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

Besotted with Butterflies

There's a new challenge at Clearly Besotted, and as it's the first challenge, the theme is Anything Goes (as long as you use at least one Clearly Besotted product).  There are digi images available on the website if you don't own any stamps yet.  Stephanie is very generously providing a random prize of five Clearly Besotted stamp sets.

I've used the butterflies from Butterfly Wishes, and co-ordinating dies, and sentiments from Framed Sentiments.

I used the colour scheme from Play Date Cafe:

I scribbled some teal and magenta markers onto a craft sheet, spritzed them and then inked the butterfly stamps to get an artsy watercolour effect.

Have Wheels, Will Travel

It's a man theme today.  The challenge at A Blog Named Hero is to make a card for the man or boy in your life:

The challenge at Simon Says is MASCULINE / FATHER'S DAY

The cue word at CASology is wheels:

And I've used this fabulous colour scheme from ColourQ:

Went to a fabulous event in our village last night - Music in the Woods.  Bring your own gazebo, chairs, picnic, wine, etc.  Live music, fairy lights strung through the trees, dancing on the grass, warm weather - fantastic!

I'm going back out in the garden to play, as it's another warm and sunny day.  At this rate, we'll be on a hosepipe ban by next month! (That's despite being knee-deep in flood water last September!)

Image and sentiment - Darkroom Door DDRS036 Enjoy Life
Sequins - stash
Watercolour swooshes and colouring - Tombows

Birthday Banner

I've been coveting this tweed stamp from Hero Arts for some time, and I couldn't resist any longer.  Although it's been around for a while, it's also part of the new Stamp Your Story range, so I can enter this card into the month-long Stamp Your Story challenge.

Inspiration for the card has come from:

The colour scheme from Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger

Sweetness and Light

CAS(E) This Sketch by Chrissy Larson

And CAS-ual Fridays Banners and Flags.

All stamps by Hero Arts.

Summer's Here!!

Finally!  We're in the middle of a week of warm sunny weather - so sunny, in fact, that I had ginormous shadows on my card so I had to take another photo inside - here's the outside version:

Hmm. It's a lot sharper, isn't it?  Well, take your pick.  Or pic ;)

Anyway, the challenge at The Paper Players is Summer Holiday

I'll be spending my summer holiday in my garden, as I've already had three holidays so far this year.  I'm looking forward to seeing all the vegetables and flowers we've planting actually growing and flowering!

The inspiration card for the Muse challenge this week comes from Laurie Willison:

I used some more of my giveaway flowers from Loll, some stitched ribbon and the black sentiment (Hero Arts CL611 Many Birthday Messages).

Card Candy Congratulations

My blogfriend Loll has been making her own gorgeous card candy, and has been giving it away.  I was the lucky winner of her Giveaway #2, which arrived the other day.  And one of the flowers was perfect for this card.

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to make a clean and simple congratulations card:

And the challenge at Less is More this week is to use the
COLOUR OF YOUR FRONT DOOR!
We would like to see a pic of your front door too if possible, but is not absolutely necessary!

Now my front door is plain white UPVC with frosted glass panels with black trim, and an aluminium handle.  Not worth taking a photo of, so I won't bore you with one.

I stamped the Dream Words Border (Stampendous) in Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue (which stamps a lovely silvery grey colour) to represent the frosted glass.  I added some black punched leaves behind the flower, and stamped Congratulations (Paper Smooches Simply Said) in black.

Thanks Loll!

Flower Buds

I love these quirky flowers from Jo Firth-Young.  I just bought myself another set, and now she's releasing even more gorgeous stamps.  I predict another purchase ;)

This one is for the Play Date Cafe's colour challenge:

Smoky Plum ... Cherry Blossom ... Lava

(The smoky plum bit is around the edges of the flowers.)

It's also for Lawnscaping's challenge to use any colouring medium (Tombows for me):

And for Simon Says Anything Goes:

The background panel is JOFY Mini JM09, and the two foreground flowers are from the JOFY Collection 09.