Happy Birthday, Shirley-Bee!

Good morning

Many of you will no doubt be aware of the amazing talents of Shirley-Bee of Shirley-Bee's Stamping Stuff.  Today is her birthday and some of us have secretly arranged to hold a surprise linky party in her honour.  If you'd like to join in the celebration by sending some happy birthday wishes Shirley's way then you can find the linky over at maria f's blog, rieslingmama.

Shirley is a super-talented lady and I'm in awe of how she can just smoosh some watercolour and add a few scribbles and come up with amazing creations time after time.  She has also recently released her very own stamp designs, The Bee's Knees, available at Stamplorations.

I thought I would CASE one of Shirley's cards to send my birthday wishes.  I used her design, colours and layout as my inspiration.  Not a patch on the original, here is my card...

I inked up the leaf stamp in the lilac shade then used the ink 'Kissing Technique' by using a dotty stamp in a darker purple shade.  I then did the same with the orangey tones.  This is the first time I've tried this technique and I quite like the effect.  I stamped 'wishes' in black ink and adhered the birthday word die cut which was cut from black cardstock.  The panel was matted onto some black cardstock before adhering to the card base.

This is Shirley's wonderful creation...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Leafy Accents, It's Your Birthday
• Ink: Versa Color - Heliotrope, Boysenberry, Marigold, Topaz; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: Clearly Besotted - Birthday Word Die

I would like to enter my card at the following challenge blogs:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

Simply Create Too - Challenge #73 - Shop in your Craft Room (I raided my much loved Clearly Besotted goodies, all of which have been used many times before)

Brown Sugar - Challenge #117 - Anything Goes
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

Happy Birthday, Shirley! I hope you have a fabulous day x

Just a Ladybird Note

Hi there

This is a really quick post to share a card I've made this evening for the current Less is More challenge where the theme is 'Little Creatures'.

I thought I would have lots to choose from in my stash but it was actually quite limited...apart from butterflies!  I ended up inking up a stamp from a set I've not used before...

This is a teeny card, only 10cm x 10cm.  The little row of ladybirds is from a Country Companions set which was part of a bundle I bought from eBay a while ago.  I hadn't really noticed them until I was specifically looking for some 'little creatures'.  I found a scrap of white cardstock and stamped the ladybirds in black ink and then coloured them with my Inktense pencils, just using a wet brush to pick up the colour from the pencil tip.  I then manipulated the sentiment stamp slightly to follow the curve of the bugs and also stamped this in black.  I used a square die to cut out the design and then matted this onto a scrap of black card, creating a narrow border.  I then popped this up onto the card base using 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Country Companions - Sunshine Meadows; SP & Company - Just a Note
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils
• Die: Xcut - Nested Squares
• Cardstock from stash

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

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Black and White and...

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 147 (the white and black mats were cut from cardstock in my scraps as it's such a tiny card)

I hope you're all having a fab week...not long now until the weekend :)

Take care

Addicted to Stamps and More #118

Good morning

Well, we've whizzed around to Wednesday again and Addicted to Stamps and More has a fresh new challenge for you.  This week's challenge theme is...

Holiday

How you interpret this is up to you...it could be an annual holiday such as Christmas, Easter, etc. or a holiday destination/theme

Our fab sponsor this week is Eureka Stamps and the winner's prize will be 3 digis from their store.

Here is my DT card using a digi image by our sponsor...

I printed the digi onto white card and cut it out using a Spellbinders die.  I then coloured the image with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers and added some Wink of Stella to the gold trim of the sleigh and the stars on the tree.  I covered the card base with some green jacquard Christmas paper and adhered the die cut onto this.  I stamped and die cut the sentiment banner and popped this up on 3D foam and added a snowflake and some stars which were die cut from glitter paper.  I'm not overly happy with this card, it's not really my usual style as I needed to print the digi fairly large to be able to colour the detail and I then struggled a bit with my layout.  As a Christmas card, I like it.  I just prefer my more CAS designs.

Materials used:

• Digi: Eureka Stamps - Sleigh with Presents
• Coloured with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers
• Accented with Wink of Stella
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Mini Banners
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Labels One; Clearly Besotted - Mini Basic Banners; Uniko Studio - Designer Dies Snowflakes
• Cardstock and paper from stash

Now, why not pop over to ATSM to get some Holiday inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.  There is a lovely selection of cards this week to get your mojo going.

We'd love you to join in and share your creations with us.

Have a great day!

Home Sweet Home

Hi there

Apologies for not posting for over a week.  My mojo disappeared for a few days but I did manage to make a couple of cards at the weekend but have been unable to share them until now.

The first one is this new home card I made for a very special friend of mine.

I stamped the little cottage and sentiment on some white cardstock and used a stitched oval die to cut this out and then coloured it in with my ProMarkers.  I added some Glossy Accents to the windows and some Wink of Stella to create smoke coming out of the chimney.  I then used a patchwork embossing folder to emboss a white cardstock panel and added touches of Wink of Stella to some of the embossed flowers, dots and stars.  I think the patchwork works well with the cottage image and the stitching detail on the oval die cut.  The oval was adhered to the panel using thin 3D foam.  I then wrapped some twine around the panel before popping the panel up on 3D foam strips.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Woodware - Home Sweet Home
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Die: Lil' Inkers - Stitched Ovals
• Embossing Folder: Tri-Boss - Boofle
• Twine: Doodlebug - Brights Selection
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Accented with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents

I'd like to enter this card at the following challenges:

STAMPlorations - October Challenge - Stamps and Embossing

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

That's all for now.  I'll be back tomorrow to introduce the new challenge over at Addicted to Stamps and More and would love for you to pop back.

Until then, have a lovely day.

Black and Gold Christmas - Take Two!

Hi guys

Well, as I mentioned in my last post I'm back with another card, this being one which was made up of leftover bits from my last card.

When I was putting this card together it reminded me of the photo inspiration at the current Runway Inspired Challenge so I'm linking this one up there and I've included the inspiration photo below - the black lines alongside the gold, and all that white space around it.

Here's my card, very similar to the last one, just pretty much in reverse.

Here's the Runway Inspired Challenge photo...

So, as I mentioned these were leftovers from my last card.  I used a white linen square card base and glued down the black die cut and then filled in with the little bits of gold holographic card which were also leftover.  I used the same sentiment, this time stamped in black.

I managed to capture the sparkle from the holographic card in this photo...

Materials used:

• Die: Clearly Besotted - Christmas Tree Die
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Most Wonderful
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Cardstock: Papermania - Black; Anna Marie Designs - white linen square card; holographic from stash

I would also like to link this card up as follows:

Clearly Besotted - Challenge #14 - Christmas 

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 146 - I always forget about this little challenge and I think I've only linked up there once before.  Apart from the card base and sentiment, this card was all snippets :)

I think that really is all for today now, I really must make an effort to at least do some housework before the weekend is over! 

Take care

Black and Gold Christmas

Yes it's me again!

I'm feeling a bit better this afternoon and my mojo has clearly made a comeback!

After the last card I was feeling all Christmassy so decided to make another one.  I've not really made much of a start on my Christmas cards this year so these will all help :)

For this card I was inspired by Vicki Dutcher's card at this week's Muse challenge.  The gold on black was really striking so that's the direction I took for this card.

Apologies for the photography here, it's really dull outside so I had to use my lamp but I couldn't stop the glare off the black cardstock. Grrr!

I cut a panel of black card the same as the card base and cut out the Christmas tree die, another newbie from Clearly Besotted, I love this die!  I had to make sure I kept the little black bits from inside the loops as I would need these later.  Next I stamped the sentiment with VersaMark below the negative die cut and heat embossed with gold powder.  I love this curvy sentiment and I think it works great with this die.

Next I die cut another tree from some gold holographic card.  Euchhh I hear you cry!  Now, I can quite happily say I have a strong dislike for holographic card, mainly stemming from my early cardmaking days when it was everywhere and I think it can sometimes look very cheap and tacky.  But for some reason I kept a few sheets in my stash and used in this way I think it looks quite classy...who knew?!

I then grabbed a piece of scrap paper, just a little bigger than the die cut and covered this with adhesive and placed it behind the black panel.  This meant that the gold die and all the little black bits could be put in place quite easily, and without having to add any glue.  I then mounted the black panel onto, yes, some more holographic card, just leaving a very thin border to add some sparkle.  This was then adhered to my card base, et voila, a finished card!  I'm a bit disappointed that my gold EP isn't very sparkly but it's all I have.

Materials used:

• Die: Clearly Besotted - Christmas Tree Die
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Most Wonderful
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Rubber Stampede - Gold
• Cardstock: Papermania - Black; gold holographic from stash

Here is the striking card from this week's Muse, Vicki Dutcher...

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

Clearly Besotted - Challenge #14 - Christmas
Virginia's View - Challenge #8 - Clean and Simple
Creative Card Crew - Challenge #72 - Black Cardstock


I've now got an idea for another card so I may be back shortly!  I'm on fire today! haha

Merry Christmas Ornamental Style

Hi there

There are a few challenges I wanted to enter today so without further ado here's a pretty little one layer Christmas card for you...

A new batch of goodies from Clearly Besotted arrived on my doorstep this week so I've inked up one of the sets here, all images from the same set.  I inked up the pale pink and the silver tops at the same time, fairly easy to do with the little ink cubes.  I then cleaned off the stamps and gently just inked up one side of the ornaments with a very slightly darker pink and overstamped the images to create a little dimension.  I then stamped the dotted strings and the snowflakes in silver before stamping the sentiment in black.  To finish I added four tiny smooth domed gems to add a little bling.  I wanted to keep the design in the upper right hand corner to keep lots of white space.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Ornamental Style
• Ink: Versa Color - Petal Pink, Pink and Silver; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Gems: Glitterati

Challenge entries:

Clearly Besotted - Challenge #14 - Christmas

Less is More - Week 193 - One layer card 'Two'

Crazy for CAS - Challenge #55 - One layer stamped card

613 Avenue Create - Challenge #93 - Anything goes (optional CAS)

ColourQ - Challenge #262

Thanks as always for looking, hope to see you again soon.