A touch of washi

I have a friend who asks me to make the most challenging cards. 

She once asked for one with a caterpillar tractor on... this time she asked for a birthday card for her husband, who is about to embark on cycling the Pilgrim's Way in Spain. She specified that she wanted a bike be-laden with panniers.

This is my attempt! I took a photograph of such a bike and changed it to black and white and then added a little washi, stuck onto card and cut into a couple of pennants, a backdrop embossed with a chevron pattern which reminded me of cycle tracks and a computer generated sentiment.

I hope she approves!

It actually fits the challenge at the Male Room, which involves adding washi.

The next one follows the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

For this I took a piece of copy paper and scrunched it up, when unfolded, I swiped it with Memento Summer Skye ink and then spritzed it with water to soften the edges of the ink.

The dies used were Sizzix daisies, Impression Obsession dragonflyand Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangles. The sentiment is from LOTV.

This afternoon I'm going to deliver the 22 Thank you cards I made for my DIL's charity...see previous post. I hope she'll be pleased.

Lucky Dip week at "Less is More"

This week at "Less is More" we have a Lucky Dip week with a special Guest Designer. We have Rebecca (Melly Moo) as our Guest and the theme is 2 legs or 4!

I have one in each category for you today!

The little bird is from A Day for Daisies, coloured with watercolour pencils and a water brush.

It has a simple frame from SSS dies and a computer generated sentiment.

This little four legged creature is from Clearly Besotted, stamped with Ranger Java Bean dye ink  and die cut with its matching die.

The stitched dies are again from Simon Says Stamp and the tree from MFT, with an embossed sky from Stampin' Up.

My daughter-in-law is the chair of a really worthy charity called Petals, which offers counselling for trauma or loss during pregnancy and birth. Having benefited from their services is the past, it is very close to her heart. She wanted to be involved with me to devise a Thank you card to send to donors of substantial amounts to her charity... we spent the afternoon playing around yesterday... we're getting there but it's not sorted just yet,,..so watch this space!

If anyone feels they would like to contribute to this incredibly worthwhile service, I have added a link, just click here to go to their site.

As promised here it is. This is the card I finished up making!

Catching Up

I don't seem to be catching up with jobs since I came back from my holiday and there have been a few things on mind mind to boot, so here is a little card, by way of catch up! I still have a couple of commission cards to do but inspiration is absent at the moment.

This is for Addicted to CAS

This has inlaid dog die-cuts on a chevron backing. It should have been for Muse too but I was too late!

The sentiment is from Avery Elle.

When a friend asked me to make this card, she just said she wanted it to be pretty...I hope it's that!

It's another for the Happy Little Stampers Die-cuts challenge! It's quite large... A5 size and I made a box for it too.

"Less is More" Recipe

The recipe at "Less is More" this week is to include some metal on your card!

There seems to be lots which could be added, but I have gone with a buckle  for one card and a charm for the other!

I really love the simplicity of this one.. almost to the point of thinking that I haven't done much to make it... but the main feature of CAS is knowing when enough is enough... and I think that this has enough! The die is from Tattered Lace!
This is also for the challenge at CASology

This card is another simple one with a Memory Box Golf Landscape die coloured with alcohol markers, mounted on a scored panel, with a Fiskars punched edge. The metal charm is suspended on some baker's twine and the sentiment and its tag are from Stampin' Up!

Back to crafting!

After a couple of weeks on my hols, I thought it about time to join in some challenges!

Here is a card for a few!

CASology Music

Addicted to Stamps - CAS Challenge

AAA Cards Happy Birthday...They are 1 ... Congratulations!

Addicted to CAS - Birds

Happy Little Stampers

For this card I used an Artemio manuscript stamp and die cut the Papertrey Ink Birthday and Memory Box additional letters several times and then layered them.

The little bird is from Wplus9.

Hello Sunshine

First of all I must thank everyone for the wonderful comments I received about my 'water' card from last week's Less is More challenge. They were truly appreciated. In fact I have a similar sort of card published in this month's Craft Stamper magazine, using a stamp of sea birds from the same company as the one I used last week. As we have to submit cards about three months in advance of publication, I had sort of forgotten about it!

Anyway the theme at Less is More this week is Hello Sunshine!

I've seen quite a bit of it on my holiday during the last couple of weeks... on a river cruise along the Danube. I had a wonderful time and met some super people.

Here is my card for this week's challenge!

I'm afraid there's only one this week, as I only got back yesterday and I'm up to my eyes in laundry!

Here is a simple die cut card, using dies from Lawn Fawn and Taylored Expressions. The sentiment is computer generated in KBA Stitch in Time. Sadly at this size the stitching doesn't really show up, but the idea was to match the font with the die cuts!

I have a few commissions to get on with so I shall be busy over the next few days, however I do hope to be back to commenting on submissions to the challenges this week!

Here is a pic of some of the members of the group on a trip around Prague Castle...can you spot me? Teal sweatshirt, white scarf?

I can thoroughly recommend this holiday!

Here's another quickie!

This is a quick card made with SU Kinda Eclectic set, plus a sentiment made in Word with Bohemian typewriter and CK_Alis_Hand fonts. The inks are Ranger Lemon Twist dye ink and Mustard Seed Distress ink.

One Layer Time

I think this bird from the Rubber Stamp Gallery looks pretty cool, I'm not sure what it is but it looks like a sea bird to me. In fact the stamp is of a bird on a plinth, but I chose to have it standing in the water... which is the theme at Less is More this week.

I stamped him and then masked him, to ink the sky and the sea. I had fun with that  by stamping and inking and painting and embossing until I thought it looked OK! I was quite pleased in the end. I was unsure of what to add as a sentiment so I didn't add any at all.

This used a stamp from Stampendous, coloured with watercolour pencils and blended with a water brush. I added some Glamour Dust to the sea for added sparkle.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

I find that using watercolour pencils even after blending with water, doesn't bleed though onto the inside of the card, an important factor in One Layer Cards.

A colour challenge!

This week at "Less is More" the challenge is to use two colours opposite to each other on a colour wheel.

My first thought was of Christmas colours...red and green. You can see them on this little colour wheel.

I used a slightly darker shade of green and inked the whole of this Tim Holtz stamp with it, before removing the ink from the berries with a brush and adding the red with a marker. After stamping I added a little darker red to the berries with a Copic pen,  to add dimension and make them a little more definitive. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Here I went with blue and gold... gorgeous sky and golden sand. It's an image from the Wax Fruit Company coloured with alcohol pens. The sea has a little Glamour Dust added for extra sparkle.

The 'happy' is from a Clearly Besotted die and the 'birthday' from a Mama Elephant stamp.

Here's another using the Tim Holtz holly stamp with a little tag added for a Memory Box sentiment. This time it's mounted on a SSS stitched square.

A couple of days ago we went to see Way Upstream by Alan Ayckbourn at the Chichester Festival theatre. I've seen some amazing productions there but this was something else. The stage was a river scene with real trees and a real 21 foot houseboat, which moved around the water in the most ingenious way and several people dived into the 'river' which was about 3 feet deep! Quite astonishing, and exceedingly clever as well as being a fine play!  I've never seen a set quite like it in a theatre. I wanted to take a picture of it but wasn't sure if I was allowed!

If anyone lives within striking distance of Chichester I can thoroughly recommend it!