Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge #119 M is for Monster

Our latest challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is M is for Monster

I've taken the cute route with my card today.

The image I have used is Monster family, a digi from Sasayaki Glitter. Because it was just crying to be coloured in bold, bright colours I dug out a snippet of double sided card and coloured the monsters to match it. I chopped the  background card in half and reversed one half so that both patterns show, and added a sentiment stamped with a Dylusions stamp.

My grandkids thought this card was adorable. They're odd like that.

Now, how about  popping over to see what the other Sistahs have created and share your own monsteriffic creations with us? You may be crowned queen or princess of Snark!

Inky Backgrounds at Back to Basics

Our newest challenge at Back to Basics gives you lots of scope for creativity - Inky Backgrounds.

For this card I blended various shades of aqua and blue ink over the card, leaving the centre blank then using progressively darker shades as I reached the edge. I also blended some of the lighter inks over an offcut of card. When the main card was ready, I spritzed it with water and blotted it after a couple of minutes although this doesn't really show up in the photo but if you squint really hard you can see it towards the top right.

I stamped the butterflies onto the scrap card and fussy cut them, then when the other card was completely dry I stamped the sentiment in black then various flower and grass stamps using the inks I had used for the background plus light and dark olive green. I finished the butterflies with a touch of olive green too then attached them to the background with 3d glue.

G is for.... at CD Sundays

It's time for this fortnight's challenge at CD Sundays, and this time our theme is "G is for..." so let your imagination run riot! Goats, golf, goldfish, Germany - there's a whole dictionary-worth (well, a 26th of a dictionary) for you to play with.

For my G-word I have chosen GEARS and have used lots of papers printed from the Magik Graphics CD "Steampunk Beauty" with the addition of die cut gear wheels. Here is the gatefold card I made.



Closed card



inside

left hand flap

right hand flap

Fussy cutting the cog wheels on those borders took AGES - I think I'll look for different ways to use them next time!

Now let's see what the letter G means to you - and remember, you MUST use something from a CD in order to be considered as one of our top picks or prizewinners.

Festive bottle bag

You know how those gift bags people bring you bottles of wine in at Christmas always look too good to throw away, yet whenever you buy wine as a gift for somebody you forget they are there and buy a new gift bag, so the wodge of old bags in the drawer gets thicker, and older, and tireder?

Well I decided it was about time to breathe a new lease of life into one of my old bags - and having done so, I'm more likely to remember to use it, at least that's the theory.

The bag was originally just covered in tiny red stars. I added a strip of felt snowflake braid and topped that with three wine bottles, die cut from scraps, with stamped and die cut labels coloured with pencils and a blending stump. I finished it off with a bow and a snowflake button.

I am sharing this with

Christmas craft all year round - anything but a card 
Shopping our stash - upcycle

A simple wreath

I am loving the stamps that come with the current issue of Creative Stamping magazine! There are lots of stamps for elements to add to this wreath, making it very versatile, but being just a basic twig wreath means it can be used very simply too.

Here I have simply added a sentiment, a tiny bow and a "poinsettia" flower made by stamping and heat embossing onto vellum and then colouring the reverse.

I am sharing this with
Addicted to Stamps and More - Clean and Simple
The Holly and Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes
CAS Christmas - Wreath

Another Double Easel Card

The double easel card is currently my favourite of all card folds - it is so very much easier than the end result looks!

For this card I've used some Hunkydory card and toppers from a set I won a couple of years ago. It somehow seems instinctive to use silver for the matting with them, but I've chosen a pale lilac (or, for the purposes of the Butterfly challenge, Amethyst) instead, which I think really brings out the colours of the design. I've finished it off with butterflies cut with First Edition Layering Dies.

I am sharing this with
Butterfly Challenge -  spin the wheel with the letter A - Amethyst and Add Layers
Crafty Creations Challenge - Anything Goes

More leaves

I've been having another play with the autumn-themed stamp set that came in a recent issue of Creative Stamping. The beautiful leaf stamps are really useful and perfect for the current challenge at Twofers.

and a closer look at each card:

The background is stamped all over with one of the leaf stamps then spritzed with mica powders in water, some copper and some green. It doesn't show on the photo but has given the whole thing a gentle pearlescent sheen.  The sentiment and hedgie are stamps from the same set. I coloured the hedgie in with pencils, using a blending stump on the ground beneath him.

I'm sharing this with Use Your Stuff - Animals

This time I used the same leaf stamp but stamped with green and heat-embossed with Verdigris powder. The background is embossed with a Darice folder and I've added a strip of mesh for texture. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

I'm sharing these cards with the Twofer Card Challenge which this month is leaves.