Everything but the kitchen sink

Nowadays, I tend to make more CAS cards than any other, but I love playing round with a huge variety of styles and sometimes like to go right to the other extreme and throw everything but the kitchen sink at a card. Which is exactly what I've done today.

I printed out a Mucha image and sentiment and a backing paper from Joanna Sheen's The Age of Elegance CD and cut the image to fit the die cut lacy oval. I distressed the edges of the background paper and then added a doyley, lace, loops of beaded pearl stuff, flowers, pearls and a ribbon. And the wooden bird and frame - the frame is actually a patterned one but I used the reverse which is natural wood - painted with Starlights Metallic Paint. I don't think the gorgeous sheeny sparkle really shows in the photo, though!

I am sharing this with

CD Sundays - Fab'nFeminine
Lunagirl Moonbeams - Anything Goes

English rose

When we bought our first house, the garden was full of old fashioned English roses, and this stamp, which I won in a challenge a while ago, reminds me of those roses and the tiny blue butterflies that used to flit among them.

I've combined the image with a die cut and embossed circle, using a Marianne die, and punched leaves made with a Woodware punch. Do any of you have any tips for reviving an old, tired punch? I know about cutting sandpaper to sharpen it, but in the case of this one the mechanism seems to be getting a bit sluggish, and it isn't accessible for me to squirt some WD-40 on to it. The grandchildren love this punch and punch dozens of leaves every time they visit, and I think it's getting old and worn out - a bit like me!

I've finished it with a few pearly flowers and some punched butterflies.

I am sharing this with

The Crafter's Café - Flowers
Glitter 'n' Sparkle - add a Butterfly 
Butterfly Challenge - Punches and/or Pink

Soft as a feather

Although the number of scheduled posts I left means it didn't really show, I've just got out my crafting goodies again after a week's break - family visiting from overseas meant we needed all the space we could muster so I had to pack everything up. That means I am WAAAAAAAAY behind on making cards for challenges and for forthcoming DT posts. I'm going to need to spend the next few days crafting my socks off!

It also means I am much later than usual in joining in with the Resist Technique challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers. I'd been hoping that somewhere among all my sentiment stamps I would have one that said "I can resist anything except temptation" but alas I don't appear to have, so this time the emphasis is very much on the stamping rather than the snark.

I chose the Dylusions sentiment "Life is hard, your art shouldn't be" and then wanted a motif to contrast with the word "Hard". Although the context probably implies the opposite should be "easy", I spotted my lovely (and ancient) feather stamp from Santa Rosa and my mind immediately switched to the alternative opposite, "soft".

Stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear powder, I then sponged turquoise and green inks over to make the white background show through. Some tiny clusters of turquoise Liquid Pearls added the finishing touch.

I am sharing this with

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - Resist Technique
One Layer Simplicity - Art  
Addicted to stamps and more - Photo Inspiration

Gotta catch 'em all!

Here in the UK, there's a new craze sweeping the country. I believe it's big in the USA too. I won't mention the name just in case they have strict copyright rules, like Disney do, but everywhere you go at the moment you'll see people, young and not-so-young, walking intently around while staring hard at their phone screens. You see, they've gotta catch 'em all!

I've not been tempted to try the game, but I thought one of the images I keep seeing associated with it would be a quick and simple make to bring to the Snippets Playground this week. A bit of googling showed me that as well as this strange ball-ey thing, being part of it, the colours blue and yellow dominate in the logo, and pitting all that together gave me red, blue and yellow - ideal for a last minute entry to The Male Room's Red, Blue and one Other Colour challenge.

I die cut all the shapes for the thinugummyjig, and embossed the background with an Mbossabilities folder just to add a little bit of interest. Then I computer generated a sentiment that a friend's child tells me is associated with the game, and I thought was in any case a great one to use on a card (I wonder if this game will still be popular by Valentine's Day next year? It could make an interesting off-the-wall V-day card!).

All the card came from my snippets box, it's a great way to use up a handful of scraps.

Flower Power

I'm delighted to have been invited to be guest designer at Retro Rubber this week, and we have a colour challenge for you:

For my card, I have used a Clarity Stamps stamp from when I was a member if the New Design Club about 5 years ago. I believe the stamp is still available but only to current members of the club. It is stamped with DI in Peacock Feathers then coloured in with a water based marker. Actually I didn't have a suitable shade, so it is a Crayola borrowed from the grandchildren's craft box.

Probably because it was done with a children's marker, the coloured image looked a little flat and featureless, so I took a waterbrush and moved the green ink around a little bit to give a more psychedelic effect. I had some aqua and lime card ready for the matting and layering, and to add a little "flower power" to the card, I embossed the aqua layer  with a Crafters Companion folder called English Country Garden.

I finished it with a random scattering of aqua and green pearls and gems, but something very odd happened when I took the photo. Although all the green gems are actually the same colour, the bigger ones have come out looking completely different, almost yellow. I think it is because the tiny ones don't have a silvered back and the larger ones do, and that silvered back has reflected the flash!

I am sharing this with
Allsorts challenge - a touch of sparkle
Loves to Craft (a brand new challenge blog!) - Anything Goes

Transport at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's new challenge day at Cardz 4 Guyz and today our theme is transport.

My chosen form of transport is a tractor, using a very old discontinued stamp from Linda Luckin. I've paired it with a printed paper that reminds me of a cornfield and some corrugated card to represent a ploughed field. The embellishment, made with two die cut circles and finished with a white gel pen, is meant to represent a tractor tyre - well, it just about does if you squint hard enough!

GDT at Ooh La La Creations Challenge

I am delighted to have been invited to be the Guest Designer at the Ooh La la Creations Challenge Blog for the month of August - and as it's a five-Monday month, that means I'll be sharing three designs with you, all made using elements from their gorgeous CDs.

Today's challenge theme is Ribbons and Bows, and my card uses papers and a topper from the Paula Oakley Collection. I think the topper looks very much like a stacked bundle of photos - just the kind of thing a new parent (or grandparent) would carry around for bragging purposes, making this an ideal style for a new baby card.

I was lucky enough to have some ribbon that was a very good match for the heart background paper. The border on the central band was cut using some fancy scissors that hadn't seen daylight for about 10 years and the sentiment is cut with a Tattered Lace die.