In need of coffee

How have you all been? Long time no craft! And even now I should be cleaning, not crafting... but we did go through this the other day didn't we, and concluded that a happy crafter is more important than a clean house. Right? I did try to do some watercolouring after work one day this week, but that was a catastrophic waste of time. I cannot draw or paint, I knew this but somehow I thought that would magically have changed. Luckily there is always the option of stamping! So after a bit of a disastrous attempt this morning to make a card which ended up in the bin, I thought I really need to do something fool-proof to get back a bit of confidence in my crafting abilities. And luckily I have a whole stash of NBUS I recently ordered from the marvellous STAMPlorations. 

I didn't use to be a caffeine addict, but after starting in my new job I am living off large vanilla lattes. And I have to admit I now have to start my weekends with a large coffee as well. I am fully planning to wean me off the nasty stuff, but maybe a bit later... once I'm a bit more settled in my new job methinks. My card was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Inspired by a song. My song is One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan. On top of that, I'm linking up with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything Goes, Crafty Creations where the theme is "Something to Eat or Drink" and Tuesday Throwdown where the theme is "Create Your Own Background".

Card: 300 gsm textured card, coloured 240 gsm chocolate card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Coffee Happy and Literary Caffeine-ations
Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip and Real Red

Quick Love You card

Stampin' Up are selling lots of stuff from their Christmas cattie in the Clearance rack for a very nice price. I couldn't resist getting a few stamp sets I wanted but didn't get around to buying along with a few DSPs. I very rarely pay full price for DSPs, and I am known to go a bit crazy at the Stampin' Up sales. 

I couldn't wait to try my new goodies, and as it happened I had a present for my Culinary Consultant so I wanted to create a card to go with it. However, I knew I only had a short while to create a card before he got home from work. So I went for the gorgeous Seasonally Scattered Love stamp and inked it in Real Red and Strawberry slush. To finish the card, I die cut the "you" using a die from the Hello You set from a scrap piece of kraft card. I used a marker to draw the frame around the card. It probably didn't take more than 5 minutes to make this card, and I think it turned out quite nice, I really like it. I think from time to time I will try to make a quickie card, they are quite refreshing!

I was inspired by the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps - Photo Inspiration (I went with the colour scheme and the clean white feel of the image, also I think the way the clocks are scattered on the wall, a bit like the dots and hearts in the stamp I used)

CASology - Sweet 

Crafty Creations - Seeing Spots

Shopping Our Stash - Lost and Found (the Baked Brown Sugar marker I used for this card was literally lost and found as I had to turn my craft room upside down to find the pack of markers with the Stampin' Up Seasonal colours. After searching for a while, I almost thoght I had only imagined buying those markers (sometimes I think I have some crafting stuff which in fact I don't but keep seeing online so my brain thinks I have it) but in the end I managed to find them)

Card: 300 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Seasonally Scattered

Ink: Stampin Up Real Red, Strawberry Slush, Stampin' Write marker Baked Brown Sugar

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You die

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

One more Valentine's

As you read this, I'm surfing down the information highway at very high speed. Fasten your seatbelts! After a long wait, I no longer have to wait for a minute to upload a photo to the blog. We have left the dark ages! I'm so giddy about this, I want to do a happy dance. I must have scared the poor BT engineer with my high-pitched squeal of "Oh my gosh it's working!!!". You can say he had one happy customer.

Today's card is inspired by the wonderful card over at Time Out where the challenge is to CASE the card. It is also inspired by the colours over at ColourQ which I used to colour the flowers on the tag. I'm also linking up at Make My Monday where the theme is Hearts and Flowers (I don't know if it's cheating, but the small flowers look heart shaped to me), at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Bright and Beautiful, In(k)spire Me "Valentines", Kitty Bee Aloha Friday Challenge "Valentine's/Love", Polkadoodles Challenge "Flower Power" and Simply Create Too "Valentine".

I stamped the flowers onto the tag in Versamark and heat embossed in white. I used Stampin' Up inks and a watercolour brush to colour the flowers and a marker to draw the faux stitching. I embossed the background and printed the sentiment. I added some pink ribbon from my stash and matted the card onto pink card.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo
Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful
Inks: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Blushing Bride marker
Other: Cuttlebug script embossing folder, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, pink ribbon from my stash, Scalloped Tag Topper punch

The Challenge #23

I have been making cards for about two years now, and this blog has existed for more or less a year. And I start to feel like I'm finding my style. I do like to make all sorts of cards, but the ones I always end up feeling most happy about are the CAS ones. Well, I guess I have kind of made my own sort of CAS, I'm not very good with white space in the traditional meaning of "white". I like colourful backgrounds but cards that aren't too crowded, and mostly have only one focal point. Today's card is an example of the type of card I feel most comfortable with. 

This card was totally and utterly inspired by the colours and sketch over at The Challenge. The colour combo is one I wouldn't have picked myself, but that's why we have colour challenges, right? For me they are pretty much my only avenue to using anything beside purple and pink... For this challenge, I wanted to play with watercolours. I need to start buying watercolour paper in bulk, I go through loads of it. I'm also linking up at Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is Clean And Simple and The Pink Elephant where Anything Goes.

I started by spritzing the watercolour paper with water, and inked a stamp from Gorgeous grunge in Daffodil Delight and Bermuda Bay and stamped all over the cardstock. I then spritzed some more water onto the cardstock to make the colours run. I then switched to a stamp with smaller spots from the same set and stamped in Real Red and Bermuda Bay. After another few spritzes of water I dried the cardstock with my heat tool. I die cut the "Happy" from Real Red card and stamped the "Birthday" in Real Red. Then I matted the card onto Real Red card and adhered to a white card. It was so much fun playing with the watercolour effect. Then I put the card away quickly before I started adding anything to it, I think it's finished as it is.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Real Red, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper

Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Real Red

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You dies

Hugs and kisses

Today's card is inspired by the photo over at Just Us Girls. I didn't want to go for hearts as the obvious choice so I used feathers instead. I tried to use inks and markers on the stamps to mimic the marbled effect on the cookies, and use the colour scheme from the photo. The layout for the card is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up with CASology where the cue card is Friend and Brown Sugar where the theme is Valentine's.

I coloured the feathers with ink pads and markers to get a marbled effect and die cut them with the matching dies. I die cut spaces for the feathers in the bronze cardstock, and adhered the feathers into place. I stamped the sentiment in Regal Rose. Last, I used my Tim Holtz Spritz tool to add some airbrush stains to the white space. Unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the photo as only the most dark airbrush stains show, but it gives a subtle effect to the background. 

Card: Leonardo Cardstock 300 gsm white card, Metallic Bronze card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers and dies, Good Greetings
Ink: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Real Red, Regal Rose
Other: Papermania adhesive gems 

Love Ya

This card is for all of you. All you wonderful people who visit my blog. We just passed 10,000 views the other day, all in less than a year!! So thank you for visiting, and I hope you will come back again. Make yourself at home, and don't be a stranger, feel free toleave a comment to let me know you passed by. I will try my best to repay the favour. Or just hang around, no need to talk if you don't want to. I'm happy to make you a cup of tea, or coffee. Maybe something chocolate-y to go with that?

This card was inspired by the current Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketch. I'm also entering over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Old and New as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Something New. My old is the red card stock and the stamps, whereas the new is the black and white digi papers. I haven't used digi papers before, but I realised I don't have any black and white crafting papers, so I had to turn to the interwebs for them.

Card: Stampin' Up Real Red, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card black, Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum

Stamps: Stampin' Up Just Sayin', Gorgeous Grunge

Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Papers: Digipapers from http://freescrapbookingsupplies.blogspot.de/ and http://meinlilapark.blogspot.ch/

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Stampin' Up Basic Pearls

Christmas gift bag

I love the Stampin' Up kraft gift bags, such an easy way to quickly and prettily wrap a present by just adding some embellishments. For this bag I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake die on copper coloured cardstock for the snowflakes. I also stamped some images and made a little tag. Finally I inked a doily with some red distress ink. Quick and easy, but it looks quite elaborate. Also, the gift bags are perfect for wrapping stuff that is slightly oddly shaped and would be difficult to wrap neatly using wrapping paper. 

I'm submitting my little bag to the following challenges:
Not Just Cards - Anything Goes
Inky Chicks - Winter Wonderland
Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Christmas is All Around
Clear it Out Challenge - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything goes with optional twist Gift packaging

Card: Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Crumb cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk, Tag It and White Christmas
Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango and Real Red, Tim Holtz distress ink Festive Berries
Other: Doily from my stash, Stampin' Up Chevron Tag a Bag Gift Bags, Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Chalk Talk dies, Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake dies

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

Block stamping technique

I'm glad there has been some challenges around lately encouraging you to try new techniques. It's easy to get stuck in the same old "stamp and colour" routine. Not saying there is anything wrong with it at all, but it's fun to try something different from time to time. Recently I tried the "galaxy technique" which you can see here. And today, inspired by the Just Add Ink challenge I have used the clear block stamping technique. It's pretty much what it says on the tin, you ink up your blocks and use them as stamps. 

For this card, I looked for inspiration from two images that both gave me a very similar feel. The colours for this card are inspired by the image from Just Us Girls - vibrant and warm yellows, oranges and reds. Warm colours are so not my thing, but this is all about challenging yourself (and using those ink pads and cardstock that you don't usually use!!). The roses and blacks were inspired by the image from the Fusion Challenge. The black, shiny glass on the table was my inspiration for the intense black sentiments and for the glitter added to the roses. I also used the sketch from the Fusion challenge for the layout of the card, luckily I had a stamp block which was just the right size.

I inked my clear block using Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red. After inking it generously, I spritzed the block with Perfect Pearls water mist (just mix a bit of Perfect Pearls with water in a spritzing bottle). I stamped off some of the ink onto scrap paper and then stamped onto the card. The Perfect Pearls leave a subtle shine and stamping off some of the ink ensures that you don't just get a solidly coloured square, but a watercolour type effect. I think it's really cool, and it's great to see how it will turn out as the ink just spreads around as it wants. You also get different effects depending on what cardstock you use and how it absorbs the water and the ink, so it's fun to experiment. The background squares need to be completely dry before stamping on the sentiments and roses - a heat gun is an impatient girl's best friend. I used Memento black ink for the roses and sentiments. Lastly I added some stickles to the roses. Quick, clean, simple and very easy with a bit of an artsy feel to it.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie card
Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler, Inspirations Flowers Clear Stamp set
Ink: Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Tim Holtz Distress stickles Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade, Ranger Ice Stickles Coffee Ice

Bloom with Hope in Real Red

Today's card is just a simple sweet little thing. I used a few flowers I coloured in my "remote office" that I had set up in our car when I joined the Culinary Consultant for a day out on Saturday for his wheelie course I got him for his birthday. It was quite a dramatic day as one of the participants ended up falling off his bike, dislocating his shoulder and breaking his humerus. Luckily it wasn't anything worse, as the fall looked quite bad and the bike ended up rolling over him. In the end he had to be taken away in an ambulance.

So back to today's card. I had prepared for a day in my makeshift car office by stamping lots of images, and I took my stash of Copics with me. So there I sat in the car, with the Great British Bakeoff Masterclass on the iPad, a cooler bag full of sandwiches, some yummy Finnish biscuits and a whole lot of images to colour and cut. Among those were these gorgeous flowers from the Stampin' Up Bloom with Hope hostess set. I used the lovely colours from this week's Color Throwdown. I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch for inspiration for the layout. 

In addition to the flowers I used a notecard from a Stampin' Up DSP called Fan Fair. The sentiment stamp is from a set called Vintage Verses and I also added a die cut border. I added the same flower and scalloped border inside the card. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

DSP: Stampin' Up Fan Fair, Summer Smooches

Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloom with Hope, Vintage Verses

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Real Red

Colouring: Copics R02, R24, R46, Y13, YR00 

Other: Tim Holtz Alterations Vintage Lace

Quick and easy Christmas tags

CASEing the Catty has moved from the annual catalogue to the holiday catty and the theme for the current challenge is tags. I need to make some tags for Christmas, so I thought this was a good chance to get started. I based my tags on the funny Moose tag on page 28 but used a different stamp set for my tags. I used the White Christmas stamp set and heat embossed the images using white powder. I don't have the angled tag topper punch, so I just cut the corners off the tag and used a die from Chalk Talk to make the hole in the tag. These were super easy and quick to put together and I like the very simple look of them. If needed, these would be very easy to mass-produce. I'm also entering these over at Completely Christmas where the challenge this week is Anything Goes with the twist of Add a Tag.

From page 28 of the Stampin' Up Holiday Catalogue 2014

Card: Stampin' Up Black and Whisper white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Real Red
Other: Papermania Seafoam White Embossing Powder, Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies

Poppy challenge #12

This card is directly inspired by the current Poppy Challenge. I wasn't quite sure how to interpret the sketch, but I hope it's close enough. I really liked the colour combo of red, pink and a neutral sand colour. I had a rummage through my stash and discovered this great DSP (yes, I admit I have no idea what papers I have stashed away, I keep re-discovering stuff when from time to time I have a little rummage around...). I used one of my favourite techniques, white heat embossing and colouring with markers. I like the way the flowers pop when only part of the image is coloured. I added a sentiment, some pearls and a bow tied from a leftover piece of ribbon (yes, I hoard leftover pieces of anything, you know, just in case...). I continued the stamping inside the card and made a matching envelope as well. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, Stampin' Up Real Red and Smoky Slate cardstock
Paper: Stampin' Up More Amore DSP
Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful, See Ya Later, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Versamark, Stampin' Up Real Red, Smoky Slate, Stampin' Write Markers Real Red, Blushing Bride, Smoky Slate
Other: Stampin' Up Basic Pearls, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, red ribbon from my stash

Multiple challenges Birthday Card

I usually tend to frown just a little bit at cards which are entered in a large number of challenges. I usually want to focus on one major theme, but each to their own. However, pretty much by accident I realised this card actually qualifies for three challenges! So this is certainly a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I started with The Colour Throwdown #282 with the below colour combo. I really like the colour combos as they get me using different colours to the ones I usually use. I always tend to gravitate towards the pinks and purples, so anything different is always welcome, and takes me out of my comfort zone a bit. 

Unfortunately I don't have Lucky Limeade, so I substituted with Pear Pizzazz. I also saw this amazing card from Teri's Craft Spot on my blog feed, and stole some ideas from that card. In addition, I got my latest order from Stampin' Up just a few days ago, including the wonderful En Français background stamp which I was dying to try out, along with the tag topper punch. I then realised I can enter this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday "Tag it" challenge as well. When I was thinking about which sentiment to choose for the card I realised the theme for the Pink Elephant Challenge is Birthday, so I printed a simple Happy Birthday in Real Red using a free font called Forever in My Heart, so all of a sudden I hit three challenges in one. And that is how the cookie crumbles. 

Inks: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Tim Holtz distress embossing ink
Cardstock: Craft UK kraft card, Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Real Red, Crumb Cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up En Français, Hardwood, Petite Petals
Punches: Petite Petals, Tag Topper punch
Other: red ribbon from my stash, Sizzix Flower and vines #2 die, Papermania Seafoam White Embossing Powder