Alex & Kevin's Wedding Invites

Hello!

I had another graduation card to share, but I just realised I still hadn't shared those wedding invites I did for my good friends, Alex & Kevin earlier this year!

It was an absolute pleasure being their "invites consultant" (haha), and it turned out rather nicely. And it was a great team effort to get it all done before Alex dashed off to Europe on her Elective. I just hope they don't mind me posting the invites here... because

So... Alex is a very blues girl. She loves anything blue. And it's not surprising that her bridesmaids will be wearing blue dresses on the big day, and her shoes are royal blue too. And surprise surprise, the wedding invites had to have blue too. They were rather keen to have their engagement shoot photo in there somewhere so that made it rather tricky coming up with ideas.

Somewhere along the track, I had one of those 'lightbulb moments' and thought, "Hey! We can have a blue frame with your photo inside!" Well, it worked and here is the after-product. It's quite simple, but does the job. Alex and Kevin both liked it, and that's a really sweet photo from their engagement shoot (had to blur out their faces... just in case).

 

  

By the way, it was my birthday yesterday, and (as requested) I got a new camera for it from my parents ;) Not a fancy dSLR as I had been eyeing up for the past 5 years, but something that will do the job for my trip to the Cook Islands soon. I had to test it out to see how it was in the room lighting, because the old camera (the cr** one) took horrible photos with semi-reasonable lighting. I'm satisfied with the quality for a super-compact camera, and it's still better than that old one we have.

We, together, made 100 of these all by hand. I had the Embellishment die cut and the frame all stamped and heat embossed (believe me, it was a big job) whilst I was living in the dungeon room out in Timaru Hospital (because I had nothing better to do there!). I probably inhaled half the embossing powder and will get some lung disease 50 years later, but hey, it made the job so much easier on the day. The three of us literally sat around the table and punched out wedding invites like some Asian Sweat Shop. Lol.

Btw, that photo was printed straight onto the PTI cardstock on a laser printer. Kevin did an awesome job aligning them on A4 paper to get it bang in the middle and two on the same cardstock too!

So, something a little different this time round. Hope you all enjoyed the post. Thanks for coming by!

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

STAMP: [PTI] Embellishments, Damask Designs
INK: [Versamark] Watermark Stamp Pad; [SU!] Not Quite Navy

PAPER: [PTI] Vintage Cream, Enchanted Evening
OTHER: [PTI] Mat Stack #5 die, Embellishments die collection; [Filigree] Embossing Powder (clear); Foam tape (lots of them lol)

Still Ticking Along

Hi everyone! Sorry for lack of updates. My stamping mojo is slowly returning. Unfortunately, I only have 3 weeks left before I take off to the Cook Islands, which means a long time without my crafting tools.

Anyway, I managed to make a couple more graduation cards, so here they are.

It's surprisingly hard trying to make cards with the same graduation set over and over again. I totally wish I had another one, but haven't managed to find another set I like.

Anyway, I'm out for a walk soon, so got to go.

Thanks for coming around!

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

{Graduated Sentiments}

STAMP: [PTI] For the Grad

INK: [VersaFine] Onyx Black

PAPER: [PTI] Stamper's Select White, Pure Poppy
OTHER: [PTI] Woodgrain impression plate

{Navy Woodgrain Grad Card}

STAMP: [PTI] For the Grad

INK: [VersaFine] Onyx Black; [SU!] Not Quite Navy

PAPER: [PTI] Vintage Cream, Enchanted Evening
OTHER: [PTI] Mat Stack #1 die, Woodgrain impression plate; [KaiserCraft] Rhinestones; [We R Memory Keepers] Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper (aqua)

A card at last!

Hello everyone. It has been an awful long time since my last proper card post.

Things have been busy here with my last stretch of my degree in sight. I am chasing around ENT surgeons by day and organising my Cook Islands elective by night! I just bought my flights the other day and it's exciting and daunting all at the same time. I've never done any real travel in my life, unless you count immigration as travel.

Anyway, I only have 5 week left before I head off and the clock is ticking for me to get organised. I have set up a new mini blog for my elective so when I get time, I get to give everyone updates on what I'm up to.

So... card time right? About time! Sorry for all this wait!

I've decided that my stamping/crafting mojo has gone on a holiday of its own and that it isn't coming back any time soon, so I've made myself a project to get started. Seeing as I am graduating this year, lots of my friends are too! I thought I'd make as many graduation cards as possible before I head off. So far... only one. It took me about a week of saying "I will stamp tonight" before I even got out a piece of cardstock.

It's a simple card. I used blue and yellow to represent Otago University colours. And why chevrons? Because I just bought it off Laura on PTI forums haha.

It seems that taking photos in the evening without adequate ambient light + a smartphone gives you that slightly grainier look (i.e. poorer quality) + yellow hue. It's still better than the so-called proper camera in my house. I am planning on buying a point-and-shoot camera soon (just because my grand plans of buying a dSLR this year fell through when I bought a car instead!) so hopefully it will do a better job.

Thanks for all the wait. I hope to bring you more shortly. If someone sees my stamping mojo on holiday in America or elsewhere, please tell it to get back to NZ quick because I need it.

PS - That card I mentioned a while back finally got published in PaperCrafts Stamp It! Vol. 9 a couple of weeks ago. It is truely exciting to see it standing tall and proud, and right next to Betsy Veldman's! ;)

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

STAMP: [PTI] Chevron Stripes, For the Graduate

INK: [PTI] Hawaiian Shores, Summer Sunrise; [Adirondack] Earthtones Pitch Black dye ink

PAPER: [PTI] Stamper's Select White

Just remembered

Hi everyone. Sorry to keep you all waiting for something new!

I just remembered I had 'rejected' cards from PaperCrafts that I could have shared with you all. Well, technically just one, because I resubmitted the other one :P

I am totally knackered today. Not sure why but it's not a good sign given I'm on call tomorrow! 

This was submitted for the Nov/Dec issue I think. They were after something clean and classy (something along that line) so I went with the less is better option.

A simple window with embossed images worked rather nicely, except that the plastic warped under the heat. Not sure if I will bother trying again later lol

 

Anyway, sorry for a short post. I might feel like making a card tonight before bed seeing as I'm not in the mood for cover letters (I've done the two that were the important ones - still deciding how much effort I want to put in the remaining 4-5. They are optional to be honest but better to give myself more chance than not).

 

Thanks for coming around!

 

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

STAMP: [PTI] Stocking Prints; [SU!] Snow Swirled

INK: Versamark

PAPER: [PTI] Stamper's Select White

OTHER: [PTI] Stamp plastic packaging; [Filigree] embossing powder (white, silver); [KaiserCraft] rhinestones (silver)

No card still... but

Sorry! Still no card!

I'm on call again tomorrow and I'm just knackered when I'm back home these days. And I still have a few cover letters to pump out which I am forever denying the need to (until last minute!).

I just thought I'd share something that arrived in the mail yesterday!

It looks like that card I submitted to PaperCrafts in January and got accepted did make it to the States in one piece! This is rather exciting getting paid for something made for a hobby! So a quick shot of proof. I am dying to see what magic the photographers did to the card in the mag! ;)

And... did I mention we got snowed in last week?

I mean, really snowed in. Okay, maybe this is nothing compared to Canada in winter, but in my 15 years in New Zealand, we've only been snowed properly like this a handful of times. And I don't ever recall it snowing in June either! Usually we get a random decent fall in August/September (Spring) when we do get them.

It literally started snowing as I left home for hospital at 7.30am and just snowed and snowed all day!

This shot's one that made its way to our weather forecast website, MetService. It just got picked as the photo of the week! Well really, in all honesty, I think there were only about 3 photos submitted last week. It was more of a fun thing to submit than anything. No prizes for getting it picked either. I do reckon I should have sent it to TVNZ, then if it did get picked, then our famous weatherman, Jim Hickey, would have had to have a crack at saying my name right! Haha. 

Oh, I forgot to say what the photo was of. This is the Christchurch Botanic Garden looking down from 4th floor of Christchurch Public Hospital (technically the temporary student common room).

 

The funny thing is that literally every student who turned up to school last Wednesday took a photo of this exact same scene on their phones. I've already seen 3 different, yet the same versions on Facebook! However, I'm now copyrighted since I submitted this photo first lol

Sorry for keeping you all waiting for new cards. I'm sure if I dug around, there might be a couple of cards that I forgot to upload. I still have to upload all the other images that got lost when I got my new phone too. I'll get there eventually.

Have a great week!