Monday, June 15, 2009

A blogging goodbye......

If anyone is actually still out there and checking in on my blog to find it unchanged for so long........then I apologise to you for the inactivity here for such a long time!

I am writing this today because this will be my last post on this blog. I have decided not to blog anymore as I am extremely busy these days and just need to cut back on some of my commitments. I have had a lot of fun blogging and would like to thank those of you who have continued to pop in to visit me and leave such wonderful comments.
I will eventually delete the blog completely but at this stage I will leave it here until I have totally sorted out how to move my links into google reader.
Thanks again for all of your support and hopefully I will actually meet a few of you in person at either a regional event or convention in the future.

Danneil. x

Monday, April 20, 2009

Sorry about my long absence!

I am back blogging again.....who knows for how long!
Anyway, the daughter of a very lovely friend of mine turned one yesterday and they had a lovely 'picnic party' in a local park for her. My girls had a wonderful time and this is the card that I made for the birthday girl.....
Here is a closer look at the "window". The butterfly has a bit of glitter on it (essential on a little girl's card!!)......
And here is what it looked like on the inside.....
I LOVE this little hedgehog from Fast and Fun Notes and this is the first time that I have had a play with him. The grass and flower are hand drawn and I have put glitter on the flower as well.
Hope that you like this little guy as much as I do and thanks for stopping by.Stamps: Polka Dot, Fast and Fun Notes. Inks: Pretty in Pink, Markers, Stazon Black. Card stock: Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Spring Fling DSP (retired). Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Wide Celery grosgrain. Tools: Circle and scallop circle punches, Scallop edge punch, paper piercing, Stamp-a-majig, Blender pens.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #9.

Hello again,
I visit Karen Giron's blog regularly. I LOVE her cards and have wanted to have a go at her "Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge" for a while. So this is my first attempt!!
And what a challenge it was!!! I don't have a circle cutting system, (I have been patiently waiting and hoping that the new SU! catalogue will have one in it....but alas.....they didn't include it) so with my choices being either trace around a piece of kitchenware or use my punches, I went with the punches.
This is what I came up with........


I wanted it to be something a bit different because the punches don't give you a very big circle so I needed something else to give the card a bit of wow!
I enjoyed making it so much that I whipped up a second one as a baby card as well.....
Anyway, I hope you like what I came up with. Sorry Karen that I had to put a bit of ribbon around the middle of the card so it's not exactly 100% true to your sketch challenge...but I needed to keep the cards closed somehow.
Thanks for visiting.

Stamps: Greetings Galore (retired), All in the family, Family favourites, Polka Dot background. Inks: Soft Subtles, Bold Brights and Earth Elements Markers, Versamark. Card stock: Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Old Olive, Petals and Paisleys DSP, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Pool Party DSP (retired). Accessories: Old Olive wide grosgrain ribbon, Light Blue Gingham Ribbon (retired). Tools: Scallop circle punch, 1 3/8 inch circle punch.

Casing Sarah-Jane

This is a card that I just did recently for a workshop based on cards for kids. It is a complete case of one of Sarah-Jane Kale's cards that you can check out (along with her other beautiful card creations) on her blog here.
I love this card! It is so effective and such a great use of the Pick a Petal stamp set and every little girl that has seen it since I made it love it just as much as me!!
Hope that you like this one as much as I do and thanks for the inspiration Sarah-Jane. You can get all of the information to re-create this card at Sarah-Jane's blog here.
Thanks for stopping by and I will be back soon with a couple of cards that I have made for a challenge.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Casing Sarah J.K.....

Hello,
I am still playing around with my blog but I thought that while I am tinkering with it I should post something as well. This is almost a complete case of a card made by Sarah Klass. You can check out Sarah's card here.
I loved her card so much when I first saw it that when I needed to come up with cards for a recent workshop (with a children's theme) I knew that I would use this one!
It also gave me the opportunity to use some of the retiring papers and a retiring stamp set.
This layout is so easy and so versatile...hope you like it as much as me!
Thanks for visiting.
Stamps: Greetings Galore, Congrats. Inks: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Soft Subtles and Earth Elements markers. Card stock: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Spring fling DSP, Watercolour paper. Accessories: Large circle punch, Scallop circle punch. Tools: Stamp-a-majig.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Having a play around.....

Hi all,
I am going to be having a play around with my blog and blog header. So if you are visiting and things look a bit strange it is probably because I am doing something to the blog. Thanks for your patience.....
Danneil.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

To blog or not to blog?????

That is my question!
I am trying to decide whether to continue to blog or not! I am SO busy with my children and general family stuff that I am lucky if I can fit in the odd workshop, let alone keeping my blog up to date. I put a lot of pressure on myself to have something new to show you and when I haven't posted anything for a while I feel really bad. I know that there are people who check in on my blog regularly (Hi Sarah-Jane) and I don't want to disappoint anyone if there is nothing new to see!
I keep telling myself that things will be a lot easier when all of my girls are in full time school, but with Hayley only being 11 months old that seems a long way off!
Anyway, I would love to hear what you think before I make any decision about closing my blog.

This card was one of the projects that I made at our last team stamping day. We used two of the gorgeous background stamps (Floral and Linen....that are now retiring) and the faux tearing technique.
Thanks for dropping by and I look forward to reading your comments about my blogging dilemma.



You can find all of the details to re-create this card here on Sarah's blog.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

My Team Day 'swap'.

This is the card that was supposed to be my swap for our recent Team Day, but true to my usual form, I only managed to get this one made and didn't have time to get any others done!!
I am in awe of those ladies that can churn out bulk amounts of cards in a single sitting!! By the time I have a few minutes in the evening to stamp I am usually exhausted and opt for going to bed over stamping until the wee hours of the morning.
I keep telling myself that once all of my girls are in school I will have more time....hopefully!!
Anyway, I came up with the idea of an envelope with hearts coming out of it after I used the little envelope and hearts stamp, here, from the Greetings Galore stamp set for a recent Kristina Werner challenge. After a bit of Internet surfing I found a template for a 'Mini Envelope' and the rest just came together from there.
I hope you like the card and thanks for stopping by.


Stamps: A Little Bit of Happiness. Card-stock: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Bali Breeze DSP. Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Light pink Gingham ribbon. Tools: Paper piercing, Dimentionals.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Team day swaps.......

I recently attended our team stamping day and, as usual, I had a fantastic time!! It is always great to catch up with the other girls in the team and this time Sarah, (our team leader), Jaz, Amanda and Chantell had organised some great projects for us to do. We can also make cards to swap if we want to and there is usually a theme for the swaps.....this time the theme was "Love or Friendship". True to my usual form, (see previous post), I didn't end up getting any swaps made on time and ended up with nothing to swap on the day!
But that didn't seem to bother some of the other girls who kindly gave me one of their swaps anyway! (even though I had nothing to give them in return).
These are the gorgeous cards that I received;

The 1st of these stunning cards was made by the very lovely Sarah-Jane (her cards are always gorgeous).....
This sweet card was created by Annie (love this stamp, so pretty).....
I always enjoy chatting to Leanne at our team day and she gave me this lovely creation (I would never have thought to put these colours together Leanne, you're very clever!).....
And finally, I also enjoy seeing Karen at the team day and this is the cute card that she kindly gave me.....

So there you have it! Four gorgeous cards made by 4 really lovely ladies!
See you next time........

Another blog award!!!!

I was so surprised to see that I had been given Blog Award by Di Barnes and a really pretty one at that!!
If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend checking out Di's blog! She is a very talented paper-crafter!
I don't really think that I deserve a blog award because my blog always ends up being the last thing on my REALLY long list of things to do!! With running my 3 older girls back and forth from Pre-primary, 3 Year Old Kindy and Ballet lessons, as well as cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and trying to make sure that (baby) Hayley still gets her sleep time during the day......I never seem to have any time left over to update my blog!
Sound familiar, anyone????

Anyway....thanks so much for the award Di, I really appreciate that you think that my blog is worthy of an award!



Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Casing Christmas cards.

I think that it was only 2 weeks before Christmas that I actually decided to make some cards to send out. My problem was that I didn't have much time and I knew that I wanted designs that were simple, effective and easy to mass produce! So after a bit of Internet surfing I decided to go with these 2 designs.
The card above is a case of one made by Marelle Taylor (with a few minor changes) and the one below is a case of a card by Tracey Wilson, which you may have seen before on my blog because I cased this one a while back. I decided to change the colours of the 2nd card from blue and white to the traditional Christmas colours of red, white and green.
Both cards have Dazzling Diamonds glitter on them to add a bit of Christmas 'sparkle'.


Well that's Christmas wrapped up....finally! Hope that you like the cards and I will be back soon with some stuff that we did at our recent team stamping day.
Thanks for stopping by....

Card 1:
Stamps: Snow Flurries, So Swirly wheel, Many Merry Messages. Inks: Brocade Blue, Encore silver. Card stock: Brocade Blue, Whisper White. Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, Brocade Blue grosgrain ribbon. Tools: Stamp-a-majig.
Card 2:
Stamps: Hung up on Christmas, So Swirly wheel, Many Merry Messages. Inks: Rose Red, Always Artichoke. Card stock: Rose Red, Always Artichoke, Whisper White. Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds. Tools: Stamp-a-majig.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Some Christmas catch up.......

Isn't this a gorgeous card?!?!
I received this beautiful Christmas card from Sarah Klass and I still hadn't gotten around to posting it here because I haven't been blogging much lately. Now that I am back into the swing of things I am trying to do a bit of 'blogging catch up' and that means posting a few Christmas cards that haven't made it on here yet!
Anyway, Sarah is such a talented paper-crafter and she really sets the bar very high! She has such a beautiful style and an eye for balance, which means that her cards and scrapbook pages have enough detail and interest without being too fussy. And this card is no exception!!!
I hope that you love this card as much as I do and I will be back shortly with the 2 Christmas card designs that I sent out this year.
Thanks for dropping by......


You can find all of the details to re-create this card here on Sarah's blog.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Look what I recieved.......

Isn't this just a STUNNING card!! This beautiful card is a Sam Post original and I am the very proud owner of it!!
I have taken quite a while to post this card to my blog (sorry Sam!) but as most of you know, I have been recovering over the Christmas holidays from surgery that I had back in November and I have not been blogging or card making!
This gorgeous card was sent to wish me a swift recovery from my surgery and accompanied a lovely little 'get well' care package that was full of goodies to make me feel better....and believe me they did make me feel better...especially the boiled lollies!!!
Sam and I have never actually met and only know each other through the Internet and emails, so receiving this card and gift from her was a wonderful surprise and put a big smile on my face. It also reminded me that there are still some really wonderful, caring and generous people in the world.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that someone makes you smile today!


(You can check out Sam's blog here for the project recipe for this card.)

Friday, January 23, 2009

Kristina's Colour Challenge #39.

It's time for another one of Kristina's Colour Challenges (gosh that week went fast!) and this time the colours are Basic Black, Real Red, So Saffron, Whisper White and Green Galore (or another green).
I don't know why, but as soon as I saw the colours for Kristina's Challenge I immediately thought of shiny black gumboots! Weird, I know!!
Anyway, armed with the idea of gumboots and after a lot of mucking around with the colour combination, this is what I came up with......

This one was a real challenge for me because I started off with a Real Red card base that was layered with So Saffron and I had every intention of using layers of Green Galore as well, but after giving that about 3 hours of my time I just couldn't seem to make it work! So I decided to start again, simplify my card and change from Green Galore to Old Olive and it finally just came together! (No extra points for me Kristina!)
To add some dimension I have popped the whole white section up on dimensionals and the 2 Saffron flowers are also popped up on dimensionals. Then to add a bit of interest I have paper pierced a 'frame' around the picture and put Crystal Effects on the little boots to make them shiny! (you may need to click on the picture to see the shine).
Hope you like my card and thanks for dropping by,



Stamps: Simply Said, Flower Filled (retired). Inks: Basic Black, Old Olive, So Saffron, Real Red. Card stock: Bali Breeze DSP, Old Olive, Whisper White. Accessories: Crystal Effects, Rich Regals Brads. Tools: Aqua Painter, Stamp-a-majig, Paper piercing.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Kristina's Colour Challenge #38....love is in the air.

It has been ages since I have posted anything on my blog and I decided that it was time to get back into the swing of things and what better way to start than by joining in on one of Kristina's Challenges!
The colours this time are Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White and Pumpkin Pie and while I was doing a bit of browsing on the web I noticed that there were Valentine cards everywhere!
So going with the Valentine theme and Kristina's colours, this is what I came up with.


I wanted to make a square card this time.....so I used Whisper White as my base, which I have layered with Pretty in Pink card stock and some Pumpkin Pie DSP (from the Bali Breeze DSP). I then hand drew a heart onto the DSP and cut through the 3 layers with my craft knife to make a heart shaped 'window'. Then I decided to add a bit of sparkle to the window so I ran my 2-way glue pen around the edge and added Dazzling Diamonds to it. The "FOR YOU" is hand written.
Then on the inside of the card I have stamped the 'envelope and hearts' image from my Greetings Galore stamp set (I haven't used this set for ages!), which I have coloured with markers and then I just hand wrote the word LOVE and added a bit of glitter to the hearts.
And that's it.......a very simple card but I had a lot of fun trying this challenge and getting back into making cards. I really hope that you like my card and thanks for visiting me.


Stamps: Greetings Galore. Card stock: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie. Ink: Stampin' Write Markers. Accessories: Dazzling Diamond. Tools: Craft Knife, Stamp-a-majig, Blender pens.