Hello hummingbird

I have to admit I have over-indulged lately. First there was the Cambridge Satchel Company sale, and I mean... it only makes sense, right? I have wanted one of their gorgeous leather satchels for ages, so when it turned out they are on sale, it's just like putting money in the bank. Never mind that I have to pay for my holiday as well from this month's budget... And then I finally caved in and ordered myself a few stamp sets from STAMPlorations. I have been lusting after the sunflower stamp set as well as the sugar rush set for ages and I thought as I'm already so far over budget this month, a bit more won't make any difference. I don't know if anyone can fault that logic? And there was  a very generous offer of free stamps to go with the order, so I just could not refuse. 

Anyhow, my beautiful stamps made it across the Atlantic with lightning speed arriving today and what else is a girl to do than skip the gym and come straight home for some crafty time? The large hummingbird and the morning glory stamps looked perfect for my favourite technique - watercolouring. So off I went and stamped them onto watercolour cardstock in Staz-on ink. I also got to use my other favourite, masking. I think one layered cards with masked images just look so elegant, and I get a childlike feel of excitement to see how it all turned out when you remove the mask and magically you have your images in the foreground and background. I used Stampin' Up markers to colour onto a clear block, and used the ink to watercolour the image. All there was to do was to stamp the simple little sentiment and mat onto coloured card.

My inspiration for this card came from a few challenges. Firstly I was inspired by the bright and summery colour combo over at Colour Me...! I was also inspired by the sketch over at STAMPlorations, althought I did turn it over on the side instead of using it just "as is". I was also inspired by the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is to use your favourite technique or products. I'm also linking up at Addicted to Stamps for their 3rd Birthday Challenge (Happy Birthday Addicted to Stamps!!) with the theme Clean and Simple. Last but not least I'm linking up over at the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge where you can link up anything created using STAMPlorations products.

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine Watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay and Rich Razzleberry card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Stamp Lab Hummingbird and Morning Glory
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black, Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive 

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

The Challenge #23

I have been making cards for about two years now, and this blog has existed for more or less a year. And I start to feel like I'm finding my style. I do like to make all sorts of cards, but the ones I always end up feeling most happy about are the CAS ones. Well, I guess I have kind of made my own sort of CAS, I'm not very good with white space in the traditional meaning of "white". I like colourful backgrounds but cards that aren't too crowded, and mostly have only one focal point. Today's card is an example of the type of card I feel most comfortable with. 

This card was totally and utterly inspired by the colours and sketch over at The Challenge. The colour combo is one I wouldn't have picked myself, but that's why we have colour challenges, right? For me they are pretty much my only avenue to using anything beside purple and pink... For this challenge, I wanted to play with watercolours. I need to start buying watercolour paper in bulk, I go through loads of it. I'm also linking up at Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is Clean And Simple and The Pink Elephant where Anything Goes.

I started by spritzing the watercolour paper with water, and inked a stamp from Gorgeous grunge in Daffodil Delight and Bermuda Bay and stamped all over the cardstock. I then spritzed some more water onto the cardstock to make the colours run. I then switched to a stamp with smaller spots from the same set and stamped in Real Red and Bermuda Bay. After another few spritzes of water I dried the cardstock with my heat tool. I die cut the "Happy" from Real Red card and stamped the "Birthday" in Real Red. Then I matted the card onto Real Red card and adhered to a white card. It was so much fun playing with the watercolour effect. Then I put the card away quickly before I started adding anything to it, I think it's finished as it is.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Real Red, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper

Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Real Red

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You dies

Bloom with Hope in watercolour

I am enjoying another evening of being home alone, and have been glued to my crafting desk for the whole evening. One of the results is this card, which was inspired by the Retro Sketch challenge, which is ending in just a few hours. I was also inspired by the wonderful colours over at ColourQ. For a while I have been planning to do a watercolour style flower card, and I thought this colour and sketch combo would be perfect for it. I'm also entering over at A Little Bit Crafty where the theme is Anything goes but not Christmas, and it's fun to take a bit of a break from all those Christmas cards.

I stamped the flowers from Bloom With Hope in Antique Linen onto watercolour paper and used an aquaflo brush to colour the flowers using Stampin' Up inks. I also painted a faint pink around the flowers and the edges of the watercolour paper, but unfortunately as the photo had to be taken in really abysmal lighting conditions it doesn't show. I coloured the sentiment using marker pens. I selected to use cardstock in Crisp Cantaloupe and selected a matching paper from the Sweet Sorbet DSP.

Card: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Daler&Rowney Aquafine Watercolour paper
Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloom With Hope, Yippee-Skippee
Ink: Tim Holtz Antique Linen, Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Pink Pirouette, Pistachio Pudding
Other: Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet DSP, Crisp Cantaloupe Thick Baker's Twine 

Nontraditional Christmas Colours

Yes, it's another Christmas card post. I was asked to make some Christmas cards with Finnish and Swedish sentiments, so who am I to argue. This card was inspired by CAS(E) this Sketch. For the first card I used the colour combo from CAS - Colours and Sketches. For the second card, I picked the colour combination myself. 

I really like the Clean and Simple look of these cards. Unfortunately the colours don't show in the photos quite as nicely as they do in real life, but you should be able to get an idea. 

I also stamped a few Christmas ornaments inside the card for a finishing touch.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card Teal, silvery grey card from my stash

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the woods

Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Basic Grey, Crumb Cakem Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky and Wisteria Wonder, Hobbycraft pigment ink silver

Other: Stampin Up Island Indigo ribbon, grey ribbon from my stash, Stampin' Up basic adhesive gems 

Fresh Vintage in Fresh Colours

I own my fair share of embossing folders, but don't get around to using them nearly enough. So for my last few cards, I have tried to incorporate dry embossing. It does give great texture to backgrounds which would be boring otherwise. I have also tried to spend some more time on each card and stamp something inside the card and on the envelope as well to give the whole set a more elaborate finish.

I absolutely loved the colours and photo from this week's ColourQ challenge, and the photo immediately inspired me to use the Fresh Vintage stamp set, it's perfect for colouring using markers. And I decided that a large background panel in Strawberry Slush would be perfect when embossed with a flowery folder. Strawberry Slush is one of my absolute favourite Stampin' Up Colours, it's simply the perfect shade of pink so I was thrilled to have it incorporated in the colour challenge. For the layout I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch for inspiration. I am also submitting the card to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Stamp It to celebrate Stamptember and the STAMPlorations September challenge where the theme is Stamps and Markers as I coloured the stamp using markers.

Cardstock: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in Navy, Stampin' Up card in Strawberry Slush, Bermuda Bay and Whisper White
Stamps: Stampin' Up Fresh Vintage, Bloomin' Marvelous
Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz and Strawberry Slush
Other: Stampin' Up Basic Pearls coloured with Sharpies, Embossing folder Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Enchanted 

Back in the saddle again

It's been a whole week since I've had time to play in the InvisiblePinkCraftRoom. Last Monday I was enjoying Sis' graduation and after that me, my Sis and the Culinary Consultant have taken the Parental Unit for a week of sightseeing of Yorkshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire with a quick stop in Lincolnshire as well, clocking over 900 miles on the car.

So today we dropped the Parental Unit off at the airport, and after a bit of tidying up and loads of laundry (which dried in less than two hours thanks to the amazing weather we have been enjoying) I galloped my way to the craft room. It always takes a bit of browsing to get the good ol' Mojo going again, so I browsed my favourite craft challenges for inspiration. As I've probably trawled through half of this world's challenge blogs, it's not a coincidence that my little card is inspired by a record number of challenges. I'm entering the card in the following challenges

Addicted to Stamps and more - I was inspired by the purple and the basket of flowers

Addicted to CAS - the theme is Celebrate and I think it's always a good idea to have cards that you can use for different occasions when they come up, this would be perfect for a birthday but also for other reasons to celebrate. I love the Paper Smooches "Celebrate" sentiment stamp, the font is perfect and it's just the right size for almost any card

Color Throwdown - the colours for this card are from this challenge: Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry

Freshly Made Sketches (see sketch below) - this is my inspiration for the layout of the card

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenges - Emboss it

Craft Hoarders Anonymous - "Who's the Boss" i.e. embossing 

The two embossing challenges helped me come up with the background to the card, as I'm a bit of a CAS-o-phobe, and embossing on a white background leaves plenty of white space without seeming too "empty".

And last but not least, I'm also entering the card into Less is more where the theme is anything goes. Wow, it's going to take me the rest of the night to link up to all the challenge blogs... but boy does it feel good to be back in the Craft Room again!

I coloured the flower using markers and popped up the different layers using foam dots. I embossed the background and added some gems to the flowers. I heat embossed the sentiment in white to make it pop from the Bermuda Bay banner. Finally I added some stickles to the flower for a bit of extra dazzle.

Cardstock: Leonardo Workshop 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, scraps of Stampin' Up card in Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay and Rich Razzleberry
Stamps: Hero Arts Layered Flowers, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler 
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark, Stampin' Write markers in Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry
Other: Daisy Chain Embossing folder (free with the May issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft), Papermania Seafoam white embossing powder, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Sunshine, Tim Holtz distress stickles Mustard seed 

Congratulations and smooches

On today's card you can find some more of the little cuties I coloured on the beach. The inspiration for this card was the current sketch from CAS(E) this sketch. I used Paper Smooches stamps for the chubby little critters and the sentiments. The chubby chums are coloured using Tim Holtz and Stampin' Up markers and a blender pen on watercolour paper. The banner is from a set of Christmas sentiments, I stamped it and fussy cut it and mounted the sentiment stamp slightly curved to fit with the banner. I am also entering the card in the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge where Anything goes until July 12th.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Daler & Rowney 190 gsm watercolour paper, Coloured kraft 240 gsm card in teal

Stamps: Paper Smooches Chubby Chums, Sentiment Sampler, Papermania Urban stamps 12 Days of Christmas Word Banner

Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Stampin' Write markers and Tim Holtz distress markers, Stampin' Up blender pen

Mythical creatures challenge

When I saw that the theme for the Make My Monday challenge was Mythical Creatures, I could not resist a few cards using the Critters Ever After stamp set. As if I would need an excuse to use it, but still... colouring those happy little critters always makes me happy as well. And what's better than a few happy Critters and four full days of Easter holiday to look forward to!

I stamped the critters using black StazOn and coloured using 80's glam sharpies. I stamped the Yippee-Skippee sentiment from Stampin' up and matted onto coloured card. Trying to be very CAS again, it still goes against my nature but I think the cards turned out really cute.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up card in Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo and Whisper White
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever after, Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee!
Other: 80s Glam Sharpies

Swallowtail and Color throwdown #284

I was really inspired by this week's Color Throwdown challenge. And based on the amazing creations from both the DT and participating crafters, so were many others. I just love the colour combo of dark blue and purple, this time with a bit of turquoise to brighten it up. The It turns out I don't have any of the three colours in the challenge this week, but that's ok as you are allowed to use anything you have in your stash that comes close.

This card was born out of a bit of a stamping accident to be honest. I had some problems getting a good stamp with the Swallowtail stamp that I was planning to use for a completely different card. But I didn't want to abandon these half successful attempts at stamping, so I decided to colour them and cut out the parts of the butterfly that looked good. I always get a sense of achievement when I manage to save something from going straight into the bin (which is why I tend to hold onto every little scrap and unsuccessful attempt at crafting, in case I need it one day. Have you seen the program about hoarders? I'm the crafting equivalent...). I made two very different cards, one for the challenge, and one CAS. I always have trouble with CAS, I just want to go on adding stuff to them, but this time I just decided I will put the card away quickly so I can't add anything else to it. By the way, I got myself a new white cardstock to try out to make the card base from, after a bit of research I settled on teh Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm card as I wanted a really sturdy cardstock. So far so good, I really like it although it's a bit tricky to fold neatly because of it's thickness, so I may have to go back to 300 gsm eventually although I love love love the quality feel of the really thick card.

The card for the challenge is above, I coloured it with Peacock Feathers, Seedless Preserves and Evergreen Bough. I stamped the swallowtail again in Rich Razzleberry onto Rich Razzleberry cardstock and matted it onto Bermuda Bay cardstock. I stamped the sentiment from Chalk Talk in Pacific Point and matted it onto Chipped Sapphire cardstock.

For the other card, I coloured the butterfly using Tim Holtz seasonals markers (I got the whole set of all 12 seasonal markers as I just love the bright colours and use them a lot). I matted onto yellow carstock and stamped a sentiment from the Yippee-Skippee! set added a stamp from Fresh Vintage. It is a bit on the simple side, but it's good to challenge yourself and make different things to keep an open mind.

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay, Very Vanilla, Tim Holtz Distress collection Chipped Sapphire, Hobbycraft Three Shades of Yellow 160 gsm cardstock, Leonardo Stationery Smooth White Card 350 gsm. 
Inks: Stampin Up Early Espresso, Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peacock Feathers
Markers: Tim Holtz Distress Markers Peacock Feathers, Evergreen Bough, Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Shaded Lilac, Squeezed Lemonade
Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk, Fresh Vintage, Swallowtail, Yippee-Skippee!