June TAGplorations Challenge - All About Dad

It's time for the June TAGplorations challenge. This time we are all about the Dads out there.  If you are a regular follower of the STAMPlorations blog, you may have seen Shery's recent post about losing her Dad less than a month ago. My deepest sympathy and my thoughts are with Shery and her family in these difficult times. So for this challenge, I hope you will be inspired to create something in honour of a fantastic Dad, Granpa or another amazing man in your life, whether someone who is with you or someone who will always live on in your heart although no longer with you in person.

My tag was inspired by a stencilled background I had created using Tribal Triangles for another project which didn't work out so it got a new life as a tag. I stamped the letters from Sketchy Alphabet and the phone from Hello You on white card, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut. I then randomly stamped the grungy Art Marks stamps in Vintage Photo Distress Ink on the background, added the stamped images and finished the tag off with some leftover bits of wool from a pair of socks I knitted earlier (for my Dad in fact, so very appropriate for the theme!).

I hope you are inspired to create something with a tag for the June TAGplorations challenge.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Hello You, Art Marks, Sketchy Alphabet,  

Stencil: ARTplorations Tribal Triangles

Dies: CUTplorations Manila Tags Nesting Dies

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Copics, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping in the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes. 

April STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Mid-Month Inspiration

Welcome to my little mid-month reminder for the April STAMPlorations CAS Challenge. Absolutely loving the beautiful pastel creations in the gallery! And the great news is that you still have a few more weeks to link up. Don't forget that if you combine our pastel colour CAS challenge with winged things, you can also link up with the Things With Wings Spring Hop. Why not double your chances of winning some great prizes.

This time I thought I would create a one layer card with the super-cute Hello You stamp set. I started by stamping the retro typewriter and coloured it with Gansai Tambi watercolours. I added the sentiment below the typewriter. I thought it all looked a bit bare so I added stamps from the fantastic Scribbly Splattery Grunge set in pastel colours to the background. I just love the grunge-y alphabet, I think it works so well with the typewriter theme. 

Card: 250 gsm white hammered card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Hello You, Scribbly Splattery Grunge

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up So Saffron, Soft Sky, Blushing Bride, Gansai Tambi watercolours

More Lilies for Easter

Finally we are coming to the end of my series of Easter cards using the Stampin' Up stamp set Remarkable You and watercolours. The two other cards I made are here and here. It's funny that I ended up making so many Easter cards as I usually don't send any at all. Oh well, I guess as carmakers we take any opportunity we get, right?

I started by stamping onto watercolour paper, then colouring with Tim Holtz distress markers and a watercolour brush, using light colours only wanting to enhance the image a little but not overwhelm the simple beauty of the strong lines of the flowers. I did make a bit of boo-boo with my colouring, but I'm just saying it makes the flowers unique and with a hand-made look. It was deliberate, I'm sure. I die cut the panel, and die cut the happy for the sentiment from a leftover scrap of card I coloured with Distress Paints for some other project which never got made. Last, I stamped the second part of the sentiment from a Lawn Fawn set and added a few adhesive gems for that final little extra touch.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Amusing Challenges - Easter
Glitter N' Sparkle - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Easter
Sweet Stampin' - Easter
Addicted to CAS - Delicate
Crafty Cardmakers - Easter

Card: 250 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, a scrap of watercolour card I coloured with Tim Holtz distress paints
Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Markers Fossilized Amber, Mowed Lawn, Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron and Weathered Wood
Other: Stampin' Up Hello You dies, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies

Happy Mother's Day

Still no cleaning in the InvisiblePinkHouse, but I did make another card! I entertained myself yesterday by making a palette of my watercolour pencils, and so I thought why not make a card with the pencils as well as I've got them out. After a trip to Tesco yesterday I was reminded that UK Mother's Day is coming sometime soon as there was a whole isle full of pink cards, chocolates and champagne. I can never remember when Mother's Day is celebrated here in the UK, as Finnish Mother's day coincides with US Mother's day in May. Which makes much more sense, as Easter is usually in March and you already get all the chocolate bunnies and eggs, so it makes more sense to try and sell chocolate to people in May instead of the same month as the main annual chocolate celebration. Oh well, that's just my five cents.

Anyhow, I was asked to make a card for my mother unlaw (well, since we aren't married she isn't my mother in law, but almost, so why not unlaw...). I wanted a nice image with lots of space for doing some nice colouring. My card was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the colour combo over at Color Throwdown. I'm also linking up with Crafty Friends Challenge where the theme is Floral, Sweet Stampin' where the theme is Mother's Day, The Pencil Case where the theme is New Blooms/Spring Flowers and Fantasy Stampers where Mums Rule.

Card: 300 gsm textured card, scrap of kraft card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything

Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Stampin' Up Sahara Sand 

Colouring: Faber Castell Albrech Dürer watercolour pencils

Other: Stampin Up Hello You die, Wink Of Stella pen

Happy Travels

A friend was recently able to travel to some of the places she had always wanted to visit, and I know she absolutely fell in love with Paris. So this card is inspired by her travels. I have to admit, I am more of an Italy fan, I pretty much love every place I have been to in Italy whereas I didn't fall in love with Paris at all. However, I'm completely devoid of any travel-lust right now, it might be because my life is just hectic enough as it is right now, so any spare time I have I rather just spend right where I currently am typing this - in my craft room. I have the world's most uncomfortable sofa  in my craft room, but it feels like heaven. To be perfectly honest, travelling always sends chills down my spine. I love seeing new places, don't get me wrong. It's just the whole getting to those places that stresses me out. First you have to get to the airport (usually at an ungodly hour), then stand in several queues, followed by endless waiting, before you get crammed into a tiny space in a flying tin can where you can hardly move an arm without hitting something, and then it's the whole faff of waiting for your luggage, hoping it has actually made it onto the right flight, not to mention making your way from the airport to where you need to go. Fills me with dread every time. Just give me teleporting, and I promise I will venture out to see the world!

In addition to being inspired by my friend's travels, today's card was also inspired by the black and white inspiration image over at Time Out, the colour challenge over at ColourQ and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I'm also linking up with Crafty Catz where the theme is CAS and Little Red Wagon where the theme is Pop of Colour (use black and white with one additional colour). 

Card: Black 300 gsm card, 300 gsm white watercolour card, scrap of Stampin' Up Real Red card

Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous I See Paris and Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Hello You dies

The swallowtail is back

If you read my post yesterday you know I went through a bit of a creative dry spell which I resolved by making loads of Distress Paint backgrounds. This is the second card resulting from those panels I created. This card was inspired by the colours over at ColourQ and I love how the pink and blue blend to make the most gorgeous lilac colour. I didn't want to cover the beautiful background too much so I thought I would just stamp the gorgeous Swallowtail from Stampin' Up and heat emboss it in white. Then I die cut the Happy from the Stampin' Up Hello You die set in kraft card, and last I stamped and embossed the Birthday from a Lawn Fawn set. Very clean and simple and another card that looks and feels like me. It's been a while since I used my Stampin' Up stash, but it was a nice change!

To create the background I daubed Distress Paints onto my craft mat, sprayed with water and swooshed my watercolour paper in the paint. Well, when I say craft mat, I actually use a reusable Teflon cooking mat. It seems to do the job just fine. Also, the best way to clean off dried paint from the mat I use alcoholic hand cleaner which I keep in my craft room to clean off my acrylic blocks. It seems to work really well. Just thought I would share these tips if anyone finds them useful.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
ColourQ - colours (see below)
Fantasy Stampers - Happy Birthday
Happy Little Stampers - Smooshing
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers Challenge - Anything Goes
PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes
Winter Wonderland - Spring Is In the Air

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card, kraft card
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Paints Broken China,Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stampin' Up Hello You dies, Papermania Seafoam White Embossing powder

Retro Flower

I'm supposed to be at the summer house out of reach of wifi. Unfortunately I caught a tummy bug and am stuck at my Mum's until I'm better. Hopefully tomorrow we can head up to the summer house to enjoy peace, quiet and lack of all connectivity with the outside world. At least I have my Mum to take care of me when I'm sick, Mums have that magical healing power!

So I thought I would post this card as I'm stuck in bed and very bored. The background is made by inking through a stencil and the Flower is stamped using several Stampin' Up flower stamps and matching punches. Last, I die cut two hellos and stacked them. I added a few candy dots for a finishing touch.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Inspiration Destination - Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
Clear It Out - Anything Goes
Loves Rubberstamp Challenges - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Card: Stampin' Up Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral, Old Olive
Stamps: Stampin' Up Mixed Bunch, Flower Shop, Petite Petals
Ink: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Soft Suede
Paper: Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper Pack Brights
Other: Hello You Dies, Blossom Punch, Pansy Punch, Petite Petals Punch, Brights Candy Dots, Happy Patterns Decorative Masks

 

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Stampin' Royalty guest DT - Flowers

**Please note this is my second blog post for the day, if you are looking for the Crafts Galore Encore post, please scroll down or click here**

I have big news for you today. I'm so excited to join the Stampin' Royalty Design Team as a Guest Goddess for the next four weeks. I love the Stampin' Royalty challenges, the ladies always come up with such inspirational themes and gorgeous cards. I can't wait to show you what wonderful challenges there are to come over the next four weeks. So come and join us over at Stampin' Royalty and link up as we love seeing your beautiful creations.

The theme for this week is Flowers. What a perfect theme for a flower stamp hoarder like me. One of my favourite ever flower stamp sets is from Stampin' Up and it's called Bloom with Hope. I usually use the large flower stamp from this set, and the smaller ones don't always get used as much as they deserve. This time I decided to use the smaller stamps as the stars of the show. I stamped various flower stamps around the edges of the card in Crumb Cake onto watercolour paper to give them a softer outline than stamping in black. I then got out a big bunch of my Stampin' Up ink pads for watercolouring. If you press the top of the ink pad down you can rub a bit of ink onto the lid, and when you open the ink pad, there will be some ink stuck to the lid that is perfect to use for watercolouring. I chose shades of yellow, green, pink, purple and orange for my flowers. I also coloured two scraps of watercolour paper using bright colours, and die cut the Hello and You from the Hello You die set. I also die cut the words in back to give them a bit of definition. I matted the card onto black cardstock to really make those colours pop, and kept it all very clean and simple with just the addition of three tiny adhesive gems under the sentiment. 

I would like to link over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Summer, and Get Creative Challenges where the theme is Flowers. 


Card: Daler & Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine Watercolour paper, 350 gsm black card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloom with Hope
Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Melon Mambo, Pistachio Pudding, Regal Rose, Rich Razzleberry, Sahara Sand, Soft Sky, So Saffron, Summer Starfruit, Wild Wasabi, Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Hello You die, Basic Rhinestones  

Happy Father's day from the herd and Distress Ink Storage

It's been a while since my last post. I've been busy running. I kid you not! I have been trying to get back into the whole running thing, but it's an uphill struggle. I keep getting slower instead of faster, so I think I need to give my body a bit more time to adjust. Anyhow, today I got my run done first thing in the morning, and without that pesky work thing getting in the way, I did manage a bit of time in the good old craft room.

Today's card is in preparation of UK Father's Day (as Finnish Father's day isn't until November). So this is for my Father-out-of-law (I guess that would be the correct term for one's significant other's father if not married...). I wasn't quite sure what would be a good theme for the card as I went with boats and sea last year, that's a sure bet. But I thought I can't go wrong with the herd, now can I?

I stamped the herd onto watercolour paper using Staz-on ink and watercoloured using Tim Holtz distress inks. Then I die cut the photo frame using a Lawn Fawn die, and die cut the "Happy" using Stampin' Up Hello You dies. The "father's day" part of the sentiment is from a Lawn Fawn sentiment set. For the background I chose a paper from Let's Polka Mon Amie, and I punched a few banners using the Stampin' Up Banner Punch.

I am linking up with the following wonderful challenges:
Clear It Out - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations Challenges - All Creatures Great and Small
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make It Masculine
Stampin' Royalty - Masculine Projects
My Time To Craft Challenge Blog - Male
Brown Sugar Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
Creative Corner Challenges - Just for Dad 

I would also like to show you my storage solution for my Distress Inks. I decided all the commercial Distress Ink storage solutions are a bit too expensive given that I just spent a whole lot of money on getting new furniture for my craft room. So I thought, as I am a crafter after all, why not make one myself. So I did, using black cardstock and some gorgeous Tim Holtz paper. It's a bit wonky and not perfect, but it works and it didn't cost me more than a few pieces of cardstock, so I'm happy with it for now. However, the size was limited by the size of the square shelves in my storage unit, and with six more colours coming out this year, I will have to find some more space for my ink pads. And I'm not even close to owning all the standard colours either! And of course after that I need to complete my collection of Distress markers and paints as well... What's that sound? Oh, it's just my credit card screaming in pain. I have a few other posts on my craft room organisation, my desk organiser here, my paper scrap organiser here, my general craft room layout here and my stamp and die storage here.

The organiser on it's shelf with inks and the matching foam pads.

The top of the organiser.

The back of the organiser.

Father's day card
Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up From the Herd, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Inks: Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black, Tim Holtz distress inks
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie
Other: Lawn Fawn , Stampin' Up Hello You die, Banner punch

Ink organiser
Card: Black 350 gsm card
Paper: Tim Holtz idea-ology Wallpaper

Great CAS(E) this Sketch and some more craft room organizing

Summer and crafting just don't seem to go together. There is so much to do, and the days just pass by so quickly. Of course the fact that I have also spent a few evenings just lazily falling asleep on the sofa while watching TV really doesn't help either, does it? But today I'm home alone and after having finished my rat shopping in the morning (yes, the babies have to eat although daddy is out and about), I did camp out in the craft room and have been multitasking crafting, getting inspired, cleaning and organising.

Today's card is inspired by the awesome sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I was also inspired by the great colour combo over at Colour Me...! I am linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes as well. I went for a very literal interpretation of the sketch this time. I created the chevrons in the background by colouring parts of the Positively Chevron background stamp using markers. I also coloured the Gorgeous Grunge stamps using markers to get the coloured splatters for the background.

I've also been organising my stamps and dies. I finally got the Avery Elle Stamp Storage pockets I ordered a while ago. I think my stamps look so much neater now that they are all in identical pockets. I have put in a cardstock sheet for support in the pockets along with the stamps. For sets with matching dies, I bought some magnetic sheets which I attached to black cardstock, and the dies stay beautifully organised on the magnetic sheets. I have popped the dies into the same pockets with the matching stamps, so now it's always easy to find the matching stamp sets and dies, and I know even the tiny little dies stay safe on the magnetic sheets and in the sealable pockets. Unfortunately some of the larger stamp sets don't fit in the pockets, so I have to figure out something else for them.

Stamps and dies stored in plastic pockets. Matching dies
are stored along with the stamp sets. 

Card: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, scraps of Bermuda Bay and Tangerine Tango Card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Positively Chevron and Gorgeous Grunge

Ink: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You dies

Butterfly on crumpled vellum

Well it was the usual exciting drama on the way home from work... "Will I ever be able to change up to second gear, or will it be 27 miles in first gear?" Despite everyone and their best friend heading home at the exact same time as me, I eventually made it home to enjoy the beautiful warm sunshine and a glass of that cold very British drink you have on the lawn.

Then it was time for the pleasant part of Friday - crafty time. I absolutely love this week's colours over at Colour Me. I was also inspired by the Butterfly theme over at Friday Mashup. I was going to do the mashup of butterflies and lace, but I just couldn't find a place for the lace in the end, so this time it's just butterflies. I'm also linking up over at Make My Monday where the theme is Things With Wings and Creatalicious Challenges where the theme is Butterflies.

For the card, I started with inking a piece of vellum using Peeled Paint, Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks, and spraying with a mister. After drying the ink, I crumpled the vellum to give it some texture. I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle dies to die cut a frame from Bermuda Bay cardstock. I stamped the gorgeous Swallowtail stamp in Versamark and heat embossed with white powder, and coloured from the back of the image using Sharpies. I like using Sharpies for colouring vellum as it gives a bright enough colour to show beautifully through the vellum. The sentiment didn't turn out quite as I wanted it, I would have wanted to stamp the "hello" onto the vellum background, but I should have thought of that before crumpling up the vellum... So I had to come up with an alternative solution.

Card: Dovecraft premium 110 gsm vellum, Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay and So Saffron

Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress inks Peeled Paint, Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade, Versamark

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Hello You die, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

Birthday Petals

I am the ultimate party girl. To celebrate Saturday night yesterday, I opened a bottle of cider. Half a bottle later, at approximately 8pm I was sound asleep on the sofa. I woke up after 10 pm thinking I will not be able to go to sleep at all, but snuggled up in bed nonetheless. About 30 seconds later I was sound asleep, not waking up until 8 am the next morning. I do know how to do a wild Saturday night...

I was going to clean the house today. Instead I have been gardening and hanging around in the craft room. I have re-potted my little herb seedlings and planted some parsley. Despite my efficiency in the greenhouse, I don't have much to show for my time in the craft room. I did mange to finish one card though. The card is inspired by the challenge over at Time Out. I love the colours in the picture, and obviously the card is inspired by the flower headboard, the colours in the bedspread and the black frame of the window. I was also inspired by the colours over at Colour Me...! and the sketch over at Retro Sketches.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card black and raspberry pink, 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum

Stamps: Stampin' Up Petal Parade, From the Herd

Ink: Tim Holtz disterss ink Aged Mahogany, Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry, Tsukineko Versamark

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You die, Papermania Seafoam white embossing powder (coloured with Coastal Cabana Blendabilities), sequins from my stash

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

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

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