Colourful Swallowtail

The current challenge over at CAS Watercolour is Colourful Butterflies. My absolute favourite butterfly stamp is this old Swallowtail stamp from Stampin' Up which I feel I can use over and over and over, and constantly find new ways of using it. This time I decided to use the faux watercolour technique. 

I coloured the stamp with Tim Holtz Distress markers and spritzed it with water before stamping onto watercolour paper. The first time, I didn't quite manage to place the stamp as I wanted it, so I used that first attempt for my tag, die cutting it with Stitched Tags Nesting Dies. I heat embossed a sentiment in white using STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies 2 to the tag. 

My second attempt at stamping the swallowtail turned out better as I was patient enough to ensure even pressure all across the stamp and really pressing it into the paper before removing it. I added a sentiment using STAMPlorations Happy Birthday and splattered some ink onto the white space for added interest.

I'm also linking up the card over at Cardz4Galz where the theme is Wings, Seize the Birthday where the theme is Butterflies and Stamping Sensations where the theme is Things with Wings.

Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies 2, Happy Birthday

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine, Tim Holtz Distress Markers

Dies: CUTplorations Stitched Tags Nesting Dies

Snowflake Flurry

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. You know what is the mother of getting your mojo on for creating Christmas cards? Making your list of people you are going to send cards to, counting the cards you have already made and realising you still need to triple your card stash. Nothing like CAS designs to the rescue - I think I created at least six cards today 

Today's card was inspired by the colours over at House of Cards. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Let It Snow, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Baby It's Cold Outside and Sparkles Christmas Challenge where the theme is Embossing.

I created the background using Distress Inks, splattered with water and added heat embossed snowflakes. The sentiment is a mix of a STAMPlorations stamp in black on vellum and a STAMplorations die, cut from silver and gold mirri card. 

Card: 200 gsm white card, vellum, gold and silver mirri card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Endless Wishes, STAMPlorations Noteworthy 2
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Iced Spruce, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Tsukineko Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black
Other: Gold, silver and white embossing powder, CUTplorations Holidays Word die

Don't forget there is still a few days left to use my code STAMPGIRLKAROLA to get 20% off products in the NEW RELEASE and 5x7 STAMP CLUB categories and to get a free metal die with your order from the STAMPlorations store.

Autumn Jam

Today I have something a bit different to share. In the last week or so we have been overwhelmed by the number of plums our plum tree has produced, and which have fallen to the ground as a result of storm Ali. We had so many plums we didn't know what to do with them, our kitchen was full of tubs filled with plums. I've eaten so many plums lately I'm happy to wait until next plum season before I have any more, as delicious as they were. I've baked several plum cakes, and we made a batch of boozy plum marmalade (nothing like a bit of brandy to enhance that lovely plum flavour). I decorated a jar of marmalade to give to a friend. 

I used Stampin' Up and Lawn Fawn patterned paper to decorate the jar, and Lawn Fawn dies to cut leaves for decoration. I used a scrap of card I had inked earlier with Distress Oxides and added some hand lettering to create a label. Last, I added some twine. 

I'm linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "It's a Wrap" and Make My Monday where the theme is autumn colours.

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

Bleeding watercolours

A bit of watercolouring to start Sunday! Unfortunately, next I have to deal with the reality of our house being a complete mess, so instead of reaching for my watercolour brush I have to reach for the vacuum cleaner. Sigh. 

Today's card was inspired by the gorgeous image over Inspired By All The Little Things. I'm also linking up with AAA Cards where the theme is watercolour and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Summer Garden. 

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card

Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful, Lawn Fawn Thank You Tags

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink Spun Sugar, Seedless Preserve, Dusty Concord, Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron, Peeled Paint

Calla lily shaker card

Happy Saturday everyone! I have to admit I slept in this morning. I can't remember the last time I would have slept until 8am, but my body and mind clearly needed it after a crazy week. After pottering around and being useless for the morning, I tackled one of those annoying things on the to-do list - I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards. It's nice to have an idea of what we have in the kitchen, and plan around using up things. But you would not believe the amount of jam we have in this house. Which is highly ironic as we don't really use that much jam at all, and if we do use any, we will use our home-made jam. How we have managed to accumulate a collection of almost a dozen jars of store-bought jam is beyond me! I am planning on getting all of our pantry foods logged onto an app, so whenever I'm in the store I can check what we have and what we don't have . The problem is that the existing apps don't seem very good, and the databased lack a lot of barcodes particularly in the UK. If you are using an app to track your pantry or fridge, let me know what you use and if it works for you!

Today's card is a shaker card I made using Stampin' Up Remarkable you stamps and the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle frame dies. I started with watercolour paper and Distress inks and created the background. I stamped the lilies on another sheet of watercolour paper, heat embossed them in white and watercoloured with Distress inks. Then I die cut the stitched frame in white card, and another frame from an adhesive foam pad to create the shaker. Last, I added the sequins and beads, attached acetate to the shaker, added the frame and last I added the flowers which I had fussy cut. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:

House of Cards - Clear papers (use vellum or acetate)

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Emboss It

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Flowers

Craft Rocket Challenge - Flower Power

Ruby's Rainbow Challenges - Use a transparent element (used acetate for the shaker)

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, white card, acetate

Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, sentiment is a wood mounted stamp from my stash

Ink: Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress inks Dusty Concord, Fossilized Amber,  Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Spun Sugar, Twisted Citron, Victorian Velvet and Wilted Violet

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle frame die, adhesive foam sheet, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, sequins and beads from my stash

Come fly away with me

Another glorious day, it looks like it's going to be even warmer than it was yesterday! After enjoying a wonderful breakfast of asparagus from our own garden with poached eggs, a bit of ham and Hollandaise sauce (I admit, I cheated and used a store-bought mix, but it counts as home made if you squeeze in the lemon juice all by yourself, right?) I am planning to dig a bit more in the garden. And then my wonderful man is making me BBQ. Could a Sunday get any better? Yes it can, I had a mother's day photo shoot with my gorgeous boy (you can see pictures here) and I had time for a bit of crafting as well! And it's barely midday yet!

Today's card was inspired by the inspiration image over at Inspired by All the Little Things, which was a perfect image to go with the new STAMPlorations Born to Roam stamp set that popped through my mailbox a few days ago. The cupcake wrappers inspired me to use the Stampin' Up World map and the compass from The Open Sea. I was also inspired by the cue card over at CASology which is Move, and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches (this is my second entry in this week's challenge). I'm also linking up with Crafty Calendar Challenges where the theme is Things With Wings.

I started by stamping the plane in Versafine ink, and then masked it before stamping the World map through a mask. The I watercoloured the image using Tim Holtz Distress inks and last I stamped the compass from The Open Sea and one of the sentiments from Born to Roam in Versafine. I really like the way the card turned out, it reminds me of the Indiana Jones movies, where they show the little airplane moving over a map whenever Indy would fly anywhere. 

Card: 300 gsm super smooth white card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Born to Roam, Stampin' Up World Map, The Open Sea

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Broken China, Festive Berries, Fossilized Amber, Shabby Shutters and Vintage Photo

Easter Calla lilies

I was working out in the greenhouse on the weekend, and after turning the soil over for about a minute, I was sweating all over. That is a clear sign that spring must be on it's way. It was lovely to feel the sun, even though it was only warm inside the greenhouse - outside I still had to put my jacket back on. But it was lovely to enjoy a bright and sunny day, and I think my cheeks caught a few rays of sun as well, they feel nice and warm. 

Another thing that's quickly speeding towards us is the chocoholic holiday that is elsewhere known as Easter. I'm not big on sending Easter cards, but happy to use the excuse to create some flower themed cards. This particular one has a greeting in Finnish, so you will just have to take my word for it, but I promise it says Happy Easter in Finnish. I used the lovely Calla lilies from Stampin' Up set Remarkable You and coloured with my Gansai Tambi watercolours. All stamped and coloured in one single layer using nothing but two stamp sets and watercolours. It doesn't get much more clean and simple that that.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:

AAA Challenges - Easter

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Add a Little Bit O'Green

Allsorts - Spring is in the Air

My Time to Craft - Flowers 

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - Anything Goes with twist Easter

The Artistic Stamper Creative Challenge - Springtime

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Lawn Fawn Violet's ABC

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black and Memento Tuxedo Black, Gansai Tambi watercolours

Keep calm and buy shoes

Yesterday I have finally conquered the mess of the craft room! I feel like I should give myself a gold star. I can see my desk again. And even craft without just pushing stuff further to the side, as I have been doing for weeks if not months. And it wasn't just putting stuff in their places, it was the whole nine yards with dusting and even moving the sofa and vacuuming behind there. So what better way to celebrate the clean craft room than doing a bit of stamping? And of course put all the stuff back in their place after finishing. I feel very smug!

Today's card is inspired by the sketch over at Retro Sketches and the colours over at ColourQ. I decided to keep things really simple, just the super fun STAMPlorations A Girl and Her Shoes stamp set and a stencil from Stampin' Up. I'm also linking up with Unicorn Challenge where the theme is CAS and this is also my third entry in Darnell's NBUS challenge (NBUS stencil which has been in my drawer for ages and ages...). 

Card: 300 gsm textured card, Neenah Solar white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations A Girl and Her Shoes
Ink: Stampin' Up Slate Grey, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Peacock Feathers, Blueprint Sketch and Mermaid Lagoon
Other: Stampin' Up stencil of unknown name

Feathers and a night sky

Finally Friday! I was going to leave work early, and at 3pm I thought I would just quickly update our weekly sheets to have it all done for Monday, and then of course I found an error, and then it was six pm... At least the Friday traffic had eased up a bit by then! So as soon as I came home I headed to the craft room for a bit of snake cuddles followed by crafting. 

Today's card was inspired by the inspiration image over at Pinterest Inspired Challenge and the colours over at Color Throwdown and the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I started by colouring some watercolour paper with my Gansai Tambi's and die cut the sentiment and feathers. I inked up a bit of the Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality DSP with black distress ink and die cut it with a Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Border die. I need to use more black, I love how it sets off the colours. 

Card: 300 gsm textured card, 190 gsm watercolour paper

Ink and colouring: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours, Tim Holtz Black Soot distress ink

Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality DSP

Dies: Stampin' Up Four Feathers, Lawn Fawn Thinking About You border die, Fluffy Cloud border die

Happy Mother's Day

Still no cleaning in the InvisiblePinkHouse, but I did make another card! I entertained myself yesterday by making a palette of my watercolour pencils, and so I thought why not make a card with the pencils as well as I've got them out. After a trip to Tesco yesterday I was reminded that UK Mother's Day is coming sometime soon as there was a whole isle full of pink cards, chocolates and champagne. I can never remember when Mother's Day is celebrated here in the UK, as Finnish Mother's day coincides with US Mother's day in May. Which makes much more sense, as Easter is usually in March and you already get all the chocolate bunnies and eggs, so it makes more sense to try and sell chocolate to people in May instead of the same month as the main annual chocolate celebration. Oh well, that's just my five cents.

Anyhow, I was asked to make a card for my mother unlaw (well, since we aren't married she isn't my mother in law, but almost, so why not unlaw...). I wanted a nice image with lots of space for doing some nice colouring. My card was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the colour combo over at Color Throwdown. I'm also linking up with Crafty Friends Challenge where the theme is Floral, Sweet Stampin' where the theme is Mother's Day, The Pencil Case where the theme is New Blooms/Spring Flowers and Fantasy Stampers where Mums Rule.

Card: 300 gsm textured card, scrap of kraft card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Remarkable You, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything

Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Stampin' Up Sahara Sand 

Colouring: Faber Castell Albrech Dürer watercolour pencils

Other: Stampin Up Hello You die, Wink Of Stella pen

The swallowtail is back

If you read my post yesterday you know I went through a bit of a creative dry spell which I resolved by making loads of Distress Paint backgrounds. This is the second card resulting from those panels I created. This card was inspired by the colours over at ColourQ and I love how the pink and blue blend to make the most gorgeous lilac colour. I didn't want to cover the beautiful background too much so I thought I would just stamp the gorgeous Swallowtail from Stampin' Up and heat emboss it in white. Then I die cut the Happy from the Stampin' Up Hello You die set in kraft card, and last I stamped and embossed the Birthday from a Lawn Fawn set. Very clean and simple and another card that looks and feels like me. It's been a while since I used my Stampin' Up stash, but it was a nice change!

To create the background I daubed Distress Paints onto my craft mat, sprayed with water and swooshed my watercolour paper in the paint. Well, when I say craft mat, I actually use a reusable Teflon cooking mat. It seems to do the job just fine. Also, the best way to clean off dried paint from the mat I use alcoholic hand cleaner which I keep in my craft room to clean off my acrylic blocks. It seems to work really well. Just thought I would share these tips if anyone finds them useful.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
ColourQ - colours (see below)
Fantasy Stampers - Happy Birthday
Happy Little Stampers - Smooshing
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers Challenge - Anything Goes
PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes
Winter Wonderland - Spring Is In the Air

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card, kraft card
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Paints Broken China,Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stampin' Up Hello You dies, Papermania Seafoam White Embossing powder

Holly Jolly - Mid month inspiration for Anything Christmas Goes

I know I said earlier that I was done with Christmas posts for the year. I have to admit I had forgotten about our reminder post for the month-long "Anything Christmas Goes" challenge over at Holly Jolly! We have a whopping nine sponsors for our last challenge of the year, so make sure you link up any Christmas related crafting to win some great prizes from our generous sponsors.

Our month long Christmas extravaganza is sponsored by  A Day for Daisies, All Dressed Up,  Bugaboo Stamps, Fred She Said Designs, Lacy Sunshine Stamps, QKR Stampede, Sentimental Susan, Stamp and Create and Stitchy Bear.

 

 

 

I decided to create a few gift boxes I could just grab when I needed them. I found free printables over at Homemade Gifts Made Easy, and made both a small square box and a pillow box in bright patterned papers, and decorated with the gorgeous Christmas Bulbs digi from the lovely A Day for Daisies. What's so clever about these boxes is that you can fully decorate them, and just pop in the gift when you need them. The pillow bow can even be stored flat, so it doesn't take up any space at all. And it's the perfect size for a gift card, so a nice and festive way to give a gift card.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers - All Wrapped Up

Just Add Ink - Gift Card Holder 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Die Crazy (use die cut)

Crimbo Crackers - Die cuts

Crafting For All Seasons - Anything But A Card

My Time To Craft - Last Minute Christmas Makes

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card grey, Ruby red, beige

Paper: Stampin' Up Nordic Noel and 

Stamps: A Day for Daisies digi Christmas Bulbs, Stampin' Up Endless Wishes

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Real Red, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo, Copics

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Lawn Fawn Tag Your It, Tim Holtz idea-ology paper twine, Stampin' Up Bow builder punch, Glossy Accents

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