Hi there everybody!! Its a public holiday for us in New Zealand today but unfortunately I had to work. I've spent months working on a huge garden for a wedding tomorrow (Friday) and been there every day this week doing last minute weeding and dead-heading of flowers. It looks amazing but kind of glad the pressure is now off.
I'm wanting to remind you today about our current theme for the TIME OUT challenge. Its all about being 'Affectionate' which means so many different things to people. It also means there are so many ways you can express it on your project, can't wait to see them all!
Our Sponsor for this challenge is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps and they are giving a $25 gift voucher to the winner. They are so generous!!
For my card I was actually inspired by a magazine I was reading at a doctors office this week. It showed all these gorgeous celebrities wearing dresses with a pink/red colour combo and I thought it looked amazing. So decided to try it out on my card with a touch of light blue:
Loving these colours together, will definitely be doing this combo again!!
I started off by white heat embossing the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 'Heart to Heart' stamp on watercolour CS. I then watercoloured the hearts using Distress Inks 'Picked Raspberry' and 'Candied Apple'. I also painted the circles with 'Tumbled Glass'. Once it had dried I fussy cut around the edges. I was going to put it on the card as one piece but realised I could create two smaller panels by cutting two rows from the middle, so did that instead.
I added a piece of grey CS to the card front and then popped the painted hearts on foam tape. For the sentiment I found some red CS similar to the red watercolour, so white heat embossed it (from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 'Pretty Posies') and put it on foam tape, along with some Neat and Tangled sequins.
I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'With Love'.
You have until Wednesday 12th February to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge and if your needing some inspiration, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our fabulous Guest Designer Mugdha of Craftomania has created for you. Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!
Take care
Shona
Hi everyone!! Its been so hot here of late I've hardly been able to think, let alone make any cards. My craft area is in the hottest (and coldest) area of the house so sitting there just leaves you sweaty and exhausted. But the past few days have been the hottest so far this Summer, so no matter where I went with my MISTI and stamps, the urge to craft was way down on the list. Eating ice-cream and sitting in front of a fan was no. 1!!!
I can't believe its February already but that means it's also time for a new theme at The Flower Challenge!! This month its all about 'Adding Leaves'. I don't know about you but I get so giddy looking at floral images I do tend to forget about the leaves so its nice to give them some attention.
Our Guest Designer for this challenge is the incredible Galina Filippenko of Galachko. I've been a huge fan of her work for years so I very excited to have her cards on the blog this month.
I'm determined this year to not buy lots of new stamps and dies before I use the ones sitting on my desk untouched. I know I'm not the only one that does this and I'll probably break this rule very soon but I need to breathe life into the products that captured my heart enough for me to get out my wallet. So this card includes two new products:
After not making many cards for a while it was so much fun getting out my ink pads and stamping in front of the tv. And our new kitten 'Remy' was fascinated with what I was doing. Although, she loves sleeping on my desk and I found my first half-finished card today with a muddy paw in the middle of it......
Using my MISTI and Waffle Flower 'Chirp! Chirp!' green ink, I stamped the solid and outlines leaves from The Stamp Market 'Botannicals', putting the solid ones in the middle and filling the spaces out from there. I did this on a panel of white CS that I then put through my Cuttlebug with The Stamp Market 'Thank you' die, using the shadow die (it comes with the word die and shadow die). I then adhered the panel to the card front.
I found some green CS similar to the ink and die-cut the 'thank you' word dies from it 3x, glued them together and then glued in the 'shadow' die-cut holes. The flowers (from the same 'Botannicals' stamp set) were stamped with Waffle Flower inks 'You Said What?', 'New Fish in Pond' and 'Happy Go Lucky'. I stamped them all a few times each to get good coverage. I fussy cut them out and adhered in place, gluing a blue pearl and yellow pearl (from Studio Katia) in the middle. I then glued on some more to finish off.
I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.
Will also link to the Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge where their theme is 'Floral Frenzy'.
You have until Tuesday 25th February to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and I'll be back here on the 15th with another card covered in leaves to give you some more ideas. Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
Hi there!! After getting heatstroke at the weekend I was extremely excited to have it try to rain today. It hasn't rained at all this year and the few raindrops that fell felt wonderful on my skin and brought the temperature down ALOT, so sleep tonight is going to be heavenly instead of sweaty.....
I've got a card to share with you today using one of the newly released stamp sets from Funky Fossil Designs. This was one of those situations where I have an idea for a card and I can't concentrate on any other designs until this one is created. Do you ever do that??? It will gnaw into my brain until I stamp it out, I even had dreams about it:
I'm so in love with the new 'Scandi Home A5 Clear Stamp set'. It has so many images and they all have a retro feel to them. When I saw the teapot and all the details it has with the little dots and flowers, I immediately imagined it in rainbow colours.
Using my MISTI and Waffle Flower inks I simply stamped the teapot across a panel of white CS, stamping each one a few times to get even coverage. I just used my eye to line up the images, its not perfect but I like it that way. I cut it slightly smaller than the card base and popped it up on a piece of white foam. I white heat embossed the sentiment (from Funky Fossil Design 'Pugs and Hugs') on a strip of black CS, put it on foam tape and glued on some pearls from Studio Katia.
I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.
Time for bed! I've got another busy day tomorrow. I've been working on a garden for months, getting it ready for a wedding this coming Friday. Still a lot of trimming and dead heading of flowers to do to make it look perfect. And its only supposed to be around 18 degrees celcius tomorrow instead of the usual 32 so that will be so much better to work in.
Take care
Shona
