thank you

 hello crafty stampers!

I have a card today I made for the Just Us Girls challenge #603 Photo week.

I haven't entered a challenge using a photo as inspiration but there's always a first time! Such a beautiful photo - how I wish I could grow armfuls of flowers like this! I found so much to draw inspiration from in the photo, I went round in circles and found myself with too much going on and too many ideas. Crazy! So I decided to go CAS - when in doubt, simplify!

I began (this version 😉) by making scratchy marks on kraft card with green, brown and white inks. The kraft was then cut into strips and randomly glued back together to get the 'shabby shutter' look. Then I watercoloured 2 pages - 1 in green and 1 in pink and purple using distress oxide inks. I used Altenew Beautiful Day and stamped the leaves and the flower images, then die cut them with the coordinating dies.  I trimmed the flower image to cut out the leaf parts. The images are glued and the top ones popped up on foam squares. The sentiment from Altenew Mini Daisy stamp was stamped directly on the card front.

Thanks for stopping by!

ugly

 hello crafty stampers!

Let me tell you about my cat. Sox is a magnificent Siberian, ginger and cream striped. He is a fierce hunter (in his mind), a loyal friend (when he wants to be), a lap warmer (whether you want him or not) and definitely the boss of the house. Love him dearly 😍 My husband says in my eyes he can do no wrong, which is pretty much right, even when he's scratching up the sofa or meowing at 4 in the morning.  What can I say?

Today I made a card with him in mind. The lovely sisters at the sisterhood of snarky stampers have a new challenge: SOSS #194 U is for Ugly. Wow, a glimpse into Edna's real life?

Now don't go making assumptions here, it's not my cat that's ugly. 😇

The background was stencilled using Altenew Foliage stencil with Altenew inks, slightly offset between inking. The edge was inked and there may have also been some random stamping of dots around the perimeter. The sentiment was printed from the internet, and inked around the edges also. Stamps are no name and to be honest, not that good, so I think I'll be sticking to proper stamp brands from now on.

Thanks for stopping by and happy stamping!

thoughts

 hello again stampers!

I'm on a roll and onto the second card challenge for today - the rain is not easing up, so I'm taking advantage of some free time!

I found an interesting challenge at As You See it yesterday where you had to complete a card in under 10 minutes AND make it funny! Oh okay...

I had an idea for a card, based on a sentiment I had picked out but I had no idea how long it would take, I mean, how long is a piece of string? so I planned it out, got out the inks and supplies, began the timer and started with the first step - ink blending... Well that probably was my undoing.  I stopped the clock after 11 minutes with blurry stamping and still having not done the sentiment.  Doh!

Okay let's rethink this... I simplified the ink blending, making it only 2 colours, carefully cleaned off the stamps and made sure I didn't overink, decided not to cut down the panel but just adhere it to the card base. 2nd try was a success!

The stamps are from Darkroom Door Under the Sea, and the sentiment is a Tim Holtz Big Talk sticker. I stopped the timer at 9:22:03 but the distress oxide ink was still wet. I guess that still counts?

Great challenge! I'll be joining in more in the future for sure.

Thanks for stopping by!

hugs

 hello stampers!

It's raining today so I've spent a lovely morning in the craft room, enjoying the escape from weeding the garden! I made a card for 2 challenges which is the first time I've entered more than 1 challenge at a time - my skills must be coming along, albeit at a snail's pace 😉

It's colour week at Just Us Girls 

and the good people at AAA Cards have a no layers challenge

I have been wanting to use a recently acquired stamp from Darkroom Door so took the opportunity today.

I began by blending distress oxide inks in yellow, orange and red using a rectangle stencil. Then stamped the main sentiment from Darkroom Door Friends, masking off the first word and substituting the word 'hugs' using letters from Darkroom Door Alphabet Medley.  

I always get a little nervous with a 1 layer card - if I mess up, it's a full do-over: something I am not fond of doing as my brain moves onto the next idea. But simplicity is key - I am learning.

Thanks for stopping by!

hello

 hello there stampers!

I saw the challenge over at Perfectly CAS this month and was so pleased to see Geometric as their theme.

Okay so I'll admit it. I'm a maths lover. Bring on the circles and rectangles, so awesome!

I decided on a kite as the main shape because I mean who doesn't love a perfect quadrilateral? lol I cut 1/4" strips of rainbow cards and adhered them to a white card then cut out the kite shape. I stencilled a cloud formation using MFT Rolling clouds and distress oxide ink and adhered it to the back of a panel that had a circle window punched from it.The extra bits of the coloured card strips were cut into tiny rectangles for the kite tail. The sentiment from Altenew Sentiment Strips was stamped onto white card, cut into a rectangle then all the card pieces were popped up on foam on the front panel.

I kept it clean and simple and left out the lines on the kite and tail - interestingly I think our imagination draws the lines in anyway...

Thanks for stopping by!

*Edit: I'm thrilled to be chosen as winner for the 'geometric' challenge!

get well soon

 hi there stampers!

I was on a roll today and found so many lovely leaf stamps that I had to keep making cards. The challenge at AAA cards this week is:

The ginkgo leaves from Stampin Up Loyal Leaves were stamped with distress oxide ink, masking between stamping to overlap the 2nd leaf. The mask was then put on the 2nd leaf and the x marks stencilled using Paper Rose Mark Maker stencil and distress oxide ink. The sentiment from Kaisercraft was stamped on a white strip, layered 3 times and glued over the images. The panel was adhered to a panel that was blended with the same happy yellow distress oxide ink around the edges.

I do love the fresh green and happy yellow together and thought they would certainly give some cheering up to a friend who is under the weather.

Thanks for stopping by!

missing you

 hello crafty stampers!

I found a challenge I hadn't entered before so thought I would brush up on my CAS skills. The lovely people at Addicted to CAS have this week's challenge with the code word: leaf.

I recently received a new stencil from Paper Rose and had to try it out on a card. New for me, and so many ideas were swirling in my head. I do find it difficult to come to rest on just one idea, and especially for a CAS card, so many possibilities, so little time.  lol

The splash stencil from Paper Rose Mark Maker was blended with distress oxide inks to give an ombre effect using 2 colours and the top fading to white. The leaf was die cut from Altenew Leaf Mix die set and also blended using the same colours, and the same technique. The sentiment from Stampin Up Loyal Leaves was lastly stamped onto the panel. 

So many people I haven't seen recently with our rolling Covid lockdowns, I have a feeling I'll be sending out a few of these type of cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

magic

 hello crafty stampers!

The lovely ladies over at Just Us Girls challenge have a new challenge this week - Trend Week and they have chosen for us to create a shaker card.

I was reading and watching a few youtubes about the edge to edge shakers and thought that would be fun to try.

I started by heat embossing the sentiment from Darkroom Door in white, then blended distress oxide inks over and around the embossing. A few white ink splatters were added too, then the edges of the panel were inked in black. The clear plastic was placed over the panel and glued onto the back then the little sequins added and the last edge sealed up. Lastly the card was adhered to a black card base.

Such a fun technique and a Christmas card for my stash too! 

Thanks for stopping by!

congratulations

 hello lovely stampers!

The girls over at the Just Us Girls challenge are celebrating their 600th challenge.  Wow! So I thought a congratulations card was in order 😊 The challenge this week is JUGS#600 - 6 of anything.

One of my favourite dies is the Altenew Leaf Mix die set which I don't use nearly enough but I thought I'd use it on this card as the leaves look beautiful lined up in a row. 

Leaves were cut from a rainbow (well, 6 😁) of cardstock in various leaf shapes and mounted on a black card base. The sentiment from Altenew Ornamental Bliss was heat embossed in white on black card, layered up 3 times and glued over the leaves.  The card was finished with a few 'dew drops' from Stampin Up.

Great work, ladies, and keep the challenges coming! 

Thanks for stopping by!

**Edit: I am so thrilled to be chosen as Chic of the Week for my card. Thank you so much!

talking

 hello lovely stampers!

I was lucky to be chosen as queen last challenge with the snarky sisterhood so I have the honour of being the guest designer this fortnight. The challenge is #193 P is for Paper Piecing.

Okay so I'm fessing up - never done this before! But how hard can it be right? Turns out it's brilliant! Especially for people like me with no copic markers and not a whole lot of drawing skills.  Girls, I have your back!

Stamped the bird from Darkroom Door Garden Birds using Memento tuxedo black ink, onto several coloured Stampin' Up papers and then fussy cut out each body part and glued them together to get the finished bird. Stamped the leaves from Altenew Beautiful Day onto the leftover reverse of the papers and die cut them with the coordinating die. Fussy cut the conversations from the same papers, black inked the edges using memento tuxedo black and glued them onto the card. The leaves were glued, bird popped up with foam squares, and the words from Tim Holtz Small Talk was also glued in place. Finally the black card panel was glued onto a paper panel, then glued onto a black card base.

I'll be using this paper piecing technique again now I know it's a thing! lol Come on and join in the fun with the snarky sisterhood!

Thanks for stopping by!