Pink butterfly

I'm so happy the sun is shining again today. This is at least the third day in a row with bright sunshine, and it just makes everything so much better. I love the way our house looks when there is light streaming in from every direction. And we are planning to tackle some stuff in the garden today as well, we didn't get around to doing all the necessary clearing up bits last fall so it looks quite a mess right now. 

I was also busy getting my photo blog up and running yesterday. So far there is only two pictures on there but I'm hoping there will be more in the future. Not quite sure how I will fit gardening, crafting and photography into my free time, but I'm sure I will somehow. If only I would win the lottery so I could skip the going to work-bit which unfortunately drains time from the stuff I love to do. 

But enough about everything else, and onto today's card. The card is inspired by the inspiration photos over at Just Add Ink and Time Out challenges. From the JAI photo I was inspired by the pink and teal butterfly and the concentric black circles. However, I didn't have any appropriate dies to make circular frames, so I was inspired by the overlapping rectangular frames in the Time Out photo to create the layout of my black frames. Looking at the photo, I should have shot the card against a white background and not used the blue paper for a background, now it looks like the blue background is part of the card, which it's not. I'm also linking up over at STAMPlorations where the March theme is Stencils & Stamps, Crafty Catz "A song to match your image" (Butterfly by Crazy Town), Creative Corner "Nature Inspired" and Allsorts "Spring is in the air".

Card: white 300 gsm card, black 240 gsm coloured kraft card, Stampin' Up Bermuda bay card

Stamp: Stampin' Up Swallowtail

Ink and colouring: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Melon Mambo and Coastal Cabana, Tim Holtz distress inks Peacock Feathers and Picked Raspberry

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangular dies, Stampin' Up Hello You die, Simon Says Stamp stencil

Pink and Purple with some lace

I didn't get far from the colours of my previous post. This card was just a little doodle I did while watching the new series on Channel 4 called Indian Summers. I wasn't convinced by the first episode, but will give it another chance. The image for this card is actually from my stash of unused coloured images, and I feel very good that I finally managed to use it. I can even remember the specific time when I coloured it. Last September the Culinary Consultant finally used a gift card I had given him for a day of learning to wheelie at a motorcycle driving school. So while he drove a bike around and around in circles for a whole day, I was camped out in the car with stamped images, Blendabilities, cookies, coffee, sweeties and the Bakeoff masterclass on the iPad. It was actually quite a fun day, and I think it's good to take your crafting out of the craft room from time to time. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate your craft room even more, and particularly appreciate having a desk to craft on. After the Culinary Consultant was finished with his wheelie-ing, we headed off to Ikea and ate meat balls. And bought a pack of bag sealing clips for £0.90. A day well spent I say!

Anyhow, back to the card at hand. I used distress inks and a stencil to create the background, fussy cut my pre-coloured image and stamped and inked the banner for the sentiment. I added some lace washi tape I have had for a while, and added a few adhesive gems for a finishing touch. Quick, easy and summery bright. 

This card was inspired by the sketch over at STAMPloratons. I'm also linking up at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and The Pink Elephant where Anything Goes this week.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card Raspberry, Hobbycraft 160 gsm card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Good Greetings, I Like You
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress inks Spun Sugar, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves and Picked Raspberry
Colouring: Stampin' Up Blendabilities Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive
Other: Simon Says Stamp stencil, Papermania adhesive gems, lace adhesive tape

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

Something lacy

This is another one of my lovely new stamps. I love the lacy look, it's going to be so versatile. I saw it coloured in this way in the Stampin' Up catty, so of course I had to try it. I wanted to keep the card really simple so that the beautiful lace flowers are the centre of attention.

I stamped and heat embossed the gorgeous lace pattern in white embossing powder onto vellum. I then used Blendabilities to colour the image on the back of the vellum. I die cut the "happy" from a scrap of light purple card. I also stamped the lacy flowers on the inside of the card and heat embossed in white for a subtle effect. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Craft for the Craic - Birthdays or Anniversaries
Simply Create Too - Anything Goes
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes
As You Like It - CAS or Fussy (CAS, because I love clean, in my mind it's harder to create CAS as it's unforgiving, whereas with fussy you can always cover up mistakes with new layers, embellishment etc).
Creative Knockouts - Floral Delight
Ruby's Rainbow - Soon be Spring

Card: 300 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum, coloured 240 gsm kraft card lilac
Stamps: Stampin' Up Something Lacy, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana
Colouring: Blendabilities Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight,  Melon Mambo, Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry
Other: Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits

Time Out meets Fusion card challenge

I love it when you see a challenge inspiration image and it stays in the back of your mind like an obsession until you get the card out of your system. The current Time Out Challenge image was one of those. I keep pages open on my browser for challenges I want to participate in so that they are always there when I use my computer to look at and let my mind create connections with stamps or dies or other crafting stuff from my stash. This time it took another challenge, Fusion, before this card came to life. I'm also linking up with Hiding In My Craft Room challenge where the theme is Colour It, 4 Crafty Chicks where the theme is Flowers and Crafty Cardmakers and More where the theme is Something Old and Something New. My something old is the Hardwood stamp and my something new is the Calypso Coral Blendabilities which I have never used before.

I stamped the flowers and coloured them with Blendabilities, inspired by the colours of the pillows. I die cut the flowers using circle dies and matted them onto red card. I used the same red card to die cut the "Hello" using the Hello You dies. I used the hardwood stamp in Soft Suede onto kraft cardstock to create the background. I also used the Soft Suede ink to ink around the edges of the flowers, the sentiment and the background. 

Card: Kraft card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in Pillarbox Red and Chocolate, Hobbycraft 160 gms white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up I Like You, Hardwood
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Soft Suede, Blendabilities Calypso Coral, Old Olive, Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo
Other: Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits, circle dies

Confessions of a paper hoarder

I have alluded to this before. But it's hard to talk about. I know many of you harbour similar tendencies, so maybe it's safe to say it out loud. After all, admitting a problem is the first step to healing. I am a paper hoarder. I love buying crafting papers and so very bad at using them. There, you have the ugly truth.

But today I tried to take a step in the right direction. Just use up a tiny little bit from the edge of a few papers. To encourage me on my road to recovery I used the current Freshly Made Sketch. Color Me...! are celebrating their one year anniversary, and you can pick any of the previous colour combos. I picked a yellow and turquoise one, and combined it with grey. I stamped the flower in Basic Grey and coloured with Blendabilites. I'm also entering the card over at Shopping Our Stash where the theme is Thrice as Nice (use at least three patterned papers). 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Basic Grey, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white 
Paper: Stampin' Up Eastern Elegance
Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloom With Hope, Good Greetings
Colouring: Stampin' Up Blendabilities  Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Smoky Slate
Other: Stampin' Up Basic pearls

First card for Crafts Galore Encore DT

Happy 2015 to all of you!! I'm very excited to start the new year by showing you my first card for the Crafts Galore Encore DT. The theme for the January challenge is Anything Goes to give you a great opportunity to get into crafting gear again after the holidays. You can share anything you craft, it doesn't necessarily have to be a card. Any crafty entry is welcome as long as it's a new creation. 

Our sponsor this time is Scrappers Delights and the DT is creating using images from the store. The prize for one randomly selected winner is three digis of their choosing. So hop over to Crafts Galore Encore and link up your fabulous creations for the month of January!

I created a card using the Cupcake Honey digi. I decided to do a double fold instead of just a normal card just for the fun of it, and to have space for more diecut cupcakes. I used the Sweet Sorbet DSP and selected the colours for the digi stamp from the paper. I added one of my favourite sentiments from the Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee stamp set which I think is perfect for the theme of the card. For colouring, I used a mix of Copics, Blendabilities and Stampin' Write markers. For the layout of the inside, I used this week's RetroSketch.

Card fully folded.

I'm entering the card in the following challenges (Boy does there seem to be plenty of "Anything Goes" Challenges around this time of the year...): 
RetroSketches - #146 
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything goes
613 Avenue Create Challenge - Anything Goes 
Glitter n' Sparkle Challenge - Anything Goes
Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
That Craft Place Challenge - Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Card: Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana, Crumb Cake, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white 
Stamps: Scrappers Delights Cupcake Honey digi, Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee
Paper: Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet, scraps of various Stampin' Up papers
Markers: Copics YR00, R02, Stampin' Up Blendabilites Daffodil Delight, Stampin' Write Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistashio Pudding, Strawberry Slush
Other: Ranger Ice Stickles Crystal Ice and Mint Ice

Hardwood Florals

I got a big bunch of Stampin' Up goodies the other day. I just love opening a new parcel of goodies. I must have been like a kid of Christmas, not knowing which new toy to play with first. I thought the I Like You stamp set would go really well with the current Fusion challenge so I inked it up. I'm also entering the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge where the theme this week is "Make Your Mark" as I coloured the flowers with markers, and the Crafty Creations Challenge where the theme is "Thinking of You".

I coloured the flowers with alcohol markers. The Hardwood stamp was a "must" based on the inspiration image. For a bit more stampin' and colourin' fun I stamped flowers inside the card as well.

Card: Stampin' Up Pacific Point and Old Olive card, kraft card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up I Like You, Hardwood Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Colouring: Stampin' Up Blendabilities Daffodil Delight and Old Olive, Copics B41, B45, B06
Other: Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Sunshine, Stampin' Up 1 in circle punch

Fusion sunflower

When I saw the sunny and summery sunflower picture over at Fusion card challenge I knew I wanted to play along. My card isn't so much an interpretation of the photo as a copy of it more or less. I've never said that being creative is my strong side, I take things I see and interpret them rather literally. I'm also participating in this week's Shopping our Stash where the them is the sun or clouds. I have a SUNflower and lots of clouds, and I used paper from my stash for the card.

For my card I used a free digistamp from Tim Coffey Art. I coloured the beautiful sunflower using Stampin' Up Blendabilites and used some stampin Up papers for the background and a stamp from the Just Sayin' set for a simple and quick but colourful card. A bit of Tim Holtz distress stickles in the middle of the flower for that final touch. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft three shades of blue and Three shades of yellow 160 gsm card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Sunflower digi from timcoffeyart.com
Ink: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Daffodil Delight Blendabilities
Paper: Stampin' Up Polka Dot Parade and Sunshine and Sprinkles DSP
Other: Ranger Tim Holtz Distress stickles Mustard Seed, Xcut dies scalloped circle

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)

Sunflower inspiration

As usual for my card, this card was inspired by several challenges. First of all, I was inspired by the great sketch and inspiration photo over at Viva la Verve. It's already week 3 of September, my contributions to weeks 1 and 2 are here and here. I loved the inspiration photo with the wooden table and sunflowers. I was also inspired by the Friday Mashup where the challenge is to use vellum and/or stitching (real or faux). I managed to get both into this card. I don't use faux stitching very often, but when I do, I always like the effect but I seem to need a reminder to use it. Last but not least I was inspired by Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Tag it, which worked perfectly with the sketch.

I stamped the sunflowers in Chocolate Chip. There is a stamp that is supposed to fill in the colour in the sunflowers, but I couldn't make the yellow bright enough, so I decided it was a case for the Blendabilites. They are perfect for a bit of Friday chillaxing. Some good music on Spotify, maybe a bit of good chocolate and lots of colouring, and you feel completely refreshed and ready for the weekend.

Card: Craft UK kraft card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum, coloured 240 gsm kraft card chocolate

Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Tim Holtz Walnut Stain, Stampin' Up Blendabilities Daffodil Delight, Copics E34, E39

Stamps: Stampin' Up Reason to Smile, Hardwood, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Paper: Stampin' Up Print Poetry DSP stack

Other: Stampin' Up Scalloped tag topper punch, circular dies, yellow ribbon and twine from my stash, Stampin' Up basic pearls coloured with a Copic marker

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