Leaves within Leaves

Hi guys

Today I'd like to share a card I've made based on the current challenge at The Card Concept.  I love the photo inspiration provided so wanted to give it go before the deadline.

One of the stamp sets I used for this card only landed on my doorstep about two hours ago, so that's got to be my quickest use of a new product ever!

So, here's my card followed by the challenge photo, and my card falls into the Clean and Simple category.

I used two linear leaves from the same set, and after stamping the design with the larger leaf I then used a different green ink to stamp the smaller leaf inside.  A sentiment was then stamped before popping the panel up on 3D foam

Materials used:

• Stamps: Paper Smooches - Reflections; Wplus9 - Fresh Cut Florals (sentiment)
• Ink: Versa Color - Split Pea and Bamboo

I would also like to enter this card at the current challenge at Daring Cardmakers where the theme is Clean and Simple.

Thanks for popping by.

Dear Santa

Hi guys

I'm here tonight to share a card I've made this evening for the current challenge at CASology where the cue word is 'letter'.

The idea I had in my head hasn't really translated as I wanted it to, but I thought I'd share my card anyway.

I've had these mini cards and envelopes in my stash for years but have hardly ever used them.  With these in mind I immediately thought of a Dear Santa letter.  I used an embossing marker to write the text, trying to make it look like a child had written it (not too difficult when you can't see where you're writing!!), and then heat embossed this with some red embossing tinsel.  I stamped some silver snowflakes on the card base to add some interest.

Materials used:

• Stamp: Uniko Studio - Stunning Snowflakes
• Ink: Versa Color - Silver
• Embossing Pen: Whispers Embossing Marker
• Embossing Powder: Heat It Up - Embossing Tinsel (Red)
• Cardstock and mini card and envelope from stash

Really quick post tonight as I'm now off to bed.

Bye for now

Addicted to Stamps and More #110

Good morning crafters

Well, it's Wednesday again so there is a new challenge starting over at Addicted to Stamps and More, and this week we have a challenge for you in the form of a...

Photo Inspiration

You may take any element of the photo that inspires you, e.g. the colours, image, theme, etc.

We have a wonderful sponsor this week, QKR Stampede, who are offering a prize of 3 digis to one lucky winner.

Here is my DT card

I cut a strip of woodgrain patterned paper and stamped the bloom and leaf with VersaMark ink and then heat embossed with white powder.  The white powder is actually quite creamy so I opted for a cream card base instead of white.  I mounted the patterned paper onto some dark brown cardstock before adhering to my card base.  I then used the same brown cardstock to stamp the sentiment, again in VersaMark and heat embossed in white.  I then fussy cut this out before attaching with 3D foam.  

I think you can clearly see where my inspiration came from: the woodgrain, the skirt that looks exactly like flower petals and the ballerina's head was my inspiration for the round sentiment.

Materials used:

• Patterned paper: Fancy Pants - Country Boutique
• Cardstock: Bazzill Basics - Premium Cardstock (brown); card base from stash
• Stamps: Stampin' Up - Flower Shop; Uniko Studio - Natures Treasures #1 (leaf); Sentiment stamp - unknown brand
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Stampin' Up - white

My fellow members of the ATSM Design Team have some great projects showing how they were inspired by this week's photo so why not pop over and take a look and have a go at the challenge yourself.

Ok, that's all for now, thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon :)

Geometric Congrats

Hi guys

I'm back with a really quick post to share another card I've made to enter a couple of challenges, one which is ending this evening.

On a spare piece of white cardstock I stamped a geometric pattern using the striped diamond in two colours.  I then cut this out with a square die and matted it on some teal coloured cardstock.  I used the same teal cardstock to cut out the congrats.  I really had no clue where I was going with this and I settled on a landscape card and adhered the square panel at an angle.  I then adhered the word die cut straight across this and added a couple of co-ordinating square gemstones to finish.  I'm really not sure what I think about this card, I think it's the angled panel I'm not sure about, but it looked better like this than it did straight.  And geometric is all about angles, right? :)

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Geometric Style
• Ink: Versa Color - Cinnamon and Paprika
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Congrats Word Die; Xcut - Nested Squares
• Gems: Papermania - Mosaics (Emerald and Jade)

Challenge entries:

Addicted to CAS - Challenge #45 - Geometric

Colour Me - Challenge #34

That's all for today, I'm feeling a bit under the weather this evening so I think an early night is on the cards.

Take care

New Baby

Hi guys

This afternoon I visited Day 1 of my recently purchased class at Online Card Classes.  I've heard really good things about these classes so wanted to have a go.  I chose the Clean & Simple Card Making class, an independent class which I can work through in my own time.  I do hope to participate in an interactive class at some point though :)

I made this card based on one of the clean and simple sketches included in the class...

The one thing I have literally none of in my stash is large background stamps.  So, I masked the centre of this square card base with a post-it note and then used a background builder stamp to create the argyle print all over the card base.  I did struggle to line it up in a few places and where the stamp met the mask there were a few areas that didn't stamp too well so I did my best to re-stamp without messing it up!  Next I took a scrap of white cardstock and inked it up straight from my ink pad so I had a matching colour to punch out the teddy bears.  I stamped the sentiment, adhered the teddy bears on 3D foam and added a couple of pale blue gems to finish.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Background Builders III, A Little Sentimental
• Ink: Versa Color - Baby Blue and Royal Blue
• Punch: Woodware - Teddy Bear
• Gems from stash

Challenge entries:

Simply Create Too - Challenge #68 - Monochromatic Madness
Fab Friday - Challenge #48 - Baby Boy
CAS on Sunday - Rock a Bye Baby


Thanks for popping by, I'm now off to do some of the things around the flat I promised myself I would do at the start of the day. Oops, I'm so easily distracted!!

Bye for now

Natural Wedding

Hi guys

Today, I'd like to share a commission card I've made for a friend.  The big day she wanted the card for isn't until Monday but I'm sure the happy couple don't follow my blog and will be far too busy to see it!  The brief was a fairly modern and simple design using neutral, champagne and gold colours.

I started by using a card base which I've had in my stash for years, and it had an already debossed central square panel.  I die cut a smaller square from some cream hammered cardstock and cut a notch on either side for the jute twine to be tied around, without shifting.  The names and date were computer generated and printed on the same cream cardstock before die cutting with a tag die.  The tag die I used was wider than I wanted so I cut down the edges before attaching with the twine.  Next, using some natural pearlescent cardstock I stamped some dots and a stitched heart with VersaMark before heat embossing in white and then used the corresponding heart die to cut these out.  Next I die cut the 'love' word from gold cardstock and adhered this over the hearts.  Once the cream square panel had been popped up on 3D foam I secured the two tags also with 3D foam to stop them shifting around.  The final touch was to add a few pearls.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Love Hearts and Building Blocks
• Ink: VersaMark
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Love Hearts, Love Word Die and Tag Along
• Embossing Powder: Stampin' Up - White
• Cardstock, twine and pearls from stash

Challenge entries:

Let's Craft and Create - Challenge #95 - Ribbon or Twine
STAMPlorations - August Challenge - Stamps and Die Cuts
Dream Valley - Challenge #88 - Wedding
Creative Card Crew - Challenge #68 - Embossing
Love to Create - Challenge #129 - Polka Dots & Pearls
Papertake Weekly Challenge - To Die For
The Crafter's Cafe - Challenge #77 - Square Cards only

That's all for now folks.  I hope to have more to share with you before the weekend is over :)  I hope you're enjoying the weekend so far, and looking foward to the bank holiday (those of you in the UK!).

Let It Snow

Hi there

As promised, here's my third and final card for today and this is also my second entry at Less is More where the theme is 'Animal'.

I found this cute teeny tiny kitty in a stamp set which was free with a publication ages ago.  He only measures one centimetre high...awwwww!

This card kind of evolved as I went along.  I stamped this cute little guy on a scrap of white cardstock and coloured him in with ProMarkers.  I knew I wanted to surround him with snow so I masked him off before using a snow stamp which was actually a little addition in a Christmas sentiment set.  I wanted the snow to show up so I used silver pigment ink and then heat embossed with white powder.  I then got the impression that this little chap needed some sort of ledge to lean on so I used a rectangular die to create a window.  I popped the window up on 3D foam on a textured card base and added some Wink of Stella to his hat.

He looks like he's peering through a window from the cold outside, so perhaps the sentiment should read 'Let me in'! :D

I really love how this turned out, I love the tiny pop of colour against all the white and of course, some Christmas sparkle.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Christmas Capers by Adam Pescott; Paula Pascual - Christmas Messages (snow and sentiment)
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Versa Color - Silver; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Powder: Stampin' Up - White
• Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Rectangles Large
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Wink of Stella

I'd also like to link this card up at the following challenge blogs:

Creative Card Crew - Challenge #68 - Embossing

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Christmas in August

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

And again, just for fun, I'm going to link up at Addicted to Stamps and More where my teamies are hosting the latest CAS challenge.

Phew, ok that's all from me for tonight.  Once I've linked these up I'll be off to my cosy bed!

Nite all :)

Whole Latte Love

Hi guys

I'm back again with my second card for this evening.

So, without further ado, here it is...

I started by stamping the cup image on a scrap of white cardstock.  All three elements are one stamp so I used a post-it note to mask off the sentiment and steam while I inked up the cup, then removed these and carefully inked up the other two elements with two more colours.  I used the little ink cubes which meant I could be quite precise with the ink placement.  I then cut this out with a circle die.  Next, using two of the same ink colours I stamped the stripes on the card base, then popped the die up over these using 3D foam.  A few Doodlebug Sprinkles were added to finish.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Stampin' Up - Patterned Occasions; Clearly Besotted - Basic Stripes
• Ink: Versa Color - Bamboo, Hyacinth and Neptune
• Die: Xcut - Nested Circles
• Doodlebug Sprinkles - from Lilac Assortment

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

CASology - Week 109 - Java

Color Throwdown - Challenge #306

Stamplorations - August Challenge - Stamps and Die Cuts
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

I'm also going to join in the fun with my teamies again at Addicted to Stamps and More for this week's CAS challenge.

Ok, that's two down, one more to go.  I'll be back again shortly with my third card for today!

For You

Hi guys

I have a few cards to share tonight so I'll keep my posts short and sweet :)

My first card is for the current challenge at Less is More where the theme this week is 'Animal'.  I thought I had more animal stamps that I actually do so after a rummage through my stash I decided to ink up this cute little bunny for the first time.

I kept this card really simple, just stamped the image, coloured with ProMarkers and cut it out using a rectangular die before popping up on 3D foam.  The central piece of paper on this image is actually blank but the stamp comes with four messages: for you, thank you, happy birthday and with love, so you can choose which sentiment to stamp in the centre.

Materials used:

• Stamp: Lili of the Valley - Messy Messages
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Rectangles Large

I am also linking this up at the following challenge blog:

The Paper Players - Challenge #209 - CAS A Child's Birthday

The current challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More is 'Clean and Simple' so I'm joining in with my Design Teamies in Team B and linking up there too :)

I'll be back shortly with another card...

Keeping a Record...

Hi there

I've got something a little different to share with you today.

For a while I've been wanting to keep a gallery of my past creations in one place for easy reference.  Although I can look back at my previous makes on my blog and in my electronic photo albums I wanted to have a hard copy to hand.

A while ago I saw an offer on Groupon for photo books at a really great price .  So I went ahead and purchased and created a couple of books containing a record of my projects published on my blog in 2013.  This particular offer was from Mini Box and was for 20x20cm soft cover books containing 20 pages.

You choose your cover designs and page backgrounds and then it's just a case of dragging and dropping your photos where you want them, or you can use the auto-arrange feature.  I chose my old blog header for the front cover as this was my logo last year.

I then arranged most pages with four photos on a page, with a neutral background.  You can see exactly how the whole book will look before you submit your order.

I love how these turned out.  They are handy for me to refer to if my mojo goes running off somewhere and also handy to show to customers if they want ideas for layouts and designs.  Oh, and I've now freed up some space on my laptop by deleting last year's batch of photos.

I think I'll be doing exactly the same thing next year for this year's projects too, although I think I will definitely need more pages next time!

Bye for now

Peachy Wedding Day

Hi there

I'm back again this evening to share a commission wedding card I made a few weeks ago.

The brief was to use the wedding colours which were peach, pale pink, navy and gold and it needed to be personalised too.  I found it quite difficult to incorporate all these elements as it made the card a lot busier than the cards I normally make, but I got there in the end!

I started by cutting a navy cardstock panel and a slightly smaller pearlescent peach panel which I then ran through my Big Shot with an embossing folder.  Next I used a die to cut a tag and stamped the sentiment with VersaMark ink before heat embossing with gold powder.  I stamped and die cut the roses and leaves and arranged these on the tag, some of which were popped up on 3D foam.  The personalisation was printed from MS Word and then cut out using a heart die.  I then tied two pieces of slim ribbon together in a bow around the tag.  The most difficult part was arranging the elements on the card.  I wasn't particularly happy with the placement of the heart but I was faffing around for ages so just had to go with it in the end, although I still think it looks a little lost!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Love Blossoms and Bridal Bouquet
• Ink: VersaMark; Versa Color
• Embossing Powder: Rubber Stampede - Gold
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Bridal Bouquet, Scalloped Tag Die, Love Hearts
• Embossing Folder: Stampin' Up - Elegant Lines
• Cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Let's Craft and Create - Challenge #95 - Ribbon or Twine

STAMPlorations - August Challenge - Stamps and Die Cuts

Dream Valley - Challenge #88 - Wedding

Creative Card Crew - Challenge #68 - Embossing

Crafty Catz - Challenge #244 - Recycle It! (the navy ribbons started their lives hanging from the shoulders of one of my tops!)

That's all for today, I hope you've had a lovely weekend.  I hope to see you again very soon.

Fabulous Friend

Hi guys

Today I've been working on a commission card which I can't yet share with you but before the weekend was over I wanted to enter a challenge.

So, this afternoon I chose to enter the latest challenge at Muse, which has another beautiful inspiration card from Therese Calvird.  Here is my take on Therese's card, I was inspired by the layout, the roses and colours but switched them around...

And this is the Muse challenge card...

I had some new goodies arrive a few days ago from Uniko Studio so I used two of the stamp sets here, I just adore these roses.  I stamped the two-step roses and after a little masking I stamped the leaves.  I finished with the bold sentiment in black, although I'm a little disappointed that I didn't manage to stamp it perfectly, grrrr!  Anyhoo, I still love how this turned out and I think I'll be making this card in lots of different colourways.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko Studio - Flower Power #6 and All Occasions Sentiments#3
• Ink: Versa Color - Petal Pink, Magenta and Laurel Leaf; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Cardstock from stash

I would also like to link this card up at the following challenges:

Crafty Creations - Challenge #269 - Flower Power

Brown Sugar - Challenge #107 - Anything Goes

Thanks for popping by as always :)

Lovely Leaves

Hi guys

Tonight I'd like to share a card I've made for the latest challenge at Less is More and this week it's one layer card week and the theme is foliage.

I'm really pleased with how this one turned out...

Unusually for me I chose a coloured card base for this card.  I recently picked up some Stampin' Up cardstock from a craft sale, all of which were retired colours so I've no idea what shade this is but I love the pale olive tone.  I also chose to use the one and only Papertrey Ink product I have in my stash, the Lovely Leaves stamp set.  I bought this a while ago on eBay, the only time I've ever managed to place the winning bid for anything of this brand, it was very stressful!

I love this set as it has separate stamps for the outline and the centre of the leaves.  I stamped the stem and the outline of the leaves in green ink and then used white pigment ink to stamp the leaf centres.  I then used my Uni-ball Signo pen which contains white pigment ink to gently mark the centre of the berries.  A sentiment in the same green ink completed my card.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Lovely Leaves; Stampin' Up - Simply Sketched
• Ink: Versa Color - Bamboo and White
• Cardstock: Stampin' Up
• Accented with Uni-ball Signo pen - white

Now that I've used this stamp set I've got lots of ideas going around in my head so it will certainly be inked up again in the future :)

I'm so grateful for your visit, I'd love to know what you think.

Take care

Addicted to Stamps and More #108

Hi there

Well, it's Wednesday so that means there's a new challenge over at Addicted to Stamps and More.  And this week we're back with another great theme which is...

Addicted to Holidays

We'd like you to create something based on your favourite holiday season, eg. Easter, Christmas, Halloween, or perhaps base your entry on a favourite holiday destination.

Here's my DT card this week...

Our Sponsor this week is Rick St. Dennis and this week's prize is 3 free digis to one lucky challenge winner!

For this week's card I used a digi image by Rick St Dennis which I coloured with ProMarkers and added some highlights with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents.  As the image is quite detailed I wanted to keep the rest of the card fairly simple so I covered the card base in some patterned paper and stamped the sentiment onto a fishtail flag strip.  The image and sentiment were popped up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Digi Image: Rick St. Dennis - Winter Friends
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Modern Christmas
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up - Winter Frost Designer Series Paper Stack
• Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Rectangles Large; MFT Die-namics - Fishtail Flag Stax
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Accents with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents

Why not pop over and take a look at the cards by the ATSM Design Team for some wonderful inspiration.  And if you haven't already, why not use this as a great time to start making those Christmas cards, and you could bag yourself three free digis as well!

As always, thanks for dropping by.   

Fairy Silhouette

Hi there

Tonight, I'd like to share a card I've just made for the new challenge at CASology where the cue word is 'Magic'.  

I have very little in my craft stash that would fit this challenge but one stamp set came to mind so this is what I managed to create with it...

For my first attempt at this card I stamped the image last but it didn't stamp clearly enough so that card ended up in the bin and I started again.  This time I stamped the fairy image first and let this dry completely before masking off a section of the card with post-it notes.  I also die cut a post-it note using a circle die to create the moon.  I then gently built up the background with pink, purple and indigo chalks.  I then removed the circle die and gently blended over the moon with pink chalk to make it softer and used some white chalk to soften it more and create some gentle clouds.  I finished the card by adding the sentiment.  I was originally going to add a further sentiment below which said 'believe...' but the stamp was damaged so this became the finished card.  I think I would have preferred to have the sentiment stamped at the bottom but I didn't want to create the whole project again! 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Lindsay Mason Designs - Magic Happens
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: Xcut - Nested Circles
• Decorating Chalks

That's all for now folks.  Tomorrow I'll be sharing my card for the new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More so would love it if you'd pop back.

Take care

Bundle of Joy

Hi guys

Just popping by really quickly to share a card I've just made to add to my stash.  I had no baby cards at all in my collection so I made this one, really clean and simple.

This was really quick and easy to make.  I cut a panel of white cardstock slightly smaller than the card base and die cut the pram shape.  I stamped the sentiment underneath this.  I adhered a piece of stripey patterned paper to the card base ensuring it was correctly positioned to show through the aperture.  I then popped the panel up on 3D foam and added some Doodlebug sprinkles to highlight the wheels.

Materials used:

• Die and Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Baby Love
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up - retired
• Doodlebug Sprinkles - Lily White

Challenge entries:

CASology - Week 107 - Stripe

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes

That's all for now, I'm off to tidy up my craft table.  I really must make an effort to put things away after making each card!  When will I ever learn?!

Grungy Leaf Thank You

Good morning

As promised I'm back with another card to share today.

I wanted to make a card for Challenge #183 at Less is More before the deadline this evening.  I love the colours in this challenge.  So, here's my card followed by the colour palette we were to use as our inspiration.

I finally managed to get my hands on some stitched dies from Lil' inker Designs so I used one of the ovals here.  I still want to add the circles, squares and rectangles to my stash but they seem to be more elusive here in the UK!  I die cut a leaf from white cardstock and then inked the splatters in the four different colours, gradually building until I was happy with it.  I stamped the sentiment and popped the oval up on 3D foam before adhering the leaf.  A few dew drops were added to complete the card.

Materials used:

• Dies: Lil' inker Designs - Stitched Ovals; Clearly Besotted - Autumn Flowers
• Stamps: Lawn Fawn - So Much to Say; Stampin' Up - Gorgeous Grunge
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black, New Spout, Bamboo Leaves; Versa Color - Cyan, Canary
• Dew drops from stash

I would also like to enter this card at the following challenges:

Love to Create - Challenge #127 - Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes

Right, that's all for now as I'm off to work.  Happy Friday everyone!

PS...It wasn't until I reached the bottom of this post and added my signature that I noticed the colour palette is the same as my blog header! That's clearly why I was drawn to this combo :)