Watercolour lotus

Yesterday I felt like having a good old play with my Distress Inks and some water, inspired by lots of things I saw on various card challenges over the weekend. So I armed myself with a brush, some water and a bunch of blue Tim Holtz distress inks. I started by a layer of smooshing, letting it dry, and then adding several layers of splattering and splashing. Yes, I know, that's a very detailed and easy to follow description of the creative process. I had a lot of fun, and I think the background turned out quite nice, even if I do say so myself.

I didn't want to detract from the background, so I just stamped the lotus blossom from the gorgeous Lotus Love stamp set from Dee's Artsy Impressions at STAMPlorations and heat embossed in white. I used my new thanks die from Lawn Fawn to create the sentiment. You can't really see it, but both I coloured both the lotus and the sentiment with my Wink of Stella pen, so in real life they have a gorgeous subtle shimmer to them. 

It's really hard to make the Wink of Stella show on photos...

I'm was inspired by, and linking up with, the following challenges:
Just Us Girls - colour inspiration (see below)
The Friday Mashup - Feeling Blue (see below)
The ABC Challenge - Z is for zero (no embellishments allowed)

Card: 190 gsm watercolour paper, 300 gsm textured white card, scrap of dark blue card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Lotus Love
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Tumbled Glass
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles and Scripty Thanks dies, Papermania Seafoam white embossing powder, Wink of Stella glitter pen

The swallowtail is back

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

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

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

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

Back in the game

Inspiration is a funny thing. I crafted most of yesterday as I really wanted to publish a blog post (I usually try to publish one on both Saturday and Sunday). Sadly, I ended up with have nothing to show as I kept creating things more and more hideous and at least four more or less finished cards all ended up in the bin. I usually find great inspiration in looking at challenges, but yesterday it just felt that the more I tried to get inspired, the more forced and unlike me the cards ended up looking. I was already mentally prepared to sell all my stash on eBay, just trying to decide whether it would be better to sell things separately or in big bundles. I had a really sucky day overall yesterday, I found myself crying in the kitchen when cooking, for no real reason apart from feeling very sorry for myself, feeling like I was failing at everything  (mostly this is a reflection of how much I hate my job right now). In addition the weather was grey and dreary, as if things weren't miserable enough otherwise.

This morning I decided to take a completely different approach to my crafting, and just did what I felt like doing most. I am going through a phase of creating backgrounds using Distress Paints, and yesterday I thought I should really be doing something else for a change. But today I decided if that's what my little crafters heart wants to do, then that's what I will do and not care about recently having mostly done cards only using this technique. And I had great fun getting all messy. So far, I have created not one but two cards that I am happy with. Also the sun is shining outside, so life seems a bit less dreary today (apart from the fact that I have to be back at work in 19 hours...).

Today's card is inspired by the colours over at Color Throwdown as well as the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch. I created multiple panels of coloured watercolour card with Tim Holtz Distress Paints in Broken China and Spiced Marmalade, just blotting the colour onto my craft mat, spritzing with plenty of water and then smooshing the paper around, adding even more water to the card and tilting the paper to move the colours around. I then used Stampin' Up Four Feathers stamps and heat embossed in white, before using the matching dies to die cut both the stamped feathers, as well as some feathers without any stamping on them. I used the left over pieces of the cardstock to cut some star shaped confetti using a Lawn Fawn die. I adhered the feathers onto a piece of grey card I die cut with a stitched rectangle die and stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from STAMPlorations in white. It was fun, didn't take very long, and when looking at the finished card, I just couldn't understand why I was struggling so hard yesterday!

In addition to the above, I am linking up with the following challenges:
Happy Little Stampers - Smooshing
The Artistic Stamper - Anything Goes (with Stamping)
Card and Scrap - Use stamps
Crafty Enjoyments - Clean and Simple
Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes

Card: Coloured 240 gsm crafting card grey, 300 gsm watercolour paper, 250 gsm white card
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Paints Broken China, Spiced Marmalade
Stamps: STAMPlorations Fond Expressions 2, Stampin' Up Four Feathers and matching dies
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Journalling card and Stitched Rectangles dies, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

Friday is CAS day

 

Here we are again, the best time of the week. Friday evening, as far away from the doom and gloom of Monday morning. The entire glorious weekend ahead. Time to relax, craft, clean, maybe do some sports, take a long hot bath, pretty much whatever you like. 

I had a lovely end to my work week this time. Our whole team went for afternoon tea to Peacocks Tea Room in Ely. If you are ever in Ely, I cannot recommend the place enough. It's just unique. Such an beautiful place with friendly service, delicious food and an enormous selection of teas served from china cups and beautiful tea pots. I had a Chocolate Dream Cream Tea with a Chocolate Scone with whipped cream, a chocolate brownie and a very interesting tea called Chocolate Imperial. It was so delicious. 

After driving home from Ely and miraculously not getting stuck in any bad traffic, I had time to put together today's very CAS card. It was inspired by the great sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and ColourQ. I used a stencil and distress ink to create the border and used my new die for the "happy". I also got myself some sequins. Originally I wasn't very keen on sequins, but I have to say they are starting to grow on me. I'm also linking up at Creative Knockouts where the theme is Birthdays, Fab n' Funky challenges where the theme is Something New (new sequins), The Sisterhood of Crafters where the theme is Anything Goes with a twist - use a new crafting stash (again, the sequins) and Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is to use ink to create a background.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 200 gsm white card, coloured 240 gsm card Pink Sorbet

Ink: Tim Holtz distress ink Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, Picked Raspberry

Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Other: Ranger Dylusions by Dyan Reaveley Shattered stencil, Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits, sequins from my stash

Rocky and Bullwinkle

I was going to post this yesterday but life interfered. I left work really early to have some crafting time but there was a massive accident on the A14, and I had to make my way home by alternative routes, which of course were totally blocked up. In the end it took me an hour and a half instead of 35 minutes to get home. Sigh. So I didn't quite manage to finish the card yesterday. But it's all done and dusted now, and that's all that matters.

The day after I published my wintery Lawn Fawn card, the Lawnscaping challenge published the inspiration photo below. I immediately wanted to create something similar for the challenge using the photo, so I played some more with the lovely Critters in the Arctic and Joy to the Woods stamp sets. I'm also entering the card over at Daring Cardmakers where the challenge is to be inspired by another card you have made and over at STAMPlorations where the January challenge theme is Stamps and Inks. Last but not least I'm linking up at Love to Create where Anything goes.

I started by stamping and colouring Moose, Squirrel and their Robin friend. I die cut them, and the snowy hills and the journalling card. I used Versamark to ink the snowy hills and added Holographic embossing powder to them. It doesn't show very well on the photo but it's really nice and sparkly. I stamped snowflakes onto the background using Versamark and embossed them using holographic embossing powder, before inking with distress ink. For the background, I used the hardwood stamp and then embossed the sentiment in white.

Card: Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card, kraft card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic, Stampin' Up Hardwood

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders, Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Arctic, Stitched Journaling Card

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, Dusty Concord, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake

Colouring: Copics E09, E29, E34, E39, R24, R46

Other: Papermania Holographic embossing powder

Glittery snowflakes

This is an easy and quick Christmas card for those last minute cards you need to make in a hurry. I love the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake dies, they are so pretty. I'm a bit fussy when it comes to snowflakes, I only like them a certain way and these certainly are the way I like! 

I die cut the snowflakes, inked them with Versamark and heat embossed with glitter embossing powder. For the background, I stamped the small snowflakes from Critters in the Arctic in Versamark and heat embossed using clear powder. I inked the background with Distress inks. After attaching the the snowflakes I stamped the sentiment and finished by adding some stickles to the snowflakes.

The card was inspired by the STAMPlorations sketch challenge. I'm also entering the card in the STAMPlorations December challenge, which involves picking any previous challenge. I picked the August challenge which is Stamps & Die cuts. I'm also entering the card over at Die Cuttin' Divas - Inspired by a Christmas Carol (Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake die, song "Winter Wonderland" Sleigh bells ring are you listening, in the lane, SNOW is glistening and so on and so forth), at Incy Wincy Designs where the theme is Christmas Anything Goes, at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where Anything Goes and at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the the theme is Winter Inspiration with a lovely inspiration board.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Inspiration Board.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters in the Arctic

Ink: Tsukineko VersaMark, Stampin' Up Basic Grey, Tim Holtz Broken China, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick

Other: Papermania holographic embossing powder, Ranger Ice Stickles Glitter Glue, Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes dies

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

Shabby Chic Paris

I wanted to finish the last STAMPlorations challenge for the month and realised it's now or never as the deadline is today. You can find the cards I've submitted to the two other October challgenges here and here. I can't believe it's November tomorrow. Where does the time go?

I used the STAMPlorations sketch as the starting point for the card. I used the second colour combo from the Colour Me...! Challenge (my card using the first colour combo is here). I was also inspired by the Make My Monday Challenge where the theme is Chabby Chic. 

I cut a oval mask, and used it to sponge Walnut Stain and Worn Lipstick Distress ink onto the card. I stamped the Eiffel Tower from the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous I See Paris stamp set in Walnut Stain. I also stamped the Stampin' Up En Français stamp in Walnut Stain after first stamping off some of the colour through an oval mask. Last, I stamped the tickets from the Tim Holtz stamp set The Journey in Broken China and Worn Lipstick, and inked and distressed all edges. I added some lace as a finishing touch. As I didn't want to try and cram a sentiment on the card, I stamped it inside the card instead.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Tim Holtz Core'dinations Worn Lipstick, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous I See Paris CMS009 and The Journey, Stampin' Up En Française
Ink: Tim Holtz distress inks Broken China, Walnut Stain and Worn Lipstick 
Other: Lace and lace washi tape from my stash

Joy to the sketch

I guess by now you all wish I had never bought the Joy to the Woods stamp set and are bored to death seeing it so many times here on the blog recently. But every time I see a vertical element in a sketch my thoughts turn to those tree trunks... So once more, some cute critters and very straight tree trunks as inspired by this week's CAS(E) this Sketch. I'm also entering over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Finishing touches. My finishing touch to this card was the red bird sitting on the banner, as the card looked like it needed a final touch before I added the bird. Last but not least I'm entering over at the ABC Christmas Challenge where T is for Tree Ornament.

This time I used Tim Holtz distress markers to colour the critters, and die cut them using the matching die set. I used a snowflake from another Lawn Fawn stamp set to stamp the snow in the background. I love the slightly untraditional look of the Christmas cards created with this set, but it also makes such a great autumn set and probably in the summer I will be inspired to make cards with the critters frolicking around in a green forest landscape instead. I also stamped some Christmas decorations inside the card and coloured in the same colour scheme as the front of the card.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

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

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Soft Sky

Colouring: Tim Holtz distress markes in Ripe Persimmon, Barn Door, Broken China, Tea Dye and Stampin' Write marker in Chocolate Chip and Smoky Slate

Other: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods Die