Muse Challenge #10 - Take Two!

Hi guys

I enjoyed the colours I used on my last card so much I decided to make another entry for this week's Muse challenge while I had all the inks to hand. Go me! haha

Once again I took inspiration from the cluster of rainbow colours and the large black sentiment and this is what I came up with...

 



I had this idea in my head but I didn't realise how much work would be involved until I made a start.  I had little sticky balloon masks all over the place! I stamped and cut these from post-it notes.  Then I had the tricky task of hand drawing the strings (didn't think of this at the beginning either!) so I masked over the sentiment too and used the edge of my post-it pad to roughly follow the line downwards.  I didn't want them to be really straight so I just added a little wiggle on the way :)

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko Studio - Label Love: Birthday; Sentiment is wood mounted Whispers Words by Docrafts
• Ink: Brilliance - Graphite Black; Versa Color - Pink, Fresh Green, Canary, Orange, Lavender; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Pen: Whispers Strokes

Here is Ardyth's cheery card from which we were to draw our inspiration...

 

 

That's all from me today, out for a meal tonight so off to get ready.  I hope you're all having a lovely Good Friday.  Thanks as always for visiting.

 

Take care

 



Muse Challenge #10

Happy Easter guys, I hope you are all looking forward to the nice break :)

Sorry its been a while since my last post, I've been feeling a little under the weather for a few days and haven't been feeling very motivated but now that I have four days off work I think I'll fit in a little bit of hobby time :)

I have boring things like spring cleaning to do today but thought I would put that off and have a little crafty time and make a card for this week's Muse challenge.

This week's card has been made by the very talented Ardyth Percy-Robb.  Her design is gorgeous, so bright and cheerful, you can see it further down in this post. 

Here is my entry for this week...

 

I took my inspiration from the rainbow of colours that Ardyth used and I love the mix of these bright tones.  I also took inspiration from the bold black sentiment.

 

I chose to create a wide border and used embossed dotted bright pink cardstock which I thought would mirror the dotted stamp design.  I really enjoyed making this one and it was pretty easy to create so I may replicate this kind of design again in the future.

 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Hero Arts - Dot Asterisk (wood mounted); Clearly Besotted Stamps - Butterfly Wishes (sentiment)
• Ink: Versa Color - Pink, Orange, Fresh Green, Canary, Lavender; Brilliance - Graphite Black
• Cardstock: From stash

 

This is the Muse card, Ardyth's use of rainbow colours is just fab...

 

 

Thanks for popping by today, your visits and comments are so very much appreciated.

 

Have a lovely Easter break.

 

 

 

 



A Little Bundle of Joy

Morning lovelies

Just a quick post this morning to share a new baby card I made to order for a friend. 

When I made this one I discovered that I'm in serious need of some baby themed stamps, this is all I have! I have loads of old baby themed peel-offs but I didn't want to use these.  I'll use them up to make some cards for my stock but I feel some new purchases are required...and soon! :)

I didn't really have a design in mind when I started this one.  I stamped the image and coloured it with ProMarkers then used a Spellbinders die to cut it out.  I then went in search of some patterned paper and found this gorgeous design in my Boofle paper pad.  Not a bad match considering I coloured the image without thinking about what else to use!  A little scalloped border, a sentiment and some gems and there you have it!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Cart-Us (image); Personal Impressions - Mix and Match stamp set (sentiment)
• Ink: Memento - London Fog
• Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Scalloped Ovals Large
• Design Paper: Docrafts - Boofle 6" x 6" Designstax
• Cardstock: Papermania Premium Textured Cardstock (lilac)
• Punch: EK Success - Edger Punch Dotted Scallop
• Coloured with Promarkers
• Gems from stash

I'm feeling a lot better this morning, hopefully this bug is finally on its way out :)

Have a fab weekend guys

Muse Challenge #9

Hi guys

I've been suffering with a horrid cold for the last few days so I thought I would try to escape the endless sneezing and nose blowing to make a card for this week's Muse challenge.

This week's inspiration card is by Marion Vagg and I absolutely love it.  Although my design is quite different the colours Marion used are fabulous so these hues were my inspiration, as well as the use of stripes.

Here is my interpretation...

I used post-it notes to mask off the four areas to stamp, then scored lines to add definition.  I double-scored the lower panel to highlight the sentiment.  I then matted the white card onto jade green cardstock to create a defined border.


Materials used:

• Stamps: Woodware - Salutations (sentiment); Hero Arts - Share Laughter set (dotted flower); Marion Emberson - Its all in the Words set (plain flower); Hero Arts - unknown set (swirl flower)
• Ink: Versa Color - Royal Blue, Mint, Sky Blue
• Cardstock: Craft UK Ltd - Premier quality smooth white card; Papermania Premium Textured Cardstock (jade green)
• Scoreboard (free with Papercraft Inspirations magazine)

This is Marion's wonderful inspiration card...

As always, thanks for visiting...I'm now off to bed armed with a hot honey and lemon :(

Take care

Neet x

Pastel Florals

Hi guys

No challenge entries today but I was recently asked to make a couple of specific cards and I'm here to share these with you.

The first is a sympathy card...

 

I've been wanting to use this gorgeous stamp since I received it.  It's part of the Clearly Besotted Stamps 'Happy Everything' stamp set.  Its such a beautiful design, I think I'll be inking up a few to keep for future use.  I also thought this was a good time for me to have a go with my new FlexMarkers and I'm really happy with my effort on this one.  I decided to use Memento London Fog on this card as I wanted a softer appearance than using black.

 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Happy Everything (image); Clearly Besotted Stamps - With Love (sentiment)
• Ink: Memento - London Fog
• Coloured with Flexmarkers
• Pearls from stash

 

 

This was the second card request...

 

I really struggled with this one as I don't have any relative or age stamps!  I nearly reverted back to the dreaded peel-offs until I remembered I had a set of stamps which were alphabets and numbers.  I don't really like the end result of this one but decided to go with it as I have nothing else.  I'm hoping the lovely gerbera image will make up for it :)

 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps: With Love (image); Dovecraft - Roman Alphabet (sentiments)
• Ink: Memento - London Fog; Versa Color - Sage
• Design Paper: Dovecraft - Back to Basics IV 6" x 6" Paper Pack
• Coloured with FlexMarkers
• Ribbon from stash

 

 

On another subject, this was the view we woke up to in Torquay this morning!  This was taken by my brother from his house.  What lovely spring weather! :)

 

That's all from me today, feeling a bit poorly today so I'm off to snuggle on the sofa with a nice cuppa.  I hope you've all had a lovely weekend.

Take care

Neet x

Muse Challenge #8

Good evening fellow crafters

Ever since I saw this week's Muse challenge on Monday I've had an idea in my head and I've only just managed to find the time to create it.  This week's Muse is Therese Calvird and her card design this week is really striking - I've included a pic of her design further down in this post.

I've drawn my inspiration this week from her lovely layout and this is my take on it...

 

and a closer view of the focal point...

 

 

I decided to use my new 'Blooming Marvellous' dies which I received yesterday from Clearly Besotted Stamps, to match the stamp set I already have.  I had a rummage through my stash of patterned paper (it didn't take long...lol!) and was so pleased to find this design paper to use as a background.  I love the way it echos the centre of the sunflower.  It was also great to use some different colours on a card, all my creations have been quite girlie lately so it was fun to have a change.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Blooming Marvellous
• Dies: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Blooming Marvellous, Xcut - Nesting Squares; Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Scalloped Ovals Large
• Ink: Versa Color - Green Tea, Canary, Brown
• Design Paper: Hot Off The Press - Cardmaker's Ultimate Pack Floral
• Ribbon and gems from stash

Here is the inspiration card made by Therese...

Thanks for visiting and if you haven't done already, go have a go at this challenge.  It's great fun!

Neet x

Two More for Mother's Day

Hi guys

I can now post the two remaining Mother's Day cards I made last week for myself and my brother to give to our lovely Mum.

 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Kanban Crafts - Spring Meadow stamp set; Clearly Besotted Stamps - Happy Everything stamp set
• Ink: Memento - London Fog
• Coloured with Promarkers
• Gems from stash

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Blooming Marvellous and Happy Everything stamp sets
• Ink: Versa Color - Burgundy, Green; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Ovals Large, Classic Scalloped Ovals Large
• Gems and coloured cardstock from stash

Just a quick post today but as always, thanks for visiting.  I hope you have all had a lovely weekend and a lovely Mother's Day for all you mums out there :)

Neet x

Uniko Studio Label Love: Birthday

Hi all

Just a quick post tonight to share a card I made a few days ago although had to wait until today to upload it.

This is the first chance I have had to use one of the sets of stamps I won in the Uniko Studio blog hop last month, Label Love: Birthday.  They are such good quality and I will certainly be using these again and again, along with the Bright Butterflies set.  I'm still gutted I can't use the digi papers I also won, this being down to me not having a printer at the moment, that will HAVE to change as they look completely gorgeous, I want to get my hands on them!

and a closer view...

 

 

 

I love the little balloons in this set and thought the polka dots would tie in really well with the Kanban Sherbert Pips cardstock I have in my stash.  This took a while to make as I had to cut around the balloons and sentiment block before popping up on 3D foam.

 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko Studio - Label Love: Birthday stamp set
• Cardstock: Kanban - Sherbert Pips
• Ink: Versa Color - Mint, Orchid, Baby Blue; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: Spellbinders - Edgeabilities Classic Scallop
• Twine: Doodlebug

 

Thanks for looking, see you soon.

 

Neet x

 

Less is More - OLC Spots & Stripes

Hi blogger friends

Dropping by today to share a card for the current challenge at Less is More.  The brief is to create a One Layer Card with the theme Spots and Stripes.

I trawled through my stamp sets and I actually really enjoyed making this one and I'm really happy with the result.

 

 

I ended up using 4 different stamp sets to come up with this design!  I wanted to use a spot stamp to create the petals of the flower but found nothing in my stash.  Then I cast my eye over them once more and the stamp I used was actually from the Clearly Besotted Stamps 'Merry Little Christmas' stamp set and is actually a tiny spotted bauble.  I was going to colour in the spots but decided to leave this card purely stamped (apart from the gem of course) and didn't want to introduce any other medium.  I stamped the vase a second time on a post-it note and cut it out to create a mask before stamping the striped background.

 

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Base card from stash
• Stamps: Penny Black - Salutations stamp set (vase and stem); Clearly Besotted Stamps - Merry Little Christmas stamp set (flower petals); Clearly Besotted Stamps - Building Blocks stamp set (striped background); Wild Rose Studio - Everyday Greetings (sentiment)
• Ink: Versa Color - Orange, Fresh Green, Sky Blue, Canary
• Gem from stash

 

Thanks for visiting as always crafting lovelies :)

 

Neet x

 

The Paper Players #135

Hi there

I've just made it with about an hour to spare to enter this week's challenge at The Paper Players.  LeAnne's theme challenge this week is 'In Stitches' - to create anything sewing themed, stitched of even funny.

I nearly passed on this one until I remembered a few bits I had in my stash that would fit the brief, and this is what I came up with...

 

and the embossed detail...

 

 

 

The patchwork embossing folder and design paper I used for this card are both from the Boofle range made by Docrafts.  The paper is from the 6 x 6 Designstax paper pad.  There are some really beautiful papers in there, most sheets are the designs featured in the patchwork paper I used on this card, they are double-sided with plain colours on the reverse and some are also glittered, really lovely designs to use as backings.  I finished off with some ribbon, a die cut sentiment panel and some coloured pearls.

 

Materials used:

• Embossing Folder: Boofle by Docrafts
• Design Paper: Boofle by Docrafts - 6" x 6" Designstax
• Die: Spellbinders - Classic Ovals Large
• Stamp: Woodware - Salutations stamp set
• Ink: Versa Color - Mint
• Ribbon and pearls from stash

 

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely evening, I'm off to fill my tummy with something yummy! :)

 

Neet x



Muse Challenge #7

Hi guys

Back with another quick post tonight.

I was so excited on Monday to discover that my card was voted Top 3 in last week's Muse challenge.  I feel so honoured to have received votes from so many talented crafters.  Thank you all so much :)

This week's design over at the Muse challenge blog was designed by Laurie Willison.  The card she created this week is stunning.  I absolutely love her design but I've struggled this week to come up with something anywhere near as beautiful.  I chose to keep the layout and colours the same as Laurie's card.  I used a brass stencil to create the embossed row of hearts as an alterative to the die cut hearts banner.

This is my attempt...

 

 

This was Laurie's beautiful creation we were to use for inspiration...

 

 

I only have one pack of kraft blanks and the shade is quite dark so I'm not entirely happy with them.  I know I didn't have to use kraft but I seem to have lost my mojo on this week's challenge and had brain block!

 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Hero Arts - Love Flourish; Hot Off The Press - Stamped Stitches
• Ink: Versa Color - White; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Cardstock and ribbon from stash

 

Hopefully my mojo will return for my next post!

 

Off to bed now, night all x

 

Mother's Day - No Stamping Required!

Hi there

Back again with another Mother's Day card I made this week, I will be back after Sunday to share the others.

I wanted to make a card using one of the images from a set of Rub-ons I have in my craft stash.  This is the Iris from the Tracy Hollins Elegance Collection of Textured Floral Rub-ons.  I generally don't use rub-ons but I make an exception for these as the images are gorgeous.  They are textured and glossy, hopefully this shows in the second photograph below.

 

 

This is a great example of how many of my cards used to look when I first started cardmaking, before I discovered stamping.  I matted and layered the different cardstock, accenting with silver mirri card.  I have a very limited stock of Mother's Day sentiment stamps and didn't want all my cards to look too similar so in this case I used peel-offs, coloured first with a Promarker.  I think on this card the peel-offs work quite well as they tie in with the silver accents.

 

Materials used:

• Image: The Tracy Hollins Elegance Collection Textured Floral Rub-ons (Iris)
• Cardstock: Kanban 300gsm Brilliant White Cardstock; Bazzill Basics Cardstock (blue); Silver Mirri from stash
• Peel-off Silver Sentiment stickers coloured with Promarker (bluebell)
• Grosgrain ribbon from stash

 

As most of you are such talented stampers I appreciate this card probably isn't for you but it was interesting to see that this was actually the first of my Mother's Day cards to be selected for purchase!

 

Thanks for visiting, I'm hoping to be back very soon with at least one challenge entry this week!

 

Take care

 

TTFN

 

Neet x



Mother's Day Floral Background

Hiya

Here's another card I made for my collection of Mother's Day cards, I made a few so my friends could have a few to choose from.

I wanted to use this lovely stamp I bought second-hand from eBay not long ago.  Its quite a large stamp but I think it creates a gorgeous background.  I wanted to white emboss the image before colouring it in but then discovered I don't have any white embossing powder! So I improvised and instead I used white ink and clear embossing powder, I think white powder would have worked better but the general effect is the same.  I then coloured the flowers and leaves with Promarkers.  I die cut the sentiment panel and finished off with ribbon and pearls.  Took a while to make but was all fairly straight forward :)

Materials used:

• Stamps: Elzybells - floral background (sorry, don't know what its called); Marion Emberson Designs - It's all in the Words stamp set (happy); Clearly Besotted Stamps - Framed Sentiments stamp set (Mother's Day)
• Ink: Versacolor - White, Lavender
• Embossing Powder: Rubber Stampede - Clear
• Cardstock: Papermania Premium Textured Cardstock (green)
• Die: Spellbinders - Classic Rectangles Large
• Coloured with Promarkers
• Ribbon and pearls from stash

As always, thanks for looking.

Neet x

Mother's Day Embossed Vellum

Hi guys

I had some requests for Mother's Day cards this week so I will be sharing these in the next few posts.  I will have to wait until after Sunday to share a couple of them though, as the lovely recipient (my Mum) may have a sneaky peek at my blog before then!

I decided to have a little play with some vellum to create this one...

and a closer view of the embossed vellum...

 

This card took a while to make but I really enjoyed creating it as I hadn't worked with vellum for a long time.  I dry embossed the vellum flowers, leaves and butterfly using a couple of embossing boards I got free with some magazines a few years ago.  When using vellum the embossed detail also creates white areas where the vellum becomes raised.  I then cut each of these out (that was the time consuming part!) and curled the petals slightly with the stem of my pokey tool to create some definition.  The blue mat is also vellum which was die cut, and then a die cut piece of white card was placed over it.  I popped the gems on before sticking the flowers to the card, the reason for this was that I used silicone glue to adhere the vellum elements and didn't want to add pressure when sticking on the gems.

 

Materials used:

• Vellum: Anita's - Plain Pastel Vellum Pack
• Dies: Spellbinders - Labels One
• Stamp: Wild Rose Studio - Flower Doodles stamp set (sentiment)
• Ink: Versa Color - Heliotrope
• Gems from stash

 

More to follow shortly :)

 

Neet x

 

Stamped Background - CAS-ual Fridays CFC92

Hi there

The housework has been abandoned in favour of making a card for my chap to send to his mum for Mother's Day.  I chose to follow the current challenge at CAS-ual Fridays which is 'Wallpaper' - to stamp your own background on your CAS creation.

And here it is...

 

 

and a closer view of the sentiment panel...

 

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed making this one although I still only have a small selection of ink colours.  I think I will be using this technique of masking and stamping backgrounds a lot as it was great fun and all you need is card, ink and some stamps, easy peasy.  I scored the masked panel to add some definition and finished it off with some emerald gems.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Kanban Crafts - Autumn Silhouettes (flowers); Clearly Besotted Stamps - Paired Up (tiny leaves); Clearly Besotted Stamps - Happy Everything (sentiment)
• Ink: Versa Color - Lilac, Lavender, Peony, Amethyst, Turquoise, Versafine - Onyx Black
• Gems: From stash

That really is all from me today, thanks as always for visiting and for your lovely comments, I appreciate them so much.

Neet x

More Butterflies!

Second post of the day - I'm on fire! haha

Just a quickie - After I made my card for the Muse challenge I had a few bits and pieces left over that I'd stamped and die cut so I've made another little card for my stock.

 

I'm absolutely loving the stamps and dies from Clearly Besotted Stamps and there are more available now in the latest release - and I've just be paid so it would be rude not to purchase more wouldn't it?! Clearly Besotted Stamps are also having a Spring Sale at the moment with 10% off stamp sets (excluding new releases) so get yourselves over there, you won't be disappointed!

 

For the background on this card I used Sherbert Pips cardstock by Kanban.  I bought this cardstock set ages ago from QVC and its lovely and there are some beautiful colours.  QVC no longer sell it but I think its available elsewhere online should you want to make a worthwhile purchase.

 

Materials used:



• Cardstock: Kanban - 300gsm Brilliant White Cardstock; Kanban - Sherbert Pips Glittered Cardstock
• Stamps & Dies: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Butterfly Wishes and Leafy Accents; Wild Rose Studio - Everyday Greetings
• Ink: Versa Color - Peony, Burgundy, Olive; Versafine - Onxy Black
• Twine: Doodlebug

That's it from me today, must go and do some housework!  I may be back later ;)

TTFN

Neet x

Less is More Week 109 Colour Challenge

Happy Sunday from a very grey South Devon, can't wait for Spring to arrive.

Today I'm having a go at the latest Less is More challenge.  The pastel colours are so beautiful so had to give it a shot.  To be honest I really struggle with colour challenges and have only entered one other so far.  I have loads of ideas then go to my craft cupboard and find there's always something I don't have or the colours aren't right.

Anyway, here's my attempt at this one...

 

and a closer view...

 

This is the colour palette we were given from Less is More...

 

Isn't it gorgeous - as well as making me feel extremely hungry for doughnuts!

 

 

The two pieces of pink card I used are actually quite different but they look very similar in the photograph.  The punched border is a hammered baby pink whereas the card I've stamped the image into is a more dusky beige/pink but doesn't show too well in the photo.  I stamped the image with Versamark then used a pastel peach embossing powder.  The sentiment is stamped in brown ink them embossed using clear embossing powder.

 

I'm not entirely happy with this one but thought I'd have a go and enter it anyway :)

 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Kanban Crafts - Spring Meadow; Personal Impressions - Mix and Match (sentiment)
• Ink: Versamark; Versa Color - Brown
• Embossing Powder: Personal Impressions - Pastel Peach; Rubber Stampede - Clear
• Punches: EK Success - Dotted Scallop Edger Punch; Fiskars - 4 in 1 Corner Punch Embosser 'Spiral'
• Cardstock and Pearls: From stash

 

Thanks for visiting, make the most of what's left of the weekend :)

 

Neet x 

 

Muse Challenge #6

Hi guys

Today I would like to share a card I made late last night for this week's challenge over at Muse.  This week's muse is the super talented Deanna Jean and her card is just beautiful. 

This is my take on her design...

 

 

I knew this would be a great opportunity to use my growing collection of goodies from Stephanie's range at Clearly Besotted Stamps, I love them all and couldn't wait to use the matching stamps and dies from the Leafy Accents and Butterfly Wishes sets.  This was also the first outing for the Framed Sentiments stamp set, its so versatile I know I will get a lot of use from it :)

 

Here is Deanna Jean's gorgeous card we were to use for inspiration...

 

 



 

I took my inspiration from the corner cluster, the colour palette and the central framed sentiment.

 

Materials used:

• Stamps/Dies: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Leafy Accents, Butterfly Wishes, Framed Sentiments
• Ink: Versa Color - Olive, Amethyst, Burgundy, Scarlet, Peony; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Cardstock/Gems: From stash

 

I'm loving the Muse challenge each week as it gives me ideas when I get brain block!

 

Thanks as always for visiting, have a fab weekend :)

 

Neet x