Happy Crazy Halloween

Boy am I glad it's Friday. I'm suffering from a worklife related existential crisis. All I do is try to get through the weeks and make it to the weekend, sometimes it even feels like I'm only fully alive from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, the rest of the time I'm walking around in a zombie-like stupor. I know I'm supposed to be all excited and positive, but all I want to do is bury myself under my duvet and eat a ton of chocolate. I know it's just the darkness and this time of the year, and it will eventually pass. It's funny how some people just embrace autumn and talk about wrapping up in huge sweaters and having hot beverages. I'm trying to see their side of the argument, but I'm finding it very hard, especially as my toes are freezing despite doubling up with fluffy wool socks. Grumble, grumble...

Talking about zombie-like stupor, it's almost Halloween! I can't wait for next weekend, as I will be spending it with alpacas, the coolest animals ever! Pop back next weekend to hear what it's all about... Anyhow, back to Halloween. I grew up not even knowing what Halloween was, so it's never featured on my list of interests. I mean nowadays it's all been imported from the US, but back in my childhood, we didn't know about trick-or-treating. We do have an All Saints night around the same time of the year, but it's all about lighting candles and remembering those who have passed. No pumpkins or candies though.

Despite my general lack of interest towards Halloween, I had to have a little play with the gorgeous Crazy Things Halloween-y bits and bobs, just for one card. I have no idea what to do with it as I really don't know anyone who is into Halloween to send it to, but at least I had lots of fun making it! My colour inspiration for this card was this week's Colour Me...! with some quite Halloween-ish colours. The layout was inspired by the sketch over at Mojo Monday, it's been a while since I played along over there. It's also been waaay to long since I played along with the Snarky Sisters, so here is my long overdue contribution to the most recent challenge which is Halloween with some pink. Boy, I've missed good old Edna! I'm also linking up over at 4 Crafty Chicks, The Friday Mashup, Deep Ocean Challenges and Inky Chicks where the theme is Halloween

Card: 300 gsm black card, 250 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous Bird Crazy and Crazy Things with matching dies, Lawn Fawn Hats Off

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Black Soot, Wilted Violet

Colouring: Copics YR02, YR04, YR07, R20, R43, V04, V09, E37

Other: Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday border die, Tag You're It die and Let's Polka in the dark paper pad, Stampin' Up Glossy Accents

Sympathy at sunset

I have absolutely no idea what is going on with me lately. I am usually up no later than seven in the morning, often I even wake up at six and can't go back to sleep. This weekend I slept to 8:30 yesterday and nine today! It's really weird, I feel like I have slept away half the day. But I guess my body needs it for some reason or other, I'm suspecting I'm fighting off a bug or something as my colleagues have all had a nasty autumn cold, so I'm thinking I will take it as easy as my body wants and hopefully stay healthy. On another revelation, I think I have worked out the comings and goings of Mr Mojo. Last week I didn't go to the gym at all (I know, bad bad me) and I've had a very creative Saturday. The week before, I went to the gym, and was hardly able to create at all. I see a pattern forming here. Clearly the gym is detrimental to my crafting Mojo!

On to more interesting things, like today's card. When I saw this week's colours over at Color Throwdown, I just knew I had to play along. I also liked the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch, and I thought it would be a great idea to combine them into one. I was also inspired by the beautiful multi-colour sponging in the inspiration card from Time Out Challenges. I'm also linking up over at House of Cards where the theme is Stitch It Up, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Die Crazy, The Artistic Stamper where the theme is Things With Wings and Craft and Smash where the theme is clouds.

I started creating the sunset image, and although I wasn't planning specifically to make a sympathy card, that's what it turned out to be. I don't have a very good selection of sympathy sentiments, but luckily I had just received an order from STAMPlorations containing the Lotus Love set which had a sentiment that fit the card perfectly. I created the sky using masks I die cut using the Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Borders and Tim Holtz distress inks. For the grass, I used the Lawn Fawn Grassy border die. The flowers are stencilled in black distress ink through the STAMPlorations Some Birds stencils. I die cut the panel using Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle dies and heat embossed the sentiment in white. Last, I added a few sequins inspired by the sketch. The panel is adhered using foam tape onto hammered white cardstock.

Card: Hammered white 300 gsm card, white 250 gsm card, black paper
Ink: Tim Holtz distress inks Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot
Stamps: STAMPlorations Dee's Artsy Impressions Lotus Love
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Puffy Cloud border dies, Grassy Border die, STAMPlorations Some Birds stencil, Papermania Seafoam white embossing powder, sequins from my stash

I thank my lucky stars...

It' been a few days since my last post. It's that time of year again, when it's dark and cold and miserable. I needed a few days off everything, including crafting. But today I felt like I wanted to create something again, so I continued to play with the galaxy technique I tried out here.

This card was inspired by several challenges. I love the colour combo over at Colour Throwdown, and I thought it would be perfect for the galaxy technique. I was also inspired by this week's CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also joining in with the Snarky Sisters, where the theme this time is T is  for Thanks (for nothing). Last but not least I will also join Stampin' Royalty where the theme is Silver. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Daley & Rowney Aquafine watercolour paper, Hobbycraft Three shades of blue 160 gsm card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card purple grape, Stampin' Up silver glimmer paper
Paints: Tim Holtz Distress Paint Black Soot, Broken China, Seedless Preserves and Picket Fence
Other: Xcut star die

Galaxy technique

I'm a bit early with tomorrow's blog post. So if you read this on Wednesday, close the browser and come back tomorrow as this is meant to be Thursday's post. Just kidding, just kidding, read on. The reason I have to publish this post a bit early is that I just received some paint, just a few hours before the end of a challenge deadline that I really wanted to create a card for. The story goes as follows.

When I saw the galaxy technique challenge on The Friday Mashup last Friday, I immediately watched the linked technique videos as I just loved the look of the DT inspiration cards. This is the great video I used to help me get to grips with the technique. And then I immediately headed up to my craft room to play with my Distress paints. Only to discover that I actually don't have black paint. Ever so often I do this, I see a product used so much in blogs and videos that somehow my brain has convinced me that I have that in my stash. Very disappointed, I had to wait for several long days until my paints finally arrived today, only a few hours before the challenge deadline. So off I went into the craft room like greased lightning, and after a bit of playing around with the paints I managed to put together this card. 

For the layout I was inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketch, and for the colours I used the amazing palette over at Colour Me...! I'm also entering the card over at Simon Says Monday Challenge where Anything goes.

I created the galaxy according to the instructions in the video using the Distress paints. I stamped the stars in Versamark and heat embossed using white powder. I stamped the sentiment using Versamark and heat embossed using white powder. I then coloured the white embossed parts using a Copic marker to match the colours in the galaxy.

Card: Daler & Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, coloured 240 gsm kraft card in black and purple
Paints: Tim Holtz Distress Paints Black Soot, Dusty Concord, Picket Fence, Spiced Marmelade and Seedless Preserves
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever after, Stampin' Up Just Sayin'
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Copic YR04
Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder 

Tardis Birthday Card

A while ago, it was the Culinary Consultant's Birthday. It's only the third time I have been around to celebrate his birthday, although it feels like we have been together for a long time. I have tried to find a new idea for each birthday. Last year it was animals that he loves with an elephant card and snake cake, and the year before that it was a Dark Knight cake, as the new Batman movie had recently come out and he wanted to see it. I don't think I was making cards back then, as I can't find any photos of a card to go with the occasion. This year the theme is Doctor Who, as the Culinary Consultant has been very excited about the return of the beloved Doctor onto our TV screens. I am trying to get into it, we watch the show together every Saturday night, although I do suffer from some difficulty to stay away for the whole duration of the show. I also made a Tardis cake, but as it looked like it was made by a five year old, I shall spare your eyes from that monstrosity. I am linking up this card to the I is for Iconic challenge over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers and Out of This World challenge at the Daring Cardmakers blog. I'm also entering the "Anything goes"  challenge over at Addicted to stamps and more. 

I was doing some online research for the card, and luckily came across the Hau to Craft blow which had two blog posts here and here for a Tardis card. Even more luckily there was a link to Valita's blog which even came with a free template to create the card. Could you be any more lucky than that? I'm eternally grateful for that free tutorial, it was hard enough to make the card with the tutorial so I don't want to think about how hard it would have been without it. It is a lot of tiny details and very fussy work, so I wouldn't make many of these, but making one for that one special person was totally worth all the fuss. 

The card is not hard to do, it just takes a lot of time and patience. You need the best part of a 12x12 in sheet of cardstock. I used Tim Holtz Core'dinations in Chipped Sapphire. A bit of Black Soot around the edges of each piece (which there are plenty of) and about a gazillion pieces of foam adhesive. I used the computer to print the little sign on the door, and was lucky enough to have a relatively small alphabet stamp set to heat emboss the words POLICE BOX on the top, as I was first planning to fussy cut them but it turned out to be a complete disaster. I also made a gift tag to match.

Cardstock: Tim Holtz Core'dinations Chipped Sapphire, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Shimmery Grey card I ordered from eBay which doesn't have a maker indicated

Ink: Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress ink, Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Picket Fence Distress Marker

Stamps: Hobbycraft Typewriter Alphabet clear stamps

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Tim Holtz alterations Inside out alphabet and Gadget Gears dies, Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Stampin' Up Basic Pear coloured with a gold Sharpie

Roaring savanna sunset

I love the Lawn Fawn stamp sets, one day I will have them all. I increased my collection from 1 set (Critters Ever After) to two after I received the aaahh so cute Critters on the Savanna set. There is so much you can do with these cute little guys, but this time I was inspired by three challenges. First of all, I saw the savanna sunset in this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch (below). Also, I saw the savanna sunset colours in this weeks Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge which is themed Not So Mellow Yellow. Indeed, not very mellow, with that big roaring cat sitting there in the middle of it all! And third, this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is Anything goes but with the amazing and inspiring DT using Lawn Fawn stamps, I felt like I should join in the fun.

I started with creating the sunset using Tim Holtz distress inks, ink blending tools and masks. I then stamped the critters in black ink and fussycut using scissors. They were sponged with Black Soot ink enough so that they would look like shadows against the sunset, but still showing those cute details through the ink. For the sentiment, I used a scrap piece from my stash that I have created earlier using Tim Holtz distress paints onto watercolour paper. I attached the sentiment onto my block in a wavy pattern. Lastly, I stamped some grass in black onto the savanna, and adhered everything into place and onto yellow carstock. I have to admit, I'm a teeny weeny bit proud of the colours of the sunset, I absolutely love playing with the distress inks. The way they layer, blend and make such a lively and vivid result is just amazing. And it's fun to get your hands literally dirty too!

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white cardstock, Daler&Rowney 190 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight cardstock
Inks: Hobbycraft black pigment ink, Tim Holtz distress inks in Aged Mahogany, Black Soot, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmelade, Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters of the Savanna