Happy Birthday to me!

Today I will be flying off to Spain with my husband, daughter and two grandchildren. We have been every summer since Daisy was born and she really looks forward to it. A week of R&R for some of the party, but probably not Granny and Grandpops!

We are really looking forward to spending time with them.

Today is also my birthday.... not an incredibly huge one...that comes next year, just a might big one!

Her are my cards for Less is More this week. The theme is Anything Goes!

This is the card I made for my son whose birthday is tomorrow! He's really into sailing and has just returned from a sailing holiday in Greece.

My very kind friend Sherry got the dies for me and shipped them over for me as the company (Creative Time) don't ship to the UK.  Thanks so much Sherry, what a great bunch of people bloggers are!

This utilises a Cuttlebug embossing folder which was inked with Distress ink before running the card through the machine. I was really pleased with how it turned out. The single house is from a Memory Box die and the sentiment computer generated.

For this I did that fiddly process where you have a die with 'tails' and a circle die and you cut them out so that the word die is attached to  main piece of card. Jennifer McGuire did a video explaining the process you can see it here. It gives quite a sense of achievement when it's done.

This last one is another of my watercolour stamp conglomerations. I was quite pleased with how the daisies turned out on this one! It was a commission card for a friend. The stamps are from Art Impressions coloured with Distress Inks. 

Have a wonderful week ...I hope to!

Run

I understand that RUN is a sailing term... not that I'm a sailor but I have heard the expression. so... as the challenge at CASology is

I thought that a little card with yachts on might fit the bill!

It's from a tiny Memory Box die with a computer generated sentiment, mounted on a Die-namics pierced Stax rectangle.

Singin' in the rain!

At "Less is More" this week we have a song title to inspire our cards.

We chose Singin' in the rain.

I saw the show in Chichester theatre a few seasons ago and was really glad not to be sitting in the first few rows of the auditorium as they got soaked. The devilment on the dancers' faces was a joy to watch! Not all the recipients were as pleased!

Here are my cards for this week.

Here are a couple of dear little Technique Tuesday chickadees. I think they are ace! The sentiment is computer generated in Janda Scrapgirl font and mounted on a reduced length Clearly Besotted die-cut. The cloud and raindrops are from a Lawn Fawn die set.

Here is a little chap splashing about from Lili of the Valley!

What a cutie, coloured with Mirage Pens. I really like them and they were very inexpensive (as pens go)!

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted. Same clouds as above!

Inkspirational has the Word Prompt Splash, so this is for that too

I lost 3lbs this week, which really pleased me... just another 13lbs to go!

Wish me luck!

One layer finger prints

I have been a real plonker this week!

I merrily made several cards, as I thought for this week's challenge at Less is More, forgetting that it was a ONE LAYER week. You can see the cards I made by mistake at the bottom of this post!

I only remembered just before leaving for a cricket match on Friday evening, and so had to start all over when I got home at about 10pm.

The challenge is to make a one layer card incorporating a finger print or prints. Here I used my fingers to make fish! (not fish fingers).

I clear embossed the background with SU's Gorgeous Grunge stamp and clear embossed then inked with Memento Summer Sky ink. The finger prints are with Distress Ink using appropriately enough ...Salty Ocean!

I simply doodled on the scales, tails and fins etc and then stamped some bubbles from  Rubbernecker stamp and added a sentiment from The Alley Way Stamps.

This is simply an embossed rectangle inked with Antique Linen Distress ink then a fingerprint in Gathered Twigs and again doodled legs and tail etc.. The repeated sentiment is from Technique Tuesday.

Here are the mistakes!

 and another

and finally!

Sorry this is such a dreadful picture!

I must try harder!

Needless to say these last three are not suitable for a one layer challenge but the ideas could no doubt be adapted!

A couple of cards

A musician friend of mine is approaching 60 and I wanted yo make him a card with a musical reference.

This is a little contrived but I think it just about works. 

I saw this Cheery Lynne die of an embellished treble clef at Newbury Racecourse on Saturday and thought it might come in useful. It is a G clef... indicating what pitch the notes on the stave should be played... so as it was a G I decided to use it for the first letter of my friend's name... Geoff. I tried to get the E on the E line of the stave and the two Fs in the F space on the stave.

At the beginning of a piece of music there is often an indication of the speed at which the music should be played, so I used his age as this.

The birthday greetings are from Clearly Besotted dies using recycled wrapping paper. The stars are from Memory Box.
Papertake challenge has the theme Star and Stripes, I saw on Lorraine's blog this morning and so thought that this having both stars and stripes would qualify!

This second card was made for the challenge at a new blog called the Cutting Edge Challenge.

The buildings are from a Savvy Stamps die and the sentiment from Tattered Lace. The sunset was made with Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon

The inspiration this week is from this fab card!

The main rule for this challenge is that there should be some cutting, either manual or electronic in evidence on the submissions. What a lovely thought!

The beach

I have a drawer full of images and sentiments that I have made digitally at one time or another and not used. I recently bought some new marker pens... a set called Mirage which were very inexpensive, but which I really like. There are 120 in the set, which leaves a few gaps in my opinion but nevertheless I'm really impressed with them. What I'm waffling on about is to say that I don't know the origin of this image... it was in my drawer and I just coloured it!  If anyone knows its origin, I'm sure you'll let me know!

The sentiment here was computer generated, using Jennifer Lynne font.

The Paper Players have a challenge entitled Let's Go to the beach, so this is for that!

New stamp

I went to the craft show at Newbury Racecourse on Saturday. It was quite bijou...not having been before I had nothing to compare it with, but there was an announcement over the PA apologising for the lack of exhibitors! Some internal problem apparently. Having said all that I did get some good things that I was pleased with.

This card was made with couple of the things... the flower stamp from Impression Obsession and the Cuttlebug embossing folder...which was A BARGAIN...it has a border folder included and cost the grand sum of £2!

The stem of this flower is really straight, but being a cling stamp I could bend it a little on the acrylic block. I coloured it with a variety of Distress inks and SU Marker pens and added a little spritz of water before stamping. In fact there was a trace of some Gelato colour in a crevice from a previous experiment,  which was obviously activated by the water. I rather like the mix of colour it gave.

The sentiment is from Clearly  Besotted.

I noticed on my bloggy friend Vicki's blog, that there is a challenge called AAA cards where they have the focus of watercolours. I have been playing around with loads of different techniques, so this is another among many!

Earth Tones

The colour challenge at "Less is More" this week is Earth Tones.

I love this section of the colour spectrum and have made a few cards using it.

This one started out having the 'hello' stamped to match the background, but I decided it wasn't clear enough so I added an extra diecut to give it the contrast in  white.

It's from Avery Elle with stamps by Dienamics. I used various Distress Inks... Pumice Stone, Antique Paper, Brushed Corduroy and Gathered Twigs.

This stamp is from a fun set I bought in Portsmouth last week, it's from Woodware,  it made me smile!

This is the one I added to the LIM blog this week. More stamps from Art Impressions, some of which I bought on eBay from Jenny (Crafting in the Country) whose daughter was having a bit of a stamp clear out!

I find stamping this kind of image so relaxing and satisfying (most of the time)!

The sentiment is from Stamplorations; I was asked to be a Guest Designer for them in a recent Blog hop to celebrate their first birthday, which was great fun! One of the cards I produced for that would have been perfect for this challenge...scroll down a few posts if you would like to see that!

This one is simplicity itself. A Memory Box butterfly cut from a piece of stone coloured card and its filigree die-cut equivalent popped into the gap. A ribbon, a die-cut sentiment from Clearly Besotted  and a fancy punched edge and that's it.
Simples
I was asked how I attach a skinny sentiment like this one to a card. I put double sided tape on the back of the card to be die-cut, then simply cut, peel and adhere it to the project!
Easy Peasy!

Freshly made sketches

There is a sketch which I found rather interesting over at Freshly Made Sketches and this is my interpretation of it!

I love the stitched effect on these dies. The panels are Dienamics and the sun and clouds from Lawn Fawn.

I made the sentiment on the computer in KG Skinny Latte font.

I began by having a white base card, but decided that as it was a cheering up card, I would change it to an egg yolk yellow... a bit more cheerful. 

Time Out has the challenge of Fun in the sun, so it's for that too!

I'm off to the Craft Show at Newbury Racecourse tomorrow... I've never been there before, but as Karen from Acid Drops and Whatnots was kind enough to send me a ticket, I couldn't refuse could I?

Float!

Here's a keyword to conjure with...

FLOAT

It's the stimulus for the challenge at CASology this time.

All sorts of things spring to mind but here are a couple of things I

 came up with.

This one features a little boat form The Stamp Gallery. I love their primitive type images... isn't this the cutest boat?

This one features a Cathie Shuttleworth image. Both cards are coloured with Mirage pens, a new acquisition from the Portsmouth craft show last weekend. very cheap pens... very good quality, I'm impressed!

The sentiments on both cards were computer generated using KG Beneath Your Beautiful Chunk... strange name but great font.

Shake It!

At Simon Says Stamp there's a challenge for a shaker card.

I haven't made a shaped receptacle for the shakey bits before, but there are such amazing DT inspiration cards this time that I thought that I'd have a go!

No stamping at all here, merely diecuts...and lots of them from a variety of sources. 

The large butterfly is Spellbinder, the larger ones inside the card and decorating the outside are Stampin' Up, the tiny ones inside are from a Dienamics die, the word 'happy' is Simon Says Stamp and 'Birthday' is Papertrey Ink.

Clean and Simple on Sunday have the challenge 'Birthday', so this is for that too!

Relax little bird

A Day for Daisies has a monochrome challenge at the moment, they also have a new set of images called Blue Birdie, which are so cute, but this is an earlier one and I love the touch of manuscript on his wings.

He is coloured with my new alcohol pens. They are called Mirage and I really like them, not just because they are a fraction of the price of other makes.

The sentiment is computer generated, in a font which is called KG Beneath your Beautiful Chunk!

The ONE LAYER challenge at Simplicity is to use the colours of your country's flag. This is a challenge we had at "Less is More" some time ago and for some can be quite tricky. I have to admit that I don't tend to use my combination of colours often!

I would be very sorry to see the blue disappear from our flag, I think it would be a great shame if Scotland left the union. 

The performance of The Dream of Gerontius on Saturday was simply amazing. I don't ever remember singing is a concert which was so atmospheric and it was incredibly well received. On to the next lot of music now. We will be embarking on Karl Jenkins, The Armed Man.