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

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

Fiddly stamp-colouring

It's been a bit of a rough weekend, but thankfully it took a turn for the better today. Lack of sleep really messes with me. But upwards and onwards is the way to go. So I have baked a chocolate bundt cake and a fudge loaf. And made this card.

Today's card is inspired by the absolutely awesome colour combo over at ColourQ. It's no secret I love pink and purple, and gold is growing on me. It wasn't originally my favourite metallic, I used to be a total silver girl. But I have to admit I'm using gold more and more. I was also inspired by yet again a great sketch over at RetroSketches. I'm also playing along at both the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers (poor poor Edna looks like she's had a worse weekend than I did...) and The Card Concept, both with the theme "Get Well Soon" (in the style Clean and Layered for The Card Concept). I also want to link up at Allsorts Challenge because their badge is so delicious looking, and also because the theme this week is to use some purple.

I love the big central panel in the sketch. It was just a question of what stamp to use to fill it. I have made a similar panel using the same stamp in monochrome blue before, you can see it here. But that was a bit easy, so I thought I could colour it with markers in many colours instead, resulting in quite a bit of fiddly colouring. Half way thorough I almost lost my patience, but thankfully persevered as I think it turned out quite nice. I matted it onto mirri card. The banner is made from a scrap piece of card I made using Distress Paints. Sometimes it's worth saving all those scrap pieces, eventually there will be some place where they fit in. I heat embossed the sentiment in gold on vellum and added three adhesive gems to finish. First I didn't like that the stamping was a bit uneven due to the marker colouring, but after looking at it for a while, I think it's actually quite a nice look.

Card: White 300 gsm card, mirri card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum

Stamps: Stampin' Up Fresh Vintage, From the Farm

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Write markers Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Wisteria Wonder

Other: Scrap piece of Distress Paint coloured card from my endless stash, Papermania adhesive gems, gold embossing powder.

Purple welcome baby

This is just a quick crafting fix I needed between blogging, movie watching and game playing. I'm so sad my long holiday is coming to an end. I really don't want to go back to work... But I guess the mortgage won't pay itself so off I go to the salt mines again in just over a day.

This card was inspired by the colour combo over at Pals Paper Art. I also used the sketch over at My Favourite Things for inspiration. I'm also linking up at Cute Card Thursday where Anything Goes.

The card is pretty simple, I used a marker for the faux stitching along the edges of the DSP and sentiment banner. The cute critters are stamped using Memento ink and coloured with a watercolour brush and Wisteria Wonder and Chipped Sapphire ink. I don't know if I have a faulty Wisteria Wonder ink, but compared to the cardstock (which is also Wisteria wonder), it looks grey to me. The baby elephant is coloured in Wisteria Wonder, and you have to agree it's nowhere close to the colour of the cardstock. Oh well, I guess it's not the end of the world. I also stamped the cute kango in the inside of the card.

Card: Stampin' Up Wisteria Wonder, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Paper: Stampin' Up Gingham Garden

Stamps: Paper Smooches A Little Lovin

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Stampin' Up Wisteria Wonder, Tim Holtz Chipped Sapphire Distress ink

Other: Papermania silver embossing powder

Nontraditional Christmas Colours

Yes, it's another Christmas card post. I was asked to make some Christmas cards with Finnish and Swedish sentiments, so who am I to argue. This card was inspired by CAS(E) this Sketch. For the first card I used the colour combo from CAS - Colours and Sketches. For the second card, I picked the colour combination myself. 

I really like the Clean and Simple look of these cards. Unfortunately the colours don't show in the photos quite as nicely as they do in real life, but you should be able to get an idea. 

I also stamped a few Christmas ornaments inside the card for a finishing touch.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card Teal, silvery grey card from my stash

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the woods

Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Basic Grey, Crumb Cakem Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky and Wisteria Wonder, Hobbycraft pigment ink silver

Other: Stampin Up Island Indigo ribbon, grey ribbon from my stash, Stampin' Up basic adhesive gems 

Petal Parade inspiration

I'm cutting it very close to the deadline of the two challenges I'm participating in today. But I couldn't miss this week's ColourQ challenge, the colour combo is spectacular. And when I saw the inspiration photo, I knew exactly which stamp set I wanted to use. This card takes me right back to the heart of making your own cards - stamping! I just love stamping away and this set is perfect for making your own stamped backgrounds. Who needs designer paper when you can make your own so easily, and having so much fun in the process! I also loved the sketch this week over at the Pink Elephant challenge, and thought it would be perfect for displaying my hand-stamped background (although this sketch would also be perfect to get rid of a few of those hoarded scraps of designer paper as well). I guess it doesn't get said enough, but I am so grateful to all the people working so hard to provide us crafters with inspiring challenges every week, and who go through all that effort to come and comment on each and every one of our creations, spreading joy and encouragement to blogs like mine which otherwise might go completely unnoticed in the great vast infinity that is the Interwebs.

I also stamped inside the card and on the envelope.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, Stampin' Up Soft Sky and Wisteria Wonder card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Petal Parade and Yippee-Skippee

Ink: Stampin' Up Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Soft Sky and Wisteria Wonder

Other: Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch, ribbon and twine from my stash

Petite Petals graduation card

This is the second-to-last in the bunch of graduation cards I have made for my Sister's friends. It seems like ages ago when I started with the first one, and still I was struggling to get them all done in time. It's been a challenge to come up with something individual and unique for each of the new doctors, but I've had a great time creating. 

This card came together easily using the Stampin' Up Petite Petals stamp set and matching punch. It's so fun to stamp and punch the flowers, I could make oodles of cards like this. I also added some splatter using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set (which seems to feature on about 90% of all my cards, but what can you do, if it ain't broken don't fix it). I die cut the letters and put everything together with a few adhesive gems for a bit of bling. I stamped a row of flowers inside the card and on the envelope as well.

I'm entering this card in Addicted to CAS which this week is about "Celebrate". If graduating as a Medical Doctor is not a reason to celebrate, I don't know what is. I'm also entering this week's Addicted to Stamps and more where the theme is CAS. I also had to enter the Shopping our Stash challenge as the theme was to use something you can't put away, and these two stamp sets definitely have seen their fair share of use in my craft room. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Petite Petals
Inks: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate, Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Jewels Basic Rhinestones, Petite Petals punch, Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out alphabet die

Butterflies in a box

Just a quick post before I crash into bed. I made this box of butterflies a while ago. I used the same measurements for the box as I have used before here, here and here. Once you have made on card-in-a-box it's actually quite quick and easy to make more of them, although they look like hard work. What is hard work though is all the fussy cutting. For this card I cut quite a few butterflies. But it was all worth it in the end.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock
Paper: Dovecraft Princess Fairytale Designer Paper Pack
Inks: Stampin' Up Pear Pizzazz, Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Wisteria Wonder
Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin Marvellous, Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Heartfelt

Swallowtail CAS

This week's Crafthoarders Anonymous Challenge is "Pick a stamp, Any Stamp". First I toyed with a few ideas, but they all got binned at various stages. So in the end, I decided to pick The Stamp. The Swallowtail. This is such a great stamp, and colouring it is always so much fun! To be honest, sometimes I just stamp it and colour it several times over, just for fun (I know, I need to get a life). And to show off the detailed stamp in all it's glory, I decided to make a CAS card. Nothing but the amazing stamp and a simple sentiment. I really struggle with CAS, I want to keep adding things. When I see other people's cards I think the white space is very nice, but when I attempt it myself I always end up adding more and more stuff thinking it's too simple and too plain. This time I decided to remember the best rule. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!

The layout for the card is from this week's CAS(E) this sketch challenge. And yes, there is a third challenge as well (three times lucky) as the The Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge this week is Winged Things. And what could be more perfect for that than the lovely and colourful swallowtail wings.

 

I stamped the Swallowtail using Hobbycraft black pigment ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I coloured the image using Stampin' Up markers. The tag for the sentiment is cut using the Stampin' Up Chalk Talk framelits and the sentiment is a detail from a stamp set called Life's Messages from Penny Black. I covered the stamp apart from the one line I wanted to stamp using cellotape, inked up the stamp, removed the tape and positioned the sentiment using a Stamp-a-ma-jig. To finish off I added two small adhesive gems and then took the photo really quick before I could add something to the card...

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up So Saffron card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Penny Black Life's Messages
Inks: Hobbycraft Black Pigment Ink, Stampin' Up markers in Blushing Bride, Pool Party, So Saffron and Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies, Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder, Papermania adhesive gems