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

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

The joy of watercolours

As much as I love all my DT assignments (and in a few days I have another guest DT spot that I'm dying to share with you), sometimes creating for them can be a bit restrictive, particularly if working with sponsor images that you get assigned to. So today I enjoyed the total and absolute freedom of just creating a card based on a few inspiring challenges and then just sitting down with some stamps, a brush and some inks. I love watercolours, they are my current favourite.

Today's card was inspired by a few challenges. First of all I was inspired by this week's CAS-ology cue card, Wings. I immediately knew I wanted to use my STAMPlorations gorgeous hummingbird. I was also inspired by the Flower theme over at Make My Monday. I also wanted to challenge myself by using the colour combo over at ColourQ, which this time was very far outside my comfort zone. I did love the fact that I got to use two of my new Tim Holtz inks, Abandoned Coral and Fossilized Amber. I would also like to link up with Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is "No ordinary paper". I used my favourite type of paper, watercolour paper. Last but not least I would like to link up over at the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge.

For my card, I stamped the hummingbird in Scattered Straw distress ink, and the flower in Abandoned Coral onto watercolour paper. Then I used Scattered Straw, Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber and Chipped Sapphire to watercolour the image. I created the sentiment by combining a sentiment from the STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches stamp set and a Lawn Fawn die cut. Last, I cut the image using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies and added a few sequins. I do like how it turned out, despite using a  colour combo which was very far outside my comfort zone. I absolutely adore these stamps, and the way the distress paints behave when you use them as watercolours. They blend so perfectly!

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, 240 gsm coloured kraft card navy

Stamps: STAMPlorations Stamp Lab Hummingbird and Bloom Sketches

Inks: Tim Holtz distress inks in Scattered Straw, Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber and Chipped Sapphire

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Scripty Hugs die, sequins from my stash

Monochrome owl

Oh dear, it's Monday again. I think a four day working week would be much more compatible with also having a life, this pesky two day weekend business isn't nearly enough. It's only enough for the bare essentials, like cleaning and grocery shopping but I want a bit of luxurious "nothing to do" time. Just sitting and relaxing, sipping a cocktail or hot chocolate depending on the weather. Maybe reading a book. I haven't read a book in ages, does anyone have any good suggestions? Luckily I made time yesterday to put together this quick card though.

The inspiration for today's card comes from the blue owl in the inspiration photo from ShowCASe Your Style. The layout is inspired by this week's CAS(E) this Sketch. I'm also linking up with Addicted to CAS where the theme is "Cute", Addicted to Stamps "Make Your Mark" and Paper Smooches "Anything Goes".

Card: Dark blue card from my stash, white 300 gsm card, Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire Core'dinations card

Stamps: Paper Smooches Chubby Chums, Stampin' Up Hardwood

Ink: Tim Holtz Faded Jeans, Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics B00, B06, B41, B45, white gel pen, Stampin' Write marker Pacific Point

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Stampin' Up Banner punch

Masculine card in blue and turquoise

It's been a great few days. Yesterday we had a nice lunch with our team at work, and I was able to leave work early as planned to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. On my way home I popped by the post office to pick up a parcel from my Mum with yummy goodies from home along with some Moomin mugs and towels. And today I have been out taking pictures of  parrots and alligators in the beautiful sunshine. I also decided to start another blog for my photos! Stay tuned for a link tomorrow. But no more ramblings for today, I'll move on to the reason you are here.

Today's card is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and the great colours over at ColourQ. I was also inspired by the "Masculine" theme over at Just Us Girls and the "Tag You're It" over at RetroRubber. I used two Tim Holtz stamp sets that I have owned for ages, but used very little. In fact, I've never used the stamp I used for the background before. Actually, I realised all the supplies I used for this card, apart from the white and black cardstock have been in my stash for ages. Last but not least I'm linking up at The Friday Mashup to celebrate the 200th challenge (Happy 200th challenge FMS!!). You can pick your favourite challenge/challenges and I have chosen to go with a mix of  #30 Recycled Materials (stamped on newspaper for the background) and #159 Use a stencil (Tim Holtz bubble stencil used for the background).

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in black, 300 gsm white card, Ranger #8 size craft tag, newspaper

Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Remnants CMS130, The Journey
Ink: Stampin Up Distress ink Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress paints Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire
Other: Tim Holtz stencil Bubble Layering Stencil  

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

Purple welcome baby

This is just a quick crafting fix I needed between blogging, movie watching and game playing. I'm so sad my long holiday is coming to an end. I really don't want to go back to work... But I guess the mortgage won't pay itself so off I go to the salt mines again in just over a day.

This card was inspired by the colour combo over at Pals Paper Art. I also used the sketch over at My Favourite Things for inspiration. I'm also linking up at Cute Card Thursday where Anything Goes.

The card is pretty simple, I used a marker for the faux stitching along the edges of the DSP and sentiment banner. The cute critters are stamped using Memento ink and coloured with a watercolour brush and Wisteria Wonder and Chipped Sapphire ink. I don't know if I have a faulty Wisteria Wonder ink, but compared to the cardstock (which is also Wisteria wonder), it looks grey to me. The baby elephant is coloured in Wisteria Wonder, and you have to agree it's nowhere close to the colour of the cardstock. Oh well, I guess it's not the end of the world. I also stamped the cute kango in the inside of the card.

Card: Stampin' Up Wisteria Wonder, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Paper: Stampin' Up Gingham Garden

Stamps: Paper Smooches A Little Lovin

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Up Wisteria Wonder, Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire Distress ink

Other: Papermania silver 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

Reindeer greetings

The October issue of Cardmaking&Papercraft magazine arrived the other day with some very Christmas-y freebies. I used the reindeer stamp and paper to create these quick Christmas cards to add to the growing pile. I am determined to have my Christmas cards finished before December, so that I can spend December creating gift tags instead. I have been thinking whether a better strategy for creating Christmas cards would be to just settle on one design and send the same card out to everyone. Now, as I create mostly different cards, I won't remember who got baubles and who got reindeers and who got snowflakes, and therefore risk sending similar cards again next Christmas. It would be a bit too boring though to make them all the same, I don't think I would enjoy that too much. 

This card was very simple to put together, a bit of Chipped Sapphire distress ink, clear embossing powder and a bit of bling for that finishing touch. I seem to be doing all my sentiments on vellum these days. Well, if it works it works. I also stamped a greeting inside the card. 

I'm entering this in The Weekly Christmas card challenge where anything goes this week as well as the ABC Christmas Challenge where Q is for Quick and Easy.

Cardstock: Coloured kraft 240 gsm Navy, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Paper: Christmas DSP set from Cardmaking & Papercraft October issue
Stamps: Christmas stamp set from Cardmaking & Papercraft October issue, Papermania 12 Days of Christmas Word banners
Ink: Tim Holtz distress ink Chipped Sapphire
Other: Ranger super fine detail clear embossing powder, Stampin' Up basic adhesive gems

Two cards for two challenges

This week I have been so inspired by the colour combo on Color Throwdown as well as the sketch over on CAS(E) This Sketch. I made not one, but two cards for these two challenges. I have also been playing a lot with my Tim Holtz Distress Paints, as I got a bunch of new colours recently. And perfectly for this challenge, two of them were Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn. And those together with Chipped Sapphire were perfect for the colour challenge.

For the froggy card I dotted Distress Paints onto my crafting mat, spritzed with water and moved a piece of watercolour paper across the paint. While drying I stamped the froggy in black ink and coloured with Distress markers and an AquaFlo brush. I cut the banner, stamped the sentiment and attached everything onto cardstock. As a final touch I added some Ice Stickles on the bottom of the card.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Paper Smooches A Little Lovin
Inks: Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire ink pad, Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn and Squeezed Lemonade markers
Other: Tim Holtz Paints Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers, Ranger Ice Stickles Mint Ice

For the butterfly card I made a similar background using TH Paints, but first I stamped En Francais in clear embossing ink and heat embossed using clear powder. I embossed the white tag, which was made using the tag topper punch from Stampin' Up. I stamped the butterfly in TH Chipped Sapphire, heat embossed using clear powder and coloured using TH markes. Last, I die cut the letters and attached everything onto a white card base.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up En Français, Hobbycraft Butterfly
Inks: Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire and clear embossing ink pad, Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn markers
Other: Tim Holtz Paints Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers, Ranger clear fine embossing powder, Stampin' Up tag topper punch, Cuttlebug script embossing folder, Tim Holtz inside out alphabet die

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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!

Leftover stash card

I have a stash where I put all sorts of leftover bits and pieces of carstock, designer paper, any backgrounds I have made but don't quite know what to do with. I keep them in a little box which I have covered in silver paper and decorated with punched flowers. And sometimes I just go through everything that has accumulated in the leftover box to see if I can get inspired. And sometimes random things just come together, like for this card. Everything except for the gems and white cardstock came right out of the leftover stash. I always feel very proud when I manage to create a beautiful card from random bits and pieces.

I made the card main motif using the Floral Wood Cut stamp from Inkadinkado. I stamped it onto white cardstock using embossing ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I then used Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves distress paints for the colour, which was resisted by the embossing powder. I matted the motif onto white cardstock. Also the background panel was created using Distress Paints (Picked Raspberry, Victorian Velvet and Picket Fence onto watercolour paper. The banners are created using scrap papers and cardstock from the stash, I added a few adhesive gems and attached onto Kraft card.

The technique I used for both the stamped image and background panel involve Distress Paints and water spritzer. I dotted Distress Paints onto my craft mat in random swirls, and spritzed with water from a mini mister until there was small droplets of water on the craft mat. I then swirled the cardstock around in the colour and water mix until the whole paper was covered. I let the paper air dry, but you can speed up the process using a heat gun. You can see the amazingly talented Tim demonstrating this technique in this video here. I really enjoy playing with the distress paints, it's so much fun, although I tend to end up with dozens and dozens of backgrounds which I don't quite know what to do with in the end. But it's all about the creative process and about playing with the colours and that's what counts.

Distress paints: Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Chipped Sapphire, Victorian Velvet, Picket Fence
Stamp: Inkadinkado Floral Wood Cut
Cardstock: Daler & Rowney 190gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, Kraft card (and leftover scraps from Papermania Sizzling Red Hot set, Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry and the DSP Sycamore Street)
Other: Papermania adhesive gems, Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink, Ranger super fine detail embossing powder