Especially For You

Just a quickie.  I made this card for the following challenges:

One Layer Wednesday over at Cheryl's blog - it's all about the size.  Anything but US A2.  Mine's 118mm x 118mm.

CAS-ual Fridays CFC59 - two circles
ColourQ Challenge #143 to use these colours

Especially For You is Hero Arts H1570 stamped in Colorbox Q Sky Grey
Hedgie is from Penny Black Hedgie Friends
Coloured with watercolour pencils

Make a Wish

I happened on the Penny Black Saturday Challenge blog which requires at least one Penny Black stamped image, large sentiment or Stickeroo as the main focus of the card.  This week's challenge is to Fly the Flags!  Here's my card:

Penny Black 1652J Cheesecake Wish stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and coloured with Tombows, Stickles on the seed heads
Stampendous SSC057 Ribbon Sliders (Make a Wish)
Stamposaurus bunting (freebie from Craft Stamper mag)
Bows hand-drawn

Pink Trip

This is my second post today, both of them are for CAS-ual Fridays.  Scroll down or click here for my other card which is also entered into RIC#14.

The starting point for this card was The Crafty Pad Challenge #176 More Than One Fold, and the colour scheme was

I'm also entering it into CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #58

again, because it's pretty and it's pink!

Dress stamp is Inkadinkado My Mother's Dress stamped onto Wild Rose Studio Butterfly Garden collection paper
Driver is Rubber Romance N392 Peggy stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and coloured with Tombows
All wording is from Clear Choice Stamps MIN-CCS103 stamped in Versafine Onyx Black. Vacation is coloured with Sakura Gelly Roll
Diamonds Pattern stamp is PSX, stamped in Brilliance and shadowed with Tombow
Butterfly is cut from Wild Rose paper
Braid flower, self-adhesive pearl and gems

Killer heels

When I saw the Runway Inspired Challenge #14 inspiration photo, I immediately thought of this stamp.  It's a fairly literal translation of the inspiration, but I couldn't help myself!

I'm also entering it into the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #58 cos it's pretty and it's pink!

Shoe stamp is VAP! Scrap

Sentiment is Penny Black 3853F Too Many

Still Thinking of You

This is my second post of the day.  Scroll down or click here for my CASE Study Challenge #96 card.

I've already entered a couple of cards into the Hero Arts June contest, and now I've found another Thinking of You stamp to use.  Although the sentiment isn't Hero Arts, the background is.  I'm also linking the card to Virginia's How I Stretch My Stamps feature, and to the Penny Black Circle on Flickr.  The original inspiration for the card came from one of Heather Telford's cards.

Background is Hero Arts S1832 Italian Poetry Background coloured with Tombow pen and spritzed before stamping, with the top-right corner masked off.
Flower is Penny Black 2664L Irises coloured with Tombows and spritzed before stamping.
Thinking of You is Inkadinkado stamped with Versafine Onyx Black.

Pucker Up Buttercup

This week's challenge at A Blog Named Hero is kissing one stamp against another.

After looking through my stamp collection - several times - I eventually settled on these circles and bubbles stamps to make this card:

The solid circles are Hero Arts LL890 Box of Dots stamped with Encore Ultimate Metallic Green
The black bubbles are from Paper Artsy stamped in Versafine Onyx Black
Happy Birthday To You is Hero Arts C2656

They're such nice people at A Blog Named Hero - they picked out my card as one of 5 from the last challenge for special mention, and I get a Heroine blog badge. Yay!!

I'm also entering this card for Lawnscaping Challenge #36 - add a splash of colour

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I've been wanting to try this technique since I saw Riet van Zundert's article in the April 2012 issue of Craft Stamper (although I can't see it on her blog).  Riet was inspired by this tutorial.  Here's my first attempt.

It all started with the Thinking of You stamp.  I wanted to make another card for the Hero Arts June contest, and as I've only got one Hero Arts Thinking of You stamp, I wanted to do something different with it, so I thought of cutting it and feeding sheer ribbon through the cuts, and thought this technique would be the perfect background.

Gather some petals and leaves from the garden.  Thick and juicy is not good, because basically you're squeezing the moisture out of the petals and leaves, and if they're too juicy, it will spurt out over your workstation.  I used scarlet geraniums, campanula petals (lilac), petunia petals (not recommended - way too juicy and almost ruined the pressing) and snapdragons (again, not recommended for the same reason). Oh, and various leaves, including flat leaf parsley!

I separated the geranium petals and cut the campanula bell so that I could flatten it out, then laid everything out on watercolour paper and sandwiched it with another piece of watercolour, and put it through the Cuttlebug.  I ended up with two sheets, shown her side by side.  You get a different effect on each sheet where petals and leaves have overlapped.  Carefully peel off the squashed petals and leaves, and rub off any stubborn bits with a soft brush or kitchen roll.  Leave the paper to dry.

The dark purple splodge on the left sheet is the petunia and you can see how all the juice squashed out to the edge of the paper.   The individual purple petals are the scarlet geraniums! The large bluey flower at the top is the campanula.  I've enhanced the picture so that you can see the detail, but in reality the colours aren't as vivid as they appear here, they're more delicate.

I used the bottom-right section for this card.  You can see the flat leaf parsley at the bottom. Good fun!  I'm going to try yellows next time.

ColourQ Challenge #142

This week's ColourQ Challenge is to use the following colour combination:

The starting point for this card was the background paper.  It's double-sided and I hate double-sided.  Why?

(1) I have to buy at least two sheets - one to use, one to stroke, and so that I can see both sides side-by-side.

(2) I still can't decide which side to use.

(3) I don't like hiding a perfectly good pattern away on the reverse side, it's unsettling.

I went with the plain side, as the patterned side was too fussy for this design.  It already has hints of blue and coral in the top left corner, which is why I chose it.  Because the stamp design is quite fussy, I just coloured the details rather than the whole image, and used the fine nib of the Tombow pens on the stronger colours so that they didn't overpower the rest of it.

Hero Arts Fancy Cake H3784

Happy Birthday from Woodware FRCL069 Large and Small Greetings

Best Wishes

This week's One Layer Wednesday over at Heather's blog is to create a card inspired by something in your kitchen.  This is what inspired my card:

and here's my card.  Apologies for the dull photo - it's pouring with rain, dull and cold.  All day.  You wouldn't think it's mid summer.  I definitely need a photo light box, because even the enhancement feature on my photo software can't brighten the photo enough.

I'm also entering it into the challenge for Play Date Cafe Challenge #137 which is

Black ... White ... Blue

Cat stamp is Queen of Cats by docrafts

Best wishes is Hero Arts 3657C ...wishes

Flower is from Hampstead Collection Sketch Clear Flower set by docrafts.

Playing along with Gallery Idol

I'm playing along with Gallery Idol again on Keren B's Flickr group.  The contestants' last challenge was based on "Around the House".  Keren used cotton buds, and Virginia used sticky notes. Aha, I thought: cocktail sticks! I would make a card featuring a venetian blind with a stamped pot plant on a window ledge. I could see it clearly in my head.  Found the cocktail sticks, chopped the pointy ends off, then realised I should have left the pointy ends on so that I could push them through the cord.  Duh!  More cocktail sticks (pointy this time), threaded through the cord, ends chopped off afterwards.


Funny how the images in your head don't always translate onto the card....

It looks more like a dodgy rope ladder.  Scrap that idea.  What else?  I know, bleach!  Out with the black card, out with the thick bleach that kills 99% of all household germs.  I can hear you screaming already - not the thick bleach!  I watered it down, but to no avail.  All I had to show for my efforts was a square of black card with a brownish scorch mark on it.  Not even worth taking a photo for you to laugh at.

So what now? Another lap round the kitchen cupboards but no inspiration, so I sat myself down at my workstation (dining table) to ponder, then I saw a shocking pink plastic bag poking out from my stash of goodies.  I chopped it up and cut out some flowers with Tim Holtz' Tattered Florals die, using about 6 layers for each flower. Gaudy yellow brad through the middle of each flower (no point trying to tone it down, eh?), bow tied from one of the handles of the bag, stuck onto a die-cut plant pot, and the trusty happy birthday stamp for stems.

I'm just glad I wasn't working to the same deadlines as those contestants!

Shiny Butterfly

The challenge for Less is More Week 72 is something shiny, and the challenge for CAS-ual Fridays CFC57 is

CFC57: Create a Clean And Simple project using acetate or vellum

This one's shiny, alright!  It was a challenge (as I'm sure anyone else who used acetate discovered) photographing the card so that you could see the shine, but not the reflection of me, the window, the door, anything that was near.

Here's a side view

A 6x6 acetate card and 6x6 pearlised pink card were halved, then spliced with a strip of dotty border which has been folded over (all from Craftwork Cards).  I then added a strip of unfolded dotty border to the lower portion of the acetate.

Stamp by Woodware FRCL004 His Birthday (I've used that quite a lot lately, mainly because it was still on the acrylic block.  I've now put it away, so you can look forward to some different sentiments on future card posts).

Butterfly is Marianne Creatables LR0115 cut from holographic card.  

Self-adhesive pearls

Pop back tomorrow when I'll post my feeble attempts to Play Along with Gallery Idol.  It'll have you snorting with derisive laughter or nodding with empathy.

Thinking of You

The colour scheme for Play Date Cafe Challenge #136 is 

Azure ... Raspberry ... Blackberry

Difficult to match the colours exactly, so I made two versions to see which one photographed better.  Here's the one I decided on for this challenge.

The blue textured panel is from Craftwork Cards Sweet Pea Embossed Squares
Thinking of You is Hero Arts CL125 Bracket and Swirl Messages
Raspberry and blackberry card is from DCWV Card Stock Stack
Butterfly die and embossing folder from Cuttlebug
Self-adhesive pearls

Here's the other card, which I'll enter in the Hero Arts Thinking of You contest via Flickr.

Different shade of embossed square, different shade of raspberry, and different embossing folder.

OLW#92 - On the Edge

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to stamp on the edge. Of the card, that is. Up to the edge, but not off the edge.  Any number of edges.

Mudpie nearly didn't make it into the challenge, because I stamped his (or her?) ear off the edge - only a tiny bit, so I did a repair job on him/her.

D113 Mudpie Is Stuffed - House Mouse Designs, Stampa Rosa
Happy Birthday - from Woodware FRCL004 His Birthday

RIC#13 - House of Holland

The inspiration photo for Runway Inspired Challenge #13 is this:

Bit of a problem there - I have no stamps or paper with a dogtooth pattern, so I just went for a checked theme.  This abstract grungy stamp always reminds me of a skimpy dress, so that's what it is today!

I stamped it onto glossy card in Versafine Onyx Black then coloured it roughly with Tombow pens to keep the grungy feel.  I stamped Hello lightly onto textured card, so that the texture would show through.  Here's a close-up:

Grungy stamp - J2-643 Stampers Anonymous
Hello stamp - from Woodware FRCL069 Large & Small Greetings
Card Candi - Craftwork cards (coloured with Tombows to match)
Black/white checked ribbon

His & Hers - the gender gap

I'm playing along with Gallery Idol on Keren B's Flickr group.  The Gallery Idol theme is to use the same product to create both a masculine and a feminine card.  I had fun filling the bags!

The bag is from Custer's Last Stamp, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black onto kraft envelopes.

Here's the girly card:

Fabulous Darling! is from Debbie Moore

Flowers stamp is Magenta

Ring stamp in anonymous! (Wood stamp with absolutely no manufacturer's markings on it). I added some Stickles to bling it up, but it doesn't really show in the photo)

Champagne bottle is from Oxford Impressions Paris Poste set

I strung some beads to drape over the bag, together with a length of ribbon for a scarf.

Here's the masculine card:

Happy Birthday and the shirt are from Woodware FRCL004 His Birthday
The football is F-AA05 from Funstamps
Beer bottle is from Papermania
Champagne bottle as above.

Many Thanks

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge over on Jennifer's blog is to create a thank you card for a teacher.  It's many a year since my boys were at that stage, but if I needed to give a thank you card to a teacher, this is what I would give.

I toyed with the idea of using red ink ;-) but decided to stick to black.

Many thanks is from Stamp Oasis, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black.
117E Amanda Writes is from House Mouse, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and highlighted with Tombow pens.

Celebrate

The challenge for Week 71 of Less is More is to use a flourish on a one-layer card.

The challenge for A Blog Named Hero Challenge #5 is to Colour Me a Hero using the colours in their logo.

I've combined both challenges in this card:

Celebrate is from Hero Arts LL999 Great Words, stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue, highlighted with Tombow pen, then masked across the card to cover the wording.
Flourish is from Autumn Leaves Flourishes V:I by Rhonna Farrer stamped in Versa Fine split pea.
Flower is from BasicGrey Ornamental Flowers set using Tombow pen.
After removing the masking tape I scored the card above and below the wording.

Red, White, Blue, Bling!

Week 70 of Less is More is to create a card with red, white and blue.  After a fabulous Diamond Jubilee weekend, which started with the Olympic flag passing through our village on Friday, I wanted to incorporate a Union Jack image somehow, but still keep it clean and simple, and I wanted to bling it up so that I could enter it into the CAS-ual Fridays CFC55, so I went for just a portion of the flag.

I masked the white bars of the flag with masking tape, then dusted Faded Jeans distress ink onto the card with my fabulous Inkylicious Ink Duster.  Then I spritzed with water and blotted the excess off, and added self-adhesive red pearls to represent the red bars in the flag.

The stamps are from Woodware FRCL069 Large & Small Greetings, stamped with Memento Paris Dusk and Brilliance Rocket Red.

Cheers!

I'm still in a bling mood for CAS-ual Fridays CFC55

I'm also still in a paper-piecing mood for the Lawnscaping Challenge #35 to use patterned paper.

So here's my second card for both challenges:

Cheers stamp from Rubber Stampede 3875F Cheer Bubbly
Bottle/glass/cork stamp from Stamps Happen
Italia paper from Craftwork cards, scrap for bottle/glass
Self-adehsive pearls, Stickles glitter glue

All Dolled Up

Lawnscaping Challenge #35 is to use any patterned paper technique in your card.

I love paper piecing, because it's a great way to use up all those scraps.  Here's my card:

I'm not sure if it's "CAS"-enough for CAS-ual Fridays CFC55

but I'll enter it anyway as my second card for the challenge.


The frame is Spellbinders Lacey Squares
The dress stamp is Impression Obsession C4319 Textured Evening Gown
All Dolled Up stamp is Imaginisce Snag 'em Stamps 001744
The background paper is from Crafty Individuals Springtime 6x6 pad
The dress paper was just a scrap
Self-adhesive gemstone, Stickles glitter glue on the ring