Bundle of Joy

I have often said this, but for a professional project manager I really suck at managing my own life. Unless by managing you mean eating chocolate and hiding from the world in my craft room. Anyhow, today I have taken refuge from the craziness that is my life and the craziness that is British February weather into the safety (and chaos) of my craft room. I'm writing this on the sofa, covered by blankets, munching on some Christmas chocolates our friendly nearby chocolate shop was selling at a whopping 70% off. Now that's what I call a good deal (for my wallet, not my waistline).

It's been a while since I've managed any crafty time, and I was inspired by a few recent challenges to create this card using the Lawn Fawn Plus One stamp set which I haven't had a chance to use yet. I was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the colour palette at Color Throwdown. I was also inspired by the Transport It theme over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and the Birds theme over at Make My Monday. Last but not least I'm also linking up with the Anything Goes theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

This wasn't anything particularly sophisticated, a bit of die cutting, a bit of stamping and a bit of Copic colouring and hey presto. I like the colours as they are quite gender neutral so it would be great for a little bundle of joy of any gender.

Card: 250 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Plus One and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie and Let's Polka in the Dark
Dies: Lawn Fawn Simple Puffy Cloud and Spring Showers

Warm Wishes in Red

What's your favourite hot winter drink? As much as I like a good cup of coffee, I have to admit my favourite is hot chocolate. With full fat milk and lots of good quality hot chocolate. Maybe a marshmallow or two as well. Now I'm really starting to crave a hot cuppa... maybe a slice of cake too? Or a cookie? 

The first inspiration for today's card was the wintery inspiration image and sketch over at Fusion Card Challenge. I was inspired by the colour scheme, the red mugs and the snow. It's also Fusion's third birthday, Happy Birthday Fusion and thank you for all the inspiration so far and here's to many more. The DT has as usual provided incredible inspiration and there are some stellar guest designers as well, so worth hopping over to see. The background was inspired by the All Over Stamping challenge over at Just Us Girls. I'm also linking up over at Time Out where the theme is Winter (this is my second card for the challenge, and again I chose not to take the optional twist of white on white).

Card: 250 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, scrap of red car, 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Love You a Latte and matching dies, Winter Alpaca and Toboggan Together

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Stampin' Up Soft Sky, Gansai Tambi watercolours

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle nesting dies, Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie paper

Unicorn On A Cloud

I haven't been kidnapped and replaced by someone else just because I've already managed to post several cards this week. I have just managed to find a bit more crafty time for a change. I guess I'm feed up with my job at the moment and refuse to put in crazy hours. I'm sure I will have to soon again, but for now I'll just enjoy my craft room while I can. But don't get too excited - I will be away all of next week, so it will be quite around the InvisiblePinkCraftroom. I bet the Culinary Consultant will enjoy a week on his own - I would be willing to bet money on fish and chips for dinner every evening and endless violent movies and computer games until the break of dawn. I in turn get to hang out with family and good friends and hopefully also enjoy the peace and quiet of the summerhouse for a day or two.

So what about today's card? When I saw the adorable unicorn inspiration image over at Curtain Call I had to play along for pretty obvious reasons. And while I'm waiting eagerly for August to receive my new adorable Lawn Fawn unicorn stamp, there is no reason why my first ever Lawn Fawn stamp set can't come out and play in the meantime. I was also inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up over at Lawnscaping (this is my second entry) where the theme is to use rainbow colours.

I started by die cutting the rainbow using a Lawn Fawn die from watercolour paper. Then I took out my untouched Tim Holtz Distress Crayons (I know, I know... but after being so excited about getting them, I realised I really have no idea what to do with them!) and coloured the various bits, blending with my finger and spritzing with water. Next, I stamped the unicorn, coloured her with Copics and die cut with the matching die. I also die cut a rectangle of patterned paper with a stitched rectangle die for the background, and lots of clouds from vellum and white card. I arranged everything for my scene and last, I cut the sentiment from golden mirri card, stamped the second part of the sentiment in black and added a few gold sequins for good measure. I also added some ice stickles to the edges of a few of the clouds and to the unicorn's horn, unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the image.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, 300 gsm white hammered card, gold mirri card, Neenah Solar smooth white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Sharpies gold and silver, Tim Holtz Distress crayons
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie
Other: Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday Border, Spring Showers and Rainbow dies, Ranger Ice Stickles, gold sequins from my stash

Happy Birthday to Baby

I hope you have all had a relaxing Christmas so far with lots of time with the people - and/or four-legged friends - you live the most, some good food and maybe a nice present or two. We spent Christmas Eve with my sister as she had a day off from work. Then we got up really early on Christmas Day and drove down to see the Culinary Consultant's extended family in the most amazing old countryside manor house. Now we are back home and I'm cooking our traditional buffalo roast dinner for five tonight.

I made this card a few days ago, but haven't really had time to blog about it so here we go. I created some masks by die cutting using the Lawn Fawn Fluffy Cloud dies and sponged Distress inks. The dragon is coloured by Copics, and the background paper is Lawn Fawn.

I am linking up with the following challenges:

2 Creative Chicks - ATG

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - ATG with patterned paper

Naughty or Nice - Show us some wing

Crafting Musketeers - Use a Challenge

Inspiration Destination - ATG

That's Crafty Challenge - ATG



Card: White 300 gsm card, 300 gsm hammered card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm card, gold mirri card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After and matching dies
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Ink Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White Craft ink, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Happy Birthday Border dies, Mini Snowflake dies

 

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Happy Father's day from the herd and Distress Ink Storage

It's been a while since my last post. I've been busy running. I kid you not! I have been trying to get back into the whole running thing, but it's an uphill struggle. I keep getting slower instead of faster, so I think I need to give my body a bit more time to adjust. Anyhow, today I got my run done first thing in the morning, and without that pesky work thing getting in the way, I did manage a bit of time in the good old craft room.

Today's card is in preparation of UK Father's Day (as Finnish Father's day isn't until November). So this is for my Father-out-of-law (I guess that would be the correct term for one's significant other's father if not married...). I wasn't quite sure what would be a good theme for the card as I went with boats and sea last year, that's a sure bet. But I thought I can't go wrong with the herd, now can I?

I stamped the herd onto watercolour paper using Staz-on ink and watercoloured using Tim Holtz distress inks. Then I die cut the photo frame using a Lawn Fawn die, and die cut the "Happy" using Stampin' Up Hello You dies. The "father's day" part of the sentiment is from a Lawn Fawn sentiment set. For the background I chose a paper from Let's Polka Mon Amie, and I punched a few banners using the Stampin' Up Banner Punch.

I am linking up with the following wonderful challenges:
Clear It Out - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations Challenges - All Creatures Great and Small
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make It Masculine
Stampin' Royalty - Masculine Projects
My Time To Craft Challenge Blog - Male
Brown Sugar Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
Creative Corner Challenges - Just for Dad 

I would also like to show you my storage solution for my Distress Inks. I decided all the commercial Distress Ink storage solutions are a bit too expensive given that I just spent a whole lot of money on getting new furniture for my craft room. So I thought, as I am a crafter after all, why not make one myself. So I did, using black cardstock and some gorgeous Tim Holtz paper. It's a bit wonky and not perfect, but it works and it didn't cost me more than a few pieces of cardstock, so I'm happy with it for now. However, the size was limited by the size of the square shelves in my storage unit, and with six more colours coming out this year, I will have to find some more space for my ink pads. And I'm not even close to owning all the standard colours either! And of course after that I need to complete my collection of Distress markers and paints as well... What's that sound? Oh, it's just my credit card screaming in pain. I have a few other posts on my craft room organisation, my desk organiser here, my paper scrap organiser here, my general craft room layout here and my stamp and die storage here.

The organiser on it's shelf with inks and the matching foam pads.

The top of the organiser.

The back of the organiser.

Father's day card
Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up From the Herd, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Inks: Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black, Tim Holtz distress inks
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie
Other: Lawn Fawn , Stampin' Up Hello You die, Banner punch

Ink organiser
Card: Black 350 gsm card
Paper: Tim Holtz idea-ology Wallpaper