Lots of weird things

This card contains several things that are very strange for me, which I don't use very much. I don't use much of orange, it's a very difficult colour for me. I also almost never use buttons, they make cards difficult to post, and just don't feel... well... right. However, I was very inspired by the challenge over at The Friday Mashup which involved a sketch and to use two different embellishments. I hardly every use any, or if I do, it's almost always gems. So this time I thought I would go "overboard" and use not one, not two but three embellishments. But somehow the style of the card still feels quite clean and simple, so I like it despite all the weird stuff on it. One reason I like it so much is the amazing colour combo over at Colour Me...! The colours are so bright and go really well together to my big surprise. 

I would also like to link up over at CASE-ing the Catty, where the theme this week is to use a new DSP. I love the cool new Irresistibly Yours DSP and have used it already with markers and with my cool new Tim Holtz spritzer tool. This time I thought I would use distress inks, and was inspired by the image on page 14 of the SALE-a-bration cattie. It's such a super versatile DSP. I am also linking up over at Craft Hoarders Anonymous where the theme is to choose your challenge by picking from different categories. I picked ink for colouring medium, twine for fiber, stamping and die cutting for technique, embossing for texture and buttons and bling for embellishments.

Inspiration picture from page 14 of the
Stampin' Up Sale-a-bration catalogue.

Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge

Card: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay and Rich Razzleberry card, Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm card
DSP: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours 
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers, Seedless Preserves and Spiced Marmalade
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers and dies, Just Sayin'
Other: Yellow twine, Stampin' Up buttons subtles, Papermania adhesive gems

Crafts Galore Encore February Challenge

This year seems to go at least as fast as the previous one, if not faster. January just disappeared without a trace. The good thing is time is rushing towards towards spring. I felt so sad last autumn watching the sunsets from the back of our house feeling nostalgic about the loss of summer. Right now, although I realise that the the worst of the winter is probably yet to come, we are moving towards longer days and more light.

And what better way to celebrate lighter and longer days than craft something colourful? Or craft in general! Our February challenge over at Crafts Galore Encore is to use a stamp or digi on your creation. It doesn't have to be a card, as long as it has a stamp or digi it qualifies. So me and the rest of the DT are super-excited to see all your fabulous creations in our gallery. Our sponsors for February are Kenny K and Jellypark who are both giving away digis to the winners. There will be both randomly selected winners and DT favourite winners, so plenty of chances to pick up prizes! We are also looking for a creative crafter to join our happy and friendly DT so if you are interested, hop over and have take a look.

The DT is showcasing plenty of inspiration using Kenny K images. For my card, I used the Texting Friends digi stamp and a sentiment from Social Media Sentiments. I used Copics to colour the image and the Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling card die to cut out the image. I also die cut a piece of brightly coloured DSP for the background, and the "Hello" using Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits. I matted everything onto two shades of purple card and added some colourful adhesive gems for embellishment.

I'm entering the card into the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes
Bloggers Challenge - Cheers to You
Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - Stitching real or faux
Hiding in My Craft Room - Freestyle
Inspiration Destination - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - Stitching real or faux
The Pink Elephant Challenge - Anything Goes
Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm card, Coloured 240 gsm card Purple grape and Lilac, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Paper: Stampin' Up Sunshine and Sprinkles, Patterns Stack Brights collection
Stamps: Kenny K Texting Friends and Social Media Sentiments digis
Colouring: Copics
Other: Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits, Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling card die, Papermania adhesive gems

Valentine's sentiment

We are invited for a wedding on Valentine's Day. They are friends of the Culinary Consultant, and I don't really know them that well. But I thought I would make a card to celebrate the event. I didn't want to go overboard mushy with the card, as I'm sure a wedding on Valentine's day is all mushy and heart-filled and pink and red enough. So I turned to my trusty stamp friend. I absolutely love the Life's Messages sentiment stamp from Penny Black and I keep using it over and over, it's just so incredibly versatile. And I think it's great for a Valentine's card/wedding card as well. 

When I saw the colour combo over at ColourQ I immediately made a dash for my craft room. It's sooo fab, and I just had to use it for something immediately!! And I can honestly say this is the first time in the history of ever that I have used the word fab about a colour combo which contains orange. Orange, green and yellow are my least favourite colours, and I would never use them if it wasn't for colour challenges. But I thought Calypso Coral went so perfectly with this lovely combo. On a completely unrelated note, I can't figure out how the heels on the wool socks in the picture are made, they look very different to how I have learned to knit the heels. But no more on that subject. I was also completely inspired by this weeks sketch over at My Favourite Things, I think it's absolutely brilliant so I used it for my card. I was also inspired by the challenge over at Just Us Girls which is "Make your sentiment the focal point", and I think the lovely Penny Black sentiment is perfect for this challenge. I'm also entering the card in a few Valentine's themed challenges: Shopping Our Stash (theme Love Me Do), Stampin' Royalty (Valentine's), Time Out Challenges (Valentine's Day with the optional twist of Hearts) and The Card Concept (inspiration photo, I was inspired by the ombre colouring which I used in the background and also on the word Laugh).

I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and embossed using white powder. I then used sponges to ink Calypso Coral, Strawberry Slush and Aged Mahogany (I don't have Cherry Cobbler) in the background, and spritzed with water. I used a DSP from Venetian Romance for the background, and matted everything onto Strawberry Slush card. I coloured the word Laugh from the sentiment using Calypso Coral, Strawberry Slush and Aged Mahogany markers and stamped onto white cardstock for the banner. Last, I stamped the heart from Perfect Postage in Aged Mahogany. I absolutely love this sketch and colour combo, given that I don't really like Valentine's cards, I think this turned out rather good. I'm just so happy about all the great challenges out there and the amazing inspiration from the DTs who do a great job week after week. 

Card: Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Smoky Slate

Stamps: Penny Black Life's Messages, Stampin' Up Perfect Postage

Inks and Markers: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Strawberry Slush, Tim Holtz distress ink Aged Mahogany, Tsukineko Versamark

Paper: Stampin' Up Venetian Romance

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing Powder

Neon!

I made it home from work early enough to photograph this card in daylight, yay! Fading daylight to be fair, but daylight still. Days are getting longer (and I left work really early...). It will be spring soon! I'm trying to keep the spirits up, I'm convinced we will get through this miserable winter soon. The weather last weekend was lovely, and we did some gardening. I guess weeding in January is proof of a very mild winter, it seems a bit unnatural. I'm hoping we won't have any cold spells, as a lot of our bulbs have already popped their heads above ground and I would hate to lose them to frost. 

Nothing like a bit of super-bright colours to cheer us all up. Today's card is one of those you will either love or hate. I happen to love it, although I guess I'm a bit biased. The card is inspired by the very colourful inspiration picture over at Cure for the Monday Blues. I used the sketch over at STAMPlorations for the layout. I'm also linking up over at CASology where the theme is Birthday, Make My Monday where the theme is Bright and Cheerful Colours and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything Goes.

This stamp is one of those I just had to have, but it has remained almost unused since it's arrival in my craft room. So I thought it would be perfect for this challenge. I also love the technique of heat embossing in white and then colouring with Sharpies, as you don't have to buy a big bunch of coloured embossing powders. The colouring is also really fun! I stamped the arrow from Petal Parade in white craft ink on vellum and created the sentiment using die cut letters with Ice Stickles.

Card: Black 240 gsm coloured kraft card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum, Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card
Stamp: Hero Arts Sweet Threads Spirals, Stampin' Up Craft Ink Whisper White
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark
Colouring: 80's Glam Sharpies
Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Ranger Ice Stickles

The Challenge #23

I have been making cards for about two years now, and this blog has existed for more or less a year. And I start to feel like I'm finding my style. I do like to make all sorts of cards, but the ones I always end up feeling most happy about are the CAS ones. Well, I guess I have kind of made my own sort of CAS, I'm not very good with white space in the traditional meaning of "white". I like colourful backgrounds but cards that aren't too crowded, and mostly have only one focal point. Today's card is an example of the type of card I feel most comfortable with. 

This card was totally and utterly inspired by the colours and sketch over at The Challenge. The colour combo is one I wouldn't have picked myself, but that's why we have colour challenges, right? For me they are pretty much my only avenue to using anything beside purple and pink... For this challenge, I wanted to play with watercolours. I need to start buying watercolour paper in bulk, I go through loads of it. I'm also linking up at Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is Clean And Simple and The Pink Elephant where Anything Goes.

I started by spritzing the watercolour paper with water, and inked a stamp from Gorgeous grunge in Daffodil Delight and Bermuda Bay and stamped all over the cardstock. I then spritzed some more water onto the cardstock to make the colours run. I then switched to a stamp with smaller spots from the same set and stamped in Real Red and Bermuda Bay. After another few spritzes of water I dried the cardstock with my heat tool. I die cut the "Happy" from Real Red card and stamped the "Birthday" in Real Red. Then I matted the card onto Real Red card and adhered to a white card. It was so much fun playing with the watercolour effect. Then I put the card away quickly before I started adding anything to it, I think it's finished as it is.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Real Red, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper

Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Real Red

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You dies

Up Up and Away

I'm continuing to focus on using up some of my hoarded papers maybe that's my belated promise for 2015 - to use more paper than I buy! This week's ShowCASe Your Style inspiration photo was perfect for a paper from the Stampin' Up World Spectacular DSP. I used the sketch from Retro Sketches, and the colours from the balloons on the DSP. The colours on this card were very far from my usual comfort zone, so it was fun to make something different. I'm also linking up at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "Up in the Clouds".

Card: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight

Paper: Stampin' Up World Spectacular

Stamps: Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink Aged Mahogany

Other: Stampin' Up Scallope Tag Topper Punch, Candy Dots subtles, Lawn Fawn Stitched Journalling Card die

Hugs and kisses

Today's card is inspired by the photo over at Just Us Girls. I didn't want to go for hearts as the obvious choice so I used feathers instead. I tried to use inks and markers on the stamps to mimic the marbled effect on the cookies, and use the colour scheme from the photo. The layout for the card is inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up with CASology where the cue card is Friend and Brown Sugar where the theme is Valentine's.

I coloured the feathers with ink pads and markers to get a marbled effect and die cut them with the matching dies. I die cut spaces for the feathers in the bronze cardstock, and adhered the feathers into place. I stamped the sentiment in Regal Rose. Last, I used my Tim Holtz Spritz tool to add some airbrush stains to the white space. Unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the photo as only the most dark airbrush stains show, but it gives a subtle effect to the background. 

Card: Leonardo Cardstock 300 gsm white card, Metallic Bronze card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers and dies, Good Greetings
Ink: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Real Red, Regal Rose
Other: Papermania adhesive gems