A little bit of sunshine is just what we need!

How are you? Sorry I haven't been around. Don't even get me started. It's been insane. I keep thinking that the job will ease up as soon as we get through x. But then there is y. And no matter how much we think that will be the last level of craziness then there is z and it's five best friends sneaking up on us around the corner. Sigh.

I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of crafty time the other day, but it's like going back to the gym, the first time is a complete disaster. I did manage to do an intervention to save today's card from joining it's friends in the bin by applying a bit of banner magic. As we haven't seen the sun for ages, I thought a bright yellow card would light up the day a bit. I used the spritzer tool on the background card, and splattered some watercolour as well, although it doesn't show very well on the photo.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Shopping Our Stash - Dreaming of something warm
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Ray of Sunshine
Time Out - Love is the flower you've got to let grow
Addicted to CAS - Bloom
Allsorts Challenge - Clean and Simple
Cardz 4 Galz - Fantastic Florals
Hiding In My Craft Room - No red or pink

Card: 300 gsm white card, 190 gsm watercolour card, scrap of Stampin' Up Old Olive card
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Fossilized Amber, Mustard Seed, Shabby Shutters, Spized Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade
Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies

Quickie crazy bird

What is a girl to do when she gets home and discoveres there is 1h38mins left on a challenge she was planning to play along with? Give up and look for other challenges? Of course not. Instead she will get into full gear crafting mode asap, and even manage to get a sub-par-quality photo in the fading evening light, and submit the card to said challenge with several minutes to spare! It must be my new Shaun the Sheep shirt I bought and am now wearing. Nothing says inspiration like a shirt full of Shaun the Sheep. 

The inspiration for this card was this week's Freshly Made Sketch (but don't plan to play along unless you can create a card in minutes). I was also inspired by the (also soon coming to it's deadline) ColourQ challenge. Third, I was inspired by the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge (which was only published today, so plenty of time to play along with that one!!) which is Love This Technique. I have managed to work in not one, not two, but three favourite techniques. First and foremost, my love of watercolouring. Second, stencilling. And third, my newly found love for the Tim Holtz Spritzing tool (if you didn't read yesterday's post, I  have FINALLY mastered the spritzing tool. Only took me a year to get it, duuuuh!). Now that I got it, I'm spritzing away to make up for lost time. I used a lovely STAMPlorations stencil to create the background for the cheery little fellow. Wonder why he is so blue... or should I say purple? Last but not least I would also like to link up with the Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge, where the theme is colouring.

Card: White 300 gsm card, white 300 gsm hammered card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black, Tim Holtz distress markers Fossilized Amber, Seedless Preserves, Fried Brick, Victorian Velvet
Stamps: Tim Holtz Bird Crazy and matching dies, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles, STAMPlorations Tribal stencil, Tim Holtz Spritzer tool

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

Summery swallowtail get well soon card

What a great weekend it's been. The ever so elusive sun has not been shy, and it almost feels like summer! Yesterday we bought a huge pile of strawberries, and I was planning on freezing some of them. However, by some mysterious power, they are almost gone already... I wonder who comes into my kitchen and eats my strawberries? Today we took the bikes out for a ride around the reservoir. I keep forgetting we live so close to great biking routes, although that was one of the reasons we did move out into the countryside. Anyhow, it was great to enjoy the sun and the wind in my hair. I could have done without the swarming insects that made their way up my nose, into my mouth and inside my Oakleys. Now I can't wait to dine on the leftovers from yesterday's BBQ.

With all the other stuff going on I'm not quite sure where I found the time to craft, but this weekend has seemed so blissfully long. So I did manage to steal some time in the craft room. I was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch as well as the colour challenge over at ColourQ. Although I didn't have the Stampin' Up colours Island Indigo or Hello Honey, I did manage to find very close matches from the Tim Holtz Distress colour palette as two of the new colours, Fossilized Amber and Mermaid Lagoon, are very similar. And it was a great reason to get to use these new gorgeous colours. I was also inspired by the butterfly theme over at Addicted to CAS. I'm also linking up over at Addicted to Stamps where the theme is Make Your Mark (as I coloured the butterfly using markers). Last but not least I'm linking up with Just Us Girls where the theme this week is Summer.

I think this swallowtail stamp is one of the most gorgeous I have ever come across. I keep going back to it over and over. For the card, I cut out the two white panels and stamped the swallowtail in black ink. I then heat embossed it with clear powder, and coloured using markers. Then I realised I don't have matching cardstock to the Mermaid Lagoon and thought I would have to scrap the whole idea of the card I had in my mind, until I realised I have white cardstock, I have the ink pad and a foam applicator for the ink - and hey presto, Mermaid Lagoon coloured cardstock for matting. Such a simple solution but it took my two brain cells a while to get there... I used two sentiment from Lawn Fawn Scripty Sayings, one of my favourite sentiment sets at the moment and stamped them in black. Last, I inked up the Gorgeous Grunge stamps using markers and stamped splatters all over. 

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Gorgeous Grunge, Lawn Fawn Scripty Sayings
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Fossilized Amber, Mermaid Lagoon, Ripe Persimmon
Other: Ranger Ultra Fine Clear Embossing Powder