Ombre feathers and why I need a bigger desk

I'm baaack! Ok, so maybe you didn't even notice I haven't been around in ages. I have an excuse... First it was work, and this weekend was the Culinary Consultant's birthday, so we spent some quality time with our favourite peeps, not leaving any time for the craft room. Me, the Culinary Consultant, my Sis and his Sis spent Saturday in Thetford forest climbing up trees, doing a bit of tight-rope walking from tree to tree and riding zip lines. It was really scary as some of it was really high up, but we had a blast. I have to admit I chickened out from doing one of the really big Tarzan swings where you just jump off a platform high up a tree, and then swing at full speed into a net. The Culinary Consultant and his Sis took it all in a stride and did great! 

Today, after Sis drove off home (and our guest room is once again empty, sad face...) I spent some time in the craft room, creating a huge bunch of stuff that went straight into the bin. Apparently my crafting muscles have atrophied. I pretty much pulled out every stamp set and die I owned. They are all spread across my crafting desk, you can see what it looks like... Every single thing I made was horrible. So I took a break, read a few chapters, had some cake and ended up having a bit of a nap as well (our sofa is way too comfortable). 

After my nap I decided to try again. I pushed all the crap on my desk to the side to make a teeny tiny little space in the middle of the desk. Stuff started falling off the edge of the desk... Hence the need for a bigger desk. And I guess the earlier messing around counted as warm-up, and I was finally able to create a card that wasn't too horrible.

My card was inspired by the colour combo over at Colour Me...! and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the ombre challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. Not one, not two but three different ombre elements! The background, the feathers and the sentiment. I was also inspired by the tic-tac-toe board over at CAS-ual Fridays. My choice is diagonally Stitching, Spritzing and Embossing. Stitching is the faux stitching around the panel, there is some spritzing in the background I did by flicking a watercolour brush, and embossing is the white heat embossing on the feathers.  For the background, I was also inspired by The Friday Mashup, where one of the themes is to create a background filled with colour. 

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Sahara Sand card
Inks: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride and Mint Macaron
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Scripty Hugs die, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

Stampin' Royalty Guest DT - Photo inspiration

I can't believe this is already my third guest post for Stampin' Royalty. Time truly flies when you are having fun, doesn't it. This week we have a gorgeous inspiration photo for you. The colours could not have been more perfectly picked for me! Green and pink is one of my all time favourite colour combos. I absolutely loved making this card. Hop over to Stampin' Royalty to see how the amazingly talented DT have been inspired by the image. Then, please have a play around for yourself and join us as we love to see your gorgeous creations. 

For my card, I was inspired by the beautiful colour combo and the bright pink flowers. I was also inspired by the gold and silver bling in the beautiful jewellery. I started by stamping the large flower from Bloom With Hope in Staz-On onto watercolour paper. I coloured the flowers with pink markers and used a waterbrush to blend the colours. Then I fussy cut the flowers. For the background I stamped the Brushstrokes stamp in Pistachio Pudding. This is such a great stamp, and it certainly has not got all the use it deserves so far. I also die cut two feathers from gold foil. Then it was just a quick job to assemble it all onto a doily, add one of those gorgeous wood veneer sentiments, a bit of silver thread and a few rhinestones. Hey presto! 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes
Fab n' Funky - Flower Delights
Natalie and Amy's Challenge - Summertime
Happy Little Stampers - Sketch

Card: Stampin' Up Whisper White Thick cardstock, Gold Foil
Stamps: Stampin' Up Brushstrokes, Bloom With Hope
Ink: Stampin' Up Pistachio Pudding Stampin' Markers Strawberry  Slush, Melon Mambo, Blushing Bride, Pink Pirouette, Memento Staz-On Jet Black
Other:  Stampin' Up Expressions Natural Elements, Silver Metallic Thread, Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Feathers die, Jewels Basic Rhinestones

Bloomin' marvelous pastel flowers

The weather outside is absolutely miserable. It's pouring with rain and the wind is howling like it did during the winter storms. I had so hoped to get some work done in the garden. But instead the best I can do is to try and re-create a garden on paper instead. 

Today's card is inspired by the gorgeous pastel flowers over at ColourQ and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the gorgeous spring flowers over at PINspirational. I'm also linking up at Crazy 4 Challenges where the theme is Spring.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Tim Holtz Disterss Core'dinations card Milled Lavender, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, pink cardstock from my stash

Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvelous, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous I See Paris

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink Dusty Concord, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Old Olive, Pool Party, Blushing Bride

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Journalling Card dies, Cuttlebug embossing folder

One more Valentine's

As you read this, I'm surfing down the information highway at very high speed. Fasten your seatbelts! After a long wait, I no longer have to wait for a minute to upload a photo to the blog. We have left the dark ages! I'm so giddy about this, I want to do a happy dance. I must have scared the poor BT engineer with my high-pitched squeal of "Oh my gosh it's working!!!". You can say he had one happy customer.

Today's card is inspired by the wonderful card over at Time Out where the challenge is to CASE the card. It is also inspired by the colours over at ColourQ which I used to colour the flowers on the tag. I'm also linking up at Make My Monday where the theme is Hearts and Flowers (I don't know if it's cheating, but the small flowers look heart shaped to me), at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Bright and Beautiful, In(k)spire Me "Valentines", Kitty Bee Aloha Friday Challenge "Valentine's/Love", Polkadoodles Challenge "Flower Power" and Simply Create Too "Valentine".

I stamped the flowers onto the tag in Versamark and heat embossed in white. I used Stampin' Up inks and a watercolour brush to colour the flowers and a marker to draw the faux stitching. I embossed the background and printed the sentiment. I added some pink ribbon from my stash and matted the card onto pink card.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo
Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful
Inks: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Blushing Bride marker
Other: Cuttlebug script embossing folder, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, pink ribbon from my stash, Scalloped Tag Topper punch

Hugs and kisses

Today's card is inspired by the photo over at Just Us Girls. I didn't want to go for hearts as the obvious choice so I used feathers instead. I tried to use inks and markers on the stamps to mimic the marbled effect on the cookies, and use the colour scheme from the photo. The layout for the card is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up with CASology where the cue card is Friend and Brown Sugar where the theme is Valentine's.

I coloured the feathers with ink pads and markers to get a marbled effect and die cut them with the matching dies. I die cut spaces for the feathers in the bronze cardstock, and adhered the feathers into place. I stamped the sentiment in Regal Rose. Last, I used my Tim Holtz Spritz tool to add some airbrush stains to the white space. Unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the photo as only the most dark airbrush stains show, but it gives a subtle effect to the background. 

Card: Leonardo Cardstock 300 gsm white card, Metallic Bronze card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers and dies, Good Greetings
Ink: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Real Red, Regal Rose
Other: Papermania adhesive gems 

Happy New Home

Today I happened upon a new challenge, which I liked the look of. It's called Cure for the Monday Blues (don't we all just need a little bit of that every now and then?). I was inspired by the colours in the rug of the inspiration photo. I really wanted a DSP with those colours but I didn't have any. So in the end I decided I will just make my own DSP by drawing lines freehand using markers. I like the look of the slightly wonky lines. I was also inspired by the feel of "home" of the inspiration picture, so that's why I decided to make a new home card. I used the lovely layout over at Sweet Sunday Challenge. I'm also linking up at Just us Girls where Anything Goes this week.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana and Blushing Bride

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After, Papermania Urban Stamps 12 Days of Christmas Word Banner

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Stampin' Up markers Daffodil Delight, Coastal Cabana, Blushing Bride and Soft Sky

Other: Lawn Fawn dies Critters Ever After, Cole's Alphabet, Stitched Journaling Card

Pink feathers

This card is for my Mum who will have a rough few days coming up due to some health issues. I would appreciate any good thought being sent her way, I'll sure be sending out as much of that as I possibly can.

I'm really diggin' the Four Feathers stamp set. I love inking it up in various colours. I also love the current Retro Sketch. And I thought it made a great combo with the colours from the new The Challenge. I'm really getting into this whole clean and simple thing. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers and Just Sayin' 
Ink: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Smoky Slate and Strawberry Slush

Embrace the imperfections

I wasn't going to post this card, as I'm not sure if I like it or not. It has the wrong kind of white space... It's also the subtle colours, I think it looks a bit drained. I deal better with bright colours (something very pink is coming your way soon...). But it did grow on me a bit, so I thought what the heck, let's just put it out there. It's all about embracing the imperfections and finding something good in everything. I do like the colouring of the flower.

The inspiration for this card was the same sketch as yesterday's card over at Stampin' Royalty. As I already submitted one card over there, I won't submit this one. The colours are from the Colour Me...! challenge, I will submit the card for that challenge. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Accessories Pastel Cropping Block
Stamps: Hero Arts Layered Flowers, Stampin' Up Chalk Talk
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics Y13, Y15, Y19, R20, R24, Stampin' Up Blushing Bride
Other: Daisy Embossing folder (free with an old issue of a crafting magazine)

Happy cupcake

Today's card is a quick make. Well, it would have been a quick make had I not had to do it twice. Let's just say something irreversible happened to the first version due to a tired crafter who put her scissors through the wrong pink cardstock - the ready card base with all layers attached, and left upside down on the crafting desk instead of a another pink piece of cardstock that was actually meant to be cut. And when you make something for the second time, it's no longer as fun... But it's here now, all photographed and tucked away safely in the ever growing collection of finished cards (I'm good at making cards but very bad at sending them). 

Today's card is inspired by three challenges. A very CAS sketch by Retro Sketches. A stunning colour combo by ColourQ. The theme "Tea and/or cake" over at Make My Monday. After that, it was just a bit of stamping, inking, cutting, glueing and Bob's your uncle. I love this week's colourQ colour combo as I think it's the first time ever I used my Summer Starfruit ink, which I bought in a deliberate attempt to use more yellow in my cards, and have failed so far.

I stamped a few random cupcakes
and cherries inside the card as well.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card baby pink

Stamps: Stampin' Up A Cherry on Top, Yippee-Skippee

Inks: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit

Paper: Stampin' Up Sycamore Street DSP

Other: gold sequins from my stash

Poppy challenge #12

This card is directly inspired by the current Poppy Challenge. I wasn't quite sure how to interpret the sketch, but I hope it's close enough. I really liked the colour combo of red, pink and a neutral sand colour. I had a rummage through my stash and discovered this great DSP (yes, I admit I have no idea what papers I have stashed away, I keep re-discovering stuff when from time to time I have a little rummage around...). I used one of my favourite techniques, white heat embossing and colouring with markers. I like the way the flowers pop when only part of the image is coloured. I added a sentiment, some pearls and a bow tied from a leftover piece of ribbon (yes, I hoard leftover pieces of anything, you know, just in case...). I continued the stamping inside the card and made a matching envelope as well. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, Stampin' Up Real Red and Smoky Slate cardstock
Paper: Stampin' Up More Amore DSP
Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful, See Ya Later, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Versamark, Stampin' Up Real Red, Smoky Slate, Stampin' Write Markers Real Red, Blushing Bride, Smoky Slate
Other: Stampin' Up Basic Pearls, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, red ribbon from my stash

CASEing some more

I had so much fun doing my previous challenge for CASEing the Catty that I decided to make another card.I'm so disappointed with myself that I have missed the first 7 challenges of the series! It was hard to choose another project, as I wanted to try to recreate pretty much all of the cards in the Card Giving section (page 102-143). In the end I settled on page 115 where I found a great card with the "colour the chalkboard stamp with markers" technique (yes, of course that's the official name of the technique...). 

Stampin' Up Annual Catalogue 2014-2015 page 115

I don't have the great Friends Who Know stamp (although I know who I would make a card for using the stamp should I have it) so I used the only chalkboard type stamp I have - from the Chalk Talk set. I also don't have the Chalk Lines stamp set (would love it though) so I had to come up with a replacement for that too, and settled for the new photopolymer stamp set Show&Tell 2. And finally, I also realised I don't have a single black and white DSP, so I created my own using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. I think you can certainly see where the inspiration for this card has come from, but at the same time I have put my own little twist on it. I didn't see any rule saying you can only participate with one contribution to the challenge, so I'm submitting this as my second card for the challenge, and can't wait for the next one. I was photographing in rather challenging afternoon sunshine so the small detail photo shows the colours a bit more correctly than the overall photo.

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party
Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk, Show&Tell 2, Gorgeous Grunge
Inks: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake and Pool Party, Stampin' Write markers in Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride and Calypso Coral
Other: Chalk Talk dies, scrap of DSP from Sycamore Street

Petite Petals graduation card

This is the second-to-last in the bunch of graduation cards I have made for my Sister's friends. It seems like ages ago when I started with the first one, and still I was struggling to get them all done in time. It's been a challenge to come up with something individual and unique for each of the new doctors, but I've had a great time creating. 

This card came together easily using the Stampin' Up Petite Petals stamp set and matching punch. It's so fun to stamp and punch the flowers, I could make oodles of cards like this. I also added some splatter using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set (which seems to feature on about 90% of all my cards, but what can you do, if it ain't broken don't fix it). I die cut the letters and put everything together with a few adhesive gems for a bit of bling. I stamped a row of flowers inside the card and on the envelope as well.

I'm entering this card in Addicted to CAS which this week is about "Celebrate". If graduating as a Medical Doctor is not a reason to celebrate, I don't know what is. I'm also entering this week's Addicted to Stamps and more where the theme is CAS. I also had to enter the Shopping our Stash challenge as the theme was to use something you can't put away, and these two stamp sets definitely have seen their fair share of use in my craft room. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Petite Petals
Inks: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate, Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Jewels Basic Rhinestones, Petite Petals punch, Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out alphabet die

Petal parade thank you

The theme of the current Shopping our Stash challenge is "Oldest punch or die". I can still remember buying the Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies back in the days when I didn't even have a die cutting machine yet. I used them for a long time just by tracing the outline with a pencil and fussy cutting the shapes. Then finally I got my beloved Big Shot, and I just love die cutting. I love the feeling of turning the handle and popping the paper out of the die. So when I saw the challenge, I knew I had to make a card with these much beloved and well used dies of mine.

I decided to make a Thank you card, as you can never have too many in your stash (ok, so looking at my box of cards you *can* in fact have too many thank you cards, but that wasn't my point). I used the die to cut out a tag and stamped the cute flowers from the Petal Parade stamp set. I matted the tag onto Baked Brown Sugar card. The background is a DSP from a set called Tea for Two. Like all other crafting stuff, I hoard DSPs like crazy, but then I'm really bad at using them. I keep thinking I want to save them for a "special occasion", but what could be more special than crafting time? And I managed to use some random cream ribbon from my stash as well, so this is truly a great stash card. I have also bought the Summer Starfruit ink pad ages ago as I thought I would use it loads, but in fact this is the first time I'm breaking it out. I really like the colour combo of Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride and Summer Starfruit, it has a rather retro feel to it.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up Baked Brown Sugar, Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card
Paper: Stampin' Up Tea for Two Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Stampin' Up Petal Parade, So Very Grateful
Inks: Stampin' Up Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride and Summer Starfruit
Other: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk Framelits, cream ribbon from my stash

Butterfly thanks

My mojo has been AWOL lately. I spent several hours crafting on Monday, but only managed to fill my trash without creating anything worth keeping. Today I was lucky enough to leave work a bit earlier than usual after attending a course all day. After finally getting home (thank you to whoever it was who thought it's ok to do 50 mph on the A14 in rush hour in the right hand lane...) I snuggled on the sofa with a cup of tea and my collection of challenge blogs to try and revive my dead mojo. As usual that got the old creative neurons firing. I was super-inspired by the current Poppy challenge, I loved both the colour combo and the sketch. I also got a bit obsessed with the spots in the picture challenge from Stampin' Royalty and just had to add some to the card. I am also submitting the card to Addicted to Stamps which has the theme "Make your Mark" as I coloured the butterflies with markers.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm Premium Vellum, Stampin' Up Basic Gray card, pink leftover cardstock from my stash
Stamps: Kanban Butterfly stamp, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Stampin' Up Basic Grey ink, Stampin' Up markers Blushing Bride and Soft Sky, Tim Holtz distress embossing ink
Paper: Stampin' Up Patterns Stack - Brights collection
Other: Ranger ultra fine clear embossing powder, Papermania Seafoam White embossing Powder, Tim Holtz Alterations Vintage Lace die, Stampin' Up Jewels basic rhinestone

Swallowtail CAS

This week's Crafthoarders Anonymous Challenge is "Pick a stamp, Any Stamp". First I toyed with a few ideas, but they all got binned at various stages. So in the end, I decided to pick The Stamp. The Swallowtail. This is such a great stamp, and colouring it is always so much fun! To be honest, sometimes I just stamp it and colour it several times over, just for fun (I know, I need to get a life). And to show off the detailed stamp in all it's glory, I decided to make a CAS card. Nothing but the amazing stamp and a simple sentiment. I really struggle with CAS, I want to keep adding things. When I see other people's cards I think the white space is very nice, but when I attempt it myself I always end up adding more and more stuff thinking it's too simple and too plain. This time I decided to remember the best rule. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!

The layout for the card is from this week's CAS(E) this sketch challenge. And yes, there is a third challenge as well (three times lucky) as the The Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge this week is Winged Things. And what could be more perfect for that than the lovely and colourful swallowtail wings.

 

I stamped the Swallowtail using Hobbycraft black pigment ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I coloured the image using Stampin' Up markers. The tag for the sentiment is cut using the Stampin' Up Chalk Talk framelits and the sentiment is a detail from a stamp set called Life's Messages from Penny Black. I covered the stamp apart from the one line I wanted to stamp using cellotape, inked up the stamp, removed the tape and positioned the sentiment using a Stamp-a-ma-jig. To finish off I added two small adhesive gems and then took the photo really quick before I could add something to the card...

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up So Saffron card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Penny Black Life's Messages
Inks: Hobbycraft Black Pigment Ink, Stampin' Up markers in Blushing Bride, Pool Party, So Saffron and Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies, Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder, Papermania adhesive gems