STAMPbaby blog hop

I'm enjoying the bank holiday Monday despite the abysmal weather. I've managed to stick to my good eating plan despite being home all day (it's so much harder not to eat goodies when at home all day, but I'm not complaining, I'm still enjoying they day off instead of dragging myself to work). In fact, I made a watermelon, quinoa and feta salad which was very good, I used to make it lots back in the day when I was serious about this clean eating business, but had forgotten all about it. The recipe is here if you are interested, although I have adapted it by reducing the quinoa, increasing the watermelon and skipping the honey to make it lower in calories (yes, I'm serious about getting back into all those lovely dresses I own but can't squeeze myself into even with a crowbar). Anyhow,  I had some crafty plans which soon went out the window when I saw the happy news over at the STAMPlorations blog. Shery has given birth to a baby girl and the ladies over at STAMPlorations have created gorgeous cards for the new STAMPfamily and made a hop of it for us to join in.

I created a pink background which went straight into the bin as it was absolutely horrible. Then I thought, why stick to just pink. This baby will be surrounded by art and colours, so I created a background with all the colours of the rainbow. I used one of Shery's own stencils and used watercolours to create the pastel background. I added some gold flecks as well (by the way, if anyone can recommend a good golden embossing powder, one that really looks like gold, I would be really grateful. The one I have isn't very golden). I stamped the cute Kanga and Roo as well as the eucalyptus tree from Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under in Antique Linen ink onto watercolour paper and watercoloured using Tim Holtz distress inks. I popped Kanga and Roo up using foam pads. Last, I stamped a sentiment from a Paper Smooches set, I thought black would be too harsh against the pastel colours so I used grey ink instead.

I would like to link up with the Shery's Finally Popped Hop, Shopping Our Stash (my second entry for this challenge) where the theme is Splish Splosh or use a wet medium, STAMPlorations August challenge where the theme is Stamp and Watercolour and Graph It Markers Challenge where the theme is backgrounds.

Card: 300 gsm white hammered card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under and matching dies, Paper Smooches A Little Lovin, Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge
Ink: Tim Holtz distress inks
Other: Gold embossing powder from my stash, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies 

Happy Birthday from the Party Animals

Well it's been pouring with rain all day today. What a shame,  I was so looking forward to going for a run (I hope the sarcasm comes through even though you can't hear the intonation in my voice or my expression...). Instead I have been more or less locked up in my craft room all day. Not a bad way to spend the day at all! 

Today's card is inspired by the current CAS(E) this Sketch and ColourQ. Im also linking up with Stamping Sensations where anything goes as long as it has a stamping, Simply Create Too where the theme is Special Occasion and Addicted to Stamps where the theme is CAS. This is quickly becoming yet another favourite Lawn Fawn set. I created the background by making a square mask from some scrap paper, coloured the Stampin' Up Brushstrokes stamp using markers and stamped through the mask. I coloured the critters using Copics and die cut them using the matching dies. Last, I created a sentiment using the Happy Birthday border die from a scrap piece of turquoise card, and die cut the front panel using Stitched Rectangles dies.

Card: White 300 gsm card, white 300 gsm linen textured card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animals and matching dies, Stampin' Up Brushstrokes
Ink and colouring: Stampin' Write markers Bermuda Bay, Wisteria Wonder, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Happy Birthday border die

Shake that crazy bird

I am in heaven right now. Not only is it bank holiday Monday, but I cheekily took Tuesday off work as well. And that's not all, I am taking next Friday off as well! So I'm enjoying four wonderful days of freedom, two short (I hope...) days at work and then another three days doing nothing but being lazy! The bad news is that I'm trying to eat sensibly, which means I can't enjoy my days off by stuffing my face with chocolate and doughnuts. Sigh! But I can't really fit into any of my clothes (I'm suspecting a selective malfunction of our washer, it must have shrunk them all), so I have to try and be good for a while. So instead, I'm compensating by crafting. Crafting is great for anyone wanting to lose weight. You are so focused on what you do, you hardly have time to think about sweets. Except if you are using doughnut or macaroon stamps... 

I've been very busy crafting today, mostly getting ahead with my design team assignments, but I also got out the Cra-ha-zy Birds for a play with the current My Favourite Things colour and sketch challenge. I'm also linking up with Addicted to Stamps where the theme is Clean and Simple (I guess you could debate whether a shaker is CAS or not, but the layout of the card is pretty CAS in my mind) and last but not last Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where anything goes. 

I first tried the crazy bird and sentiment against the lilac background, but thought it was a bit too bland, so I decided to make it into a shaker for some added interest, and I think it turned out quite nice. Note to self though, don't buy mixed coloured sequins, buy each colour separate as it's really annoying to pick out only particular colours. 

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card lilac and teal, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Stampin' Up Rotary Alphabet stamp

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

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, sequins and seed beads from my stash

Floral bliss

We have had a few days of absolutely abysmal weather. Typically, we started a new study yesterday, so I had a few lost volunteers wondering around the hospital campus phoning me through the day. I had to brave the pouring rain to go and find my lost sheep, luckily everyone was retrieved and safely delivered to the research nurses. Note to self - bring a jacket and wear sensible weatherproof shoes on day when volunteers are booked in...

After getting home and drying out I made myself a bucket of hot tea and thought a bit of crafting would be the perfect way to rescue an otherwise depressing day. I recently received new goodies from STAMPlorations, and I could not wait to play with them. 

I stamped the gorgeous helenium, my absolute favourite from this stamp set, onto linen textured bright white card. Shery is so incredibly talented, and I particularly love her flowers, they are just so detailed and beautiful. I used the Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge stamps to create the splatters in Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch. I think Mermaid Lagoon is quickly becoming my new favourite Tim Holtz colour, overtaking my long time favourite Peacock Feathers. I also stamped the grungy frame from the stamp set to surround the flower. I used a sentiment from Lawn Fawn's Scripty Sentiments set, and stamped some more splatters around the sentiment. I matted the main panel using foam tape onto a blue card and attached everything to a dark blue card base. Last, I attached a few sequins for a finishing touch. I'm a bit undecided whether I like this card or not, but I'm leaning towards liking it quite a lot.

My inspiration for this card was the gorgeous card by this gorgeous card by Monika Skinner, which I found in one of the STAMPlorations Inspirations Project Post #33. I'm linking up my card to join the August CASEplorations. While I'm at it, I'm also linking up with the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge. I also thought the card would be good for this week's Shopping Our Stash where the theme is Splish Splash. Last but not least I'm linking up with the Friday Mashup where the challenge is to create a birthday card using any technique. 

Card: 300 gsm white linen card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card in navy, Hobbycraft 160 gsm card Three Shades of Blue

Stamps: STAMPlorations Floral Bliss, Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Lawn Fawn Scripty Sayings

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress inks Mermaid Lagoon, BluePrint sketch, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Other: sequins from my stash, foam tape

Let it snow in the woods

It's grey and pouring with rain outside. Yesterday was gloriously hot, sunny and wonderful. It was still warm late in the evening when I went out in the pitch black night to get something from the garage. We also finally made good on our promise to buy another tennis racket so we could go playing tennis. There is a free council tennis court about a 30 second walk from our back yard. I can't believe it has taken us two whole years to actually get around to trying it out. But better late than never I guess. I'm quite clearly the worse tennis player, but at least we are having fun and getting a bit of exercise at the same time. 

In addition to a very bad game of tennis, I also had time to put together this card. I stamped the scene using the Joy to the Woods stamp set. I used my Faber Castell watercolour pencils to colour the scene and added some snow using a white gel pen and dotted some Ranger Ice Stickles. I then cut the panel using a Stitched Rectangle die. I embossed the dark blue card with a swirly embossing folder and added the wintery scene. I created the snowflake embellishment using the Stitched Snowflakes dies and added some Ice Stickles. Last, I heat embossed the sentiment from Critters in the Arctic in white onto a purple banner.

The layout of the card was inspired by the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge. I am also linking up with the Lawnscaping "Embossing" challenge. I would also like to link up with Addicted to Stamps where the challenge this week is "Holiday" and Sparkles Christmas Challenge where the theme is "No designer paper".

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card navy, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, 300 gsm white linen textured card, scrap of purple card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Staz-on, Versamark, Faber Castell watercolour pencils, Signo white gel pen

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stitched Snowflake dies, Ranger Ice Stickles, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Sizzix embossing folder swirls

White embossing in a twisted citron kind of way

I have been contemplating my crafting lately. In fact, I have been contemplating more than crafting, which I'm sure is the wrong way around. I've been contemplating the justification of putting as much money into this hobby as I have in the last few years. I have been contemplating Facebook and other services constantly telling me I should grow my blog, advertise it, reach out to get more followers. But I don't want to! I'm perfectly happy doing this as a hobby, and I am not the type of person who wants to push my blog anywhere it doesn't want to go naturally. I just want Facebook to leave me alone, stop showing me those horrible "advertise your blog here" things. They stress me out. I have been contemplating whether my cards have "a look". Whether my cards would be recognisable as my cards. I have started to feel that after more than two years of crafting I have started to find my own look, at least in my head. It's all about watercolours and bright colours and cute critters and die cut sentiments and stitched die cuts and clean and simple designs. Most of the time. I think. At least that's how it's all in my head. Anyhow, they are my cards so if I say I have a look, that must be how it is. Right? Oh well, I take myself way too seriously most of the time.

I didn't take this birthday card too seriously though. I just stamped and watercoloured and had fun with the little Lawn Fawn party stamps. Too bad it was quite tricky to photograph, and it does look much better live than it does in the picture. I seem to have the crafting bit down a bit better than the photography bit.

I was inspired by the embossing challenge over at Lawnscaping.  I was also inspired by this weeks Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Citrus with a twist, which made me choose some very uncharacteristic colours for me. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. FMS is celebrating the 200th sketch with a major, major challenge and a huge amount of sponsor prizes. Happy 200th FMS, and here's to many more!

I stamped a mix of the small party stamps from the Lawn Fawn Party Animal set in Versamark onto watercolour paper (I have to start buying that stuff in bulk!) which I had die cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and heat embossed them in white powder. Then I took Tim Holtz distress markers in Squeezed Lemon, Twisted Citron, Pistachio Pudding and Peacock Feathers and smudged them onto a clear block. I picked up the ink with a watercolour brush and just played around to create the background. I die cut the sentiment from a leftover piece of coloured paper I had created with Tim Holtz distress paints for my crazy bird and doughnut card here. I then double heat embossed the sentiment with holographic powder before attaching onto the card. I attached the coloured panel with foam pads onto some linen textured card. For a little subtle bling, I added a few sequins in the same colour scheme as the card. I hope you like the card as much as I do, it's simple but I have to say it turned out quite nice, didn't it. Oh well, I'm off now to enjoy bread week on the Great British Bakeoff!

Card: 300 gsm white linen textured card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz Squeezed Lemonade, Pistachio Pudding, Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Happy Birthday border dies, sequins from my stash, Papermania Seafoam White and Holographic embossing powder

Holly Jolly - Snowflakes and Sparkle

We have all heard about Einstein and about his theories that time is relative. Well, I'm no physicist (I did take physics in high school, because I had a bit of a crush on our very cute physics teacher but I wasn't very good at it) but I think we haven't quite been told all about this relative time thing. Sure, time slows down as you approach the speed of light, but I would like to postulate that time speeds up during the summer months. I mean, we are in mid-August already, what's the deal with that? The last three months have just sped by, I am even suspecting we might have been robbed of a few weeks, they may have disappeared down a black hole somewhere. And now, as we approach the dark months, time will again slow down, and it will seem like the darkness and cold is just endless. Winter is, indeed, coming. 

Are you all prepared with a huge whopping pile of home-made Christmas cards already? No? I can tell you that making one card every two weeks for the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge has provided me with a great big pile of Christmas cards already. And there are still many more challenges to go before Santa finally arrives. There is still plenty of time to jump on the bandwagon and ensure that by putting in just a little bit of time every two weeks, you will also be prepared come the Holidays. 

Our theme this week is great to allow many different interpretations. We are challenging you to craft something with "Snowflakes and Sparkles". It doesn't have to be a card, it can be anything as long as it's Christmas related. Our generous sponsors, who have provided the DT with great inspiration images and who will be giving prizes to our winners are Sami Stamps, QKR Stampede and Stitchy Bear. If you need inspiration to get your Christmas mojo flowing, why not hop over to Holly Jolly to see what the DT has created, and please also visit and support our sponsors who make our challenges possible. And don't forget to link up with us so we can see your gorgeous creations. If you participated in our Feathered Friends challenge, don't forget to scroll down from the challenge post to see if you are one of our winners for that challenge.

This time I got to play with the gorgeous Lake Winter digi from Stitchy Bear. I coloured it with my Faber Castell watercolour pencils. Then I added some snow using a Signo white gel pen. To add some sparkle, I added some Ranger Ice Stickles on the snow, it doesn't show very well in the main image but I tried to take another picture that shows it a little bit better. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in white. I matted everything onto dark blue card, and added some snow flakes die cut from sparkling white paper for that extra little snow and sparkle.

I am sharing my card with the following challenges:

Winter Wonderland - Christmas song/carol (Let it snow, let it snow let it snow)

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge - Use something old (my Ranger Ice Stickles, and the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake dies)

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - No Designer Paper

Christmas Cards All Year 'Round - Snowflakes

Crafting With Friends - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes

Moving Along With the Times - Snow in Summertime

Card: White 300 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in navy, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, white glitter card (no brand name, ordered from eBay)

Stamps: Stitchy Bear Lake Winter, Stampin' Up Endless Wishes

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Faber Castell watercolour pencils, Signo white gel pen

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes die, Ranger Ice Stickles, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

Happy Crazy Birthday

I am sitting on the sofa waiting for the Culinary Consultant to finish cooking dinner. We are having barbecue, for the third weekend in a row. I have absolutely no complaints! I am only expected to prep the sweetcorn and chunky oven baked chips and then all I need to do is enjoy. I love summer! I'm trying to not think about the fact that days are already getting darker again, and evenings are getting a bit nippy. I don't want summer to be over yet! I have a feeling this fall will bring with it some changes in my professional life, and my peaceful days of manageable workloads are coming to an end. But we never know what the future holds, so all I can do is wait and see and take things as they come. 

To keep my mind on happier thoughts, I made a Bird Crazy birthday card to a family member who is going through quite a crazy time right now. Hopefully the crazy little feathered friends will bring a chuckle to their face. 

I was inspired by the colours over at colourQ. I am also linking up with Addicted to Stamps where the theme is Make Your Mark, Bloggers Challenge where the theme is Birthday, Fab and Funky Challenges where the theme is Things with Wings, and the Anything Goes challenges over at Crafting With an Attitude, Simply Create Too and Crafting With Friends.

I started by stamping the present in Versamark and heat embossed in white. I then transferred some ink from Tim Holtz distress markers onto a clear block and used them to watercolour the present and the background. I inked up some splotches from Gorgeous Grunge and stamped them around the present. Then I die cut the background using Stitched rectangles, and inked around the edges using Walnut Stain. I stamped two of the birds onto white card in black ink and heat embossed in clear ink. I coloured the birds in watercolour, and die cut using the fantastically precise matching dies. Last I die cut the Happy Birthday from orange and brown card and adhered to the card. I also stamped and coloured one bird inside the card with the funny speech bubble from Just Sayin'. 

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Early Espresso, Calypso Coral 

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Walnut Stain, Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers, Ripe Persimmon,  

Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Birthday Blueprint, Bird Crazy, Stampin' Up Just Sayin', Gorgeous Grunge

Other: Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday border die, Stitched Rectangle dies, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Ranger clear embossing powder

Doughnut crazy

My crazy birds arrived today! I finally caved in a bought the set. I have very jealously looked at so many fabulous creations with this set all around the interwebs for the last six months and somehow my fingers were quicker than my brain and managed to put in the order before my prefrontal cortex managed to react. Goes to show that my brain is getting old and slow.

Anyhow the birds are now in the house. They are just the most adorable little critters. I especially love the sad looking round one that I chose to play with today. Looking at that sad little face made me think - why is he so sad? And then I realised that the only reason someone would be that sad is because they don't have any doughnuts. If you would see my face right now, that is the expression I am wearing right now as I am thinking about the fact that I don't have any doughnuts (and if you love doughnuts as much as I do, check out my other doughnut card here). I thought I would make a little painting to go on my fridge door, to remind me to think things through before I reach for the fridge door to get that "one last snack before I promise to stop". 

I had a blast playing with the bird, the gorgeous STAMPlorations doughnuts and my Faber Castell watercolour pencils. After colouring the stamped images, I used my Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp to create the sentiment. It's a bit tricky to stamp with, and I often have to fill in a bit of missing bits from a letter here or there. But it's great for custom sentiments like this. I thought die cutting the words for "diet" from black card stock to make it look as threatening as possible. I added some glossy accents to the doughnut glazing and the letters of "diet", although it doesn't show very well. To create the frame, I dabbed green and blue Distress Paints onto a craft mat and sprayed with plenty of water. I then dabbed watercolour paper in the paint. After drying with a heat tool, I die cut the frame using Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
STAMPlorations August theme challenge - Stamp and Watercolour
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Food and/or drink
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Frame It

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Sugar Rush, Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp
Colouring: Faber Castell watercolour pencils
Paints: Tim Holtz distress Paints Picket Fence, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron, Broken China, Peacock Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Cole's ABCs, Stampin' Up Glossy Accents

Distress paint rainbows

I was going to go to the gym after work today. I even brought my gym kit with me. But then I somehow ended up coming home and playing with my Distress Paints instead. Whoopsie! After messing about creating rainbow backgrounds inspired by the Rainbow challenge over at Stampin' Royalty, I decided to make a card using one of the backgrounds.

I created the backgrounds by pouring blobs of paint onto a craft mat and spritzing with loads of water. I then dabbed different papers in the paint. I used watercolour paper, hammered paper and linen texture paper. I let the paints dry, and helped them along a bit with a heat gun. 

After picking my favourite background I die cut it using a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die. I love how the linen textured cardstock looks almost like canvas. I die cut the letters for the word rainbow from gold mirri card using Lawn Fawn Cole's ABCs. I used the Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp to create the custom sentiment. Finally I attached the background to a piece of linen textured card using 3D foam pads, and added a few colourful sequins.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
Stampin' Royalty - Rainbow
Addicted to Stamps - ATG 
House of Cards - Metallics
Time Out Challenge - Word inspiration "Friendship is Golden" (I was inspired by the "golden" bit, although I think this card would be perfect for  a friend who is going thought a rough time)

Card: 300 gsm linen textured white card, gold mirri card
Paints: Tim Holtz Distress Paints Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Festive Berries, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron
Stamps: Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary Stamp
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Cole's ABC's, sequins from my stash

Happy new bachelor pad!

I made a happy new home card for my Dad who has moved house. I don't have any stamp sets that would directly be for new home cards, so they always require a bit of imagination. This time I was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch (although I did rotate the sketch into landscape instead to fit my image), the colours over at Color Throwdown, the inspiration image over at Just Add Ink and the elemental inspiration over at Daring Cardmakers (I was inspired by the wooden frames, the wooden wall for my background and the blue wall for the blue banner in my cars). 

Card: White 300 gsm card, kraft card, scraps of Pistachio Pudding and Soft Sky card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Hardwood, Nuts About You and Alphabet Rotary Stamp

Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Pistachio Pudding, Calypso Coral

Other: Lawn Fawn Congrats scripty die, Stampin' Up Banner punch, Stampin' Up Basic adhesive pearls (coloured with a brown Sharpie)

Embossing paste stencilling

If you see a mojo hanging around somewhere looking useless, it's mine. Could you maybe send it back to me, please? I have spent lots of time in my craft room but always ended up cleaning instead of crafting. I am suspecting there is something seriously wrong with me.... I've cleaned out so much stuff I have held on to but which I really don't need anymore. I doubt I will ever need my lab books from my undergrad biochemistry or protein chemistry labs. I've throw away duplicates of printed photos that I've been holding on to for some obscure reason although one copy has already been put into a photo album. And I've found an endless amount of random stuff like cables for cameras and phones which have long ago gone to electronic heaven years ago. To top it all up, I can't bring myself to finish anything, so after tearing out everything from cupboards and drawers, I leave half of it on my craft room floor waiting for inspiration to put it all back. You have to place your feet very carefully when trying to reach my crafting desk. Also, last night we were busy making apricot jam. All of a sudden 8 kg (over 17 lb) of apricots decided to ripen in one go. I was still sterilising jars at 1am!! But it all turned out gorgeous, so it was worth the fuss.

Yay for apricot season!

However, a few days ago I received a lovely parcel from the gorgeously talented Shery Russ over at STAMPlorations. I was lucky enough to win a stamp and stencil pack in the random draw over at STAMPlorations in June, and the gorgeous bird stencil finally got my mojo flowing enough to manage to put together a card. I was still feeling the whole mixed media vibe from my guest DT card for STAMPlorations from yesterday, so I got out my Tim Holtz distress paints and created a messy watercolour background. Crafting is so much more fun when you are making a bit of a mess. Then I made even more of a mess by applying some embossing paste through the stencil. Last I die cut the thanks in white, blue and dark blue and matted the card onto blue card before attaching to a white card base and adding a few adhesive pearls from my stash. One of the layers of the thanks die cut are from the card I used for matting, I just die cut from the central bit which was covered by the front panel. I love to make the most of my cardstock. I'm quite proud of myself getting back into the crafting groove again, and I really loved playing with my new goodies.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
STAMPlorations Anything Goes Challenge - Anything goes with STAMPlorations
A Gem of a Challenge - Animals or birds
Inkspirational - Photo Inspiration
Simply Create Too - Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
Try it on Tuesdays - Use stencils

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, Tim Holtz Core'dinations card, white 300 gsm white card
Paints: Tim Holtz Distress Paints Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, Picket fence
Stencil: STAMPlorations Some Birds stencil
Other: Vendy Vecchi Embossing Paste, Stampin' Up Hello You dies, coloured pearls from my stash (ordered from eBay, no brand displayed)

STAMPlorations sketch challenge guest DT August

I'm so excited to be joining the talented STAMPlorations team for another guest DT spot, this time for the August sketch challenge. You may have seen my guest post for the July sketch challenge here, and after using a STAMPlorations digi for that card I decided to get a few of my favourite STAMPlorations sets. I've already made a few cards and I absolutely love the stamp sets I have (you can find a few cards here, here, here, here and here). When I saw the August sketch, I immediately saw doughnuts and macaroons. Ok, so I may see doughnuts whenever I close my eyes, but luckily it happened to work well with the sketch.

I am crazy about doughnuts. I stop by the Krispy Creme display in the store just to talk to the doughnuts... I know, I'm crazy. I made my own doughnuts a while ago, you can see them here. I actually made macaroons myself also, you can see them here. So I absolutely adore the Sugar Rush stamp set and had such a great time playing with it for this sketch.

This is probably as much mixed media as I'll ever do, but STAMPlorations always inspires me to at least try to get a bit more experimental. I started by creating the background using Tim Holtz distress paints and lots of spritzed water. I dabbed the paints onto a craft mat, spritzed with plenty of water and smudged the paper around in the colours, adding a dab here and there for more colour. Then I stamped a few sentiments from the Sugar Rush set onto the background, and heat embossed them in white. I stamped the macaroons and doughnuts in Staz-on, watercoloured using distress markers and a waterbrush and fussy cut them. For the sentiment I used a scrap of Tim Holtz Old Paper cardstock and stamped the sentiment in Vintage Photo and heat embossed in clear embossing powder. I also inked the edges of the banner in Vintage Photo. Last, I arranged everything onto the background, added a few sequins and added some Glossy Accents to the doughnuts to give a bit of gloss to the icing. Unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the images.

I decided to have a card photo-shoot outside instead of my usual windowsill location as it seems like summer is back, hopefully not only for a one day visit. And I decided I wanted to show off my gorgeous hydrangea as well, I absolutely adore it. I thought it matched the colour scheme of the card perfectly. 

I would like to share my sugar-filled creation with the following challenges:

In the Pink - Anything goes as long as it's pink

Addicted to stamps - Anything goes

Creative Moments - Anything goes with summer fun

Fab and Funky - No pattered paper

Try Stampin' - or not - on Tuesday - Inspiration picture

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card baby pink, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour card, scrap of Tim Holtz Old Paper card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Sugar Rush

Inks: Tim Holtz distress markers and a waterbrush, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo, Tim Holtz distress paints Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, Bundled Sage, Picket Fence and Broken China, Tsukineko Versamark, Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black

Other: Ranger clear embossing powder, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Glossy Accents, sequins from my stash

Holly Jolly - Feathered Friends

The last two weeks have just flown by, and it's already time for a new challenge over at Holly Jolly. Thank you to everyone for sharing your gorgeous Christmas Carol inspired creations, we love to see what you are creating, and it's good to see there are already lots of people getting prepared for Christmas. I chatted with a friend the other day and she said she can't even bring herself to use the "C-word" yet, but still she was already getting a head start with her C-cards. Crafters, eh? Lol.

Anyways our new challenge over at Holly Jolly is Feathered Friends. So get your crafty on with some Christmas themed Feathered Friends and link up with us. In addition to comments from our DT you will be in the running for some great prices from our sponsors who this week are Bugaboo, All Dressed Up, Stamp&Create and Crafty Sentiments.

 

This time I got to play with the Bugaboo stamp Winter Penguin Trio. I have to say, I love the challenges where Bugaboo is a sponsor as I absolutely love their cute digi stamps. I had so much fun colouring the Penguin buddies playing in the snow. I used Tim Holtz distress markers, and for the sky I blended the markers with some water for a watercolour effect. For the background I used Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality Designer Series Paper. It comes with various resist embossed patterns, and you can colour it to your liking. In my case, I got to try out two of my new Tim Holtz inks on it, BluePrint Sketch the July colour and Twisted Citron, the new May colour. I used Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies to cut the images and the Lawn Fawn Tag You're It die for the banner. To finish, I added a bit of paper twine to the tag. I love the deep blue starry sky behind the Penguin buddies, I really love this new colour from the great Tim Holtz.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Anything Goes
A Gem of a challenge - Animals or birds
Crafty Friends Challenge - Inspired by a movie (Madagascar, the penguins are my favourites! Cute and cuddly!)
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Things with wings
Crafting From the Heart - Anything Goes 
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Make a Plan (planning for Christmas!)
Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality Designer Series Paper
Inks: Tim Holtz distress markers, ink pads Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black
Stamps: Bugaboo Winter Penguin Trio, Dovecraft Clear S'Jingle TTS
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies and Tag You're it dies, Tim Holtz paper twine

Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes in August

Today we have a new challenge over at Crafts Galore Encore. This month our theme is the easiest possible, Anything Goes. So link up with us to show what you have been crafting lately, we love to see your beautiful creations.

This month our sponsor is Sherri Baldy, and our winner will receive their choice of three of the digis our DT got to play with. 

To do something slightly different, I did a stepper card. I did it based on the instructions over at Beccy's place but modified the size to fit my card. Then I just threw the kitchen sink at it, more or less. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Chocolate, Coffe&Cards challenge - A flower in your image 
Creative Moments - Anything goes / Bingo (used die cuts/punches, image, flowers)
Inspiration Destination - Always Anything Goes
Creatalicious challenges - More than one fold
Craft Your Passion - Always Anything Goes
Crafty Creations Challenges - Four (four dresses and four words in the sentiment)


Card: White 300 gsm card, pink card from my stash
Image: Sherri Baldy digi
Colouring: Copics
Other: Kanban toppers from my stash, papers from my stash (free with a crafting magazine), heart border punch, pink robbon from my stash