Party night in the woods

It has been the most amazing weekend. I didn't have anything exciting planned, but my sister turned up at my doorstep on Saturday morning, complete surprise. Apparently she had been plotting with the Culinary Consultant to surprise me and have a pre-birthday celebration (my birthday is on the upcoming Wednesday). And she did not turn up empty handed, but with a huge chocolate cake. And I dare say the day got even better from there as my birthday surprise was a visit to Hamerton Zoo Park, a huge zoo park less than half an hours drive from our home. I had no idea the place even existed, and we had a great day seeing all the animals, from birds and primates to the big cats and everything in between. And my special birthday treat didn't end there, my dear Culinary Consultant really did spoil me with a special experience where I got to go into one of the enclosures and meet the lemurs and feed them their dinner. I had lemurs crawling up in my lap and on my shoulders, and they let me stroke them. It was such a memorable experience and I am over the moon about it all.

Due to all the animal antics, there wasn't any room for crafty time yesterday. Today after a full day of shopping I did mange to put together a very animal inspired card (wonder where I got that idea from...). Apart from the animal inspiration, I was also inspired by the awesome sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch and ColourQ. I am also linking up with Lawnscaping challenge where the theme is "Try a new technique". For this card, my new technique was to try the new vellum adhesive I ordered the other day. I am always trying to find good ways of adhering vellum, as the ones I have tried so far have not been as invisible as I have wanted them to be. After trawling the interwebs for hints, I came across a crafting forum where I found a recommendation for Vellum glue dots, and ordered a pack. Looking at this card, they seemed to do the trick and I'm quite pleased with them as you really can't see where the adhesive is on the vellum (I put some in all corners of the vellum, and it does indeed seem to be invisible). So this was a great new technique to try!

 

Card: 300 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card pink

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie 

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy To The Woods and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics C1, C3, R43, RV19, YR04, Y23, Y15, Y19

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Hello dies 

A new card and a new craft room

I have finally had a chance to enjoy the new and improved craft room today. Getting home turned out to be a bit of an epic journey as we had the "pleasure" to endure the mother of all hailstorms. Visibility was zero to none. Luckily I made it back home safe, and now the sun is shining in through the windows of my little piece of crafty heaven.

But first, today's card. I was just itching to get to craft something and was browsing a few challenges for inspiration. I was quite taken with the STAMPlorations sketch as well as the colour combo over at My Favourite Things. I'm also linking up with the X, Y, Z challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday. I wanted to come up with something clever and exciting using X but in the end I had to settle with the boring Y is for yellow as my brain cells were in useless mode. Last but not least I'm also linking up with Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge where the theme is Anything Goes/Just Add Pink.

In my mind, the borders on the sketch looked exactly like my Tim Holtz Vintage Lace die cuts. So I cut some and used them as a mask to ink through using three shades of pink distress ink. Then I used markers to colour the Stampin' Up Four Feathers stamps and die cut them with matching dies. Last I die cut the hello and matted everything onto pink card. I was tempted to add some ribbon or rhinestones, but decided less is more this time.

And then to the new craft room. Oooh, how I love my little room. I am convinced having your own rooms is the secret to a happy relationship (check in on me again in a few years to see if said happy relationship still exists...). The new Ikea organiser went in, one of the desks moved up to the loft making room for my old and faithful sofa for those lazy Saturday mornings when I want to slouch with a cup of coffee and browse blogs for inspiration. Of course I wanted my Ikea unit to look like the one below. 

This is what I wanted my craft room shelf to
 look like (click image to be taken to the source)

But then I thought about how hard it is to get away with robbing a bank, and settled for some DIY hacks instead. I am still waiting for a lot of stuff to arrive in the post to be able to finish organising my stamps and dies which is why it all looks a bit unorganised yet. Most things haven't found their places yet, but I'm sure that things will fall in place. And I have so many plans, there will be a much bigger desk one day. Also, although you can't see it in the picture, there is a whole white wall above the sofa which needs pictures. But that will all be a project for another day.  

The empty shelf is where my camera lives, but
for obvious reasons, it could not be included in the picture.

Card: kraft card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, coloured 240 gsm card raspberry
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers and matching dies
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress inks Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Summer Starfruit
Other: Tim Holtz Vintage Lace dies, Lawn Fawn Hello die

Pink and turquoise florals

It's been another long week with no crafty time. I just can't find time for work, gym and crafting during the week. And while I spent most of the winter in my craft room and out of the gym, my trousers are unfortunately so uncomfortable on me right now that I had to trade crafty time for some serious fat busting. Which went well with three nights at the gym last week, but then I spent last night making donuts, and this morning eating them. Anyhow, nothing like enjoying a Saturday morning with lots of crafting and a few home made donuts.

Today's card was inspired by several challenges. I love the inspiration image over at The Card Concept, I was inspired by the colours, the tags, the flowers, the polkadot and striped patterns. I was also inspired by the colour challenge over at The Color Throwdown and the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch. Last but not least I was also inspired by the Polkadot theme over at The Challenge and at Addicted to Stamps where the theme is Make Your Mark All of this put together was very much a Kath Kidston type of feel. 

I masked and stamped the flowers using the Stampin' Up I Like You set, and coloured them with Copics and Blendabilities. I created two tags from Stampin' Up DSP and die cut the Hello three times in white and pattered papers. Last, I stamped, coloured and fussy cut a flower for the tag, and added pearls to the flowers for that finishing touch.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card baby pink, 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up I Like You

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics R20, R43, RV29, YG11, YG13, YG17, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Coastal Cabana

Paper: Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper Patterns Stack - Brights Collection

Other: Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch, Lawn Fawn Hello die, Ranger Ice Stickles Crystal Ice, Adhesive pearls from my stash

Pink and grey patterns

I should be cleaning. Instead I have been crafting and blogging, and catching up on my blogs. I did do something useful though, I did an inventory of our freezer. I can't believe how much blackberries and plums we still have from last year. I'm clearly not very good with using plums. Any ideas? 

This morning was a bit more successful in the craft room after yesterday's creative block. First thing in the morning I headed into the craft room with my cup of coffee and blackberry muffin. And I was inspired by the great picture over at The Card Concept. I was inspired by the beautiful grey and pink colour combo and the pink chevron pattern on the curtain as well as the striped grey pattern on the wall. I have to say I wasn't too into shaker cards, but they have somehow grown on me. There was a really good series of posts on shaker cards on My Favourite Things which inspired me to give them another chance. The layout is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up at Chocolate, Coffee & Cards where the theme is Die cuts and In the Pink where the them is "Make it Sparkle (in Pink of course)" and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Clean and Simple. 

I used washi tape to create a mask for the grey inking. I then die cut the hello and crated a shaker that I filled with sequins and tiny little beads. The background is stamped using a chevron stamp. I really like the stamp, as I can create any custom coloured backgrounds. I think I will look for a few more stamps like that, maybe a stripy background and a polkadot background stamp too. With a few select background stamps I would basically never need to buy any more patterned paper, and I would always have backgrounds in the right colours. 

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, acetate

Stamps: Stampin' Up Positively Chevron

Inks: Stampin' Up Smokey Slate, Picked Raspberry

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Hello die, sequins and beads from my stash

Hello balloons

Friiiiiday!!! Finally a bit of time in the craft room. And it was like getting back to the gym after a break... my crafting muscles had atrophied! It took a few tries to actually get a card together. This card was supposed to be something completely different and I needed a few tries before getting there. 

Anyhow, after a few misguided die-cuts and stampings, I got my act together with the help of inspiration from ColourQ and RetroSketches. I absolutely love the Tim Holtz balloon stamp. And I've wanted to do the sentiment with layers of stashed different coloured die cuts for ages. This sketch gave me a perfect chance to do that! I'm also linking up at Through the Craft Room Door and Craft Your Passion where Anything Goes.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay and Wild Wasabi, kraft card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamp: Tim Holtz Remnants
Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Wild Wasabi
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles and Hello die, sequins from my stash