Super Simple

There's a super sketch at CASe this Sketch this week

Here I used a layered inlay for this Mothering Sunday card!

The image was stamped and coloured then die cut and then added to a layered inlaid diecut using plain card. The 'Mothering Sunday' was computer generated, which was of course the first stage of the making process!

The flower stamps are from Lil' Inker and the happy die from Wplus 9.

Just us Girls has this picture inspiration this time.

I used the yellow of the wall paper with the white and black from the chair as the starting points for my card!
It's also for Addicted to CAS which has the challenge Petals

Today is my Brother in law's wedding and then tomorrow we're off on a week's tour to Derbyshire with my choir... the Portsmouth Choral Union! At the wedding rehearsal yesterday the bride suddenly decided to ask my husband to sing a solo in the service... bit short notice to say the least, but in addition to his duties as best man, he's going to do it! I hope the organist can cope!

I can't seem to find a pic of the wedding stationery I did for them, I'll try to popt something later!

Quite a busy time

Another sketch

It's time for another sketch at Less is More and as you might expect it's a simple one!

Here I flipped the diagonal so that I could use one of my Memory Box Distressed Windham Collage dies.The flower stack is from Poppy Stamps and the sentiment from Happy Little Stampers. I die cut part of the tag to fit around the edge of the flowers.The card was coloured with distress inks using the shaving foam technique and the die-cut flowers raised on 3d pads

Fast

When I saw the cue word Fast at Casology, I wondered what image I could use to illustrate this and then I remembered this cute set of bunnies and boy.. can they be fast when you're trying to catch them!  This particular trio is from Stampin' Bella!

The sentiment stamp is a very old one I bought on eBay and I love the randomness of it!

Midnight

At Addicted to CAS the challenge is Midnight, so a silhouette type image sprang to mind. Here is a Sheena Douglass freebie from a magazine, over a bit of Distress inking. I cut the panel into three and mounted it with a postage stamp type die from Memory Box, which I altered in length slightly to fit the card. The Thanks is from Wplus9, double layered. One lot of 'stars' was stamped and clear embossed before inking and the other set was done with the faux bleach technique after inking.

I just love butterflies

AAA Cards Challenge has reached its 2nd birthday and they are having a 'bit of a do'!

This 'bit of a do' is in the form of a Blog Hop with lots of goodies along the way!

 Here is a card to help them celebrate.

Memory Box Butterfly, Stampin' Up splodges and the make of the sentiment is a Dee's Distinctively Die.

It's also for the challenge at Colours and Sketches

If only I had a brain!

It has just taken me over an hour or even longer to transfer a couple of photos from my phone to my laptop! For quite some time it has worked perfectly well, but for some reason today I must have altered some setting or other and I simply could not get the transfer to happen. In the end I'm not really sure how I actually managed it, so doing the next transfer might be interesting!

Anyway here is a card I made as a case of Cornelia's Christmas card for Muse:~ Christmas Visions

As you can see it's a pretty close imitation, but I love the unusual colour choice and use of vellum!

The die I used for the sentiment follows the contour of the lower panel beautifully! It's from Simon Says Stamp. The snowflake is from Avery Elle.

Something that pops!

The challenge at "Less is More" this week is for something that pops!

The first thought which came into my head was of a balloon so here is a dear little bear from Sizzix holding one! This Sizzlit die has been a favourite of mine for some time. The string comes from another old die from Bosscut which I've had for ever, it actually has a little pull along duck on it, but it's the string which gets used most often. The balloon die is from Paper Smooches and the sentiment  from Happy Little Stampers.

Another thing which comes to mind is the pop of a champagne cork, here I used a freely downloadable colouring page from the internet which was coloured and covered with a layer of Glossy Accents. The sentiment is from a Cheers die set by Ellements.

Die Inlays

The challenge at AAA cards this time if for Inlaid Dies. This is a technique that I really like, albeit somewhat fiddly at times.

Here I used a die from Paper Smooches, so elegant in its simplicity. I cut it from the card and then  heat embossed the outer piece in gold before reinserting it into the base. The sentiment is from  Clearly Besotted. The top layer is die cut with a stitched die from Simon Says Stamp, lengthened slightly to fit British card dimensions.

At Sea!

At "Less is More" it's time for  One Layer with the theme At Sea!

I love these sea birds from The Rubber Stamp Gallery. I began by stamping them and then covering them with some Elmers Rubber Cement, before Inking with various Distress Inks over a torn mask. I then over-stamped with a few Stamplorations grunge type stamps using some of the same Distress Inks.

The sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers!

Here I used an image from a kids downloadable colouring page, re-sized one and coloured them with watercolour pencils, blending the colours with a water brush and adding Glossy Accents when dry. The sentiment is computer generated.

This is another stamp from the Rubber Stamp Gallery. I embossed the circles, then masked them before stamping the image and again colouring with watercolour pencils.

The sentiment is from Imagine That.

Another sea picture similar to the first one, This time I stamped and clear embossed the waves using  a grunge stamp from Stamplorations, then inked with various shades of Distress Ink using sponge daubers.

I then stamped the sea bird from The Rubber Stamp Gallery and clear embossed that,  then cut a mask for his body before inking the sky, also using sponge daubers.

I wondered about a sentiment but thought I might leave that until it's needed!

Pretty Pastels

The challenge at Less is More this week is  to use Pastel colours!

It's also our teamie Anita's birthday and so this week is dedicated to her!

DO pop over to her blog to leave her some love!

This is a super Artemio stamp which I bought on sale at Ally Pally a few weeks ago. I inked the petals with Distress ink and then used a Stampin' Up marker to colour the leaves of the tulips . Once stamped, I added a little more Spun Sugar ink to the petals with a water brush! I wondered about adding a sentiment but found that the image looked best alone!

This is a piece of DP which has been sculling around for a while, popped behind the Concord and 9th die-cut heart. The Butterfly is from Poppy Stamps. The Congratulations is from  Tattered Lace die.

This is also for the challenge at Just US Girls this time with the theme butterfly!

This is another stamp from the Artemio set, again inked with Distress Inks and a marker. The sentiment is from Penny Black.

This last one doesn't look terribly pastelly..., I think it may have a little to do with the fact that I inadvertently re-inked my Memento London Fog ink pad with black ink! Hey ho you win some you lose some!

The sentiment is from paper Smooches.

Happy Birthday Anita!

I did say I would add a pic of us at my nephew's wedding last week. The evening theme was Cluedo,.. so here is a geriatric Miss Scarlet with her swain Rev Green!

It was fun!

Inlaid Die cuts

Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge this month is to use Inlaid Dies

Here I used a newish acquisition from Simon Says Stamp and used the multiple heart die to cut three pieces of card.
Having removed the shape from the black piece I put some double sided tape over the back of the aperture and then stuck in the white outline piece and then the individual red hearts. Fortunately they are all exactly the same and so don't have to fit into a specific space.
The 'love' word from Simon Says Stamp was triple layered and popped onto trimmed down dimensional pads. The 'you' from Craft Essentials Creative dies was also triple layered.
The finished piece of black card was adhered to the card front to cover it completely.

This challenge is sponsored by

Winner receives one stamp set from HLS

Tutorials:
Inlaid Die-cutting and Alcohol inks by Catherine Pooler (4:47)

Floating Inlaid Die-cutting by Catherine Pooler (7:30)
Dimensional Inlaid Die-cutting by Joanna Harty (4:53)

Here's another, again inlaid into black, but this time I used a butterfly die which I really love from Concord and 9th. Cut three times once more I embossed the outline piece in glittery Gold Embossing Glitter from WOW. The infill pieces are cut  from a piece of card which I had squished some flowers between, it's a subtle beige colour but I gave it a spritz of Diamond Pearl spray from Crafters Companion.  The sentiment is from Avery Elle, embossed in the same gold glitter.