Wishful Thinking

Happy little penguins,

doing a birthday dance.

My new favourite product, is a metallic effect card from XCut

In the pack you get silver, copper and gold sheets.

They are adhesive, but for die-cut sentiments like this, 

I wanted extra sticking power, so I backed it with some Stick It,

and that does the trick.

Challenges

Penny Black & More - Birthdays

Seize the Birthday - Birthday with Optional Water Theme

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Mama Elephant, Arctic Penguins.  Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle  & Hillside Border

Cupcake - Lawn Fawn Beep Boop Birthday.

Make A Wish - MFT Dies.  DP - MFT Calm & Cozy Chevron.

XCut Metallic Effect Sheets. Sequins - Lucy's Cards

Shore Do Miss You

A huge thank you to 

The Challenge at Always Playing With Paper,

for the opportunity to be this week's Guest Designer.

I am thrilled.

The theme is masculine and there is a fabulous

inspirational photo for you to use.

(Check it out at the end of this post)

It's a little crazy, but I made this card for my Dad,

who passed away last year.

I miss him every day, and Easter is going to be tough without him.

There's not much that's nautical in my stash, but I did come up with this boat die,

which I paper-pieced and placed in a circle frame -  to resemble a porthole.

I tried printing out some wide, navy stripes, but my printer didn't want to play,

so I ended up drawing them onto card with a Copic.

The Challenge at Always Playing with Paper

Provocraft Boat Die.  Circle Nesties. Copic B39. 

Spotted DP - Echo Park, Noote To Self.  Tiny Alphabet Stamps, Stampendous.

Whooo's having a baby?

Aghhh    pastels -  they're a bugger to photo aren't they?

This card is a little prettier irl - trust me :-)

This is like a shaker card - without the acetate window, the sequins or confetti.

So, actually, not like a shaker at all then.   Ha ha!

My frame, and the little owls are popped up though,

to give the card some interest and dimension.

Challenges.

Fusion Card Challenge - Everything's Owl Right

Addicted to CAS - Delicate - 

(of colour) subtle and subdued  "delicate pastel shades"

Mama Elephant - just hatched

MFT - zig zag rectanngle die + calm and cozy chevron dp

Inks - ColorBox papaaya cream, glacier ice.

yellow ink - HeroArts color lights by Lia

Shameless Bragging

Hello.

No card from me today.

Just some shameless bragging about my dd Maria.

Maria is a Clinical Physiologist at Leeds Hospital - 

one of the biggest and busiest cardiology and cardiac surgery

centres in the UK.

This week she was on their Facebook page, sharing a little

of what she does everyday.

here

xxxx

One for the boys.

I'm always short of  'boy/men' cards.

I find them tricky to make.

But here's one for the pile.

This week's Always Playing with Paper, colour challenge 

screamed 'masculine' at me.

And, instead of my reaching for my usual balloons,

I used one of these amigos.

They're cute, but not too childish, if you know what I mean.

Always Playing With Paper Challenge.

MFT zig zag rectangle die.  Circle Nesties.

Mama Elephant, Three Amigos.  Happy Stamp, Lawn Fawn Year 2

DP - Lawn Fawn , Let's Polka.

Inks - Memento Danube Blue, Versacolour Lime/Cyan

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Playing along today with the 

CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge.

(I just rotated the sketch)

As I was making this, I was reminded of  the pretty, blue and white

bird house that I put up at my last house.

It was up for a year and a half, and the birds moved in

2 weeks before we moved out.

Of course they did.

I couldn't evict them, so I guess I need a new bird house.

I'd like to say the idea for the 'roof' was mine,

 but I saw it on a card by the wonderfully talented Yana Smakula

Unlike hers though, my scallops are on the top edge

 - 'cos them's the dies I've got   :-)

Challenges.

CAS(E) This Sketch.

DP - Echo Park, Bundle of Joy.  MFT Zig Zag Rectangle Die.  Scalloped Nestie Die.

Mama Elephant, Just Hatched.   Sentiment - Avery Elle, Home Sweet Home.

Circles - Winnie & Walter, Big Bang Confetti. 

Ink - ColorBox, Glacier Ice.   

I like orange

Step back in time with me.

Remember the days before cute, die-cuts, inks in every shade,

 and two-step stamps -

when you actually had to colour an image yourself.

Haha.

This is what the LIM one layer challenge has made me do.

I dug deep into my stamp box and discovered this never inked, orange tree

and even though colouring was never my strong suit,  I dusted off my Copics

and tried to give it a little depth.

I admit - going back to colouring was totally engrossing and kind of fun.

Challenge.

Less Is More - One Layer + Sentiment.

I think the stamp is by Whiff Of Joy

Sentiment is Clearly Besotted, Say It In Style.

Holy Shit!

My BFF is 50

2 things - 

How do you stop your embossing powder from leaving 

little, black, speckles everywhere?

And can anyone recommend a good, plain, alphabet stamp set?

This is the only one I have, and it's not quite right, is it?

Challenges.

CASology - Laugh

Addicted to Stamps - CAS

Clearly Besotted, Round Roses.    My Sentiments Exactly Alpha Stamps.

MFT Ziz zag Rectangle die.   Memory Box Number Dies.

DP - Echo Park, Spots & Stripes.

Inks - Memento -  Rose Bud, New Sprout, Angel Pink, Bamboo Leaves.

Shake it Baby

Got 5 minutes?

Why not pop over to Seven Hills Crafts and check out their challenge.

This month it's a sketch, and it just lends itself to a shaker card.

This was my first time using foam sheet for my shaker, 

just die cutting it the same as my card.

I found it so much easier than ds tape,

and my sequins didn't get stuck at the edges as much.

Seven Hills Crafts

Stamps & Dies - MamaElephant Just Hatched

MFT ZigZag Stitched Rectangles and plain nesties.

Ink - Hero Arts, Lia Colour Lights.

Card - DCWV Tres Chic

DP, Sequins/Stars/Funky Foam from my stash.

I'm Spinning Around

SPIN

To cause to turn around rapidly, as on an axis; twirl; whirl.

Ha ha! My first ever spin card and I love it.

It was even surprisingly easy to make, despite having to cut

the aperture with a craft knife.

Challenges

CASology - Week 187 Spin

WPlus9 Happy Birds.  MFT ZigZag Rectangle Die.

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