Paper Pieced Flowers

With summer in full swing I am inspired by all the lovely flowers everywhere. This card was also inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the colours over at Color Throwdown. How amazing aren't those colours, I just knew I had to play along this time. I was also inspired by the paper piecing challenge over at Just Add Ink and The Thank You theme over at Clean And Simple On Sunday. Although just a little tip - if you are planning on doing paper piecing, be sure to pick a stamp that DOESN'T have a gazillion pieces which are all the size of a grain of sand or somewhere thereabouts... this required a lot of patience and there may have been some swearing and a lot of glue sticking to my hands. 

It should be quite obvious what happened here - I started by die cutting the frame and then stamping the triangular flower arrangement inspired by the sketch. I then proceeded to fussy cut all the required pieces. I'm a bit gutted that I didn't have any patterned paper with a slightly lighter purple to better match the challenge colours but all you can do is make use of what you have at hand. Last I die cut the sentiment and then went on to the puzzle of adhering every little piece. It would have been impossible to know which leaf fit where except I cleverly arranged everything in place as I was cutting, so it was just a case of picking each piece up with tweezers and adding glue. I keep questioning myself about the sentiment, maybe I should have gone for a banner instead to be closer to the sketch, but I think this works quite well too.

Card: 300 gsm linen textured white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie, Let's Polka in the Meadow, Let's Polka in the Dark

Dies: Lawn Fawn Scripty Thanks die and Stitched Rectangle Frame die

Posted with Blogsy

Happy 2nd birthday to Fusion challenge!

Just popping in very quickly to show todays' card without further chit-chat. It's all a bit manic right now with job, life and whatnot. Off to have dinner with the Culinary Consultant and a few of his friends. 

Fusion card challenge is celebrating it's 2nd birthday with an colourful flowery image which was the inspiration for today's card.  Happy Birthday Fusion! I wanted to join in the celebrations as I needed to make a birthday card for a friend as well so that all worked out perfectly. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I'm also linking up with Four Crafty Chicks where the theme is Chevron, Craft Rocket Challenge where the theme is Happy Anything, Let's Colour Linky Party where the theme is anything coloured goes (optional twist pink), Crafting With Friends and PDE Linky Party where Anything Goes.

Card: 300 gsm textured card, 190 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight 
Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful and Positively Chevron, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Tim Holtz Distress markers Shabby Shutters, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Spun Sugar, Milled Lavender, Picked Raspberry, Fossilized Amber
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stampin' Up Hello You die, yellow and pink adhesive gems from my stash

Krafty flower power

I have been widowed for the day due to a violent computer game. I have hardly exchanged two words with the Culinary Consultant as he has only come up for air once (lunchtime) and other than that spend the day blasting the living daylights of pixel monsters. So that means I made a batch of blackberry muffins in the morning, and after that have spent most of the day in my craft room. I've started watching Suits and have worked my way through the whole first season in the last few days (thank you Netflix). Not sure this is how I thought it would be when you are in a relationship, but hey ho... 

Anyhow, I have got caught up with my DT assignments for a while to come and also had time to catch up on all the wonderful challenges out there. There seems to be quite a few floral themed challenges, so I thought I would absorb some inspiration from them for a card. I was inspired by the "Crafty Bouquet" challenge over at CASual Fridays, as well as the inspiration photos over at Curtain Call and Fusion. The colours in the images from Curtain Call and Fusion are very bright and vibrant colours, a bit different from the pastels I usually go for, but I thought it's a good exercise for my crafty muscles. Challenge yourself. Kind of like crafting push ups, or maybe burpees. Hard to do, but rewarding when done. I was also inspired by the great sketch over at Sweet Sunday Sketch. I actually coloured the flowers with Sharpies instead of my usual Copics to get the most intense colour on the kraft card. I also got out my never before used Lawn Fawn hello die. I really like it, it cuts really clean and it's easy to work with. 

Card: Kraft card, coloured navy 240 gsm kraft card

Paper: Scrap of Stampin' Up  DSP

Stamp: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Sharpies

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Hello die, piece of burlap twine from my stash

First Easter card

Today is both a quick post and a quick card, as I spent most of my crafting time doing something a bit different for the next Crafts Galore Encore challenge which goes live on the first of March. I'm so excited to show it. Meanwhile, there is still time to participate in the current challenge, which is "Use a stamp or digi". 

After that shameless plug, onto today's card. With Christmas and Valentine's over and done with, the next cardmaker's main event is Easter. And the spring colours over at Color Throwdown were perfect for a spring card, and along with inspiration from the Stampin' Royalty inspiration pic and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches I came up with this. I'm also linking up at Graph It Colour challenge where the theme is Spring/Green and Cute Card Thursday where the challenge is Floral Delight.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral, Old Olive, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful, Personal Impressions Easter Set 1

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up Old Olive

Colouring: Stampin' Up Blendabilities Calypso Coral and Old Olive

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits

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

CASEing the catty

This is the end of the current Stampin' Up Catty, CASEing the catty has reached the last section entitled Artistic Expression. So I thought I better play along as they will move on to the holiday catty next and I have virtually nothing from there, so I won't be able to play along much. But this time I got to play along, and whip out my Blendies. My inspiration is from page 166 in the UK catty (seems to be page 168 in the US catty I have downloaded, not sure where the difference is) and looks like this

From the Stampin' Up Annual Catalogue page 166

Making this card I realised I don't have any neutral DSPs at all, something I surely need to rectify soon. So I went with a monochrome banner instead. I used a stamp from the So Very Grateful set as I don't have the Vivid Vases stamp. For the sentiment, I used a marker to colour the text from one of the speech bubbles from Just Sayin'. I don't have a nice die to cut out the stamp, so I just fussy cut using a template I downloaded online.

Card: Craft UK kraft card, Stampin' Up Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Rich Razzleberry card

Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful, Just Sayin', Gorgeous Grunge

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Blendabilities Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry 

Other: Doily and twine from my stash (non-SU)

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

So Very Grateful for Blendabilities

It's probably quite evident by now that I rely very heavily on online crafting challenges to find inspiration for making my cards. It makes the whole creative process so much easier when I have a sketch and/or colour combo to focus on. I'm sure many artsy people groan at the thought of speeding up the creative process, and scream out objections along the lines of "art shouldn't be hurried" and "it's all in the process". While I don't object in any way to sitting down, doodling and waiting for creativity to strike (or slowly build as it more often does), most days I don't have the patience for that. That's for true artists. I'm just a simple card crafter, and I like to stamp and colour. Everyone should go with what works for them. And today what worked for me was CAS(E) This Sketch and Just Add Ink. 

The wonderful inspiration from these challenges led to today's card, and even if I say so myself I think it turned out rather nice. I love flower stamps, and I particularly love this set called So Very Grateful from Stampin' Up. It's perfect for colouring, and the two flower stamps in the set allow many different layouts. I have made other cards with it (here and here) which has a completely different feel, so it's a very versatile little set. This time I tired my hand at using the Blendabilities, which are a set of new alcohol based markers from Stampin' Up. I really like the feel of them, they blend beautifully. I had so much fun colouring the card that I couldn't resist stamping inside the card as well.

Cardstock: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in Purple Grape, Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Inks: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin'Up Blendabilities Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry, Stampin' Write marker Calypso Coral
Other: Stampin' Up Basic Pearls

G is for graduation card

I have a list of graduation cards my sister has asked me to make for her fellow medical students when they graduate this summer. For some reason I have struggled finding inspiration, but today I decided to bite the bullet and cross off another card on the list. I went in search of inspiration and found this week's Retro sketch. And it is just amazing! I really loved the sketch, I love sketches with elements with rounded corners, I think it just makes everything look so much more serene and peaceful and friendly. I immediately knew I wanted my top layer to be vellum, it gives such a cool look, but at the same time it's quite challenging to create with as you have to figure out ways of attaching it in place without leaving visible glue marks anywhere. 

I have also had The Card Concept challenge on my mind for a few days, it is so far outside my comfort zone I knew I just had to give it a shot. It's a colour challenge with yellow, black, white and grey. I am so bad with yellow. Seriously, I rarely use it on my cards unless I'm doing a colour challenge with yellow included. And this time, only yellow and neutrals? I had no idea what to do with it. But I think in the end it turned out quite elegant. Unfortunately it doesn't quite come across as good on the photo as it does in real life, photographing cards with vellum can sometimes be a bit tricky, and this was certainly one of those times. The Card Concept asks you to classify your card into one of their categories, I think this is "Clean and Layering". 

I also found a great new challenge blog called The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers (how great is that) and their current challenge is "R is for ribbon", so I'm entering my card in their challenge as well. Particularly as I finally managed to tie a bow that doesn't point in all possible different directions. And I won't tell anyone I actually used quite a few glue dots to make it look like that, as I'm incapable of tying a bow...

I started by picking out card in Smoky Slate for my background, and a DSP from the xx set for the background panel. I stamped the pretty flower stamp from So Very Grateful in black ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder and coloured with markers, adding a few layers of yellow to make it bright enough. I die cut the letters using Tim Holtz alterations die. Then I attached everything into place, making sure the adhesive for the vellum panel went under where the ribbon was going to be, as well as under the die cut letters. I then tied the yellow ribbon and secured in a few places with glue dots. As a finishing touch, I added a few adhesive gems which also help keep the vellum in place. I also stamped, heat embossed and coloured the flowers in yellow and grey onto the envelope and inside the card. I really like how the card turned out and hope that my Sister's friend will like it too.

Card: Stampin' Up Smoky Slate, Basic Grey, Basic Black, Dovecraft 110 gsm Premium Vellum

Paper: Stampin' Up Sunshine and Sprinkles and Patterns Stack - Brights collection

Ink: Hobbycraft black pigment ink, Stampin' Up markers in Daffodil Delight, So Saffron and Smoky Slate

Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful

Other: Tim Holtz alterations inside out alphabet die, Papermania adhesive gems in Capsule Sunshine, Dovecraft Tea Party grosgrain ribbon

So very grateful

I recently received a much awaited parcel with my latest Stampin' Up goodies. It's funny how some stamp sets you fall for immediately and others you don't feel anything for before you see that one perfect card and it just clicks. "So very grateful" was one of the latter, I didn't think I would get it until I started seeing beautiful cards with the stamps in white embossing on kraft card and coloured with watercolours or inks. They were simply stunning, and I had to get the stamp set. Although the idea is so simple, I think it's very 

I needed a thank you card and immediately went for the white embossing and kraft look. I coloured using an Aqua-Flo brush and Stampin Up' inks. I also stamped the smaller stamp inside the card and on the envelope. The colouring is easy with the heat embossed outlines preventing the colour to flow outside the lines, and the colours look soft and muted on the kraft card.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps - Make your mark (coloured using aqua brushes)
Addicted to CAS - Texture (heat embossing)
Just add ink - Just add watercolour 
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Anything goes
The Pink Elephant - Anything goes

Cardstock: Eco ribbed 300 gsm rustic kraft card, white patterned card from my stash, Hobbycraft three shades of blue 160 gsm card
Stamps: Stampin' Up So very grateful
Inks: Tim Holtz distress embossing ink and Black Soot, Stampin' Up inks in Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist, Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose and Wild Wasabi
Other: Papermania Seafoam white embossing powder, Ranger ultra fine clear embossing powder