Sending You Birthday Fishes

Hello.
Sending some birthday fishes today - for the 'Under the Sea' theme at  AAA Birthday Challenges

I started by distress inking the top of my card panel, and spritzing it with a little water. Then I added my fishes, and gave them some googly eyes, for a little fun.
To fill in the gaps I went back and stamped some fish and blubs! Of course, I dropped a stamp and smudged black ink everywhere, so the little, dark, blue puffer fish were added to cover up the mess!
As it happens - they help to pull this little under water scene together.

AAA Birthday Card Challenge

hero arts - i'm a puffer for you, coloured with copics

distress ink - tumbled glass    altenew ink - starlight
pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
googly eyes

I Love Moo!

Hello.
When digging through a craft box a few weeks ago, I came across this pillow cover pattern. When my girls were small I made a ton of these, and all the children in the family chose different animals. So, with my Grandson coming up to his 1st birthday, I thought I would see if I remembered how to follow a pattern ;-)

I chose a soft, polar fleece with a cow pattern, so it's nice and cuddly - and it was actually pretty easy to put together. The main body of the cow has a velcro opening underneath, so a standard sized pillow fits inside. The head is also attached with velcro, so it can be pulled off !!!
I got in a bit of a pickle with the ears, and wasn't quite sure how to attach them, but they turned out ok in the end.

Like I said, it's an old pattern, but a quick google shows there are some still out there. Here's a quick look, just for reference, if you want to try and hunt one down - Butterick Animal Pillow

Love To Craft Challenge

#67 Anything Goes

Do More Of The Things You Love

TGI Friday! It's been a long week. I've had my grandson for a couple of days - which is wonderful - but 4am starts are tough. I also got some new glasses - varifocals - do any of you have them? They are certainly taking a bit of getting used to. Things are all a bit zoomy! Minor issues though, when you look at what's going on in the world right now. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Ukraine, and their families and friends.

Today's card is for my fabulous SIL, who retired this week. Hopefully she can now relax a little and do more of the things that she loves.

I started by inking up my background with distress inks, spritzed with a little water, and then used foam tape to add the cover up die (remembering to leave a couple of areas free, so that I could slide those animals into the frame). The 'books and coffee' critters and elements were die cut, coloured with copics and then popped up with foam tape.

Challenge
Addicted to Stamps and More

waffle flower - books and coffee
mft dienamics - tri frame cover up
sentiment from clearly besotted, time to relax
distress inks - kitsch flamingo, fossilizeed amber, squeezed lemonade, broken china

Just Wanted to Say Hi

Hello.
It's the dreaded one layer card, over at Less is more this fortnight, and to make it doubly difficult, they'd also like to see just one word!

I decided if I was just using one word, I would make it a big one  :-)  and I got out this large 'hi' die.
I die cut it onto some scrap card and then used this as a template to draw the word onto my card blank with a fine liner (of course I messed it up a bit, but we're not looking at that, right?).
Then, I stamped the balloons, using the scrap piece as a mask.
To try and give it some dimension I used a pale grey copic along some of the bottom edges.

Challenge
Less is More

the stamp market - hi die
balloon stamp from mft party penguins
ranger inks - canary, orange bliss,  wild berrry

Cards for Ukraine

 Sharing a card today, to show support for the people of Ukraine 💙💛

I've used the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.

Challenge

Color Hues

altenew - hug me
distress ink  - salty ocean / squezzed lemonade
pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
copics 

Wild One

Hello.
It was our grandson, Bailey's, 1st Birthday yesterday. He had a fabulous Wild One party, with lots of friends, balloons, some amazing cake and a big giraffe (the cuddly kind) :o)

This animal stamp was just perfect for the party theme.

In the past, I've made similar cards by masking all the animals, which takes forever. This is such a breeze having them all on one stamp. I just a had a tiny bit of masking to do for the balloon strings and then I set to with my Copics. 

Challenge

Addicted to Stamps and More

mama elephant - wild roar, cooloured with copics
mft - party animals (balloons)
lawn fawn - smitty's abcs

Welcome Little One

Hello.
My mum was a great knitter, and she made some gorgeous baby blankets. Whenever we asked her who they were for she would say ' I don't know, but a baby will come along' - and she was right, news of a baby would always reach her.
So, that's what I'm doing with this card, waiting for a baby to turn up :o)

I chose this pretty turquoise colour, that can be used for a girl or a boy, and I've indulged my metallic, gold obsession by using a gold panel. I wasn't sure about the gold on a baby card. What do you think? Does it work?  It's pretty IRL, but very hard to photo.

Challenge
Freshly Made Sketches
I've turned the sketch on it's side

mft - hello little one, coloured with copics
pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle

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