LINDA TRACE DESIGNS

crafty adventures of a makeup loving Japanophile!

.

.

Monday 23 April 2012

Happy Earth Day

Hello darlings!!

Happy Earth Day!

Truth be told, I'm a bit of a hippie at heart. I think it's SO SO important to recycle, reduce, reuse (all that jazz).

After living in Japan several years ago, where they have to split their rubbish (trash) into about 7 seperate sections (glass, burnables, plastic, P.E.T bottles, cardboard/paper, general etc etc) and you have to pay a fee for any rubbish that doesn't fit in a standard bin bag; I became really aware of it. Did you know that Kansai International Airport (in Osaka, Japan) is built on a landfill of rubbish??? ISN"T THAT CRAZY?! There is so much waste, that they've been able to build an airport (and a big one at that), on top of it all.

Anyhoo, in Australia we don't have anywhere near as many people, so that helps the problem to be much smaller, but I really hope that people start to take recycling (and the environment in general!) much more seriously NOW before it does become a problem.

Ok, off my soapbox :)

So a couple of weeks ago, I was super surprised and excited to get an email from the lovely Stephanie at Simon Says Stamp who asked if I'd consider making a project for a special Earth Day post they were hosting. Obviously after I stopped jumping up and down, I said YES!

I wanted to make something that LOOKED recycled. (not hiding the fact that it was)

Here is a little sneak peek of what I made (almost entirely from recycled/used products)


The only 'new' things I used were some Mr Huey's mist, jenny Bowlin paint dabber, some washi tape, ink (and the Hero Arts Zig Zag stamp stamp), and the little string of black bling.

Sorry its a bit glary, I got a bit overzealous with the brightening tool in PSE lol.

So hop along over to the Simon Says Blog and check out the full project!

Linda xoxo

Sunday 22 April 2012

Lawnscaping challenge entry

Good afternoon to you all!

Just a very quick post today as I've got an idea for a card in my head and I need to get it made before I forget (lol)

But quickly, I just want to say a huge thank you to my twitter girls, I've had a bit of a rubbish week (that's Australian English for trash by the way LOL) and y'all have made me feel SO much less lonely and down in the dumps. You girls make my saddest days brighter and my happy days even happier.   I'm so blessed to know you xx

I'm here to show you the card I made for the current Lawnscaping Challenge, which is 



Now any of you who have been visiting my blog for a while now, will know I have a bit of a penchant for creating the weirdest cards using the Lawn Fawn Snowmen, today's card is another view of my warped mind. I just cant help myself. haha.

Here it is:



Now, just in case like my husband you couldn't tell, the other snowman has melted. I couldn't draw a puddle properly but I still think this works.

And it seriously makes me laugh. Yes I need help.

Anyhoo, that's it for me today! Super fast post, I'll be back with another one soon hopefully!

Don't forget to pop over to A Blog Named Hero and enter a project into our challenge, for the chance to win a gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp!

Lots of love--

Linda xx

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Window Card

Hello!

I thought I'd share the project I made for the second challenge we have going over at A Blog named Hero! This week's challenge is
Now window cards are NOT the style I usually do but I always love them when I see others make ém!

So here's mine :

Linda's card

a better look at the window :)

Linda's card_closeup


After I cut my white cardstock to size and folded it to make a card, then I ran it through my Big Shot, cutting out a circle in the bottom corner, using a Spellbinders circle die. Next I embossed it using the Swiss Dots embossing folder, then rounded all four corners. 
Next I took several small strips of paper from the Konnichiwa Basic Grey 6x6 paper pad, and punched them with the Fiskars scalloped border punch and lined them up along the top of the card so they'd create a fringe effect.
I ran another piece of the Konnichiwa paper through the Big Shot twice, cutting it with two circle dies (in concentric sizes) to create the 'ring'. I then adhered it to the cardfront, which gave a frame effect to the window.
I cut a piece of acetate to the same size as the cardfront. Carefully positioning my stamp in place, I stamped the image using Black Staz On ink. (Be careful with Staz on--its SUPER slippery!)
When the stamped image was dry, I adhered the acetate to the back of the cardfront (so it sits on the inside cover).
Finally I cut a small strip of white cardstock and stamped the sentiment, and cut a tail into the end :) (love that look)

VERY VERY easy! I'll be making more window cards soon!

For all the details on the challenge, please visit www.ablognamedhero.blogspot.com and enter for a chance to win 
Thanks so much to Heidi at Simon Says Stamp for being generally wonderful and sponsoring us!

I have my folks visiting this week, so I'll be back again in a few days with some more projects for you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Linda & Mary Dawn 


       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       






Wednesday 11 April 2012

Simon Says Stamp MARCH kit

Hello there!!

Sorry it's been a week (or more *cough*), I've been CRAY-CRAY busy with the A Blog Named Hero Challenge/videos etc etc. I promise I'll be better in the future :)

Here is a card I made using my Simon Says Stamp March Card kit :) It's just gorgeous this kit!! YUM YUM!

I was feeling artsy and collage-y, so that's what I went with.

Follow your Dreams tag_card

Here's a closeup

Follow your dreams tag _closeup

and another , coz I love that little acetate filmstrip .

Follow your dreams _closeup

Not too many extras on top of the kit with this one! For the background (the aqua cardbase) I used Jenny Bowlin Speckled Egg and stamped the larger floral-collagey image repeatedly, to give a nice tone on tone effect. 
Faux stitching I used a white gel pen, for the arrows on the right hand side, I used Colorbox fluid chalk ink. 


Here are the products:


       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       




NB I used Aqua embossing powder, but Simon Says didn't have any to make a link out of :)

That's it from me today! I'll be back soon xoxoxo


Linda x

Wednesday 4 April 2012

A Blog Named H ero Challenge #1!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick post today to remind you that the FIRST challenge over at A Blog Named Hero is up and running!

The theme is the same as the Celebration Week, which was



Here is the card I made, using (just one of my many) favourite stamps from the amazing Hero Arts

Thanks so Much_zig zag



You have until 5pm April 10th, U.S Eastern Standard Time (Which is 7am Australian EST April 11th :)) to enter!!

You are in with a chance to win a $25 Gift Certificate from our wonderful sponsors


Hurrah!!

Hope you'll join it :) Feel free to enter as many times as you like--we understand that picking just ONE favourite is almost impossible!


*hugs and smooches*

Linda xx


Here are the tools and products I used:


       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       






.