Teetering tower of robins

 I played for ages with the arrangement of stamps for this card - I could have made a much straighter tower by just using the left and right facing versions of the most upright robin alternately, but it looked much more fun this way and I'm sure robins standing in a tower your be pretty teetery! 

The robins and sentiment are stamped with a Woodware stamp set and coloured with Promarkers. 

I am sharing this with

Rudolph Day at Scrappymo's 

Inkspirational - Tower 

Fab'n'Funky - Christmas 

Christmas Kickstart - Slimline Cards  

We love Chocolate Baroque - Flowers, Butterflies and Birds 

Don't stop me now....

 .. .'cause I'm having a good time.... 

Although I suppose I really MUST stop now as the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers only accept three entries per challenge so this is my final Q is for Queen card. Pity, I have more ideas. Although the stamp I need for them is in *ahem* the safe place I put it in. 

Maybe this post should have been called "Don't KNOT me now" because we all know what happens when you think you've found the end of the skein and it turns out to be the wrong end! 

The design is inspired by a meme I saw the other day. I found a free clip art image of Freddie and sized it to fit my card, then fussy cut it. The sentiment is computer generated and the background is a piece of  smooshed card left over from a previous project, stamped with needlework themed images from a recent Creative Stamping stamp set. The "skein" is bakers twine coiled behind the image them looped around so that elusive end is in his hand. 

A trip out with one's corgi

 Here is the second of my cards for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Q is for Queen challenge.

I don't suppose the Queen is feeling very fun loving right now, with her beloved Philip in hospital (I really don't know what she sees in the guy) but this image and backing paper were produced by La Pashe in honour of her Jubilee in 2012, and she looks as if she's having a whole lot of fun, as is her faithful corgi.  I printed the image, Union Flag and sentiment from the CD "The Best of La Pashe 2012". You can't tell from the photo, but there is just a little bit of decoupage for added interest. 

I am also sharing this with CD Sunday Plus - Anything Goes. 

Queen Bee

                           WARNING: Snark Free Zone 

Well, since I made this card for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Q is for Queen challenge, I thought I'd better prepare the sistahs for the snarklessness. But when I hear the word "Queen", my first thought is pretty much always of this lovely set of Craft Consortium stamps, so it had to be done... 

And it's a one layer card too. I used a honeycomb stencil up one side of the card, stamped the images from the stamp set and coloured them with pencils. 

I'm warning you, there are more Queen cards to come but for now here's Edna totally rocking the Bohemian Rhapsody look. 

Rainbow dragonflies

 It's a while since I last used this lovely Woodware dragonfly stamp, spring must be in the air tempting me to use it again. 

I made a rainbow background with watercolours then stamped the image using Versafine ink.  Usually I get a good image using Versafine on this particular watercolour paper, but I think maybe my inkpad needs replacing as I stamped repeatedly several times and it was still blotchy. The flowers and details were OK but not the large solid areas of the dragonflies. However I remedied it AND added extra interest to the card, by stamping again onto vellum, where I got a much better image, cutting out the dragonflies and attaching them over the original ones, sticking down just the bodies to leave the wings free. 

A bold sentiment (I think it's an Altenew stamp) finishes it off. 

I am sharing this with

Stamping Sensations - Colour My World 

Just Us Girls - Rainbow Colours  

Hang a shining star...

 I love this big Christmas text stamp from Uniko, although there is so much going on on it that it makes it hard to use with any other images or embellishments - I never want to obscure any of the lovely details. 

I have heat embossed it in black and picked out some areas in gold, then matted it with a very thin black border. 

I am sharing it with

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes/ use some gold 

Jingle Belles - Text me Christmas 

Fox in the woods

 

This little fox is trying to camouflage himself against a tree trunk! 

The tree trunk is made using a woodgrain stencil, dabbing clear embossing ink through it and heat embossing with a brown/red embossing powder blend. The fox and the sentiment are both stamps that came with various issues of Creative Stamping. I used my stamping platform to stamp the fox several times in various red and brown inks, never completely covering the stamp with any one colour, so when you see the image in real life it has some quite natural-looking variations in colour. 

I am sharing this with 

CAS Mix Up - stencil heat emboss  

CAS ology - Fox  

Alphabet challenge - Woodland Flora or Fauna 

Creative Crafting Uncles - Wildlife  

Primroses for Spring

 I reckon I use this stamp just once a year - but since I've had it for around 20 years, I get pretty good mileage out of it. I can't remember the brand, I bought it from a stand at a craft show and I've never seen the same stand since" 

Sometimes I layer it, sometimes I colour it,  sometimes I do both. But I nearly always use it in a very CAS way to let it speak for itself. This time I've gone quite the opposite way! 

I've used three different papers printed from the old Joana Sheen "Country Diary" CD, all edged in the same dark green ink I stamped the sentiment with. The primrose mandala is coloured with Promarkers and I've added a scrap of lace and some die cut flowers and leaves, finished with gems. The flowers are cut with very, very old dies (dark blue so I'm guessing they were from Marianne) and don't they look old fashioned by comparison with the elegant, intricate dies we get now? But they have the simplicity I wanted, so as not to draw too much attention away from the primroses. 

I am sharing this with 

CD Sunday Plus - Anything goes 

Retro Rubber - Sketch  

Country View - First signs of spring 

Passion for markers - use 3 or more papers 

 

Snippety Butterflies

 Feeling a lack of inspiration, I had a browse  through some of the things I had saved on Pinterest, scrolling back to things I saved many years ago, and spotted a card with an array of butterflies that I thought would make a wonderful snippets card. 

A rummage through my snippets box produced six different papers in pinks, blues and purples, and the Lidl card pad I keep next to the snippets box because I can often find good colour matches to help me use the snippets produced just what I needed. 

The die I used for the butterflies is the solid layer of a First Edition layering die. I used a Martha Stewart border punch to edge the hot pink card and a very old M'Bossabilities folder to emboss the rest of the pink card, then edged it with a scrap of spotty ribbon. 

I am sharing this with 

Pixie's Snippets Playground which is a special Ruby's Memory challenge this time 

Crafty Calendar - dies and/or punches plus ribbon and/or twine

Monochrome lighthouse

 I was a fairly late arrival at the layering stamp party, but now I have a few and I'm loving them. 

I won this sea themed set in a challenge a few months ago, and i'm afraid i didn't make a note of the manufacturer (don't you wish they would print that info on cover sheets? I never store them in the packaging, it's too bulky for my limited space). I've used the lighthouse and gull stamps, stamped in light and dark blue, and also used the dark blue ink for the sentiment, stamped from a recent Creative Stamping set. 

I am sharing this with 

AAA Cards - One corner 

Fab'n'Funky - Birthday  

Cardz 4 Guyz - CAS 

Watercooler Wednesday - anything goes with a masculine twist 

Addicted to stamps and more - Any occasion  

His and Hers

 I've had the Indigo Blu magazine kit for several months now and although it no longer has a permanent place out on my workdesk, it never gets chance to venture far away. The current Twofer challenge is Balloons, and  although I'm sure the intention was party balloons, I just HAD to use the hot air balloon stamp from the kit. So I've made not just two different styles and occasions, I've also made cards aimed at two different genders. 

This is my entry for the Twofer card challenge - Balloons. 

Now a look at the two cards separately. 

For this card I used the Indigo Blu balloon stamp and sentiment, plus elements from a couple of favourite Creative Stamping covermount sets. It's meant to be a Bon Voyage card although it could equally well work for anyone setting out on a new venture. I made the background by repeatedly stamping a text block stamp to fill the card, them stamped the balloon  and the houndstooth check stamps around the sides. I thought the map stamp reminded me of a pair of goggles, which ties in nicely with "a new way of looking at things" and used foam pads to attach them. 

I am sharing this with 

Allsorts Challenge - Masculine 

The Male Room - Steampunk  (Is it or isn't it? The absence of cogs makes me wonder, and yet the balloon and mock-goggle effect say Steampunk to me!) 

 

And now onto one for the girls... 

This time I smooshed the card with shades of pink DI, and stamped the butterfly from a Creative Stamping set randomly over it with the darkest of the pinks. I don't know how often I've used this stamp before - many times, yet I have only just noticed that the body of the insect is actually a pen - isn't that wonderful? Then I used the embossing folder from the Indigo Blu kit to emboss one corner of the panel,  lightly rubbed a brown inkpad over it and distressed the edges, before stamping the balloon and the birthday sentiments to fill the rest of the card. 

I am sharing this with 

Cardz 4 Galz - Pink and Brown  

Addicted to Stamps and More - Birthdays  

Watercooler Wednesdays - All About Occasions 

Love potion

 Who needs witchcraft and alchemy when they can brew up love potions in a chemistry lab thanks to this sweet stamp set from Clearly Besotted? 

I stamped the image, heart-shaped bubbles and sentiment, die cut the little scene and coloured it with alcohol markers. I backed it with the matching Nesties scalloped oval and added lots of hearts cut with a couple of Gummiapan  dies. I used papers from a lovely old Trimcraft pad and a sketch that was originally used at CD Sundays several years ago when I was on the design team there. 

I am sharing this with 

Allsorts Challenge - Love is....   

Inkspirational - Hearts 

Passion for Markers - Dies and/or Punches  

Craft Rocket Challenge - Love  

A Bit More Time to Craft Extra - Anything Goes 

Taylormade Cards 4 U - Love potions 

Love heart kitty

 I'm still totally in love with the stamps from the Clearly Besotted January release - so much so that I've not (yet) given in to the temptation of the February stamps. The January ones are still keeping me very busy. 

I've used one of the grumpy cat style stamps here, with a sentiment from the same set. I followed a sketch that I spotted on Pinterest, using heart papers that were a gift from a friend and script paper from an old SU pad. 

I am sharing this with 

Little Red Wagon - Total eclipse of the heart 

Just us Girls - Valentine  

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - anything goes with a creature 

CAS on Friday - Love 

Show us your Pussycats - I luv mew  

Fab'nFunky - anything goes 

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge - anything goes with patterned paper 

All you need is love

For this card I have used a very old Clarity stamp which I seem to turn to every time The Beatles are mentioned - and almost every time music is! 

I've got into the habit of using it on very masculine cards, but coloured up in pinks as I've done here it is perfect for a very feminine one too. I've added lots of distressed layers, a doiley, ribbon and pearls and a small pearl heart. The medium sized heart is a wooden one, painted with gesso than thickly spread with pink sparkle embossing gel so it has lots of texture as well as bling! 

I am sharing this with: 

Cardz 4 Galz - inspired by Beatles Music  

Sweet Stampin - Love  

Shopping Our Stash (this was a real stashbuster!) - Love is in the air  

Use Your Stuff - Hearts 

Watercooler Wednesday - Anything goes with a feminine twist 

Guest Designer at CAS Christmas

 I am absolutely delighted to have been invited to be guest designer at CAS Christmas this month.  The theme this month is Cats and/or Dogs, and it will be no surprise to you to learn that I decided to use cats.

 This cute little kitty in a Christmas hat was part of a magazine freebie stamp set some years ago, with the sentiment in the same set. 

I stamped and fussy cut the kitty, then coloured with Promarkers. To give the hat a bit of bling, I used matching sparkly texture paste on the tip of a very fine paintbrush. Two strips of matching sparkly washi tape provided a floor for the kitty to sit on. 

Now I also had sparkly washi tape and texture paste in a light jade colour, so while I was in the mood, I made exactly the same card in a different colourway: 

So now I have a sparkly twosome and the card box for next Christmas is already starting to fill up nicely. 

I'm looking forward to visiting all your entries over at CAS Christmas and seeing all your festive felines and Christmassy canines! 

I am sharing this with: 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes

Pearly Sparkles - anything goes

Christmas Crafts All Year Round - Something beginning with C or D (cats) 

Herringbone Butterfly

 When I saw the latest Butterfly Challenge, I thought what a great way it was to use snippets. 

I took snippets of brown (Hazel) embossed card, yellow (Hansa yellow) patterned paper  and plain orange (Heatwave) paper, and stamped tiny butterflies all over the orange paper in brown ink.  I wanted to have lots of white to give it a light, airy look, so I positioned the strips with narrow white gaps between leaving a slightly wider one where the blocks changed direction. The central gap left a perfect "gulley" around which to tie my hemp twine. Then I added a stamped sentiment, using a very old Polkadoodles stamp, and a die cut butterfly, both positioned over the direction change lines. 

I am sharing this with

Butterfly Challenge - I've used all the elements

Pixie's Snippets Playground - challenge 395