Sketch & Stash Challenge #7

This week's Sketch & Stash has a simple and very usable sketch to follow, with your choice of if and where embellishments and sentiments go. From my stash I've used some Hero Arts clear stamps that I really struggle with and which have consequently been neglected. The tree and the owl are part of a large set with a long tree branch. I find the stamps just impossible to ink up successfully with anything other than a one-colour inkpad such as a Versafine, even that doesn't take too well, colours just bead on the surface and seem to vanish. If anyone has suggestions for how to make the stamps more usable I'd love to hear them! These stamps are my old stash.





For this card I've used Marvy le Plumes and spent HOURS going over and over the colours, they still look pretty faint :(. The owl and the sentiment are easy, the were copper embossed so no problems there. Basic Grey paper is new stash that I won from a challenge on Papercraftplanet.

Corrosive Challenges - #5 - Christmas Cards with Animals

This week's remit for Corrosive Challenge's Blog is to make a Christmas card with animals on it. I've used Foxy, one of the Gorjuss Girls stamps, masked her and added Snow Loved behind. Both stamps are from Sugar Nellie. Coloured with watercolour pencils, mounted onto Graphicus Guild paper, then onto a kind of matt metallic gold card that I bought at Stamp Addicts. The sentiment (from Imagepac) is black embossed onto the card. Last paper is red and gold glimmer misted paper.

I think she looks quite festive, what do you think? At any rate, one card down, ??? still to make :)

Twisted Thursday #4

I've found another new-to-me blog with a challenge today, while I was blog-hopping, Paper Therapy , which gives me the chance to use my one and only but much loved Shirley's2Girls stamp! The challenge is to use the great sketch provided (I've rotated it by 90 degrees) AND to add piercing to the card.

The Shirley image doesn't look like she's have piercings :), I've coloured her with watercolour pencils and added a couple of frames to her, cut out with a craft knife. The paper behind her has piercings around the edge. All papers from Stamp Attic.

Flutter By Wednesday Challenge

I've come across a great new blog with a regular challenge called Flutter by Wednesday. The challenges all have butterflies as part of their theme and this one uses a very attractive sketch.

As my new Elusive Images stamps are butterfly collage stamps, that I'm loving playing with, this challenge is just made for me :). I don't have as many butterfly stamps as tree images but it's a close thing! I've coloured the image with watercolour pencils and a little Stickles glitter, mounted it onto dark blue card. It's teamed with two papers from my Graphicus Guild papers, a couple of toning ribbons, a daisy from the same themeplate and a butterfly sentiment from Craftwork Cards, coloured with Copic pens.

I love these stamps, hope you like my flutterby card :)

Friday Sketchers Challenge #45

There's a lovely sketch from Claudia on this week's Friday Sketcher's Challenge. I've used the only Gorjuss Girl that I've not yet made into a card, stamped in Timber Brown Stazon and coloured with watercolour pencils. The papers I've used are a co-ordinating set by Crate Paper, bought from the Stamp Attic . I think this is among my favourite sets of paper ever, I've kept using it and buying more... lovely, almost oriental feel to it.

The Coleridge quote comes from an Impression Obesession clear stamp set with yet more trees in it.

Sugar Bowl Challenge #7 & Secret Crafter Challenge #24

Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge this week is to base a card on your favourite colour scheme. I love yellow and made a Spring card. Of course I realised it needed other colours to work and I added in a spring-like yellow-green and some orange.

Spring/Easter is also the latest Challenge at the Sugar Bowl, I've used a Leanne Ellis stamp and am entering it for this challenge too.

I've stamped Annie Talking to the Birds several times and paper pieced her onto a yellow background. Her skirt uses the same print that's in the background, the dots on it and the flowers are coloured with Sakura 3D glaze pens, Annie is coloured with watercolour pencils and the birdhouse is paper pieced and mounted on a foam pad. The papers I've used are various free ones that came with magazines, the yellow flower was a magazine freebie and the orange centre is a white flower coloured with a Copic pen - brilliant tip for any shade of flower you need! Spring is in the Air is a clear stamp from Dovecraft and the button next to it was bought at a craft show over a year ago...

Card Sketch A Day

Susan Constanza runs a great blog called Card Sketch A Day - which is exactly as the name implies :). Crafters apply to her some months ahead of time to use one of her lovely sketches and create a couple of cards with it. She was kind enough to accept some of my cards for March and April and today I have been published on her blog as Sketch #207!

The words take centre stage in this sketch, so I decided to use my WIGL theme plate from Elusive Images. WIGL stands for Words of Inspiration, Gratitude and Love, in case you are wondering :). They are really useful for cards that are not for occasions, birthdays etc.

The first card sticks very closely to Susan's sketch, even down to the heart shaped buttons :). I made these with my friend Kandy, fusing organza scraps to template plastic and cutting round a metal heart template with a soldering iron. They are "stitched" down with gold beading wire, I've curled up the ends of it into swirls. The sentiment is gold embossed onto a Nestabilities oval, papers from the Stamp Attic.

The second card has wording gold embossed on a die-cut oval, which has a few flowers from Stamps by Judith stubbies stamped onto it, which fit the wording. The lovely warm floral papers are from Stamp Attic again, as are the Prima flowers.

Inspirational Card Sketches #9

Dawn has a fun sketch to use on ICS this week. Like Karen on the DT, I used a Gorjuss Girl stamp from Sugar Nellie, I coloured her with H20s and watercolour pencils to match the lovely turquoise/brown papers from the Stamp Attic. I ddin't like the white card she was stamped on against the papers, so I stamped round the edges with some tapestry stamps to soften it a bit. The flowers on against the brown wall she's sitting on are stamps from Craftwork Cards and the border beneath is a fussy cut piece of co-ordinating paper, I've cut round the circles.

I tried cutting and tearing paper to make the long border to the left and didn't like the effect, so I came across some mulberry paper greetings from Papermania that I think came in a goody bag when I was first starting to make cards. Celebrate works for me, I hope it's ok as far as the sketch goes :). The brown flower centre was a white paper flower coloured with Copic pen.

Get In Shape - Magnolia v Stampavie Challenge

Donna at Magnolia v Stampavie has challenged us to make a card from a shape other than a square or rectangle for week 19. I've often looked at all the fun shaped cards that are available, but not bought any. Having seen the lovely new Easter images I decided to use the church window on my card and to shape the card to echo the arch.

After a few false starts I came up with this shape and used it on a rainbow coloured glossy card that I bought at my first card craft show. Tilda and the window are painted with H20s and watercolours, the sentiment is stamped in Stazon. The gem flowers came from the Hobbycraft sale in January, I think they work well with the colours in the images.

Quite a simple card, but fun to make, thanks for the Challenge Donna :)

Sketch & Stash Challenge #6

Look at my lovely new stamps! The daisy and poppy butterfly stamp plates are from Graphicus, they are new Elusive Images stamps. These are the rest of the stamps I got with my Cheltenham winnings, there are so many ideas in my head for projects to make with these images :).

It seemed a good idea to use them for this week's Sketch & Stash Challenge. I couldn't decide which stamp to choose, so I ended up making two cards. The poppy one doesn't exactly fit the sketch though; I've not added a sentiment so that I can add an appropriate one when I send the card.

Both stamped with timber brown Stazon, coloured with watercolour pencils and some highlights added with Stickles. The papers are from my Graphicus Guild membership pack, apart from the scarlet/gold on the poppy, which is glimmer misted paper. The butterfly is stamped onto the background and then onto a matching paper, cut round and stuck on with a small foam pad.

Under the Sea - The Corrosive Challenge

This week's Challenge at the Corrosive Challenges blog is "Under the Sea". We're already at week 4! I've used an Impression Obsession stamp that I bought last year when we were on holiday in Florida. It's coloured with Marvy le Plume pens and matted onto sea and sand colours. The sentiment is computer generated. I coloured it at Stamp Club last week; the lighting wasn't great whereI was sitting and I'm a little disappointed with it. Oh, well... hopefully you get the idea from the photo :).

Don't forget to enter the challenge, this week as a great prize of Stampin Up stamps AND chipboard letters from K & Co. You've got to be in to win!

Happy Mother's Day

Here in the UK it's Mothering Sunday, here is the card that I made for my Mum. Mum loves to bake, I thought she'd love this image, spoke with her this morning and sure enough she does :)

I had another go at decorating the inside of the card, for fun. The sentiment is a stamp belonging to my friend, no manufacturer's name on it. The stamps are from Elzybells, new stash from my Cheltenham winnings :) and the papers are free papers that came with a magazine last year sometime. I've used the polka dot paper so it can take part in the Elzybell's Challenge. Images coloured in with watercolour pencils.

I'm enjoying a quiet Mothering Sunday, my elder boy is away on a school field trip so there are just three of us home. I've had a lovely ride across the Downs on my horse and have the afternoon to play in the craftroom and in the garden... Happy Mother's Day to you all.

Cupcake Craft Brown & Pink Challenge & Papertake's Something Edible

I'm enjoying using the brown/pink cardmaking stuff I bought at Farnborough from Craftwork Cards. Here I've combined the papers, faux brad, flowerand printed sentiment with a brown floral from, I think, Stamp Addicts, and an Elusive Images stamp of a knickerbocker glory, coloured with watercolour pencils.

It's my entry into Cupcake Craft's Challenge to use brown + 1 other colour and also the Papertake Challenge to make a card with something edible on it.

Inspirational Card Sketches #8 - a gift tag

I was lucky enough to get a prize from the very generous Aileen on Papercraft Planet for taking part in a Leanne Ellis/Gorjuss Girls challenge. She sent me a pad of Basic Grey paper and some yummy co-ordinating brads. I wanted to put them to use straight away and show Aileen how much they were appreciated.

The sketch I've used is by Dawn from Inspirational Card Sketches. At first I found it quite tricky to work with, I hadn't used a tag shape before and it needed lots of detail on it. I persevered and am pleased with the result, thanks Dawn, I've tried something new :).

All papers Basic Grey from the Infuse pad. Gorjuss Girl coloured with watercolour pencils. Sentiment from Elusive Images, Prima flowers from the Stamp Attic.

Have Your Cake & Eat It

This week there are several food related challenges, I want to make several cards and hopefully not combine projects, you can never have too many cake cards :). Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge #23 is to use something cake related on a project.

I got out the co-ordinated pack I bought from Craftwork Cards and added in a Hero Arts cupcake. The cupcake is coloured with watercolour pencils, the frame is chalked. Paper, ribbon, frame, tag and faux brads are all Craftwork Cards.

Ismaki 09/11

Ismaki has a very pretty sketch by Kiki this week that I used to make a card for a friend who is not moving house but moving back into her home after nearly a year while it's been extended and had building work. So "New Home" isn't really appropriate and I opted for "Congratulations" instead.

The yellow backing paper came from the new Graphicus Guild paper pack and the butterfly is from a paper that I bought at the Stamp Attic . Both the Congratulations stamp and the lovely birdbath stamp belong to a friend who is not crafting at the moment and lent me a big box of stamps to play with. Neither has a manufacturer name visible on the wooden mount, so I don't know where they came from :(. Marvy le Plume pens used to colour the image and Glossy Accents added to the bluebirds.

Friday Sketchers #43 & Sugar Bowl Challenge 6

The latest Sugar Bowl Challenge is to make a card that doesn't have to be a Mother's Day card, but is something a mother would love. I don't want to post a Mother's Day card on here until it's been received :), so here I've tried to make an elegant, monochromatic card that I hope would be well received. I've used the latest Friday Sketcher's sketch, by Carol, which is a really nice one that was very easy to use.

The Gorjuss Girl and bird are coloured with watercolour pencils; to be monochromatic she really should have had dark hair but I think she looks great as a redhead :).

The tree is an Art Impressions stamp that I use a lot, paper from the Stamp Attic, printed butterfly sentiment, ribbon and faux brads from Craftwork Cards.

Springing into ATCs

The Stamp Attic's ATC swap for March was Spring. I made this rather uninspired ATC using some Penny Black clear stamps onto glimmer misted paper. As the 8 ATCs were made Mon afternoon for Mon evening I soon regretted having to cut round the sheep's body and four feet :)

Luckily the rest of the group were more inspired, here's their lovely work:

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Corrosive Challenges #3

This week's challenge on the Corrosive Challenges Blog is to make a green card to celebrate St Patrick's Day. I've started with a Gorjuss Girl who is coloured with watercolor pencils. The background is Glimmer Misted paper with an Elusive Images tree and Craftwork Cards flower stems stamped onto it for some interest. There's a Good Luck sentiment written onto a label to finish off my St Patrick's Day card.

Good Luck to you all, don't forget to enter the Challenge. The prize includes a great set of stamps - but you've got to be in to win :)

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Dawny's Sketch

I've used Dawny's sketch from Papertake's Weekly Challenge to make a very simple With Sympathy card.

The Dawn Chorus is an Elusive Images stamp, the sentiment is from Hero Arts. They are both stamped onto Glimmer Misted paper which is then matted with a bronze paper I bought ages ago at a Fill-Your-Box stand at a show. The final yellow paper is from Stamp Attic, the flowery bits hopefully don't show too much as it's a card for a man....