I am Owl Inspired....

Hi there!

Hope you had a lovely weekend. It has been a cold and very wet weekend here! The weather is supposed to brighten up later in the week, so here's hoping! Our backyard was under water today!

This weekend we celebrated my niece and nephew's birthdays. I gave my niece a handmade pressie (which I will share in another post) and wanted to create a matching card. You know how I love to be all matchy matchy!

I thought I may as well search for a challenge to combine with, as I am on a mission to challenge it up more often! I came across the perfect sketch over at 'Card Patterns Weekly Sketch Blog'.

The pressie in question was a handmade felt owl, so an owl card was definitely in order. I matched the colours in the owl as my colour palette for the card. I have used Whisper White, Bashful Blue and So Saffron, combined with some Twitterpatted DSP.

I loved the sketch and pretty much stayed true to it, only adding the doily peeking out of the top and the sentiment banner. The doily cut out behind the owl was made using some white felt and the Perfect Pennants SU! Big Shot Die.

I added a Bashful Blue Taffeta Ribbon Bow, some Linen Thread and some pretty little flowers.  The bottom edge of the Twitterpatted DSP was run through the Big Shot with one of the Edgelit dies.

The Owl was made using some SU! Circle Punches for the body, the Large Oval Punch for the tummy and the Owl Punch for the beak and the feet.

 The sentiment banner was made using the petal cone die, which I then stamped on and folded to give some dimension.

Since changing over to my MacBook Air, (which I love!) I no longer have Photoshop. I used to edit all of my photos in Photoshop, so when switching to Mac I had to find an alternative. I had been using iPhoto which I was happy with as far as editing goes, but I could not add a watermark, not that I know how to anyway! So I have started using an online editing web site called PicMonkey. I love it, it has so many cool features! I can add a watermark, but I don't seem to be able to save it and use it again, so I have to start from scratch when adding it to each photo! So the search may need to continue........we will see. If anyone has any ideas on this, please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know your ideas.

The cool thing is that you can make collages on PicMonkey also. It even has a template that fits the new Facebook cover photo on Timeline. Must try that one!

Anyway, I have added a collage of the photos in this post just for fun.

Thanks for stopping by today!

S xx

Sending Extra Love Your Way

Once again I must unfortunately start this post with an apology for my lack of blogging. Winter has not been kind to my family the last two years, as someone seems to be constantly sick, and the loving family we are, we love to share! Hopefully I can get a good run on blogging again in the next few weeks, before the school holidays are upon us and the kidlets are at home.

The new catalogue is out, it started yesterday! Very exciting. Have you had a chance to have a look? So many beautiful goodies! If you would like to purchase a catalogue please contact me and I will arrange to send one to you. It is a gorgeous catalogue filled with gorgeous products!

My fave stamp set at the moment is Delicate Doilies! Get ready for doily overload, I have already made many a card with this set.

This first card I made last night for a very dear friend who lost a special person in her life. I wanted her to know that she was in my thoughts and in my heart. I'm not sure if she reads my blog, but if she does, she should hopefully have received this card by the time she reads this post. If you are reading, big hugs my special friend! xx

Not only do I love the Delicate Doilies stamp set, but also the matching Flirtatious Speciality DSP. The sheet I chose to use on this card co-ordinates with Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo (got to love it!) and Whisper White. The DSP pack has two sheets of gorgeous die cut Doily sheets. One in Melon Mambo and one in Pumpkin Pie. Loooove them!

Now finally a look at the card!

 

I started with a base of Pretty in Pink and layered a strip of Melon Mambo and a strip of the DSP. I used the new Perfect Pennants Big Shot Die (so much new big shot goodness!) to cut a white doily to put under the Melon Mambo die cut doily from the DSP. I did this so the Melon Mambo doily would stand out more and not get lost in the DSP. I stamped my sentiment (non SU!) in Melon Mambo on Whisper White card stock  and punched it out using the decorative label punch.

I then layered these and added some Whisper White Satin Ribbon, a Rhinestone Brad, some flowers and trinket pins. I decorated the inside simply as I wanted plenty of room to write. I stamped a sentiment from Occasional Quotes (retired hostess set) and used Versamark to lightly stamp some doilies in the corner. These are difficult to see in the photos.

If you have any questions about this card or the new catalogue, please feel free to contact me.

Also please leave some comment love, it always brightens my day to read your comments, and to know that someone has taken the time to reach out to others. Something I try to make sure I do, but have been a little slack of late!

Materials:

(All SU unless otherwise stated)
Stamp sets: Delicate Doilies, Occasional Quotes

Cardstock/ DSP:  Whisper White, Pretty in Pink,Whisper White, Flirtatious Speciality DSP

Inks: Melon Mambo, Versamark

Markers:

Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Perfect Pennants Die, Whisper White Satin Ribbon, Rhinestone Brad, Flowers and Trinket Pins (own stash)

Thanks for stopping by!