WATERMELON CAKE

Hello.
Hands up who knew watermelon cake was a thing?
I discovered it when I was looking for ideas for this week's 
                        Inspired By Challenge.
I have to say, this wind swept corner of North Yorkshire does not see an abundance of watermelon.
Alas, my local co-op counts pineapple on pizza as its nod to the exotic! :o)

I used copics to colour my watermelon cake.

and slightly pressed down on the tip of a black marker to create those seeds.

The cake was a little plain when I'd done it, so I tried adding tiny blooms, or more candles for interest,  but eventually went with those citrus slices.

Now I need to go and try some of those tutti frutti cake recipes I came across. 

Inspired By Challenge

hero arts - birthday cake layering, coloured with copics and white gel pen

citrus slices from clearly besotted, raise a glass

mft - rectangle die and stitched scalloped basic edge die

BIRTHDAY FISHES

Hello.
How long does it take you to make a card?
It takes me FOREVER :o)
I think about what I'm going to do, 
then I mess about with die cuts and sentiments,
and pens and inks,  on a rough card base,
before actually sitting down to make something.
So the AAACards Challenge 'Made in Minutes' intrigued me.

This card didn't take much planning, but making it took much longer than I thought -

 20 minutes and 29 seconds - 

from cutting the card base, to attaching the last dew drop.

Despite trying to keep my Copic blending to a minimum, 

that's what slowed me down.

AAA Card Challenge

Hero Arts - I'm a puffer for you - coloured with Copics

STITCHED BALLOONS

Hello.
First rule of crafting: NEVER throw anything away.
I think I've had this embroidery thread for 25+ years!
I knew it would come in handy one day :o)

I'm playing along at the 

Inspired By Challenge

and, as usual, I have had to improvise.

I loved the decorations on the inspiration photo,

and I tried to create a honeycomb design on graph paper, 

that I could cross stitch,

but I just couldn't get it to work.

So, I went for bright, cheerful balloons instead.

Inspired By Challenge

mama elephant - pegworks die and labeled messages

embroidery thread

WEAR THE RAINBOW

Hello
Quite often I get an idea in my head,
that is way beyond my crafting abilities.
This time it was rainbow dresses, in floaty, organza fabric with matching shoes (of course).

I am not the best at colouring and I've never really got to grips with my zig watercolor brush pens, but I used them here for the dress, trying to blend the colours by slightly overlapping them.

Once she was all coloured I added some white highlights here and there 

(not very happy with those on the dress)

and some glossy accents on the cake icing and roses.

I kinda like how she turned out in the end.

Challenges

Watercooler Wednesday

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday

Bright and Cheerful

stamping bella - ava loves to celebrate

zig clean color real brush pens

avery elle postage stamp die

ICE ICE BABY

Hello

Ice lollies are definitely the order of the day,
with this mini-heat wave we are having across the UK.

 I even managed to persuade my mum that she would be warm enough on our walk today, wearing her thermal vest, 
long sleeve jumper, winter trousers and thick socks.
No. She did NOT need her big coat :o) 

Thanks to everyone for the eraser tip. 

I tried it on these lollies, and they definitely stamped better.

Now I need a tip on how to line them up properly ;o)

Fortunately, that lovely birthday script helps to hide the worst of it.

Inspired By Challenge

sugar pea designs - summer scoops

distress ink - spun sugar, sq. lemonade, cracked pistachio, ab. coral, wild honey

mft - stitched rectangle scallop frame, happy birthday script die

HAPPY WOOF DAY

Hello
Today I'm playing along at the 

Less Is More Challenge

where the theme is solid and outline.

For my solid element, I used a 'happy birthday blend' stamp, with rainbow colours of distress ink.

I really like this effect, and I might try it out with my letter dies - slightly overlapping them. Then I could make any word or name I wanted.

Will it work, do you think?

For the outline element, I used this cute pup.

I had to really fight that impulse to colour him in, 

just adding a smidgen of brown to his bone :-)

Less Is More Challenge

mft - woof pack - happy birthday blend, stamp and die

distress ink - pickled raspberry, ripe persimmon, squeezed lemonade, twisted citron, mermaid lagoon

FRESH MORNING

Hello.

Here's my card for this week's 

Inspired By Challenge

As soon as I saw it, I loved this bold stamp set from Altenew.

But, you know me and flowers. We are not best friends!

I had a bugger of a job getting the blooms to stamp. They were very blotchy to begin with. After using the Versamark trick they got better, and I think it's just a case of, the more you use them, the better impression they will give.

Unless you know any other tips.

N.B. memento tuxedo black ink blends really well. 

I used it with a stencil for those stripes.

Inspired By Challenge

I was inspired by the bold, black and white stripes and, the orange/red and teal colour combo.

altenew - bold floral drape

distress ink - abandoned coral, peacock feathers, mowed lawn

memento tuxedo black

clearly besotted stripes stencil

sentiment from avery elle, home sweet home

liquid pearls white opal

HOODAD

Hello

With Father's Day coming up, 
I thought I would make a card for my hubby,
from the dog   :o)

I took inspiration from the picture at this week's 

Inspired by Challenge

The things that caught my eye were the rich, bold colours and the tassel fringes.

There are no tassel dies in my stash, so these were hand drawn with a zig marker brush. 

And I'm definitely not what you would call 'arty', so if I can draw these anyone can.

Inspired by Challenge

supplies

mft - four legged friends coloured with copics

banner hand drawn with zig clean colour real brush markers

hoodad letters from mft, happy birthday to you die

you're the best sentiment from wplus9 neighbors set

ICE LOLLIES

Hello

When I saw this week's 

Inspired By Challenge

I had to go for a rummage through my stamps.

I wanted something that could be stamped in different colours and
would look ok with an alternating direction.

I came up with these ice lollies.

I don't have a lot of ink shades, so I only used one ink for each lolly,
stamping the base, then using the same ink for the stripes.
It looks ok so far, 
and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't just fade into one uniform colour.
What do you think?

Inspired By Challenge

supplies

sugarpea designs - summer scoop

altenew inks - lime, wisteria, sea breeze, crimson

mement ink - tangelo

sentiment from mft stamps, sweet somebunny

SIMPLE CIRCLES

Hello.

Just dropping in today with a super, quick card for the 

Inspired by Challenge

As soon as I saw the inspiration photo (below) I knew I wanted to use those circles.

I stuck to a similar colour palette, and added a deeper pink from the bloom on the left.

I was also inspired by a card I recently saw on instagram by the hugely talented Angela @mycraftyperspective

Inspired by Challenge

supplies

textured card die cut with spellbinders circle nestie

congrats die from lawn fawn

LLAMA LOVE

Hello

Rainbows have become a common sight on my dog walk.
Rainbow pictures are in people's windows, chalked on pavements, and painted on fences.
They definitely lift the spirits and make me smile.
So, how could I resist the rainbow challenge at 

Addicted to CAS

My 'rainbow' is in the form of brightly coloured rolls.

Not a complete rainbow I know, but my llama was already struggling under the weight - a few bundles even tumbled off!

:-)

Addicted to CAS 

mft - llama love

copic markers / zig clean colour real brush markers