This is my second card for this challenge as I had this design in my head that I couldn't resist!!
This gorgeous butterfly paper is from Teresa Collins 'Daily Stories' and thought it would be perfect for this challenge. I also used a tiny black and white dotted paper from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date' and some gold cardstock I had lying around, for a bit of bling. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft and sequins from Teresa Collins. Such a nice, simple card and love it when the paper is the star! You should have a look at some of the other entrants over at Artful Crafts and its so great to be able to enter a local challenge and support my favourite New Zealand craft shop!! Off to the skatepark again. I actually don't mind going and sitting for a while as I am forced to relax and think about life. Have also discovered 'Candy Crush' on my IPhone. I don't play these sorts of games very often but it makes the skatepark time go by so quickly!!!! Take care Shona
I wanted to try entering some other types of challenges and found Freshly Made Sketches and Colour Throwdown through the blogs of some of the designers I follow. As it was very late last night, I decided to see if I could combine the two into one card.
I don't do many layered cards these days, so was nice to do that again. Its not very often I use green or brown in my cards either, so was good to get out of my comfort zone!
This took a lot of playing around with paper pieces but really like what the result was. The patterned paper is from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date' and the brown strip and green paper is from Echo Park 'This and That'. I had this die cut shape leftover from my shaker card (on previous post) and thought it would be perfect for this card. I stamped it with a sentiment from Kaisercraft and outlined with a black gel pen. Pearls from Kaisercraft and enamel dots from Teresa Collins finished this card perfectly. It was great to use colours not normally my style so will definitely do this colour challenge again and the same with the sketch. I have so many gorgeous paper pads, I need to be using them!!!!! Now to link up card no. 3! Take care Shona
What a busy night I had last night!! I worked on cards from 9.30pm till 1.30am and have 3 cards to show for it (which means one card per hour...need to speed up my design process!!).
Isn't this a beautiful bedroom?? I knew that people would probably be drawn to the gorgeous orange and pink bedcover but for me, the first thing I noticed was the floormat (in my favourite colours) and the beautiful blue and white paper under the shelves. I just knew I had papers that matched these perfectly.
I had also just purchased a metal die from Couture Creations that was nearly the same pattern as the floor mat. I desperately wanted to do a shaker card again but have it in the die-cut shape. What a disaster! I cut 8 pieces of cardstock in the shape but of course when I layered them, the cardstock around the edges didn't match up. So spent ages trimming (and swearing) and it looks okay from afar. Have now realised if I want to do this again, is to make the box with a rectangular frame and put shape die-cut on top. Much easier!!
The paper underneath the shaker box is from Teresa Collins 'Save this Date' which I thought matched perfectly with the shelf paper. The next paper layer is from the same paper pad and has similar patterning to the floor mat. I used Teresa Collins sequins and also some from The Warehouse.
I'm also going to link this to the Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge as their theme is 'Transparent'. Have never entered this challenge before but thought why not.
Max is dying of starvation (as only a 7yr boy can who only ate an hour ago.....) and wants some lunch. Will rustle up something and then come back to post my other two cards.
Feeling very sore this morning after my mammoth gardening work yesterday. I have Fibromyalgia and I knew I was doing too much but wanted to finish. Paying for it today, feels like someone ran me over in my bed with a bus.....twice!!
However, I woke up to find a lovely comment from Kimberly Wiener (she has the gorgeous blog wienerhoneymooners) and she had been looking at my card I had created for Addicted to CAS #34 (where the code word was 'luck'). She said I should link it to the Casology Week 88 challenge where the cue word is 'Lucky'.
I was so excited as Kimberly is on the Design Team for Casology so will definitely do it! I saw the post from Casology about the Week 88 challenge just after posting the card and wished I had linked to it as well, thought I had missed my chance.
I've had so many wonderful comments about this card, so I'm so proud of my second-hand stamp pads!!! Off to have nice hot shower now and think it will be a card making day today as I'm too sore to do anything else........my craft supplies are calling!!!
I have concentrated so much on stamping of late, I decided I needed to get out some paper!!
I purchased some 12x12 papers of Teresa Collins 'Daily Stories' recently and one is covered in all these gorgeous 1inch circles with pictures and text. I sat there for half an hour cutting them all out with my circle punch, which fitted them perfectly!!
I chose these three circles so I would have one butterfly and two with similar colours. I used another 'Daily Stories' paper for the flowery background strip and then added a strip of vellum to soften it a bit. I popped the circles on to foam squares and added Wink of Stella to the stamens in the flower. Its so different from what I've been doing lately but was so nice to go through all the gorgeous papers I have stashed away. Came up with an idea for the latest 'Cure for the Monday Blues' Challenge this morning (in the shower of course!) and that involves a bit of paper too! Been another very hot day today and I'm exhausted. I did a gardening job today for a woman with little ones and she doesn't have time to look after the weeds etc. So went straight after dropping kids at school for what I thought would be maybe 2 hours of easy weeding. After 2 1/2 hours I still wasn't finished and had to go back at 1.30pm for just over another hour, in the boiling sun. My hands are so sore....... But at least I will get some pocket money for it, wonder if I will spend it on craft products??...mmmmmm........ Take care Shona
I sat up till 1am this morning playing around with my stamps and ink pads. I had some good results and some not so good.
On one card I tried using a small rectangle stamp in different colours, down the right hand side of a card (had seen Laura Bassen make a card like this). Unfortunately I couldn't get the ink to stamp perfectly or get my lines to meet up so it was a fail. However Max is going to a birthday party tomorrow, so stamped on a birthday sentiment, threw on some sequins and tah-dah, one birthday card!!
This is the other card I tried (with alot more success) that was based on a card that was shown on the last day of the Online Card Class by Julie Ebersole.
I tried to find some post-it tape the other day but no-one seems to know about it. So ended up sticking some washi tape on some pieces of copy paper. The card Julie showed had the stamping in the middle of the card in a rectangle shape but I decided to go all the way and take it top to bottom. The stamp colours are of course Mama Elephant and the sentiment is one I received yesterday by Kaisercraft in a set called True Friendship. My craft store was having 40% off all their Kaisercraft products (except for recent releases) and I found this and two other similar sets for $4 each....what a bargain!! Will link this to the Online Card Class Gallery now and it will be my last card for the class. On Friday March 28th (which is today for me in NZ) they will have a wrap up session for the class. Have really enjoyed it and learned quite a bit. Can't wait to hear what the next class will be!!!!! Take care Shona
Have been having so much fun playing around with my new Mama Elephant ink pads. But have realised I now need to retrain my brain to stamping my sentiments etc in colour, not black all the time, which is harder than I thought!
Isn't this sketch brilliant?? When I first saw it I immediately thought of flowers but I actually don't own any flower stamps, so that was hopeless. I came up with my idea yesterday while walking the dogs.
I didn't make this card easy for myself thats for sure! The heart stamp is actually 6 hearts in a row but only wanted to use 3. So before inking I had to washi tape over the top 3 hearts every time. I mucked up one card because I kept forgetting to take the washi tape off before stamping....what a mess it made!!
I used Smoke and Bubblegum ink from Mama Elephant. The sentiment stamp is from CAS-ual Fridays 'Shenanigans'. The heart stamp is from Studio G and enamel dots from Teresa Collins. I also used my faithful Wink of Stella on all the pink hearts for a bit of sparkle.
Quite like how it turned out and even my husband just came past and said 'Wow, the pattern is amazing', so that must be good!! However I certainly don't expect to win anything in this challenge as the other cards entered are incredible!!! So many beautiful cards, you really should have a look at CAS(E) this Sketch #69.
Off to walk dogs now in the sun. I wonder what creation I will think of this time!!!
Since I started my blog back in September 2013, I have had such wonderful comments left by incredible crafters. I was really nervous about sharing my designs with the world but these women have given me alot of advice, support and courage to step out of my comfort zone and I am now LOVING the experience.
One of these amazing women is Anita with her blog My Papercraft World. Her cards are incredible and she inspires me so much. She also writes the most thoughtful comments about my cards and I always look forward to hearing from her.
Another incredible crafter is Darnell with her blog djkardkreations. She is very well known in the 'crafting world' and is very welcoming for any new bloggers she comes across and introduces them on her blog. I just think that is so amazing and thoughtful. And she makes brilliant cards too...she's the whole package!!
Well, Darnell had heard it was Anita's birthday recently and decided to throw her a party! She has a link at the end of her post 'Anita this ones for you' and invites people to link birthday cards they have created for her. I have decided to join the very large group of friends wishing her a 'belated' birthday.
I really hope you like this card Anita!! I immediately thought of this design when I knew it was your birthday. I decided to use a technique (inlay die-cut) I've learned in the Online Card Class. The heart die is from CAS-ual Fridays and the sentiment is from Hero Arts 'Year round Sentiments'. So, thank you Anita for all of your support and can't wait to see what card designs you will inspire me with next!!
I know I've already entered a card in this challenge but this card was the one I had planned on making for it. I wanted to try a technique that I had seen Jennifer McGuire do in one of her tutorial videos.
I used double-sided tape and TRIED to get the stripes as straight as possible (so don't look too closely.....). I had some glitter from a company called Rosies. It was a 'glitter sample' pack that had 16 colours. The glitter is very fine and I think I've sent the kids to school and Dave to work with a lot of 'glitter bling' on their clothes. When I had watched Jennifer, she poured the glitter on the tape and then rubbed the glitter into it with her finger. This worked really well. I did have trouble with getting all the glitter off the white parts of my card and wondered if one of those magic bags that people use for embossing would have worked to stop it sticking??? I really love it and it got the instant approval of Phoebe. Today she brought the card to me and said 'its so good, can I make her one?' That's got to be good! Better link it up before I forget. Please have a look at the other cards at the SSS Wednesday Challenge, there sure are some talented people out there!
And I have just realised, I can link this card up to the Lawnscaping Challenge #78 which has the theme of 'Clean and Simple'. They will be getting sick of me entering this one!! Take care Shona
Just got home from dropping kids at school to find a package by my front door. It was from Mama Elephant!! Raced inside to open it up and couldn't stop smiling.....the ink pads I ordered are amazing!!!!
The pads are much bigger than I thought they would be and the colours are so vibrant. I couldn't resist having a quick play to see how they would look on cardstock:
Please excuse my bad stamping (was so excited I kept forgetting to let the stamp dry after wiping with wet wipe...) but aren't these colours beautiful!!! In order of stamped heart they are:
Smoke Bubblegum Eggplant Sunshine Lollipop Ocean Mojito Apple
There are four more colours in the collection, will order those soon with a few stamps thrown in as well.
Can't wait to start making some cards with these and will be so nice to have more colours to choose from. Thanks Mum for buying these for me!!
Had quite a lot of fun last night trying out one of the techniques I have learned in the Online Card Class. Have decided that even though my ink pads aren't the best, I will use them anyway and can practice the techniques until my Mama Elephant ones arrive.
The Code Word for the Addicted to CAS Challenge is 'Luck'. I only have one stamp with the word 'luck' on it, so at least my choice was simple there.
I used a technique that Laura Bassen taught about overlapping the stamp images. I had alot of fun doing this and even though I didn't have the colours I wanted, I think it still turned out ok. I even used my wonderful Wink of Stella on all of the solid little star stamps to give it a bit of bling!
I used the sentiment and star stamps from Hero Arts 'Year round Sentiments'. Will definitely use this style of stamping again as it makes such a lovely effect and you can do it differently every time!
I have also decided to enter this into the Lawnscaping Challenge where their style is 'Clean and Simple'. And will also link it to the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challengewhere their challenge is to 'Glitter It' and they are using Wink of Stella alot!
Beautiful sunny day here today. Just been at skatepark with Max for an hour. He is 7yrs old and heavily into scooting and skateboarding. Went twice yesterday. Gives me a chance to sit down with a pen and paper and write out my 'to do' list and even a few card ideas.
I get ideas for cards in the funniest of places. This one arrived while watching my dogs digging a hole down by the river, trying to get to a very large water rat. The rat got away but my idea stayed.
I decided I would concentrate on the stripes and also the colours brown, red, light blue and white.
This was a bit more fiddly than I expected (maybe because I was trying to do it at midnight last night....). I attached a slightly smaller white cardstock to the card to show the white on white in the back of the inspiration photo. I decided to glue the papers onto white cardstock to give them a bit more support, and then placed them on foam squares. I left white strips between them that refer to the stripes in the inspiration photo.
The stamp is from Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments', the brown paper is Lawn Fawn 'Into the woods', the red heart paper is Lawn Fawn 'Peace Love Joy' and the light blue paper is Carta Bella 'So Noted'. I decided not not add any embellishments either because I thought the bedroom was very simply decorated. Hopefully this isn't too simple for the challenge but was quite fun to do. And now I have the photos close together, I can see how my card does reflect the furnishings...whew!
I've decided to also link this post to the Lawnscaping Challenge as their challenge this week is Clean and Simple. I love how people interpret photos differently and if you have a look at the entrants for the Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge, you will see that most people have gone with a nautical theme. My card might stand out for the wrong reasons...... Take care Shona
Having a break from my Online Card Class as its all about embossing at the moment (and don't have any embossing tools), so decided to do a few challenges.
I really like this weeks sketch, so many possibilities but so little time. You should have a look over at Retro Sketches, some people have the most amazing imagination with their designs.
I love this gold paper, its from Teresa Collins 'You are my Happy' collection. The pink heart paper is from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date' 6x6 pad. I found the gold hearts at The Warehouse for $2.50 and they were perfect for the card. I'm gradually getting back my 'card mojo'. Maybe now that Phoebe is back from camp and she had such an amazing time, I can relax and let my brain go crazy with ideas again. On to my next challenge!! Take care Shona
Day 5 and 6 of the class covered bringing the 'Background into the Foreground', which looked amazing. It showed Iron Off Embossing and also a masking technique using sponge dabbers (used with distress inks) to apply the inks. The other technique was Graffiti Stamping. This looked really good and I had the products, so here it is:
The technique was to inlay a die-cut word and then stamp over top of it with different colours, sentiments and fonts. It was a little hard for me to do as I found it hard to stamp OVER something (felt very wrong....) but very happy with the results. I wasn't going to use any enamel dots but when I was using my black ink pad, I hadn't realised I had gotten it all over my fingers, so had lovely little smudges of black. Will have a look at Day 7 and 8 tonight but I have a feeling its mainly about copic colouring. It might give me a chance to make some challenge cards for Retro Sketches and CAS(E) this Sketch. Phoebe arrives back at school at 2.30pm (which is in 1 hour and 20 mins....). Can't wait to see her. And I'm off to pick up my Mum now to take her to the train. She is off to Melbourne for 3 weeks to see her brothers and sisters. She hasn't been for a few years and hasn't seen them since Dad died last June, so will be wonderful for her. So I gain back my daughter but lose my Mum for a while.....eeek! Take care Shona
I've been quite intimidated by the class this time around. There are so many wonderful techniques and cards being shown by the designers and the class participants, was feeling a little (how can I say..) unworthy and that my cards just aren't good enough. I also don't have alot of the products they are using in the class i.e. embossing, stamping with lots of colour, a variety of stamps and die-cuts. I can only improvise so much, so haven't made any cards until......
I finally got out of my 'card funk'and decided to try out some of the 'Optical Illusion' techniques from Day 3 and 4.
Laura Bassen created a card with a 'stamp overlapping' technique, using solid circles. I don't have any circles so decided to use hearts. As you can see my stamp pads are pretty awful but if you don't look too closely, its not too bad!
Laura then created a card using a 'masking' technique. I used washi tape to mark out my rectangle. And I cut up my first clear stamp!! Make a wish is from my new CAS-ual Friday stamp set (Shenanigans) but is in one line. Felt very strange cutting into three but worked out perfectly.
On Day 4, Kara Vrabel showed masking using die-cuts. As I don't have many, I used my new CAS-ual Friday die-cut and made a small card (4 1/8 x 4 1/8). I actually did this 3x. First time I didn't stamp inside of heart far enough. The second time my mask didn't cover whole front of card and I was using the end of a long stamp, so got ink all over the front of card. This third time, my black stamp turned out to have fluff on it but it was now 11pm and I was too tired to try again. I really enjoyed doing all of these cards. Over the weekend my Mum said she would pay for some ink pads, so I ordered 8 pads from Mama Elephant, I'm so excited!!! Will definitely try these cards again when they arrive. Will tackle Day 5 and 6 tonight. Keeps my mind busy so I don't miss Phoebe. She is home tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait. Four days is a long time to not talk to your child and not know if she is happy or not. Fingers crossed she comes back full of excitement and many 'cool' stories!!! Take care Shona
So glad I managed to squeeze this challenge card in this week. I really love joining this challenge, as the sketch is so simple and love seeing how everyone else interprets it, they are amazing. You should take a peek at CAS(E) this Sketch #67.
I had one idea in my head but after going over it a million times, I decided to try something else.
Now, I'm not quite sure about this one. I feel like it needs something else but every embellishment I try doesn't look right, so I feel its telling me to stop and leave it be. What do you think? I die-cut the hello 4x from white cardstock and glued together, with a gold paper topper. The two papers are from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date'. I actually had another pink pattern that I was going to use but I turned it over to put on foam squares and saw the grey stripes. Much more interesting, I thought. I also tried out my new heart die from CAS-ual Friday's that I won. Its fantastic!!!!!
I was worried I wouldn't get to join any challenges this week. Have started the
Online Card Class - Clean and Simple One Layer, also been 'parent help'
at a few school outings and trying to get Phoebe packed up for
her first school camp on Monday. They are going about 1/2hr away and staying 3
nights. She hasn't been able to do a sleepover yet (usually gets brought
back home crying) so not sure how she will get on.....fingers crossed!
I had some VERY exciting news on Monday. Was going thru my emails and found one telling me I had won a spot in the latest online card class, starting the next day!!! I was so happy as I'm loving the creation of CAS cards and this would teach me so much.
Unfortunately it has also been a VERY busy week, so I'm very behind with the class. The emails turn up around 1am (because I'm in New Zealand) and I haven't had a chance to look at Day 3 so far today. Will have to wait till tonight.
The first lessons included learning to 'inlay die-cuts', which I've seen many people do but didn't know where to start. As you know I don't own many dies, so had to come up with a design that would work with the lesson.
It was quite a disaster for me as I lost a tiny piece from right in the middle (of the first 'L') and I seem to have little gaps around the edges of the rectangles. I will definitely try it again and at least know what to do next time, so I don't have pieces that are 'nearly invisible' to piece back in. I don't have access to any good cardstock at the moment either (this is just from a local stationary store) so it tends to tear and buckle. Will have to see if I can improve my stock!! Day 2 gave more examples of these types of cards, which look amazing. They also covered doing 'faux metal', which looked really cool but I don't have any way to re-create that one. So, I'm pretty happy with the card (if I don't look closely) and will do some more creating tonight when I look at the next lessons (if I don't fall asleep first!!). Take care Shona
Tried out two different things last night. Decided to design a card for the Lawnscaping Challenge(which I have never tried before) and also used some coloured stamps (they have been sitting in a box for a few months).
During the day I thought of a design but it needed coloured stamps. About two months ago I purchased a whole lot of 2nd hand Stampin' Up pads. I really liked the colours but because they are water-based dye ink, I never liked how they looked. I thought that since I was going to cover them in Wink of Stella, it wouldn't matter. So...
I keep thinking of Laura Bassen when I look at my card (but her's would be WAY better than this!). If you don't know who Laura is, you really need to visit her blog Doublestick Heaven. She is one of my favourite designers and her creations are incredible. She is a genius stamper and uses alot of colour but she has much better ink pads than me! The stamp is from my new CAS-ual Fridays stamp set 'Shenanigins' which only took 7 days to make it to New Zealand!! The set is fantastic and has alot of large stamp sentiments and others that I can use separately.
I was going to put Glossy Accents on my balloons but I tested it out and I couldn't get it neat enough. I'm not really that happy with the Wink of Stella either. I thought I was running out and kept squeezing but I then realised that it had unscrewed. So when I screwed it back together, all my squeezing suddenly appeared on my last balloon, so had to go back and do the others again.
Housework is calling me. Lost a bit of time this morning as I managed to get Phoebe into the dentist for a sore tooth. She had her first numbing injections today, I'm so proud of her! She went back to school very happy and couldn't stop giggling about her 'fat and numb' bottom lip. Take care Shona
I didn't realise I had so much yellow patterned paper! I was telling my Mum yesterday about the challenge and suddenly had an idea for the card but didn't know if I had the right yellow paper. Turns out there was no worry there!
The yellow scared me but I was instantly drawn to the pale wood egg cup, utensils and tray. I wanted to have a card that represented the wood, some yellow and also the tiny bit of green plant in the top left. And also my black ink would be for the gorgeous black moustached egg!
I found the papers quite quickly but spent ages trying to get the angles right. I even found the yellow paper with feather patterns and then realised there is a feather in the inspiration photo too! The arrow paper is from Teresa Collins 'Memorabilia', the yellow paper is Lori Whitlock 'Here and Now' and the green is from Lawn Fawn 'Into the Woods'. I really like how it turned out. Was a bit worried as I nearly didn't have enough foam tape to pop up the arrow paper (must start buying that tape in bulk!!). Will link up right now as I missed out on the challenge last week. You really should check it out. The other entries at the Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge # 7 really are incredible and its becoming more popular. Take care Shona
I seem to have become addicted to the colour 'peach' after making my card for the Curtain Call Challenge - Perfectly Peach. I spent all of yesterday thinking about a new card design and couldn't wait till I had time to sit down and make it. I even knew exactly what papers I wanted to use, which is very rare for me.
I have become completely obsessed with my new Teresa Collins papers. I purchased five 12x12 papers from the 'You are my Happy' collection and could already see in my mind that the card would use two of these.
It certainly was rather fiddly making the 'shaker' part and there is probably and easier way. I die cut the frame 4x and put acetate under top peach frame. Unfortunately I then found it wasn't high enough (my shaker wouldn't shake!) so cut some thin foam strips to pop it up.
I used sequins from the same Teresa Collins collection plus large light peach ones from 'Daily Stories'.
I absolutely LOVE IT and it turned out exactly like the picture in my head. And Phoebe and Max can't stop shaking it, they think its awesome!
I finished it around 11pm last night and decided to sleep on it with regards to adding a sentiment etc but decided this morning that I would let the 'I love you' paper speak for itself.
Very overcast here today, hoping it will pour down with rain. Everyone is pretty healthy, so life is good. I have one more card to make this weekend for the Cure for the Monday Blues Challenge, the inspiration photo is mainly yellow and white. Yellow isn't a colour I'm drawn too but either was peach, so will let my brain do its thing!!
Well, I've certainly never done this before! I sat down last night with my scribbled list of card challenges and when they finish. As I sat there looking at the new Teresa Collins papers I had received, I started getting an idea for a card. After the card was finished, I realised that I could put it towards 'four' challenges, which are:
I can't believe that I've have organised my brain so well to do this, with one card....must be all the chocolate I've consumed lately!!
So this is my 'Four challenges' card:
The 'peach' paper is from Teresa Collins 'You are my Happy', the gray stripe paper is from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date'. The silver/gray washi tape is from Papervine. The enamels and sequins are also from Teresa Collins.
Almost forgot about my hexagons! I recently watched a tutorial by Jennifer McGuire about stacking diecuts to make them stand out more. So decided to try this with the hexagons. This is a brand new die-cut from Couture Creations. I stacked 3 hexagons in white cardstock and then put a hexagon in paper from Teresa Collins 'Save this date' (which has tiny hexagons all over it!!) on top. Was very fiddly but so worth it! And of course I then used my Wink of Stella for some sparkle!
Can see now why I have done separate cards up till now! I'm buggered just writing this post!!
Going outside now to watch Max on his skateboard. He is getting bored now so he must be getting better. Tomorrow will be a catch-up on everything day with both kids at school, I hope!
Just realised, I now have to link this post up four times.....might have a rest first...
What a busy evening I had last night. Yesterday I had both Max (still sick) and Phoebe home from school. Phoebe developed what looked like Chicken Pox on her shoulder but it didn't spread any further. Looks like she is just having a reaction to the pool chlorine (which has happened before).
So I was DYING to do some crafting last night (instead of all day Lego....). Yesterday I had some craft goodies arrive. An online craft store Scrappin Patch was having 40% off all their stock, so managed to get my hands on some Teresa Collins papers and sequins. I got a 6x6 pad of 'Save the Date' and 12x12 papers of 'You are my Happy' and 'Daily Stories'. They are all gorgeous and couldn't wait to start playing with them all!!
This is the sketch for this weeks challenge. It was great to try something like this as I don't usually do much layering, so decided to let go and enjoy it.
Sorry about the shadow in the photo. I was trying to take it quickly with Max behind me, constantly asking me to play with him..... All the papers used are from Teresa Collins 'Save the Date' 6x6 pad. The papers are just beautiful and so are the patterns. I can see this pad being used up very quickly! The sequins and enamel dots are also from Teresa Collins. It was a very nice sketch to do and liked that it didn't take up all of the white space. Max is begging for lunch, so better sign off. I have another card to link up as well that is for 3 challenges! And I must have look again at the other cards linked up to this Retro Sketches Challenge , they are incredible!! Take care Shona
Before I show you my card, I must tell you of some exciting news I had over the weekend. I won not one but two competitions from two blogs that I follow. The first one was a stamp set from CAS-ual Fridays, they introduced their design team and my comment was selected. I also purchased some heart dies from them, so they could sneak them in with the stamps.
The second was some Faber Castell Crayons from the Facebook page of Laurel Beard who has the fantastic blog Paper Crafts by Laurel. The colours are gorgeous and I can't wait to have a play around with those. So will finally have some new stamps and dies to use on my cards!!!
Last night I decided to try a colour that I don't usually use.....gold. I wear silver jewellery and I'm drawn to silver objects but I've seen gold used so much in cards lately, I thought I had better give it a go.
Its nice and simple and I had a few ideas for this one. This is the card I wanted to try out the most:
I purchased some gold paper from a local stationary store. I find it so hard to keep it uncreased but will work on that. I wanted to have another go at colour blocking, so mixed in some white cardstock and green paper from Echo Park 'Everyday Eclectic'. Thought I would try out another stamp from my Simon Says Stamps 'Year Round Sentiments' set and a few gorgeous pink enamel dots for some different colour. Its a pretty simple card but love how the gold paper shimmers. Will just see how it goes.... Have Max home today. He is 7 years old and very prone to colds/flu's etc. He is addicted to Lego so I'm sure we will be creating something with the Lego during the day. Its school photo day unfortunately, so Max will miss out but he looks the same (just alot taller). Phoebe wanted a french plait but my fingers just wouldn't work properly today. Knowing her luck she will have swimming before her photo, so can't wait to see what she will look like!! Take care Shona
Seem to be losing my mind today. I keep losing stuff, thinking I have done things when I haven't at all, missed the cut off of a challenge etc. And when I tried to make this card I kept putting glue and foam squares on the wrong side of the paper (or dropping my pencil right on the card and covering it in pencil scribbles...). I should have stopped but I really wanted to enter this challenge. I have a 6x6 pad of MME Cut & Paste 'Adorbs' paper that I haven't used yet and this was the perfect time!
For the My Minds Eye Challenge you needed to use mainly MME products. I managed to do that and this is what I came up with:
I used Woodgrain paper for the first time from the MME 'Adorbs' 6x6 pad. I then found a 12x12 MME paper that I didn't know I had. Its from the MME Cut and Paste 'Flair' collection and called 'Small point paper'. The arrows were the starting point for this card. When I turned it over I realised that the ombre colour on the back would go with it beautifully. Can't believe I didn't stamp again for this card but was probably a good idea as I'm sure I would have smudged it today. The sticker is from Glitz Design 'Wild and Free' collection. I'm really happy with how the card came out and thought I'd better link it straight away to the challenge before I forget and miss that one too! Better go and take the dogs for a walk now. They have been hanging around me for nearly two hours waiting for a walk. I usually go between midday and 1.30pm (its 1.13pm now), how do the dogs know its that time?? Take care Shona
