Magnolia Down Under Challenge # 23

Good morning everyone,

It's like the depths of Winter in Melbourne this weekend - can't believe the first month of 'Spring' has nearly ended.
The wind is blowing a gale outside, it poured with rain all day yesterday and overnight and the heater is on at full blast in my house!!

Welcome to another Magnolia Down Under Challenge - this week's theme is 'Buttons' where we have to make a card using buttons as one of the elements.

I decided to make a bright card this time and after selecting the papers and cardstock, I rummaged through my container of blue embellishments and found these buttons that matched the base card perfectly.





I also found the cute felt 'Love' embellishment in there so added it to the mix too.

Of course I couldn't resist adding these gorgeous flowers which I had bought at the Picture to Page craft show last week. They were a perfect match for the base card and the lovely 'owl' paper from our SU Designer Series.

I mounted the blue paper onto the Brilliant Blue base card and added strips of yellow paper (which had been punched along the edges with the SU Scallop Border punch) to the top and bottom of the card. I then sponged the edges of the yellow paper with some Yellow Sun ink.

I then mounted some of the pale yellow printed paper (from the SU - Tea Party papers) onto another piece of Brilliant Blue card and attached it to the left of the card.

Tilda was coloured using watercolour pencils and an aquabrush, cut out and mounted on 3D foam dots and attached to the above frame. I then attached a small blue flower gem in the corner and the three flowers at the bottom, using buttons as the flower centres.

The knot in the pale blue button at top left was made with a fine strip of cardstock threaded through the buttonholes and tied in a knot at the front - see, you don't always need thread or ribbon !

To finish off, I added the obligatory 'Bling' using glitter glue on the Love embellishment and one of the flowers plus Tilda's wings. Here is a close up view of the glitter effect.

As always, the card looks much better in real life - I wish our cards came up the same way in our photos. If anyone out there has any tips for achieving this, please let me know.

(I don't have a whiz-bang professional camera - just your average digital but would welcome any tips for getting good results with it.)

For this card I also combined our MDU challenge with a Mojo Monday sketch challenge - two for the price of one! It was fun to do and I hope to do more of these double-challenges in the future.

SU supplies -

Cardstock - Brilliant Blue

Designer Series Papers - Good Morning Sunshine, Tea Party (pale yellow behind main image)

Ink - Summer Sun (for sponging the edges of the yellow checked paper)

Punch - Scalloped Border

Extras -

Magnolia stamp, felt word embellishment, flower gem, paper flowers, buttons, glitter glue.

If you like my card and you want to play along with us, make a card and link your entry to our MDUC site here. We'd love to see your creations so what are you waiting for ?
Go make your card !!

Well, that's it for this week's challenge - see you again next fortnight for our next challenge.
It'll be something to look out for !!

Thanks for stopping by - have a great weekend and stay warm (if you're in Melbourne that is !).

See you again soon :-)

Christmas Cards - (starting to plan now) .........

Hello there,

Well it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - frightening isn't it? How quickly the year has flown by.
Next week we'll be in October and now is the time that everyone is starting to make their Christmas cards!

I made a start on mine with one of the new stamps in the SU Spring Mini catalogue and another using a lovely set from our main catalogue.

This first card was made using the lovely Winter Post set (main catalogue) - I just love reindeer and this little image is just beautiful to use.


I cut a piece of this lovely paper from our Designer Series and cut out the corners (using a small circle punch) before mounting it onto red cardstock then attached gold brads in each corner.

I then attached this piece to the pale blue base card and wound some lovely sheer red ribbon across the top half of the card attaching it with double-sided tape.

The three reindeer were stamped onto white card and then mounted onto a piece of scalloped green card before attaching to some red cardstock.

The greeting stamp was coloured with red and green markers on white card and then punched out with the label punch. A lovely silver metal frame (which matched the label perfectly), was attached over it with two silver brads and then mounted at the top of the green card.

The cardstock co-ordinated with the patterned paper and it all matched beautifully.

SU Supplies -

Cardstock - Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White.
Stamps - Winter Post
Inks - Chocolate Chip
Markers - Real Red, Old Olive
Designer Series Papers - Ski Slopes (Spring Mini)
Punches - Scallop Border, Designer Label
Hodge Podge Hardware

Extras - Sheer red ribbon.


For my second card, I used the new stamps from the Spring Mini catalogue.


This lovely image is from the Good Cheer set.

This time I used papers from another Designer Series and using the same idea of cutting out the corners, attached it to some red card and added gold brads in each corner.

I mounted a stip of the spotted paper across the centre of the card then attached the lovely Christmas ribbon over the paper and secured it behind the red cardstock. This piece was then attached to the brown base card.

The main image was stamped on white card and coloured in with watercolour pencils and an aquabrush.
Once it had dried, I cut around the holly border and centred the image over the patterned papers using 3D foam dots.

I stamped a second image of the reindeer and after colouring it, cut it out (including the antlers, which was a real challenge as they were very narrow and I had to be careful not to cut them in half !) and finally attached it over the base image with 3D foam dots to make it stand out.

To finish off, I added Crystal Effects glaze to the reindeer's nose and red glitter glue to the holly berries on the wreath around Santa's head.

You can't see it very well in this photo, but it does add that little extra ! Isn't that reindeer just gorgeous - you almost want to touch it to feel it's hide.

SU Supplies -

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Whisper White.
Stamps - Good Cheer (Spring Mini)
Inks - Basic Black
Designer Series Papers - Holiday Treasures
Crystal Effects glaze

Extras - Red printed ribbon, gold brads, red glitter glue, watercolour pencils, aquabrush.


Well, these are only two of my Christmas cards - I have more to show you in upcoming posts.
I hope you like them.

Thanks for dropping in - please come back again to see my next set of Christmas cards and others in my collection.

See you next time - take care :-)

Apologies - you're not going mad !

Hi again,

I'm so sorry if some of you have been searching my previous posts looking for my Meerkat card!

A friend of mine just told me that the photo of the card wasn't in my last Post so I double-checked and she was right. It was very late last night when I was editing my blog and I must have deleted the photo when I was trying to edit my text.

** Is it just me or do many of you have to edit your Posts a few times after creating them to get the text and photos to line up just right ? I always have to edit about 2-3 (or even more times) to get it the way I want.

If there is an easy way to do it, please let me in on the secret.

Thanks for any tips you can give me on Blog Posting.

Well, must get some shut-eye, it's getting late again and I'm still here in front of the screen !!

'Bye for now - see you again soon :-)

Fun projects to while away the afternoon .........

Hi there,

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a lovely relaxing day last Saturday and while trying (and I say 'trying') to clean up my craft desk, I found some scrapbook papers that just 'grabbed' me and gave me some ideas for a few quick, fun cards to make.

These cards were just made using various papers, embossing folders, stickers, etc. and the only stamping on them is the Birthday greeting.

This first card was made with some lovely Owl paper - the image was big enough to just cut out and filled the front of the card. I just sponged some green ink around the edges of the owl and the tree outline to give it a bit of definition and shading.

I added some lovely copper adhesive rhinestones for the owl's eyes and cut out a little orange beak which I attached using some 3D foam dots and added some adhesive gems in the corners to match the base card.

The black embossed card in the background features a vine and birds design which goes so well with the main image.

Still on the Owl theme, I decided to decorate this little gift box that I had lying around. I had cut out the template a long while ago and hadn't done anything with it until now.

In one of my many plastic bags of ribbons and laces, I found this lovely cream lace so attached it to the bottom of the box underneath the lovely green patterned paper.

The little owl was cut out from one of the other papers I had and I cut the tree branch by hand and using my embossing stylus, embossed some 'knots' in the tree branch - you can't see them very well in the photo but it looks good in real life.

The little mushrooms on the back of the box were also cut out from some patterned paper.

I thought they were cute and added to the 'woodland' theme I was thinking about.

Still on a roll, I decided to make a Halloween card with some cute felt stickers I had bought last week in one of our local craft shops.

I know we don't celebrate Halloween in a big way here in Australia but I just love the cards that our overseas designers make and I love the traditional combination of the orange, black, purple and bright green used on these cards and so mixed them on this card.

I used some embossing folders for the purple and green pieces of card and attached the cute adhesive letter tiles to a strip of black cardstock and added some gold brads at each end.

(The purple card actually looks quite blue here in the photo, but it is definitely purple in real life.)

The lovely striped ribbon came from my bag of Stampin' Up! ribbons - it was a perfect match for this card.

As I collect all sorts of images from magazines, boxes, leaflets, etc. I couldn't resist making a card using this cute little Meerkat wearinig a pink Tu-Tu.

(Meerkats are one of my favourite wild animals and I love watching their antics at the zoo and also in documentaries - e.g. Meerkat Manor which was on TV here awhile ago.)

I added some glitter glue to the little Tu-Tu and also on the lovely floral paper (from Stampin' Up!) then added some sheer pink ribbon and used a rub-on for the greeting.

This was just a fun card to make - the image just tickled my fancy so I had to do it !! LOL

Well, I hope you like these - it's nice to just make something quick and easy and a little bit different every now and then.

Thanks for dropping in - come back soon for my next creations.

Have a great week everyone!

Some new cards

Hello again,

Well as promised in my previous post, I thought I'd show you some of my latest cards.

A few of these were made at our recent Stamp Camp but weren't finished off so I finally got around to doing that yesterday.

For these floral ones I used SU Designer Papers - Bella Rosa set which is just beautiful - lots of pretty roses in pale pinks and also in darker reds as on these cards.

If you love floral papers, this is a beautiful set to use.

Stampin' Up! stamps used for these cards were from the current Spring Mini catalogue.

(Sorry about the darkness on the left of the card above - I took this photo at night.)

SU Supplies -

Cardstock - Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip,

Kiwi Kiss, Close to Cocoa.

Inks and markers - Pretty in Pink, Ruby Red, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel

Stamps - Organic Grace (Hostess Set - Level 1), Soft Summer, Oval All, Great Friend,

On Your Birthday.

Designer Papers - Bella Rosa

Punches - Scallop Oval, Small Oval, Medium Oval, Eyelet Border, Scallop Border

Ribbon - Pretty in Pink (Taffeta).

Extras - Glitter glue, pink satin ribbon, adhesive pearl and pink gem.

Thanks for stopping by - come back again in the next few days to see what other things

I've done recently.

'Bye for now - see you again soon :-)

Magnolia Down Under Challenge # 22

Good morning everyone,

It's Sunday morning and time for another MDUC entry.

After a lovely warm day yesterday, it's raining again here in Melbourne, but hey, what's new ?
A perfect day to stay in and join our fun challenge - this week's theme is 'Anything But A Card' so I came up with this little gift set.


I created a little handbag using the SU / Sizzix - Top Note Die and made a Post-It Note holder and a magnetic bookmark to match.



As the handbag is only small, I had to make a small bookmark to fit into it.

I decided on a folded strip for it and used magnetic tape at the bottom open ends so that it would close over the top of the book page, therefore it didn't need to be a full length bookmark.



Here is the handbag with the items in it.

















The papers I used are from our SU Designer Series - Holiday Treasures set.

SU Supplies -

Cardstock - Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery.
Ink - Regal Rose
Stamps - Riveting (Retired Hostess Set)
Ribbon - Pretty in Pink (Taffeta)
Papers - Designer Series - Holiday Treasures
Punches - Scallop Circle, Round Tab, Eyelet Border
Die - Top Note


Extras -

Magnolia Stamp, gold brads, glitter glue, pink Ric-Rac, magnetic tape.


I had great fun making this little set (and will no doubt, make more of these - I have other ideas brimming in my head).


Why not join us for this week's challenge and share your creations with us - we'd love to see your work!


Thanks for stopping by - have lots more to show you in the next few days.

I had a great day yesterday, just relaxing and my Mojo was working overtime - I finished off a few cards that had been lying around waiting for the final touches to be added and I also created more cards and a little gift box.


Drop in again soon to check these out once I've posted them here.


Have a great day today - see you again soon :-)