Hi everybody!! Wanted to pop in and remind you about the current TIME OUT challenge. We have a wonderful 'nautical' photo for this one:
I love all those clean, crisp stripes. And they are such cute glasses with their anchors and rings. You can be inspired by this photo in any way you feel. Maybe a nautical theme or just stripes or maybe wood grain. Its all up to you!! I still can't get away from those yummy stripes but I'm terrible at drawing (and stamping) straight lines. Thank goodness for my paper trimmer:
I started by die-cutting a stitched-rectangle from white CS. After choosing some red and navy paint chips, I randomly cut thin strips of each colour. I adhered them to the rectangle and then stamped the sentiment in black. I also stamped the rest of the sentiment on a tiny piece of white CS and popped up on foam tape. The rectangle was also put on foam tape over the card base, and a few blue sequins were thrown on for fun. I was just thinking that this could maybe be a masculine card???? Maybe without the sequins....
The stitched-rectangle die is from Pretty Pink Posh. The sentiment stamps are from Waffle Flower 'Congrats' and the blue sequins from Avery Elle.
You still have until next Wednesday 2nd September to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge and the rest of the Design Team (as well as our fabulous Guest Designer Anni) have some more inspiring cards on the blog. I hope to see you in the Gallery!!
Masking is something I haven't tried very often when it comes to stamping. I get a bit confused sometimes working out the order of what should be stamped first. I'm also not the best with fussy cutting at times, so my 'mask' doesn't always cover the image properly.
However, I thought I just needed to get over myself and practice. And this AAA Challenge was the perfect excuse!!
I've seen a lot of beautiful cards lately with masking, especially with butterflies. So I thought it would be an easy-ish shape to start with....:
I started by stamping the butterfly on some white CS and cutting it out. I've been trying to find some Post-It large labels in New Zealand but no one seems to sell them here. After stamping and heat embossing the first butterfly, I then simple held the mask in place where needed and stamped the next one. It was a bit of a juggling act but also quite fun.
After finishing all the heat embossing in gold, I used my Distress Inks to water colour. And this time I even coloured the background, which I never do. It helps that I FINALLY have a blue Distress Ink!! Once it was dry, I cut it to size and adhered to the card front. I also die-cut the 'perfect' once from gold CS and twice from white CS and glued them all together before sticking to the card. I also stamped the rest of the sentiment in black on a tiny piece of white CS. Really happy with how it turned out!!
The butterfly stamp is from Hero Arts. The 'perfect' die is from Waffle Flower, as well as the sentiment, which is from the 'Loved' set.
I have three other challenges I would like to enter:
I'm super excited because my Birthday goodies arrived from Simon Says Stamp today, which included two stamp sets (with matching dies) from WPlus9 and a 12 pack of Ziggies!! Can't wait to play around with them tonight.
The other news is that my computer is being taken away today at lunchtime (in one hour....) and will be back either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Thank goodness I have new things to play with or I wouldn't know what to do with myself tonight! So if you email me and I don't reply, I will get back to you as soon as my new computer is back safe at home.
Yes, a new computer and this one is being taken away to transfer all my stuff on to it. I so hope its much faster than this one but I'm also scared that the man doing it will loose all my stuff. Fingers crossed!!!!
I'm running in with my very last post of the night (or morning as its now 12.18am Tuesday). My bed has been calling me for hours but I've been trying to enter challenges and catch up with emails from my weekend away, so have been trying to ignore my closing eyes....
I've already entered the 200th celebration challenge at Freshly Made Sketches but as I made that card, the idea for this one came creeping in and wouldn't leave me alone:
Another fiddly die-cutting idea but you know I love them!!
I cut a piece of white CS to fit half-way up the front of the card base. I then die-cut each flower into the panel and then die-cut each flower from green, pink and blue paint chips. A lot of time was then spent piecing the flowers back together, holding them into place with washi tape behind the panel and also behind each flower head.
Once the flowers were in place, I stamped the sentiment in black and then added LOTS of foam tape behind the panel and the flower heads. This was then placed on the card front. A few corresponding sequins and my floral number was done!!
The flower dies are from Paper Smooches 'Dainty Flowers'. The sentiment is also from Paper Smooches 'Uplifters' and the sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
This card reminds me so much of what I have to look forward to in the next few months as Spring and then Summer arrive, so I'm going to link this to the Uniko Studio Challenge # 24 where their theme is 'Summer'.
Right, that's it, I'm off to my bed!! Will hopefully at least get 6 hours sleep before everyone gets up. That will do and will work on some more emails and comments tomorrow night. I wish I could split my body in two and have one doing all my blog work while I'm out doing my other jobs. Wouldn't that be great???!!!!!
Well, you would have to be living under a huge rock if you haven't seen all the amazing entries floating around for the celebrations over at Freshly Made Sketches. Its their 200th challenge and they are having a huge party to celebrate!!
I actually just popped over to their blog to see all the gorgeous entries and the cards made by guests and the DT but got so inspired by the creations, I just had to join in!!
You know how much I love fiddly die-cutting and I loved every fiddly minute of making this one!! I used the hearts from the 'Funfetti Fri-dies' by CAS-ual Fridays to die-cut my 'line' as in the sketch. I then spent a while die-cutting yellow and pink hearts from my favourite paint chips before inlaying one layer (with a piece of white CS on the inside of the card front) and then putting another layer on top for some height. A simple sentiment in grey (also from CAS-ual Fridays 'Love Notes') and this CAS design was done and dusted!! The colour inspiration for this card came from the Colour Me Challenge # 85:
Yippee!! One more card to post and then I can go to bed! Sorry for all the posts at once but all of these challenges are due to close in a few hours. I promise all the other cards will be later in the week to give you a breather...
You know I love a good one-layer card and I've seen so many gorgeous ones entered for the One-layer Simplicity challenge, I didn't think I would enter but I changed my mind after buying some new Distress Inks on Saturday.
This is the amazing card that Karen gave us for inspiration for the 'Strip Down' challenge. We also had the option of creating this card 'stripped down' ourselves but as its Winter and I was spending the weekend with my Mum, I decided not to frighten her with my white, pudgy and 'un-landscaped' body...... so clothes were left on.
I was lucky to be able to purchase two of the new Distress Inks on Saturday 'Mermaid Lagoon' and 'Cracked Pistachio', in mini form. So after using lots of washi tape and spare pieces of paper to mask off my strip, I blended the two inks together. I then simply stamped in black the lotus flower, dragon flies and sentiment from one of my favourite Waffle Flower sets 'Lotus'.
I have four other challenges I would like to enter:
Only one more week till the official first day of Spring. Blossoms are starting to come out and you can see new growth on all my roses. We haven't even had a frosty morning for a while but I'm sure it will catch us off guard one morning....especially when my Mum's magnolia tree starts flowering!!
I spent ages combing thru my stamps and dies on Saturday, trying to find inspiration for this weeks CASology challenge.
I realised that I don't actually have any 'number or numeral' stamps but I did have a few sentiments that could fit the bill:
I die-cut a large heart shape from some white CS and taped it down over the card front. I then stamped and heat embossed a faceted stamp over the opening and heat embossed with gold. The sentiment was stamped in black with one gold sequin and voila!
The heart die is from CAS-ual Fridays 'Heart Fri Die'. The faceted stamp is from Winnie and Walter. The sentiment stamp is from Neat and Tangled 'Faceted', as well as the sequin.
I have three other challenges I would like to enter:
Well, what a wonderful weekend I had with my Mum. Lots of cards were made and junk food consumed. I did come home last night to more than 300 emails (most of them are blog posts from all the wonderful people who's blogs I follow), so please bear with me as I catch up on all your adventures!!
This is the beautiful card from Anita this week for the Muse challenge. The beautiful blue/green colouring with the white/black and gold really caught my eye. I really love her gold splatter over the stenciling but wasn't sure how I could recreate that part:
I started by die-cutting a square to make a mask for my stenciling, so I could concentrate the patterns in the middle of the card. After die-cutting the 'happy' from black CS three times, I glued them all together. I stamped and heat embossed the flower and leaves in gold on some plain vellum and then used the matching die's to cut them out. I layered them over the stencil pattern and then adhered the 'happy' over top. A few gold sequins (instead of gold splatter) and the rest of the sentiment stamped in black finished it off. The stencil is from Teresa Collins 'Basically Essentials'. The 'happy' die is from Whimsy Stamps, as well as the 'birthday' stamp from the set 'Happy Everything'. The flower and leaf stamps (and matching dies) are from Waffle Flower 'Leafy'. And the gold sequins are from Neat and Tangled. I have three other challenges I would like to enter: Little Tangles Challenge # 59
Yippee! Its Friday, the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend. Sleep-in's, no rushing around with school bags etc and hopefully time to do a bit of crafting....
If you are able to make a card or two, you might be interested in this week's theme at Just Add Ink. Our theme is:
JUST ADD CARDS for Males
That's right, we are looking for cards for the men in our lives. So its a perfect chance to whip up a card for your husband, Dad, son, postman etc and join in with our challenge.
I have to admit, I was really worried about this one. I've only made maybe two masculine cards in my time. I love flowers and pretty paper and stamps in my designs, so this was a struggle. However, once I decided on a colour scheme it all fell into place:
I was trying to think about what colours men wear and kept going back to a tuxedo. So why not black and white??
So I grabbed my favourite die and cut away with some black and white CS. I adhered each piece to the card front in a random pattern and cut away anything hanging over the edges. I stamped the sentiment in black ink on white CS, cut into a rectangle and glued to a piece of black CS that was slightly bigger. This was popped up on foam tape. And as much as I love to use sequins, they just didn't seem appropriate for this card.
The die is from Reverse Confetti, as well as the sentiment stamp from the set 'Shine from Within'.
You have until next Wednesday 26th August to link your projects to the Just Add Ink challenge. And of course the rest of the Design Team have created some awesome projects to inspire you on the blog. I hope you can join in and I can't wait to see what you come up with!!
Another fortnight and another challenge is upon us!! We have a fantastic inspiration photo for this TIME OUT challenge and I have a feeling its going to be quite popular......
Anchors away everybody!! We have a nautical themed photo for you with all those gorgeous blue stripes. However, you may be inspired by just the stripes, the glasses or even the wood. Its totally up to you!!
Our Guest Designer for this challenge is the amazing Anni from Annikarten. I'm such a huge fan of her designs and her colouring skills are phenomenal! I really encourage you to visit her blog and be prepared to stay awhile....
I have to admit, I was a little stumped with this photo. I really wanted to design a card with boats in mind but don't really have any stamps or dies that would work. However, after digging around in my bottom drawer I came across some stencils that were perfect:
I heard someone the other day (in the supermarket) talking about how they had purchased another boat and how they would have to refurbish the whole thing because it was a little shabby. Wow, imagine being able to buy one boat let alone two.....so this card is for that woman and her overabundance of yachts!!
I used a striped stencil that is actually on an angle, so just taped it across my white CS. I used my mini blending tool and a fresh sponge to add lots of dark blue ink. Once finished I used a circle die to cut out the 'unsmudged' part. I also cut two more circles from white CS and stuck them all together before adhering to the card front.
I then got out my mini blending tool again and put some red ink on the 'anchor' stencil over white CS. Once dry (I used pigment ink) I fussy cut it out and used a red pen around the cut edges. This was popped up on foam tape. The sentiment was stamped in black with a few co-ordinating enamel dots.
Both of the stencils are from Teresa Collins 'Basically Essentials'. The sentiment stamp is from Waffle Flower 'Congrats' and the enamel dots from Papervine.
Your have two weeks to enter your projects to the TIME OUT challenge and the rest of the fabulous Design Team have created some designs on the blog to help in the 'inspiration' department. I hope you have a chance to join in and I can't wait to see what you come up with!!
I've been really into colouring of late and that's mainly due to Kathy's 'Pop Up Challenge' at her blog The Daily Marker.
She organised a 4 day challenge based around the theme of 'Lines' and she has video's on her blog showing her colouring techniques. I've already posted my first card where I drew my own lines and used some pencils. For this card I decided to use the lines of a stamp and do some water colouring:
I was very lucky a few weeks ago to win this large faceted stamp from the latest Neat and Tangled new release. I thought it would be fun to colour in all those triangles, so I heat embossed the stamp in black on some water colour paper. This is the first time I've used black embossing powder and boy was it a disaster!! Even though I treated it like any other powder, it would blow around as soon as the heat gun got near it so I ended up with black dots everywhere. Maybe I need to try another brand.......
I water coloured using my Distress Inks and some water. I even tried to create a 'highlight' in each triangle by keeping it darker in one corner and moving the colour away from the other. Its not perfect but I like how it turned out! After stamping the sentiment in black ink and heat embossing with clear embossing powder, I cut them out and popped up on foam tape. Gold sequins seemed to be the only colour that would go with this, so added three for a little more shine!
As I mentioned, the faceted stamp is from Neat and Tangled 'Faceted'. Its a brilliant set and comes with big font sentiments as well. The sentiment stamps are also Neat and Tangled 'Everyday Labels'. Even the sequins are N&T too!!
Once again I've linked this card on Instagram to the 'Pop Up Challenge', so no need to link to Kathy's blog. But I do have three other challenges I would like to enter:
Another rainy day today so that's three days without gardening. I'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms and need some dirt under my fingernails!! Although, it has helped me catch up with my emails and commenting. So even though most of my lawn in flooded with all the rain overnight, its so worth it!!
Woosh! Did you see that?? That was yet another week wooshing past us and pushing us closer and closer to Xmas...eeekk!! I still haven't recovered from last Xmas, so this is quite frightening indeed.
This will certainly be a HUGE help in adding to my very small pile of Xmas cards. And I need ALOT this year!!
Our Sponsor for this challenge is the incredible craft company Stamplorations and they are giving a $10 gift certificate to the winner. I'm so jealous!!
So, as I mentioned I wanted to go with a Xmas theme for my card. I was actually inspired by my friend Sandie who recently used this same stamp set. Her card looked so amazing I thought maybe if I use it, my card might look as good (here's hoping....):
Its been so cold here of late (especially the frosts in the mornings) I wanted to try and capture the icy look of the frost itself. Using vellum seemed like the answer!
I cut a piece of vellum the same size as my card front and stamped and heat embossed in white two sizes of snowflakes. I cut thin pieces of double-sided tape and attached to the back of the large snowflakes so I could stick it to the card base. After stamping and heat embossing the sentiment in silver, I fussy cut the 'snow' and popped it up on foam tape, as well as the 'let it' piece. A few tiny clear sequins for the glistening of the snow seemed like the perfect finishing touch.
All of the stamps used are from Uniko Studio 'Big and Bold - Snow'. The sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh.
You have until next Wednesday 26th August to link your projects to the Addicted to Stamps challenge. And of course the rest of the Design Team have some incredible projects on the blog for inspiration. Hope you have a chance to join in and can't wait to see what you create!
I'm a huge fan of Kathy from The Daily Marker, her colouring skills are phenomenal and I always look forward to her next blog post to see what she has created and coloured. Kathy decided to do something different and create a POP UP Challenge.
Its a challenge that runs until the 17th August (started 14th August), so a nice quick one and with it ending on my birthday, I knew I had to give it a go!! The theme is 'Lines' and Kathy shows a couple of videos on creating lines and how to give them interest by thickening them and giving them 'eyelashes' etc. You really must have a look. I thought it would be quite fun, so I scribbled random black lines on a piece of white CS and away I went:
Eeeek, this isn't your normal kind of card, I can hear you say. It looks like a child coloured this in, I also hear someone whispering in the background. And I totally agree but this was so much fun!!
I only had one felt tip pen to use when doing the lines, so wasn't able to do the 'eyelash' effect but did manage to thicken the lines in some places before I took to it with my pencils. After I finished, I used a circle die to cut out my favourite area and also cut two more circles from black CS. In her video Kathy also mentions how she likes to die-cut words from her colouring pieces, layer them and put them back in, so I decided to do that too!
I die-cut the 'happy' from the piece and also three times from black CS. I glued all the circles together (which gave the word die-cut a black background) and then glued all the words, which were then put back in the die-cut negative. I then heat embossed the 'birthday' in white on some black CS and popped it up on foam tape. A few sequins to finish it off and my colouring adventure was complete!!
The circle die is from Couture Creations. The sentiment stamp is from Whimsy Stamps 'Happy Everything' as well as the 'happy' die.
As I shared the photo of this card on Instagram, I don't need to link it to the challenge but I have three other challenges I would like to join:
I'm now working on another colouring piece but this time with water colours, so hope to finish that this afternoon. I also put in an order to Simon Says Stamps on Saturday which included my first lot of Zig Markers (packet of 12). I'm so excited and can't wait for them to arrive. I also splashed out on two sets of stamps with matching dies but you will have to wait and see what they are....
Thank you so much Kathy for organising such a fun little challenge and I look forward to the next one. I might even be able to participate in her next colouring challenge in October but will have to practice ALOT with my new markers......
I haven't had a chance to join in with the CAS-ology Challenge for a few weeks and when I received some new stamps that I had purchased (secondhand), one of them begged to be used!!
I don't have many 'water themed' stamps apart from the odd fish or two and I'm always looking for something different with my CAS-ology entries. Well, when these stamps arrived, I forgot about one set which is a 'beach' theme, so I made this card straight away:
This is one of my cards where I would say 'if I did any less on it, the card would be blank!!'. It was super simple to make and I used my Hero Arts 'Ombre' ink pad which hasn't been seen yet. I thought it would give the flamingo a bit more of an interesting look than flat pink. The sentiment actually has another two lines underneath it, so put some washi tape over the bottom half while stamping, works a treat! Both of these stamps are from Kelly Purkey 'Summertime'.
I've seen so many photos on Instagram of people at the beach of late. I can't wait for Summer to come back. Its only about six weeks till Daylight Savings starts so not long to go. Once those blossoms start appearing on the trees, the sun won't be far away. Yippee!!
Once again I'm slipping in with a card at the last moment. When I saw Michele's gorgeous card for the Muse Challenge this week, I knew I wanted to join in, I just had to find time.
Isn't this so wonderful with the green against all that crisp white!! Michele also asked us to do some dry embossing, which is something I don't do very often. So I dusted off my favourite folder and took it for a spin:
I dry embossed the front panel of my card and then jumped into some die-cutting. I die-cut the flowers from some silver CS and glued them to the card. I then die-cut the 'hugs' from some green CS and twice from white CS before sticking them all together and popping up on foam tape. I also stamped the sentiment in black on a small piece of white CS and put on foam tape. I hope Michele likes it!! The embossing folder is from Couture Creations. The flower dies are from Paper Smooches 'Dainty Flowers' and the 'hugs' die is from Winnie and Walter. The sentiment is also from W&W 'The Big, the Bold and Friends'. I'm also going to link this to the Winnie and Walter 'Join in to Win' Challenge where they want to see your cards using their products.
I've got two more cards to list (yes, I managed to find some crafty time over the weekend....) and a few cards to finish off today. Luckily I have the day off from any gardening jobs, so can sit in the quiet (with the kids at school) and watch horror movies while I stamp. Yay!!
Its nearly 3pm on a Saturday afternoon and I've just made a card!! Crazy I know as I usually don't get to craft till the wee small hours but its a dreary day today and the kids are all playing games, so I grabbed the opportunity!!
I don't have any apples in my Paper Smooches stash but I do have some butterflies that fitted the bill:
I cut a piece of kraft CS to fit the card front and die cut the two sizes of butterflies. I then cut different pieces of patterned paper and adhered them to the card front. I really wanted to show some type of sewing (like the pillow) so used a white gel pen to add the lines around the die-cuts and popped the panel up on lots of foam tape. The sentiment was heat embossed in white on some vellum and I hid the double-sided tape pieces behind the letters. The butterfly dies are from Paper Smooches, as well as the sentiment from the set 'Uplifters'. The papers are from Chickaniddy Crafts 'Scrumptious', American Crafts 'My Girl', Kaisercraft 'Happy Snaps' and Dear Lizzy 'Serendipity'. I'm off shortly to take the kids to play basketball at the school. Its starting to rain again but hopefully we can spend at least a few minutes outside. I want to try and make some cards tonight as this is the first one I've made all week, so hopefully I will have more to show you tomorrow. Take care Shona
I'm popping in with a quick reminder about our current TIME OUT Challenge. We have some words as our theme this time:
FRIENDSHIP IS GOLDEN
The good thing about this is that you can be inspired by any of these words, its totally up to you. So let your imagination run wild!!
I still wanted to run with the 'friendship' theme for my card and throw some gold in there. But I also was inspired by a recent blog hop:
Recently Paulina from Pretty Pink Posh had a blog hop celebrating her latest release of dies and sequins. As I hopped to each blog, I remembered the die's from PPP that I owned and that I hadn't used much of lately. And it gave me this idea!!
I got out my trusty tin of paint chips and chose some Summery, beachy colours. I then die-cut each colour using the 'Stitched Duo 2' die which has six round windows. After working out my pattern, I added foam tape to the back of each circle and put it on the card front. Once all the circles were on I gently cut off any overhanging pieces. To carry on the circle theme, I die cut a circle (from Couture Creations) from vellum and heat embossed the 'hello' (from Winnie and Walter 'The Big, the Bold and Happy') and the 'friend' (from Paper Smooches 'Bold Buzzwords') in gold. I cut teeny, tiny strips of double sided tape and put them behind the sentiments to attach to the card.
Your have until next Wednesday 19th August to get your projects linked to the TIME OUT Challenge. And of course the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer Cornelia have come up with some delicious cards as inspiration!! Hope to see you in the Gallery!
