Magnolia Down Under Challenges - All about books

Good morning everyone...I am slightly late with my post this morning but that is because I just did not get a chance to pre-post it yesterday and I slept in a little today.

So this week at Magnolia Down Under Challenges our challenge to you is "All about books" and we have a fab prize from our regular sponsor Tilda's Town. What a great variety of options for you and a great example of the many possible options is on our blog with all the fabulous creations there by my fellow teamies. 

So I started my project last weekend and have been slowly working on it during the week finally finishing it off yesterday. In hindsight it did not take that long to do but I just did not have a huge block of time to dedicate to it and I spent too much time thinking of what to do! I have always admired book cards but never made one so that was my challenge to myself this week. At first I thought I would make it a card but then thought about it and thought why not make it a Christmas decoration? The end result is we now have a new Christmas decoration for the year that being a Christmas Story book....I took all my might not to keep adding to the book and to just keep it clean and simple and  I also  thought if it is to last having lots of flowers and embellishments on it is going to wear and look tatty over time....

So here is the front cover.....My vision is that The frame is a window and that you are looking into Santa delivering presents....The fame has clear transparency paper on it which I have also added some dots and flakes using my  stickles too to give the effect of snow (so hard to tell on a picture though) I also used my water colour crayons and created the brown/gold behind Santa's as I imagined once again that you are looking through the window and there is just a slight light from a fire or lamp illuminating the wonder you are seeing..

here is another pic of the front that sort of gives a better picture of what I was saying about the snow on the "glass" and the stickles on the gorgeous frame which you can get from Make it Crafty

the next photo is the inside of the book

I have dabbed the edges of the accordion fold with gold paint and once again added  gold stickles to the corner swirl (once again through Make it Crafty).......The opening of the gate is folded and held together with dimensional tape I was imagining that you are using the gate to enter a park.....the trees I inserted in to different sections of the folds to also add dimension...here is a closer look

So if you have stayed with me to here thank you very much....

I am going to enter my book into the following challenges:

Tilda's Town - Anything Goes
Midweek Magnolias - O Christmas Tree
Marvelous Magnolias - Traditional Christmas Colours
Magnolia-licious Challenges - Sitckles and/or Glitter

Once again thanks for joining me today and I look forward to seeing your interpretation of the our challenge....

Until next time xoxo

Magnolia Down Under Challenges - Christmas Decoration

Good morning everyone I hope you are well. 

We have a long weekend here in Melbourne and lucky for my hubby and I my mum called late yesterday evening and asked if they could have the kids for the night and day.....ummmm let me think about that, yes, LOL! My kids just adore spending time at my mum and dads and hubby and I will enjoy a day together.

So this week at Magnolia Down Under Challenges we want to see you make or alter a Christmas ornament..I just love my new spellbinder floral ovals die and could not resist making it into an ornament for the tree. My hubby actually loved this so much he said I have to make more!

I played around with the colouring a bit....I used my water colour crayons and aqua pen and coloured the background around Tilda just adding lots of colours and blending them in until I was happy. I forgot how much I loved using the crayons...I then drew in some stars and dots to give it a little extra. The back of the ornament (in hindsight should have taken a photo of that) is just plain red and I joined the two pieces together with glue and an extra bit of card stock in the middle to make it stronger.

Now don't forget to stop by MDUC and check out the amazing works on show and to read about our very own Camilla's store who is sponsoring us this week. I look forward to popping by your blogs and looking at your creations. 

I am going to enter this into the following:

Midweek Magnolias - Anything Goes

New challenge blog Marvelous Magnolia Challenges - Anything Goes

Simply Magnolia - Sparkles & Swirls (her wings & stars are sparkly)

So that is it from me today. I am going to go off and enjoy this beautiful sunshine with hubby. 

Thanks for stopping by, until next time xoxo

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Its beginning to Look a lot like Christmas......Jingle Bells.....Merry & Bright......Well these are the songs going through my mind when I was making this card today...

You see our challenge this week at Magnolia Down Under Challenges is to make a card that is inspired by a song. As you can tell I could not stick to one my mind was wondering off everywhere while I was making my card and being a Christmas card I could get away with it and add an element of each to it!

I really struggled finishing my card as it was not coming together and no matter what I tried it just looked like someone had vomited on it but in the end after leaving it for an afternoon, coming back to it, leaving it for dinner and then coming back to it I decided to just go with it stick I down and see what happened. Well I felt it was a little unbalanced so I decided to doodle in some white stitching on the black Tilda's lace and although it is partly what it needed clearly  I did not have my straight eyes on... adds to the authenticity of it though, LOL!

The end result is that  I love the colours of the card and had a ball colouring up this gorgeous Tilda but think it is still a little unbalanced but then again I think that we can often be too tough on ourselves and forget that this is a hobby and as long as we have fun making it and are generally happy with the card then that is what matters right? 

Anyhow I appreciate the time you have taken to come have a look at my card. 

I would love to see you join in with us on this challenge and who knows you might win a prize or be picked in our top 5!  Make sure you go visit the MDUC bog and check out the inspiration but beware you will start humming away as you look through the cards, LOL!

Its time for a new challenge at Magnolia Down Under

Good  morning or evening everyone I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. 

I know that my posts and few and far between at the moment but as I previously mentioned we have been doing some major renovations at our home over the last 6 months and lets just say it turned everything upside down! Things are slowly getting back to normal but rather than pushing myself back into it I am just taking it easy and crafting when I can....

This week at Magnolia Down Under Challenges we would like to see you use 3 to 4 of your favourite colours. I have used maybe a tad more than that in my card and could say a few with the card stock and dp's and a few in my image colouring.  If you know me well you will know my favourite colours are black and kraft and then I like to add a splash of colour using them as my base. For my card, I have used blues, reds and purples all my favourites.

Now you will remember a few weeks our challenge at MDUC was a pop up card. At the time I sighed a huge sigh of relief that this challenge did not fall on my week but after seeing all the beautiful pop up cards from the entries and of course my fellow teamies I was so inspired I just had to give it a go. 

About a month ago (boy was it that long ago already) I went to paperific and got myself lots of new Magnolia stamps to play with including some backgrounds, something I just did not seem to have a lot of...So this card was a great opportunity for me to break out some f the backgrounds and mask them together and try out some new colouring techniques. You will see that I have used the tulip path and the mushrooms (there is actually two on the stamp but I masked out one) and then I started my colouring. I have to say I am quite proud of myself with how this colouring has turned out. I have never tried creating my own grass before and was a little apprehensive but after reading Zoe's tutorial for Magnolia Ink I took some of the points and then off I went....After finishing my grass and feeling rather pleased with myself I decided to try the dot colouring technique again (this was a tutorial on this from Chris Dark in a Magnolia Ink last year) for the sky and was once again quite pleased with it so decided to do it for the path too, adding some grass along the way because lets face it how many country paths do you know that don't have a few stray patches of grass.  

Oh well I have been waffling on sorry I better show you some pictures....

I will show you the inside first as this is the bit I am most excited about and you can see what I am talking about when I say about the scene I created....

A Closer look at the scene  

And now the front:

I have actually done the inside of the oval covered in cheesecloth, it is of course more effective in real life! I also got to use my Spellbinders die which I have to say I just LOVE LOVE LOVE...

I used the same layout (pretty basic one too) for each of the sides as I did not want to detract for all the other points of the card, if that makes sense. 

I have made this card for my mums upcoming birthday as I know she will appreciate the hours of colouring I have done on it.....

I have not entered any challenges lately so thought I would this week:

Deep Ocean Challenges - More than 2 colours

Just Magnolia  Challenges - Anything goes with option of fabric (I have used cheesecloth)

Paper Play Challenges - Shine On (my rainbow and mushroom are shining!)

Mad For Makers - Multi liners ( I have used mine in the sky and path and Tildas to add highlights)

Anyhow that is a very long winded post for me today.....Please stop by the MDUC blog and check out the gorgeous creations on offer and of course to see who our sponsor is this week. I look forward to popping in and seeing your favourite colours!

Thanks for stopping by today, until next time 

Eeeeek....White on White

Good morning everyone...I hope this post finds you well. 

Its Sunday which means a new challenge at MDUC and our challenge this week to is White on White. Eeeeekkkk I thought when I saw this challenge but I managed to do it, cant say that I am completely pleased with the result but that may be just because it is different for me. MY husband and daughter on the other hand love it and I am not sure whether to be insulted or not, LOL!!!!

Now I know I say I every week but do pop by the MDUC Challenge blog to look at the gorgeous inspiration....I was hugely impressed with all the cards we have for you this week to demonstrate the challenge. 

Anyhow that is it for me today, I have lots of painting on the house to get done. 

Thanks for stopping by today, until next time xoxoxox

We want to see your Red, White & Silver creations this week

Good morning....I hope you are all well. 

Firstly I would like to thank Kylie, Karen, Zoe, Debbie & Deborah for a wonderful day/night last Saturday. We had a blast of a day at Paperific and then spent a great evening at Debbie's house sharing many laughs over some champers and dinner.....Just s shame that the day went by so quickly

This week we have a colour challenge for you....Red, White & Silver at Magnolia Down Under Challenges. It is a great colour combo that lends well to Christmas so it is a great time opportunity to make another chrissie card..

By what I have been saying no doubt you can guess I went the Christmas Card option!!

I have actually got more Silver on it than it looks....I got this new Tilda last week and started to colour her up at Debbie's so I finished her off used my new marker/pen (thanks for making me buy it Karen its ace) and added some dots to her dress and tights. The background she is on is also a new purchase from last weekend, I am also glad I brought this one too. Not sure if I liked the snow on the tree but I did it so went with it! 

Now be sure to pop by Magnolia Down Under Blog to check out the amazing talent and to see who our weekly sponsor is. I look forward to seeing all your gorgeous creations. 

Thanks for stopping by, until next time 

All Stitched Up!

Don't panic I'm not referring to me....Did I get you there? It is our new challenge for you over at Magnolia Down Under Challenges this week!!!!

I'm rather excited as I made this card from my new craft space!!! Finally I got it all set up, well mostly I am sure there will be some tweaking along the way....

Anyhow as I mentioned this week we want to see you creations using stitching...now that can be fake or real whatever tickles your fancy. I have used fake as I don't own a sewing machine....maybe that should be on my list!

I decided to make a start on my Christmas cards...eeeeeekkkkkkkk where has the year gone? Scary how quickly it seems to pass us by. 

Now I am about to dash but before I do please stop by MDUC blog to check out the amazing inspiration that we have on offer. Also see what the prize is this week. 

Thanks as always for stopping by, until next time