Easter Bilby punch-art

In recent years for Easter in Australia there has been a campaign to raise awareness of one of our cuter endangered species, the Bilby. An Australian chocolate manufacturer, Darrell Lea, started making chocolate Bilbies for easter in 1994. From 1999, Darrell Lea has donated part of the proceeds from chocolate bilby sales to the "Save the Bilby" fund. So in celebration of Easter in Australia, I've designed a punch-art Bilby! They're nocturnal little guys so I started out putting them on a night of navy background. Didn't look right though. They're mostly in semi-arid areas of Australia and burrow in our dry-dry orange-golden dirt. So this is what I came up with based on a recent birthday card for a class using the "Autumn Days" stamp set...
I took a few photos along the way to show how I put this together. These bilbies are actually refinement number 3 - the first two were not-quite-right. And my daughter added her two cents saying just one looked "lonely" so I should make another for the card. The image below shows the bits I used and very simple instructions. Print this and the card above and I'm sure clever people can figure it out!
Happy punching!

Christmas Busy

I wanted to reassure readers that I've not been idle behind the scenes here in blogland. Busy busy making loads of things for our school Christmas stall. These tealights are made from an Ikea set of 12 plain glass holders (Glimma) onto which I've painted a mix of Crystal Effects and a drop or two of Cherry Cobbler ink. The decoration on the candle and the tag are using the Perfect Punches Christmas sentiment stamped in Cherry Cobbler with a decorative Artistic Etchings in Pear Pizzazz behind. Think they've come up a treat! Hindsight, I'd try and either make the consistency of the crystal effects a bit thicker, or do more thin layers... Food for thought next year! A few simple cards for the stall too. The two on the left are made with Cajan Craze and Cherry Cobbler card stock (run through the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder) with a touch of Pear Pizzazz. The sentiments are stamped from Christmas Classics and Word Play. I used Contempo Christmas for the bright coloured baubles on the card on the right. Thanks muchly for the creative assistance from Clare, Michelle, Malyn and Caz at our team Christmas get-together.
So, you see, I've not been idle! I'm also working on hand quilting my patchwork. I'll post a picture when I'm nearer completion of the panels.

Brayered sunset

Apologies for the poor image quality - taken with my phone. I was inspired by Michelle Zindorf's brayering instructions to work on this card using the new Stampin' Up colours. Cajan Craze is becoming a favourite - such a rich and delicious spicy colour!

This sunset uses Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Cajan Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede and Early Espresso. I think I may have used a touch of Poppy Parade too. The silhouette of flowers is repeated stamping of the main image from Just Believe. The sentiment I did originally with Marina Mist and Tangerine Tango, but I've gone over the leaves with Pear Pizzazz, flowers outlined with Concord Crush and the berries with Blushing Bride markers. Its added a depth that I felt was needed to help the card along. I'm not entirely happy with my setting sun, but I'll work on that in the future!