A Little Card To Celebrate The Fun

 Hello.

I was meant to be following a sketch today.
You know when you have it in your mind, and you make your card, but it's not quite right.
It's close though - if you squint :o)

This is a Valentine's card for my dh. 

After 40 years of marriage, we're kind of over the red, love hearts and roses, so  I think this cute Eddie and Ethel stamp is more our thing.

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches

I converted this to portrait and moved those stripes a bit. 
By which I mean a lot. It still looks a bit like the sketch though, right?

• purple onion designs - eddie and ethel
• memory box - parker alphabet dies
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• mft - sentiment from frost loving friends
• copic markers, white gel pen

Birthday Surprises, Wrapped With Love

Hello.
I'm struggling to make time to craft right now.
This card has been living rent free, in my head, for almost a week!

I finally got time to put it together.

I'm playing along with the AAA Birthday Challenge, so this card was made entirely with die cuts - no stamping at all! Whilst the card came together pretty easily, I had to rack my brains for a 'no stamp' sentiment.
I finally decided on those die cut alphas and number. I used the same cardstock as the background for them, but just to make them pop a little bit more they are 3 layers deep.

Challenge

AAA Birthday

• concord & 9th - handmade holiday dies
• memory box - parker lower case alpha
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• nestie circle die
• white gel pen - copic markers

It's All Tickety Boo!

Hello.
When I saw the sketch over at Freshly Made, my first thought was ghosts!!
Sometimes, you've just got to roll with where your mind takes you :o)

I've seen some Halloween cards popping up on Instagram recently, so that's probably what I was thinking of. And, non traditional halloweeny colours seem to be in vogue, so I made my inky  background with pinks and yellows.

The landscape is a die that I haven't used in ages, but I like how it works here, and the ghosts were easily stamped and die cut, and popped up with foam tape.

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches 

I just rotated the sketch for a landscape card.

• my favorite things - ghostly greetings
• distress inks - kitsch flamingo / mustard seed
• memory box - landscape die
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle

Gold Medal Thank You

Hello.
Ooh, I DO love a card challenge. So, I'm excited about the new, monthly one at

  Seven Hills Crafts

For their first challenge, they would like to see cards inspired by the Paris Olympics.
'Don't panic Captain Mainwaring' - if, like me, you have no 'sporty' stamps there is a hole host of things to be inspired by... the colours, the team kits, the places, etc. Check out the blog, and the photo below for ideas.

I took inspiration from the colours of the Olympic rings. The blue, yellow, black, green and red were chosen because they were the colours of all the flags of the nations at that time.

I covered a piece of card with ds tape and stuck my narrow strips of coloured card on top. Then I die cut the letters with stitched alphabet dies, and used foam tape to attach them.

Tip: lining up the letters so they are perfectly straight can be tricky, so give yourself a break and slightly stagger them!

The medal is gold card, die cut with a circle, with a gold No1 added, and some pieces of black striped ribbon.
I also made a coloured strip to go behind my panel, to try and pull everything together.

Challenge

#1 Seven Hills Crafts

• lawn fawn stitched rectangle die
• my favorite things - in and out stitched rectangle / stitched alphabet dies
• sizzix circle die
• memory box number die
• ribbon

It's Spooky Season

Hello.
The last few months have been really tough, but helping us through, are our 2 gorgeous grandsons, one of whom is celebrating his first Boo this season  :o)
Here are the cards I made for them.

These were simple cards to put together - just a little distress ink blending for the backgrounds and then adding the die cuts. These cute ghosts definitely look like they're ready to party!

Challenge

Inspired By

I was inspired by the Halloween theme, and the purple, black and white colour scheme.

mft - ghostly greetings / stitch alpha dies

distress inks - wilted violet / seedless preserves

lawn fawn - violet's abc

memory box - twiggy tree

Be The Person Your Dog Thinks You Are

Hello. We've had a lovely few days of sunshine here in Yorkshire, so my dog,  Buster,  has been happy to be able to play in the garden. Here he is with his besties, Ollie and Indie ;o)

I have a large picket, fence die that I used for this, just trimming off the pointed posts, and backing it with a subtle colour, to try and create more of a garden fence. Before sticking it down I did a little distress ink shading for the sky and grass, and tucked in my 'over the fence' pup.

Then I used some more die-cuts to create my scene - a couple of pups, some flowers and clouds, the ball, and a little bird - all coloured with copics and popped up with foam tape.

Challenge
Addicted to Stamps and More

my favorite things - woof pack, with flowers and bird from sittin' pretty
distress ink - tumbled glass and peeled paint
picket fence die, memory box -  puffy clouds 
pinkfresh studio - diag stitch rectangle    copics

DOTTY GIRL

Hello

They're going dotty at the 

Inkspirational Challenge

this week.

It took me a while to get my head around all those

red spots on white, and white spots on red!

In the end, I took my inspiration from the girl in the centre

and did a little paper-piecing.

I grounded my girl on some stencilled grass, then just added a sentiment and a couple of clouds.

Inkspirational Challenge

mft stamps - love you a bunch, paper pieced and coloured with copics, grassy edges stencil with distress ink mowed lawn and sentiment from 'hello little one'  

memory box -  puffy clouds

avery elle - postage stamp die

TIGER TIGER

Hello.

I'm heading to the library again today,
with an all time classic for inspiration...
The Tiger Who Came to Tea.

As usual, I had to get creative with my supplies,
using copic markers to turn this cat image into a tiger.
I think I might have got away with it  ;o)

The Library Challenge

 

Cat/Tiger -  MamaElephant 3 Amigos, coloured with Copics

Cupcake - Lawn Fawn, Beep Boop Birthday

Hi + Sentiment - WPlus9 Friends for all Seasons

Clouds Dies - Memory Box

MAKE WAVES

Hello.

When I first started card making - many moons ago - 

I decided I wouldn't use stamps and ink, 

cos they were just too expensive.

Instead, I bought little, card toppers, a few cheap dies and some punches.

I could get by with those, I told myself.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

snort*

I think that lasted about 6 months!

So, it's been a while since I made a card with no stamping at all,

but those clever librarians at The Library Challenge

have pushed me to think outside the box.

The challenge book is To The Lighthouse, but

I don't posses a single lighthouse, sea, beach, or fish stamp,

so I tried to create a deep sea theme 

using a decorative punch in shades of green, to represent the waves.

There's a pretty touch of glitter, for added bling, on the hello sentiment. It just doesn't show up too well on camera.

The Library Challenge

supplies

martha stewart decorative punch

memory box hello die

various shade of textured green card and a sprinkling of glamour dust

YOU'RE MY PERSON

Hello.

It's my Wedding Anniversary in July,

but I've made my card early this year

just in case my dh decides to whisk me away

on a romantic holiday. 

#Iliveinhope

I've played along at Inspired By again, this week.

This is fast becoming my favourite challenge,

cos it really gets my old grey matter going.

Are you playing along?

I took inspiration from the grid design and 

the white numbers on a dark background.

supplies

stamping bella - uptown girl ava / uptown couple brett and brenda

clearly besotted - basic banner

happy anniversary sentiment - papermania

copic markers

memory box - number dies    mft - in and out stitched square dies

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hello.
Wishing you all a very happy, healthy New Year.
It's nice to be back in my craft room, but I feel a bit rusty.
I need to have a good tidy up and put some Xmas stamps away,
but I just couldn't bring myself to stop using these Yetis  :-)

Sorry about the photo.
It's a nice, bright day here today, but I seem to have a bit of a blue tint going on!!
Urgh!  Who else finds taking decent photos the hardest thing?

Challenges

Watercooler Wednesday

The Merry Christmas Challenge

Anything Goes  + Christmas

Optional - Happy New Year

Supplies

MFT - Beast Friends, Stitched Scalloped Edge Rectangles and Basic Edges / Handwritten Happiness

Distress Ink - Shaded Lilac.    Memory Box Number Dies.   Diamond Dust.

SPINNING NINJA

Hello.
Boys like action cards - FACT.
So only a spinner card would do for my dd's boyfriend    :-)

I started with my favourite background of blended inks and water splashes.
Then, I used a black fineliner along an oval die, to draw my 'tightrope'.
I die cut a hill, with the slider part in the middle and popped this up on foam pads.
Finally,  I added my tiny ninjas, gold numbers, and sentiment to complete the scene.

Challenges.

Seven Hills Crafts 

Tic Tac Toe - Bold(hope my colours are bold enough!) / People / Die Cut

Penny Black & More - Anything Goes

House of Cards

(I've gone for the 2 ends of this colour scheme - pale blue and yellow)

Supplies.
Mama Elephant - Tiny Ninjas, Labeled Messages
MFT - Stitched Scalloped Rectangle Die, Surf & Turf Dies
Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw
Memory Box Number Dies, Metallic Card.

My Sun and Stars

It's my wedding anniversary today

Yay!

What's the traditional gift for 31 years??

Could it be Mama Elephant stamp sets?

I used the same penguin stamp for my couple,

just adding the little hat for the guy, and the bow for the gal.

And, because the card is simple, I opted for a bold

coloured, textured card as background.

Challenges.

CASology - Rough (textured cardstock)

CAS on Sunday - Sequins

Mama Elephant - Arctic Penguins and Labeled Messages

Lawn Fawn - Stitched Rectangle and Hillside Borders

Tiny Bow from WPlus9 Unforgettable

Memory Box Puffy Clouds Die,  Sequins

If in doubt, add more glitter

  Marching bunnies, in little red blazers

with a glitter background and scattered stars.

What's not to love?

I started by stamping my sentiment onto a die-cut panel,

and then die-cutting the 'YOU'.

Bunnies were die-cut and coloured with Copics

(red is not my strong suit) before being attached with foam pads.

Then I fixed the panel to some glitter card and added some tiny stars.

If you want to see how beautifully sparkly this glitter card

really is, pop over to my Instagram (link in side bar)

Challenges

Addicted to Stamps - Make Your Mark

Stamping Sensations - Feature A Creature

CAS on Sunday - Sparkle

MFT - zig zag rectangle die + strike up the band

Copics.   American Crafts Glitter Paper

Sentiment - Winnie&Walter, Big, Bold & Party.  Memory Box Alpha Dies

Patchwork

I wracked my brains over the 'geometric' challenge

and finally came up with this patchwork design.

It was a great way to use up snippets of dp,

sticking them to a piece of base card and then using a stitched die,

to get a nice edge.

Challenges

Inkspirational - Geometric

Pixie's Snippets Playground 

Various snippets of DP

Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die. Memory Box happy die.

 Xcut metal effect gold sheet.

Sequins. Gems

Sunburst

I'm not gonna lie, 

it's taken me a few days to ponder this week's MUSE card.

But, I really loved Marion's striking design and wanted to give it a go.

Here's my attempt ...

 I don't have a sunburst die, so I had to cobble something together.

I started by drawing round a circle die, and then using a ruler to draw lines through the circle.

I then cut alternate pieces with a craft knife.

You can see from the picture below just how I did this.

 I then layered this 'sunburst' onto my coloured card, trimming off the edges.

No need to worry about how bad the centre looks, as this is coverd up by my 'sun'.

It was a bit tricky die cutting my sentiment through those layers, but I finally prised it out

with the help of my craft knife and filled it with a navy blue insert.

I finished off with an embossed sentiment and a few scattered sequins.

I'm so glad I persevered with this card, as I really like the effect.

(Big thanks to Marion for the inspiration and making me try something different)

 

Here's the  MUSE card, by Marion Vagg

 

xxx

 

Keep Off The Grass

Hey there,

I made this cute, little hedgie card for this week's CASology Challenge - 

where the cue word is 

GRASS

 Usually, I cut my 'grass' pieces into random shapes, with scissors, but I wanted a cleaner look for this CAS card, so I die cut my papers with an oval nestie. Then I attached them to the card panel and trimmed off the edges. It's much neater that way and gives you that little embossed edge along the top.

The hedgie is coloured with Copics and fussy cut and the sentiment is a little snippet of cream card,

stamped with the sentiment and glittered along the edges.

 

Supplies.

Stamps - Penny Black 'Critter Party'  Personal Impressions 'Mixed Sentiments'

DP - First Edition 'Bird Song'     Memory Box Cloud Dies

Memento Ink 'Bamboo Leaves    Glamour Dust     Copics

Winter Moon

Whe I saw this week's MOON sketch from AAA Cards,

I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

A little snow scene, with santa and his sleigh, rising above the moon.

I searched everywhere for that Santa stamp.   It appears I don't own it!!  Ha ha!

Here's what I ended up with.

I cut out a 'moon' from my black card and added it to my base card.

Then I layered up my landscape pieces - edging them with glamour dust. 

All the layers are added with foam pads. so the card has more depth than the photo shows.

I thought this sentiment was perfect for the little winter, house scene.

Challenges.

AAA Cards.  -  'Moon' Sketch

Supplies.
Memory Box Landscape Die.  Nestie Circle Die.  Glamour Dust.