Card-In-A-Box Birthday Fishies

Today was my husband's birthday, the first birthday in 41 years we have been apart!
My eldest and his wife had to fly interstate for a wedding, and I was in charge of their brood. Unfortunately, there's a couple of hours driving between homes, and it was important for the boys to continue attending school and kindergarten, so Pop has to wait till the weekend for birthday kisses!!!

I left his gift and card by the bed. I wonder if he waited till his birthday to open them? I put together a card-in-a-box card featuring By The Tide fish, shell and seaweed. The other stamp sets have retired now, but I do love Just Sayin' and Lovely Labels.

Cheers
Rachel

Seafood Birthday Platter CQC#297

I've had quite a play with this subject today and ended up with 3 different versions of a card for the ColourQ Challenge. They all related to the ocean in one way or another,  although I'd love to make little houses too! The one I am sharing with you this time is the second creation, with an added suggestion from my dear hubby to include some sort of net. Butterfly Basics supplied the stamp for that, just a hint of Crumb Cake stamped over opposing corners. These sorts of stamps are great to 'ground' elements of a design, it has a faint honeycomb effect. The ocean creatures (or seafood platter!) come from my well-used set By The Tide. I noticed today that despite careful cleaning, these stamps are holding the ink stains. Nothing wrong with that, they still stamp perfectly.

I picked the largest square that would fit on the card front (it happens to be the largest square in this set of dies anyway) and cut a precious square of Midnight Muse, followed by the next smaller square in Pool Party, and finally, the stamped piece.
The final touch on this card is the big, bold birthday greeting from the new Hostess set, Happy Birthday Everyone. This stamp set is a 'must-have', in my opinion, not only for the large 'Happy Birthday' but for the one liners included such as to an amazing woman, to a wonderful man or to a good friend.

Initially my plan was to use this card for my husband's birthday, but after he took such an interest in the design process, it doesn't quite seem right!


What do you see when you look at these colours? Don't forget to check out the gallery at ColourQ and I will see you again later today.

Cheers,
Rachel

Joy Fold Class

We had a very lively workshop last Friday night despite some last-minute cancellations, or perhaps because the numbers were down, the girls really let loose! I had pre-cut Sahara Sand card for all the attendees, so they all started with this card. One made it as a wedding card, using Bermuda Bay as the accent colour, and two changed it to a birthday card with Big News providing a big sentiment.



Annette also made a second Joy-Fold card using Adventure Bound DSP Paper Stack as her starting point. The dies for Something For Baby provided the soccer top (shhh... don't tell Haris).She has made a birthday card for her soccer playing son.






Genella also had certain people in mind as she put together her three cards. We especially loved her fish card, using By The Tide and Adventure Bound DSP. Unfortunately, it is slightly out of focus at the back of the photo.
Apothecary Art, retiring June 2nd, has made a final appearance here, looking gorgeous in shades echoing the colours of the DSP.


You might notice the theme of Prue's cards was happiness in one form or another!
She was needing a wedding card immediately, hopefully the recipients realise the thoughtfulness of a handcrafted card, Bravo is where the middle sentiment comes from, and of course the Hello You Thinlets has 'happy' and yes, that set is carrying over for another 12 months.


Next month's class is pencilled in for Friday June 19th and we will be using a new stamp set, Sprinkles of Life, Tree Builder Punch and doing some heat embossing. Already two of my regulars have indicated that the date might not suit them, so if you think coming to a class in South Morang, Victoria might interest you, contact me to find out more. It is Friday night at 7pm, although I'd love to start daytime classes on a Thursday or Friday, if two or more people were interested. There's no obligation to purchase supplies from me, the $20 fee covers the class and everything you use. You're more than welcome to collect a catalogue to study at your leisure of course, and anyone in Australia can purchase from my online shop.

Have a great week
Cheers
Rachel

Happy Father's Day JAI #230

Australia and New Zealand celebrate Father's Day this Sunday. I'm not sure why we feel a need to be different from the UK and US, but it does fit in with all our football finals, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. My husband, who is a father to five fine young men, is not overly keen on football. He likes to fix things, garden a little, and loves to throw a rod into the ocean.

The technique used on the panel of my card is Polished Stone. Stampin' Up!® used to make a glossy card (I still have a little, but photo paper may work too). You need some reinkers in colours that suit the project, cotton balls and rubbing alcohol. The results are always different, depending on how much ink you use, and the dabbing motion used. You can contact me or Youtube it, if you'd like more details.

I bought By The Tide with my husband in mind, but I'm hoping for another outdoors/manly stamp soon because I've used this stamp set so many times!

I really like the way the seaweed stamped on the Marina Mist came out and it was lots of fun making the polished stone panel too.Teeny Tiny Sentiments has a multitude of sentiments for every occasion, incuding this one for Father's Day.

I hope you all have a lovely day, whether you are celebrating Father's Day or not,
Rachel

Happy Birthday By the Tide CCMC318

I've been playing around with a couple of my masculine card sets lately, because it is Father's Day in Australia this Sunday.So while I had The Great Outdoors and By The Tide still on my work table, I decided to have a go at making my husband's birthday card.

He loves fishing, it is probably his favourite leisure pursuit, but he doesn't often find time for it. I do like this soothing trio of colours at Create With Connie and Mary, and it has been quite a while since I played along with any of their challenges.



It's hard to resist adding a bright sun, stamped in Hello Honey with this well-used stamp from Kinda Eclectic.

The sentiments are actually three stamps from a retired set, For My Family. It was a particularly good one, so I have hung on to it. Only problem is, three stamps can be a bit tricky to line up and it was quite lucky that two out of three were reasonably straight. I added the 'to my' on a piece of Pool Party card and punched it with the Modern Label Punch.
It adds a nice point of interest to this rather simple design. There is just a layer of Hello Honey between the Whisper White and Pool Party, all very easy.

Thanks for reading my blog,
Rachel

The Great Outdoors Wood Stamp Set

$51.95

The Great Outdoors Clear Stamp Set

$41.95

By The Tide Wood Stamp Set

$48.95

By The Tide Clear Stamp Set

$38.95

Kinda Eclectic Wood-Mount Stamp Set

$48.95

Kinda Eclectic Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$34.95

Modern Label Punch

$29.95

Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.95

Pool Party A4 Card Stock

$11.95

Hello Honey A4 Cardstock

$11.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Bling Fish Birthday DD57 and Paper Players150

Fish and bling - a natural partnership?

I do hope so, because I've tried a couple of ways to make my fish glisten, some not so successful ! I settled for stamping Basic Black onto Pear Pizzazz and coating it with Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects and one little Basic Jewel Rhinestone for its eye.

Dynamic Duos challenge 57 is for Basic Black and Pear Pizzazz and The Paper Players suggested Bring on the Bling. That called for a strip of the fantastic Silver Glimmer Paper.






Obviously I needed to stick to Pear Pizzazz and Basic Black for the ink/card and I played around with Gorgeous Grunge, my new favourite stamp set and By the Tide, another favourite because I have a 'husband who fishes'.


I used the 2½ inch circle punch to cut a window and there is another 'fishy' scene on the inside. Its hard to see, but I rather like making cards that are plain cream ,white or some other paler colour, and then adding a piece of card slightly larger to the back. In this card's case it was two pieces, one in Black one in Pear Pizzazz.

It's kind of like making a card in reverse, if you know what I mean (instead of adding a card front, you add a card back). Just a bit of a change, and change is good.
It's getting very cold in Melbourne now that winter has descended and so wet last week. Great weather for crafting though!
Cheers,
Rachel