SNOW BEAR

Hello.
Did you know there's a new challenge on the block?
Color Hues the Color Challenge
Pop by to see them and check out the fabulous work from the DT.

This fortnight they want to see Navy & Turquoise

Just having 2 colours to play with (plus the allowed neutrals) really helped me to keep my card clean and simple.
My snowy background was die cut in dark navy, and I coloured my bear and trees with some BG copics for the turquoise. 
Turquoise is definitely a tricky colour - it does look a bit blue on the photo - but irl it's slightly greener.

Color Hues

• sugarpea designs - hey winter
• avery elle falling snow die
• spellbinders nested circle die
• mft - snow globe sentiments
• copics

BEARS IN THE HILLS

Hello.
Today I've been playing with distress inks and some circle dies, for the

                         Inspired By Challenge.

Whilst pottering about on Pinterest I came across a gorgeous embroidery project by Wendi Gratz - here -  called 'Bears in the Hills', and I used this as inspiration for my card design.

I inked up some card and die cut my circles. (This would have been a whole lot quicker with a circle punch!).

The circles were then taped together in rows, and these rows were attached to a square die cut, starting from the top and adding in my bears as I went along.

I coloured the bears and trimmed the circles down around the square base, and then attached it all with foam tape to my card blank.

Inspired By Challenge

• sugar pea designs - hey winter
• sentiment from mft stamps, four legged friends
• distress inks      copics

SWEET WINTER BEAR

Hello.
Do you use ALL the stamps in a stamp set?

When I bought the 'hey winter' set I was really focused on the big bear and didn't think I would use this little guy.
But, I've just inked and coloured him up...  how cute is he?

With all that snow in the background I've kept my scene very simple.
The little bear and the trees are coloured with copics and popped up with foam tape.

Challenge

AAA Cards

• sugarpea designs - hey winter
• sentiment from wplus9 - heartfelt holiday
• avery elle - falling snow die
• copic makers

WINTER BEAR BIRTHDAY

Hello.
This week's Less is More Challenge is 'shades of purple'
and I just happened to have this bear, all coloured up, on my work space.
Serendipity!

To follow the challenge theme, I created a simple background, in shades of purple. 
More haste, less speed!
Some of my 'letters' were a bit messy, so I covered up the worst ones by attaching a die-cut over the top. 
My bear was popped up on foam tape and  I went to town with the white gel pen!

(I wanted to use the birthday sentiment that came with this set, but by the time I prised it out of the dog's mouth it said 
'py birthday to you' 😬)

Less Is More 

sugarpea designs - hey winter
mft - oh christmas tree (stars) and party animals (sentiment)
altenew inks - wisteria, hydrangea, ultraviolet
copic markers

HEY WINTER

Hello.

Do you know there's only 110 day till Christmas?

Time to make a start on this season's cards.

My budget has only allowed for one stamp set this year, so I chose this winter bear from SugarPea Designs.

I think it's gonna be a winner.

This design was easy to put together, so I have a feeling, a close variation on it, is going to crop up quite few times.
The 'snowy' background is die cut and then the elements coloured with Copics and popped up on foam tape.

Challenge

Merry Little Christmas

• sugarpea designs - hey winter
• mft - scalloped basic edges, snow globe sentiments
• avery elle - falling snow die
• copic markers

GIVE A DOG A BONE

 Hello.
How could I resist this week's theme at the
Inspired By Challenge

I am definitely an autumn/winter person, and I'm excited that the weather is starting to turn cooler. I can't wait for drizzly, misty walks in the woods with my furry pal.

So, with autumn in mind, I created a little pile of leaves for my pooch to play in, with a few swirling about in the wind :o)

Inspired By Challenge

(inspiration source)

• mft - woof pack, four legged friends, grassy edges stencil
• wplus9  - friends for all seasons fall
• distress ink - mowed lawn
• copic markers

BIG, TINY NEWS

 Hello.

It's lovely to hear some good news right now,
so I was very happy to put together this cute,  new baby card.

I kept everything very simple, using a stencil, with distress ink, to create those background rays. Then adding my stork and clouds popped up on foam tape, for some 3D interest.

Challenge

Watercooler Wednesday

mft - hello little one, coloured with copics
mft - ray of light stencil, stitched rectangle scallop frame, stitch scallop basic border
distress ink - squeezed lemonade
memory box - puffy clouds

SOY AWESOME

 Hello.
In need of a chuckle today?
Head over to the Inspired By Challenge
and check out the DT work and entries for their punny sentiment theme.
:o)

Here's my entry...

Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake with a stamp set.
This is an old one (I'm not sure if it's available anymore) but I saw it at Seven Hills Crafts and it fell in my basket ;-)
I wasn't disappointed  - besides the pandas, there are lots of cute little extras,
and, of course, some punny sentiments.

Inspired By Challenge

• mft - sushi date, coloured with copics
• mft - stitched scallop border die
• distress ink - twisted citron
• wow white embossing powder

DOG FACES

 Hello.
Phew! It's hot, here in the UK right now.
How are you all keeping cool?
I bought the dog a cooling blanket.
He's not a great fan of it,
but I think it's brilliant :o)

Here's my card for this week's
Inkspirational Challenge

This was a pretty quick card to make.
I didn't faff about with any shading on my dogs faces,
using the white gel pen instead, to add some detail.

Inkspirational

• mft - woof pack, coloured with copics
• sentiments from  - little buddies
• in and out stitched square die

And here's a picture of my pal, Buster's face

SEW MUCH FUN

 Hello

Who could resist those summer colours at this week's Inspired by Challenge. The deep red, hot pink and warm yellow just jumped out at me. Very appropriate as well, as we are in the middle of a heatwave here.

My craft room is sweltering ( the window won't open cos the handle is broken!) so I've been keeping cool, sitting in front of the fan, and stitching.

I followed a stitch pattern from the awesome Mary Legalett at whimsicalstitch  

I could definitely get into needlework - all those gorgeous thread colours and beautiful stitches. If only there were more hours in the day!

Inspired By Challenge

• Mama Elephant - Pegworks Die
• Sentiment - MFT fish tail flags and sweet somebunny

For some reason, this was one of those cards that was really tricky to photo. (I don't have a fancy camera, just a banged up, slightly cracked and dented iphone 7) I must have taken 30 photos before I  came up with something passable by changing the background. It really helped to show the colours up better and I just wanted to share in case anyone was having a similar problem.

These photos were taken in the exact same spot, no different settings, no editing. You can see how the colours are much better, and more true to real life with a dark background.

I'm going to stick with that for a while and see how it goes.

  

SMOOSHING

Hello

I decided to get inky today and try the smooshing effect, for my ocean background.

I smooshed my distress inks on some plastic packaging, spritzed them with water and laid my card on top. I did this a few times, heat drying my card in between laying down colours.

Then I used an upside down cloud stencil, to try and create some waves.

Finally, I spattered a few dark ink and white drops.

I am really pleased with how it turned out.

Challenge

CAS(E) this Sketch

• hero arts - i'm a puffer for you, coloured with copics
• distress ink - crack pistachio, peacock feathers, salty ocean, mermaid lagoon
• mft - rectangle die, mini cloud stencil