Blue Buddleia Bear

 

I made this card using a Gruffy Bear from a Joanna Sheen set, using lots of blues.  I'm not convinced that the colours quite work...  to many shades of different values.  The colour inspiration came from House Mouse & Friends Monday and I based the layout on Sketch Saturday, with extra flowers and butterflies spilling out.  The lace came from my stash, sentiment is from the same stamp set.

My card is for:

House Mouse & Friends Monday - photo inspiration

Sketch Saturday - sketch

Paper Pretties - thank you card

Sweet Stamps - think spring

Phindy's Place Challenge #71 - anything goes using a Phindy's Place image

And now for something completely different...  the first challenge of the month at Phindy's Place is always Anything Goes, so long as you use one of Phindy's images.  This means there is always time to plan ahead so I did something I've been thinking about for ages, which is to use a digi image to make something in fabric.  It needed to be digi not rubber so I could get the size I wanted and chose Summer Bare which is one of my favourites from the new releases. 

I printed it out and traced onto Bondaweb, simplifying some of the detail.  The bikini strings were too fine to add in so I hand stitched on some twine.  I bought a lovely bag pattern at Festival of Quilts from a lovely lady on the Monkey Buttons stand, it's called African Basket.  I strip pieced the background and yes, all the panels are different and the stripes were not meant to match up!  I put together my applique image on one of the panels and followed the pattern for the bag which was straightforward to make.  It's ages since I've sewn anything other than a card, what do you think of my Phindy bag?
I'm entering my bag for the following challenges:
Paper Pretties - anything but a card
Die Cut Dreams - make a gift box or bag
My Craft Spot - sewing somewhere on your project - yup!
Victorine Originals - summer
Just some lines - anything but a card
Secret Crafter - in the sea
Totally Papercrafts - not a card
Charisma Cards - anything goes
Simon Says - anything goes hop

Shopping Our Stash meets Less is More

As soon as I saw this week's Shopping Our Stash Challenge - buttons, blooms and bananas - I knew what I wanted to make and, barring the sentiment, it's all neglected stash. I went to Make It at Farnborough last year and was really pleased with a set of clear stamps - the name on them is G Studio - stalk and 2 flowers that I bought for £1.  I had all sorts of ideas for using them but you guessed it, they've been languishing in the drawer unused.  I just used the stem from this and the flower stamp is from an Elusive Images set that I've not used for ages.  The button is from my button tin and the flower is really cool.  A few years back a quilting friend showed me how to use a metal template (this was a charm I think) with a soldering iron to cut out shapes from nylon organza.  Great idea but the flowers have been maturing in the stash too:).   Hope you like my clean and simple card.

Shopping our Stash - buttons, blooms and bananas
Less is More - buttons and ribbons
Paper Pretties - no markers
Anything Goes - pick of the bunch (flowers)
Come and Get It - make your own flowers

Phindy's Place Challenge #59 - Water

Good Morning and welcome to the Phindy's Place Friday Challenge.  This week our challenge is water:  images with some water in there somewhere.  I used the adorable image Seaside Baby, but I was amazed to see just how many images Phindy has that include water.  You don't have to use one of Phindy's images to enter, but you double your chances of winning if you do!  So why not check out the watery images in the shop?

My card has ended up very simple, I made a shaker card containing sand and by the time I'd framed my image there was little space to add anything other than my sentiment, which came from Create with TLC.  The image is coloured with Copics and some Stickles, the DP is Basic Grey.  I do hope you'll join us this week and make a watery project.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Stampin' - playing in the summer sun
Paper Sundaes - let's get sentimental
Digital Tuesday - in the garden/outdoors
Aud Sentiments - summertime
Paper Pretties - summer
Truly Scrumptious - summer sparkle

Phindy's Place Challenge #47 - Hot Stuff

I hope this scheduled post works as I will be at the Cheltenham Festival for a fourth day's racing today, Friday:)  At Phindy's Place Challenge this week we're anticipating a lovely long hot summer to make up for the hard winter so many of us have had, with our theme of Hot Stuff.  You can interpret this with warm colours, summer image cards, it's up to you.   I've taken the opportunity to use Mr Brown On Vacation, this image is available in the shop here.    It's such a fun image that I wanted the card itself to be very simple, this week's CPS layout is perfect!

Image is coloured with Copics (do you like the touch of sunburn on Mr Brown's nose and legs?) and I used some Stickles on his fishing line and beercan.  The string lace is from Bunny Zoe's, DP is My Mind's Eye and the sentiment is a Joanna Sheen House Mouse one.
My card is for the following challenges:
CPS - sketch
Incy Wincy Challenges - for the boys
Paper Pretties - masculine card
Ooh la la Creations - It's a Man Thing

One Layer Wednesday

My blogging friend Chrissie has introduced me to One Layer Wednesday via her blog and I have entered their challenge this week for the first time.  The challenge is to take inspiration from a page of cards designed by Walther Erhard and my starting point was the ornament card to the left.  I bought some cheap-as-chips but very good Viva Christmas stamps from Stamp Attic, my local shop a couple of weeks back and I gave them an outing for the challenge.  I embossed using 4 different powders and managed to keep the textured card pretty clear of irritating embossed specks:).
That led on to a second one-layer card not related to the first.  Same Viva holly flourish, but this time I've brushed Distress Inks onto a centre strip after clear embossing a large Viva text stamp.  I planned to gold emboss the text but decided I like it best as it is.

 

My cards are for the following challenges:
Ornament Branch:
One Layer Wednesday - inspiration
Paper Pretties - clean & simple


Distressed Text:
Paper Sundaes - adorn those corners!
I Did It - surprise me
Crazy 4 Challenges - script paper or folder (hope the stamped text counts!)