Happy Hibiscus

It's ages since I've played along with a challenge just for fun, and today I'm playing along at The Curtain Call, where the challenge is Hibiscus.

A little while ago - well, it was back in May, actually - I shared this card, which had been inspired by Michele's card.

 

Today's card was inspired by another similar card by Michele that she had posted on Instagram here.  I made it around the same time, but I wasn't really happy with that version, it was a bit wishy-washy, so I put it to one side, and it's been languishing in there ever since.  Here's a photo of it before I revamped it.

I had the brainwave of inking up the stamp with a darker colour, spritzed and stamped to give it more of a focal point.  I also added some Pickled Raspberry centres.

Best Foot Forward

I've got some new stamps out next week - Groovy Shoes - so retro!  This wedge shoe is just one of the images in the set - check out the others below.  (The sentiment on this card is from the STAMP Club stamp set for April, Born To Roam.)

On white card I stamped the shoe in Black Soot (masking the far side of the shoe and the back of the ankle strap), then lightly drew in a leg and watercoloured the image with Black Soot and Candied Apple for the bow. Then I painted out the whole background with black gesso.  I love how it's turned out :)  The sentiment is stamped on a spare strip of white card, then the whole thing mounted onto white card base.

I'm entering this card into The Card Concept, Simplicity

and AAA Cards, Anything Goes.

You'll be seeing a lot more of these stamps over the next few days ;)

Comic Strip Party Dresses

Another comic strip card - my latest obsession.  I was getting low on girly birthday cards, so it was an ideal opportunity to make a few variations of these cards to replenish my stocks.

I'm entering this into Curtain Call - Girly

And the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - T for Technique (Comic strip cards, Distress watercolouring).

I've never played here before, though goodness knows why, cos I certainly qualify on the snark side of things ;)

Get Your Party On

Popping in with a quick card for a couple of challenges.   I'm supposed to be helping prep for a dinner party tonight but I had to play along with The Challenge when I saw this inspiration photo.  Love the soft cream and pink and lace.

I still had my Party Dresses set out from Wednesday, so I made a quick one layer card, colouring the image and sentiment with, appropriately, Tattered Rose and Antique Linen.

I'm also playing at Curtain Call, where the theme is Girly,

and Simon Says Monday Challenge where the theme is Best Friend.

Ok, back to making tuile biscuits and freezing grapes :)

Happy Doughnut Day, Anita!

Today it's Anita's birthday so I'm popping in to wish her a "sweet" calorie-free birthday.  It should really be croissants or pain-au-chocolat rather than donuts, but I don't have any stamps for them, so doughnuts it is.  I'm sure they all go equally well with a glass of bubbly or red wine ;)  Happy birthday, Anita!

I'm entering this into Curtain Call - Donut Delight

And I don't think it's too much of a stretch to include it in Simon Says Monday Challenge - A Piece of Paradise - especially if there is a glass of bubbly to accompany it!

If you visit Anita regularly, you will know she is in the long process of renovating her home in France.  I'm renovating some houses over at STAMPlorations tonight - here's a sneak peek:

While we're talking STAMPlorations, my doughnut card actually (loosely) fits the new monthly CASEplorations challenge of this card by Julie Ebersole.  Why don't you play along?  Get all the details here.

source: Julie Ebersole

Birthday Brights

Sunglasses on, girls!  I'm playing along with Curtain Call, where this is the inspiration:

The image in the background is a quarter of one stamp.  The stamp is so large, it comes mounted on its own acrylic block.  I first saw it on Hermine's blog here where she made four different cards using each quarter of the stamped image.  I just had to have it ;)

I inked the full stamp with various colours of Distress Ink, spritzed it then stamped it onto one large sheet of card.  (I got three further prints by re-spritzing and stamping off onto more card.)  I stamped CityGirl onto spare card, watercoloured her raincoat with Distress Inks and fussy cut her.  The sentiment is from the same CityGirl set.

I'm also entering this card into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes.

Carabelle XXL Histoire du Temps
The Bee's Knees CityGirl

Watercolour Poppies

So my latest obsession is watching YouTube videos on watercolour painting, particularly those by Joanne Boon Thomas (she also does Brusho Secrets videos).  I want to be able to watercolour like her when I grow up.  After watching this video I decided to apply what I'd learned (!) to cardmaking.  In at the deep end.

I started off with the STAMPlorations Poppies stamp in Antique Linen.  Then, using Distress Inks rather than watercolours (and knowing it wouldn't work as well with Distress Inks but that didn't stop me) I coloured and spritzed and dripped and rolled and sloshed.  And ended up with a right royal mess.  So I cut a mask of the poppies stamp, covered the image and stamped all over it with the grunge strip stamp from Vignette: Live Love Laugh, which is fast becoming my go-to background stamp.

And now I like it.  Even DH said he liked it!

I'm entering this into Just Us Girls - Watercolouring

and Curtain Call - Wishing Well

Here's what the poppies should look like ;)

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I'm over at STAMPlorations tonight with more Distress Ink watercolouring if you want to go and take a look.

Turning Leaves

It's that time of year in my part of the world.  Although we're getting lovely weather, the leaves are starting to turn.  I love autumn colours and rustling through dry leaves :)

I'm playing along with a few challenges with this card.  First off is Curtain Call - Lovely Leaves,

Next, a new challenge to me, Inspiration Emporium - Fall Is In The Air,

Then there's Just Us Girls - Word Week - Leaves,

And Mixed Media Mojo - Fall theme and paste,

And finally Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Photo Inspiration.

Use any or all of the colours in the photo

I used red, orange, yellow, green from the left-hand side of the photo.  I sponged Distress Inks onto a piece of card then stamped the leaves from Paper Artsy (the text is already on the stamp).  Flicked water over the images, cut them out and wrapped copper thread around them.  On a separate panel I used clear stencilling paste on the circles stencil, and when it was dry, sponged it with Crushed Olive.  I added the sentiment from Paper Smooches and drew squiggly lines with a black Sharpie.

Don't forget, there's also the Mixed Media Card Challenge where the theme is also autumn colours with optional metal/leaves.

An English Country Garden

We're having fabulous weather at the moment, the flowers (and weeds) are growing like crazy, and there are loads of butterflies around, so I thought I'd show you a picture of my garden.  No, not this picture, you'll have to scroll down for the real thing.

The stencilled/paste-embossed background was in my stash from a stencilling session waiting to be coloured, so I sponged Distress Inks over it and stamped some leaves, and it was all a bit vibrant (I was getting carried away with that sunshine) so I flicked some water over it, water-bleached some butterflies and sponged it with Antique Linen to calm it down a bit.  The big butterfly was sitting in my stash - I'd made it for a DT project and ended up not using it, so it was perfect for this card.

A few challenges have aligned perfectly for me.  At Simon Says Monday Challenge, it's Summer; at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, it's embossing; at Uniko Studios it's Anything Goes; and the curtain is coming down soon at Curtain Call Anything Goes.

Neither of us is a keen gardner, we'd rather look at it than do it.  Fortunately there are no weeds in this shot ;)

Time For Cake

Oh, it's always time for cake!!  I'm playing along with Fusion, inspired by both the photo and the sketch.

I used my home made gingko stamps to create a panel that vaguely resembles the peonies in the photo, and matched the colours for the cupcakes.

I'm also playing along with Curtain Call, Anything Goes.

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I'm over at STAMPlorations blog tonight with a spotlight feature on comic strip stamping.   Here's a little sneak peek.  Pop over and take a look :)

Sweet Peas

Ok, so I'm not quite done with pink yet.  Remember the gingko stamps I made last week?  Well, I thought they could double up as sweet peas when I saw the challenge from Curtain Call:

I used Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick and Shaded Lilac Distress Inks, a bit of water and a bit of splodging and squidging, then added the short stems, which are also stamps I made, and just extended them down and added a few curly fronds.  The background numbers stamp is by Tim Holtz and the birthday stamp is Penny Black - I placed it in the bottom-right corner to make it look like a signature on a painting.  I sponged a bit of Antique Linen around the edges of the panel for a bit of an aged look.

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Anything Goes.

But not Everything Goes.  These sweet peas are faring much better than the ones in my garden, which are refusing to grow despite the warm weather we're having.  Maybe I'll just stick this card on the fence and pretend.

Birthday Brights

I'm still playing with embossing folders and Distress Inks.  It's a great way of using those forgotten embossing folders languishing in the depths of your stash.  I don't think this folder ever got near the Cuttlebug, but it's enjoying a new lease of life.

So this is for two challenges:

ColourQ

Curtain Call Pyjama Party

The hat image is from Tim Holtz, the sentiment is from Hero Arts, and the streamers are hand drawn. Hmmm, I think I should make a streamer stamp with my NBUS stamp maker...