Classic Christmas Blooms

Hello.
Have you spotted the new Christmas card challenge?

It's been set up by Maaike and has a fab DT, so lots of great Christmas card inspiration is coming our way.

This month the challenge is for traditional styles.

Poinsettias are one of those flowers that scream Christmas to me, so I dug out this old stamp and die set.

The flowers were stamped in versamark, heat embossed with gold powder, and then die cut.

I wanted a nice vibrant colour, so I got out my ecoline pens. They are so lovely to colour with, but I haven't quite got the hang of blending with them.

I also got rid of that white outline on the die cuts, by using a copic as close to the background green as I had.

Challenge

AAA Christmas Cards

• simon says stamp - winter flowers
• wow - gold embossing powder
• concord and 9th - tiny trees (sentiment)
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• Ecoline brush pens

Love You More

Hello.
I'm excited today, to be a guest designer over at the 

 Color Hues Challenge

Thanks so much to the team for inviting me to play along.

This time, they would like to see a lilac and aqua combo.

Now, lilac is cool.    I can do lilac.
But Aqua, that's a bit more tricky.  Is it green, is it blue?   Yes - I googled aqua :o)

So, google it if you need to, or, if you want some inspiration, nip over to the blog and check out the fab work from the designers.
 I hope you'll play along.

I love this bokeh style background, and it's a lot easier than I thought.

If I can do it, anyone can! I simply inked up a card panel with shaded lilac, and then used white ink with a circles stencil.
Eddie and Ethel are stamped, fussy cut, and coloured with Copics.
It does look a bit green in the pictures, but its definitely aqua  :o)

How cute are these two?
I'm going to keep this card for my wedding anniversary in July - it will be our 40th.
Oooh, that's ruby isn't it - maybe I should remake this using reds.

• purple onion designs - eddie and ethel
• my favorite things - circles stencil
• distress oxide - shaded lilac
• hobbycraft white ink
• sentiment - simon says stamp, thoughtful messages
• copic markers, white gel pen, versaclair

Delivering Love

Hello.
Happy Valentine's Day.
This cute, little bear is peddling like crazy, delivering love all around town :o)

This is my first time inking up and colouring this stamp. How did I do?
I got it a little late for Christmas cards, but with some added hearts I think it works well for Valentine's Day.

Can we ignore the round splodge near the top of the post box?
My dark red just decided to dump lots of ink there. I tried hard to blend it in.
Does anyone else have that problem with random Copics?

Challenge

Addicted to Stamps & More

I've used Copic markers for my colouring

• purple onion designs - happy mail - chilliezgraphy by pei
• copic markers
• simon says stamp - thoughtful messages

Flower Me in Christmas

Hello.

I'm not gonna lie, when I saw that this week's photos at Inspired By were flowers, I let out a little groan. But, if it was easy, it wouldn't be called a challenge, would it? And how can I go wrong with all that fabulous inspiration from their design team.

I love that Inspired By now has a bonus Christmas theme, and this week it's in the form of a flower arrangement. Luckily I had these gold, embossed elements already on my desk from an earlier card, so they just needed colouring up and sticking down. Easy peasy you say - well yes, apart from the hour it took me to try and arrange all those elements until I was happy with them.

Challenge

Inspired By... 

simon says stamp - winter flowers, coloured with copics  / mft snowglobe sentiments 

Christmas Blooms

Hello.I was in the mood for some colouring today, so I got out my copics and these winter flowers. If you've visited before, you will know that I really struggle with flower cards, I just never quite know how to arrange all the elements - I was happy with how this came together though.

Once my flowers were  embossed, die cut and coloured, I stuck them onto a dark blue card panel, and snipped off any overhanging pieces. Some of these pieces were great for tucking back into the design and making it look a little fuller.

I finished with a gold embossed sentiment and some OTT white gel pen dots :o)

Challenge

The Flower Challenge

simon says stamp - winter flowers coloured with copics
wow gold embossing powder
mft - snowglobe sentiments

LAYERED BOUQUET

Hello.
Usually, after the holidays, my crafting mojo takes a nose dive,
and I struggle to create anything.
But right now I'm having fun in my craft room, and trying some new (to me) techniques.

I love this colour combo of turquoise and purple, from the Inkspirational challenge photo.
I've used my new blending brushes with a striped stencil for the background,
Then added the blooms - no need for me to try and create a bouquet here - it's all done for me with this Pink Fresh Studio set.

I was going to add a sympathy sentiment, but someone swiped the stamp from my craft table and gave it a good chew!

As acetate was on my table, from making an ink blending mat a couple of days ago, I decided to try and stamp and heat emboss it, with black embossing powder.
Wow! It creates a beautiful raised, super glossy sentiment, that you can add anywhere on your card. I'll definitely be doing this again.

Hmmm - those stamps must be tasty.
Does he look sufficiently guilty?

Challenge

Inkspirational

PinkFresh Studio - layered bouquet, stamped with distress ink wilted violet, altenew ultra violet, versacolo celadon and green leaf
Clearly Besotted striped stencil, inked with distress ink peacock feathers
Sentiment - simon says stamp thoughtful messages
mft - stitched rectangle scallop edge dies

WINTER FLOWERS

Hello.
This stamped and coloured panel has been sitting on my desk for weeks.
I just thought it was a bit flat.
So, today I went to town on it with a white gel pen - and couldn't stop!   :o)

When I finally put the white pen down, I added a plain sentiment and blue frame.

Challenge

Inkspirational

simon says stamp winter flowers, coloured with copics
mft - snow globe sentiments, scallop edge rectangle die

CITRUS BURST

Hello

Here I am, playing along again at the

Inspired By Challenge

This week the theme includes lemons, fruit, fonts, and pillows and had me rummaging through my stash to come up with something.

I finally settled on this citrus slice, and used it to make a background panel, along with a tiny leaf stamp and some dots.

Usually these tiny stamps are relegated to embellie status, so it's nice to use them in their own right to create a background.

Inspired By

I was inspired by the citrus fruit and the bold sentiment

• clearly besotted - raise a glass 
• altenew inks - lime, crimson,fresh lemon
• distress ink - spiced marmalade
• mft - stitched scallop edge rectangle
• simon says stamp - thoughtful messages

ALL YELLOW

Hello.

We've had a gorgeous few days here, for the long Easter weekend.

The sun has been shining and, everybody and their uncle, have been out mowing their lawns. 

:o)

I have been wracking my brains to come up with something for this week's challenge at Inspired By

The theme is 'Earth Day.'

I didn't have any map/atlas/globe/watering can stamps,

so in the end I went with the inspiration photo's colour palette.

Blue, green and a good splash of bright yellow.

I kept it simple and only coloured one bloom,

and I was going to stop there, but I ended up using my Zig brushes

to add the blue, watercolour wash background.

This is where I normally mess things up, and they end up in the bin,

 but I actually really like how this turned out.

Challenge

Inspired By

Supplies

mft - brilliant blooms, panted petals

simon says stamp - thoughtful messages

zig clean color real brush markers

versa color ink - canary, celadon

RAINY DAY CUPCAKES

Hello.

Don't you just love the idea of a rainy day party?
As soon as I saw that theme at Inspired By I thought of cupcakes.
You can't have a party without cupcakes, right?

I attempted some water colouring.
It does NOT come easy to me.  This was my 3rd try.
I'm pretty happy with it, but still fighting the urge for everything to be neat and precise.

Inspired By Challenge

I also tried to stick to a similar colour palette, 

using blue, green and pink.

It turned out little brighter than I really wanted, 

but I found it tricky mixing the paints.

Supplies

Simon Says Stamp - Savor Sweet Cupcakes.

Sentiment - Mama Elephant, Labeled Messages.

Mix of watercolour paints and Zig Clean Color Real Brish Markers

SOW CUTE

Hello.
Here's my card for this week's Muse Card Club Challenge

I started by stamping my 'Birthday' sentiment with VersaMark and embossing it in white. Don't look too closely, it's a bit wonky :-)
Then I added some blue distress ink - keeping it light towards the edges.
I attached a piece of scalloped edge die-cut and popped up my piggy and flowers with foam tape.
The sentiment was stamped on black card and embossed in white.

Muse Card Club Challenge

Tracey's card is so cute, as soon as I saw it, I new I would pretty much stick to her design. My main inspiration was

• blue inked background
• placement of image and sentiment
• overall cuteness :-)

Supplies

MFT - sow much cuteness + stitched scalloped basic edge die

SSS - thoughtful messages

Distress Ink - tumbled glass

Lawn Fawn - stitched rectangle die.       Copics. White embossing powder

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

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

Dream BIg

Don't let the simplicity of this card fool you.

It took me forEVA !

The Less Is More theme this week is 

Dreams

and it's also the dreaded one layer challenge.

I practiced stamping this design on scrap paper before

holding my breath and stamping straight onto my card blank.

Looking at it now, I wish I'd stamped the elephant a little higher.

Next time :-)

Supplies.

Lawn Fawn ABCs - Violet's and Smitty's

Elephant - SSS Elephant Love, coloured with Copics.

Stars - Winnie & Walter Big Bang Confetti

Leaf element - WPlus9 Heartfelt Holidays

Ink - Hero Arts Color Lights.

I {heart} you a ton

It's our Wedding Anniversary on Saturday - 28 years!   

Eeek!    

I was very young when I got married....lol***

Here's the card I made for hubby...

I dug around in my box of stamps and discovered a neglected set, from Simon Says Stamp.

It's called  Elephant Love, and the elephant and sentiment were perfect for what I wanted.

I played around with papers for ages, trying different combinations of pinks and reds, but nothing seemed to work and the little elephant didn't stand out like I wanted. In the end I found this scrap of grey digi paper and used some stripey, red ribbon to add a splash of colour.

The Memory Box landscape die helped to create a little scene - despite my house being a tad lopsided :-)

Challenges.
Crafty Ribbons - CAS plus ribbon
Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes
Ladybug Crafts - Favourite Embellies. My fav embellie is ribbon, but little gems and dew drops run a close second.
Challenges4Everybody - Anything Goes
Anything Goes Challenge
 

• Stamps - Simon Says Stamp, Elephant Love
• Digi Paper - Grey Chevron from DDE's Digitally Smitten Kit
• Memory Box Landscape Die
• Striper Ribbon
• Adhesive Gems

Going in circles

Here's my entry for this week's LIM challenge, where the theme is Circles.

Quite appropriate really, as I find myself going round and round in circles these days.

This was another tough challenge and you wouldn't believe the number of circles I ended up with :-) 
Just three made it onto my card though.

The DP is Kaiser Craft, La Di Da and some of the papers have that gorgeous embossing on them. The scalloped strip is a die cut from the same paper pad.

Sentiment is Wild Rose Studio - Girly Greetings.  You can get this, and other goodies at Crafty Emma's sale.
Cupcake is from the Simon Says, Savour Sweet Cupcakes stamp set.
Flower is an Xcut punch

Behind every great man there is a woman rolling her eyes!!!

I think I've finally cracked it... I have found my 'style' for men's cards - 

nice and simple, with not too much going on..

just like a man!!   :-)

For this card I followed Jay Jay's sketch at Simon Says Stamp
and would also like to enter for the 'Anything Goes' challenge at Charisma Cardz

This was another quick card to make - colouring the image taking longer than anything!
I stitched the card, DP and ribbon  in place and then cut the centre shapes on my Slice machine.
I love how this machine will cut a shadow of your chosen design ( as long as you design card is MS+)
These were then stuck down with tape and then Edwin went on top, using foam pads.
The stars were also cut with my Slice and stuck with foam tape.
I edged the small stars with some glitter and added the sentiment to the larger one.
Then finished off with some card candy.

Stamp - Magnolia 'Guitar Edwin', coloured with Copics.
DP - Daisy & Dandelion 'A Winter's Tale'.
Slice machine with 'Parties' Design Card
Card candy and sentiment -  Craftwork Cards

Eat, drink and be scary!

Do you celebrate Halloween?
I don't think it every really caught on around here.

I did all the trick or treating when the girls were younger,
but last year, I don't think we had a single caller!

Shame -  I had to eat all the Halloween candy myself!!!

I made a little 'trick or treat' basket using the very easy template from

  Clear and Simple Stamps Blog.
It's only small, but I managed to fit a couple of bags of Mini Oreos inside. These bags are joined together in two's and as I ripped them apart, one split open, scattering Oreos everywhere. It was a mad scrabble between me and the dog to see who could grab the most. I think she won!!

For my card I used the lush memory Box paper 'Blackbird''.
It's so gorgeous that I didn't want to cover it up too much.
I paper-pieced a lot of my stamp and coloured the rest in with Copics.
I added the 'Oct 31st' text and a few adhesive pearls, colouring them black with a copic pen.

I would like to enter this for a couple of challenges, first of all Fab 'n' Funky, where the theme is "What'eva".
This means you can make anything you like!
And secondly Simon Says Stamp - 'Holiday Fun'.  Simon Says are also running a Stamp-tember Hop, that you DO NOT want to miss out on. Check their blog for all the details.

Recipe - 

Design Paper - Memory Box, Blackbird.

Stamp - Pink Gem Designs, Milly with Pumpkin.

Oct 31 cut with Slice machine - Fa La La design card.

Advesive pearls, coloured black with Copics.

Totally Papercrafts #33 Let's Go Dotty

We had lots of  'Charming'  entries over at Totally Papercrafts last week,
pop on over to the blog and see who the lucky winner was
and who I chose for the Top 3.

I am hosting this week's challenge and it's one that everyone will be able to join in -

the theme is

'Let's go Dotty'

I'd like to see dots on papers, dots on stamps, dots on ribbons.

Embossed dots, glitter dots and glossy dots.

You can go crazy, or just add a few!

Check out the fabulous work of my teamies,
and if you visit their blogs, comments are always welcome.

Here's my project...

a dotty birthday card and a box of chocolate, dotty cupcakes!!

The cupcake box and cases came from Sainsbury's - I just covered the box with Pink Petticoat's Digi Papers  - in blueberry. I added a die cut card, stamped the text and put a bloom in the corner.

For the card, I used the same dotty digi paper. I masked my cupcake stamps and also paper-pieced the cases. I added a little, green die cut tag, and an 'it's your birthday' stamp.

Digi Paper - Pink Petticoat 'Big dots little dots'

Die cuts and paper for the paper-pieced cupcake cases - Kaiser Craft La Di Da

Cupcakes, 'treat yourself' and 'celebrate' stamps - Simon Says Stamp, Savor Sweet Cupcakes

It's your Birthday stamp - Cat's life Press.

PS - the cupcakes were yummy!!!   lol**

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Like snowflakes... no two angels are alike.

I just LOVE these papers - they smell like newly laid carpet..
not that I sit here sniffing them, of course...

well, maybe a little!!!

:-)

This cute little angel is from Pollycraft,
it's the digi image I chose after joining in Paula's freebie fun.
I coloured her with copics
( it's really pale blue, but the pic makes it look grey!)
and some stickles glitter.

The glitter seems to have slid down her wings a bit..

it must be because I stood the card up before it was dry.

The background trees are also Pollycraft, 3D'd,
coloured with copics and  Flower Soft, for the snow.

I am entering this for the Simon Says Stamp Challenge,
so I followed Martine's great sketch,
and also for Papertake Weekly, where the theme is 

Cutie Patootie.

Pollycraft Digi images - Cherry Kisses Angel & Trees Background,
coloured with Copics, Diamon Stickles and Polar White Flower Soft.
DP - GCDStudios - Ella Blue

Ribbon from my stash.
Silver Pearls from Crafty Emma's Store
Pop on over and check out Emma's store -  she has 15% off everything
until 9am Monday 26th July and is also starting a loyalty scheme
for her customers.

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