Something beginning with D at Cardz 4 Guyz

Our new challenge is ready at Cardz 4 Guyz, and this time we would like you to include something beginning with the letter D - and of course to tell us what it is!

I've chosen D for DARTS.

The photos and sentiment are from a Kanban sheet - the sentiment has reflected the light a bit, so you may not be able to see that it says "You're my double top" and since double top scores 40 points, I thought it ideal for a 40th birthday card. The glossy stick-on numbers, a gift from a friend, were just right for the job!

A spot of solitude

One of my favourite areas of Britain, ever since childhood, is the Lake District. As a child we only lived about 80 miles away, and took holidays there twice a year as well as making frequent day trips. Now we live over 300 miles away so I don't get there very often but I still love the area.

Of course being such a popular destination, it can get very crowded, and recent designation as a World Heritage Site is likely to make that even worse, and yet even now the crowds tend to congregate in a few places and it only takes a few minutes by car or on foot to discover spots where perfect solitude among the beautiful landscape can be found.

Skelwith Bridge, at the point where the Ambleside to Coniston road meets the road into the Langdales, is one such area. People flock there to see the waterfall and slate mill, as well as the tea room of course, but a stroll of a few minutes along the River Brathay or up the lane towards Loughrigg Fell soon takes you right away from the tourist crowds to the tranquility and solitude that made the Lake District famous in the first place.

To commemorate this, I have used Gummiapan Stitched Rectangle dies to cut the Skelwith Bridge area from a walking map left over from a recent holiday there, and simply matted it and added a sentiment stamped with a Crafty Individuals stamp.

I am sharing this with Less is More, where the challenge this week is to use something real in my case, the map.

Lace at Ooh La La Creations

This time at Ooh La La Creations Challenge we would like to see some lace on your work.

You might recognise the paper and topper I have used - they are the remainder of the sheets I printed from the Carnival of Colour CD for my last Ooh La La DT post, two weeks ago today. But used in a very different way!

I die cut the image with a Gummiapan stitched ovals die and backed with a Spellbinders lace oval. The sentiment is stamped on a panel cut with a Creative Expressions die. I have finished it with lace, ribbon, roses and gems.

I am  sharing this with
Alphabet Challenge - Lovely Lace
Crafty Gals Corner - Punches and/or dies
Dies R Us - Anything Goes

Elementary my dear Watson

I had a lovely prize in Instagram this week - a beautiful bundle of Graphic 45 pads, stickers and chipboards from Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine and I really couldn't wait to start playing with them.

Here's my first make, using papers and embellishments from the Master Detective range and a lot of fussy cutting. I'm not going to deluge you with waffle - just pictures!

I am sharing this with

A bit more time to craft - Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge - August   
Glitter'n'Sparkle - Anything Goes
A bit more time to craft extra - Anything Goes
Love to craft - Anything Goes

Let's Hear it For The Boys at CD Sunday

Our new challenge has just gone live at CD Sundays, and the theme is Lets Hear it for the Boys.

I've used a double CD called The Rachelle Anne Miller Collection which is packed with great images, designs and templates for children's cards, I turn to it over and over again.

This is my first attempt at a double Z-fold card; I chose to do it this way because I didn't want to waste a scrap of that fun border!

August Rudolph Day

It's Rudolph Day again and from today until the end of the month there is a Christmas card challenge at Scrappymo's.

I've made an ultra quick and easy card to showcase some of my lovely new sparkly washi tape.

I simply cut strips to gradually shorter lengths (if I'd used normal washi I'd have probably torn them but the sparkly stuff doesn't tear well) and arranged them haphazardly into a higgledy-piggledy tree. The trunk is more washi and the star is made with a double sided adhesive sticker and some glitter. The sentiment was a magazine freebie about 150 years ago. Or so.

Vintage Santa

For this card I have used elements from the Making cards special Christmas Cards CD which was a special offer a few years ago - the images and papers on it were adapted from Joanna Sheen's double CD "Victorian Christmas Cards" .

The image is very large so all it needs is some matting and layering and a little ribbon and lace. I used textured cream card for one of the layers to add extra interest.

I am sharing this with
Jingle Belles - Vintage

Very grumpy cat!

It was my birthday last weekend and my lovely friend Claire bought me a set of Dylusions snarky sentiment stamps called "Ugh, People!" which is packed with wonderfully grumpy sentiments - all of which work perfectly with the Katzelkraft grumpy cat from the Les Chats Russes set.

I decided that today  Grumpy Cat had gone out to the shed for a sulk, so I made him a wood-effect background by covering  the card with Twisted Citron Distress oxide. I spritzed it a bit then added some bigger drips of water before blotting and drying, then used Imagination Crafts Stardust Paint to stencil the wood effect over it. Having been quite wet the card was a bit puckered, meaning that some of it lifted from the stencil and made the lines a bit smudged in places, but then whoever heard of a perfectly evenly grained symmetrical piece of wood?

I cut a piece of woodgrain paper to give him a shelf to sit on, and coloured him with Promarkers, fussy cut him and, in true Grumpy Cat style, added the sentiment directly over his head.

I'm sharing this with
Cardz 4 Galz - cats and kittens  (actually I think this would be suitable for a gal OR a guy, but I think we women tend to have more "Ugh, people!" days than men!)
Just add ink - Stencils

A rescue operation

Yesterday I decided to make a card for the Butterfly challenge, which this time is Your Choice/Wedgwood Blue. I don't have any card or paper the right colour at the moment, so I coloured some card with Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud blending ink.

I used my very oldest punch on the panel corners and die cut the white central motif using a Creative Expressions die and the butterfly using a Sizzix one. You can't see the butterfly very well on the photo although in real life the dimension makes it show up clearly, so here is a close up.

At that point, the card was finished - then disaster struck! The white die cut is a two part one, a frame and central panel, and I'd been frugal and cut it from the reverse of some card that had failed stamping on the other side. I'd adhered it to the base with wet glue - and all along the border between the two parts of the die cut, the colour started to seep through. I very nearly cried "Abandon ship" - there was too much of it to cover with white pen or pop another butterfly over - then I had a brainwave and covered it all with the narrow pearl braid that I think gives the whole card an opulent look. If you squint carefully you can still see one tiny grey splodge towards the bottom left of the die cut but the rest of the rescue job has worked pretty well. my only regret is that I'd already added silver gems to the butterfly - pearls would look better now!

Recipe - Marudi Pork

Right, here's a little story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.....

A long, long time ago - actually nearly 40 years as it was when we were newly married - Mark and I went to live in Brunei on the island of Borneo. After a few weeks, we decided to take a short break to go and see the interior of the jungle, so we boarded a bus in the nearby town of Kuala Belait and headed along the jungle road into the nearby Malaysian state of Sarawak.

The bus itself was very rickety, probably mostly caused by travelling daily along rutted jungle tracks; in fact at one point the track was so rough the driver simply drove the bus through the undergrowth to the nearby beach where he could drive more safely. The bus was absolutely packed with people loaded down with shopping bags full of fruit, fish and even squawking live chickens, all being tossed around together as we passed through dense jungle and field after field of watermelons and gourds, and even over two ferry crossings.

We left the bus after the second crossing and waited for the boat that would take us up the river into the interior of the jungle,  while sitting in the cool shade of a wooden hut sipping on ice cold Green Spot and watching saronged ladies haggling over the price of durians and hammerhead sharks.

Our destination, several hours up the river by jet boat, was the jungle village of Marudi, where we stayed in the faded grandeur of the Government Rest House and visited a longhouse where the family got us tipsy on their home fermented rice drink and showed us their pepper fields, then the next day we flew low over the jungle in a six seater plane back towards the coast. We could look down and see the logging operations which I believe have now cleared most of that area of jungle, seeing the spectacular sight of the long platforms of logs being floated along the river to the coast.

Our destination was the coastal town of Miri, where we stocked up on the local carved pottery and bought a bag of green-skinned oranges to refresh us on the long bus ride back home to Kuala Belait.

Now on to the recipe - I've no idea if it is an official dish or has a real name, or if it is just something that was thrown together just for us,  but the night we stayed in Marudi we went to eat at a Chinese food stall. Mark used to speak a little Malay as a child, but he could remember very little, just enough to say to the woman on the stall "Food, please, but no fish" and a few minutes later we were brought a delicious dish of stir fried pork with cherry tomatoes. It was only lightly seasoned with a little soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil, letting the fresh flavour of the tomatoes through, and sitting there in the clean, fresh air of the jungle village and tucking into our pork and tomatoes with steamed rice and a glass of cold Tiger beer was a really magical experience. We bought green-skinned oranges from a nearby stall for dessert and a Michelin starred meal couldn't have outshone it!

I've recreated the dish just for us many times but I've never shared it with anybody before, so consider yourselves privileged.

Ingredients (to serve two greedy people)

200g pork fillet, sliced into long thin strips
for marinade - 1 heaped tsp cornflour, few drops sesame oil, 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry

Rub all the marinade ingredients into the pork and set aside for at least an hour before cooking. You will then need:

6 large spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
thumb sized piece of fresh ginger cut into julienne pieces
cherry tomatoes - as many as you wish to use or have handy, I used a small cereal bowl full
1 tbs peanut, ground nut or sunflower oil
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
1 tbs light soy sauce
150ml chicken stock
1 tsp cornflour

Heat the oil in a wok until smoking hot and tip in the pork. Fry, stirring and tossing, until he pork has no raw meat visible, then mix in the spring onions and ginger and continue to stir fry for 2 minutes. Now add the wine, standing well back as you will get a cloud of scalding steam, followed by the stock, soy sauce and tomatoes. Mix together then blend the cornflour with a little cold water and add to the pan. Stir until thickened and serve.

The tomatoes will be only very lightly cooked so their freshness bursts out when you bite down on one.

I've added a side of pickled green chillis, made from a recipe in Ping Coombes's book "Malaysia".

Christmas Kisses

I'm getting behind with my Christmas Card making at the moment so I'm hoping to make a few over the weekend. For this one, I've used papers from an old issue of Making Cards.

I've added a sentiment from Craftwork Cards and a flurry of die cut snowflakes - in real life the gems I've decorated them with are a good match to the colours of the dress.

I am sharing this with:

Holly and Ivy - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Girly
CRAFT Challenge - Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - August  

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge #91 - Weddings

Edna's getting married in the morning, ding dong the bells are going to chime.....

Well, maybe not, but our challenge this time at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is weddings. The twist is, you don't need to make a wedding card, you just need to include SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BORROWED AND SOMETHING BLUE on your work. This is a traditional rhyme that says the bride should include all of those items in her outfit on her wedding day in order to have a successful marriage.

Just digressing a moment, I included all those - my dress was new, I borrowed old shoes from my cousin and wore a blue garter. It must have worked, we celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in September. (On the 17th, not that I'm hinting about cards or anything...)

Anyway, back to the card:

My Something old is the set of green papers, which I printed out from a Crafters Companion "Love" CD to make the thank-you cards after my daughter's wedding, 7 years ago, making them extra-appropriate for the wedding theme too!
Something new - the Beauty and her Beast image which was a free download from Free Dearie Dolls Digis and the gorgeous lacey heart die which was NBUS.
Something borrowed - the sentiment which I borrowed from a site offering free jokes for wedding speeches.
Something blue - well, all the blue stuff.

Definitely a wedding card for the 21st century!
I am sharing this with Country View Crafts - Blues and Greens 

Cheers!

I was delighted with the wine bottle and glass die set that came with Die Cutting Essentials this month, so much so that I also bought Simply Cards and Papercraft  to get the stamp and die label set that works so well with it in some of the samples they give.

Here is my first make using the sets - I'm sure there will be many more!

The bottle is cut from white card and then coloured with Promarkers and Distress inks following the instructions in the magazine - I'm very pleased with the results. The glass and gold medal are also cut with the die set, and the label for the bottle was stamped using the stamps from the other magazine. I cut a curve in the label to match the way the bottle would curve, but I wish now I hadn't added the red bands to it, they are too straight.

The background is made by dabbing the base of a shot glass lightly with ink and pressing it onto the bard. I wish now that I'd used a cream or grey card so the wineglass would have stood out more. The word "Cheers" is cut out of the intricate grapevine patterned bottle insert die that is part of the set.

I am sharing this with

Fab 'n' Funky - Anything Goes
The Male Room - Drinks
Watercooler Wednesday - Masculine  Anything Goes

Recycling old ATCs

While rummaging through some old stash I discovered a little box of ATCs that I had made but not sent, probably about 10 years ago when I belonged to a few swapping groups, so I decided to try recycling some of them as card toppers.

The two I have made today used stamps that I'd already owned for many years, little red rubber ones that came in a grab bag - I probably bought it from one of the small ads in the back of Crafts Beautiful. (Do other UK crafters remember when that was just about the only craft magazine available here, and we all used to dream of trips to America to stock up on copies of things like Rubberstampmadness and Somerset Studio?). They were part of a family of three stamps. I still have these two but unfortunately I lent the third to a friend who never gave it back.

Here's my first make:

The ATC background was made by brayering ink over a sheet of bubble wrap then pressing the cardstock to the surface. Those pink lips are brads, and I added the Glossy Accents to the water and the bubbles today. The pink glitter card is from my snippets box and the sentiment is a dovecraft one. The lovely embossing folder I used for the background was a gift from a very kind Facebook friend.

I am sharing this with
Shopping Our Stash - Chillaxin' and relaxin'
Crafty Creations Challenges - Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner - Add a star
Retro Rubber - sketch  















Now on to my second card, using a sister image  - I have made this one as my naughty entry to the Naughty or Nice challenge, where the theme is On the Move.  For some reason, the first thought that sprang to mind when I read the title was *shudder* exercise!

Well, what happens AFTER exercise! The ATC used the stamped image, masked and then stamped all over with a tape measure background stamp. The words were cut from magazines. The bicycle is cut from a scrap of background paper in my snippets box and I've brought the two together with mats of orange and green. The sentiment is a Dylusions one (of course!) and the background card is some pre-embossed Hunkydory stuff aged a little by gently rubbing with brown ink.

The twine and sparkly washi tape came from the amazing bundle of goodies I recently won from Lau and Home  - yes, the bundle included about 6 rolls of different plain and patterned sparkly washi tape. Oh dear, now you all know I own sparkly washi tape, maybe I need to post an armed sentry on the craft room door!

More Misti magic

I'm having a lovely time with my new toy!

This time I have used a stamp that I've never before managed to get a complete clean image from - there always seemed to be something missing or imperfectly stamped. But this time I could re-stamp the image a couple of times and yet still keep all that lovely detail. The stamp itself was a magazine freebie a few years ago and I've coloured it in with Promarkers.

I would like to share this with:

CAS on Friday - Birthday
House of Cards - Floral images and/or colours
Sparkles Monthly - Birthday
Sweet Stampin - Flowers 
A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes

Play (with) Misti for me!

I've just got home from a lovely family holiday in Kent (hence there have been no non-scheduled posts from me and I've managed to comment on very few of your blogs) with both my daughters and their families. While we were away, it was my birthday and my present from OH was a Misti. I've been having a play with it this morning and am already head over heels in love. I've managed to get clear impressions from stamps I've had for years and never managed a decent one from before, and for this card I have used a stamp that must be at least 10 years old and has never seen ink because I simply didn't have a big enough acrylic block!

I stamped the long border (an old stamp from an Art Deco set produced by the much missed Tandastamps) with Versafine Smokey Grey and embossed with clear powder, then coloured just the roses in pink and layered onto pink card to give a narrow border. Then I used the Misti  and Smokey Grey again to stamp the sentiment, which came from a set of stamps with Creative Stamping magazine a while back. Look, it's exactly straight! I left the sentiment unembossed.

I am sharing this with
CASology - Prickly
Make my Monday - Grey and Pink (I know the grey looks black in the photos but it is grey really!)
Sweet Stampin - Flowers
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes  

Fancy Folds at Cardz 4 Guyz

Today it's my turn to choose the theme at Cardz 4 Guyz and, knowing how much men seem to appreciate cards with a bit of "engineering" to them, I have chosen Fancy Folds as our theme. I'd love it if you would pop over to the challenge and show us your fancy folds!

For my own card, I've made a centre box fold card, the first time I've ever made one. It looks as if it shouldn't fold flat, but it does - and it fits into a DL sized envelope, too. I first saw the fold on The Craft Spa blog, but have adapted the measurements to the size of card I wanted to make. I chose a New York Skyline die (a gift from Mark, I don't know the brand) and a Tim Holtz Cityscapes New York Skyline stamp.

To make the card, you will need a piece of card 12" x 4" (I chose to work in inches rather than centimetres for a change as the numbers are nice and easy that way!) which you score at 2, 4, 8 and 10 inches, to form a gatefold style card with extra flaps that fold back towards the outside.

Decorate all the panels - I've added a plain white panel to the back for the sender to write on - and then cut the strip to go across the front, 8" long and as wide as the image/sentiment you want to use, and attach it across the two outer flaps so the outside edges line up on both sides. This strip can be positioned at any level across the front of the card - I have positioned it right at the bottom, as you can see in the top photo, to enable the whole of the skyline scene behind it to show over it.

To fold the card flat, just swing the back panel left or right.

I would like to share this with
Dies R Us - Anything goes using dies
Creative with Stamps - Boys to men

Flowers at Ooh La La Creations

It's time for our new challenge at Ooh La La, and the theme this time is Flowers.

I've used a paper and topper from the Carnival of Colour CD, available here. I embossed a panel of blue card with a daisy folder and layered it onto green paper with a punched border, and arranged it to pick up the blue backgrounded side of the topper.

Past Times at CD Sundays

It's not only new challenge day at CD Sundays, it's also my birthday, so it seems only fitting that it's my turn to choose the theme, and I have chosen Past Times. Think retro, think vintage, think historic (what about Ancient Egypt?)  - and of course, think CD because we must see something from a CD, not a download, currently in your possession somewhere on your work.

I've used an old CD (the label says (c) 2009 ) from Hot off The press, called "5,400 Tags & Art". I don't know whether it is still available, but it is a wonderful resource that I've used many, many times over the years. All three tags and the balloon and globe embellishments came from it.

The sentiment is from Debbi Moore's CD "Shabby Chic Vintage Discovery" and the background is some tissue paper from my stash.

Three- but not of a kind

I didn't think I was going to have time to post for a few days, but I've managed to sneak in with a quick post about three very different cards I made over the weekend. There won't be as much waffle as usual, you'll be relieved to know, as I'm pushed for time.

First a very CAS card:

Masked the card to leave a space, sponged in DI, then used Stazon to stamp Judikins Sprouts Border. Removed mask, drew a fine line just outside sponged area to give it a 3D look then stamped dragonflies from a stamp set I won in the Butterfly Challenge.

I am sharing this with

Addicted to CAS - One layer card
Stamping sensations - Anything Goes

-o0o-

Next, an all-over stamped design that  still retains a CAS feel because of the restricted colour palette

The sunflower stamp is an old unmounted one from my stash - I stamped it all over in brown memento ink and coloured with Promarkers, then topped it with a sentiment stamp I won in the Playground.

I am sharing this with
The Flower Challenge - Background Stamping

Glitter and Sparkle - Monochrome
 House of Cards - Floral Images and/or Colours (just the floral aspect)

-o0o-

And finally, moving RIGHT away from CAS, a Christmas card with just about everything but the kitchen sink thrown at it:

The robins are stamped with a lovely Woodware set I won in the playground and all the layers and die cuts are made using snippets - the red glittery layer is the remains of a gift bag I once received a present in. I can't remember what the present was but the bag has been very useful - this is the last scrap of it.

The snowflakes are cut using a new set of cheap dies I bought through Amazon. They cut beautifully and come out cleanly, but the large snowflake comes apart into two separate bits. I don't know whether it's by accident or design but now I know it does that I'm going to use it for making some two tone snowflakes in the future.

I am sharing this with
Addicted to Stamps and More - Holiday
Pixie's Snippets Playground weeks 293-294
Winter Wonderland - use ribbon, twine or lace    (the heart-patterned ribbon)
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - three of something (snowflakes)

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #90 - M is for Mink

Our latest challenge has started at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, and today Edna's rocking Mink.

What a doll!

But you don't have to get your posh togs on for this challenge, what we want to see is any animal that has fur. And I'm sure you know me well enough by now to know that to me that inevitably means a cat.

I had a lovely messy time creating the brusho backround, aiming to make it look as if kitty had been involved in some serious spillage creation, hence the stamped pawprints going right through it (and probably also the rest of the house). Then to the image - a Katzelkraft one but not the first range most people think of, well I do, when they think of Katzelkraft cats. This one looks so very sweet and innocent, doesn't it? It is totally ignoring the telling off it is getting! I coloured it with pencils to enhance the firry effect, using a metallic gold-green pencil for those piercing eyes.

The sentiment is one I generated on the computer. It's something somebody once said to me and I've no idea whether they were quoting somebody else or just said it on the spur of the moment, but it is so true, isn't it? When a cat ignores you, it does so with every muscle in its body. You can actually FEEL the being-ignored-waves washing over you!

I am sharing this with:
Craft Rocket Challenges - Animal Kingdom
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - anything with a creature
Show us your pussies - Furrything Goes 

When life gives you lemons....

This week's challenge at CASology is "Juicy" which was a great excuse to use one of my "When life gives you lemons..." sentiment stamps. I have two, one the traditional version and the other the tequila version - I decided to go traditional today.

The lemon slice is simply made by cutting circles in three different shades of yellow and then cutting the smallest one into eighths.

I did actually stamp the sentiment directly on to the card but the angle didn't look quite right, so I covered it with a stamped and layered one which I think looks better anyway as it keeps the yellow theme running right across the body of the card.

And now I'd like to share with you a photo of some gorgeous stash that I won from Lau Home and Party who ran a competition on their Facebook page which I was lucky enough to win

Just look at all that washi tape! Some of it is even sparkly! Fabulous tags, twine and stickers too, as well as fabric tape, bags and decorative straws. Look out for all these lovely goodies appearing on my makes soon - when I've finished stroking them of course.

A Precious Memories tag

I love the Graphic 45 Precious memories 6 x 6 pad - I seem to have made loads of things with it and yet I still have most of it left. I think that's because there are so many tiny, detailed elements to it that it doesn't take much to complete a project. For instance this gift tag was made entirely from the tiny scraps left over from previous makes.

 

 

All I needed to add was a few scraps of ribbon and lace. And now after all that detailed fussy cutting, I need to go and lie down in a darkened room, but not before linking up to these challenges:

Always Fun - anything but a card
Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine Anything Goes
Cardz 4 Galz - Pretty Pastels 

Guest Designer at C.R.A.F.T challenge

Challenge 427 is live at the C.R.A.F.T. challenge and I am delighted that I have been asked to be guest designer this week. The challenge is a colour challenge

And you could win three digis from the sponsor Lacey Sunshine Stamps.

I have used the image Lil Frolic Kokeshi Doll from Lacey Sunshine, coloured with pencils and teamed with papers from a Trimgym digital pack (I don't think these lovely papers are available to  buy, unfortunately - I say unfortunately because the pack is utterly gorgeous!) But there is some good news - some of the papers from the pack are being offered to you to download as part of this week's challenge post at C.R.A.F.T.

I am sharing this with

Loves to Craft - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations Challenges - Anything Goes 

Struggling with Rainbows

When I saw that the current challenge at AAA cards was Rainbow, I knew right away what I wanted to make. or at least, I thought I did....

I've had this super rainbow paper fro some time, and thought it was perfect for a clean and simple card. Here I have cut a border of it and combined it with sentiments from the SU "Botanicals for you" set. I used a rainbow inkpad for the large words, and embossed it with clear powder, but I'm not happy with the result, it has a rather scrappy, messy look.

I still wanted the rainbow words, though, so on to the mark 2 version.

This time I applied individual ink pads direct to the stamp, and because they were dye based, didn't emboss it, but the result is patchy and sludgy. I did like the other alterations I had made, though, to use a square of the patterned paper and to make the smaller words into a tab, so on we went to version 3....

This time the words are stamped in black. I think I'll have to resign myself to the fact that this stamp is always going to give a slightly blotchy result, although I've managed to minimise it here, and although I didn't end up with the rainbow lettering I had hopes for, I think this is the best of the three cards.