Happy birthday

Whenever I see an interesting simple sketch, I really feel the need to have a go... as was the case after seeing this from Freshly Made Sketches

It rang a bell for another challenge at Inkspirational to use Ink Splatters, so here it is!

In fact the splatters are stamped and not splattered, but I don't suppose that matters! I used a stamp from the SU Gorgeous Grunge set, which has been a favourite of mine for quite some time now!

The butterfly was cut with a Memory Box die from some smooshed card and given a plain mount so as to show up the filigree against the splatters.

The other day a friend asked me to make a card for her DIL's 30th birthday. She gave me pretty much free rein to do what I pleased but quite liked the  idea of flowers. I decided to make something that I thought she would like.

As it was a special birthday (it is today in fact) I thought we would go the whole hog and do something with a little dimension and make a box for it too!

This is a large card, (A4 sheet of card folded in half) and I had the idea that I wanted to use a soft blue and kraft for the colour scheme. I used Sahara Sand card from SU but didn't have any blue that I felt was quite right so I printed a sheet in Pink Petticoat's 'Ocean' shade. As I made the rolled flowers from this, I could use exactly the same colour for the sentiment. I pick up the RGB numbers by opening something in the colour into Paint and then using the dropper tool pick up a little of the colour to see what the combination of RGB is!

I used a bunch of dies, mainly Memory Box I think!

I thought I would add it to the challenge at Simon Says Stamp

Anything Goes

The CARD CONCEPT

Doggy Birthday

I love Bugaboo digi images, the style and humour of many of them really appeal to me. This, however is the first time that I have entered into one of their challenges!

Catch the bug challenges

My card is following this sketch.

I think this is one cool hound, he has such an adorable look on his face!

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and the pawprint die from Memory Box. 

I have been waiting for for a week, for a pattern to make some scrubs. I had a message last Friday to say that it had shipped.... still no pattern, I know that postal deliveries have been all over the place, but hopefully it will come today! I have fabric ready to cut and some specifically ordered should be here in a day or so! 

Fingers crossed it all comes soon!

Christmas Craft Creations

I have recently joined the Design Team at 

Christmas Craft  Creations.

I really enjoy making Christmas cards and it's great not to have the mad dash just before mailing deadlines, making last minute cards when December arrives.

This is my first creation for them!

The theme is to Use a Stamp

I used a bunch of stamps in fact. Santa is from MFT, the tree from an Impression Obsession stamp which has 5 trees on it and the sentiment from Mama Elephant. I divided 

the front panel into two with a double pierced die and embossed the top half with an EF called Snow, from Sheena Douglass. I love this folder and have tried several times to get one for a friend, but it seems to be discontinued.

I do hope you'll join in with this fun challenge!

Christmas Kickstart 

Create  a scene

CAS Christmas - Santa Claus is coming to town or Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas ... (because of the sentiment)


Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes

Poppy?

Poppies are a symbol of remembrance!

I don't really think that this flower die is supposed to be a poppy but I thought it looked poppy shaped, so I coloured it appropriately with Distress inks. I cut it first with a larger circle die, but it seemed to overpower the size of the card base, so I re-cut it with the next size down. Although the die cut practically fills the circle, I still prefer the proportions of it on the card.

Fusion card Challenge

It's another beautiful day, we had a lovely walk through the local pathways for our daily exercise and now it's nearly time for preprandials!

Cheers!

I have the sexiest legs ever...

Yesterday I wrote a post submitting two cards to various challenges, adding all the badges and links only to find that Blogger could neither publish nor save it. I thought it had been saved as a draft and I gaily came out of the page only to discover that there was no trace of it! SO I went outside and sat in the garden and enjoyed the fine weather for a while!

Today I thought I would try again!

Actually I think that one of the challenges I was entering has finished, but hey ho there are actual things to worry about in the world at the moment... missing blog posts are certainly not included in that list!

This card was made with the challenge at AAA Cards in mind.

 

I know that chickens aren't the greatest of fliers but they can flap their way up into low branches and up onto their roosts.

As a chicken belongs to the animal kingdom I thought I would also add it to Addicted to CAS 

 The sentiment reads 'I have the sexiest legs ever!' which I printed from the computer. The stamp is from Artemio and coloured with alcohol markers.

Mod Squad - Birds

I missed the sketch deadline for this card but am entering it into the challenge at Color Throwdown.

Actually this colour combo is very familiar to me as they were the colours of my college scarf!

The plank stamp is from IO, the cat die from Simply Graphics (France) and the sentiment form Avery Elle. I think a lot of people are thinking about that at this time!
I have just discovered that I have not only missed the sketch challenge for this card but the colour one too!
Hope you like it anyway!

Thinking of you

Here is another card for the CAS Stencil Challenge which is to use Gilding Flakes.

I used a Sizzix die to cut a stencil from vellum and then applied Versamark through it. After removing the stencil I added Stamp 'n' Bond and heat set it.

I sprinkled on the remains of some gold and some green Gilding Flakes which were mainly dust, but they seemed to work well enough for most of the stencil. As I wasn't too happy with the complete thing, I decided to cut it down and just use part of it! The filigree layer of the butterfly was cut from one of the less successful areas.

It was difficlt to know what to do about the embossing for the sentiment in order to have it tone with the gilding, so I mixed some silver and gold embossing powder together and I was pleased with the end result.

I am waiting for a pattern for some surgical scrubs to arrive, it's on its way apparently.  I have dug out some fabric from the loft which was been stowed away for years (some was bought in the US in about 1978) it's fabulous stuff so hopefully I'll be able to make some up jolly ones and then offer them to any takers. My son (a GP) is well supplied apparently so I'll have to see who would like them! Let's hope the pattern comes today!
Crafty Calendar - Add a Butterfly

Just a note

One of the joys of being a squirrel is that one day, stuff that you have stashed away will come in handy!

I made the panel on this card ages and ages ago and it has sat in a little cache of stuff, to be used when appropriate! This is that time!

This is the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch and so you can see how my little panel came in useful!

I don't remember the make of the stamp, I have a feeling that it was a clear stamp, probably bought on eBay, but I can't actually put my hands on it at the moment. I think I coloured it with watercolour pencils, blended with a water brush and then once dry it was glazed with Glossy Accents.

I looked for a 'Just a note' sentiment (because of the musical association) but could't find one in a sympathetic font or size so I did this one on the computer.

The card base is Hammered white card from Paper Mill Direct. I think that several members of my choir will like this one... once we get back to real rehearsals, rather than virtual ones!

Bunnies

When I saw the challenge at CAS on Friday, I immediately thought of Lili of the Valley images... their bunnies are so cute!

I stamped the image onto watercolour paper using Memento London Fog ink. I added colour with watercolour pencils and blended gently with a waterbrush.

The sentiment is from Sugar Pea Designs.
Addicted to CAS

Today is the first day of rain that we have had for some time. We are lucky that since staying at home, we have been able to spend

time in the garden or have short walks around some of the local pathways. When our area was developed, the council decided to include lots of walkways between the various groups of houses.

They make for very pleasant walks. People are very courteous when passing each other and make sure that social distancing is observed, but always exchange a friendly greeting.

Stay safe everyone!

Leo

The challenge at CASology this time is quite tricky I think!

I wasn't quite sure what to do for it, but then thought that I would try to do my birth sign constellation. So this is my interpretation of LEO!

I inked a piece of card with Tumbled Glass and Chipped Sapphire Distress ink, blending the two colours together. I die cut a mountain peak silhouette and placed it at the bottom of the panel. Next I plotted the stars from the Leo constellation and drew lines between them with a Jelly roll pen. I also dotted a few extra stars in the sky with the pen. Then I added some tiny silver stars to each point of the constellation. The sentiment is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, which I think is just SO good and so very sensible!

We have been so lucky to have had such lovely weather since our lockdown began; at least we can spend some time outdoors and we have managed to have a short walk most days.

Do take care everyone and we will get through this!

Masking

The challenge at Perfectly CAS this month is Masking

I haven't done any masking for quite a long time and I tried a few different things.... most of which left me feeling underwhelmed. For this card I used some Blockhead stamps (again these haven't seen the light of day for ages, until very recently). I don't feel too badly about this one. I left some space at the bottom of the card for a sentiment and was really pleased with the way that this one fitted the contours of the images (a pure fluke that the two things worked together). I had searched through my sentiments however to see if there were any which would fit well. I think it's from Clearly Besotted, but there's no manufacturer's name on the carrier sheet.

I made this one first but wasn't to keen on the flatness of the 'white space', although I like how the leaves turned out!

I hope that you will join us and try your hand at CAS.... lots of lovely white space, no matter what the colour!

Have a lovely day

Here is my last attempt at Bleaching for the CAS Mix UP challenge.

I thought that this was the same shade card as the one I had used on my previous submission, but when I got around to adding the sentiment, I realised that the two were in fact different and I had chosen the wrong one for it. This one is slightly more teal in shade. Fortunately as the sentiment is tiny (Sugar Pea Designs), I had just enough to do it.

Anyway, I stamped an Impression Obsession background stamp and embossed in Gold.

After the bleach had dried I added a little clear Wink of Stella, but I can't get it to show up very well on a photograph.

People often ask what cardstock I use. Practically everything I own is from Paper Mill Direct. They used to have stores around the country (UK) but for the most part now everything is online. (I believe that there are a few craft stores which have a Paper Mill Direct concession.) I still have boxes and boxes of coloured card which I bought in store (there used to be 2 stores within striking distance of my house), which sadly closed about 8 or 9 years ago. I just couldn't resist filling a box each time I went in!

Goodness knows how much I would have if they were still open!

I think the card I used today is called Hemp.

Stay safe everyone!

Hello There

Here is another card for the challenge at CAS Mix Up

I stamped the background stamp in Versamark and then embossed in gold. Using a tiny brush I painted the leaves with bleach and dried it off with my heat gun. To add a little lustre to the leaves at went over them with some clear Wink of Stella. 

The panel was cut with some Pink Fresh Studio frame dies and mounted with one frame raised to add a little dimension. A die cut olive branch (Alexandra Renke) and a tiny sentiment (Sugar Pea Designs) finished the card.

Rudolph

I wanted to use this little MFT image of Rudolph, but couldn't work out where I wanted to put him. I tried him beside a Christmas tree, overlooking mountains, standing with Santa, but in the end I decided to try to make him fly. To give this impression I cut the roof off a die cut house and added it to the bottom of an embossed black square and added Rudolph as though he was leading the other reindeer (out of the picture) on their merry way! Not sure if it was successful, but I think he looks cute!

Just Us Girls

Christmas Kickstart

Create a Scene

Addicted to Stamps and More

Christmas Craft Creations

CAS Christmas Card Challenge

(Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Addicted to CAS Animal

All Square

I love square cards, but somehow it seems a little wasteful. I cut my card blanks from sheets of A4 which is roughly 8.25ins  x 11.75ins. I use the card folded in half widthways and cut to a square. There is always a strip left... I have a drawer full of strips and seldom get to use all of them! If I cut rectangular cards I can get two cards from one sheet of A4.

The  challenge at Just US Girls is to make a square card and use at least one additional square.

I began by cutting a square from a piece of card that I had smooshed some colours onto, I think it was Brushos but the scrap had been in my left overs drawer for ages so I'm not 100%positive that this is what I did! When I get messy with lots of colours, I take prints on lots of pieces of card and keep them filed away in colour coded drawers until I find a use for them.

Next, I die-cut two, square frame, flower dies and layered them to add definition, and adhered them over the coloured square. I flooded the tile with Nuvo Crystal Glaze and added some gems which had been self adhesive at one time, but which has lost their 'stickability'. This seemed like a good way to use them!

I die cut two additional pieces of card, from scraps, to mount the tile onto.

The flower die and the diagonal slashed die are from Pink Fresh Studios and the stitched one from SSS.

This is one of my scraps' drawers, you can see the piece of card which I cut the base square for this card from and I'm too mean to throw the rest away!

I hope everyone is staying safe through these extraordinary times, I really hope that people will heed the Government's pleas to stay home this coming holiday weekend, although for people without their own outdoor space it must be very difficult. 

Take care everyone!