Fire Engine Birthday Card FMS#113

Have you had a good weekend?
Mine was very nice, although I haven't anything too exciting to report. I've had a haircut, read a lot, and crafted a little.
Tonight I decided to cross another "must-do" off my list, and made a birthday card for a grandson turning 4 on December 18th. Oh my, how quickly those years have flown by!
Cindy at Freshly Made Sketches challenged us with this clean and simple sketch, and I decided to mount my new Tape It stamp set, along with You're My Hero (for the fire engine) and Memorable Moments (for the number).

The colours are Real Red, Pacific Point and Whisper White. The image has been punched with the one inch square punch, the coloured squares with the retired 1¼ inch punch.

I've stamped another red fire engine inside along with the 'Happy Birthday' greeting from the set.
Any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me at rpalmieri5@bigpond.com.

Thanks for calling by
See you again soon
Rachel

Little Leaf PP#172

Leaves are among my favourite images, but I don't own any current stamps with leaves, mainly
because Autumn/Fall isn't as important in the southern hemisphere.

The challenge at The Paper Players is clean and simple with leaves, pop over to check out the cards.

 Faith In Nature is a retired Hostess set, quite lovely too,and I stamped a leaf on water colour paper, and coloured it using an aqua painter and Bermuda Bay ink. It's another Sympathy Card in soothing blues, love those colours.
This type of card is called a Joy Fold Card, I hadn't made one for a while, so it was fun to play with this style for a change. I've kept it quite plain, with some texture on the left fold with the Pretty Print Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (132175) and on the right is some of the lovely Winter Frost DSP Stack (132183) It is held closed with a button from In-color Boutique Details (130938) and a scattering of Rhinestones finish it off.

I do hope I don't need to send this card any time soon,
Rachel

My Little Leaf card was picked by LeAnne!

Black Tie Christmas DD#79

This card was conceived to be a wedding card (my stash is rather low on those) but somewhere along the line it has converted to a Christmas card for the Dynamic Duos challenge.

I'm not sure that I'm happy with it, but it will go into the pile for sending out to friends and family shortly.

I still have to make a lot more of those and will try to get a move on this weekend.
Happy stamping everyone!
Rachel

World Map

Last week was my husband's birthday and to celebrate, our rather large family went to Werribee Open Range Zoo for an outing and picnic. The weather was a bit on the cool side, but the rain held off.  Most of the zoo is accessible on a open-sided bus which takes you quite close to giraffe, zebras, rhinos and hippos. On foot you can see more of the hippos, as well as gorillas, lions and cheetahs. In the photo at right, the boys are 'driving' a jeep, and the windscreen is part of the view into the lions' enclosure. Apparently, the engine part of the jeep is heated at times, so the lions come down and sleep right there, at the window.

I thought I would share the birthday card I made my husband, after seeing this card on Debbie Henderson's blog. I used the same colour scheme and didn't deviate far from her design either. I'm a big fan of Debbie's work and decided you can't improve on perfection.

Stamps: World Map (130342), Chalk Talk (130631), Sketched Birthday (130423)
Framelits: Chalk Talk (129983), Itty Bitty Banners(129267)

You can order any of these from my online store by entering those code numbers, and if you want a workshop on this technique, email me to see if we can find a time and place that suits.

It has just occurred to me that it is rather a funny coincidence that the country that features on World Map is Africa, and the majority of animals at the Open Range Zoo were also from Africa. Maybe I should have included an animal from my newest favourite stamp set, Zoo Babies ( 130453)as well?


Thanks so much for visiting,have a good week
Rachel

To Have & To Hold

I've had an overnight visit with my son, daughter-in-law and their three darling children and now I've waved goodbye as they head off on a weekend camping trip with friends. Then on Monday, I will drive an hour and a half to their home, so that I can attend the eldest grandsons kindergarten for Grandparents Day. He is really looking forward to going to 'big school' in January (and I bet his Mum

is looking forward to it too!) The littlest grandchild used my craft room as her bedroom overnight, so my crafting was delayed, just a tad.

The sketch by Kasia at Retro Sketches this week is brilliant, and I can see this as being perfect for baby, wedding, Christmas cards - all sorts of cards really.
I went with wedding and I've used Shimmery White card ( 121717)since its a special occasion. It's just a shame the shimmer on the card and the glimmer of the Rhinestones hasn't really shown up in my photos!!!!





Products Used
Stamp Sets: Hearts a Flutter (129252), Banner Greetings (129714) and a retired one which is available now in the US in "Best of Greetings" Stamp Set and it will be released in the coming months in Australia too.
Framelits: Hearts a Flutter (130159), Circles Collection (130911)
Other: Bermuda Bay Taffeta Ribbon(131206) Stampin Up Basic Jewels Rhinestone(119246)

Best of Greetings

Have a happy weekend, 

Rachel

Remembering Your Birthday

This love of pink is something new for me and I think it has a lot to do with the arrival of a little girl in our family - after 38 years!!! A long wait but well worth it.

I've found myself using pink for scrap booking, of course, and also for cards. When you have a stamp that says "Today calls for something pink with sprinkles on top" it DEMANDS pink, doesn't it?

Beginning with Pink Pirouette, I used an embossing folder, Pretty Print Textured Impressions(132175),  from the current Holiday Catalogue. The banners are cut from retired DSP, mostly Twitterpated and I stamped and punched a cupcake with the Cupcake Builder Punch(121807). I have been neglecting my punches for a while, but they are so quick and easy to use, and I love a pretty cupcake.

The stamp sets are Create A Cupcake (128520) and  Remembering Your Birthday (131347) and the greeting is stamped inside alongside another cupcake.

I've used this sketch by Kathya at Sunday Stamps as my inspiration and stamped in Melon Mambo and Pink Pirouette.




I have finished my three days at work for the week, and look forward to a visit tomorrow with my son, daughter-in-law and their three cherubs. It has been raining all day here, I do hope it finishes and the sun comes out soon.
Happy stamping,
Rachel

The Power of Two

So glad I've finished my other job for the week, its been horrible. Staff numbers are being reduced in December, and we are all feeling emotional. My job is safe - for now, thank goodness!

Lying awake in the early hours of the morning, I sometimes get inspiration and I just HAD to have another play with Zoo Babies (130453), Retro Sketches, Wild Things for The Paper Players and SUO Challenges too, for "a favourite sentiment".

I picked the Zebra and Toucan this time, stamped the World Map (130342) image before reinking my old Basic Black stamp pad, and the wildlife were stamped after the reinking. I used a Stampin Write in Basic Black so that I could selectively ink the sentiment (because I couldn't fit the whole thing in a banner and it seemed to take too much room in full too.

I've chosen another bright shade, Tangerine Tango and Epic Day DSP (130814) is the layer behind the World Map. The frame is Textured Impressions Designer Frames (123130), this one is the rectangle with the centre torn out; there is an oval shape in that set too.

I still have some of my free Sale-a-bration buttons left, so I popped a Pool Party one on, tied with matching Bakers Twine.

I think this card would make a quirky engagement/wedding/anniversary card, for the right couple!!
Does anyone agree?


Happy crafting everyone
Rachel

Wild Things PP170 & RS88

Today in Melbourne we have a day off work for a horse race! It is billed as "the race that stops a nation" . Anyway, I won't argue with a day off at anytime, and have enjoyed breakfast in the garden in the spring sunshine, tidied my craft space and promptly messed it up again!
Oh, what joy!

 I saw the challenge at The Paper Players for "wildlife" and then searched for a sketch or colour inspiration and decided the RetroSketch sketch would fit really well.

In 2007 I (reluctantly) accompanied my mother, an intrepid traveller, to Zambia and Kenya. Needless to say, it was a marvellous experience, and one treasured moment was visiting a sanctuary for orphaned rhino. There was a mature rhino there who had been hand-reared after being orphaned by poachers who was tame enough for us to be photographed with. Of course, we could stroke his leathery hide as well, and I still get newsletters from the sanctuary in Kenya.

Now to tell you about the card. I've stamped the World Map (130342) onto Whisper White card, using a circular mask to keep the centre panel clear. I then used Zoo Babies, and a freshly inked black stamp pad to stamp a solitary rhinoceros into that blank circle, the congratulations is also from Zoo Babies (130453) and has been easily cut with Itty Bitty Banners Framelit (129267). The black circular frame was cut using the two largest circles from Framelits Circle Collection (130911). The wooden button (127554) and Linen Thread (104199) are the finishing touches. If you want to purchase any of these items, pop over to my online store or click on the names and you will go directly to them.




Enjoy your week, no matter what you are doing,
Rachel

Sending Sympathy RS#87

It was such a lovely sunny day today, I spent all of it in the garden, so it was quite late when I began to put this card together. This sweet sketch at retro sketches is the inspiration and for some reason, I thought 'sympathy card'. I really do like the clean, simplicity of this sketch and I quickly made two cards.

This pale blue one has the flower sprig from Morning Meadow (a hostess stamp set) and the greeting from Simply Sketched (also a hostess set). I inked the stamps using Stampin' Writes in Smoky Slate and Marina Mist.







The pale green card has the grass from Wetlands and also the bird and grass and greeting from Simply Sketched. I added a little Island Indigo to the bird using a Stampin' Up! Aquapainter.

These are really easy cards which can be made in a jiffy, and always handy to have ready.

Until next time
Cheerio
Rachel