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 Purple with some lace

I didn't get far from the colours of my previous post. This card was just a little doodle I did while watching the new series on Channel 4 called Indian Summers. I wasn't convinced by the first episode, but will give it another chance. The image for this card is actually from my stash of unused coloured images, and I feel very good that I finally managed to use it. I can even remember the specific time when I coloured it. Last September the Culinary Consultant finally used a gift card I had given him for a day of learning to wheelie at a motorcycle driving school. So while he drove a bike around and around in circles for a whole day, I was camped out in the car with stamped images, Blendabilities, cookies, coffee, sweeties and the Bakeoff masterclass on the iPad. It was actually quite a fun day, and I think it's good to take your crafting out of the craft room from time to time. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate your craft room even more, and particularly appreciate having a desk to craft on. After the Culinary Consultant was finished with his wheelie-ing, we headed off to Ikea and ate meat balls. And bought a pack of bag sealing clips for £0.90. A day well spent I say!

Anyhow, back to the card at hand. I used distress inks and a stencil to create the background, fussy cut my pre-coloured image and stamped and inked the banner for the sentiment. I added some lace washi tape I have had for a while, and added a few adhesive gems for a finishing touch. Quick, easy and summery bright. 

This card was inspired by the sketch over at STAMPloratons. I'm also linking up at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and The Pink Elephant where Anything Goes this week.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card Raspberry, Hobbycraft 160 gsm card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Good Greetings, I Like You
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress inks Spun Sugar, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves and Picked Raspberry
Colouring: Stampin' Up Blendabilities Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive
Other: Simon Says Stamp stencil, Papermania adhesive gems, lace adhesive tape

Valentine's Flowers

It seems like I haven't been crafting in ages. I made the cards I posted this week last weekend, so I really haven't crafted much at all this week. I think I'm suffering from a bit of the winter blues, I just don't have the energy for anything right now. I just want to bury myself under the duvet with a ton of chocolate and not surface until April.

But admittedly I'm not having as hard a time as my poor Grandma. She turned 90 years last week! But she had to move out of the flat she has lived in for probably the last 50 years or so, and into a small rental studio while there is some major work being done in her own place. She is so unhappy about it, so I thought I would make her a bright and colourful Valentine's day card to cheer her up.

This card is inspired by my latest new toy, the Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer. It's really fun to play with and creates cool air brushed effects. I used it on the Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours DSP to create the cool background. I stamped the flowers from I Like You and coloured with Blendabilities and cut out using dies. I printed the sentiment (that says Happy Valentine's day in Finnish, although the literal translation is "Happy Friends Day" as Valentine's is called Friend's Day back home, which I like much more) and used the spritzer tool a bit over the sentiment banner. 

The layout for the card was inspired by My Favourite Things sketch challenge and the colours are from this week's Color Throwdown. I'm also linking up at Shopping Our Stash where the theme is "Not your normal paper" (I used the cool paper from Stampin' Up which comes with resist patterns and you can colour it yourself to match your project), at A Creative Need where the theme is "Something New" (my "new" is of course my new Spritzer tool and getting to use it on this card) and at STAMPlorations where the January challenge is stamps and inks.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card teal and baby pink, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up I Love You

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress markers Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Old Olive, Melon Mambo and Coastal Cabana

Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours

Other: Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritz tool, heart border punch, Stampin' Up Labels Collection Framelits

Time Out meets Fusion card challenge

I love it when you see a challenge inspiration image and it stays in the back of your mind like an obsession until you get the card out of your system. The current Time Out Challenge image was one of those. I keep pages open on my browser for challenges I want to participate in so that they are always there when I use my computer to look at and let my mind create connections with stamps or dies or other crafting stuff from my stash. This time it took another challenge, Fusion, before this card came to life. I'm also linking up with Hiding In My Craft Room challenge where the theme is Colour It, 4 Crafty Chicks where the theme is Flowers and Crafty Cardmakers and More where the theme is Something Old and Something New. My something old is the Hardwood stamp and my something new is the Calypso Coral Blendabilities which I have never used before.

I stamped the flowers and coloured them with Blendabilities, inspired by the colours of the pillows. I die cut the flowers using circle dies and matted them onto red card. I used the same red card to die cut the "Hello" using the Hello You dies. I used the hardwood stamp in Soft Suede onto kraft cardstock to create the background. I also used the Soft Suede ink to ink around the edges of the flowers, the sentiment and the background. 

Card: Kraft card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in Pillarbox Red and Chocolate, Hobbycraft 160 gms white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up I Like You, Hardwood
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Soft Suede, Blendabilities Calypso Coral, Old Olive, Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo
Other: Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits, circle dies

Hardwood Florals

I got a big bunch of Stampin' Up goodies the other day. I just love opening a new parcel of goodies. I must have been like a kid of Christmas, not knowing which new toy to play with first. I thought the I Like You stamp set would go really well with the current Fusion challenge so I inked it up. I'm also entering the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge where the theme this week is "Make Your Mark" as I coloured the flowers with markers, and the Crafty Creations Challenge where the theme is "Thinking of You".

I coloured the flowers with alcohol markers. The Hardwood stamp was a "must" based on the inspiration image. For a bit more stampin' and colourin' fun I stamped flowers inside the card as well.

Card: Stampin' Up Pacific Point and Old Olive card, kraft card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up I Like You, Hardwood Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Colouring: Stampin' Up Blendabilities Daffodil Delight and Old Olive, Copics B41, B45, B06
Other: Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Sunshine, Stampin' Up 1 in circle punch