White on White

It's a White on White challenge at Sweet Stampin this week,  and here is the card I've made for it.

The embossed background is a Crafters Companion folder, the corners are from a very old Cuttlebug die set and the medallion is cut with a Spellbinders die set. The sentiment stamp is from a magazine freebie set that I've had for several years but never used before.

Playing with pretty papers

I've had a good rummage through my stash for this card, inspired by the Use 3+ 6x6 papers challenge at Use Your Stuff, and come up with one of those "Too gorgeous to use" pads we probably all have, simply called "Background papers 1" from Crafty Individuals. And I took a deep breath and started cutting.........

....... and stamping,  and embossing, and distressing, and matting and layering......

Sheet 1 is the background, sheet 2 the vertical rectangle and circle, sheet 3 the horizontal rectangle and the large butterfly/moth stamped on the remainder of the sheet (I used a second sheet of #3 to make a matching liner panel for the inside).

The large butterfly/moth is an old Graphicus stamp, stamped and embossed on the patterned paper  and the Thank You stamp is from Clarity. All the other beautiful butterflies and dragonflies are integral parts of the lovely papers, not stamped by me, so you can see why I was so reluctant to cut them!

I am sharing this with
Use Your Stuff - 3+ papers from a 6x6 pad
Little Red Wagon - Thank You
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Thank You  
Allsorts challenge - Wings on Things
Inkspirational - Flutter 
Crafty Creations Challenge - Anything Goes

Fresh flowers

Today the sun is shining and if you ignore the thick layer of frost on the ground you could almost believe spring is on the way. And I've been crafting with spring colours.

The flower is a very old unmounted stamp from Raindrops on Roses (they were an American company I used to use in the 1990s - does anyone know if they are still around?). I stamped it all over and coloured it in using the Promarkers I got for Christmas, and following the colours of the inspiration photo at Addicted to Stamps and More this week.  Then I topped it with a sentiment stamped from a fairly new Crafters companion set.

I am sharing this with
Addicted to Stamps and More - Photo Inspiration
Crafty Creations Challenges - Anything Goes
Just Us Girls - All over stamping
  

Deer in the snow

This leaping deer, a Gummiapan stamp from Swedish House, isn't specifically a Christmas stamp but works very effectively as one, especially when teamed with these Tonic Studios Christmas papers.

I used Gummiapan stitched ovals to die cut the image and mat, taking the image over the edge of the die before cutting, another new-to-me technique. I'm full of 'em at the moment!

I am sharing this with

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Feature a Creature
Christmas Card Challenges - Photo or anything goes 

One little Eskimo

Hooray! Darnell is having another NBUS challenge, to celebrate many things including her blog birthday. NBUS means Never Before Used Schtuff, which if you're anything like me you have far too much of.  This time she is having three challenges, at weekly intervals, with an optional theme for each. The optional theme for the first is using coloured pencils on kraft.

I've not tried pencils on kraft before, indeed I've not really used coloured pencils very much, and was surprised how well they show up against the kraft background. My NBUS is the sweet Eskimo stamp and sentiment, from a Stampin Up set, coloured with pencils and punched with a matching punch. Actually I made three Eskimos because I've not done much stamping and punching and thought I was bound to mess a couple up, but they all came out fine. The card looked cluttered with more then one on it though, so look out for two more coming to a card near you very soon.

The igloo is made by die cutting a circle, cutting it across just below half way and straightening the ends slightly with scissors. I added a bit of "brickwork" with stickles. The backing paper is some random stuff from my snippets box.

So there you are,  two NBUS stamps AND an NBUS technique. What more could the heart desire?

Drinka Pinta Milka Day

If you are as old as me (ie very) and live in the UK, you can't fail to remember this famous advertising slogan for milk. It was everywhere in the last 1950s and early 1960s - on TV ads, on posters, in newspapers and magazines, on milk tankers and even on the sides of buses. In fact it even got a mention in the sitcom "Hancock's Half Hour", I seem to recall. Possibly one of the best known advertising slogans of all time, although whether it actually did persuade anybody to drink a whole pint of milk (*shudder*) every day is another matter.

On my first draft of this card, I used the letter stamps (from a child's printing set) carefully lined up, but they just didn't remind me enough of the original poster:

so I decided higgledy piggledy was the way to go. There are a couple of smudges from the edges of the stamps, that's because they are effectively toys and not the real thing. The kitty stealing the milk is a very old unmounted stamp from my stash - from the colour of the rubber I think it might be a Viva Las Vegas one but that is pure guesswork. I used a single tan pencil to lightly colour the kitty, and that's the only colour I've added to the card. I used Stickles to highlight the milk bottle and add a little texture.

I am sharing this with

Less is More - One layer: Your favourite drink or beverage (it's not MY favourite, far from it, but it's obviously the favourite of the kitty!)
CAS on Sunday - Black and White with one colour
Show Us Your Pussies - Furrything Goes

Triple Mat Technique at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's time for our latest challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this time we want to see you use the Triple Mat Technique. Don't know what it is, or seen it but never tried it before? Don't worry, I was in the same position. Luckily over on our challenge post there is a link to a tutorial explaining it all.

Once I'd seen the tutorial, the hardest part was thinking of a masculine way to use it. Most of my stamps that would lend themselves to the technique are pretty floral ones. Eventually I decided to use this stamp from the Tim Holtz Cityscapes set, keeping the whole card simple and monochrome so that I could concentrate on learning the technique.

To keep the layers perfectly aligned, I added a tiny dab of Pritt stick to the back of each one while I stamped the image. It was just about starting to dry when I came to peel them apart though, so I would like to find a more suitable temporary adhesive. I don't really want to use a spray that goes everywhere, and the low-tack tape wouldn't work when you are stamping right to the edge, so can anyone recommend a suitable adhesive? I'd really love to find an adhesive that leaves a good repositionable coating, even when dry, rather like the edge of a Post It note. It would be so useful for this technique, as well as for masks and stencils and all those "I'd really like to hold this in place for a few minutes" jobs!

I am sharing this with
A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes
World Wide Design Team Open Challenge - Jan/Feb