Autumn Leaves Are Falling

Hello. Do you love colouring? I seem to have rekindled my love for copics, and I had fun colouring this pretty, wreath with some autumn shades.

I'm not the best at colouring. I have no real idea of where to put shadows, or highlights, but I'm learning to just let go and enjoy it. Easy to do when you have such a pretty image to work with. After colouring I added some white dots (went a bit crazy with them!), some little gems,  and, at the last minute, I squeezed in that little blue bird.

Challenge

Inkspirational

clearly besotted - ring around autimn, coloured with copics
wow  - metallic gold embossing powder
pink fresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle

Happy Pawlidays

Hello. The theme over at Inspired By, this week is scrappy! That's perfect for us crafters that never throw anything away. Which is ALL of us, right?

My scrappy hoard not only contains things from card making, but also odd bits of packaging, pieces of string or wool, fabric cut offs, buttons and bows, and those annoying pieces of ribbon they sew into all your clothes.Tell me I'm not the only one!

So, for this challenge I had a rummage, and came up with a couple of brown paper bags. These came from my Gousto box. Gousto has helped keep me sane through lockdown. For those of you not familiar, it's a recipe box, where they deliver everything you need to make your meals. They use these paper bags to put the garlic in, and, of course, I keep them. I even found one with the white snow already on it, that must have been from a Christmas delivery.

Inspired By Challenge

I was inspired by the brown paper bags, with some red stripes and green 

mft - happy pawlidays, star from oh christmas tree
coloured with copics.

lawn fawn stitched hillside border die

Autumn Leaves and Pumpkins Please

Yay! It's Autumn. My favourite time of year. I'm looking forward to wrapping up for our woodland walks, pumpkin spiced lattes, slow cooker casseroles, and curling up on the sofa with a good book. What are you looking forward to?

I'm so happy I bought this cute autumn set. My daughter is an autumn lover too, so I thought it would be perfect for her wedding anniversary card. Five years already !! Where does the time go?

I fussy cut the wreath and critters and coloured them with copics. Then I  tried them on various coloured backgrounds, finally settling on that dark green.

I admit. I am a born again Clearly Besotted lover. I avoided their stamps for ages, because of the lack of dies. Crazy, right? Don't be scared of fussy cutting people! ;o)

Challenge
Time Out Challenges

clearly besotted - ring around autumn, coloured with copics and a few gems
mama elephant - labeled messages

Penguin Pyramid

Hello.

Hope everyone in the UK is enjoying their long weekend. We have had fun and games here looking after our Grandson, overnight for the first time. He's just 6 months old. Last night he was awake at 10pm, 2am, 3am, 5am and 7am - so I may well fall asleep in the middle of this post!! When he was safely delivered back to his mum, along with the lorry load of all his things, I managed to finish this penguin card.

This was a super quick card to make - a little distress ink blending on the background and then those die cut penguins, with just a smidgen of colouring, popped up on foam tape to form the pyramid. Then I spattered some white paint for the snow and attempted some little, cross-style twinkles. Yeah, that's something I'm going to have to work on!

Challenge

Inspired By

mama elephant - arctic penguins, coloured with copics
mft - snowglobe sentiments, star die from 'oh christmas tree'

distress ink - tumbled glass, salty ocean, stormy sky

Bark the Herald Angels Sing

Hello.

I'm a sucker for doggy stamps, so I don't know how these caroling pups got by me last year. I'm glad I have them now though, and here's their first outing.

This is such a cute lamp post die, that I found in my Christmas stash. For some reason I don't think I've ever used it before. I cut it a few times, for added 3D and coloured it with copics. The background was inked with distress inks and the pups coloured with copics.

When all that inking and colouring was done, I held my breath whilst I spattered some 'snow' around.

Challenge

Addicted to Stamps and More

clearly besotted - howl it's christmas
cheery lynn designs - colonial lamp post die
distress ink - foss.amber, tumb.glass,salty ocean, stormy sky

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 

For a Birthday Full of Rainbows

Hello.

I'm having so much fun with this cute, alpha set that I don't even mind the fussy cutting! This time I've used it for a personalised card for the Birthday girl. 

This was such a simple card to make. Just an inky rainbow background and then the letters popped up on foam tape. The cute, critters were coloured with copics, but for the letters I found my zigs matched the distress inks better.

 Challenge

Watercooler Wednesday

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

clearly besotted - as cute as abc, copic markers, zig clean colour real brush markers, sentiment from mft - sow much cuteness, distress inks - wilted violet / worn lipstick / spiced marmalade / squeezed lemonade / twisted citron / tumbled glass

Merry and Bright

Hello.

Is it too early to be excited for Christmas? Last year the rules only allowed us 1 day to visit family!! That sounds really crazy now, but we did pack a load of fun into that 1 day. Here's hoping this year will be a little less frenetic. And here's another card for my Christmas pile...

It's a bit tricky to die cut that sentiment with individual letters, but I found a way that worked for me. I stuck the letters to a piece of masking tape, lining them up at the bottom edge and then placed the masking tape on my card panel and ran it through the Big Shot. I did this for each separate word. Then I coloured the letters and inlaid them.

The moose - mooses! :o) were also die cut and popped up with foam tape.

Challenge

ABC Christmas - P (plump) Q (quality street) R (ribbon)

I opted for the Quality Street theme, and used the bright colours of the wrappers. 

What's your favourite Quality Street?  I am still gutted that they removed the coffee cream, so now I'm a green triangle girl!  

supplies
neat and tangled - journaling alpha
clearly besotted - merry christmoose
pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
copics

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

Be Merry

Hello.

Once I see Christmas cards popping up all over, I get a little giddy. I love making festive cards. All those snowy scenes and glitter, make me happy. What makes me even happier is when I can use  'non-chrismassy' stamps. Bonus!

I think these ABC stamps from Clearly Besotted are an absolute winner, and I can see me using them on all sorts of occasions. Here, I fussy cut the letters and coloured them with copics. Then popped them up with foam tape on my snowy background. It's hotter then hell here in my conservatory craft room,  so I can only dream of that lovely freezing, falling snow.

Challenge
Addicted to Stamps and More

I have used Copics for colouring and distress inks for the background

Clearly besotted - cute as abc
distress ink tumbled glass, salty  ocean, stormy sky
pinkfrsh studio diagonal stitch rectangle
avery elle falling snow die

Wishing You A Bear-y Christmas

Hello. 
I'm so happy to see one of my favourite challenges back -The Inspired by Challenge
And, from Aug to Dec they have a bonus theme of a Christmas/Holiday card with photo inspiration. This is definitely going to help me get my festive card making on track.
And here's my first one of the season, following their Tropical Santa photo.

I know what you're thinking.    Where's the tropical Santa?     I can explain!
I don't have any Santa stamps, but I do have my favourite winter bear, and I created a layout with him, following the inspiration photo, as closely as I could.

Challenge

Inspired By Challenges

sugar pea designs - hey winter coloured with copics
lawn fawn stitched hillsdie borders
pinkfresh studio1 - diagonal stitch rectangle
distress ink - tumbled glass
leaf dies from the works