Sunflower

I made this card for a friend who has a bright and sunny personality.

Inspiration: from Designing with Michelle
Image: digital stamp by Dustin Pike
Colours: colouring pencils and baby oil.

Regards
Vivienne.

Butterfly

I made this for a friend of mine who was unwell, and going through a rough time.

The words say: "The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you."  (I'm sorry, I can't remember where I copied them from).

Details:

  Image: I downloaded it a long time ago from a picasa album here.

  Colouring: Pencils and baby oil, plus chalk for the background.

  Embellishments: Roses handmade by me, pearls

  Punches: Scary branch by Martha Stewart, Fern by Punch Bunch, Ume by Carl

Regards

Vivienne.

Get Well Soon

I made this card for a friend who wasn't well, but then ended up changing my mind and sending her something else!  So this card is still in my stash waiting for a suitable occasion.

The image is one by Dustin Pike.  He's cute, isn't he?  (The owl, that is, not Dustin.  Though for all I know maybe Dustin is cute!).  Dustin has a pretty awesome sale on at the moment.  On Thursday only, you will be able to buy most of his digital images, all 900-odd of them, for only $30.

Wow.

I love his images - they are so cute, and so appropriate for boys cards (which I tend to make a lot of).

Here are the specs:

  Image: by Dustin Pike

  Colouring: Crayola & Prismacolors colouring pencils & baby oil

  Embellishments: Flowers handmade by me

  Inspiration: Here for layout and here for colouring.

See ya,
Vivienne.

Sweet bear

There's a little story to go with this card.  When my hubby first started having lessons with his current piano teacher, it seemed that without fail, it would rain on the day that he had a lesson, and he would arrive dripping wet.  She still has fun telling the story.  For his most recent birthday she wanted a special card to give him, and so asked me to make one, preferably with a rainy theme.  We had fun with this sweet bear from Bugaboo, who's expression says it all!  Raining yet again!?!

Here are the specs:

  Image: Rainy Day Bears by Bugaboo stamps

  Colouring: Crayola & Prismacolors colouring pencils & baby oil 

  Embellishments: Flowers from my stash, thread, homemade copper dots.

I've submitted this to Bugaboo's Sweet challenge here.

Regards,
Vivienne.

Fairies and Music

I made this card for my beautiful Aunt.

Here are the specs:

  Image: It came from the Dover Sampler for this book: http://store.doverpublications.com/0486996921.html.  

(I regularly receive an email from Dover Sampler, which has samples from books / CDs they sell.  The samples are only available for a limited time.  Check it out here.)

  Colouring: Crayola & Prismacolors colouring pencils & baby oil 

  Embellishments: The little roses I made myself, as I did the copper "dots" along the bottom.  I don't know what they are called, but the little bead things were purchased.

I'm submitting this to Bizzy Bec's October competition, which has a theme of Grunge.  I know this isn't really grungy looking, but I did distress the background papers quite a bit. 

Regards

Vivienne.

Beware of Dragons

I made this card for my friend's son, who is turning 10.

I was inspired by the card made by Cindy and shown here, for Dustin's design team sample:
          http://dustinpike.blogspot.com/2009/10/once-upon.html

And you can read more about the card on Cindy's blog:
          http://thepaperfreak.blogspot.com/2009/10/medieval-doodle-dragon-release.html

And since we don't use "ketchup" here in Australia (it's "tomato sauce"), inside the wording is:
          "For you are crunchy, and taste good barbecued!"

I'm submitting this to the challenge at Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge Blog.  Hopefully I can sneak in - the due date is the 16th, and while it is now the 17th here, I think it's still the 16th there!

Regards
Vivienne.

Here are the specs:

  Image: by Dustin Pike

  Colouring: Crayola colouring pencils & baby oil

  Paper: Kazazz (formally known as Crafty Kids)

  Sentiment: Computer generated

  Embellishment: taken from a pair of shorts my son can no longer wear.  It was the cover of a button, which I smashed flat!

Shoes

Recently I had to make cards for two 18 year olds.  One was for a girl from my work, and the other was made for a friend to give to her niece.

I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Inspiration: I was inspired by a card my mum made, which was inspired by this card:
       http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1457039?&si=miss%20boo
Stamp: http://rustypickledigis.blogspot.com/2009/10/girls-gotta-have-it.html
Punches: Sullivans shoe, Carl CP2 Ume

Regards
Vivienne.

Shiny Knight in Amour

This is the card that I made for my husband for Valentines this year, but I haven't shared it until now.

I got the clever "Shiny Knight in Amour" saying from Ellen's cool blog here: http://blinkthinkink.blogspot.com/2010/01/shiny-knight-in-amour.html

And the image is a Dustin Pike image.   His blog is here: http://dustinpike.blogspot.com.  He's coloured with colouring pencils and baby oil.  I used a metallic pencil on his armour, so in real life it has a bit of a shine.

Regards,
Vivienne.

Mice birthday

I started making cards in about 1998, but I really got in to in after moving to Denmark in 1999.  (We lived there for 2 and a bit years).

I still have some of my earlier cards, and lately I've been "updating" them so that I can use them for someone.

Here is a card I made in 2004.

And here is the "updated" version.  I sent this to my 5yo niece.

Image: the mice & flowers are stickers
Flower: purchased from Bizzy Becs.

Regards,
Vivienne.

Doggies

Earlier this year I made a small batch of puppy dog cards.  These went to 3 boys - 6yo, 3yo and 2yo (my nephew).

The images were colouring using colouring pencils and baby oil.

Regards
Vivienne.

Anniversary

This is the card I made for my husband for our wedding anniversary.  We've been married over 14 years now!

The image is from coloring-page.biz.  I've coloured it using colouring pencils and baby oil, fussy cut, and attached to the brown layer, which is up on magic mount.  The little jewellery gem is free hanging from the bottom of the brown layer.

Regards,

Vivienne.

Purple

I made this card for a friend at church.  The image is cut out from a cross-stitch catalogue (the Fox collection).

I'm happy with how the colours came together, and my friend really liked it.

Regards,

Vivienne

Elegant birthday

I made this card for an older friend of mine.

The main image is cut from a postcard.

The flower is made from the instructions by StampArtic.  The greenery behind is a punch by Martha Stewart.  It used to be called "scary branch", but I think it's since been given another name.

Regards,
Vivienne.

Ship ahoy

Another male card.  The boat image is cut from an old greeting card.  And the hessian was originally wrapped around a gift soap.  I love recycling!

This was sent to one of my nephews.

Regards
Vivienne.

Aliens!

I've again used an image by Elizabeth Dulemba.  Isn't this such a cute alien?

The little alien in the background is a stamp that was given to me by a friend.  She'd had it for ages, so I don't know who it's by, or any other info on him.

"Good Times" is a rub-on.

I gave this card to my nephew.

Regards
Vivienne.

Reading

This card also uses an image by Elizabeth Dulemba.  It's called "Victorian Poetry".

The image has been coloured using colouring pencils and baby oil.  The three little flowers are made from punchies that were sent to me by a friend (Tina).

Regards
Vivienne.

Another Unicorn card

Again I've used the Unicorn image by Elizabeth Dulemba.  The Unicorn is coloured with colouring pencils and baby oil.  I've then neatly cut her out and mounted her up on foam.  I made this for a friend of mine who loves horses.

Regards
Vivienne.

Housewarming card

This is an easel card that I made for a friend, for when she moved into a new home.  (Unfortunately I don't have a pic of it open). 

I cheated a bit with this one.  The image is a pre-coloured image from a clip art CD - "Zip Art - Bee Happy".  I just added the shading to the edges, before mounting it on the card.

Regards
Vivienne.

Wedding Anniversary

My mum is a seamstress.  She has made lots of clothes for her family over the years, including her husband.  So, when I saw this image from www.squiglysplayhouse.com (though the link doesn't seem to be working for me today), I knew that I would have to colour it up and use it for my mum's wedding anniversary.  [She loved it, by the way!]

The inspiration for my card came from here, from a blog by Sonja called "Flatis Stempelwelt".  I was inspired by her layout, the colours, and the flowers that she made.

The centre of my flower is a homemade "button", but without the button holes punched out.  I followed the instructions by Jennifer Pauli.

I've used a Martha Stewart punch called Arch Lattice, and adhered the pearls in my own swirls.

Regards
Vivienne.

Postcard card

Here is a card I made for a friend.  The image is a postcard, which I first trimmed down to the size that I wanted, and then cut into squares.  Each square had it's edges sanded with fine sandpaper to give that narrow white border.  The tricky part was attaching them to the card so that they were all neatly lined up!  Again I used the "flat ribbon trick" for my ribbon.

Regards
Vivienne.

Card for my step-sister

Here is a card that I made for my sister-in-law.  Again I've taken an old card from my stash, and spruced it up a bit.  I added the threads, and the flower.  (Hmm, it probably could've done with some shading too, but it looked all right IRL.)  Unfortunately, my flower got a little squashed in the scanner!  I made it using a technique from StampArtic.

Regards
Vivienne.

Mother's Day card

Here is the card that I made for my Mum and my Mum-in-Law this year (I made the same card twice).

The image is from Coloring-Page.biz.  I've coloured it with Crayola colouring pencils and baby oil.

The 2 lemon coloured flowers I've made myself.  The pink ones were bought from Bizzy Becs (which is a great online store, by the way!).

The ribbon was tied using the "flat ribbon trick".

Regards
Vivienne.

Ant

The above card was made for my MIL's husband.  It uses an image by Dustin Pike. I've coloured him using crayola colouring pencils and "De-Solv-it" (an orange based cleaner).  The buckle was taken from my broken shoes before I tossed them in the bin.

Dustin Pike is having the most amazing sale at the moment, but you'd better be quick as it ends on the 18th July.  He is selling all of his 2009 images that haven't been converted into stamps, all 233 of them, for only 10 USD.  (I took advantage when he had this sale at the beginning of this year.  The above is one of those images.)

He is also selling a new Autism Awareness set for 10USD.  As a "Christmas in July" special, you will also receive all of his 2010 images so far.  Now I'd already bought 1/2 of them (bummer!), but I still took advantage of the special!  Again, be quick.

Even if you don't go for the above specials, make sure that you visit his blog where he is giving away a freebie.  (Go back through his old posts, because he regularly gives one away).

Regards,
Vivienne.

Card for Niece

 

I used to be a consultant with Crafty Kids (now Kazazz - strange name!).  Anyway, during my time with them, I made quite a few "sample" cards.  By my standards now, these were very simple cards.  So I've set myself a challenge of improving on them.  I forgot to take a "before" pic of this one, but it was just the die-cut heart on the green card.  The "feature" of the card was that it opened in the middle (ie the heart is only attached on one side).

So my modifications were to add the ribbons, and the panels of coloured background paper.  Hmm, maybe it could've done with some inking somewhere too.  But it's a nice bright cheery card for my young niece.

Regards,
Vivienne.

Unicorn

Here is a card I made for a little friend of mine.  I've again used an image by Elizabeth Dulemba, called Unicorn.  The unicorn is coloured using colouring pencils and baby oil, and is mounted up on foam.
The nestibilities circle was kindly cut for me by a generous lady called Angie.
Regards,
Vivienne
 

Roses

This is a card that I made for some lovely friends of ours (husband and wife).  Their birthdays are very close together, so I always send them the one card for both of them (this is one way to get out of making a male card!).
My inspiration came from Lovely Linda's blog.
The roses image is a beautiful drawing by Beccy.  Her blog is called Beccy's Place.
Regards,
Vivienne.

Birthday Bear

This is a birthday card for another niece.  The card looks a bit better in real life, due to the flower not getting squished in the scanner!
The adorable image is from Elizabeth Dulemba's site, and I've coloured it using colouring pencils and baby oil.  The bear and cake are then carefully cut out, and raised up on foam mounts.

Regards
Vivienne.

Fairy Card

Here is a birthday card that I made for my niece with a colouring image from www.coloring.ws.
The fairy has been coloured with colouring pencils and baby oil. The flower has been made using a cool technique from StampArtic. The butterfly is a sticker, attached to acetate and the wings are lifted from the page.

Regards,
Vivienne.