Architecture at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's time for our new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz, and this time our theme is Architecture.

This card is inspired by a print I recently bought for our spare bedroom, but haven't yet got around to framing. The print is of new York, but according to the label this Art Impressions stamp is of Salem. Never having been to Salem I couldn't possibly comment.

I masked off a square of white card then stamped the image in black, masked that too then stamped it again, slightly offset, in grey and then after more masking, in cream. Finally I masked the cream and sponged in blue to make a cloudy sky.

When I removed the masks, at first I was disappointed that the stamping hadn't gone right to the edges of the previous colour. Then I thought back to when I lived in Hong Kong and occasionally went into the city early in the morning when the heat of the day was causing mist to rise from the pavements - yes, it looked exactly like this, with the taller buildings in the distance looming out of the mist beyond the foreground. I think it's pretty atmospheric!

I would like to share this with

Glitter & Sparkle - Happy Birthday
Always Fun - Anything Goes
The Male Room - Masking

Catching the Christmas Post

I absolutely HAD to buy Papercraft Essentials this month - the cover gift is a set of post box embossing folder, stamps and dies with a thick A4 booklet of coordinating papers. Perfect for Christmas card making, especially as I have a group of friends that all try to send each other a different pillar-box themed card every year.

And since today is September 25th, not only is it exactly 3 months to Christmas, it is also Rudolph Day at Scrappymo's so what better day to get my new toys out for a play?

The papers, embossing folder, stamps and dies all came from the magazine.

That toucan again!

It's the first time I've used this toucan stamp since getting my Misti - what a huge difference it has made. I no longer have to go over the image with a black marker to hide the unevenly stamped areas!

What a pity the way I wanted to ink and stamp the leaf border meant it would have been awkward to use the Misti for that too - and I seem to have developed a crack in the lovely monstera leaf stamp. All the stamps I used were from Uniko.

When I've used the toucan before, I have felt he was floating around in space a bit, so this time I die cut a branch for him to sit on. The position still isn't quite right - I had to cut a slot under his wing to slip the branch into and maybe it needed to be a bit deeper. Let's just say he is coming in to land, shall we?

 This card was inspired by the lovely photo which is this week's challenge at Just Us Girls.

Harvest Time at Ooh La la Creations

It's time for our new challenge at Ooh La La Creations - it is my turn to choose the theme and I've chosen Harvest Time.

I've used an image and backing paper from the CD Carnival of Colour, which is available here.

I've teamed them with lots of die cut autumn leaves - the die set was a magazine freebie about a year ago - and an embossed panel which was made with Core-dinations card in a Sizzix ef and lightly sanded after embossing.

We'd love to see your take on the theme - and if you pop over and link to our challenge you might even win a download prize!

I am sharing this with
C.R.A.F.T. - Autumn/Harvest/Thanksgiving 
Cuttlebugmania - Golden harvest
Little Red Wagon - Leaf it to me

NBUS is back!

Yes, once again the delicious Darnell is hosting her NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff)  challenge and has invited us all to dig out that uninked stamp, that untouched (save for stroking, of course) paper and those dies that have never seen the light of day. And then - shock, horror - to USE them!

Oddly enough since Darnell announced, a few days ago, that it was almost time for the latest NBUS challenge, I've been using quite a bit of NBUS in my makes. Simply thinking about it reminded me of just how much schtuff I have loitering around in dark recesses! But today has rolled around and I still have PLENTY to play with.

The stamp I chose for this card was bought at the Make It Show back in February, so it isn't very old. It is Buddha Gautama from Inkylicious and I fell in love with it and came home bursting with ideas for using it. By next day I'd forgotten them all. So there it has sat, still in its cello bag, waiting for me to get a Round Tuit. And a prod in the back from Darnell has finally got me inking it.

I stamped it on gold mirri card using black Stazon - I had to discard all the photos that picked up the lovely shine of the mirri because they also had the ugly reflection of the photographer in them and you might be eating your breakfast as you read this, you wouldn't want to see me in my "trying to concentrate while I take a photo" pose. (It's all in the way you hold your mouth - not pretty)

The background is made by blending yellow, orange and red distress inks then stamping and heat embossing leaves in gold around the edge.

I'm tempted to make the same card all over again but this time using silver mirri and shades of blue for a much calmer effect, whaddya think? The hot, spicy colours remind me of Thai temples but the calming blues might better represent the tranquility of the pose.

Mellow Yellow at CD Sundays

It's time for our new challenge at CD Sundays, and today, Wynn has chosen the theme Mellow Yellow.

For my card I have used the very old Hot Off The Press CD "2,600 Tea Bag Folding Squares" which came in a double pack with "5,400 Tags and Art" which you've probably seen me use many times. But the tea bag folding CD has never been used before - I've never  really given tea bag folding any serious thought. However I thought I'd take a look to see what it offered in the yellow line and absolutely fell in love with this sweet bee and ladybird design.

The papers and tea bag papers are all printed from the CD and assembled according to the instructions on the CD - I didn't feel confident enough to attempt anything I'd designed myself when I've never really tackled the craft before. The squares are very, very small - about 2cm, and it took a lot of time and patience for me to get them all folded and assembled. I'm not normally known for the precision and accuracy that was needed, but I think because of that I found it strangely relaxing, because I had to concentrate so hard that it made me completely forget everything else.

I think I am going to be trying some of the other designs on the CD - there are dozens of them including quite a lot of Christmas ones.

So now we'd like to see YOUR take on the theme. Make sure your design contains something from a CD - you don't need to use it for the whole card as I have done, just a paper, image or embellishment is fine, but DO please make sure it is from an actual CD, not from a download. No, not even if the download is also available as a CD!

I am sharing this with A bit more time to craft - Anything Goes
 and Allsorts Challenge - Things with wings 

Special Delivery

Do you ever see a challenge them and find it pulls together vague ideas in your head? That's what happened to me today when I saw the sketch at Less is More - I'd had this parcel stamp and the inkpads I wanted to use out on the table for several days but couldn't quite decide how I was going to use them.

I stamped the three parcels and heat embossed them with clear powder, then fussy cut them.  The sentiment is stamped using one of the sentiments on the stamp sheet that comes with the new issue of Papercraft Essentials.

I had planned to put them on a plain white panel, but when I arranged them in place I felt it had crossed the dividing line between CAS and Boring, so I used a Santoro folder to emboss a snowstorm of hearts!

I am sharing this with
Less is More - Sketch

Christmas Card Throwdown - Pink, red and green

Winter Wonderland - Wrap it Up