Butterflies and Bamboo

I love this stamp, from a very old set I got from Tanda Stamps when they were around.

Today I've teamed it with some pretty Japanese paper that my daughter brought back from a business trip to Tokyo. The paper is double sided with a plain colour on the back, making a perfectly co-ordinated mat for the patterned side. I used Promarkers to colour the image to go with the paper, and added a stamped sentiment from an oriental set that came with a magazine several years ago.

I am sharing this with Just Us Girls - Butterflies 

Tattered Lace mag

Last week I won a copy of Tattered Lace magazine, the current issue which contains papers,  a stamp and a die, and had to set to and play with it straight away, making two of the suggested projects from the magazine.

I'd not used a die and printed paper set before and was very pleased by how well the die lined up with the printed image and gave it such a great appearance of dimension and detail.

There is also a download which gives the same images and some coordinating papers in several different colour ranges. I've printed some of them already and will be playing with them later in the week.

I am sharing the second card with Allsorts Challenge - Going Round in Circles 

Live Love Laugh

This card was inspired by something I saw on the WOW blog,  where they made a picture with four mini frames done the way I did this - the undecorated side painted with gesso  then inked with an embossing pad and coated with a textured embossing powder. They, too, added a stamped insect to the inside of the frame. That's where the resemblance stops.

For the background, I sprayed card with orange and brown distress inks then stamped and embossed the butterflies, dragonflies and sentiment with white ultra detail powder and distressed the edges. The stamps are all from an Indigo Blu set that came free with a magazine a few years ago.

With hindsight I wish I'd used a contrasting embossing powder for the frame to make it stand out more - I have a turquoise textured one that would have been perfect.

I'm playing along at the Butterfly Challenge where I've spun the wheel with the letter C for Carrot orange - just the one colour today.

Coffee and flowers

This was one of those have-lots-of-fun-and-see-where-it-takes-you cards, although the colours and overall theme were inspired by this week's photo at Just Us Girls.

and here's the image that inspired it

I made the background by stencilling a woodgrain effect onto blue card,  then decorated it with half a doiley and some lace. 

I stamped the coffee cup on watercolour card using Walnut Stain distress ink then added colour by pulling out some of the colour from the stamping with a damp paintbrush. To make the leaves and flower centres a little darker I used the brush to pick up more ink from the pad. I added a little light blue from the pad too, for the band around the mug, but couldn't colour right up to the stamped lines as the ink would have bled. 

I would have liked to stamp the sentiment on the coffee grounds card that I've used many times over the years, but I think I've finally finished it (last time I said that, another sheet appeared the next day, so keep everything crossed for me that the same happens again!) so instead I stamped the sentiment in Distress Ink,  left it in the Misti while I sprayed it with water, let the colour run for a few moments then blotted it and left it to dry, still in the Misti. Then I stamped again, this time using Memento ink. That left me with a clearly stamped sentiment on a slightly coffee-steamy background. 

I finished off with flowers, pearls and gems. 

I am sharing with 

Just us Girls - Photo Inspiration 

Shopping Our Stash - Pile it on  

Same stamps, different card.

While I had my funky seahorse stamp out, after making yesterday's card, I decided to use it - and the sentiment - again to make a very UN-CAS (is that a word?) card.

This time I made a background by spraying watercolour card with aqua ink. As I was planning to fussy cut the seahorse, I stamped it on the background where I would be placing it, in case I lost any details in the cutting. I made a "grotto" frame by brushing silver metallic paint around the edge and using it to give the bottom a rocky look, then used a tube of liquid enamel dots (I don't know how else to describe it, the tube calls it liquid pearls but it's very different from the liquid pearls I'm used to) to add seaweed and bubbles.

I stamped and fussy cut the seahorse and sentiment and applied them with 3-d adhesive.

Sharing this with The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - O is for Ocean 

Funky Seahorse #1

I think this slightly trippy seahorse stamp from Katzelkraft is great fun but I've hardly ever used it, and decided to put that right by making two very different cards from it - here is the first.

I sponged light blue ink over the middle area of the card and stencilled darker blue dots over it, then added a sentiment from a Woodware set and attached the seahorse over the sponged background with 3D adhesive

I'm sharing this with

Little Red Wagon - use a stencil  

CAS on Friday - Under the sea

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - O is for Ocean 

Happy birthday Owen

It's my grandson's 5th birthday today - I won't be seeing him as he and his Mummy, Daddy and big sister live in France so we've not been able to visit for several months now, but I expect we'll have a video chat later, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him wearing his favourite Darth Vader outfit - he's even Zoom-bombed some of his Mummy's important business conference calls during lockdown, dressed as Vader and brandishing a light sabre.

Of course I wanted to make him a birthday card featuring his hero. I've seen a really cute stamp used on some blogs but wasn't able to find a UK source for it (if you know of one, please let me know) but then I found the perfect download on Crafts U Print. There was only one layer of decoupage so I printed it twice and cut extra layers from the second sheet to give it the dimension I wanted. And then regretted my decision to add the extra layers - and therefore weight - when I went to post it - the price of postage to France seems to have more than quadrupled in the 10 years my daughter has been living there! 

I am sharing this with CD Sunday Plus - anything goes using a CD, USB or download. 

Sun and Moon

This month's Twofer challenge is Sun/Moon  so rather than choosing one or the other I dug out this ancient (at least 20 years old, could be nearer 25) sun/moon stamp, an unmounted one from my grab-bag buying days.

For my first card, I have really treated the image as if it is just a sun.

I stamped and heat embossed it with black ink and powder onto a deep paprika coloured metal sheet, being careful to use an anti-static pad first as the powder sticks like billy-oh if it finds the tiniest scrap of static. I used a small embossing tool to run around the edge of the image and fill in those rosy cheeks, then I turned it to the back and doodled in rays, and also went over the cheeks again so they are rounded outwards. 

I made a pale blue card blank and cut an aperture in it, then stamped the two sentiments (from a Rubber Dance chilli themed set) randomly over it. Stuck the image behind the aperture and for neatness covered the inside of the card, back and front, with white card to leave no harsh metal edges exposed. 

My second card treats the two halves as sun and moon, as they were intended. 

I took the square I had die cut from the first card to make the aperture, and stamped the sentiment all round the edges, using the Misti to make sure it was correctly lined up. Then I stamped, heat embossed and coloured the image and added it to the centre of the square. I attached the whole thing to a pink card blank then stamped corners all around and finished them with a teardrop shaped gem. 

I am playing along with this month's Sun/Moon challenge at Twofers. 

Grey Heron

One of my favourite birds is the heron - they look so graceful in flight and so patient when they are fishing. When we go to visit my Mum and have a trip to Pennington Flash near Leigh, I could spend hours in the hides there watching them. So I was delighted when I found that this beautiful stamp was part of the set that came with this month's Creative Stamping magazine.

I used the heron, dragonfly and sentiment stamps from the set to make a one layer card. Just a few strokes of pencil on the image and a hint of glitter on the dragonfly were all I needed to add.

I'm sharing this with

AAA - One layer & twist: my other hobby (watching wildlife is one of my many other hobbies!)


CAS on Friday - Nature

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - anything goes 

Wrinkled!

One of my favourite colours is this soft olive green - it works with so many other colours too. I tend to have favourite combos that vary with the seasons but it features in all of them. For summer, I like to team it with blues, making me think of trees against a cloudless sky.

I made the background to this card using distress inks in green and blue, applying them with a round blender in a dabbing motion to give almost a bokeh effect then sponging a darker blue ink around the edges. Next I stamped a large text stamp (if you squint closely you can see it's all about the language of flowers) all over, and applied green sparkle paste through a stencil down the left hand side.

Once that was all dry, I stamped and heat embossed the face using Cobalt Blue embossing powder, then stamped a few feathers around the card. Finally I took a sentiment from one of the Tim Holtz sticker pads and inked the edges before attaching it to the card.

I am sharing this with

Sweet Stampin' - Favourite Colour Combination 

Use Your Stuff - books/the written word 

Inkspirational - Face

Cats of many colours

Earlier this week it was my birthday, and my husband bought me some new brush markers - a pack of 120 different colours! So of course I had to cram as many of those colours as possible onto one card for their first outing.

I used this gorgeous tower of cats stamp from AAA&Create which is about 2 years old and is just perfect for DL cards. I stamped with black ink and heat embossed with clear powder, then coloured it in a multitude of colours. Then I stamped it again on scrap paper to use as a mask and sponged and stencilled an  inky background. I stamped  the sentiments that come with the cat stamp and inked the edges then added them with foam pads.

I am sharing this with

Retro Rubber - Anything Goes 


2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything goes with a creature 

Show us your pussycats - Furrything goes 

This is 2020

What a year!

The inspiration for this card came from a conversation with the lovely Darnell: we were talking about how strange those images with no mouths and noses can look, and I mentioned that they didn't look as out of place now we were used to seeing people wearing masks.... Well, this was the logical next step!

First of all I used an online word cloud generator to produce the background - lots of pandemic related words in the colour I think of now as "NHS Blue". Then I stamped the NBUS Gorjuss image and coloured it to match the background, first drawing in a face mask where the features would be. I think it's meant to be coloured to look like a watermelon, but what the heck?

Finally I added a sentiment that seems to just about sum this year up, not just the Coronavirus pandemic but so many disasters all around the world with fires, floods, accidents, explosions .... and don't get me started on politics! The stamp is from So Suzy and was bought with vouchers i won from one of Darnell's giveaways, so it's extra appropriate.

I am sharing this with:

Cardz 4 Galz - Monochrome 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - V for Vulgarity 


NBUS - NBUS

Bowl of Roses

I'm sure you all know how much I love designs in the style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, so I was thrilled to receive this lovely rose bowl stamp and sentiment set in the Playground recently.

I used the Misti to stamp the design several times in order to get a good bold image then added the sentiment and the border, which is stamped using a stamp from a recent issue of Creative Stamping. The stamp is just half the border, so I used the Misti for accurate positioning. The image is coloured with Promarkers. I considered covering the pot in Glossy Accents to give it a glazed effect but in this hot sticky weather my concentration levels are at rock bottom and I was pretty sure I would mess it up!

I am sharing this with

Passion for Promarkers - Flower Power 

Pearly Sparkles - Anything Goes

A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - Anything goes

NBUS - NBUS (these stamps are fresh-from-the-cellophane  new) 

Oooh how rude!

The sistahs are being vulgar this week, so of course I had to join in. I'm not sure who I would send this card to, although I'm tempted to send it to the CEO of the airline that has put so many obstacles in the way of claiming a refund for our Easter weekend flights which were, of course, cancelled. I'm sure they were hoping we would give up, but we battled on and eventually, 4 months to the day after we were due to fly, the money appeared back in my account so - to the airline I say:

The background is made with a cog wheel embossing folder, with a stamped screw and a glossy chipboard U.

I am, of course, sharing this with the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where the theme is V is for Vulgarity.




And I'm also sharing it at Shopping Our Stash - Keep It Simple Sister 

Gone Fishin'

As soon as I opened my new copy of Creative Stamping  I absolutely HAD to get going on one of the inspiration designs using the covermounted set of stamps. Such a lovely silhouette set, perfect with an inky sunset. I'm a subscriber so I already have my copy but I think if you want to get hold of these lovely stamps you'll have to wait until Thursday for the magazine to reach the shops.

I  followed the instructions in the magazine - I've never been happy with my sunset scenes before but now I've done it from step by step instructions I think I will try a moonlit one in blues. When I  follow instructions to make a card I often feel a bit guilty, that I'm not making original art - then I think back to all my years of knitting from a pattern ot cross stitching from a chart and realise just what a daft old bat I'm being!

I am sharing this with

Cardz 4 Guyz - Gone Fishing 

Sweet Stampin' - Inspired by a book, film or song (the song Gone Fishin')

The Male Room - Birthday 


Stamping Sensations - Make It Masculine 

NBUS - Challenge 17 NBUS (brand new NBUS instead of my usual old-new schtuff)


Craft Rocket Challenge - Birthday 

Floral window

Rummaging through the snippets box I found this piece of pretty butterfly paper.

It was just about enough to cover the front of a card, so I got a slightly smaller scrap of white card  (actually the back of another card that went wrong!) and die cut this beautiful floral window. I can't remember the name or brand of the die, I think I won it in a challenge a couple of years ago. I positioned the die cut on the paper without sticking it down and stamped the sentiment through it, then removed the die cut and fussy cut two of the butterflies from the paper in places where the gaps wouldn't show. Then I attached the die cut in place and trimmed the paper behind it very closely to give the appearance of an inked edge. I stuck it to the card front then finished it with the butterflies and some lilac gems. They really are gems, even though they look like pearls in the photo!

I am sharing this with

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 384 

Just us Girls - die cut a window 


Watercooler Wednesday - Anything feminine goes 

A real live wire!

For fun images I often turn to the CD "The Best of La Pashe 2012", one of the most useful CDs I've ever bought.

The background and decoupage are from the CD and the tools are cut with a First Edition die set and coloured with alcohol markers. I've added a few loops of wire under the image.

I am sharing this with

Allsorts challenge- Make it Masculine

CD Sunday Plus - Anything goes 

Creative Crafting Uncles - Tools  

Little Red Wagon - Happy Days 

Get Well Soon

When people are poorly, a get well card that makes them smile is a great idea, and for this card I've used one of my favourite Art Impressions stamp sets.

I coloured  the images with Promarkers.

I am sharing this with

Allsorts Challenge - Make it Masculine 

Passion for Promarkers - For Male/Boy 

Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes 

Stamping Sensations - Make it Masculine 

Cardz 4 Guyz - Get Well Soon  - at least I will be sharing it there, at the moment my anti virus has blocked the page saying it has a virus and if I visit it, it could get infected!

She sells sea shells

For today's card I've used a stamp set that came from the Stamp Bug's "stamp of the month" club back in 2009.

The background is made with watercolour pencils and I added a touch of glitter for the foam at the edge of the waves. I added a stamped flock of birds, edged it in black and attached it to the card with foam pads.   The sea shells came from the collage stamp image in the Stamp Bug set, lightly coloured and fussy cut from the image. 

I am sharing this with 

Country View Challenges - I do like to be beside the seaside 

CAS on Friday - Summer 

CAS Mix Up - Watercolour- Beach 

AAA Cards - Along the edge - beach 

Red roses for love

Roses, the perfect summer flower - and red ones are the symbol of love. And you all know how much I love Glasgow Rose style stamps! 

Here I've used stamps that came with a recent issue of Creative Stamping to make a CAS one-layer card. The images and sentiment are stamped and heat embossed then coloured with water based markers - not alcohol based ones which would show through to the back of the card. 

I am sharing this with 

Watercooler Wednesday - Anything goes 

Less is More - Summer Flowers

 

Sweet Stampin' - Weddings/Anniversaries/Love 

Make My Monday - clean and simple