These past few days, I have watched more daytime TV than could usually be considered healthy, thanks to a dose of shingles that started out in my right eyebrow and has made its was onto my eyelid as well as spreading its painful feelers across my forehead, temple and cheek.

Not to mention that its allowing me to do a very passable impression of the Elephant Man thanks to the swelling around my eye.

Yep, I’m smokin’ HOT right about now, let me tell you…

So I have been spending quite a bit of time inside, partly because I have been feeling so wretched and partly so as not to give nightmares to any small children that I might cross paths with on the street.

I thought it might be an ideal time to get on  here with some stamped creations that I made some time ago and have photographed, edited and all, just not managed to share.

This card was one that I made for a very special wedding back in January – one of the five weddings we went to between September last year and February this year (never have I been so very aware of a “wedding season” in my life..)

The gal getting married was someone I have known since she was about four years old and her dad used to coach my brother’s junior cricket team.  Her parents and mine are still the best of friends all these years later – wonderful people, all of them

With so many weddings to go to, I found myself with a go-to card design that I made for a couple of them, but for this one, I wanted to do something a bit different and special.

I started out (as I very often do) at the Clean and Simple Stamping blog and used this sketch as my starting point…

After changing the orientation, I set about deciding what to decorate my four squares with and hunted through  my stamp and embellishment collection for anything ‘”wedding-y”.

Here’s a closer look at the combination of elements I ended up with…

It was one of those times that I was happy to have a variety of embellishments on hand, as it was the little touches that finished if off I think.  Things like the Dazzling Diamonds glitter in the champagne glasses and the tiny heart-shaped clear button with a punched out Cherry Cobbler heart stuck on the top.

If you’d like more details on any of the products or techniques I’ve employed on this card, please don’t hestitate to get in touch.

And who knows, depending on what Brooke is up to these days on the Bold and the Beautiful, I may even be back later with more…  (Assuming that Brooke is still around that is – surely she’s not finished marrying every bloke on the show yet…?)

“Congrats Nat & Dave – Wedding card
Stamps: Cheers to You, Always, Simply Said, Occasional Greetings, Playful Pieces (L3 hostess), Basic Phrases
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White, In-Color Patterns DSP (Blushing Bride)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: 1-1/4 and 1-3/8 Square Punches, 1-1/4 Circle Punch, Two Step Owl Punch (heart), Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Early Espresso Marker, Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Mini Glue Dots, Stampin Dimensionals

My word these weeks are passing quickly and it’s time once again for a new Just Add Ink challenge.

This time it’s another sketch challenge – love these – and here it is for your inspiration…

This one shouted “scrapbook layout” to me, so after I had asked it to please use its inside voice  (we don’t shout in our house… ) I set about creating a layout according to the guidelines of the sketch.

And here it is….

You will notice that I flipped the sketch around as there was more empty space to overlap the smaller pictures on the left hand side of the large one, but other than that, I stuck pretty faithfully to the original layout.

To the left of the small pictures, you will notice some little tabs…

These were created using the “left-over”  part of the Round Tab Punch as you can see in the following “how-to”:

These tabs have function as well as a decorative purpose, as they actually indicate that the photo’s can be lifted up to reveal the journalling underneath…

The journalling is divided between all three of the lift-up photo’s and following on from the first bit that you can see above, says:

A couple of days after Christmas, we got to work on creating a fabulous ‘do’ for her.  One hour and a very patient 6 year old later, she had a head full of bouncing barrel curls.

Then it was time for the photo shoot…  Sophie hadn’t been too keen on the hairstyling thing, but definitely wanted in on the modeling action…

27 December 2009

To balance the page, I added a little embellishment in the top right, using the Eyelet Border Punch to create a pretty photo corner, then layered on some stamped images and small embellishments to fancy it up a bit more.

Truthfully, the main photo is just a tad pageant-ish for my liking, but since we were just messing about and playing hairdressers, I figured she could get away with being a bit of a diva for the camera just this once

So now it’s your turn!  Head on over to the challenge at Just Add Ink and see what you can turn the fabbo sketch into!

“Just Add Ink Challenge #6 – Stylin’ Layout”
Stamps: Framed with Love, Always
Paper: Close to Cocoa textured, Rose Red, Whisper White, Bella Bleu DSP
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White craft
Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Eyelet Border Punch, Round Tab Punch, Flower Fusion and Flower Fusion Too, Button Bouquet, Pretties Kit, White Embossing Powder, Stampin’ Sponges

As promised, here are the whole cards that I gave you a brief sampling of yesterday.  I know that one of the cards has been received due to the very sweet and enthusiastic comment left earlier (*waving* SJ!) and I’m going to take a chance that the other two will have been found before the recipients check in here….

So here we go….

This card was sent to my lovely Aunty Mary, sister of my mum, frequent blog commenter, enthusiastic cheerleader and a wonderful influence in my life.  I wanted her to know just how much I love and appreciate her.

For the card itself, I stamped the birdie using Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I used markers in the colours of the cardstock I had chosen and coloured in the little “carved out” bits through to the cardstock below.

“A card for Aunty Mair”
Stamps: Always, Best Yet, Sanded
Paper: Old Olive, Cameo Coral, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Versamark, Old Olive
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Old Olive wide grosgrain, Old Olive & Cameo Coral Markers, Stampin’ Sponges

Here’s the next one…

This one landed in the mailbox of my dear friend and fellow demonstrator, Sarah Jane Kalé, one of many friends I have made due to my association with Stampin’ Up! and one of the reasons I am thankful that I became a demonstrator at all.

During the recent school holidays, SJ and I were meant to catch up with our little ones but on the morning in question I woke up with a raging migraine and had to cancel to spend the day on the couch with an ice-pack on my head.  Sarah offered to have the girls for me so that I could ice my thumping head in peace – just one example of the sweetness that is Sarah, not to mention that she is one of the most talented stampers I know!  Love ya SJ!

The sentiment on this card is perfect and I wanted to use a bunch of vibrant colours, so I chose a combination of markers that I liked based on the colours in my small girl’s current favourite dress and coloured the words all differently.  The Baroque background stamp is embossed with clear embossing powder.

“A card for Sarah Jane”
Stamps: Occasional Greetings, Baroque
Paper: Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Pink Passion, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Certainly Celery wide grosgrain, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Pink Passion, Pixie Pink & Apricot Appeal Markers, Eyelet Border Punch, Button Bouquet Designer Buttons, Linen Thread, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Now for the last one…

This one went to Makeesha, another demonstrator and gorgeous friend who endlessly shares her boundless stamping talents.  I was looking forward to catching up with her at the Perth Regionals last weekend, but this time the migraine monster came visiting her and she wasn’t able to attend.

I wasn’t the only disappointed one, as I know many Perth stampers were busting for the opportunity to breathe the same air and maybe even exchange a word or two with Keesh, stamp-star that she is, and I’m sure she was also saddened to have to miss out on such a fun day of stamping.

For this card I inked up Garden Whimsy, which I haven’t done for quite some time, and was happy with how it turned out.  You might notice that the layout is pretty much the same as Aunty Mary’s birdie card, just different stamps and colours

“A card for Keesh”
Stamps: Garden Whimsy, Best Yet, Sanded
Paper: Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie striped ribbon, Pumpkin Pie Marker, Eyelet Border Punch, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I hope you enjoyed checking out my cards as much as I enjoyed making them   If you’d like further information about any of the techniques or products involved in the creation of these cards, please don’t hesitate to contact me.