Splish, splash, splosh

I am enjoying a lazy day off. It's grey outside, but I had wonderful visitors earlier in the day and now I'm just playing around in my craft room, seeing where the mood takes me. Yesterday we had fun night out with the Culinary Consultant, we really need to make an effort to go out a bit more often. The evening started with a very good BBQ meal (some of the best beef ribs I've ever had I'm happy to say) in a small place called Smokeworks in Cambridge (if you happen to be local, and like smoky BBQ, you have to try it out!!). We then had a good laugh at (with?) the puppets from the visiting production of AvenueQ. As we didn't make it home until way past my bedtime last night, I was happy I had had the foresight of taking the day off as I'm a bit tired today. 

That was a bit of a detour, so back to today's card. It's inspired by several challenges. The layout is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch, the theme is inspired by the Splash challenge over at CAS on Sundays and the colours are from this weeks colourQ challenge. In addition, I'm linking up with Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is trio of colours.

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry
Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles dies, Stampin'  Up Hello You dies

Bloomin' marvelous pastel flowers

The weather outside is absolutely miserable. It's pouring with rain and the wind is howling like it did during the winter storms. I had so hoped to get some work done in the garden. But instead the best I can do is to try and re-create a garden on paper instead. 

Today's card is inspired by the gorgeous pastel flowers over at ColourQ and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the gorgeous spring flowers over at PINspirational. I'm also linking up at Crazy 4 Challenges where the theme is Spring.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Tim Holtz Disterss Core'dinations card Milled Lavender, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, pink cardstock from my stash

Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvelous, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous I See Paris

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink Dusty Concord, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Old Olive, Pool Party, Blushing Bride

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Journalling Card dies, Cuttlebug embossing folder

Bloomin' Marvellous birthday

I had to get up a bit earlier than usual this morning, and was greeted by the most stunning sunrise. Pink, orange and a bit of blue to admire while I got dressed. And when I got home from the gym in the evening, the sky wasn't completely black yet, you could just about make out a bit of dark blue on the horizon. It's not going to be long now when it's still light when I get home! This is the most amazing time of the year, when you know you have all the spring and summer still ahead. 

This week has been manic, and I haven't had much time for crafty business. Therefore today's post is just a quick little birthday card. The Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvellous is a really versatile stamp set. It works for such a variety of occasions. Here, I stamped in various greens and yellows and cut out the tag using the Chalk talk framelits. I added some banners from my leftover paper scraps stash at the bottom and stamped one of the sentiments from the Bloomin' Marvellous set. I finished with a cute little bow for that final little touch.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - B is for ... (bloom, blue, banner, bow, bird)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Things that fly
Artistic Stampers - Spring is Coming
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes with a Twist of Green
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Spring Colours
Sweet Stampin' - Use green

Inks: Stampin' Up So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Pistachio Pudding, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party
Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvellous
Cardstock: Craft UK Kraft card 5x7 in, Hobbycraft three shades of green 160 gsm cardstock, Hobbycraft three shades of blue 160 gsm cardstock
Papers: Stampin' Up Brights DSP Stack, International Bazaar
Other: Chalk talk framelits, blue bakers twine

Retro colours

Today's card is a play around with the colours from this week's Colour Me...! challenge, and this is what I came up with. It was supposed to be something completely different but turned into this instead. Oh well, it's always a journey. I was also inspired by the Just Add Ink "Just Add Thank You" theme. 

I absolutely adore Vintage Photo, it's the most amazing brown colour and I use it all the time. This time I inked it through a Tim Holtz stencil to create a background. I punched the flowers and inked around the edges in matching colours, and added a big rhinestone after shaping the flowers for a bit of a 3D effect. I stamped the butterfly and fussy cut before adding the clear jems. Last I stamped using Gorgeous Grunge for the splatters, stamped the sentiment, and inked around the edges of the front panel which I adhered with foam pads.

Card: Kraft card, Stampin' Up Pool Party, So Saffron and Real Red card

Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party, So Saffron, Real Red and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo

Stamps: Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee!, Gorgeous Grunge, Bloomin' Marvelous

Other: Tim Holtz stencil, Stampin' Up Petite Petals punch, Papermania adhesive rhinestones

More Unused Schtuff!!

I got my monthly fix of Stampin' Up stuff in the mail today, and there is so much new goodies that I don't even know where to start. I was supposed to clean the kitchen today when I got home from work. I'm sure the mess will still be there tomorrow...

So what is my new stuff all about then? I immediately fell in love with the new Bow Builder punch. Those little bows are just soooo adorable. And easy to put together! 

I also love the Irresistibly Yours DSP. I can't be the only one who never has the right colour DSP. No matter how many packs you buy, you never have a colour combo you would need. I guess it's the same evil force at work that causes the "I have nothing to wear" phenomenon, which strikes me so often. Again, I can't be the only one, right? Anyhow, this new genius DSP is white with some resist patterns on it, so you can colour it, ink it, spritz it or whatever else you can come up with to create a custom colour DSP. The pack comes with several different patterns. You can't buy it, you can only get it as a free Sale-a-bration gift when you order. How cunning of Stampin' Up!!! I will have to stock up on this jewel, so I might just "have" to make another order soon... 

And can I just mention the new Hello You dies? I love them so much. I have wanted to get on the "word die" bandwagon for a while as I love the creations I see out in cyberspace and now I can finally join in on the fun.

This card came together really quickly, all I needed to do was colour the DSP, quickly punch and assemble to bow and die cut the "Happy". The Birthday part is heat embossed in white, and to finish off I added two Candy Dots. The card was inspired by the colour combo over at ShowCASe Your Style. I was also inspired by the theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, which is "It's a Guy Thing". I think this would make a great birthday card for that special guy in your life. I am also entering the card in Darnell's NBUS challenge and Addicted to Stamps where the theme is "make your mark" and I coloured the background DSP with markers.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Black card
Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark
Colouring: Stampin' Write markers Pear Pizzazz and Pool Party
Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours
Other: Bow Builder Punch, Hello You Thinlits, Candy Dots Subtles, Papermania Seafoam White Embossing powder

Chalk talk card

Today is the end of my wonderful Christmas holiday in Finland. We have had such a great time, seeing so many of my friends and family. It has been quite an exceptional holiday to be honest, as I usually don't get a chance to see so much people but this time I feel like I have really caught up with so many. Unfortunately, circumstances conspired against some meetings with life events and winter colds intervening, but there will be other times and other happy meetings. I have seen so many old colleagues and celebrated their successes and so many friends with so much to catch up on. I have seen baby bellies and new apartments. This will keep me going when I head home to my somewhat lonelier existence in the UK. We will hopefully be back in the summer for a stint at the summerhouse, and next winter for a skiing holiday in northern Finland.

This card has just been forgotten in my drafts folder, I made it quite a while ago. There is no exciting story behind it. I was browsing through my hoarded crafting papers and really liked the colour combo on this Stampin' Up Designer Sheet Paper. I stamped the Chalk Talk "A little something for a very special someone" stamp in Daffodil delight on white cardstock, and stamped it again in Pool Party and fussycut the "something" banner. Quick and easy, a card that can be used for many occasions.

I'm entering my card over at Sweet Stampin' Challenges, Crafty Sentiments and Inspiration Destination where Anything Goes.

Colours: Stampin' Up Pool Party and Daffodil Delight
Crafting paper: Stampin' Up Designer Sheet Paper International Bazaar
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Kraft card, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock
Stamps: Stampin Up' Chalk Talk
Embossing folder: Stampin' Up Vintage Wallpaper
Other: doily ordered online, ribbon from the stash, Docraft Papermania adhesive gem

Christmas Ornaments

This is a quick card inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketch and Colour Throwdown colours. I'm also joining the Christmas Card Challenge where Anything Goes. I think I have more than enough Christmas cards by now, so I'm hoping I can move on to non-Christmas themes again soon. And it's only two more weeks until I go back home for a long visit over Christmas, which will mean no crafting and probably a bit of a quiet time here on the blog. But it's good to take a step back from time to time and re-charge the mojo batteries. And there is still two dreadful weeks of work to get through before that. Like a whole day meeting in London today, making it really late before I get back home, hence unlikely to find any crafting time... Sigh! Oh well, less moaning and more crafting!

Card: Stampin' Up Whisper White, Real Red and Crumb Cake

Stamps: Stampin' Up Ornament Keepsakes, Papermania 12 Days of Christmas Word Banner

Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party, Real Red, Crumb Cake

Paper: Stampin' Up All is Calm

Other: silver ribbon from my stash

Spring colours

I am in complete denial. I refuse to admit it's November. It's 20 degrees and bright sunshine outside. I picked raspberries from my garden yesterday. I cannot be November. Especially as it was August yesterday. I swear. So instead of making Christmas cards or fall cards, I decided to pick beautiful spring colours and flowers for today's card. 

The inspiration for today's card is a Viva La Verve sketch. I used papers from the lovely Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet DSP and stamps from the Petal Parade set. Funnily enough, I didn't like the stamp set at all at first, but it grew on me. I also didn't like Summer Starfruit at all, but again it slowly grew on me. I didn't even like the DSP at first. So given that I didn't like any components of this card, I think it turned out rather nice after all.

Card: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Paper: Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet
Stamps: Stampin' Up Petal Parade, Bloom With Hope
Ink: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding and Pool Party
Other: X-cut scalloped circle die

CASEing some more

I had so much fun doing my previous challenge for CASEing the Catty that I decided to make another card.I'm so disappointed with myself that I have missed the first 7 challenges of the series! It was hard to choose another project, as I wanted to try to recreate pretty much all of the cards in the Card Giving section (page 102-143). In the end I settled on page 115 where I found a great card with the "colour the chalkboard stamp with markers" technique (yes, of course that's the official name of the technique...). 

Stampin' Up Annual Catalogue 2014-2015 page 115

I don't have the great Friends Who Know stamp (although I know who I would make a card for using the stamp should I have it) so I used the only chalkboard type stamp I have - from the Chalk Talk set. I also don't have the Chalk Lines stamp set (would love it though) so I had to come up with a replacement for that too, and settled for the new photopolymer stamp set Show&Tell 2. And finally, I also realised I don't have a single black and white DSP, so I created my own using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. I think you can certainly see where the inspiration for this card has come from, but at the same time I have put my own little twist on it. I didn't see any rule saying you can only participate with one contribution to the challenge, so I'm submitting this as my second card for the challenge, and can't wait for the next one. I was photographing in rather challenging afternoon sunshine so the small detail photo shows the colours a bit more correctly than the overall photo.

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party
Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk, Show&Tell 2, Gorgeous Grunge
Inks: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake and Pool Party, Stampin' Write markers in Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride and Calypso Coral
Other: Chalk Talk dies, scrap of DSP from Sycamore Street

Petite Petals graduation card

This is the second-to-last in the bunch of graduation cards I have made for my Sister's friends. It seems like ages ago when I started with the first one, and still I was struggling to get them all done in time. It's been a challenge to come up with something individual and unique for each of the new doctors, but I've had a great time creating. 

This card came together easily using the Stampin' Up Petite Petals stamp set and matching punch. It's so fun to stamp and punch the flowers, I could make oodles of cards like this. I also added some splatter using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set (which seems to feature on about 90% of all my cards, but what can you do, if it ain't broken don't fix it). I die cut the letters and put everything together with a few adhesive gems for a bit of bling. I stamped a row of flowers inside the card and on the envelope as well.

I'm entering this card in Addicted to CAS which this week is about "Celebrate". If graduating as a Medical Doctor is not a reason to celebrate, I don't know what is. I'm also entering this week's Addicted to Stamps and more where the theme is CAS. I also had to enter the Shopping our Stash challenge as the theme was to use something you can't put away, and these two stamp sets definitely have seen their fair share of use in my craft room. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Petite Petals
Inks: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate, Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Jewels Basic Rhinestones, Petite Petals punch, Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out alphabet die

Swallowtail CAS

This week's Crafthoarders Anonymous Challenge is "Pick a stamp, Any Stamp". First I toyed with a few ideas, but they all got binned at various stages. So in the end, I decided to pick The Stamp. The Swallowtail. This is such a great stamp, and colouring it is always so much fun! To be honest, sometimes I just stamp it and colour it several times over, just for fun (I know, I need to get a life). And to show off the detailed stamp in all it's glory, I decided to make a CAS card. Nothing but the amazing stamp and a simple sentiment. I really struggle with CAS, I want to keep adding things. When I see other people's cards I think the white space is very nice, but when I attempt it myself I always end up adding more and more stuff thinking it's too simple and too plain. This time I decided to remember the best rule. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!

The layout for the card is from this week's CAS(E) this sketch challenge. And yes, there is a third challenge as well (three times lucky) as the The Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge this week is Winged Things. And what could be more perfect for that than the lovely and colourful swallowtail wings.

 

I stamped the Swallowtail using Hobbycraft black pigment ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I coloured the image using Stampin' Up markers. The tag for the sentiment is cut using the Stampin' Up Chalk Talk framelits and the sentiment is a detail from a stamp set called Life's Messages from Penny Black. I covered the stamp apart from the one line I wanted to stamp using cellotape, inked up the stamp, removed the tape and positioned the sentiment using a Stamp-a-ma-jig. To finish off I added two small adhesive gems and then took the photo really quick before I could add something to the card...

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up So Saffron card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Penny Black Life's Messages
Inks: Hobbycraft Black Pigment Ink, Stampin' Up markers in Blushing Bride, Pool Party, So Saffron and Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies, Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder, Papermania adhesive gems

Birthday card for a star

Today's card is a birthday card for a friend of mine who has a birthday coming up shortly. She is a wonderful person, always there to help when you need anything. She always hosts me when I'm visiting home if I need a place to stay, despite being busy with her home and family. In short, she is a star. I got the inspiration for this card from a few different places. The colour combo is from this week's Color Throwdown as well as this week's Muse challenge. The star theme is also from Muse. The layout is from this week's Retro Sketch challenge. 

 

 

I used the Stampin' Up Sprinkled Expressions stamp set, a set which I was trying very hard to buy on Ebay for a long time. And as the story goes, once I managed to secure it I have hardly used it since. But it's such a great set and I particularly love to use it by colouring with markers so that you get multi-coloured images. I also used some Dovecraft Designer Paper which I had almost forgotten I had. Once again a reminder how a rummage across websites and then in your own stash can result in a stroke of inspiration. 

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Pool Party and Pear Pizzazz, Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Sprinkled Expressions
Paper: Dovecraft Back to Basics II Designer Paper Pack
Inks: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight and Pool Party ink and markers
Other: Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out alphabet die and Vintage Lace die, green ribbon from my stash, Papermania Adhesive Gems in Capsule Verde

Colourful birthday card using Mixed Bunch

It was my Grandma's Birthday recently. I wanted to make her a bright card with lots of colours. I used a colour combo from the very colourful DSP consisting of Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry and Pool Party. I stamped the flowers using the Mixed Bunch stamp and punched them using the Blossom Punch. I stamped a few extra flowers and cut out the centres. I stamped the "Happy Birthday Grandma" sentiment using Rich Razzleberry and the Hobbycraft typewriter alphabet (yes, it's the only stamp alphabet I have so I will use it again and again and again...). I attached the flowers onto Daffodil Delight cardstock and matted everything onto Tangerine Tango cardstock.

Inks: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Pool Party
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango and Pool Party cardstock, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, Kraft card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Mixed Bunch, Hobbycraft clear typewriter alphabet
Punches: Stampin' Up Blossom Punch
Crafting paper: Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper International Bazaar
Other: Papermania adhesive gems from the Capsule Heather series