An Affair To Remember

First of all, I feel so honoured to have been asked to create a card for this week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge....so huge thanks go to Sankari and Brooke for asking me :-). Anthonette was also asked to be a guest designer this week, you can see her fabulous card here.

This week's movie is 'An Affair To Remember':


...and it almost turned into a drama of epic proportions. I've never seen it (yes, I live in a cave) so I zipped down to the local Civic Video store and tried to borrow it. No luck! They didn't have it. I then looked online to see if I could borrow it through iTunes. Again, no luck...they didn't have it either. Starting to feel a tad deseperate I checked YouTube hoping some naughty person had posted it....ARGHHHHHHHHH, no luck!

I was starting to wave goodbye to my first-ever guest designer appearance. On Christmas eve, I bit the bullet and headed down to the mall in a last ditch effort to find it. I went to Virgin...no luck, Sanity...no luck, EzyDVD...no luck, Target...no luck. I was hyperventilating (along with all the other last minute Christmas shoppers ;-). My last stop was Kmart...I was feeling defeated. I was flicking through the racks without enthusiasm, already composing my tragic email to Sankari in my head. I was so absorbed in my defeat I actually flicked right past the movie and had to go back to it! EUREKA!! I did a little happy dance right there in the aisle....a bit of Christmas eve entertainment for the security camera dude :-).

Now, before you get tired of all my waffling...here is my card:


I think you can guess where my inspiration comes from. I have used Stampin' Up!'s 'Boatloads of Love' boat stamp set to recreate the Constitution...as seen through a porthole (created using Spellbinders Nestabilities circles and my Cuttlebug). I've decked the boat out with a love theme...of course. Perfect for Valentine's Day!

I deliberately kept the colours muted...a la a colourised black and white movie. The boat has been watercoloured with Night of Navy Classic ink and an aquapainter. The sky is Soft Sky and the water is very light Night of Navy. I have used some retired 'Loves Me' Designer Series Paper to cover the heart and then painted it with Crystal Effects. I have also added Crystal Effects onto the water and fenders for some added texture. I have used white Liquid Applique on the exhaust cloud above the stack and I have recreated portholes on the Constitution using eyelets.


And, that's all there is to it! A simple little card which reminds me of An Affair to Remember.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope that you and your family had a lovely Christmas. Best wishes for 2009!

Sam.

PS. Thanks for all the comments on my Twilight post. I read the first book last weekend, read the partial draft of Midnight Sun (which is the first 12 chapters of the Twilight story from Edward's perspective...it is available on Stephenie Meyer's website....PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE finish it Stephenie, I promise to buy it), then I went and saw the movie again (I enjoyed it even more the second time around)! I'm listening to the Movie Score as I type (but my favourite song is from the Soundtrack not the Score, and is Supermassive Black Hole by Muse...the baseball game theme song :-). Yep...completely hooked!

Where have I been?

I am sorry for my blog-absence of late. I've been hanging out in Forks, Washington...in my head, at least (that'd be a loooooooong way to go for just three days ;-).


Rainforest in Sol Duc Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, Washington


(image sourced from here).

I went down to our local mall on Sunday to start my Christmas shopping. Hubby had the kids and I was set to get underway! I kind of got sidetracked though. I suddenly thought that seeing a movie might be in order so I wandered in and saw that there was a movie called Twilight on. I had not read the books, didn't know anything about it other than that it had something to do with Vampires...so I got my popcorn and headed in!


WELL! It was kind of a mistake, because I couldn't let it go! I walked out of the cinema (on a high) and went and bought the next three books (New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) and proceeded to devour them...finishing them up last night. WOW. I loved them. I'm going to go see the movie again as soon as I can, then go and read the first book (which I didn't read because I was too keen to know what happened after the movie left off). I'm not going to give anything away!!

Seriously though, I feel like I've been on a holiday, and for the price of a movie ticket and three books (and a couple of late, late nights)...that ain't too bad!

Hope your Christmas shopping is further advanced than mine :-).
Sam.

Blog Candy Winner

Ok....7pm AEDST has been and gone (just), and I've been on over to random.org and run the random integer generator on my 33 comments...and this is what I got back:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2008-12-14 08:04:18 UTC

The second comment in THIS post belongs to Melanie in the US. Melanie, I've left you a comment on your blog. Can you let me know what your snail mail addy is please? My email addy is: navarino@yahoo.com

Thanks for all the lovely comments everyone. I loved reading through them...it was so much fun!

All the best,
Sam.

Have you seen this movie?

Check this out:


Do you know what movie this little sneak peek is from? I've guessed either one of the Harry Potter flicks, or maybe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?!

In fact, I have no idea...but that's half the fun...trying to work it out. I think Sankari and Brooke are conspiring to make it really, really tricky this week! You've done a fab job girls :-).

The clip is from the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog, where they upload a sneak peek on Friday (well, the sneak peek actually goes up on Saturday for those of us living in OZ and NZ, and it becomes Cinema Sunday Creative Challenge...but I figure Sunday is just as good as Saturday when it comes to being challenged creatively!).

Sooooooooo, if you know where you've seen this peek from....head on over to the CSCC blog and let them know you know! If you are sure you know which movie it is....head down to your local video shop, rent it, watch it, see what inspires you, then you should start making your card! Bossy, aren't I? Personally, I'm going to have to wait until I work out exactly which movie we're talking about here...

See you,
Sam.

Polka Dot Heart

Last night while I started watching The Last Samurai I made a little card:


I've sneaked you a peek of a stamp from one of the Sale-A-Bration 2009 stamp sets. I think you'll like the sets on offer this time....I do!! It has been embossed in white, on Real Red cardstock, then cut out and mounted up on a Metal Edged Tag...and I really like how it turned out. The Chocolate Chip ribbon is in our new Summer Mini catalogue, and is just plain YUMMY!


I've also used some of my recently acquired Spellbinders Nestabilities dies. These are from the Labels Two set, and I think they are so groovy. If you are interested in checking some of these cutting dies out for yourself, you should head on over to Bizzy Becs.

The 'Love You' sentiment is from the Cherished Memories Rub-Ons pack. The base cardstock is Textured Chocolate Chip. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh....I could use textured cardstock ALL the time given half the chance ;-).

Now, I've just previewed this card on the monitor and the first thing that popped into my head is - a tin of Heinz Tomato Soup......hmmmmmm, I wonder, is that a bad thing?

Thanks for popping by! Have a relaxing Saturday.

Sam.

Two challenges, one card...and some candy!

Ok, so I feel like I'm cheating a bit here...but I ran out of time today, and so I have combined Kristina's Colour Challenge, and the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge.

These are Kristina's colours for the week:


And here is the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge:


For my card I have used Kristina's colours, while the theme is (quite obviously I hope) from The Sound of Music:



The base cardstock is Whisper White, the background cardstock is textured Bashful Blue, the far Alps are Sage Shadow and the near hills are Certainly Celery. The small white flowers (aka Edelweiss) are from the Love Birds Rub-Ons. The Pale and Perfect Plum flowers are punched using the Spring Flower Bouquet punch and have beautiful Dew Droplets in Pearl as their centres. The moon is Whisper White cardstock and the sentiment is from the Cherished Memories Rub-Ons.

A little more about the Dew Droplets:


I got these from The Little Online Card Shop. They are by The Robin's Nest and the colours above are: Bird of Paradise, Daffodil, Hardy Ivy and Pearl (there are heaps more colours to choose from...but I stopped at four).

I am going to offer a little blog candy here. The winner will receive 20 of each of the fours colours of Dew Droplets shown above. I'm also going to add some buttons and ribbons to the candy, but I don't have photos of those...so they'll be a surprise :-).

All you need to do is leave a comment against this post, and I will use Random.org to draw a post number (I don't think Blogger numbers the posts, but I will just count from the top). This Blog Candy offering is open to anyone at all, in Oz or O/S, and entries will close at 7pm Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time, Sunday 14th December. If you don't have a google login where I can find your email, please leave email address in your comment, it will allow me to contact you to let you know if you've won!

Thanks for stopping by,
Sam.

PS. Thanks for all your messages and well-wishes, I am feeling much, much better!

Guess where we went yesterday?

If you were watching the local WIN news you might have spotted us in the crowd.....we took the kids to see the WIGGLES!


It was a great concert...the Wiggles and all the other characters have so much energy, it was contagious. Anthony must have been doing some Olympic gymnastics training because at one point he was hanging upside down on the Rings and doing the splits...WOWZERS!!! I didn't get a photo because I was too busy staring ;-).

But I digress...in one of the numbers they sung, the Wiggly dancers were wearing these really groovy dresses. I can't remember what the song was, because I was thinking of how I'd like to make a card in the same design. This is a really blurry shot of the dresses (sorry, I only had my small camera on hand, and it doesn't deal well with the dark, but you can just see the girls at the back of the stage on the steps):


So today, I made a really simple card using the dresses as inspiration. I like how it turned out:


The background cardstock is Textured Basic Black. The Wiggly colours are: Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow and Lovely Lilac. I've used a piece of Styled Silver Hodgepodge, and stamped a sentiment from the 'It's Your Birthday' stamp set in Basic Black classic ink on Whisper White cardstock...and that's all...VERY technical hey? ;-)

While I was outside I thought I'd take a little snap of my beautiful Melaleuca Nesofila in bloom:


Hope your day has been a good one!

Back soon, with a challenge card.
Sam.

Miracle on 34th Street

This week the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge is based on the movie Miracle on 34th Street:


I had not seen this movie before so off I went to hire it, and I watched it today.

It was lovely, really inspiring. My favourite scenes are:
1/ where Mara Wilson is admiring Kris Kringle's beautiful Santa suit with the gold thread and gold buttons, and
2/ where New York is busy advertising here there and everywhere that they believe!

So I took these two themes, and created the following card:


The Mistletoe is also mean't to be representative of the blossoming love between Elizabeth Perkins' and Dylan McDermott's characters.

The base cardstock is Basic Black. Then there is a thin strip of Glossy white which has been stamped with the Mistletoe from the Peaceful Wishes stamp set, in Real Red classic ink. Then there is a strip of Textured Real Red cardstock which has been embroidered with the word 'Believe'. I have used Metallic Gold DMC thread, and made a template using the Lucida Calligraphy font in Word. The red velvet ribbon is from Basic Grey, and the buttons are from...somewhere?!!!

Thanks for having a look. If you haven't checked out the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog...you should! It is a lot of fun.

Ciao,
Sam.

A day for rest...

Ok, so I'm supposed to be resting up today. Well, card making is restful, right? So I'm well rested here ;-).

I was just mucking about, trying to design my Christmas card...yes, I am only just starting this job :-(...and this is what I made instead:


Now, Klaus, as I have affectionately named him, will not be on the front of my Christmas cards....he took waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to make (don't get me started on how fiddly those glasses and eyes were), but I like him anyway.

I've used pretty much every Stampin' Up! circle punch there is, not to mention the scallop punch and corner rounder. I cuttlebugged the Real Red cardstock with the Swiss Dots folder, because I love a bit of texture. The sentiment is from the 'Merry, Merry' stamp set, and it is mounted up on a Metal Edge tag. Klaus fits in a C6 envelope too. His face is Blush Blossom, his glasses are Basic Black and his irises are Ballet Blue. He does actually have eyebrows too, but I needn't have bothered as they got covered by his hat.

Ok...now I'm going to go and rest up some more.

Hope your day is a happy one!
Sam.

Time For You...

Here is another little creation that I made a short while ago. I made it for a Stampin' Up! demo friend, and I wanted to hold on to it until she had received it in the mail:


Materials Used (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: 'Time For You' and 'Short and Sweet'
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, River Rock, Very Vanilla and Watercolour Paper
Designer Series Paper: from Secret Garden Simply Scrappin' kit
Accessories: Classic Inks (Always Artichoke, Black Stazon Ink, River Rock and Groovy Guava), Theatre Ribbon Originals, Beachfront Ribbon Originals, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, Crystal Effects and Aquapainter
Adhesives: SNAIL, Sticky Strip and Dimensionals.

...and now I think it must be time for bed!

Nighty night :-),
Sam.

Cute Anna Mae

My apologies for the general lack of new things to look at on here. My other half brought back a lovely gift for me from the UK...a hideous cold. Two weeks of feeling BLERGGGHhhhhhh and now I'm on antibiotics for a sinus infection and eye drops for conjunctivitus. Did I mention how sorry for myself I've been feeling? This, and it's Summer...NOT FAIR!

Anyway, I just thought I'd show you a little birthday card I made recently. I have used a brand new stamp set that I got from Our Craft Lounge (PS. I have just discovered that you can also buy these locally HERE). I've never used clear stamps before, being a huge fan of Stampin' Up!'s lovely red rubber, but I thought I should at least try the competition and see how they went (...I like them, and there is definately a place for them in my stash ;-):


Materials Used (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Regal Rose, Whisper White and Pretty in Pink
Stamps: Anna Mae stamp set - by Our Craft Lounge, Think Happy Thoughts stamp set, Short Order Numbers stamp set and Linen background stamp
Designer Series Patterned Paper: Spring Fling
Ribbon: Flirty Ribbon Originals
Accessories: Metal Edged Tags, Pretty in Pink Eyelets, Watercolour Paper, Black Stazon Ink, Classic Ink (Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Soft Sky, Creamy Caramel, Pumpkin Pie and Blush Blossom), Aquapainter, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds, crop-a-dile, 1 1/4 inch circle punch and 3/4 inch circle punch
Adhesives: SNAIL, Two-Way Glue Pen, Sticky Strip and Dimensionals.

Here is a little close up so you can see the Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds:


Thanks for stopping by!
Sam.

A couple more Christmas cards

While playing with Kristina's colours today, I also made these two cards:





The first one is the right colours, but the second one does not have any Very Vanilla in it...I just couldn't make it fit, and decided it was too annoying so I'd best stop!

Hope your day was fabuloso :-).
Sam.

Ho ho ho, it's colour challenge time again!

It is time for another Kristina Werner Color Challenge, and this week's colours are:


Kristina did say that you could substitute the Sahara Sand for a metallic, and I have done this, but have used a metal edge tag for my metallic. I have also substituted Real Red for Riding Hood Red, as we don't yet have that colour here in Oz.

This is my card:





The base cardstock is Real Red and has been stamped with one of the snow flake stamps from the Merry, Merry stamp set. The hat lining is Whisper White and has been punched out with the scallop punch. I have mounted the triangular piece of the hat up on dimensionals. The hat ornament is a metal edge tag, mounted up on a scallop of whisper white cardstock. The sentiment is from the Merry, Merry stamp set, and has been stamped in Real Red classic ink on Very Vanilla cardstock and punched out with the 1 inch circle punch.

I thought I'd make you a really quick tutorial in case you were interested in making one of these Santa Hat cards yourself:

Step 1: Cut an A4 sheet of cardstock in half, length-ways:


Step 2: Score at halfway mark and fold cardstock. Make pencil marks at 0.5 inch and 1.5 inch from the bottom, on both sides, and at 1 inch from each corner at the top. Draw lines connecting marks as shown in the image below, and cut along these lines:


Step 3: Cut along the lines you have drawn, then stamp cardstock. Run SNAIL adhesive along the bottom 1 inch of the cardstock as shown below:


Step 4: Mount four scallop circles along base of card, to form hat lining (if you want your card to fit in an envelope, you'll have to make sure you don't extend the scallops too far past the edge of the hat, or reduce the width of the base cardstock):


Step 5: Using a piece of cardstock 2 inches wide and 3 inches long, mark out a triangle:


Step 6: Decorate triangle, cut it out, mount on dimensionals and affix to top front of card:



Then just add your hat decoration, and you're done!

Hope this helps :-).
Sam.

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge

Check out this week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge, Gone With the Wind:


I nearly didn't get a card made today with my head pounding, but in between naps and fortified with cold meds, this is what I came up with:


It is inspired by the outfit that Rhett wore to the BBQ at Twelve Oaks:


I didn't have any black and white checked paper that I could use for the cravat, so I used some of my origami paper instead. Again, very, very hard to crush it up like that :-).

Thanks for visiting,
Sam.

Kristina's Color Inspiration #31

It is time for Kristina's weekly Colour Inspiration, and this week's colours are:


This is the card I made using these colours:


Now, I hope you will forgive my lack of creativity. I have a cold, and feel blah! I think this card is a bit blah too, well it looks bland to me!

The ingredients are:

Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant and Watercolour Paper.
Inks: Black Stazon, Versamark, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink.
Stamps: Embrace Life.
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder
Other: Crimper, Aquapainter, SNAIL adhesive, Sticky Strip, Dimensionals.

I have embossed the whole of the main image (using the reverse masking technique) and the leaves on the background image (using a Versamark pen). You can see the embossing a bit better in this close-up image:


See you later!
Sam.

A day on a steam train...

We had a fabulous day yesterday! We caught the steam train from Canberra to Bungendore and back, and had so much fun. This is the engine that hauled us there:


The kids loved it, hubby loved it, I loved it!




I got back and made this funny little card of the engine:


Miss 4 wants me to send it to the train driver :-).

For this card I used:
Cardstock: Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White and Brushed Gold
Ink: Whisper white craft ink and white gel pen
Punches: 1 3/8" circle, 1 1/4" circle, 3/4" circle, 1/2" circle, corner rounder and word window
Accessories: Basic black brads, dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive and glue dots
Other: Cotton wool buds and foam brush.


Thanks for dropping by!
Sam.

I got an AUDREY award!

Have you checked out the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge site yet?

A movie is selected by Sankari and Brooke on a weekly basis. A sneak peek graphic is released on Friday (Saturday Oz time), and the full Movie title is released on Saturday (Sunday Oz time), along with some useful links on where to go to find out more about the movie. The challenge is to make a project inspired by the movie!

I entered last week's challenge which was Memoirs of a Geisha. I got a bit carried away and made three cards (I'm going to blame it on the divine origami papers I found in a local store). You can see the cards I made here and here.

AND...I won the Audrey award!


I'm feeling very honoured because there were LOTS of fabulous entries this week!

This is the card that I won with:


Thank you so much Sankari and Brooke for choosing my card!

This week's movie has already been selected, and it is Gone With The Wind. I am a bit embarrassed to say I have never read or seen this epic! Off to Civic Video I go ;-).

Have fun creating!
Sam.

I was trying for another Color Inspiration card...but it didn't work

I just could NOT work the Old Olive in....:-(


The background is textured Whisper White. The chipboard flower is covered in Certainly Celery Chunky Sprinkles...well, they kinda look like Cert Cel. I have coloured the inner flower in Sahara Sand, with a Stampin' Write marker, and then the pearl is white. No Old Olive. I still like the look of the card though!


While I was out there taking the card shots I grabbed a close-up of one of my Hebes in flower:


Hope your day has been a good one!
Sam.