Birthdays are Better with Sprinkles

Hello.
I'm playing with my new 'sweet tooth' stamps again today - with some simple donuts for the Less is More Challenge. Can you believe they are celebrating their 11th birthday! 

I stamped, die-cut and then popped up my donuts with foam tape, onto a simple panel. Then I held my breath whilst I stamped the sentiment. Usually I muck this up, smudge the ink, or drop the stamp, but it came out perfectly  :o)

Challenge

Less Is More

Congrats to everyone at LIM on your 11th birthday.

the greetery - sweet tooth
sugarpea designs - summer scoops
altenew inks - warm buff, cotton candy, peach sorbet, mango smoothhie
pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle die

 

Macarons are the Answer

Hello.
Who doesn't love a pretty, little macaron? Today I stamped one for every day of the week - I just wish they were real. I now have a craving! :o)

I really couldn't stamp these sweet treats without a stamping platform - it helps me to line up the layers and when you don't have too many ink shades, it's great for stamping several times, to get a deeper colour for that shadow effect.

I'm still jealous of all those gold, hot foil cards that I see EVERYWHERE! But I'm learning to make do with some metallic, gold card and I think it looks really pretty here.

Challenge
Watercooler Wednesday

the greetery - sweet tooth and piped sentiment
pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
distress ink - salvaged patina     various altenew inks

It's all Hearts and Rainbows

Hello.
Today I'm sharing a twofer with you.
I find it hard to cut into my favourite papers, so when I do, I want to make sure I use every tiny, little snippet.  That's what I did here to make these 2 heart/rainbow cards.

For the first card, I simply die-cut the hearts into my rainbow paper  - keeping the heart die-cut and all those tiny snippets for later. Then I used 3 layers of the heart die in white, and placed it back into my rainbow card. This gives a little extra dimension to a simple card.

For the second card, I stuck down the hearts die (again, layered up a couple of times), and then inlaid all those little snippets.
Both cards were finished with a simple sentiment.

Challenges

Addicted to CAS

Snippets Playground

mft dienamics - hearts entwined
waffle flower dp - jj's rainbows
mama elephant - labeled messages

pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Hello.
I'm digging deep into my old stash today and giving these Uptown Girls their first outing, for a very long time.

They just popped into my head, when I saw the black and red theme of the challenge. I first thought of paper piecing their dresses, but then I changed my mind for some quick, copic colouring.  I'm happy with how the red dress came out - red is always tricky for me - not so happy with the black dress. I wanted it solid black, to keep it easy, but of course my black copic is running out!

Challenge
Color Hues

Red and Black

stamping bella - uptown girls, victoria and juliette's night out, coloured with copics

pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitched rectangle

mft stamps - spirited sentiments

Consider Yourself Hugged

Hello.
Have you visited the Snippets Playground yet?  They have a lovely new home - 'where the sun is always shining' and you can be assured of a friendly welcome. I'm hoping to play along more this year - not least because I have a TON of snippets to get through!
Here's my first entry.

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, hearts are the order of the day right now, so I die cut a heart and covered it with some snippets in red tones. I heat embossed the sentiment onto some black card - layering the heart 4 times and then adding it with foam tape, so that it pops up a bit more.

Then I fussy cut my bear pals and added them with foam tape too.

Challenge

Snippets Playground

the stamp market - bear hugs
pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle

nestie heart die     copics

Blow Out the Candles

Hello.
When I saw this birthday candle set from Concord and 9th, I couldn't resist it. I really think it's going to be a terrific set. Studies do show that the more candles you have on your birthday cake, the longer you live ;o)

I bought the stamps and dies, but I've just used the dies here, so it's super quick to put together.
One of the dies cuts 5 candles at once, which makes it even easier. The candles are coloured with zigs, and then the patterned die layered on top.
For a touch of bling I've used some gold, glitter paper on the flames.

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches

concord and 9th - make a wish ---  zig clean color real brush markers --- mft stitched stitched in and out square die

Everything is A-Bouquet

Hello.
Hands up, who else is dazzled by hot foiling? There are some really beautiful, gold, foiled cards out there. I'm jelly. My budget won't stretch to a glimmer machine and foil dies, but I do have some metallic, gold cardstock. Not exactly the same, but it will have to do for now.

This is definitely one of those 'more is more' cards - and I went a bit crazy cutting and layering up those bouquets and dies.  Sometimes I just have to break out of that CAS routine :o)

Challenge 

The Flower Challenge

pinkfresh studio - layered bouquet * stamp market - criss cross stamp * mama elephant - labeled messages * altenew inks - sea breeze, turquoise, tide blue * mft - stitch rectangle scallop frame die

Have a Mice Day

Hello. I feel as though November and December totally passed me by, so I'm really not ready to put away my Christmas stamps yet.
Here's another simple, winter scene for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge.

This was a surprisingly quick make for me. I stamped my little caroling mice and then inked up the sky - using a circle die to mask the moon. I tried to 'ground' the mice using a black fineliner, and completely bodged it - so don't look too closely at that!
The mice were coloured with Copics , the snow added with a white gel pen and the sentiment popped up with foam tape. Job done.

Challenge

Hmmm... because of the inking, I did debate whether this would fit the 'clean' style for the challenge - but I convinced myself I might just get away with it  ;o)
No worries if you have to delete it from the linky though xxx

Freshly Made Sketches

penny black - christmas critters, coloured with copics
mama elephant - labeleed messages
distress ink - salvaged patina

Everybunny Needs Somebunny Sometimes

Look at me! Today I'm totally out of my comfort zone and attempting a background à la Sandy Allnock.
Usually my colouring is confined to cats and dogs, and other critters (and the odd flower) but today I was inspired to give my stamped image a wintry background.

To begin with I stamped my bunny image and drew a hillside behind him with a black fineliner. Then I masked the bunny and hills, and inked up my sky with distress ink. I splattered the sky with water drops, which made my fineliner run a bit in places!! I used a very simple stamp for the trees, and overlapped it a little. After colouring my image with copics I went to work with a white gel pen. I think I went a bit crazy with it on the trees, but I kind of like the effect - and I'm pretty pleased with myself that I remembered to make sure some snow was falling on my bunny and bird :-)
Overall I'm really happy with how this turned out. But check out Sandy Allnock's blog to see the master at work.

Challenge
Stamping Sensations

***Anything stamped with option to add a die***

My bunny/bird image and trees were stamped and framed with a  large postage stamp die.

colorado craft company - christmas presents, coloured with copics
concord and 9th - tiny trees, stamped in distress ink iced spruce
distress ink - tumbled glass

avery elle - postage stamp die

Back Of The Net

Hello.
Last year wasn't all doom and gloom - it brought us a gorgeous, new grandson. So I really need to up my game on the masculine/male card front. 
This is an old stamp from Lili of the Valley, and is perfect for the Inkspirational Challenge word prompt - GOAL

I read a tip the other day, that said stamping images just off the edge can help to create the feeling of movement, so that's what I did here with my footballer. Does it work?
For a little extra interest, I fussy cut another football, popped it up with foam tape, and added some glossy accents to it. 

Inkspirational Challenges 

lotv footballer coloured with zigs and copics   mama elephant - labeled messages   clearly besotted striped stencil with altenew turqouise ink.

Grow A Rainbow

Hello.
Today I'm trying to jump start my mojo by playing along with the sketch challenge at freshly made sketches.

My mantra for this year is... 'Don't Overthink This' 
I see so many stunning cards out there, that I tend to try and replicate their style, and I just end up in a mess, surrounded by projects destined for the bin. I need to heed my blog title more and Keep it Sweet and Simple :o)

Here, I just switched out the sketch shapes, for my die-cut plants, and used a rainbow of colours for some interest.

Challenge
Freshly Made Sketches

mft - sittin pretty, coloured wiht copics
pinkfresh studio - diagonale stitch rectangle