brought back from Bali which has laid me low since we got back. My temperature is normal today for the first time in nearly a week, and I've had that kind of convalescent energy which means that you start stuff, then have to keep sitting down in a cold sweat and resting before your legs give way. I'm surrounded by clean washing which is hung up to air and be ironed. That could take a while. But at least the bedding is clean, and I put it all back on in one go. I didn't have to lie down on it once! But oh, the price I paid for pretty finger and toe nails was high. Stupid, pretty, sniffing, artistic Balinese girl. Grr.

Balloons and baby girls

DH has a colleague whose wife is expecting a baby girl pretty soon, and he asked me to make a card for them. I've never deliberately bought any baby stamps or images or embellishments. I probably ought to, because I always end up using the same cute little pram embossing folder which came with my Cuttlebug. It's turning into a challenge to myself to use it in different ways, and this week's acetate challenge at Less is More came just at the right time.

The balloon punch was one that a friend in Singapore lent me, and I punched out as many different-coloured scraps with it as I could. I can't believe just how many I've used. Once they're gone, I'm going to have to invest in a punch myself, I can tell. I inked the tops of these with white, and the bottoms with black chalk ink to make them look lit from above. The strings are drawn in with a permanent marker, and the scallop is my favourite threading water punch from Fiskars. The sentiment is stamped on the inside with Staz-On ink - we're going to have to sign the card on the back I think.

I just wish I was better at photographing it - it's like trying to snap white on white, or something with lots of black on it. My camera (or I?) just can't seem to capture it in a way that I'm happy with. I hope you get the idea.

So there you have it.
Less is More "acetate"
Colour Create "pink, black and white"
Simon Says Stamp "for a child"

And the Scrap Whispers winners are....

Team Two! Congratulations Team Two!

Check out the Scrap Whispers blog site to see the Big Reveal and the prizes.

Sign-ups for the next game start now, so if you want to play along, please e-mail Georgina at gh26@sky.com.

Pretty fingers and toes!

I've been away over the weekend at a wedding, in Bali, no less. What a beautiful place to get married: on a tropical cliff-top with astounding views, an aisle of rose-petals, marquees and night-time lightning to finish the evening off. The churchless part felt strange to me. I took hundreds of photos, but of course I won't be posting any of the happy couple because they're still on their honeymoon and I didn't bother them by asking permission at the time. Well, they have other things on their minds, don't they?!

I can show you these though.

And when I got back, bringing with me a delightful Balinese cold, generously donated by the girl who did those cute nails, I could play with my toys again! This is for Stampavie's challenge of "black", and "vintage" from Truly Scrumptious. Oh, and FIL's birthday too.

I made it with Kaisercraft's new Timeless Collection papers, a computer generated sentiment, and Basic Grey brads. Hey, does that mean I can enter it into the Basic Grey challenge this week too? It's "more than one fold", and this is an easel card!

Humm I think that would be pushing it...

ETA: Heather (Rica) said I can enter the Basic Grey Challenge too! Thank you so much - mwah!

Susan Godfrey Sale

at Faith Sisters. 60% off digi kits - WOW. Quick, go and shop before the 15th!

Wedding card

No surprises there, right?!

It's not often these days that I come across something that appeals to me so much that I just HAVE to try it out myself, but I was browsing the Gallery over on scrapbook.com and I found this perfectly adorable card. Even if I hadn't just received the Spellbinders heart dies I ordered a while ago, I would have made this like a shot (and then probably ordered the dies afterwards!) The dies made such a difference though. It looks really "professnial", don't you think?

I'm going to try entering this into Cute Card Thursday's "couples" challenge. I know I entered it with the anniversary card too, but maybe they'll let me enter twice as it's a completely different card. Seeing as they're second in the Wikio Top Crafts list after all. {batting eye-lashes}

The card is actually a piece of wedding card-stock that I bought ages ago in a Spotlight sale. It's all shimmery and iridescent, and properly weddingy. The bride heart is plain old white office card which I embossed using my Cuttlebug and the Swiss Dots folder, and daubed with Adirondack pearl alcohol paint (the fumes from that stuff are powerful!) and added pearls to. The groom heart is two hearts cut from white and black card, and I cut the middle out of the black heart and stuck the edges on. The bow-tie is made from two tiny punched hearts - a little cheesy but I think it works. Add some ribbon, mat it and it's done.

Oh and the inside has an insert which I've stamped but haven't stuck in yet. Just in case of mistakes. Like if someone writes his sister's anniversary card, then absent-mindedly puts kisses on his male colleague's birthday card immediately afterwards. Not that that would happen in our house, but just in case, you know? ;-)

Anniversary

Here is a card for my SIL and BIL whose anniversary it is this week. I ought to have posted it earlier, but maybe, just maybe it will get there in time if I stuff enough stamps onto the envelope. I'm still very much into my "clean and simple", and I'm hoping that the style is OK for other challenges.

I managed to shed blood over the making of this card, and I have no idea how. I just suddenly noticed blobs on my desk. Thank goodness it didn't go on the card. Although being a red card, I might have got away with it, haha! Incidentally, this is like the party zit. We have a wedding to go to this weekend (and yes, that's a hint of what the next card will be) and I've been applying night-time hand cream, polishing up the old finger and toe nails, getting my hair cut and paying unusual attention to my eyebrows, you know the ritual. Suddenly I'm giving myself paper cuts, and burns from the oven, and noticing bruises on my legs and arms. Why now, just when I want to be beautiful? Argh! I'd be inserting a banging-head-on-desk icon here except that I don't want to end up with another bruise!

Charisma Cardz "bling and sparkles" (there are gems, the edges are inked with gold, and the red and gold border is glittery red although it doesn't show in this photo)
Cute Card Thursday "couples" (it's for a wedding anniversary and there are two birds)
Less is More "a touch of red"
Truly Scrumptious: the sketch
Scrap Jazz "die cuts, dimension, texture, and no stamping except for the salutation"