Inlaid die cuts

What  a beautiful spring day it has been today. I was running around the hospital site like crazy most of the day, meetings here, picking up samples there, and all this without wearing a jacket, enjoying the warm sun on my face. Over the weekend, we bought some new plants for the flower borders. I know absolutely nothing about gardening or plants, I just buy stuff with nicely coloured flowers and they say hardy or easy to care for. I figured, those might have a chance to survive. Check in on the situation in a few weeks again. I figured, if they survive the first few weeks, they should be all right. I'm particularly excited about my new peonies, I really hope they will get to a great start to life and produce wonderful colourful flowers in a few month's time.

Colour is one thing today's card has plenty of. I've been a bit challenged in the creativity department lately, but I promise I will make up for it in a few days with a few really inspiring posts to come. Today's card was inspired by the gorgeous card by Anita Bowden over on Muse challenge and the colours over at Always Playing With Paper. I was inspired by the gorgeous background in Anita's card, and the inlaid die cut. I was also inspired by the current challenge over at Just Us Girls, which is smooshing. I smooshed Tim Holtz Distress Paints on watercolour paper to create the colourful background and the card for the die cut sentiment. The it was just a case of assembling everything onto foam pads and stamping the second part of the sentiment. I'm also linking up with AAA Challenges where Anything Goes and Addicted to CAS where the theme is Inlaid Dies.

Card: 300 gsm linen textured white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper
Ink and paint: Tim Holtz Distress Paints Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Tsukineko Tuxedo Memento Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Scripty Hugs dies

Paint smooshing on vellum

My week of annual leave is sadly coming to an end and it's time to say goodbye to family and head back home. As sad as that is, there is a silver lining to every cloud, and for me it's of course getting back to my craft room! Oh and seeing the Culinary Consultant too. Ok, that might even be the biggest silver lining to be honest, but don't tell him as he would just go getting big ideas about himself. Men... can't live with them and all that schtuff. Anyhow, I have another card I made a while ago that I wanted to share with you before hopefully being able to create something new in the next day or two. 

I had a bit of a mad creative moment the other day, creating several cards in one go, you can see my other similarly themed card here. I got really inspired to do some Distress Paint smooshing and decided to try it on vellum. I loved the look, it looks like stained glass! The paint behaves very differently on the slippery vellum compared to watercolour paper. I die cut a panel from the vellum after it had dried and stamped the sentiment from STAMPlorations Fond Expressions 2 and heat embossed in silver. I added two die cut snowflakes I found when rummaging through my stash (yay for using up yet another bit from the stash, every little bit counts!). Super quick and easy. If only I was as good at sending cards as I am at making them...

Also, don't forget that you have another 2 days to join the first ever STAMPlorations CAS challenge, where the optional colour twist is silver.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
Craft for the Craic - January Blues
Fussy and Fancy - Monochromatic 
Craft Rocket Challenges - Clean and Simple
If You Give a Crafter a Cookie - Inspiration Image (see below)
Stampavie and More - Winter
A Snowflakes Promise - Winter
Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Winter Wonderland

Card: 300 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum, silver and white glitter card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Fond Expressions 2
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Paints Broken China, Brushed Pewter, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers and Picket Fence
Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles, Stitched Snowflakes
Other: Papermania Silver Tinsel embossing powder

Frozen smoosh

Well, my mojo clearly has realised it's the last day of my lovely Christmas holiday, and I have managed to create not one, not two, not three but four cards today. It just seemed like the good old mojo was in hibernation and now it's back. How great that I'm now in super-creative mode when I have to go back to work tomorrow and won't have any time to craft until next weekend. 

Sometimes it's the smallest thing that kicks off the good old mojo. I was browsing around looking at challenges (isn't it a bit ironic that most challenges are on holiday over Christmas when most people are on holiday and would actually have time to craft. Of course, being on some DTs myself, I'm of course very thankful for the break, but as a participant, I want more challenges, not less, over the holidays!!). Today, it was the Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge that kick started my mojo. The theme for this month is smooshing and I got super inspired and got out my Tim Holtz distress paints and smooshed a big pile of backgrounds, one of which ended up in today's card. The sentiment is from a set from STAMPlorations called Fond Expressions 2, and it's heat embossed in white. The snowflake embellishment is actually from my stash, I made it ages ago using Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes dies and some Ranger Ice Stickles in Coffee Ice. Always such a rewarding feeling when you manage to use up stuff from your stash, isn't it.


I am linking up with the following challenges which inspired this card;
Try Stampin' on Tuesday - sketch (see below)
Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge - smooching
Happy Little Stampers CASE the designer - I was inspired by the smooched watercolour background and the layout with the watercoloured panel surrounded by plenty of white space
Curtain Call - Frozen 
The Shabby Tea Room - Inspiration image (see below)
Paper Sweeties Inspiration Challenge - colours (see below)
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Winter Wonderland

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm ivory card

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Paints Broken China, Brushed Pewter, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers and Picket Fence

Stamps: STAMPlorations Fond Expressions 2

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflakes, Stitched Rectangles

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Ranger Ice Stickles Coffee Ice, Adhesive gems from my stash

Cheer up, buttercup

I can't say it's been the most beautiful autumn day today, but although the skies have been grey, the rains have kept away and we spent a few hours in the garden. The results are a big bowl of apples which need to be turned into stewed apple, thee cucumbers and a huge bowl of tomatoes of various sizes and colours which I'm hoping to turn into a bit of tomato sauce. I'm so gutted that the tomato crops this year have been abysmal, last year we had enough tomatoes to keep us in tomato sauce for a year, and this year we hardly had any and all have been consumed as soon as they have been picked. But we did have an exceptional harvest of cherries, apricots and figs, so I'm not complaining. And there are plenty of apples and pears, I'm just happily picking the fruit straight from the tree and eating it standing right there in my garden. True happiness! 

I did get a chance to play in the craft room as well. Today's card is my second entry for the CAS-ology Silly challenge. I absolutely love this theme, and I have to admit I once again turned to my beloved Crazy Birds. The round sad looking is my absolute favourite of the bunch (shhh, don't tell the others!). I thought he could do with a bit of accessorising. The layout was inspired by the sketch over at My Favourite Things, and the colours are from the current ColourQ. I'm also linking up at Allsorts where the theme is No designer paper, Chocolate, Coffe and Cards where the theme is animals and Crazy 4 Challenges where the theme is costumed characters. 

There's nothing very high tech about this card, I die cut a panel of watercolour paper using Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles dies and stamped the sentiments and bird using Staz-On Jet black ink. The first part of the sentiment is stamped using the Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp and the second part using Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs. I like creating my own personalised sentiments to go with the cards I make, sometimes you just don't have an appropriate sentiment in your existing sets. Which reminds me I do want to buy at least one more alphabet stamp set, I am loving the Lawn Fawn ones as they have multiple copies of most letters so you can create the whole sentiment you need in one go instead of having to stamp one letter at a time. I watercoloured the birdie and his (I don't know why the birds are all male to me, but they just are...) accessories using Stampin' Write markers in Tangerine Tango, Wisteria Wonder and Old Olive (I don't have Kiwi Kiss). I then used the same markers to colour three stripes from the Stampin' Up Brushstrokes background stamp for the background and adhered the front panel with foam adhesive. I also stamped a sentiment inside the card which I thought would go with the theme of the card.

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour card

Stamps: Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Crazy Things and matching dies, Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs, Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp, Brushstrokes

Ink: Staz-on Jet Black, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Tangerine Tango, Wisteria Wonder, Old Olive

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies

Holly Jolly - Use a die

*This is my second post today, if you are looking for the Crafts Galore Encore post, please scroll down*

As usual, the last two weeks have flown by, and it's time for a new Holly Jolly Christmas challenge. Don't forget we are already in September, and Christmas is getting closer and closer, three and a half months to go anymore! Thank you to everybody for linking up your gorgeous Snowflake and Sparkle inspired cards, we loved seeing them. Don't forget to hop over and see if you are one of our winners. This time we are challenging you with the theme "Die cuts". This gives so much scope, so let your imagination fly. All we ask for is that your crafting has to be Christmas (or winter) themed. 

Our wonderful sponsors this time are Dr Digi, A Day for Daisies and Di's Digis. Hop over to Holly Jolly to see how the DT have used images from our sponsors to inspire you. Our sponsors are also giving away prizes to our randomly selected winners. You've got to be in it to win it!

I got to play with the super fun Dr Digi's Rescue Squad. I coloured the image with Copics and fussy cut it. I cut the snowy landscape using Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies in hammered white card. The sky is actually some recycled glittery blue card that used to be the wallet that held the certificate for my Master's degree! I cut it with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies. I used a Fiskars punch to cut the snowflakes from silver mirri card. The sentiment is from the Stampin' Up set Endless wishes, and the snowflake is from the Lawn Fawn set Critters in the Arctic. I mounted everything onto some Stampin' Up DSP and a white card base. I just love how that dark wintery sky looks agains the snowy white rolling hills.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:

Glory of Christmas Challenge - Humorous/fun

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Use some silver

Christmas Card Challenges - Anything Goes

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Use a sentiment

Crafts for Eternity - Weather

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland - Create a scene

Card: White 300 gsm card, white 300 gsm hammered card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, recycled dark blue shimmery card, silver mirri card

Stamps: Dr Digi Rescue Squad, Stampin' Up Endless Wishes, Lawn Fawn Critters in the Arctic

Ink and colouring: Copics, Tim Holtz distress ink Chipped Sapphire

DSP: Stampin' Up Santa&Co

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside and Stitched rectangles dies, Fiskars snowflake corner punch

Happy Birthday from the Party Animals

Well it's been pouring with rain all day today. What a shame,  I was so looking forward to going for a run (I hope the sarcasm comes through even though you can't hear the intonation in my voice or my expression...). Instead I have been more or less locked up in my craft room all day. Not a bad way to spend the day at all! 

Today's card is inspired by the current CAS(E) this Sketch and ColourQ. Im also linking up with Stamping Sensations where anything goes as long as it has a stamping, Simply Create Too where the theme is Special Occasion and Addicted to Stamps where the theme is CAS. This is quickly becoming yet another favourite Lawn Fawn set. I created the background by making a square mask from some scrap paper, coloured the Stampin' Up Brushstrokes stamp using markers and stamped through the mask. I coloured the critters using Copics and die cut them using the matching dies. Last, I created a sentiment using the Happy Birthday border die from a scrap piece of turquoise card, and die cut the front panel using Stitched Rectangles dies.

Card: White 300 gsm card, white 300 gsm linen textured card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animals and matching dies, Stampin' Up Brushstrokes
Ink and colouring: Stampin' Write markers Bermuda Bay, Wisteria Wonder, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Happy Birthday border die

White embossing in a twisted citron kind of way

I have been contemplating my crafting lately. In fact, I have been contemplating more than crafting, which I'm sure is the wrong way around. I've been contemplating the justification of putting as much money into this hobby as I have in the last few years. I have been contemplating Facebook and other services constantly telling me I should grow my blog, advertise it, reach out to get more followers. But I don't want to! I'm perfectly happy doing this as a hobby, and I am not the type of person who wants to push my blog anywhere it doesn't want to go naturally. I just want Facebook to leave me alone, stop showing me those horrible "advertise your blog here" things. They stress me out. I have been contemplating whether my cards have "a look". Whether my cards would be recognisable as my cards. I have started to feel that after more than two years of crafting I have started to find my own look, at least in my head. It's all about watercolours and bright colours and cute critters and die cut sentiments and stitched die cuts and clean and simple designs. Most of the time. I think. At least that's how it's all in my head. Anyhow, they are my cards so if I say I have a look, that must be how it is. Right? Oh well, I take myself way too seriously most of the time.

I didn't take this birthday card too seriously though. I just stamped and watercoloured and had fun with the little Lawn Fawn party stamps. Too bad it was quite tricky to photograph, and it does look much better live than it does in the picture. I seem to have the crafting bit down a bit better than the photography bit.

I was inspired by the embossing challenge over at Lawnscaping.  I was also inspired by this weeks Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Citrus with a twist, which made me choose some very uncharacteristic colours for me. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. FMS is celebrating the 200th sketch with a major, major challenge and a huge amount of sponsor prizes. Happy 200th FMS, and here's to many more!

I stamped a mix of the small party stamps from the Lawn Fawn Party Animal set in Versamark onto watercolour paper (I have to start buying that stuff in bulk!) which I had die cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and heat embossed them in white powder. Then I took Tim Holtz distress markers in Squeezed Lemon, Twisted Citron, Pistachio Pudding and Peacock Feathers and smudged them onto a clear block. I picked up the ink with a watercolour brush and just played around to create the background. I die cut the sentiment from a leftover piece of coloured paper I had created with Tim Holtz distress paints for my crazy bird and doughnut card here. I then double heat embossed the sentiment with holographic powder before attaching onto the card. I attached the coloured panel with foam pads onto some linen textured card. For a little subtle bling, I added a few sequins in the same colour scheme as the card. I hope you like the card as much as I do, it's simple but I have to say it turned out quite nice, didn't it. Oh well, I'm off now to enjoy bread week on the Great British Bakeoff!

Card: 300 gsm white linen textured card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz Squeezed Lemonade, Pistachio Pudding, Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Happy Birthday border dies, sequins from my stash, Papermania Seafoam White and Holographic embossing powder

Doughnut crazy

My crazy birds arrived today! I finally caved in a bought the set. I have very jealously looked at so many fabulous creations with this set all around the interwebs for the last six months and somehow my fingers were quicker than my brain and managed to put in the order before my prefrontal cortex managed to react. Goes to show that my brain is getting old and slow.

Anyhow the birds are now in the house. They are just the most adorable little critters. I especially love the sad looking round one that I chose to play with today. Looking at that sad little face made me think - why is he so sad? And then I realised that the only reason someone would be that sad is because they don't have any doughnuts. If you would see my face right now, that is the expression I am wearing right now as I am thinking about the fact that I don't have any doughnuts (and if you love doughnuts as much as I do, check out my other doughnut card here). I thought I would make a little painting to go on my fridge door, to remind me to think things through before I reach for the fridge door to get that "one last snack before I promise to stop". 

I had a blast playing with the bird, the gorgeous STAMPlorations doughnuts and my Faber Castell watercolour pencils. After colouring the stamped images, I used my Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp to create the sentiment. It's a bit tricky to stamp with, and I often have to fill in a bit of missing bits from a letter here or there. But it's great for custom sentiments like this. I thought die cutting the words for "diet" from black card stock to make it look as threatening as possible. I added some glossy accents to the doughnut glazing and the letters of "diet", although it doesn't show very well. To create the frame, I dabbed green and blue Distress Paints onto a craft mat and sprayed with plenty of water. I then dabbed watercolour paper in the paint. After drying with a heat tool, I die cut the frame using Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
STAMPlorations August theme challenge - Stamp and Watercolour
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Food and/or drink
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - Frame It

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Sugar Rush, Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp
Colouring: Faber Castell watercolour pencils
Paints: Tim Holtz distress Paints Picket Fence, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron, Broken China, Peacock Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Cole's ABCs, Stampin' Up Glossy Accents

Holly Jolly - Feathered Friends

The last two weeks have just flown by, and it's already time for a new challenge over at Holly Jolly. Thank you to everyone for sharing your gorgeous Christmas Carol inspired creations, we love to see what you are creating, and it's good to see there are already lots of people getting prepared for Christmas. I chatted with a friend the other day and she said she can't even bring herself to use the "C-word" yet, but still she was already getting a head start with her C-cards. Crafters, eh? Lol.

Anyways our new challenge over at Holly Jolly is Feathered Friends. So get your crafty on with some Christmas themed Feathered Friends and link up with us. In addition to comments from our DT you will be in the running for some great prices from our sponsors who this week are Bugaboo, All Dressed Up, Stamp&Create and Crafty Sentiments.

 

This time I got to play with the Bugaboo stamp Winter Penguin Trio. I have to say, I love the challenges where Bugaboo is a sponsor as I absolutely love their cute digi stamps. I had so much fun colouring the Penguin buddies playing in the snow. I used Tim Holtz distress markers, and for the sky I blended the markers with some water for a watercolour effect. For the background I used Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality Designer Series Paper. It comes with various resist embossed patterns, and you can colour it to your liking. In my case, I got to try out two of my new Tim Holtz inks on it, BluePrint Sketch the July colour and Twisted Citron, the new May colour. I used Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies to cut the images and the Lawn Fawn Tag You're It die for the banner. To finish, I added a bit of paper twine to the tag. I love the deep blue starry sky behind the Penguin buddies, I really love this new colour from the great Tim Holtz.

I am linking up with the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Anything Goes
A Gem of a challenge - Animals or birds
Crafty Friends Challenge - Inspired by a movie (Madagascar, the penguins are my favourites! Cute and cuddly!)
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Things with wings
Crafting From the Heart - Anything Goes 
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Make a Plan (planning for Christmas!)
Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality Designer Series Paper
Inks: Tim Holtz distress markers, ink pads Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Tsukineko Staz-on Jet Black
Stamps: Bugaboo Winter Penguin Trio, Dovecraft Clear S'Jingle TTS
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies and Tag You're it dies, Tim Holtz paper twine

Longing for minimalism

I have been thinking a lot about all my stuff lately. Living in a big house, it's so easy to just accumulate stuff. Most of it completely unnecessary (and note that I'm not including my crafty stash in this discussion, it's another topic). My Mum has gone through a big phase of getting rid of things. Just things that you hang onto although they aren't important. My partner is a hoarder. He can't get rid of anything. Me, I'm slowly starting to come around to the thought of less is more. I have sold some of my clothes on eBay, just stuff I know I will never fit into again. Next I need to do the same with shoes, you know those shoes that are so pretty but at the same time so incredibly uncomfortable and you know they will never be worn again. And what about DVDs? I never watch DVDs anymore. If I want to watch something, I will stream it. But at the same time, I have a nagging thought at the back of my mind reminding me of how much money I have spent on all the things I own. It seems wasteful to get rid of them. But then you stop and think - are these things important? Do they make me happy? Would I miss them if I got rid of them? And the answer is very clear.

I did a bit of cleaning today, just some cupboards full of stuff that I threw in there when we moved into the house, and have not thought about since. After some re-arranging I found that I have over 30 bottles of various hair styling products. And I'm a wash and brush type of gal, I maybe use one product here and there but I think I have enough hair styling products until I die... I have 10 bottles of toothpaste. This is because I bring Finnish toothpaste with me whenever I go home. Let's not get into it, it's just better... But I didn't realise I already have a huge stash, I just keep adding to it. This is the trouble with stashing things. You will lose sight of what you have and just add to it. I'm so incredibly annoyed with myself for letting this happen. Again, it's not things I will throw away as they will be useful eventually, but I will work hard on not adding anything to my huge stash of stuff until I know what I have and I will make sure I will try to use them all up before I buy new things. 

Anyhow, my card today is also a bit minimalistic. I had an idea in my head, and the card didn't quite turn out as I wanted it, but I can't quite put my finger on what went wrong. I was browsing Pinterest earlier and got a horrible inferiority complex. All those gorgeous cards out there that I wish I had made. And then my stuff turns out a bit... naff. Oh well, all you can do is practice, practice and practice even more. Maybe one day!

I made a shaker card using all the little birthday related things in Lawn Fawn's Party Animal set. It's one of those thin shaker cards so the things inside the shaker don't move around very much. It's so that it can easily be posted. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Lawnscaping - Inspired by Colour
CAS(E) This Sketch - Sketch #133
Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers - S is for Shaker
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Sparkle and Shine

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, acetate

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics, Tim Holtz Distress markers

Other: Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday border die, Ranger Ice Stickles, Stitched Circle dies, Stitched Rectangle dies

Dino-critters in colour

Nothing like a bright and early Saturday morning, right? For some inexplicable reason, I have woken up before 6am all of last week, and on a work day that's ok, but on a Saturday... Oh well, at least by 8:30 I have already gotten lots of things done. And as an added bonus, I got to catch up with a friend who lives on the other side of the world.

I know things have been a bit quiet on the crafting front lately. But today I'm back with a new card, inspired by the Colour challenge over at Lawnscaping. I was also inspired by my new wonderful Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils, if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen them already. I wasn't sure if they would be my thing or not, but I really love them. And they are so convenient to work with, it's easy to do my colouring in front of the telly if I want to. I got a pack with 36 different colours which is a great set to start with, there are some colours I know I want to add, but usually I can pretty much get any colour I want, especially if blending a few colours together which is really easy. I also splurged and got a nice water brush, I only had a few cheap-o ones, which weren't very good, and I like my new Pentel Aquabrush. Although I still don't like using it with water in the brush, I prefer to just dip it in a pot of water as that gives much better control over the amount of water. But the brush part is really nice and perfect for detailed work like this.

I have also taken to listening to audiobooks while I craft (not at the same time as watching TV obviously...). Also, I would like to find some great podcasts to listen to, so let me know if you have any you like, I would love to get some tips. My current favourite is "No such thing as a fish" which is the QI podcast, and it's filled with great little facts, and it's really, really funny. I often listen to it at work if I'm doing boring routine things that don't require too much thought, and my colleagues must think I'm crazy as I burst into laughter and giggle all the time. 

Sorry, I strayed from the point at hand. Back to crafting! I stamped the dino-critters in Staz-on ink onto watercolour paper using masking for a one layer card. I coloured everything with my lovely watercolour markers, and used a permanent black marker to add some landscaping to the scene. Lastly, I added some final touches with a white gel pen. I absolutely adore the dino critters, they just look so happy, don't they! Last, I die cut the scene with the stitched rectangle dies, and matted onto white linen paper.

I would also like to link up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Things beginning with I (I is for indigo blue, for colouring one of the dinos. is that too far fetched? also I is for inspiration, which I always get when I look at my colouring pens and my lawn fawn stamps. last but not least I is for imaginary, which this scene is as I doubt all these dinos would actually been hanging out together in real life)
Daring Cardmakers - Rock birthday card, with added twist of using the colour ruby (ok, this takes a bit of explaining, but you know Bedrock from the Flintstones? That is a rock... sort of? and one of the dinos is clearly ruby red, right?)

Card: 300 gsm white linen card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters from the Past
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On
Colouring: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles dies, Signo white gel pen, black permanent marker

Rainbow love hugs

I'm back! I bet you all missed me very much? Well, if you didn't notice I was away, it's because of my cunning scheduling of some cards I made in advance. Anyhow, as much as I loved being away from real life for a week in the Cyprus sun, it's good to be back as well. We had a very lazy holiday with Sis, and burned our fair Scandinavian skin to a crisp despite SPF50+, staying covered up and in the shade as much as possible. I think our next holiday has to be Antarctica or Greenland...

Paphos, Cyprus, one of the beaches near our hotel

I'm not usually writing about anything of much gravity here, as this is my crafty retreat from all the goings on in the real world. However, while I was away there were two world news that I feel I have to comment on.

The first piece of news is what inspired today's card. I bet you can guess what it is. I rejoice in the ruling of the US Supreme Court which in my mind is the only possible alternative. As much as I'm trying to respect everyone's opinions, I cannot understand how anyone could oppose to people being able to marry if they are so lucky as to find someone to love and who they want to spend their life with. I am a firm believer in total equality and the ruling makes me very happy for my US friends who it concerns. Obviously, I have my own opinions about marriage being a totally antiquated institution in itself, but I would not be so arrogant as to want to deny it from those who value it. This is in my opinion the crux of so many differences of opinion - live and let live, just because something isn't for you, who are you to judge what is right for someone else and deny them the opportunity? A gender equal marriage law was also approved by the previous Finnish parliament. Although the law still requires approval of the new parliament which does not support it to an equally high degree as the last one, I sincerely hope it will be passed into a law soon. Amidst all the celebration, I think it's very sobering to spare a thought to all the people who still live in places where basic human rights, whether extending to who you are allowed to love or what you are allowed to think, still are not respected and to remember that so many rights we take for granted are not reality everywhere.

Which takes me to the much more sombre news which obviously stopped me in my steps as I was relaxing on a holiday while other fellow happy holiday enjoyers lost their lives in the most horrible of attacks in Tunisia. As much as the previous piece of news gives me hope that we are going in the right direction, this piece of news makes me doubt that humanity has any chance of long term survival while people holding these horrible views and committing these heinous crimes are still out there.

Ok, that was a short and very inadequate summary of my feelings coming back from holiday. I'm off the soap box now, and will focus 100% on crafting again. For today's card I picked distress markers in all the colours of the rainbow and just painted a rainbow background using the markers and a water brush. I die cut the sentiments using Lawn Fawn dies from watercolour paper and finished with a bit of Ice Stickles.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Anything goes
Addicted to CAS - Splash
Our Creative Corner - What Makes You Smile (this was the perfect challenge for today's card)
Through the Purple Haze - Use Bright Colours

Card: 300 gsm white hammered card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress markers Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Abandoned Coral, Festive Berries, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio, Mowed Lawn
Other: Lawn Fawn Stithed Rectangles, Scripty Hugs and Cole's ABC's dies, Ranger Ice Stickles

Posted with Blogsy

Party night in the woods

It has been the most amazing weekend. I didn't have anything exciting planned, but my sister turned up at my doorstep on Saturday morning, complete surprise. Apparently she had been plotting with the Culinary Consultant to surprise me and have a pre-birthday celebration (my birthday is on the upcoming Wednesday). And she did not turn up empty handed, but with a huge chocolate cake. And I dare say the day got even better from there as my birthday surprise was a visit to Hamerton Zoo Park, a huge zoo park less than half an hours drive from our home. I had no idea the place even existed, and we had a great day seeing all the animals, from birds and primates to the big cats and everything in between. And my special birthday treat didn't end there, my dear Culinary Consultant really did spoil me with a special experience where I got to go into one of the enclosures and meet the lemurs and feed them their dinner. I had lemurs crawling up in my lap and on my shoulders, and they let me stroke them. It was such a memorable experience and I am over the moon about it all.

Due to all the animal antics, there wasn't any room for crafty time yesterday. Today after a full day of shopping I did mange to put together a very animal inspired card (wonder where I got that idea from...). Apart from the animal inspiration, I was also inspired by the awesome sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch and ColourQ. I am also linking up with Lawnscaping challenge where the theme is "Try a new technique". For this card, my new technique was to try the new vellum adhesive I ordered the other day. I am always trying to find good ways of adhering vellum, as the ones I have tried so far have not been as invisible as I have wanted them to be. After trawling the interwebs for hints, I came across a crafting forum where I found a recommendation for Vellum glue dots, and ordered a pack. Looking at this card, they seemed to do the trick and I'm quite pleased with them as you really can't see where the adhesive is on the vellum (I put some in all corners of the vellum, and it does indeed seem to be invisible). So this was a great new technique to try!

 

Card: 300 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card pink

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie 

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy To The Woods and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics C1, C3, R43, RV19, YR04, Y23, Y15, Y19

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Hello dies 

Butterfly on crumpled vellum

Well it was the usual exciting drama on the way home from work... "Will I ever be able to change up to second gear, or will it be 27 miles in first gear?" Despite everyone and their best friend heading home at the exact same time as me, I eventually made it home to enjoy the beautiful warm sunshine and a glass of that cold very British drink you have on the lawn.

Then it was time for the pleasant part of Friday - crafty time. I absolutely love this week's colours over at Colour Me. I was also inspired by the Butterfly theme over at Friday Mashup. I was going to do the mashup of butterflies and lace, but I just couldn't find a place for the lace in the end, so this time it's just butterflies. I'm also linking up over at Make My Monday where the theme is Things With Wings and Creatalicious Challenges where the theme is Butterflies.

For the card, I started with inking a piece of vellum using Peeled Paint, Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks, and spraying with a mister. After drying the ink, I crumpled the vellum to give it some texture. I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle dies to die cut a frame from Bermuda Bay cardstock. I stamped the gorgeous Swallowtail stamp in Versamark and heat embossed with white powder, and coloured from the back of the image using Sharpies. I like using Sharpies for colouring vellum as it gives a bright enough colour to show beautifully through the vellum. The sentiment didn't turn out quite as I wanted it, I would have wanted to stamp the "hello" onto the vellum background, but I should have thought of that before crumpling up the vellum... So I had to come up with an alternative solution.

Card: Dovecraft premium 110 gsm vellum, Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay and So Saffron

Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress inks Peeled Paint, Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade, Versamark

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Hello You die, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

Hang in there

I finally managed to find a little crafting time. When I was driving home from the gym today I just got this overwhelming urge to craft something, despite the fact that my crafting room is in a horrible mid-re-arrangement-mess. I literally just pushed some stuff off the edge of the desk to make room for a mini crafting session. And now it's time to continue with the re-arranging so that one day, hopefully soon, I will have my desk cleared so that I can actually do some proper crafting again.

I had more or less designed this card in my head on my way home from the gym. All I needed was a bit of colour inspiration to get me going. And I came across just that over at Just Add Ink. I'm also linking up at Addicted to Stamps where the theme is CAS and Clean and Simple on Sunday where the challenge is "Cheer up, buttercup".

Card: 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Pool Party
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs, Stampin' Up Nuts About You, Bloom With Hope
Ink: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles die