Holly Jolly challenge - White with one colour

It's time for a new challenge over at Holly Jolly. This time the challenge is "White with one other colour". Our wonderful sponsors this time are Stitchy Bear, QKR Stampede and Sami Stamps. Not only do they have really great images to work with in the their stores, they are all giving away great prizes you can win by following the theme and linking up with us over the next two weeks. There is plenty of inspiration from the amazing DT over at Holly Jolly to get you going. 

For my cards I used the beautiful Snowflake Ornament and Striped Ornament digi from Sami Stamps. After deciding on my card design I created multiple cards in different colours as I'm trying to build up a good stash of Christmas cards in good time so that I have one less thing to worry about come December. 

For the cards, I started by arranging the two Christmas ornaments into the design I wanted and then printed multiple copies of the card. I die cut the card front using Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle dies. I coloured the ornaments using Tim Holtz distress inks and a foam applicator. Then I stamped a Christmas sentiment using the same ink. Last, I added some Crystal Effects to the ornaments giving them a cool glossy look although unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the photos.

I made three different coloured cards using Pine Needles, Peacock Feathers and Festive Berries distress inks. I mounted the cards onto matching coloured cardstock and added a home made enamel dot. I was inspired to make my own enamel dots from Perler beads using this tutorial. 

I am linking up with the following challenges: 
CAS on Sunday - White and one other colour (Great minds think alike!!)
The Glory of Christmas - Use a digi 
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - 20 minutes or less
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Christmas ornaments 
Hiding in My Craft Room - Any Holiday
Digitally Sweet Challenges - Anything Goes

Card: Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card
Ink: Tim Holtz distress inks Festive Berries, Pine Needles, Peacock Feathers
Stamps: Sami Stamps Snowflake Ornament and Striped Ornament, Dovecraft 'Tis the Season S'Jingle 
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Crystal Effects, home made enamel dots

Pink and grey patterns

I should be cleaning. Instead I have been crafting and blogging, and catching up on my blogs. I did do something useful though, I did an inventory of our freezer. I can't believe how much blackberries and plums we still have from last year. I'm clearly not very good with using plums. Any ideas? 

This morning was a bit more successful in the craft room after yesterday's creative block. First thing in the morning I headed into the craft room with my cup of coffee and blackberry muffin. And I was inspired by the great picture over at The Card Concept. I was inspired by the beautiful grey and pink colour combo and the pink chevron pattern on the curtain as well as the striped grey pattern on the wall. I have to say I wasn't too into shaker cards, but they have somehow grown on me. There was a really good series of posts on shaker cards on My Favourite Things which inspired me to give them another chance. The layout is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up at Chocolate, Coffee & Cards where the theme is Die cuts and In the Pink where the them is "Make it Sparkle (in Pink of course)" and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Clean and Simple. 

I used washi tape to create a mask for the grey inking. I then die cut the hello and crated a shaker that I filled with sequins and tiny little beads. The background is stamped using a chevron stamp. I really like the stamp, as I can create any custom coloured backgrounds. I think I will look for a few more stamps like that, maybe a stripy background and a polkadot background stamp too. With a few select background stamps I would basically never need to buy any more patterned paper, and I would always have backgrounds in the right colours. 

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, acetate

Stamps: Stampin' Up Positively Chevron

Inks: Stampin' Up Smokey Slate, Picked Raspberry

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Hello die, sequins and beads from my stash

Hello balloons

Friiiiiday!!! Finally a bit of time in the craft room. And it was like getting back to the gym after a break... my crafting muscles had atrophied! It took a few tries to actually get a card together. This card was supposed to be something completely different and I needed a few tries before getting there. 

Anyhow, after a few misguided die-cuts and stampings, I got my act together with the help of inspiration from ColourQ and RetroSketches. I absolutely love the Tim Holtz balloon stamp. And I've wanted to do the sentiment with layers of stashed different coloured die cuts for ages. This sketch gave me a perfect chance to do that! I'm also linking up at Through the Craft Room Door and Craft Your Passion where Anything Goes.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay and Wild Wasabi, kraft card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamp: Tim Holtz Remnants
Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Wild Wasabi
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles and Hello die, sequins from my stash

Clever snowflake die card

Wow this week has just flown past, it's already Thursday and I haven't manage to write a blog post all week. I can proudly announce that I have managed to go to the gym three times this week, so it's not like I've just been sitting around doing nothing. But I can't wait for tomorrow afternoon, I will most certainly leave work right on time and not a minute later, and then hit the craft room like the craft-starved woman I am. Maybe with a glass of Pimms as well... oh, I can't wait for tomorrow afternoon!

This card is made using a very clever die that has just retired from Stampin' Up. I used a great hammered white cardstock which gives the card a really great look. I also die-cut a piece of silver paper from All Is Calm for the snowflake. Then I simply stamped the snowflakes and sentiment. Really quick and easy card but the clever die makes it look really intricate.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Clean and Simple
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Something beginning with F (flakes of the snowy kind... is that cheating?)
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew - Use a sentiment

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card
Paper: Stampin' Up All Is Calm
Stamps: Stampin' Up Endless Wishes
Ink: Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana, Pear Pizzazz, Smoky Slate
Other: Snowflake Card Thinlits dies

Krafty flower power

I have been widowed for the day due to a violent computer game. I have hardly exchanged two words with the Culinary Consultant as he has only come up for air once (lunchtime) and other than that spend the day blasting the living daylights of pixel monsters. So that means I made a batch of blackberry muffins in the morning, and after that have spent most of the day in my craft room. I've started watching Suits and have worked my way through the whole first season in the last few days (thank you Netflix). Not sure this is how I thought it would be when you are in a relationship, but hey ho... 

Anyhow, I have got caught up with my DT assignments for a while to come and also had time to catch up on all the wonderful challenges out there. There seems to be quite a few floral themed challenges, so I thought I would absorb some inspiration from them for a card. I was inspired by the "Crafty Bouquet" challenge over at CASual Fridays, as well as the inspiration photos over at Curtain Call and Fusion. The colours in the images from Curtain Call and Fusion are very bright and vibrant colours, a bit different from the pastels I usually go for, but I thought it's a good exercise for my crafty muscles. Challenge yourself. Kind of like crafting push ups, or maybe burpees. Hard to do, but rewarding when done. I was also inspired by the great sketch over at Sweet Sunday Sketch. I actually coloured the flowers with Sharpies instead of my usual Copics to get the most intense colour on the kraft card. I also got out my never before used Lawn Fawn hello die. I really like it, it cuts really clean and it's easy to work with. 

Card: Kraft card, coloured navy 240 gsm kraft card

Paper: Scrap of Stampin' Up  DSP

Stamp: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Sharpies

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Hello die, piece of burlap twine from my stash

Watercolour Thank You

Today has certainly been a busy day. The sun was shining when I woke up, and isn't that just the best feeling ever! But with that beautiful, bright spring light came the realisation that the house really needed a thorough spring clean. Which is what I have been working on most of the day. I have vacuumed, washed, steamed, squeegee-d, scrubbed, wiped, dusted and whatever else. I also threw away a big binbag full of all that weird food that accumulates at the back of your fridge. Oh how I hate finding those jars which used to be something and now cannot be identified and also grow completely new life forms.

I also cooked a great big lasagne. And I went for a run, for the first time in ages. I'm in pain... Also, I realised it's probably not a really good idea to eat a big chocolate bunny right before going for a run. That bunny almost hopped it's way back out to daylight... is that to much information? Tomorrow will be a very lazy day, that's all I'm saying.

I did have time for a quick stint in the craft room. My thank you card was inspired by the great colour palette over at Color Throwdown. I was also inspired by the "Thank you" theme over at ShowCase Your Style. I'm also linking up with the Anything Goes challenge over at Inspiration Emporium. I'm also linking up over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where the theme is Q is for Quick. The idea is to make a card in less than 10 minutes. I think this was more like 5... I really love this stamp set, it makes really impressive cards quickly and easily and it's very versatile also. 

Card: White hammered 300 gsm white card, kraft card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Seasonally Scattered
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz Peeled Paint, Peacock Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Ranger clear embossing powder, home made enamel dots

Hang in there

This has been a crazy week. Work was... oh, well, let's not talk about it. But on the bright side, I had exciting deliveries from the postie almost every day of the week. On Tuesday I had a huge big order of retired Xmas stuff from Stampin' Up, on Wednesday and Thursday I had dresses I bough on sale with the money I got from the eBay sale of my dresses I have... "outgrown". And today I got another order from Stampin' Up containing, among other things a few hostess sets. And of course I immediately had to ink up some of the new stuff. And it just so happens that one of the stamp sets was absolutely perfect for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch. And I combined it with the great colour combo over at ColourQ. As I was having so much fun stamping, I also stamped inside the card. I'm also linking up at Dragon's Lair where the challenge is Add an Animal and Crafter's Cafe Animal Antics.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana
Stamps: Stampin' Up Nuts About You
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Snowflake Card thinlits

Quick Love You card

Stampin' Up are selling lots of stuff from their Christmas cattie in the Clearance rack for a very nice price. I couldn't resist getting a few stamp sets I wanted but didn't get around to buying along with a few DSPs. I very rarely pay full price for DSPs, and I am known to go a bit crazy at the Stampin' Up sales. 

I couldn't wait to try my new goodies, and as it happened I had a present for my Culinary Consultant so I wanted to create a card to go with it. However, I knew I only had a short while to create a card before he got home from work. So I went for the gorgeous Seasonally Scattered Love stamp and inked it in Real Red and Strawberry slush. To finish the card, I die cut the "you" using a die from the Hello You set from a scrap piece of kraft card. I used a marker to draw the frame around the card. It probably didn't take more than 5 minutes to make this card, and I think it turned out quite nice, I really like it. I think from time to time I will try to make a quickie card, they are quite refreshing!

I was inspired by the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps - Photo Inspiration (I went with the colour scheme and the clean white feel of the image, also I think the way the clocks are scattered on the wall, a bit like the dots and hearts in the stamp I used)

CASology - Sweet 

Crafty Creations - Seeing Spots

Shopping Our Stash - Lost and Found (the Baked Brown Sugar marker I used for this card was literally lost and found as I had to turn my craft room upside down to find the pack of markers with the Stampin' Up Seasonal colours. After searching for a while, I almost thoght I had only imagined buying those markers (sometimes I think I have some crafting stuff which in fact I don't but keep seeing online so my brain thinks I have it) but in the end I managed to find them)

Card: 300 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Seasonally Scattered

Ink: Stampin Up Real Red, Strawberry Slush, Stampin' Write marker Baked Brown Sugar

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You die

J is for Joke

We enjoyed our first asparagus of the season last night. I love watching those little beauties come up from the barren ground all beautiful and green and purple. I took some pictures of my asparagus the other day. It was the tastiest asparagus ever, and we enjoyed them with some parma ham and hollandaise, and it was absolutely wonderful. 

The current challenge over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is "J is for Just Kidding". And of course there is only one lady that can pull off that theme - Stella. I seem to go with Stella quite often for the Sisterhood Challenges... When I saw this image in the Bugaboo store I knew I had to have it, as I have always been the girl who fell for the gay guys. The two great loves of my life are both gay and I keep telling the Culinary Consultant I will turn him gay one day, although he keeps denying it. Oh well, time will tell. I'm also linking up with Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge which is "In the Middle" as Stella is in the middle of the card, but she is also in the middle, between two sentiments. I'm also linking up with Clear it Out where the theme is yellow. 

Anyhow, for today's card, I simply printed out Stella in all her glory and coloured her with Copics. I used Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle dies to cut out the image and I wanted her to have a really sunny time on the beach so I matted everything onto bright yellow cardstock. Then all I did was addd the sentiment, and as they say - Bob's your uncle, who lives with his friend George in San Francisco. 

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Hobbycraft three shades of yellow card
Image: Bugaboo Stella - Perfect Man
Colouring: Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies

Holly Jolly - Trees

Think back to last December. How stressed were you. Presents, food, and all those Christmas cards. Well, now is the best time to get started with the cards for next year, to take away some of that stress. If you have already started, you should be very proud of yourself. And keep up the good work, and join us for our new challenge over at Holly Jolly. Or if you haven't started yet, how about starting now, and joining us over at Holly Jolly. This time the theme is Trees. Feature a tree, or part of a tree, or be inspired by a tree. Or like me, make a tree shaped card!

For more tree related inspiration, hop over to Holly Jolly for lots of amazing inspiration from the DT. Our sponsors this time are Meljens, Sentimental Susan, Fitztown and Bugaboo. For my card, I used a digi stamp from Fitztown called Winter 4. I printed the tree shape on a paper, and folded in half before cutting out the tree shape. I used distress inks to colour the tree, pot and star. I added home made enamel dots for ornaments, and added crystal effects to the heart shapes for extra dimension. Last but not least I added Ice stickles on the tinsel and star. This would make a good gift tag as well as a card.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Add some texture (enamel dots and stickles)
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Christmas Ornaments
ABC Christmas Challenge - G is for Glitter
Sentimental Sundays - No Sentiment
The Crafter's Cafe - Shaped Cards

Card: 300 gsm white card
Stamp: Fitztown digi Winter 4
Ink: Tim Holtz distress inks Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Vintage Photo, Mustard Seed, Festive Berries 
Other: Home made enamel dots, Ranger Ice stickles Crystal Ice and Distress stickles Mustard Seed

Golden butterfly

This whole malarky of selling things on Ebay is so overrated. I finally admitted I will probably never be able to fit into some of my dresses and decided I might as well try to find them a new home. But after all the work of photographing, writing up ads, and folding everything up into envelopes and adding addresses, re-issuing payments with different postage fees etc. I recon I didn't even make minimum pay for my time. Oh well, hopefully someone else will love those dresses so at least they ended up somewhere useful instead of a landfill.

As I have spent most of my day folding up dresses and stuffing them into envelopes, the crafting today was a quick clean and simple card. I used the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration. I was also inspired by the butterfly theme over at House of Cards and the gold theme over at CAS on Sunday. I heat embossed the lovely Swallowtail stamp and I also stamped it in Versamark over the front and back of the card. I love the way Versarmark looks on kraft card. I'm also linking up at Clear It Out where Anything goes this week. 

Card: kraft card, mirri card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Journal Card, Papermania Enchanted Gold embossing powder, Stampin' Up Hello You die

Happy Amphibian Birthday

How is it possible that the weather is always totally sucky on weekends? Yesterday was beautiful, warm and sunny. Today it's pouring with rain, with the wind howling and grey skies. Blargh! But at least that means there is no option of gardening and I'm "stuck" in my craft room. And with all my recent Lawn Fawn goodies, I'm not complaining too much! I ordered the Scripty Sayings stamp set ages ago, but as it was sold out I had to wait forever and forever. So as soon as it landed on my desk, I just had to have a play. 

I just love this set, the sentiments are so beautiful. So I thought they deserve to be the star of the card, with just a little guest starring role from the adorable froggy from Critters Ever after and of course some gorgeous paper from Let's polka. I keep going through this paper, should have just ordered multiple packs to start with. The tiny hearts are my favourite pattern (obviously!!).

I already linked up once with the current Lawnscaping challenge here, but thought I could do better so this is my second card for the Dimension challenge. And this one indeed has layer upon layer! Which reminds me, I need to order more 3D foam pads. Can you order bulk from somewhere? I seem to go through them in no time... Confessions of a foam dot-aholic. I'm also linking up a second time at Addicted to Stamps where the theme is CAS. I'm also linking up with Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is A is for... In my case A is for Amphibian (and in this case also "another submission" as this is also my second submission for this challenge. Seems to be the theme today).

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Scripty Sayings, Critters Ever After with matching dies and Hats Off to You with matching dies
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzlebery, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Wild Wasabi
Colouring: Copics G02, G05, G07, R43, Stampin' Write Tempting Turquoise
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle dies

Dragon graduation

It's been such a glorious day today, hasn't it! And it seems like my cold is getting a bit better, although I did stay up half the night coughing. Hopefully tonight will be better. I got home from work with some daylight still leat and headed out in the garden with my red devil and took a few pictures of asparagus. Yes I know, I need a life. Only a few more days and those babies will be on my plate.

I recently acquired a bunch of new Lawn Fawn goodies, but they managed to remain untouched for at least three days which again is a clear indication that I haven't been quite a 100%. I needed some good inspiration to get going, and there it was, a great sketch from My Favourite Things. I also liked the colours over at ColourQ and all of this put together with my new Hats Off stamps resulted in this simple little graduation card. It will be graduation season sooner than you know, let me tell you! I would also like to link up over at Lawnscaping where the challenge is to add dimension. I have popped up the sentiment and the cute little graduation cap with dimensionals. Last but not least I'm also linking up at Addicted to Stamps where the theme this week is CAS. 

Card: White 300 gsm card
Paper: Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper Stack Brights, Lawn Fawn Let's Polka and Let's Polka Mon Amie
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After and Hats Off To You with matching dies, Happy Everything
Ink and colouring: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics BG15 and BG26
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Circles dies, Stitched Rectangle dies, Xcuts star dies

Trio of cards using From the Herd

Stampin' Royalty are having a Guest DT call and I thought that would be a great way to challenge my creative muscles. I have always loved the challenges over at Stampin' Royalty and it was one of the first challenges I started linking up to regularly back in the day when I was new to crafting. The guest DT call asks for three projects created using Stampin' Up products.

I am a big fan of Stampin' Up, I love their high quality stamps and co-ordinating colours. And although many of us are hoarders of all crafting stuff, and fighting to fit it all into our crafting rooms, I think it's sometimes good to think back and remember what it was like to craft when we had just started out and were only starting to build up our stash. So I wanted to challenge myself to use mainly one stamp set and create three different cards. I chose my favourite stamp set from the new Stampin' Up catalogue - From the Herd. The cheery chums make me smile every time. So I thought I should challenge myself to work with mainly this one stamp set, one co-ordinating DSP and a set of dies (the ever so useful Hello You word dies) along with the brights colour set to make my cards. So you don't need a huge stash of crafting supplies to get started if you choose your crafting supplies wisely and use a lot of imagination.

My first card is a box card with all the critters from the herd. I coloured the outlines one at a time using a Stampin' Write black marker and coloured them with Stampin' Write markers. I fussy cut each critter. I used another of my favourite Stampin' Up stamps called Hardwood to make the panels for the box and a fence for the bull. I assembled the box from Early Espresso card and panels of Hardwood stamped in Early Espresso onto Crumb Cake card, and inked around the edges using Early Espresso. I cut strips of green card for the grass. I used Stampin' Write markers in brights to colour the sentiment stamps, the balloon stamp and party hat stamp from the set and cut them and added candy dots. I covered the back panel using a DSP with a blue sky and clouds, and die cut the happy from another sheet of the same DSP. I absolutely adore how this bright and happy box turned out. 

I'm linking up the card with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Birthday (this is my third contribution to the challenge, but hey, they have six prizes this week!!)
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - A is for (alpaca, animals)
Amusing Challenges - Birthday
Just us Girls - Spring

Card: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Old Olive and Whisper White 
Stamps: From the Herd, Hardwood
Ink: Early Espresso, Stampin' Write markers Neutrals and Brights
DSP: Sunshine and Sprinkles
Other: Hello You dies, Banner punch, Candy dots brights

My second card is inspired by my favourite critter from the herd. There are way too few alpaca stamps out there, that's all I'm saying. So I thought a card with the happy alpaca as the star of the show is a requirement. I used the sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch as inspiration. Again, I coloured the alpaca in the stamp using a black Stampin' Up marker and cut them out using a scalloped square punch. I coloured the alpaca using Crumb Cake and Soft Suede markers and the backgrounds using brights Stampin' Write markers. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in white powder and die cut the hello to complete the sentiment. 

I'm linking up the card with the following challenges:
CAS(E) This Sketch - sketch
Pile it On - Die cuts/punches

Card: Stampin' Up Basic Black, Whisper White 
Stamps: From the Herd
Ink: Stampin' Write markers Neutrals and Brights, Versamark
DSP: Sunshine and Sprinkles
Other: Hello You dies, scalloped square punch (retired), white embossing powder

For the third card I wanted to go with a different technique so I used the emboss resist technique by stamping the balloons in Versamark and embossing with clear powder before sponging the bright inks on to reveal the embossed images. I also added some glossy accents to the balloons to add extra shine, although it doesn't show very well in the photo. I coloured the sentiment using markers and die cut the "You" from the same DSP I used for the other cards. Again, a completely different feel using the same stamp set. I used the sketch over at The Challenge for the layout of the card.

I'm linking up the card with the following challenges:
The Challenge - sketch

Card: Stampin' Up Whisper White 
Stamps: From the Herd
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Versamark
DSP: Sunshine and Sprinkles
Other: Hello You dies, Banner punch, clear embossing powder, Crystal Effects

Yellow Cupcake shaker card

Yesterday we had a big Easter dinner with my Sis and the Culinary Consultant's family. We did a great tag team effort to cook a roast beef dinner. I put the roast in the oven, prepped the scalloped garlic potatoes and honey-mustard marinated carrots and parsnips and headed off for a run (Sis) and bikeride (me) around Grafham Water while I left the Culinary Consultant with a detailed schedule on what needs to go into the oven at what time. He did a fantastic job, and when we got back after an hour and a half out in the freezing wind, all I needed to do was steam the veg and prep the Yorkies and our dinner was ready to go. I had also pre-prepared a lemon ice cream cake, which was served with meringues and strawberries. We enjoyed the overcast and grey weather by going for another walk and had a very relaxing day. And to my great delight, the Culinary Consultant did all the cleaning up! Now we are slouching on the sofa, we enjoyed a "Easter mess" that I made from leftover meringues, whipped cream and strawberries and the Easter chocolates are calling my name. Oh how I wish life could be like this all the time. The evening sun in shining in through the conservatory windows bathing everything in a beautiful golden light. I published a few pictures from our Easter along with a link to the ice cream cake on InvisiblePinkShutter.

Before vegging out on the sofa, I did manage to do a little bit of crafting. Today's bright card was inspired by the yellow cupcake inspiration picture over at Fusion. I was also inspired by the colours over at ColourQ and the sketch over at My Favourite Things. I was also inspired by the Birthday theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the celebration is not only six years of awesome challenges, but there will be six winners this week as well! For the sentiment, my inspiration was the Stamping and Numbers challenge over at STAMPlorations as well as CAS on Sundays where the theme is also numbers.

For the card I started by colouring parts of the Tim Holtz Birthday Blueprints cupcake stamp using a black marker and stamping onto white cardstock. I coloured the cupcake with Copics. I die cut a frame using the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangles dies and made a shaker card and filled it with silver sequins. Last, I die cut the letters for the sentiment and added some Ice stickles to the "2". As a finishing touch, I added a few sequins to the frame based on the sketch, and added a small drop of Stickles in the centre of the sequins.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive card, piece of acetate sheet (cut from a recycled chocolate egg box!)

Stamps: Tim Holtz Birtday Blueprints

Ink: Stampin' Write marker Black, Copics Y13, Y15, Y19

Other: silver sequins from my stash, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Tim Holtz Inside Out Alphabet die, Ranger Ice Stickles Mint Ice

Happy Birthday from the Savanna

So far today I have baked a bread that turned out to be slightly underbaked in the middle, and a coffee cake where all the filling oozed out before baking. Oh well, it's all cool, as my Sis is coming for a visit today and we are heading off to Ely for a visit to the fabulous Peacock's Tearoom. I've been once before and I was thoroughly impressed both by the tea, the food and the super friendly service (by the way, they don't even know I exist, much less pay me anything to say nice things about them, this is just my opinion which I want to share). I am to cook a roast dinner tomorrow for six, and based on today's performance it will probably turn out a complete disaster. Oh well, we have meats and cheeses which we can dig into if it all turns sour. There are still several glorious work-free days to enjoy, and that's the main thing! If only the sun would show up at some point that would be great.

Today's card is inspired by the colours over at Color Throwdown and the sketch over at Retro Sketches. I didn't quite know what to do with this colour combo, and was going to skip it altogether but as I was cleaning my craft room (and that took a good while, trust me there, friends....) the lovely Critters on the Savanna caught my eye, and the rest as they say is history. Given that these colours were completely alien to me, I'm quite proud of how it turned out in the end. I was also inspired by the Birthday theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, they are celebrating six years of challenges. That's a lot longer than I have been making cards, so Happy Birthday Wednesday challenge, here's to many many more!! I also want to congratulate The Challenge on their one year anniversary by linking up with their Anything Goes challenge. Last but not least I'm also linking up at Crafty Creations Challenge where Anything Goes.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Tim Holtz Core'dinations Aged Mahogany, Hobbycraft 160 gms white card

Paper: Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper Pattern Stack Brights, Lawn Fawn Let's Polka

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters on the Savanna and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany distress ink

Colouring: Copics E09, YG02, Y13, Y15, Y19

Other: Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Hello You die