Ladybird

I thought it about time that I investigated a few new challenges, so here is a card I made specifically for these sites.

Crafty Cardmakers - Insect as the focal image

My Craft Spot - Black, white plus one other colour!

House of Cards - Sketch                            

The flower and leaf dies are from Marianne, and the ladybird from Elizabeth Craft Designs. The splatters are from SU Gorgeous Grunge!

I did wonder about adding a sentiment, but in the end decided to leave it as is.

I love this little ladybird die!

KIS Bright Spark

Threes

There's nothing I like more than a little emboss-resist inking and here is a card for a couple of challenges using this favourite technique of mine.

I used a flower stamp from Unity Stamps and inked with Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick Distress inks. I over-stamped with a bunch of tiny blobby stamps to give a little interest to the background and shadow stamped the flowers using Worn Lipstick ink.

The sentiment is a part of a longer phrase masked so as to fit on my new Spellbinders Die D-Lites Fancy Label Tags One, die-cut.

The panels and mounts are cut using Dienamics Pierced Stax Squares.

I used the sketch from Clean and Simple  290

Casual Fridays want three things on a third of the card

I have three panels and three words!

This one is for CAS on Sunday where they need to see Sparkle and Shimmer!

I used this fabulous Indigo Blu butterfly embossed with WOW Vintage Peacock, sparkly embossing powder!

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!

Sketch Time

It's Sketch time once more at "Less is More" and I have a few cards to show you!

The first one takes the sketch fairly literally and has a background of an Artemio manuscript stamp surmounted by a couple of my new Memory Box butterflies... Pippi and Isabella. I decided to put one black on white and the other white on black.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up. 

This next one has a little more stamping. 

Off the Grid and Gorgeous Grunge from Stampin' Up with an SU sentiment and some Dienamics die cut tools on a length of twine.
I'm linking this to the challenge at Addicted to CAS this week with the theme Grunge!

The sketch is not quite so obvious in this one, but I had great fun making it!
I began by cutting the two hearts which are from Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers, Bigz dies.
I then used some Platinum UTEE to add a couple of layers , then sprinkled on a little black and heat embossed that, stamping a deeply etched flourish stamp into the molten powder.
The base circle was cut from three layers of card and embossed in black for a couple of layers and then added just a sprinkling of the Platinum crystals.
I couldn't find my fine detail Platinum embossing powder for the sentiment and gold or silver just wasn't right with the main images, so I mixed up some gold and silver powders together and was really quite pleased with the result.

This last one is the one I popped on the "Less is More" blog. 

A Memory box die cut Butterfly Heart, backed with some turquoise card, which was also used for the SU Embosslits  additional butterflies.

This one pleases me, I hope it pleases you too!

Garden

The theme at CASology this week is GARDEN.

SO I thought that I would try a little watercolour technique using Inks and Stamps.

I wet the  cardstock and then dragged a little Distress Ink across it using a large wet watecolour brush. I then added the tiny Art Impression foliage stamps, using Adirondack Inks, whilst the base was still wet. Once dried I stamped again, this time achieving  more definite impressions. Sadly I don't remember the make of the little sentiment stamp. 

Makes me Smile!

Bugaboo stamps always bring a smile to my face and the challenge at "Less is More" this week is simply that... something that makes you smile... although it doesn't necessarily have to be funny. It could be just cute or pretty or pleasing!

I simply added a word bubble to the image and popped the quote inside it. Having coloured it with Copics I die cut an oval leaving the speech bubble protruding out of it!

This little cat from Creative Images always makes me hoot... I quite like the sentiment too!

This is the card I put on the LIM blog this week... my favourite chickens from Penny Black, although this is just one of row of chooks working out!

The sentiment made me smile too!

God must like calories, because he made so many!

I can empathise with that one!

Why don't you join in!

I have my grandchildren for the weekend...what fun we'll have!

Welcome little one

Here is a little card based on this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

The little Papertrey  giraffe was stamped and die-cut, then popped onto dimensional pads accompanied by a very old but very favourite sentiment stamp... it says copyright 1987 but I can't read a maker's name. It was bought second hand on eBay many years ago! 

Having not made many cards for the past several weeks, I seem to have been pretty busy recently, I just completed a commission of seven cards for a lady in Northern Ireland... my fame is spreading!

Ciao!

We had a wonderful time in and around Pisa last year. It was a choir tour on which only half of the choir managed to go, due to last minute cancelled flights at Heathrow. Having made our own way to Pisa, via Gatwick, we were some of the lucky ones!

It's amazing how this building remains standing!

The challenge at Addicted to CAS is FAR AWAY and I thought that this would do!

The stamp is from Stamp it Australia Around the World.

Easter Bunnies

This is a card for a few challenges.

I loved the free image from A Day for Daisies, and decided to use it for their Easter challenge.

This card also fits with the challenge from Casual Fridays where an oval is required!

As it could also be used as a birthday card, I decided to enter it for the challenge at CAS on Sunday, where a birthday card using a die-cut is the challenge!

They are such cute bunnies!

CAS(e) this Sketch

Just a quickie at the last minute for CASe this Sketch this week.

I used my new doggy dies from All Occasion Dies, bought at Ally Pally last weekend mounted on my new Diemnamics pierced stax squares.

The sentiment is a fraction of an SU stamp, masked so as to just have the one word!

Now I must prepare lunch for my hubby and myself... haven't got a clue what I'm going to make yet!

Shadow Stamping

It's one Layer Week at 'Less is More' and the additional element is Shadow Stamping!

Here are my cards... I did two which were not one layer before I remembered that it was One Layer week! How nice it would be to have a brain!

This is an Inkadinkado image, stamped twice without re-inking for each repetition of the image.

The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley!

More masking here, horizontally this time, with a foliage stamp from Unity and a splatter stamp from SU, stamped with Versamark and clear embossed. The sky was then inked with SU Bashful Blue ink and the green colour was stamped using Forest Moss Distress Ink. The surface of the embossing was cleaned of excess ink with a paper towel. Once more the sentiment is from Lili of the Valley.

Holiday 'Mysteries'

My lack of cardmaking this week is due to the fact that we have our granddaughter Daisy staying with us during the first week of her Easter break from school.

Each day we have been going on a 'Mystery'. We have managed quite a few this week. Yesterday we went to Portchester Castle, where we climbed right to the top of the keep and back down some steep spiral staircases.

Today we did an Easter Trail at Queen Elizabeth Country Park, followed by exploring the buildings at Butser Ancient farm.

I shall be exhausted by the end of the week!

A touch of turquoise

A touch of Turquoise

This is the challenge from Less is More this week!

This is just a scrap of card from some playing around with a new set of stamps from Visible Images. I didn't want to just ditch it so I die-cut a scrap and then mounted it together with a tiny butterfly. The oval is popped up on dimensional pads.

Here's a little emboss resist using some Stampin' Up daisies. I saw this image and really wanted it... I managed to find it on eBay in the States... it has been retired for some time and I don't even know if it was ever available in this country, but isn't it fab!

The sentiment is also from Stampin' Up.

This morning I shall be going to pick up my new car!

What excitement!

My last three cars have been Skodas, so I'm really excited about having a different make. I took this pic in the showroom when I bought the car on Monday! I think it's kinda funky!

I can't wait!