Caring Hearts Card Drive - how it went

Wow, November was a busy one with the Caring Hearts Card Drive, and now December and Christmas have been and gone before I could even breathe!

Our school, Bundoora Primary School, sent 100 cards along to Linda Langes in Queensland for the Caring Hearts Card Drive.  The kids had a great time including their own colourful drawings in their cards, as well as using their 'best handwriting'!  It was amazing!

Set out below are some samples of some of my cards that were included in the CHCD...

 






Even more delightful, our school was randomly selected to win a prize: a £30 voucher from Clearly Besotted ($45 US dollars approx.)!  Wonderful!

This was an amazing initiative, and we can't wait to be a part of it again next year!

 
D.

5th Annual Caring Hearts Card Drive

My kids' wonderful school, Bundoora Primary School, is going to help me get behind this wonderful cause, being the 5th Annual Caring Hearts Card Drive!

I'm going to design a series of cards, and a lovely bunch of willing accomplices are going to help me put them together.  We're going to make it a mini-fundraiser for the school, as well as raising money for postage costs for the Drive as well.  We're going to donate the cards to the school, then charge $2 per finished card with envelope to each student who wants to participate.  On the 24th of November, we're going to have a communal card-writing session at the school where everyone will sign their cards, ready to be sent off to Linda Langes.

I just love the feel of a community-based fundraising event, especially when it involves my love of papercrafting!

Deb.
xoxo

Scrapbook Boutique October 2014 Challenge

Just made it by the skin of my teeth!  I desperately wanted to enter the Scrapbook Boutique October Challenge because I knew exactly the photos I wanted to scrap as soon as I saw the inspiration photo. 

 I went to America with my best girlfriend in June and we spent a few days in New Orleans.  We walked down First Street in the Garden District at twilight, just like the character Michael Curry in Anne Rice's novel The Witching Hour (one of my all-time favourites).  The houses were amazing! 

This double layout has been done on Lavender KaiserCard, with matting done with Blossom KaiserCard.  I have stamped the title using Concord Crush SU! Inkpad (retired).  There are also some KaiserCraft rub-ons and clear heat embossing of an old PSX filigree stamp.  However, my favourite feature of this double layout is the fence.  I had taken a photo of a beautiful wrought iron fence in front of one of the houses.  My initial idea was to try to emboss it on my base layout card but the image was too pretty for that.  So I printed it on A4 card as it was, and also flipped the image horizontally and printed that altered image as well.  I have then (painstakingly!) cut out all the areas between the fence with my knife to show this detail, and have one fence cutout on each page of the layout, using the mid-line as a mirror effect.  It was a lot of work, but I'm very happy with the results!

Detail - Fence

Thanks for looking!
Deb.

Sassy Scrapper - October Moodboard Challenge #3

I Believe in the Power of Pink
I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment - inspiration is coming at me from all directions, and it is being driven by the desire to put more entries into the Sassy Scrapper - October Moodboard Challenge!  This morning I watched a video put together by Jennifer McGuire showing the effect of pencil colouring over white pigment ink stamping, with a Kraft cardstock base.  WOW - stunning!  So, I wanted to have a little bit of a go myself!  Here's what I came up with:

The images are from the Flourishes "Think Pink" stamp set, and the sentiment is from the My Favorite Things "Have Hope" stamp set.  I stamped the images on Kraft cardstock using Stampin' Up! Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad, and coloured using Prismacolor pencils.  I finished it off with some doodling around the border with my white Gelly Roll pen and affixed two White Pearls Sprinkles from Annabelle Stamps.

Remember to be 'breast aware'!
Deb.

Sassy Scrapper - October Moodboard Challenge #2

Such a little POSER
 I'm not normally one to scrapbook in pink, but for the October Moodboard Challenge over at Sassy Scrapper I'd scrap in pink every day!  In my last Sassy Scrapper post I forgot to include a picture of the Moodboard, so here it is!

For every entry into the October Moodboard Challenge, Sassy Scrapper is donating $1.00 to the Breast Cancer Foundation.  What a wonderful initiative!

I had to dig through photos to find one I would be happy to scrap in pink.  I found this photo of my daughter's first costume inspection day when she started dancing in 2010 - she was wearing a hot pink 'genie' costume.  Perfect!  Here is my second entry...

I also don't usually do much with embellishments with my scrapbooking, however I saw on Pinterest someone made feathers with washi tape and I wanted to give it a go.  I think they're pretty cute!


Remember to be 'breast aware' ladies - don't fall into the booby trap!

Deb.

Christmas Cards for the Australian Defence Force

I've been working towards this moment all year!!  Mid-last year, I happened across the blog of a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in New South Wales, a lady by the name of Karen (the PaperLady).  She had come up with an initiative in 2009 to collect handmade Christmas cards to send off to our military personnel posted overseas, so that they would have beautiful, handmade Australian Christmas cards to send back home to their loved ones.  She has a contact within the care package distribution area of the Department of Defence in Sydney, and this is how these beautiful handmade cards make it to our troops posted throughout the world.  Here is the link to her page: Christmas Cards for Australian Defence Force

I made and sent off 75 Christmas Cards in my first year in 2013.

This year I am sending off 100 Christmas Cards, as well as 10 Male Birthday Cards; 10 Female Birthday Cards; 10 Valentine's Day Cards and 10 Mother's Day Cards.

All packed up and ready to go!

This is such a worthwhile cause, and I love to be involved.  It is my way of letting our troops know that they are in people's thoughts and are supported back home, and not just by their families!  Thank you Karen for providing this opportunity!

Deb.

Christmassy Inlaid Die Cutting Inspiration!

With sincere thanks to Therese at Lostinpaper for her awesome inspiration and easy-to-follow instructions, I have had a pretty successful go at the Inlaid Die Cutting technique (direct link above)!  I have applied it to a Christmas card design, using the Ornament Keepsake stamps and dies from Stampin' Up!

I had prepared the background using the Tape It stamp set from Stampin' Up! for a different card design, but it wasn't going to work properly.  Then, along came Therese's post and video, and whammo, inspiration with instructions was born!

I stamped and embossed the ornaments and die cut them out.  I then diecut out the round bauble directly from the card front and inserted the embossed die cut.  I followed with the other shape bauble, die cutting it directly from the card front (making sure it overlapped the round bauble), and then inserted the matching embossed die cut.

I have placed a paper liner on the inside of the card to cover up the 'workings' of the inlaid die cutting technique.

Thank you Therese for your awesome supply of inspiration!

These cards will be going somewhere 'special' and I will blog about that in a couple of days when I get them all finished...

Thanks for dropping by!

Deb.

Sassy Scrapper - October Moodboard Challenge

OK, it's been quite a while since I've created a post about my work, so this may take several attempts to get it right!  I am just getting back into blogging my work after a two-year break, and this challenge is the reason for my return.  I love the idea of donating $1.00 from every 'entry' to raise funds for Breast Cancer awareness and research.  Whilst not personally being touched by Breast Cancer, it is a disease I am extremely conscious of and proactive about spreading awareness as well. So, here is my contribution to the Sassy Scrapper October Moodboard Challenge!

I've used MFT "Support Hope" and scalloped border Die-namics, MFT "Have Hope" sentiment stamp, Flourishes "Think Pink" stamp set, Stampin' Up! "Melon Mambo" and "Pink Pirouette" Classic Stamp Pads and Kaisercraft pink pearl bling.  The paper is from the Kaisercraft "Mint Twist" paper stack.

I hope you like it!

Cheers!
Deb.

Getting back to blogging my craft...

Okey-dokes, so I thought it was about time I got back to blogging about my crafting endeavours.  I'm going to start with a clean, fresh new blog, and create my links with the outer blogisphere from scratch.  Hopefully this will be a good thing...  More to come...
Deb.