Holly Jolly - Feature a creature

It's time for a new challenge over at Holly Jolly, thank you for linking up your gorgeous creations for our previous challenge Stitching. For the next two weeks, the theme over at Holly Jolly will be Feature a Creature. Any creature, great or small, furry or not is welcome in our challenge. Take this chance to enhance your Christmas card stash, trust me you will be happy you did it later in the year! 

Our generous sponsors this time are Eureka stamps, All Dressed Up and Lacy Sunshine. By linking up your fabulous creations, you can win generous prizes from our sponsors. And if you are looking for some creature images to get you going, just hop over and browse their images, you are sure to find something you like! And you can find loads of inspiration from the amazing DT over at Holly Jolly as well to get your creative muscles going.

For my card, I used the cute Dog Pile digi from Eureka. I coloured the image with copics and fussy cut it. I wanted to make something other than just a regular square or rectangular card and I found a great website with lots of ideas for card folds here. It's a great source of inspiration if you want to do something a bit out of the ordinary. I also stamped, coloured and die cut some ornaments using the Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods stamp set. I used kraft card to create my card base, and covered it with pearlescent copper card. I added a brightly coloured DSP and adhered the dogs onto that. Last, I stamped a sentiment in the bottom panel and added some stickles to the star on top of the dog pile. I think it turned out rather fun!

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Stick it any which way you like
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - Anything Goes with patterned paper
Christmas Card Challenges - Anything Goes
Avenue 613 - Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Feature a Creature
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - Anything Goes with a twist - add a sentiment

Card: kraft card, Centura pearl card copper
Stamps: Eureka Stamps digi Dog Pile, Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods and matching dies
Colouring: Copics
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Dovecraft Merry Magic 8x8 DSP
Other: Tim Holtz Stickles Mustard Seed

Monochrome owl

Oh dear, it's Monday again. I think a four day working week would be much more compatible with also having a life, this pesky two day weekend business isn't nearly enough. It's only enough for the bare essentials, like cleaning and grocery shopping but I want a bit of luxurious "nothing to do" time. Just sitting and relaxing, sipping a cocktail or hot chocolate depending on the weather. Maybe reading a book. I haven't read a book in ages, does anyone have any good suggestions? Luckily I made time yesterday to put together this quick card though.

The inspiration for today's card comes from the blue owl in the inspiration photo from ShowCASe Your Style. The layout is inspired by this week's CAS(E) this Sketch. I'm also linking up with Addicted to CAS where the theme is "Cute", Addicted to Stamps "Make Your Mark" and Paper Smooches "Anything Goes".

Card: Dark blue card from my stash, white 300 gsm card, Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire Core'dinations card

Stamps: Paper Smooches Chubby Chums, Stampin' Up Hardwood

Ink: Tim Holtz Faded Jeans, Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics B00, B06, B41, B45, white gel pen, Stampin' Write marker Pacific Point

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Stampin' Up Banner punch

Bloomin' marvelous pastel flowers

The weather outside is absolutely miserable. It's pouring with rain and the wind is howling like it did during the winter storms. I had so hoped to get some work done in the garden. But instead the best I can do is to try and re-create a garden on paper instead. 

Today's card is inspired by the gorgeous pastel flowers over at ColourQ and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the gorgeous spring flowers over at PINspirational. I'm also linking up at Crazy 4 Challenges where the theme is Spring.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Tim Holtz Disterss Core'dinations card Milled Lavender, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, pink cardstock from my stash

Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvelous, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous I See Paris

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink Dusty Concord, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Old Olive, Pool Party, Blushing Bride

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Journalling Card dies, Cuttlebug embossing folder

One last Easter card

It's been the most ordinary Saturday. We are so set in our routines - we wake up, I have a breakfast while catching up on blogs and then craft for a few hours. We set out to the grocery store, and often also pop to the pet store for some food for the scaly babies. When we get back I make something quick and easy for lunch, which we enjoy while watching something random on the TV. Then the Culinary Consultant settles down to "watch" TV, i.e. taking a nap, while I blog or go back to crafting. In fact, my typing may have just woken him up from his nap... Yep, definitely awake now. And soon, it's time to start preparing dinner, and there is some cleaning that needs doing as well, but not before we finish watching Over the Hedge. I love lazy Saturdays!

This is the card I made this morning. There is a really interesting challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week. It's about visiting the Kool Kitty blog and getting inspired by Nat's gorgeous creations. I always love finding a new blog to follow. So inspired by Nat's style, I created my last Easter card. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Viva la Verve, the colour combo over at Color Throwdown and the Easter-y inspiration photo over at Just Us Girls. I'm also linking up with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes.

For the background I masked some of the Irresistibly Yours paper with Washi tape, and inked using Bundled Sage ink. I die cut the foreground rectangle using stitched dies and the Lawn Fawn Let's Polka papers. I stamped the bunnies and easter eggs and coloured using Copics. Last, I die cut the "Happy" and stamped part of an Easter sentiment onto the banner.

Card: 300 gsm white card
Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours, Lawn Fawn Let's Polka
Stamps: Paper Smooches A Little Lovin, Lawn Fawn Critters from the Past, Personal Impressions Easter Set 1
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Bundled Stage, Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Hello you dies, Banner punch

Birthday swirl cupcake

Oh how I look forward to the next two weeks or so. First right now, I'm looking forward to this weekend, and some quality time in the garden and craft room. I'm planning to get a few raspberry plants to enhance my raspberry patch after I dug up some useless bits. Then I only have three days at work, followed by a glorious six day Easter holiday which I plan to spend relaxing and crafting. And enjoying our two new family members, the steam cleaner and the pressure washer! I will be cleaning and washing everything I can get my hands on, starting from my horrendously filthy car. And all of this will be followed by another three day work week followed by yet another weekend! So right now it feels like like is quite good.

Today's card is inspired by the image over at The Card Concept as well as the colours and sketch over at The Challenge. I made my cupcake swirled with pink just like the cupcake in the inspiration photo. I coloured selected parts of the Tim Holtz Birthday Blueprint cupcake stamp using a black marker, and then coloured the cupcake using a grey, pink and green marker. I then added green, pink and clear stickles to the cupcake. Last, I cut out the banners and stamped the sentiment. I made the enamel dots myself from Perler beads using the tutorial over here, which I found over at House of Cards. I'm also linking up my card for their enamel dot challenge. This is my second entry, I couldn't find anything in their rules whether you are allowed to link up more than once. I'm also linking up over at Clear It Out challenge where the theme is birthday and the stash item is polka dots and 2 Cute Ink where the theme is glitter.

Card: 300 gsm white card

Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Birthday Blueprint, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' write markers Basic Black and Smoky Slate, Tim Holtz distress markers Picked Raspberry and Mowed Lawn

Paper: Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper Pattern Stack Brights

Other: Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Worn Lipstick, Ranger Ice Stickles, home-made enamel dots

Spring bunnies

Still needed another Easter card. I think I should have most of them done by now, or maybe one or two more, not quite sure. What I am sure of is that my next card will not be an Easter card, as much as I love the adorable bunnies and easter eggs, there's only so much a girl can take. However, that does remind me of chocolate eggs, there is no limit to how many of those a girl can take! 

Anyhow, for todays' card I used an uber-cute bunny digi from Bugaboo. I coloured the bunny bunch using Copics. I used my new, but already much beloved Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle dies to cut the panels. I used my one and only Easter sentiment, note to self - get another one before Easter next year... The layout for my card is inspired by the sketch over at RetroSketches, although I chose to flip it onto it's side. I'm also playing Bingo over at Catch the Bug with Spring/Easter image, player's choice (faux stitching) and die cuts. I'm also linking up over at Creative Card Crew where the theme is Easter Critters, Fan-tastic Tuesday where the theme is Anything Goes with a twist - Easter card and Crafty Cardmakers and more... where the theme is Spring has Sprung.

Card: Stampin' Up Very Vanilla card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Personal Impressions Easter Set 1, Bugaboo digi Spring Bunnies

Colouring: Copics

Ink: Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie

Paper: Dovecraft Back to Basics III

Other: Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle dies

Easter bunny basket

The Easter cards continue. Today's card was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I used a digi from Stitchy Bear I won in a challenge. I coloured the image using Copics and die cut it with a stitched die from Lawn Fawn. The DSP is from Stampin' Up. I didn't have an Easter sentiment that would fit on the card, so I decided to only stamp the sentiment on the inside. 

I'm also linking up over at One Stitch at a Time where the theme is Nature, Challenge Up Your Life "Easter", Fantasy Stampers "Spring is in the Air" and Simply Create Too where the challenge is Easter or Bunnies.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm Three Shades of Blue, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamp: Easter Basket from Stitchy Bear, Personal Impressions Easter Set 1

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics

Paper: Stampin' Up Birds of a Feather

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched circle dies, Stampin' Up Decorative Label punch, Banner punch

More pastel Easter

Looks like my theme for this year's Easter cards are pastel colours and Distress ink backgrounds. For Grandma's card, I used an adorable Easter digi from Bugaboo stamps, which I coloured with Copics. I created the background by embossing resist, I stamped the ornate Easter egg and heat embossed with clear powder before inking with just three colours, yellow, turquoise and pink. Where the colours overlap they create such wonderful, vibrant greens, purples and oranges as well, so it looks like there was much more colours used. This is such a great tip especially if you are new to crafting and haven't built up a big stash yet, by choosing smartly you can get so much more out of your stash. I die cut the image and background vellum using Lawn Fawn dies, and printed the sentiment as I have a very limited supply of Finnish sentiments (my Grandma doesn't speak a word of any other language than Finnish). 

The card was inspired by the sketch over at STAMPlorations. I was also inspired by the wonderful inspiration board over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. I'm also playing along with the Catch the Bug March Bingo Challenge (my Bingo is Spring/Easter Image, Player's Choice = vellum and Die Cut), Addicted to Stamps where Anything Goes, Just Add Ink "Eggs or Ovals", Shopping Our Stash "Make your own background" and Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers "E is for Easter".

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Inspiration Board

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Personal Impressions Easter Set 1, Bugaboo Scene It Easter
Colouring: Copics of many colours (I might have forgotten to make a note of which ones I used, but it was pretty much all Copics I own)
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz disterss ink Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade
Other: Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder, Lawn Fawn Stitched Journal card die, Stitched Rectangle dies

It's nearly chocoholiday!

I had a look at the calendar today. Not just a glance, I mean a proper look and I made an effort to engage my brain at the same time. This was a big effort for me, admittedly, but I came to the rather scary realisation that Chocolholiday (in some circles also known as Bunnyday, Chich-o-holiday or even Easter) is just around the corner. As in, a few weeks away! After Christmas it felt like it would be an eternity until Easter (aka the next break from work), and now it's almost upon us. I have spoiled myself by taking a day of annual leave each side of Easter making it a leisurely six day break with a three day work week on each side. I can't wait! I will spend the time in my craft room, chocolate bunnies at my side.

Of course chocoholiday means some chocoholiday cards are in order. Today's card was born inside my head while stuck in traffic yet again. Getting off the hospital site in 5 pm traffic is such a nightmare. And there are plans for new buildings (including relocation of another hospital to the site) with thousands of new jobs to appear on site over the years to come which will mean even more imaginary crafty time for me. Obviously the good thing of congestion traffic is that as long as I remember the current challenges that are out there, I can pre-design the cards in my head while stuck in traffic, and then it's a quick business of just putting them together once I'm actually in my craft room for real. Alternatively, I could take some stamps and markers in the car and sit there colouring away while waiting to move along. Oh well, for the safety of myself and others I may have to stick to imaginary crafting in the car. 

Anyhow, the inspiration for today's card was the Distress challenge over at Lawn Fawn, along with the inspiration image over at Curtain Call and the inspiration board over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. I am also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Animals, Creative Card Crew "Easter Critters", Artistic Inspirations Challenge "Anything goes with a twist of Easter" and Clear it Out challenge where the theme this week is Easter and stash item is pastel things (pastel distress inks, markers and cardstock).

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday inspiration board

I only have one proper Easter stamp set, and I have already used it for the last two years, so I wanted to change things up a bit so I went for non-Easter stamps. I made a mask for inking the egg using yellow, blue and pink distress ink. I love how the colours mix together to give greens and purples where the colours overlap. Then I stamped the bunny, birds and easter eggs and coloured them using watercolours and distress ink before fussy cutting them. Last, I stamped the sentiment in black ink and matted everything onto yellow card. 

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft Three Shades of Yellow 160 gsm card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters from the Past, Critters on the Savanna, Critters in the Arctic, Personal Impressions Easter 1

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress inks Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry, Salted Ocean, Tim Holtz Distress markers in Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn, Salted Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Pumice Stone

Holly Jolly - Stitching (real or faux)

As they days get longer and lighter it's time to start thinking about... Christmas of course! Just over nine months to go, and that time will fly, believe me. Now is the right time to start (or continue) to make Christmas cards. And over at Holly Jolly, we have a great challenge to help you do this. This time we ask you to get your sewing machine or stitched dies out, as our theme is Stitching - real or faux. As usual, you have two weeks to link up your fabulous creations, and if you need a bit of help to get going, hop over to Holly Jolly for fantastic inspiration from the team. You can also get inspiration and amazing images over at our sponsor's sites. This time we are sponsored by The Stamping Boutique, Oddball Art and Crafty Sentiments Designs. There are great prizes up for grabs

I used the adorable Christmas Mouse digi from the Stamping Boutique for my card. I coloured it with Copics and used foam applicators to apply distress ink around the image. I also added some stickles for added sparkle. I die cut all the panels using stitched dies. The sentiment is heat embossed in silver, and I used a silver Sharpie to draw the faux stitching around the banner. For embellishment, I created the bow using the Stampin' Up bow builder punch and added adhesive gemstones for a finishing touch.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
The Glory of Christmas - Mouse
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Cute Critters
2015 World Wide Open Design Team Challenge - Any DT project 
The Corrosive Challenge - Our animal friends
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - Anything goes with spots and/or stripes
Craft for the Craic - Bingo (image, more than 2 layers, die cut)
C.R.A.F.T Challenge - Christmas
Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: The Stamping Boutique Christmas Mouse, Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress inks Broken China and Chipped Sapphire
Colouring: Copics C1, C3, C5, R24, R46, YG11, YG13, YG17, Sharpie silver
Paper: Stampin' Up Designer Paper Patterns Stack Brights Collection
Other: Papermania Tinsel Silver embossing powder, Stampin' Up Bow Builder Punch, Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling card die, Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables dies, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Hot, Ranger Ice Stickles

Spring flowers for Grandma

Another weekend almost gone. Does time just speed up indefinitely? I am watching a movie called Into The Wild, which is about a young man who leaves his life and moves out to the wild in Alaska to get away from all that is wrong with our society. And although I'm not dreaming of getting that far away from everything, I keep wondering whether life will ever slow down. Will there ever be time to do all I want to do instead of trying to balance the things I want to do with the things I have to do to be able to spend a small amount of time doing what I want to. That didn't make much sense, did it? I am a bit sleep deprived. So on to more sensible things, like today's card.

My card today is inspired by a bunch of challenges. I keep tabs open on my browser with challenges I am inspired by, so when I find a bit of time for crafting, I just flick through the open challenges and combine that with whatever I feel like doing at that moment. This time I was inspired by the colour challenge over at Color Throwdown and the sketch over at Happy Little Stampers. For the theme of my card I was inspired by Inspiration Emporium and Fusion where the theme is spring flowers. For technique, I was inspired by the Watercolour challenge over at Stampin' Royalty. I'm also linking up with Fantasy Stampers Challenge where the theme is "Spring is in the Air". 

I die cut a rectangle from watercolour paper and stamped the flowers with the help of masks using Antique Linen distress ink. I coloured the image using a waterbrush and distress inks, and outline the flowers in grey for a bit of contrast. I printed the sentiment (which says Happy Mother's Day in Finnish) and die cut to match the main panel. To finish, I attached everything to a grey card base. I will send this card for my Gradma for Mother's day.

Card: Stampin' UP Smoky Slate, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm watercolour paper, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card lilac

Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloom With Hope

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress inks Antique linen, Mowed Lawn, Pumice Stone, Seedless Preserves, Shaded Lilac

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies

Rainbow bokeh

Sometimes you need a harsh reminder to remember what's truly important. I was so incredibly upset yesterday when I got home from work. After a long and rather stressful week at work, with a bit too many hours of overtime I had looked forward to leaving early on Friday to get home on time. However, there was a meeting that couldn't be scheduled for anything else than Friday afternoon, and it went on and on. It was a very useful meeting, but on a Friday afternoon, it just was a bit too much. Then I finally got in the car at the worst possible time with rush hour to the n-th degree, made worse by congestion due to a bad accident. I was so annoyed by the added delay. To add insult to injury, I saw the most amazing sunset on my drive home, all I wanted to do was be at home taking photos, instead of sitting stuck in traffic. Once I got out of the congestion I may (not admitting to anything here) just have stepped on it a little bit, trying to make it home to catch the tail end of the sunset on film... or, well, memory card. And I missed it all by about three minutes. I was so gutted I just sat down and cried until I looked like a panda with mascara all over my face. I was so tired, mad, annoyed and disappointed.

Then the Culinary Consultant arrived home, and after listening to my tear-filled rant pulled out a piece from the local newspaper website about a young man who had died in a car crash on his way to work that morning. It was the IT manager from the Culinary Consultant's work. That kind of put things in perspective. There will be another sunset for me, unlike some much more unlucky people who didn't make it through the day. So I cried a bit more.

One of the reasons I have been so on edge the last few days is that I simply haven't had any time to craft at all. I feel like I'm neglecting my blog, and I get so restless if I don't get to do something creative. Last night I decided I need to feed my soul by crafting more than I need to feed myself with food. I just felt so much better after creating this card, which I had already put together in my head on my drive home from work. It came together so quickly when I knew exactly what I wanted.

The card is inspired by the amazing rainbow bokeh inspiration picture over at ShowCASe Your Style. I also fell in love with the amazing sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge B is for (bokeh), Sister Act Card Challenge Anything Goes, Creative Knockouts Stitching (real or faux) and Paperminutes where the theme is Bokeh.

I created the background by inking with Distress inks. I used my various circle dies to cut out masks through which I inked white ink onto the background for the bokeh effect. I die cut the frame and "You" from a very subtly shimmery silver cardstock and stamped the second part of the sentiment. And that's it! Finally a card I am really happy with, after so many rather average ones. 

Card: 300 gsm white card, 160 gsm Hobbycraft white card, silver card from my stash

Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Ink: Tim Holtz distress ink Chipped Sapphire, Peacock Feathers, Spiced Marmalade, Seedless Preserves and Picked Raspberry, Stampin' Up Whisper White, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Other: Dies Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangles, Stampin' Up Hello You, circle dies

Bloomin' Marvellous birthday

I had to get up a bit earlier than usual this morning, and was greeted by the most stunning sunrise. Pink, orange and a bit of blue to admire while I got dressed. And when I got home from the gym in the evening, the sky wasn't completely black yet, you could just about make out a bit of dark blue on the horizon. It's not going to be long now when it's still light when I get home! This is the most amazing time of the year, when you know you have all the spring and summer still ahead. 

This week has been manic, and I haven't had much time for crafty business. Therefore today's post is just a quick little birthday card. The Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvellous is a really versatile stamp set. It works for such a variety of occasions. Here, I stamped in various greens and yellows and cut out the tag using the Chalk talk framelits. I added some banners from my leftover paper scraps stash at the bottom and stamped one of the sentiments from the Bloomin' Marvellous set. I finished with a cute little bow for that final little touch.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - B is for ... (bloom, blue, banner, bow, bird)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Things that fly
Artistic Stampers - Spring is Coming
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes with a Twist of Green
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Spring Colours
Sweet Stampin' - Use green

Inks: Stampin' Up So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Pistachio Pudding, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party
Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvellous
Cardstock: Craft UK Kraft card 5x7 in, Hobbycraft three shades of green 160 gsm cardstock, Hobbycraft three shades of blue 160 gsm cardstock
Papers: Stampin' Up Brights DSP Stack, International Bazaar
Other: Chalk talk framelits, blue bakers twine

Pink butterfly

I'm so happy the sun is shining again today. This is at least the third day in a row with bright sunshine, and it just makes everything so much better. I love the way our house looks when there is light streaming in from every direction. And we are planning to tackle some stuff in the garden today as well, we didn't get around to doing all the necessary clearing up bits last fall so it looks quite a mess right now. 

I was also busy getting my photo blog up and running yesterday. So far there is only two pictures on there but I'm hoping there will be more in the future. Not quite sure how I will fit gardening, crafting and photography into my free time, but I'm sure I will somehow. If only I would win the lottery so I could skip the going to work-bit which unfortunately drains time from the stuff I love to do. 

But enough about everything else, and onto today's card. The card is inspired by the inspiration photos over at Just Add Ink and Time Out challenges. From the JAI photo I was inspired by the pink and teal butterfly and the concentric black circles. However, I didn't have any appropriate dies to make circular frames, so I was inspired by the overlapping rectangular frames in the Time Out photo to create the layout of my black frames. Looking at the photo, I should have shot the card against a white background and not used the blue paper for a background, now it looks like the blue background is part of the card, which it's not. I'm also linking up over at STAMPlorations where the March theme is Stencils & Stamps, Crafty Catz "A song to match your image" (Butterfly by Crazy Town), Creative Corner "Nature Inspired" and Allsorts "Spring is in the air".

Card: white 300 gsm card, black 240 gsm coloured kraft card, Stampin' Up Bermuda bay card

Stamp: Stampin' Up Swallowtail

Ink and colouring: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Melon Mambo and Coastal Cabana, Tim Holtz distress inks Peacock Feathers and Picked Raspberry

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangular dies, Stampin' Up Hello You die, Simon Says Stamp stencil

Masculine card in blue and turquoise

It's been a great few days. Yesterday we had a nice lunch with our team at work, and I was able to leave work early as planned to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. On my way home I popped by the post office to pick up a parcel from my Mum with yummy goodies from home along with some Moomin mugs and towels. And today I have been out taking pictures of  parrots and alligators in the beautiful sunshine. I also decided to start another blog for my photos! Stay tuned for a link tomorrow. But no more ramblings for today, I'll move on to the reason you are here.

Today's card is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and the great colours over at ColourQ. I was also inspired by the "Masculine" theme over at Just Us Girls and the "Tag You're It" over at RetroRubber. I used two Tim Holtz stamp sets that I have owned for ages, but used very little. In fact, I've never used the stamp I used for the background before. Actually, I realised all the supplies I used for this card, apart from the white and black cardstock have been in my stash for ages. Last but not least I'm linking up at The Friday Mashup to celebrate the 200th challenge (Happy 200th challenge FMS!!). You can pick your favourite challenge/challenges and I have chosen to go with a mix of  #30 Recycled Materials (stamped on newspaper for the background) and #159 Use a stencil (Tim Holtz bubble stencil used for the background).

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in black, 300 gsm white card, Ranger #8 size craft tag, newspaper

Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Remnants CMS130, The Journey
Ink: Stampin Up Distress ink Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress paints Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire
Other: Tim Holtz stencil Bubble Layering Stencil