Final Call..... Summer Flowers

Hi all.... yes it's the last day of the month so it's time for a final call for entries in this month's challenge.  I am happy to say we've had a good month with lots of fabulous entries.  I have to say, I'm so pleased I don't have to choose a winner.... leaving that to Mr Random Org.... 'cause there's just so many beautiful card.  Do go and have a look at the entries HERE and maybe you've got one last card to enter. 

Here's one final inspiration card from me.

This card uses dies for the flowers.  A very CAS card.

Thanks to you all for taking the time to visit and enter our challenge this month... Pop back tomorrow for a brand new challenge ~ set by the delightful Paula... I can guarantee you'll enjoy it!  And Friday I'll be back with the winner of this month's challenge.  See you then

and the Die Cut Divas

Time for flowers.  A couple posts ago on my blog, I colored some of the Bugaboo digitals I had printed, waiting for me to make a card.  This image was fun to color, but I can't say it was fun to embellish.  Do you have those days when you get ink on your fingers and wish you never touched anything again?   Yes, you can cover up those nasty ink stains, but only up to a point.  I know better than to handle pearls colored with a Copic marker when they're NOT DRY.  Do I listen to that advice?  NO!  All the pearls on the flowers were meant to stare at you and the first black pearl, top right is meant to add interest.  However the two large black pearls cover small but noticeable SMUDGES.  Yes, somehow smudges occurred.  The additional little pearl, bottom left, is holding its own for now... no more smudging and no more touching.

Remember to enter our Die Cut Divas' challenge this month.  Flowers is the name and flowers is the game!
Remember to catch the 50% sale on all digital stamps for the month of July at Bugaboo Digital Stamps.

Teacup time at Bugaboo

 A close-up for you!

As you can see, I've got the card making bug and Dawn has allowed me to bug out and bloom!

Have a great Day today and the rest of the week, year, decade....

Arlene and the DCD team

Only a post and a card...

It's only a post and a card.

I happen to like this cute card - it's a cutesy, smiley, fun card and I have a confession to make.  I didn't like this image when I saw it on the Friday Freebies at Bugaboo, but I thought, it's a flower, I'll be able to use a flower, won't I?.  Once I started coloring it, I fell in love with it.   Do you ever have those moments?   Of course when it goes the opposite (you love something and then can't stand it), that's a real BUMMER!

I hope you like this card and really, if you don't, don't tell me.  Just let me go my merry way, totally oblivious and happy.  From me to you on blogland, you're the best and I'll give this card to a friend who needs some serious cheering up.  Have a very happy week!

Remember that you only have a couple more days to enter our challenge here!

Arlene at "a bit of this and that"

and the DCD team

Inspiration from our guest designer Joy

Hi there....
I've been a bit slack with the blog.... but here I am back to share some beautiful cards from the talented Joy Taylor

 

 Aren't these just the prettiest cards.  

Thanks to Joy for allowing us to share her beautiful works.  Please go and share the love with her at her new blog  Simple by Design

And don't forget only a few more day to get your "Summer Flowers" project into our challenge here.  Thanks to all who have already entered... a total of 43 entries so far, and all just delightful.

More of my favourite die inspiration

Hi all

I've got another card to share using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.

I used some mulberry paper in two tones of purple to cut the flowers and layered them together.  I added some silver sequins and gems to the flower centres.  My background is a Spellbinders die and the purple flourishes are a Cherry Lynn die.

And the following card was one I made a while back using the same die.  This one was made with watercolour paper and scrunched up.

Quite different flowers using the same die.

And there is still lots of time to join our monthly challenge (here)

Stretching your dies.... or should that be shrinking your dies?

Did you know that you can adapt your dies to change their size?

No... neither did I till I took a look at a recent blog post from Sheila (here)

I asked her if I could share some of the post here and being the generous  person she is... she said okay!

So here is a great tip for getting the most of your dies.

" I also am still experimenting with stretching my dies.  I love a square card and have many square images like the one I used today but not many square dies.....at least the square dies I do have are never big enough for most of my images.  BUT! I do have lots of fancy rectangular dies.....and it took me the longest time and seeing many examples online before I put it together that other people were retrofitting their rectangular dies to fit a square card.  Duh!  So, it is a little more futsy than just cutting a die and placing it on the card but in the long run I like the results and more importantly I like that I can use my dies for more than one look!  So far I have only used rectangles but think that I can also use other shaped dies for this purpose.  My "mind's eye" doesn't see the possibilities right away so it takes me a bit to configure the dies....almost like working with a puzzle.


Today's card uses a large rectangular die from Spellbinders.  I cut it down quite a bit to get the square size that I wanted.  Then, I matched up the edging design and glued them down.  It is really hard to see the "seam" on this die but even so I decided to cover the seam with the ribbon."

Here is the card Sheila created

and this is a card showing the full die that Sheila "retrofitted"

 

So thanks Sheila for sharing this great tip.  I am certainly going to try out this technique.

Friday Freebies at Bugaboo

Did you know our sponsor this month, Bugaboo Digital Stamps, has a Friday Freebie... every Friday a new digi stamp is available...just for one week.

A great way to build up your digi images and I can tell you, once you try out a digi from Bugaboo you'll just want to buy more.

This past Friday, the freebie is a very cute little image

Super cute and you can get all the other numbers here  ( added bonus is that for July all images are half price)

so here is the card I made with the image

 

I coloured the image with Copics and cut out with a Spellbinders die.  I added some multicoloured glitter to the number.  The sentiment is a Montarga stamp (a New Zealand stamp company) And because our challenge is about flowers this month, I added a nice bright flower. 

Dawn invited me to try the Friday Freebie image and I wasn't even thinking of flowers when I added these blossoms.  I had them on my desk from taking apart a name tag that had all manner of decorations.  I just thought they fit with the butterflies.  I'm so glad Dawn gave you link to the other numbers.  Have fun!

Arlene at A Bit of This and That

So be sure to visit Bugaboo on Friday's to see what Jody has up for Free.

Dawn and the Die Cut Divas

Welcome to this months Guest....... Joy Taylor

I was so very pleased that Joy agreed to join us this month as our guest designer.... I adore her work which often includes some sort of die cuts or embossing.

So without further ado I introduce you to Joy Taylor

 Tell us a little about yourself

I live in a small country town in Southern New South Wales, Australia with my partner Darryl and our baby the furry kind, Roly..we live in a cottage with a brick path and a lavender hedge, we both work and love to spend time at home, although I love to travel, I don't get to do that much, but when the opportunity arises I certainly enjoy my time.  I love to garden and cook, however, these days with all the fun crafting that I do, I don't indulge in those areas as much these days..as a child I loved to finger paint and craft so it was a given that I was destined to keep that side of my personality going through my life.  I have been fortunate that Darryl let me obtain one of the bedrooms in our house as my craft room and with the talent that he posses I have been one lucky gal to have all custom furniture built by him to suit my needs.

• How long have you been a card maker/scrapper & when did you start?

I have been crafting as long as I can remember, but turned card maker about 20 years ago, visiting a craft show with my BFF and took a class, I was hooked and from there I never looked back.

• Do you follow sketches or dive right in?

I am not generally one that will follow a sketch unless it is one that I have to follow for a challenge or guest designing, I am more one that just dives in at the deep end and come up with something by having all the supplies around me.

• How many projects do you make a week?

This does vary for me, but generally I will create anything from 5-10 a week, especially when I have deadlines, but there are times when I create less, depending on what pops up in everyday life :)

• What is your favourite tool (what can't you create without) & why?

My stamps would have to be my favourite tool, I love the endless possibilities, techniques and the way you can create your own style with stamps.

• What at the moment is your most favourite thing to do on your project?

I love gold at the moment and followed by enamel dots, I just love the elegance gold brings to a card and have to stop myself from adding it to just about everything I create, the enamel dots I feel have taken over my obsession with bling, I love the matt feel to these and the fun touch it adds to a card.

• How would you describe your style?

My style would definitely be clean and simple, I love to create using a lot of white space, I feel using this style I can complete cards relatively quick, but in saying that I do like to try different styles, but always gravitate back to the clean and simple.

• What about your style would you change (or not) & why?

I don't think I would change my style, I am pretty much happy with where my creativity takes me and usually pretty happy with the results.

• Have you been published or on a Design team - when & where?

I have been published, CARDS magazine really is my first publication that surprising to a lot of people just this past June, still have not received my copy as yet, but certainly going to frame that milestone :) as for design teams, Past - Purple Onion Designs, Tiffany Doodles, Jane's Doodles, Jay Gee's Nook, Basic Grey, Simon Says Stamp Challenge Team.  My current teams - Studio Calico, Simon Says Artist Group and I do work on and off for Hero Arts.  I am also a Colouring Friend for Tiddlyinks.

• Describe (pictures are even better) your crafting area

My area, as I said before is a room that I occupy in our house, Darryl has built everything custom made for what my needs are, I tend to try and keep it clean, but there are times when seriously it just looks like a tornado has ripped through, currently, it looks like the end result to a childs party that has happened LOL.

(Who wouldn't just love this space to create in!)

• Do you have a blog? If not where can we see more of your fabulous creations?

My blog is called Simple by Design, I have just recently changed the name and is currently in the process of being moved from blogger to Wordpress..so it is under construction some what.

And look at this great card Joy created using this image from our sponsor, Bugaboo.

Thank you so much Joy.  It's been a pleasure getting to know you a bit better.

Dawn and the Die Cut Divas

Do you use Sketches?

Sketches are an awesome way to get your Mojo going if you're stuck for an idea and there are some fabulous sketch challenge sites out there. 

Our own Paula is involved in a sketch challenge called Try Stampin' on Tuesdays and this week she took the sketch and used a Bugaboo image

Here's the sketch this week

 

and here's Paula's amazing inspirational card.

Hasn't she coloured this image beautifully.  And the oval die looks fabulous.  

Thanks Paula for such a great inspirational card.  So come join us and maybe even join Paula and her crew at Try Stampin' on Tuesdays, with your flower cards.

Dawn and the Die Cut Divas

What's your favourite flower die?

Do you have lots of flower dies?  I do.... from Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, to rolled roses dies from Die-namics, Memory Box silhouette flower dies, Simon Says silhouette dies, Cherry Lynn flower dies.... so many different dies.

One of my favourites has to be Tim Holtz/Sizzix Tattered Florals die.  It is so versatile

 

There are 4 different sized and shaped flowers.  So you can do so much with it.

Today I am sharing a card I made that uses a flower I made with this die.  I had some instruction from my friend Sue on how to make lovely flowers.... It's all about wetting the die cut and scrunching it up, leaving it to dry and then carefully unsrunch and layer together... the thing is to be patient and wait for the petals to dry fully...

As you can see the texture you get this technique.

So hopefully you'll get your dies and embossing folders out and join us for the July summer flowers challenge... link up your project here