Thursday, December 31, 2015

Top 12 plus 1

Hi Everyone,
As 2015 draws to an end I thought I would share some of my Favourite cards of the year. I though 12 was a good number but I couldn't decide so I went with one extra.

                                                                       January 15



                                                                         January 22


                                                                        March 15

                                                                         
                                                                            March 20



                                                                            April 13


                                                                            April 23


















As I look back over my selection of cards, I seem to have a bit of a theme 11 of the 13 are construction cards using Elizabeth Craft design products.
I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, I will back next year with some exciting news.

Cheers
Maryann

Monday, December 28, 2015

A Parisian Birthday


 

I had this fabulous DCWV designer paper stack "Tradewinds" on my deck from earlier in the month. I needed some more made cards in my supplies so I decided to remake the Birthday card that I posted on December 13 but this time I went with the brown earth tone paper. I used Paris edges on the front and inside plus the Eiffel Tower and Katie Label all designed by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft Designs.
After die cutting and embossing the Eiffel tower I added liquid pearls to the embossed areas.

Supplies: 
Elizabeth Craft Design Dies
Stamps:
Spampendous

Cheers
Maryann

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Peace & Joy



I still had the Jolly Holly Robins stamp on my desk for one last Christmas card to share.
It is just inked in one colour with the hero arts verse that is die cut with My Favorite Things fish tails die that was a Christmas gift from a friend.


Cheers
Maryann

Friday, December 25, 2015

Christmas Stencil

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited my blog.
Merry Christmas everyone, I hope that you are all having a wonderful day.

Today I am sharing  a stencil card I made for the FGM challenge that I made last month. I get together with a couple of friends for a shopping trip to our favourite store, we then decide on the challenge for the following month depending on our purchases.



To create this background I used a sizzix stencil and applied distress inks to the back with a sponge dauber, then spritz it with water. then laid it onto card to transfer the ink leaving the outline of the stencil.
I used Jolly Holly Robins stamp ( Crafty Individuals) and coloured it with sponges and layered it for the main image. and finished it off with the Merry Christmas die.

Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Xmas Rudy by Kait

Hi Everyone,
Today I thought I would share with you some Christmas cards that my daughter has made for her friends. Every year since Kait was about 9 years old she has made handmade cards for her friends, starting with simple stamping, then iris folding, to intricate beads and stitching and this year her favourite pop ups.

As you can see her work station is set up on the dining room table, lots of die cut pieces and a simple layout make it possible to make all the cards in one afternoon for someone who is busy working full time leading up to the Christmas season.





Here is Rudy all popped up with his present and on the front is die cut glitter trees and designer paper with a border punch edge.


Supplies:
Elizabeth Craft Designs Products
Designed by Karen Burniston
Rudy the Reindeer
Lucy Pop up
Sleigh gift card holder pop up
Marianne design xmas tree 3 LR1076
Martha Stewart border punch.


Have a wonderful Merry Christmas Day
Cheers
Maryann

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Happy Birthday Amour

This card I am sharing I have made for my daughter's birthday that is today. Next year she will be off on a working holiday in the UK and no doubt she will include Paris in her trip.

I had this fabulous designer paper with the world map that looked great. I then added Paris edges designed by Karen Burniston and the Quietfire words designed by Suzanne Cannon both for Elizabeth Craft Designs.


Kait loves the surprise of cards that pop up inside. I chose to pop up the Eiffel Tower pop stand die. I die cut the Eiffel Tower and embossed it, then highlighted it with blue gel pens with die in place. I used the Katie Label pieces for my sentiments and added another Paris edge.


Supplies: 
Elizabeth Craft Design Dies
Stamps:
Spampendous


We are off on a River boat cruise to celebrate.
Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Time keeps on slipping

Today is the last week of challenges on the CCEE Stampers Blog for 2015.

So.....here is Joanne's challenge for this week.

Did you know? There are occasional "Leap Seconds" added to the official year. They help to correct minor variations in time. On December 31, 2015, the folks who maintain the official time for the planet, will add an extra second to the day!  To honor this, the challenge for this week is to incorporate time into your card…..a clock, a calendar, a date, a watch, etc.



 For my card I have used the Spiral circle pull card and the Clock and gears die, designed by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft Designs.
I have used acetate for the spiral pull and attached glitter and foil gears so that they look like they are floating when you open the card.

 I found this treasure cay wood mounted  stamp in my supplies and I really liked the sentiment. It is rather a long verse and I wanted to use it on a tag. So I used the largest die out of the Elizabeth Craft Designs Tags set, but it was still to small. So by just putting my top plate of my sizzix machine on the top part of the die, I cut it out and then moved the die along and did the same with the bottom part of the die, it was then just a matter of extending the side cut lines to join with each other. I then layered the tag on glitter paper and fussy cut it out to create a mat.


Here is a closer look at the whole tag, just a small increase in size but the sentiment fitted perfectly.


Remember CCEE Stampers will be taking a short break from Challenges before returning in the New Year on January 7th.  So at this time we would all like to extend our wishes for a wonderful holiday season.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!!

Take Care
Maryann

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Over your head

This is hostess Joanne's challenge on CCEE Stampers blog.

Today is National Roof Over Your Head Day. It is a day to be thankful for those of us who are fortunate enough to have a safe home to live in AND to think about those around the world who do not. To mark this day, our challenge today is to make a card with a house/building of some sort on it.





I am so busy at the moment and running behind with this challenge, it is not exactly what I had planned.
I have Cottage Cutz spring Treehouse metal die with DCWV designer paper.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs.
Anne Harmon
Joanne Grzelak
Liz Williams.
Lois Bak
Lynn McAuley
Frances Byrne
Sabrina Friel
Vicky Gould
Amber Hillman

Cheers 
Maryann

Monday, November 30, 2015

FGM Stencil

For my card today I am sharing one that I made for the challenge my friends and I have each month. This month it was stencils as we had recently purchased some Tim Holtz stencils  I have used this poinsettia one.


I used ruby gold sparkle medium from imagination craft, wanting to just highlight the background I went with Quietfire die from Elizabeth craft designs. I die cut the word twice in red and once in white and layered it to create a shadow.

Cheers
Maryann 

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Gift Tag



I was asked to make a gift tag for a Christening present as I didn't have a christening verse used the word baptism and was told it wasn't suitable, well to me it means the same thing. I remember the minister who baptized my girls preferring the word Christening because it contained the word Christ, so I though I would I include a little bit about the History
Baptism: Baptism is a Greek word. Prior to Christianity, baptism was the ritual use of water for purification. Christian baptism is defined as a sacrament marked by the ritual use of water and admitting the recipient into the Christian community. This is the traditional term used and is an official sacrament of the Catholic Church. Baptism practices vary between churches, however it almost always involves the Trinitarian invocation ("I baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit"). In some cases recipients are fully submerged in water, and in other cases it may be poured or sprinkled over the head. The earliest non-biblical forms of baptism were referred to in the Didache around 100 AD. This reference speaks to the baptism of adults rather than children. Around the same time we have references from others about infant baptism being customary. From the 3rd century, onward, groups of Christians baptized infants as standard practice (although some families preferred to wait until the child was older).
Christening: Introduced in the 14th century, Christening is the ceremony of baptizing and naming a child. It comes from English culture and isn’t properly defined in the modern day. Many dictionaries will refer to "baptism".

Differences
1) Baptism is a traditional sacrament, Christening is not.
2) Baptism can be done at any age, christening is traditionally for babies and young children
3) Christening usually involves a naming ceremony, baptism usually does not
4) Christening is when water is poured or sprinkled on the head, while the method for baptisms vary
5) Baptism was practiced and mentioned by name before Christianity, Christening was first referenced in the 14th century
6) Some churches believe christening is an act of submission to god, others don’t. Yet all consider baptism a submission to god.
7) "Baptism" is a Greek word, "Christening" is English

Supplies:
ECD tags die
Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit clear stamp.

Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Time to shop Say Charge

Hi everyone,
The final challenge day as hostess for Frances on CCEE Stampers Blog. Our Challenge is shopping with a twist.

Frances says
"Today is Thanksgiving in the USA and tomorrow is Black Friday. Many will be taking advantage of the sales. Create a card with a shopping theme, the card must also include the color black on it somewhere."

  

For my card I have used unmounted red rubber Rubber Romance stamp that I have had for years, but it is still a classic one. And to my surprise it is still available from I brake for stamps

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs.
Anne Harmon
Joanne Grzelak
Liz Williams
Lois Bak
Lynn McAuley
Frances Byrne
Sabrina Friel
Vicky Gould
Amber Hillman


Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends.
Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Children at play

It is Challenge day with my friends on CCEE stampers blog. 
Hostess Frances says
"Tomorrow is Universal Children's Day. Let's create a card featuring a child having fun of some type."

It will soon be summer here and it looks like it is going to be a hot one. It is a great time to get out the water pistols or in modern times great big water cannons, I remember one called the super soaker when my girls were little and when I saw this wet & wild set from Penny Black I just had to use it. LOL

For my base card I used the rectangle pull card die designed by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft designs


The Happy Birthday die is a Quietfire die designed for Elizabeth craft designs. It has the Birthday under the word Happy but I wanted it as two words. I die cut it twice and separated it but the h looks a bit messy so using Frances's cool idea of using the h from the Quietfire Best Wishes die, because it has such a pretty loop on top I put it on top of the h in birthday.


After stamping the text and adding the water droplets I added some liquid glass finish for a wet water look. The base card measures 12 x 6 when open and fits into a 6 x 6 envelope for mailing.



Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs.
Anne Harmon
Joanne Grzelak
Liz Williams
Lois Bak
Lynn McAuley
Frances Byrne
Sabrina Friel
Vicky Gould


Cheers
Maryann

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Mr & Mrs

 My Daughter was bridesmaid for a friends' wedding in Fiji recently. I was asked to make a card, the bridesmaids wore pink. I made two using Tonic dies, one in plain card stock and the other was made using shimmer sheetz from Elizabeth Craft Designs.



Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, November 12, 2015

CCEE1546 Sesame street day

Another fun week of challenges by Frances for the CCEE Stampers Blog.

The 10th November is Sesame Street Day, this year celebrates 46 years since the show started. Create a card the is inspired by this show … You could feature any of the characters from the show; something related to a character eg garbage bin or cookies; or feature a letter of the alphabet etc.


Well I didn't have anything with Sesame street characters so I did a google search and chose this photo from their Facebook page for inspiration. The program was very popular when my girls were young and I loved the way the Count, would laugh after he counted.



Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs.
Anne Harmon
Joanne Grzelak
Liz Williams
Lois Bak
Lynn McAuley
Frances Byrne
Sabrina Friel
Vicky Gould
Amber Hillman

For my card I used My Favorite Things blueprint26 with some clear stamps.
Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Fairy circles

Challenge day on CCEE Stampers Blog and our challenge hostess for the month is Frances.

According to the Holiday Insight website, the 2nd November was Look for Circles Day. So for our challenge this month let's create a card featuring circles …. How many can you include on your card??


For my card I chose to make a circle flip it card with circle embellishments.



Supplies:
Mo Manning clear stamp Baby Fairy Kiki
Sizzix circle flip die
Elizabeth Craft Designs Circles


Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs.
Anne Harmon
Joanne Grzelak
Liz Williams
Lois Bak
Lynn McAuley
Frances Byrne
Sabrina Friel
Vicky Gould
Amber Hillman


Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Happy Hellos from downunder

Hi Everybody,
Today is the my last day as Hostess with my friends on CCEE stampers blog. I have asked the girls to create a card with something down under, it is not necessary to have something Australian, it could be under the sea, or a tree or underground, under an umbrella or even from the underworld.
I decided to make an interactive card and I love using my favourite Accordion die, the rectangle and the Katie star frame edges designed by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth craft designs.
 For my main images I used this Transparent Penny Black set Missing you I thought these  little fairies looked really cute under the mushroom hats, I'd like to think that they are in my garden.


 Some close up photos of the pages, the front page has the speech bubble and hello sentiment that comes with the accordion set. The mushroom fairy was fussy cut to fit onto the page and mounted on foam tape.


I found this little verse in my supplies of stampin up stamps. The little snail was also fussy cut and foam mounted.


 And lastly the back page all ready for posting.


All images were coloured with copic pens and I added wink of stella glitter pen to the wings.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs.




Cheers
Maryann

Saturday, October 24, 2015

It's Yarr Birthday


Today I am sharing another requested birthday card. For this themed card I had to call a friend as I have a limited supply of  pirate themed stamps., luckily my friend has a few more. I also had a chance to play with her Misti, I always wondered how her images were dark and define and wondered if she had special ink. Now I know her secret, the Misti allows you to re-ink and stamp the image several times always in the place, to add several layers of ink. 
Here is a u-tube video on how to use a misti, it was so much fun so it is now on the top of my Christmas wish list.
Okay so now on to the card, on the front I have the parrot and sentiment die cut with spellbinders dies, sponged in the shadow while the dies was in place then I matted it in black.


Because I made a pop up card I had to cover up the holes left from die cut pop pieces, with red card I then used the Agatha edges for some shape.
I used the lots of pops die designed by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth craft design for the inside and added 5 separate stamped images to create a scene. And added the flourish from the Agatha edges set.

The lots of pops die is able to cut 5 different levels of pops, because I had a large image I wanted to pop I kept the large panel to pop and folded in the others into the background.

Another shot at a different angle.


Supplies
Elizabeth craft designs - Lots of pops, Agatha edges
spellbinders -  circles, speech bubble
Stamps - La la land Luka, Paper Pretties - parrot and various other stamps.
Copic pens, foam tape and glue.



Thanks Frances for the images, I hope you like how it turned out.
Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Reflections


Today is challenge day on CCEE Stampers blog, and I am hostess I have asked everyone to please create something with reflections, it could be in a mirror or on water or a verse that looks into the past
For my main image I used an old wood mounted stamp titled "reflection pool" from stamp it Australia.
I then used distressed inks and a water colour brush to colour the image. The sentiment was stamped on acetate using stazon ink.


Follow the link to the CCEE Stampers blog to see all the other cards.

Maryann

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

FGM Quiet fire

 I get together with a couple of friends each month and we some retail therapy at our favourite craft store. We choose a challenge each month depending on our purchases. This month our challenge was to use any Suzanne Cannon Quietfire dies from Elizabeth craft designs.


The main images are from the Penny Black clear set deck the halls. I stamped the image onto white card and used a sponge to soften the background. I cut the Merry Christmas die twice out of black and once in red and glued them together for dimension, I then paper toiled the images around the quietfire words.

Cheers
Maryann

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Stained Glass Butterflies

Welcome,
It is week 3 as hostess on CCEE Stampers Blog. I have challenged everyone to use acetate in some form for their project. When I thought of this project there was a technique I wanted to try, however I haven't had time to complete that card, so it is still on the to do list.
I went to a craft show last week and I wanted to use my new purchase Sakura Glaze pens.
I used Elizabeth Craft designs Butterfly Silhouette die cut a acetate piece and a overlay in black card backed with double sided adhesive to make a sticker. I then coloured in the butterflies using the glaze pens for a stained glass effect.


 I used a border punch to create strips of card to cover where I had attached the acetate to the base card. And placed a panel of designer paper inside.


Supplies
Elizabeth Craft Designs
Butterfly Silhouette, Butterfly Overlay 2, small butterfly, double sided adhesive
Sakura Glaze pens, Martha Stewart border punch, MFT Butterflies sentiment stamp, designer paper.