Adventure Awaits!

Hello.

Anyone else stuck to their craft room chair! :o)
It's a bit warm here in Yorkshire - definitely a picky tea tonight.

With this heat my brain seems to be operating at half speed - so I kept this card nice and simple.

Just a cute skunk, ready to go on a birthday adventure.

I followed along at Freshly Made Sketches - just turning the sketch for my landscape design.

I dug out an old bird branch stamp that worked great for the dashed lines on the sketch - then I added my die cut canoe, and popped up the skunk, his backpack and oar with foam tape.
The sentiment came from a different die cut set, but I thought it worked here.

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches 

• spellbinders - trailside trio / splash days / camp days
• wplus9 - happy birds (bird branch stamp)
• concord & 9th - silly goose - happy birthday stamp and die
• memento ink - danube blue
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• 
  

Driving By With Birthday Wishes

Hands up who else doesn't want to put their Christmas stash away yet?
You can't make me  :o)

Today, I've used a couple of Christmas sets to make this cool, birthday card.

The background is a snowy hills stencil.
Yep - you can see I STILL haven't got the hang of lining those trees up.
I'm gonna call that snow  - on the edges :o)

Then my van and presents were stamped, die cut and added with foam tape.

Challenge 

I've gone for the optional theme this week, because I really need to up my game for
masculine cards this year.

Allsorts

For Boys or Men

(or Anything Goes)

• the greetery - christmas care-a-van
• waffle flower crafts - snowy hills stencil
• colorado craft co - citrus berry cupcake ( sentiment)
• ranger distress inks - tumbled glass, cracked pistachio, carved pumpkin, mowed lawn
• memento ink - grey flannel
• versa color ink - vanilla, lagoon blue

Cute and Spooky

Hello.
Today I'm back with another Halloween card for the pile.
I've gone with a softer colour palette for this one, using very pale pinks.

I die cut a background panel and then stamped it all over with the Happy Halloween sentiment, in a pale, pink ink.

The tombstones were stamped directly onto grey card (mushroom), the ghosts onto pale, pink (ballet slipper) and the pumpkin onto pale peach (grapefruit). 

They were then added to the background panel with foam tape.
Then I added a couple of bats, and some rosy cheeks to the ghosts - job done.
A super quick, card.

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches

I've turned the sketch on it's side, for a landscape card,
and my ghosts and tombstones represent the rectangles.

• my favorite things - ghostly greetings
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• memento ink - angel pink
• concord & 9th coloured cardstock

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

I'm back. What have I missed?

Hello.    It's been a while.

Things have been tough.

Long story.

 

This is my first card in 8 months!

I'm a little rusty.

 

Things I need to re-learn (quickly) -

How to post.

What size to cut my base cards.

How to get a sharp, stamped, die cut.

Which colour combos go together.

How to take a decent photo. 

Challenges.

CAS(E) This Sketch

 

Stamps - Clearly Besotted, Make A Wish

DP - Echo Park, Bundle of Joy

Inks: Versacolour - Orchid,Heliotrope,Cyan

        Memento - Tangelo

Be a Superstar

Hey there.

Today I'm sharing a STAR card with you

I took my inspiration from this week's Muse card by Vicki Dutcher.

This card started out as a birthday card, but looking at it again

I think it would be equally ok for a congrats or thank you.

 

Vicky's Muse card

 

 

 

Clearly Besotted Superstar Stamps & Dies

Memento Ink - Bhama Blue / Summer Sky / New Sprout / Dandelion

Versa Color Ink - Mint

Purple is Awesome

The girls at Less Is More are gonna be tutting at me this week  ;-)

It seems I went a bit mad with the sequins.

Oops!

In my defence, the rest of my card is pretty CAS,

so, I may have just gotten away with it.

When I was flicking through my card stash for some non chrismassy colours,
this purple just shouted out to me.

I teemed it up with some pale lavender trees, and boysenberry reindeer and bird.

The white card panel, reindeer and bird are all popped up on foam pads,

to add a little more dimension.

Challenge.
Less Is More - Non Traditional Colour Christmas Card.

Supplies.

Stamps and Dies - WPlus9 Winter Wonderland

Inks - Versa Color Boysenberry and Memento Lulu Lavender

Sequins/Gems

Christmas Wishes

I blinked, and here we are at the end of September.

It's not just me is it?  

This month has zooooomed by.

Time to crack on with my Christmas cards.

Here's my entry for this week's Less Is More challenge,

where the theme is MOSTLY WORDS

I  stamped my sentiments onto speech bubbles and then tried to match up a 

little, christmas image for each one.

I kinda like the way this card turned out, and it's so easy to put together,

it might end up being one of my 'production line' cards.

speech bubble dies - clearly besotted 'you said it'

stamps - WPlus9 'heartfelt holidays' with matching dies for the stocking and house.

the mugs are fussy cut!

memento ink - new sprout/rose bud      versa color ink - sky blue

Our House, In The Middle Of Our Street

Hey there,

today I'm sharing my card for the CASE Study Challenge.

I know, at first glance, it does NOT look like the inspiration card,

 but stick with it, I can explain ;-)

All I have in the way of 'kraft' paper are some old card blanks.

I got these out and tried stamping my wreath in white ink.

Ughhh...   what a mess! 

It's surprising how angry I can get over a little pot of white ink!!

So, that idea was ditched and I went back to my smooth, white card and coloured ink.

I (loosely) followed the layout of the inspiration card.

I don't have any feather stamps, so I added a little robin to represent those.

Supplies.
Wplus9 'Heartfelt Holidays' Stamps and Dies.
Bird, Stamp and Die, from the Hero Arts 'Chandeliers' Set.
Memento Inks - Grey Flannel, Rose Bud, Toffee Crunch. Papermania Green Ink.
Gems.

If you're a bird, I'm a bird

Here's one of those cards that kind of went it's own way.
Some of them have a habit of doing that, don't they?

My starting point was Lisa's card at The Cutting Edge Challenge (see below).
I stamped my leaves and blooms in various colours, then added a chipboard bird and some die cut blooms.
Those tiny flower dies are sooo tricky to line up, that I ended up just doing a few of them.
( I'm going to hold my breath and still enter for the challenge, but I completely understand if you don't think there's enough die-cutting going on there and need to delete my entry!!)

Oh, and after all that flower arranging I managed to completely mess up my centre sentiment,
so it had to be covered over with a strip of card and re-stamped.

Challenges.
The Cutting Edge Challenge -
                                 



Bunny Zoes's Crafts -  Summer Colours

Supplies.
Lawn Fawn - Penelopes Blossoms, Stamps & Dies.
Sentiment - Fizzy Moon, Wish Upon
Memento Dew Drop Ink - New Sprout, Tangelo, Dandelion, Angel Pink, Rose Bud

Let's Build A Snowman

Hey everyone, hope you're enjoying the long weekend.

Here's one of those cards that refused to photograph well.
I must have taken 50 snaps of it, in 3 different rooms of the house- and it's still not good.
IRL the green is more this colour and the snowman is very sparkly!!

I started my card by following the sketch over at LIM, but ended up making a few changes along the way.
First of all, I stamped my background onto a rectangular card panel.
My snowman was stamped in white and then embossed with glitter, before being die-cut and attached with foam pads.
The rectangle didn't quite look right, so before I attached my snowman, I used a large oval die to round off one edge.
This meant that the sentiment wouldn't work on the left, so I stamped it in the centre of my base card.

Challenges.
LIM - Sketch.
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Glitter & Bling
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Sparkle & Shine
Crafty Calendar -  Anything Goes

Supplies.
WPlus9 Hearfelt Holidays, Stamps and Dies.  Memento Dew Drops - Angel Pink, New Sprout
Memento Brilliance  - Moonlight White.         WOW Embossing glitter - Sparkling Snow
Oval Nestie Die.  Tree Stamp - Kanban Crafts.  Sequins/Gems.

You're a Superstar

and the sun is shining.

Not for long though - the forecast is heavy rain and thunderstorms for the weekend.

I LOVE thunderstorms :-)

Today I'm sharing my Father's Day card with you.

This amazing digi paper is courtesy of Mel Stampz.  Mel is so generous with her work, she has a fabulous download section on her blog that you really should check out.

I die cut 'Dad' into my white card and backed it with blue.

Then, I added my 'star' sentiment - a banner and some stars.

All popped up on foam pads to give it some dimension.

Challenges.

Inspiration from Vicki's fabulous Muse card



Cardz for Guyz - Father's Day
Simon Says - Father's Day/Masculine

Supplies.
Digi Paper - Mel Stampz
Memory Box Alphabet Dies. 
Clearly Besotted Stamps & Dies - Basic Banners and Superstar
Memento Inks - Rose Bud and Tangelo

Don't worry, be happy

Hooray... it's Friday.    The weekend starts here   :-)   

It's my dd  Annabel's birthday next week, so we are going to party.   Bring it on.  :-)

First, I need to calm down and show you my MUSE card for this week.

Cornelia's inspiration card is wonderful and vibrant but, unfortunately I don't have the inks to recreate that sort of colour, so mine is a bit more subdued.

My 'happy' die cut is 3 layers thick, so it does have some depth to it, and it's covered in Glossy Accents for shine.
 

Challenges.

Muse - Cornelia's inspiration card 

 

Simon Says- Anything Goes.

Stamp- from See D's Piece of Cake.

Memento Inks - Dandelion, New Sprout, Orchid

'Happy' Die - Memory Box, with Glossy Accents

Sequins and Gems.

Celebrate good times

Hey everyone.
We are seriously watching the pennies here and I am banned from buying any craft supplies,
but I couldn't resist a few bags of  coloured sequins.
In my defence they only cost a few pounds, and they are soooo pretty!!

I really had to fight the urge to scatter them all over my Muse card.
Repeat after me... less is more... less is more...

I don't jave any zig-zag stamps or templates so, for that part of my card, I cut out some strips of grey, honeycomb dp and,
if you're a regular visitor, you'll know that I am 'florally challenged', so I replaced the bloom with stamped and die cut balloons, popped up on foam pads.

Here's my inspiration -  the MUSE challenge card from Marion

Supplies.
Clearly Besotted stamps and dies from the 'Make A Wish' set.
Memento inks, bahama blue, tangelo, rose bud
Pink Petticoat digi paper, honeycomb. Sequins and gems

On yer bike

Hey, everyone. I am still struggling to make cards for men/boys,

especially in the CAS style,

but here's one I managed to put together for my nephew.

 I came across a great challenge site which had somehow managed to escape my attention.

Freshly Made Sketches

The sketches are created by the DT and their ethos is clean lined and fresh!

I hope I've managed to achieve that.

I'd also like to enter my card at Moving Along With The Times - Birthday Boys

and Shopping Our Stash - Cabin Fever

Freshly Made Sketch from Linda #121

Supplies:

Sizzix/Hero Arts Bicycle Stamp and Die  Clearly Besotted Tree Stamp 'Home Sweet Home' and Die

Personal Impressions Sentiment Stamp    Memento Dew Drop Ink, Tangelo

DP - Fancy Pants 'It's the little things'       Brad from Freckled Fawn      

Copic coloured gem and Sequin

Dream in Blue

Ok you guys, you can all have a laugh at me. 

I tried three times to emboss this chandelier, 

before I discovered that I'm using the wrong ink.

I need slow drying pigment ink.

Duh! I told you I was new to this inky stuff.

I played along at Seize the Sketch

The hardest part of this whole card was the little banner.

The white pieces were die cut, but I had to cut the blue card freehand.  

Top of my list is a new, all singing, all dancing banner die.

As you can see below, the chandelier and little bird

are die cut and popped up on foam pads.

If anyone can recommend a cheap set of inks that work

for embossing, that would be great.

Challenges.

Seize the Sketch - #12

Deep Ocean Blue - Birthday

Shopping Our Stash - Winter Blue

Supplies

Hero Arts Chandeliers Stamps and Dies     Memento Inks - Summer Sky, New Sprout

Whimsy Stamps - Circle Postmarks           Gems. Pennant Die, Embroidery Thread.

Can you handle one more candle!

Afternoon everyone...

today I'm sharing with you a bright and cheerful,

but oh, so simple card.

When I made this card I had in my head the CAS-ual Fridays challenge, which is Colour Blocks.

But, now I've popped back over there, I see that just about everyone has used actual 'blocks' of colour on their work.

So.. this is my interpretation of colour blocks -  **wink**

Challenges

CAS-ual Fridays - Colour Blocks ( hello DT   :-)   if you don't think this fits your challenge, just delete my entry, no worries).

Aud Sentiments - Use Any Sentiment

Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

Supplies

Stamp from Simon Says Savor Sweet Cupcakes Set

Sentiment Stam - Hero Arts Bicycle

Memento Dew Drop Ink in Tangelo, Bahama Blue, Rose Bud, Pistachio and Dandelion

Gems, coloured with Copics.

It's all about frosty mornings

Crikey, it's brass monkeys here today! I have given in and put the heating on!

Hubby is away in Spa, driving around the Formula 1 circuit, and I have been overdosing on Pinterest.

My girls have decided we are having a 'hand-made' Christmas,

so if you have any ideas for presents, let me know.

Here's another Christmas card for the pile...

I followed the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch

changing the speech bubbles for snowflakes.

I stamped my snowflakes with coloured inks, die cut them with circle nesties and 

popped them up with foam pads.

I know sequins are everywhere right now - and they do look pretty,

so I bought these silver ones at my local sewing shop.

Just a couple of questions though -

1. does anyone sell packs of multi colours and

2. what do you stick yours on with ?

I used tiny glue dots - but that could get expensive!

Challenges.

CAS(E) this Sketch - #49

Stampin' for the Weekend - Anything Goes

4 Krafty Girlz - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Loves Rubberstamps - Polka Dots

Simon Says - Use A Rubber/Clear Stamp

Stamp set - Me To You, Winter Wonderland.

Bear coloured with Copics and sprinkled with Glamour Dust

Snowflakes stamped with Memento Dew Drops Ink, Rose Bud and Summer Sky.

Digi DP - Pink Petticoat Dots

Silver Sequins.

Relax ... it's the summer

Family get togethers. Hen parties. Long Walks in the Country.

      Picnics. Cooking. Window shopping. Kindle Fire.

                     Netflix.  Pub Lunches. Vet Visits.

Those are just a few of the things keeping me from my craft room this summer :-)

 

When I need to make a card poste-haste, I go in search of a sketch 

and I found this one on a great new challenge blog  - Seize the Sketch

This was my first chance to play with my new Memento Dew Drop inks. 

I think I am going to like them... a lot!  

With a bit more practice I'm sure I will be able to produce a crisp, clear image ;-)

Challenges

Seize the Sketch - #1

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

One Stop Craft - Keep it Simple

City Crafter - Polka Dots

Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

Stamps: Clearly Besotted 'time to relax' & 'shine bright' with matching dies. Memento dew drop inks in rosebud and grey flannel.  DP: Prima 'rosarian' and Digital ddesign essentials 'digitally smitten'. Gems.