Another Baby Bundle!

I was not totally satisfied with the last Baby Bundle card, mainly because the Baby Buggy is just TOO big to fit into the panel, so it didn't QUITE conform to the sketch. I had another try at the watercolouring and went for a mix of soft pastel shades, which doesn't really scream girl/boy, I think. The base card is Pool Party, such a gentle, pretty colour and then teamed with a lacy strip  down each side of the panel in Pear Pizazz. For the greeting I went with the stamp set A Word For You and used 'baby, welcome to the world' along with a little duck from Baby Bundle. Used my scalloped circle punch to punch out a Pool Party surround for the greeting circle. Again, I will enter it into this week's sketch challenge at Create with Connie and Mary, so head on over to see all the other entries.

Happy stamping

Rachel

Baby Bundle watercolour CCMC211 - Sketch Challenge

It has rained all day in Melbourne today, and I am still housebound after surgery a fortnight ago, so what could be better than to look at some of the challenges and get inspired!

I love this set called Baby Bundle, even more now I think I have mastered watercolouring with Stampin Write Markers and a Blender Pen. It is just so relaxing to stamp up a lot of images with black Stazon ink and then take time to colour them in. I was inspired to make the patterned paper panel after seeing a card on Christine Blain's blog, Happy Heart Cards. Well, her images are more organised than mine, but that is where the inspiration stemmed from. Thanks Christine!

And then I came across this sweet sketch on Create with Connie and Mary , and I put together this card for a baby girl. There is still plenty of time to join the challenge, click on the link to see all the entries.

CCMC209 - The Open Sea and Word Play

I haven't had time for a challenge for a while, but this little sketch from Create with Connie and Mary appealed to me and I have been planning to use a greeting stamp for a special birthday card, so began with this sketch this afternoon.

I chose to use Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Vanilla and began by stamping the map of the world from The Open Sea in Crumb Cake onto the Vanilla card. I then inked up the greeting from Word Play, using markers to pick out the different words in different colours. There are 12 great large greeting stamps in the Word Play stamp set, (Page 104) this greeting says " go confidently in the direction of your dreams" which is a great one for someone about to turn 30, who lives his life very energetically! I mounted the vanilla onto Crumb cake and then stamped the card base, and a scrap of cherry cobbler with the ledger stamp from The Open Sea, and used the splodges from French Foliage as well as the compass from The Open Sea on the strip of not quite navy. I have only notched one end of that strip. Now when I came to put it all together, I couldn't layer it exactly like the sketch, maybe I need to make the card a bit bigger! I took the liberty of staggering the layers so all were visible.

Sailors Knot

I think this knot is really called the Reef knot or Square knot, but when The Open Sea stamp set was released, I looked up on the internet how to tie knots. It looks so good with stamps from this set, especially the sailing ship, but I still have to sit with the diagram in front of me, following each step very carefully!

However, for this special birthday card, it is certainly worth the trouble, and I used the strip of cherry cobbler to emphasise it. Hope you like my card, there is still a short time left to play along too.

Cheers,

Rachel

Samuel turns 30

I really should have heaps to share since it is school holidays here ( and that means no workplace to go to each day) but I seem to have been a bit of a social butterfly visiting and lunching with friends for the past week.

The other reason I haven't made too many cards is that I have been putting together a 8" x8" scrapbook for my third son who will turn 30 later this month. When my first and second sons turned 30 I did the same for them and no. 3 challenged me then by saying..."Well, I won't get one because you always lose interest by the time you get to me!" And the really sad thing is, he tells the truth!!! Well, not entirely, because I couldn't lose interest in this sometimes charming, always funny young man who is so much a part of our lives. BUT, I did make 21st quilts for his brothers and he is still waiting for his, which is started but hasn't made any progress since I returned to the paid workforce. So of course I couldn't let him down AGAIN so I have been very industriously sorting photos, remembering anecdotes, typing, stamping, cutting and assembling until I believe I have finished. Very pleased with it, and I'm sure he will be too.

Because I'm sure Samuel doesn't know I have a blog, I can safely put some sneak peeks here for you to check out. He was about seven months old here and so cheeky!

I had a lot of fun stamping out the image from Baby Bundle and finishing off with sponged clouds using a cut out scallop circle punch and some grass from Dinoroar (gosh, I use that grass a lot!)

And near the end of the album is this page

With this page of a couple of random photos, a dress up party and last year's birthday present for Sam and his youngest brother which was a ride in an ex-army tank,  I have cut a Top Note out on my Big Shot and inked and distressed it using the splodges stamp from French Foliage and a file from the Stampin' Up distressing kit to curl the edges over. I finished off with some word stickers to write "Live Life Like a Great Adventure" which I can assure you he definitely does.

Next post, the birthday card.

Cheers,

Rachel