I RUFF YOU

Hello.
It's my wedding anniversary today.
32 years.
(obviously I was VERY young when we got married)    :0)

Here's the card I made for my hubby.
Love him to bits.

Over the years I've done all the usual hearts and flowers, and sentimental cards, but this time I went for something more simple, with a cute twist.

I masked off my inside panel with tape, and used distress ink to make the stripes.
I LOVE this iced spruce colour.

 I added my doggy and some plants, popped them up on foam pads on a couple of die cut rectangles.
One of the rectangles is cut in gold metallic card, which has a lovely glossy shimmer, and to complement it, I scattered a few gold sequins.

Challenge

House of Cards

Stripes and/or colour inspiration.

This time I just went with the stripes.

Supplies.

MFT - Four legged friends and cactus from llama love, coloured with Copics

Stitched scalloped edge rectangle die and stitched zig zag rectangle die

Lawn Fawn - stitched rectangle die

Distress Oxide - iced spruce

MELLOW YELLOW

Hello.
There are advantages to hubby working weekends - I get to play in my craft room all day :-)
Here's a card I made this morning.

I used my Copics to colour these die-cut anemones and leaves, and then arranged them on my panel.
It's hard to see in the photo, but some blooms are stuck on flat, and some are popped up with foam pads, so the card has a nice 3D look IRL.
Finally, I stamped the sentiment,
I love these scripty sentiments from Simon Says Stamp - I think they look really pretty with flowers.

Challenges

Always Fun Challenges - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations - Anything With Flowers

Supplies.

WPlus9 - Modern Anemones, coloured with Copics

MFT stamps - Stitched Scalloped Border Rectangle Die

Simon Says Stamp - Thoughtful Sentiments

STRIPES

Hello.
Here's my card for this week's Muse challenge.

This card took me a whole morning to get right.
On the first attempt, I managed to rip the card peeling off the masking tape.
Attempt No. 2 looked great, until I looked down and realised I had spelt 'BIRTDAY'  -  Duh!

On this last try, the letter dies moved a little in my machine... but it all adds to the 'handmade' look.   Right?

I masked off some stripes on my card panel, blended on some distress oxide inks, and splattered them with water drops.

I die cut my letters from the panel, and also from some foam sheet. 

The letters were stuck on top of the foam ones, and then inlaid into the space.

I added a 'happy' sentiment and a few clear dew drops.

Muse Card Club Challenge

I LOVE Tracey's card.
So perfectly CAS, but with lots of colour and interest.
Something I find really hard to get right.
I'm always adding something else to my CAS cards, and then they're not CAS anymore!!

I took inspiration from Tracey's colours and her inlaid die cuts.

Supplies.

Distress Oxides - Broken China/Cracked Pistachio/Fossilized Amber/Fired Brick/Worn Lipstick/Wilted Violet

MFT - Stitched Scalloped Edge Rectangle/Stitched Alphabet

Mama Elephant - Labeled Messages

Dew Drops

ANEMONES

Hello.
In my last craft haul, I bought flower stamps.
Eek! Me with flowers!
I've been staring at them for a month, trying to decide what to do with them ;-)

Here, I've coloured them with Copics - but tried to kind of smoosh on the colour,
instead of my usual flicking technique - to give them more of a water colour look.

I'm entering my card for the challenge at Muse Card Club,
with inspiration this week from Anita Bowden

I used the turquoise, pink and purple colour palette and a birthday sentiment,

stamped in black. 

I don't have any butterflies, so for that element I added a few black gems.

Supplies

WPlus9 Modern Anemones, coloured with Copics

Sentiment - Simon Says Stamp, Thoughtful Messages

MFT - Stitched Scalloped Border Rectangle

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY?

Hello.
Oh my gosh - how cute is this little chameleon?
Now that I'm finally getting to grips with how to colour him,
it's dawned on me that he can be any colour combo I like.
Maybe I'll try pinks next, for a girly card :-)

Included in this chameleon set, is the little 'splash' stamp.
I used it with distress oxide inks, and slightly overlapped them for a pop of colour.
I have a feeling this little stamp is going to be used A LOT !

Challenges.

Seize the Birthday

Simon Says Stamp

Anything Goes

Supplies

Your Next Stamp - One in a Chameleon, coloured with Copics

MFT - Stitched, scalloped rectangle and stitched scalloped basic edges

Lawn Fawn - Violet's ABCs

Distress Oxide Ink - spiced marmalade, fossilized amber

PARTY ON

Hello.
I know what you're thinking -
how can I start with Jenni's wonderful Muse card, and end up with this.
The link seems tenuous at best - but I can explain ...

When I looked at Jenni's card on Monday I took away

• a sentiment background
• yellow, pink, green and blue
• a touch of sparkle

and those things rattled around in my head until I produced this.

My sentiments were stamped and embossed in white, then inked over with distress oxides.

I die-cut the fox and his balloon, coloured them with Copics and popped them up with foam tape.

MUSE Card Challenge from Jenni Murray

This is Jenni's last week on the Muse DT,

so I'd like to say thanks for all your inspiration Jenni,

and good luck with your new endeavours.

Supplies

Altenew - Hug Me

Winnie & Walter - Big, Bold & Party

My Favorite Things - Stitched, Scalloped Rectangle

Distress Oxide Inks - Worn Lipstick, Fossilized Amber, Cracked Pistachio, Broken China

CHAMELEON LOVE

Hello.
Today I'm sharing my card for this week's Muse challenge.
As usual, I was stumped for a while, not having any tool/DIY images,
but then I decided to ink up one of my new chameleon stamps.
I think it could definitely work for a Father's Day card.

Ha! Who knew chameleons would be so hard to colour.
My first attempt was with watercolours, which ended up in a splodgy mess,
so I switched to Copics , which was a little easier, but still needs practice.

Muse Card Club Challenge

I followed the overall layout from Tracey's card with a central image and sentiment underneath.
I love Tracey's yellow background, but my watercolour attempt was awful, and went in the bin, instead I used the little splash stamp, from the set, with yellow ink.

Supplies.
Your Next Stamp - One in a Chameleon, coloured with Copics
My Favorite Things - Stitched Scalloped Border Die
Versacolor Ink - Canary

BLUE BLOOMS

Hello.
Don't you love challenges that make you think?
This month's Seven Hills Crafts theme certainly did that,
they would like you to - die cut a die cut!

I'm not sure if this is exactly what they had in mind,
but this is what I came up with.

I stamped my blooms I wanted in blue, and die-cut them.

Then, I took my scalloped edge rectangle and stamped it with leaves.

Into the rectangle I die cut the large central bloom, and inlaid one of the blue die-cuts.

I then die-cut the smaller bloom, overlapping my die onto the already inserted blue bloom. Thus, die cutting a die cut!

The result is that some blooms overlap and look as though they are raised, but actually they are all inserted into the rectangle.

It's not easy to explain, but I'm sure you get the general idea :-)

For the finishing touch I added a little, white pen to the blooms, a central piece (popped up) or a sequin - and then a popped up sentiment.

Seven Hills Crafts Challenge

WPlus9 Feathers and Florals

My Favorite Things, Stitched Scalloped Rectangle

VersaColor, Cyan / Celadon / Bisque

Sentiment - Mama Elephant, Labeled Messages

STAR PUPS

Hello.
Today I'm sharing my card for the Muse card club challenge.
This has to be my favourite challenge.
I always check out the Muse card on a Monday, and then it rattles round in my head, until I come up with a plan.
Then, hopefully I can squeeze in some crafting time to make it :-)

How do you approach challenges?

I know you can't tell from the photo, but those stars are lovely and glittery.

Muse Card Challenge

Isn't Anita's card a stunner?

What I first noticed, was the striking colour combo,

so that's what I used as my inspiration.

Supplies

My Favorite Things - Stitched Scalloped Rectangle  / Stitched Scalloped Edge / Four Legged Friends, coloured with Copics

Stars - Winnie & Walter, Big Bang Confetti embossed with Wow Sparkling Snow Powder

Distress Ink - Abandoned Coral

HOLY COW

Hello.
Here's another of my older, wooden stamps, that gets somewhat overlooked these days.
I've attempted to bring it more up-to-date, by adding a fun sentiment.

Everything is stamped straight onto my die-cut rectangle - that's a hold your breathe moment! - and the cows are coloured with Copics.

Challenges.

AAA Cards - Birthday theme and Blog Hop

Penny Black & More

Anything Goes

Penny Black Stamp, Ladies Devine, coloured with Copics

My Favorite Things, Stitched Scalloped Edge Rectangle,

and 'another birthday' from Llama Love

Lawn Fawn, Violet's ABCs

PAWSOME

Hello
Today I'm sharing the birthday card I made for my daughter, Annabel.
Not only is she pawsome, but she's a dog lover too :-)

I've seen some super cards recently, using a new Mama Elephant stamp -
it's a little group of cute cats, all huddled together - have you spotted it?
I used that as inspiration for my card, swapping out the cats for MFT pups.
I also added lots of background sequins, so it has the look of a shaker,
with non of the faffing about :-)

Challenges.

Simon Says Wednesday - Anything Goes.

Watercooler Wednesday - 

Supplies.
My Favorite Things - Stitched Scalloped Rectangle. Four Legged Friends, coloured with Copics