Spring colours

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

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

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

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

Home Sweet Home

I was asked to make a "Happy New Home" card, and first I thought what on earth am I going to come up with as I didn't think I had any suitable stamps. However, the super versatile Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods came to the rescue once again. It's such a great set, so far I have used it for fall cards, Christmas cards, cute critter cards and now also for this new home card. The little bird's nests are absolutely adorable. 

For this card, I was inspired mainly by two challenges, the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and the colours at Color Throwdown. I'm also entering the card in this week's CASology where the theme is very appropriately "Home". I'm also submitting to Stampin' Royalty where Anything Goes.

I stamped the trees onto the backgorund cardstock and coloured the outlines using a Tim Holtz Distress Marker in Antique Linen. I stamped the adrable little bird's houses onto another piece of cardstock, coloured them with Stampin' Up Blendabilities in Old Olive and Daffodil Delight and Copic R24 - Prawn. I die cut them with the Joy to the Woods die set. I printed the sentiment and matted everything onto Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit cardstock. For some finishing bling I added a bit of Tim Holtz distress stikcles in Mustard seed to the hearts in the birdhouses and a rhinestone to the sentiment.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin Up Summer Starfruit
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Markers Antique Linen, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Daffodil Delight and Old Olive, Copic R24 - Prawn
Other: Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Mustard Seed, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Sunshine, Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods matchin die set

Happy cupcake

Today's card is a quick make. Well, it would have been a quick make had I not had to do it twice. Let's just say something irreversible happened to the first version due to a tired crafter who put her scissors through the wrong pink cardstock - the ready card base with all layers attached, and left upside down on the crafting desk instead of a another pink piece of cardstock that was actually meant to be cut. And when you make something for the second time, it's no longer as fun... But it's here now, all photographed and tucked away safely in the ever growing collection of finished cards (I'm good at making cards but very bad at sending them). 

Today's card is inspired by three challenges. A very CAS sketch by Retro Sketches. A stunning colour combo by ColourQ. The theme "Tea and/or cake" over at Make My Monday. After that, it was just a bit of stamping, inking, cutting, glueing and Bob's your uncle. I love this week's colourQ colour combo as I think it's the first time ever I used my Summer Starfruit ink, which I bought in a deliberate attempt to use more yellow in my cards, and have failed so far.

I stamped a few random cupcakes
and cherries inside the card as well.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card baby pink

Stamps: Stampin' Up A Cherry on Top, Yippee-Skippee

Inks: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit

Paper: Stampin' Up Sycamore Street DSP

Other: gold sequins from my stash

Petal parade thank you

The theme of the current Shopping our Stash challenge is "Oldest punch or die". I can still remember buying the Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies back in the days when I didn't even have a die cutting machine yet. I used them for a long time just by tracing the outline with a pencil and fussy cutting the shapes. Then finally I got my beloved Big Shot, and I just love die cutting. I love the feeling of turning the handle and popping the paper out of the die. So when I saw the challenge, I knew I had to make a card with these much beloved and well used dies of mine.

I decided to make a Thank you card, as you can never have too many in your stash (ok, so looking at my box of cards you *can* in fact have too many thank you cards, but that wasn't my point). I used the die to cut out a tag and stamped the cute flowers from the Petal Parade stamp set. I matted the tag onto Baked Brown Sugar card. The background is a DSP from a set called Tea for Two. Like all other crafting stuff, I hoard DSPs like crazy, but then I'm really bad at using them. I keep thinking I want to save them for a "special occasion", but what could be more special than crafting time? And I managed to use some random cream ribbon from my stash as well, so this is truly a great stash card. I have also bought the Summer Starfruit ink pad ages ago as I thought I would use it loads, but in fact this is the first time I'm breaking it out. I really like the colour combo of Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride and Summer Starfruit, it has a rather retro feel to it.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up Baked Brown Sugar, Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card
Paper: Stampin' Up Tea for Two Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Stampin' Up Petal Parade, So Very Grateful
Inks: Stampin' Up Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride and Summer Starfruit
Other: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk Framelits, cream ribbon from my stash