look pretty

 hello lovely stampers!

The fab sisterhood of snarky stampers have a new challenge this fortnight: E is for Everything Pink and Edna is looking mighty fine!

Now I have never been a girly girl and pink is not my favourite colour but I can certainly see the allure when it is presented with different hues and shades, so that formed the basis for my card. That decided, tho, I could find in my stash no pink card whatsoever! 

I began by blending pink distress oxide inks all over a white card panel. A circle was punched from white card for the moon and adhered to the panel, then given a solid cover of wink of Stella (hard to see in the pic). The wildflowers and starbursts were stamped using Altenew Wildflower doodles with a combination of distress oxides and Altenew inks. A couple of clouds using My Favourite Things Rolling Clouds were stencilled in distress oxide ink. I die cut the fairy using Paper Rose Fairy Isabella die from pink metallic paper, mounted on card, and adhered in position. The sentiment was printed on pink paper, mounted on card, edges inked in pink and popped up on foam tape for dimension. The whole panel was adhered to a white card base that had the edges and perimeter inked in Altenew Pinkalicious.

Thanks for stopping by!

peekaboo

 hello there stampers!

I made a card today for the fantastic challenge at AAA cards. This challenge is one corner with optional twist "boo!". 

Ironically, we don't really celebrate halloween here so not so much call for a halloween card, but I also didn't read the blog so closely and didn't actually realise it was meant to be a halloween card! oops! But I did manage to incorporate the optional twist - with a twist of my own! Hope it brings a smile to the team anyway...

I began by blending distress oxide ink in the lower corner of the card panel. I die cut the basket using Paper Rose Cupcake die but used kraft card to make it look like a basket, making sure all the little die cut bits stayed in place. Some orange distress oxides were blended on a card scrap and the kitty was stamped over the top then fussy cut. The sentiment was printed, mounted on card and popped up on foam for some dimension.

I remember as a child we had a cat that loved sleeping in the basket of clean warm clothes waiting to be sorted. She would leave her ginger fur all over the towels! This image really brought back memories lol

Thanks for stopping by!

sympathy

 hello stampers!

Today I made a card for the latest challenge at perfectlyCAS #20 Sympathy

I wanted to use one of the new die sets that I just received this week - one has different feather shapes and one has butterflies. I'm using a feather today and also putting this card on the NBUS blog - thanks Darnell!

I began by blending distress oxide inks with muted colours and then die cut a rectangle shape from the panel using Paper Rose Stitched Rectangles die set. I then die cut the feather using Paper Rose Feather Trio from white card. The rectangle and feather were glued to a white card base. The sentiment was stamped directly onto the card base using Altenew Sentiment Strips with distress oxide ink to match the blended colour. It was stamped 3 times using my Misti, then heat embossed with clear.

Thanks for stopping by!

*Edit: Big thanks for the recognition from the DT for choosing my card as the winner this month!

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!

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!

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!

seashell

 hello there stampers!

I have a lovely card for you today that I made for a friend. The inspiration was the current challenge at CAS colours and sketches #432

In Melbourne here, we're coming to the end of winter and a little dose of summer would be most welcome! A little memory of the beach and collecting seashells proved to be too enticing to pass up.

I started by using watered distress oxide inks and smooshing the colours over a couple of white card panels. Once dry, I stamped the shells over the interesting coloured spots of one card, and used the other card as the background panel. The stamped images were fussy cut and glued to the white base. The inchies fit perfectly on the card! The sentiment was glued to a pool party card strip to match the seaside colours.

Thanks for stopping by!

ingredients:

stamps: darkroom door seaside inchies

inks: distress oxide scattered straw, tumbled glass, peacock feathers, memento tuxedo black

guardian angel

 hi there crafty stampers!

I have a lovely little card today inspired by the latest challenge from the sisterhood of snarky stampers #188 W is for Watercolour.

I don't know why but watercolours always make me think of the ocean and undersea creatures.  All those dreamy colours and blurred edges.

The background is distress oxide inks, watered and swirled over the card panel. After stamping the main images, the panel edges were inked with speckled egg. The sentiment is a Big Talk sticker, stacked onto card and also watercolored with speckled egg. 

Come join the sisters and have some fun with watercolours! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

inks: distress oxide inks

stamps: darkroom door under the sea, seaside inchies

sentiment: Tim Holtz Big Talk sticker

Edit: Thankyou lovely sisters for choosing me as a Princess for this card - had a ball doing the watercolour!

flutter

 hello crafty stampers!

I have a card for you today that should put a smile on your face.  Purely by chance, I found the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers blog and got such a giggle out of it, I had to have a go at their challenge. The current one is SOSS #183

Now I own zero snarky stamps, so perhaps more of a challenge for me. But I figured I'd use what words I had to convey a similar idea. I'm hoping I hit the mark!

I started by stamping the bird on ink covered card then cut him out. I blended ink for the background on a card panel, stamped around the edge and also inked the edge. Then I stamped the bird on the card panel, glued the blue bird over the stamped image. I stamped the words and inked their edges and foam taped them onto the card panel. Then glued the panel onto a card base.

I just love this bird - now he has attitude! Bit like my cat. 💙

Edit: Thank you so much for crowning me Queen Rachel for this challenge - I'm thrilled and honoured! 

Supplies:

distress oxide inks: tumbled glass, salty ocean, chipped sapphire, archival ink jet black

darkroom door stamps: garden birds, Wildflowers Vol 1, alphabet medley, flourish texture stamp

other various stamps 

spread your wings

 hello lovely stampers!

I am sharing a simple card with you today. I took the challenge from PerfectlyCAS for this month:

  

I am loving using the distress oxide inks - the layering ability is fantastic.  I used 2 or 3 colours on my butterflies to get a graduated colour effect. Lots of inky fun!

I started by blending using the cloud stencil to make a background. Using my MISTI, I stamped each butterfly several times with parts of it inked with colour. The fun part is deciding which beautiful colour to use next! The sentiment was put among the butterflies to tie them all together. Lastly I mounted the panel onto a mint macaron card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

supplies:

darkroom door stamp: Wildflowers Vol 1

my favourite things stencil: rolling clouds

distress oxide inks: scattered straw, dried marmalade, spun sugar, abandoned coral, seedless preserves, tumbled glass, salty ocean, peacock feathers, chipped sapphire, black soot