Sparkly Trees and Day 2 Advent Village

This week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Karen at Snippets, is Sparkle and Shine:

Sparkle and Shine- create a card with something shiny or a bit of bling on it.

And this week's Less is More challenge is to add sparkle in honour of guest designer Gillian:

Gillian

Made with Sparkle

The Paper Players challenge is Evergreen:

For the card, I stamped and masked the trees from Treemendous by Blonde Moments (Dyan Reaveley) then sponged Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks onto the background and spritzed with water for snow.  I used Crystal and Turquoise Stickles and stamped the sentiment in blue.

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My advent village contains four different styles of house and this is the smallest.

This backs on to 23 Blue

This backs on to 23 Red

I decided that No.2 Blue Street could have a sloping roof, for no other reason than I just could.  I painted a layer of gesso on each of the Blue Street houses, then a layer of white acrylic paint, and some of the houses warped a little bit as you can see on No.1 to the left.

Holly Sprig

So yesterday I made this card for Cheryl's One Layer Wednesday Challenge.  As I started to write my post I re-read Cheryl's challenge - it was for a one layer Christmas TAG.  Oops!  But all is not lost, because this week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Heather, is Just Add Water.  I'd coloured the image stamp with markers then spritzed it with water, so I get to join One Layer Wednesday after all.

CAS-ual Fridays and Curtain Call are having a joint CAS-ual Christmas bash, so I'm joining the party there:

Nonni's other Christmas challenge on her blog Korttikarkuri is Stamp A Happy Christmas.

And finally, the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More is 

MAKE YOUR MARK!

Happy Orange Birthday

I've been playing with my new JOFY stamps.  I love those spiky bursts of flowers, and the unusual butterfly.  I've used the colours from colourQ:

This week's One Layer Wednesday hostess, Karen at Snippets, wants us to use orange on our one layer card:

'Orange' You Glad You Played Along- create a card with Orange on it.

I've based the design on this week's CAS(E) This Sketch but jiggled it round a bit:

And at this week's Muse, the inspiration is provided by Janet.  Isn't that a fabulous tree?

Just in case you're wondering how I've made the leap from blue Christmas tree to orange flowers: placement to the left, baubly leaves/flowers with highlighting, star becomes butterfly.  Yes/no?

Seeing Dots

Susan at Simplicity is hosting this week's One Layer Wednesday, and she's challenging us to take inspiration from our Pinterest boards.  Even if you aren't playing along, it's a good excuse to actually look at all those photos that you've pinned.  I'm as guilty as anyone - I don't even remember pinning some of them, so it's like looking at them for the first time.  This is the the pin that inspired my card:

source

I used the colours from this week's Dynamic Duos:

And I'm also entering it into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, We're Going Dotty!

Dots and blobs: Hero Arts AC026 Brush Strokes
Sentiment: Hero ARts CL611 Many Birthday Messages

Pink Yellow and Grey

The challenge at Little Tangles is to use the colours pink, yellow and grey:

And I used the beautiful inspiration card at Muse by this week's guest designer, Karen:

This week's One Layer Wednesday is hosted by Karen - no, not that Karen, this Karen - and it's a free for all:
Free for All- you choose any theme for your one layer card

And at Simon Says Wednesday challenge, it's Anything Goes:

At Addicted to Stamps and More, the theme is Addicted to CAS.

And finally, I'm playing along for the first time with Seize the Birthday (without the toppings), Anything Goes.

This is the first card I've made in my new craft room! I'm surprised I managed to achieve it because I'm spending most of the time arranging things, then re-arranging them, moving things in, moving things out (they've got to earn their place in that room cos it's so tiny), and mostly looking for things in their new environment (I knew exactly where they were before!).  I'm going shopping for more storage boxes tomorrow :))

I'll post some pics soon on how to craft in a tiny room without banging your knees, or nutting the cupboard, once I've mastered the art.

Stamps: Neat & Tangled Fresh Blooms, Everyday Circles

Happy Birthday Bev!

This is a long, multi-challenge post, so stick with me.  Firstly, let's deal with the celebrations - happy birthday to Bev of Happy Dance!  Sneaky emails have been circulating blogland, organising a birthday bash for Bev, and never one to refuse an invitation, I've made her this card.  Have a good one, Bev!

I used the colours from this week's Dynamic Duos challenge:

and the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

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I've been doing the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101 online course in readiness for Creative Chemistry 102 which is coming out soon.  So while I had distress inks out everywhere, I used the same sketch and the same technique to make more cards for more challenges.

This card is for Less is More, where this week's challenge is to make a one layer card with the theme Get Well Soon.

The code word at Addicted to CAS is also Get Well:

And I'm also entering it into this week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Cheryl, to create a one layer card where the sentiment is the main focus of the card.

I also made another birthday card and a sympathy card:

and I was going to enter the whole set into the new challenge at A Blog Named Hero, to make a set of 3 or more matching or coordinating cards.  But the new rules require use of Hero Arts stamps (naturally), and I'd forgotten that and didn't use any.  But here's the group photo for you anyway.

I recently bought the Memory Box Winterberry Sprig die and this was its first outing.  But when I opened the packet, the die inside was Hayden Twigs.  Bit of a surprise there, especially as Hayden Twigs is almost double the price of Winterberry Sprig!

Happy New Mushroom

This week's One Layer Wednesday is hosted by Karen, and the challenge is to create a one layer card that has a silhouette on it:

Silhouettes- use a silhouette on your one layer card

I used this sweet little row of mushroom cottages by from Personal Impressions (PICSA6135 Spell Casting) and just added a little colour on the windows, doors and grass.  Handwritten sentiment, hand-drawn smoke.

And Simon Says Anything Goes is still open for business.

ETA:  Thanks to Loll for suggesting it could also go into this week's CAS on Sunday challenge:

"Welcome Home"

(Make a 'New Home' themed card)

sponsored by Annabelle Stamps:

One-One-One

This is my second post today - click here for Chevron Birthday.

I keep missing the deadlines for One Layer Wednesday, and I'm only just in time for this week's challenge, hosted by Heather, where the challenge is One-One-One - one image stamp, one colour and one sentiment stamp.  I've used this champagne glass stamp by Whipper Snapper Designs, a sentiment stamp from Waltzingmouse Say It Loud, and Dusty Concord Distress Ink because I wanted to draw some of the colour into the image with a water brush.  The only problem is that Distress Ink isn't the best for stamping a sentiment - but I suppose it looks, er, distressed.

Sweet Pea

I've missed the last couple of One Layer Wednesdays, for no other reason than I didn't get A into G in time.  Ardyth is hosting this week's challenge - SPEECHLESS.  Not that Ardyth is speechless.  Oh, no ;)  The idea is to make a card that is speechless, i.e. has no sentiment, although you could convey the sentiment in the image if you wanted.

A baby image doesn't really need a sentiment, does it?

This is also for Melissa's baby shower over at CASology which is open for two more weeks.  Congratulations, Melissa and family on your newest addition!

And At Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes!

Stamp - Sweet November Stamps Sleeping Baby Fairies.  Hand-drawn border and hearts.

Birthday Splatters

I've been lusting after this set from Hero Arts Stamp Your Story collection ever since it was released, but it's been rarer than hens' teeth in the UK.  I finally found it at one online retailer, and it arrived yesterday, just in time for a couple of last-minute entries into the Stamp Your Story challenge.  It's obviously very popular because it's even limited stock at the Hero Arts store.

As I've now got some new arrows, it's going into the CAS-ual Fridays challenge:

And I've got new splatters, so I can have another go at this week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Karen:

Splats and Splatters- add them to your card

I've used the colour scheme from ColourQ.  (My splatters aren't that yellow IRL.)

Happy Birthday Arrows

Anita (in France) is providing the inspiration for this week's Muse challenge with this card:

This week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge is to use arrows:

And Karen from Snippets is hosting this week's One Layer Wednesday, where the challenge is

Splats and Splatters- add them to your card

So I did.  I was going to use a "Way To Go" sentiment, but seeing as the arrows are pointing in opposite directions, it could have been confusing ;)

Arrow from Urban Life, splats from Rubber Stampede.

Spice Flowers

This week's One Layer Challenge, hosted by Ardyth, is SPICE GIRLS:

Make a feminine card inspired by a spice, condiment or flavouring! 

Hmm.  Ardyth did a brilliant salt & pepper card.  Obvious other choices are spice colours, but I kept being drawn to star anise, and I was going to do a spiky flower that most represented star anise as we see it in its dried form.  Then I googled the star anise flower, and it's a gorgeous rich pinky red, with some yellow in the centre.  So that's what we have.

I've used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

And at Less is More, it's Happy Birthday to Jen!

Flowers from Paper Smooches, sentiment from Hero Arts.

My dad is improving slightly and responding to treatment.  I'm playing out tonight - a treasure hunt walk around our village.  I'll let you know if I find any!

Red White and Blue

This week's One Layer challenge, hosted by Cheryl, is red, white and blue.  Tick.

This week's Muse inspiration is provided by Marion.  Tick.

And here's this week's Fusion inspiration.  Tick?

I went for the chevrons in Lesley's photo and masked a flag area, then masked part of that area so that I could stamp the sentiment.  Then I masked the sentiment while I stamped the chevron area.  Because the edges of the chevron area were a bit grungy (I like grungy), I added some bling to help define the points of the flag.

Hero Arts: S5654 Tweed Pattern, CL139 Birthday Messages

Yellow Cupcake

I do love to combine challenges.  As you probably know.  So when Susan set the current One Layer Wednesday challenge, Bugaloos: any type of bugs you want to use, I knew exactly which image I was going to use.  So I stamped the image and the sentiment last week and left it uncoloured and unfinished in the hope that another challenge would come along that I could combine with this one.

To the rescue: CASology!

Perfect match!  I decided to stick with different shades of yellow, and almost faltered at the grass, but no, I kept with yellow, and I like how it turned out :)

I added some Stickles on the bees' wings, the candle flame and the, er, bits on the cupcake (you can tell I don't bake cupcakes) then added some baker's twine at the top of the card to balance the design.

Wild Rose Studio CS309 Bees with Cupcake
Hero Arts CL646 Happy Birthday