Designer Paper Roses

My CAS card today is for two challenges.



First, is Play Date Cafe with this photo inspiration of colours Maroon, Poppy, and Soft Jade

and secondly, CAS-ual Fridays with stamping on DP





Here's my card

I stamped the flowers and fern fronds onto the three DSP, and fussy cut them all out. I laid them in the corner of the base card with the last central flower on 3D pads, and keeping it CAS, finished with the sentiment.

Supplies :

Card = White base FMS

Stamps = Growing Green and Verve

Inks = Black and Raspberry Ripple

Extras = SU DSP

I'm exhausted from the gardening this morning, and I'm struggling against the stiffness of my Arthritis, so I'm off to bed early in the hope that the pain killers will have worked by the time I wake up!!

Thanks for dropping by, and I will be back as soon as my body is able

                                                       

Spotlight card

Yaaaaaayyy!! I've got to blow my own trumpet and say a big "Thank You" to the DT over at Make My Monday where I was one of their Top 3 in the Jane Austin Literary challenge," Thanks ladies"

Now, today has been as hectic as usual, but I have found some time to myself, and a chance to make a card which I hope to enter it into two challenges.


The first is Try Stampin' on Tuesday where they have this sketch,

and the second is Stampin' Royalty with this picture for inspiration.




I made this card using the Spotlight technique

I stamped the image of roses and fern leaves onto white card, masking the roses with Post it's as I built the picture up. I then cut a circle out of the design and coloured it with SU Write Markers and an Aqua Painter, before mounting it onto a black scallop circle and repositioning it back into place.

Here is a close up of the coloured image which is slightly off centre to match the challenge sketch
(which I have rotated 90* anti clockwise )









The design was finished off with a punched border along the top, and a black ribbon and sentiment at the bottom.

Recipe :
Card = Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White, and square white card FMS
Stamps = Growing Green, and Verve
Inks = Melon Mambo, Gumball Green, and Black Archival
Tools = Big Shot, Nestabilities, Post It's, Aqua Painter, and Martha Stewart punch


My new SU stamps have arrived, so I hope you can drop back tomorrow to see what I've done with them.

Until then, enjoy the rest of the weekend

In the Pink

Hi everyone, guess what? I've made a card!!!  I know, a miracle.

Anyway, enough waffle, here we go. I hope to place it into 3 challenges if I make it on time?

The first is Color Throwdown with these colours


then cas-ual fridays where we are asked to use markers

and lastly pals paper arts with this sketch





Here is my card

Recipe
Card = SU Pretty In Pink, Whisper White, and white card FMS
Stamps = SU Growing Green, Vintage Vogue and Verve sentiment
Inks = Regal Rose, Old Olive, Pretty In Pink, and Soft Suede (replaces Crumb Cake)
Tools = Big Shot, Nestabilities, and Shapeabilities
Extras = 3D pads


I used my SU Write markers to colour my stamps before printing them, and used an Aqua painter to move the green ink on the fern leaves. I sponged the pink ink on the butterfly shape and used green to tint the wings.The flower and butterfly are on 3D pads for dimension.

Hope to be back soon

CAS Thank You

Today it's not raining!!but I dont know for how long, as the sky looks a little grey. I've stayed in and had the time to make my folks a quick 'Thank you' card for my birthday pressies and barge trip.



I've combined three challenges, the first being this sketch from Clean and Simple

the second is Friday Mashup where they have these colours

and lastly, Less is More where they want to see SOMETHING SHINY

Here is my card

The fern sprig and the flower were stamped in ink, covered with Versamark, and heat embossed with several layers of clear powder ( the camera flash hasn't reflected as much as I'd hoped it would, sorry, but I hope you get the idea ). The small flower was raised on 3D pads in the centre of the larger flower which was also on 3D pads. The white card was cut in the BS with a label Nestabilities and the edges coloured with a RR Write marker, before being layered on deckle edged card squares. The sentiment was underlined with 3 gems to add that extra shine

Recipe :

Card = Rich Razzelberry, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Whisper White, and white square card FMS

Stamps = Everything Eleanor, Growing Green, and Just Believe

Inks = Rich Razzelberry, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive (outline of fern), and Versamark

Tools = Big Shot, Nestabilities, and heat gun

Extras = Gems, 3D pads, and Clear Embossing Powder

I forgot to take my camera with me on the barge, but my Sister Cassy took some photos which she will email to me as soon as she gets a minute. Our boat was called "Kennelworth Castle", and we had great fun reading all the names of the other barges as the day went on. I read one that I pronounced as "Percy Phone", and commented what a strange name it was, only for everyone to be in hysterics as it should have been "Persephone" ( The daughter of Zeus, I think? ), how stupid did I feel ??.

Anyhow, thanks for dropping by today, and thank you to all those who left me birthday wishes.

I'll be back soon

Rose Easel card

After such a bad week, what a lovely relaxing afternoon I've had !.

While the rain came down outside, I've sat vegging out in front of the TV with a nice Cappuccino and a bar of Nutty chocolate, creating a card for a friends birthday next week.

And Yes, I've made it with a challenge in mind, using the colours set by  the Simply Stampin challenge #23

She loves roses so here's the result ( sorry about the picture quality but it's so dark outside )

and here's a close up of the base

I started with a white square card and scored the front in half diagonally, and on the bottom triangle layered it with white, purple, blue and again white card. The top white card had been stamped lightly with some script and splats, and 2 leaves, before the edges were sponged with blue. This process was repeated for the base of the card except for the leaves. I then stamped 8 roses on some pink card and cut them out making 4 smaller for the centers of the flowers raised with 3D pads. Three roses were placed on the front in the left hand corner, and another on the base panel in the right hand corner.I then stamped 2 butterflies using blue and pink onto white card, cut them out, and placed one on the front and one on the base. The antennae were drawn with a pink marker. The base panels were wrapped in pink and purple ribbon with a bow, and a stamped panel with Just for you sentiment added with 3D pads to keep the easel up.

Recipe : Card = Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Melon Mambo, and Lavender Lace ( I haven't got any Perfect Plum )
Stamps = French Foliage, Growing Green, Strength and Hope, and Just Believe
Inks = Melon Mambo, Bashful Blue, and Elegant Eggplant
Extras = Purple and Pink ribbon from my stash ( the pink is from the Make My Monday candy prize )

As it's a Grand Prix weekend I hope to be on the sofa tomorrow, but the race will have to be recorded on Sunday as I'm off to my stepsister, Cassy's in Market Harborough.

I hope you all have a good weekend and I'll see you next week.

Bee-autiful Garden

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy!!!!!!  I've just seen that I came top 3 again over at Make My Monday so I'm really chuffed...........I feel like it's my birthday not Mum's!!!! Thanks very much to their wonderful DT for picking my card.

Hello and welcome to my new follower, Helen, I hope you like what you see.

I'm typing this with sleep still in my eyes as I've got to get this post done before I go out for the day!! I hope it all makes sense to you.

Well Tuesday at Jacqueline's was a disaster for me, I had an idea for my card for the Make My Monday challenge and it involved making a bee hive, you would have thought that it sounds quite easy, but the pointed angles on folded card completely threw me.

The challenge is still "things with wings" but must include acetate.

My idea was to make a garden scene on the card and have an acetate front cover on which the bees would be stamped so they looked like they were in flight.

After several expletives and throwing things down on the table, this is the end result.

This is a side view so you can see the dimension that the acetate gives, and I hope you see that the bees look like they are in flight??

This is what the acetate looks like on its own.

The 2 flowers and leaves were added in the bottom corners to help weigh the acetate down.

It all started with a white 6" square card that I sponged the top half with Bashful Blue and the bottom half with Certainly Celery. A SB nestabilitie label was then cut in the BS and the top half again sponged with BBlue, but with a scallop circle mask to make cloud shapes. A verve sentiment was stamped in the sky with Brilliant Blue.  I then stamped the leaf frond from Growing Green in CCelery 3 times and cut them out. Using the Greenhouse Garden set I stamped several flowers in different colours and they were also cut out. A sheet of acetate was stuck on the back of the label and then that was stuck to the card itself (so the sticky tape securing the acetate was hidden) but so that the acetate falls down over the front of the card. The flowers, leaves and hive ( concertinaed card sponged with SSand)  were stuck on the card, and some bees were stamped on the acetate and coloured with Pro markers. Two flowers and some leaves were added at the bottom to stop the acetate rolling up.

Recipe : Card = SU Whisper White and white card from my stash

Stamps = Greenhouse Garden, Growing Green, French Foliage, Verve and Inkadinkado

Inks = SU Regal Rose, Pink Passion, YoYo Yellow, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzelberry, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant, Sahara Sand, and Black Adirondack

Tools = Big Shot and SB label and scallop circle nestabilities

Extras = Acetate and Pro markers

It's Mum's birthday today, so I'll be spending the day with the family. I'm not sure what we'll be doing but we'll do something?? so no crafting today.

Hope to do some tomorrow, so I'll get back to you then.

Get Well Soon

Would you believe it, all the dogs are now sleeping after running around all morning, so I've time for another quick card.

This is the challenge over at Cas-ual Fridays.
The long and short of it means a DL card, 4" by 8", which is a shape I haven't used for some time, as the square card seems to have become my favoured size.

Anyway, before the hounds wake up, this is what I came up with.

Out came the SU Growing Green set and I stamped the rose in Rich Razzelberry in the bottom left corner, masking it several times till there were 3 roses. Then with all roses masked I stamped the leaf frond in Certainly Celery twice, and ended with the RRazzelberry Woodware sentiment.

Here is a close up of the stamped images, and I decided that I liked the simplicity of the outlines of the roses and leaves, so resisted the temptation to get out my water colour pencils, Aqua painter, and Pro markers, and leave it well alone.

    

Well that's me for today, if you have stopped by I'd love to know what you think, as I do read all your lovely comments and really appreciate your time in writing them.

Thanks very much and hope to see you here again soon.

Summer by the Sea Mojo

Well have I had a busy few days?? I wont bore you with the details, but I have been a Super Hero helping my nephew Nathan save the world!!! and 'NO', I did not wear my knickers over my tights!!

Phew, it's been really muggy here today, and it didn't help that I had loads ( and I mean loads!! ) of housework to do. I don't know how I ever found time to go to work?

Anyway, this evening, to regain my composure and cool down in front of the fan, I decided to make my card for Mojo Monday Challenge and follow their sketch.

I chose to make a square rather than a round one.

I started with a 6" square white card and masked off the top half of the card with Post Its. Then I randomly stamped the leaf and flowers from Growing Green in Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, and Bermuda Bay. I then stamped the leaf in RRazzleberry onto watercolour paper and dragged the colour in from the outlines with an aqua painter. Then I stamped the little girl from SU Summer by the Sea in waterproof black Archival ink and coloured her in  with Crushed Curry, RRazzelberry, MMambo, BBay, Always Artichoke, and the green,blue and purple inks in Vibrant Primary Big and Juicy.

The papers with the leaf and little girl on were then put through the BS with a SB labels nestabilities, and once cut, layered onto the same shape label in RRazzelberry. 

The leaf label was laid first at a jaunty angle to the left hand side of the card, and a ribbon from my stash stuck across the center of the card, before the little girl label was stuck with 3D pads over the ribbon, set again at an angel towards the right hand side of the card. The Woodware sentiment was stamped in RRazzelberry on watercolour paper, layered on RRazzelberry, and again cut with a labels nestabilitie before placing with a bow on the ribbon by 3D pads. The finishing touch were the 2 pink flower shaped buttons from my stash.

I'm exhausted from typing the way it was made, but see what you think of it

Now I am a bit weird where pictures of people and faces are concerned, they freak me out (like clowns do to some people), but the Summer by the Sea set doesn't show any faces so I feel happy using them. Now they have resurfaced I may use them for another challenge I've seen today, but you'll have to wait for tomorrow for that one. 

One more little thing that happened yesterday was, a bath time for the dog. Nathan had heard me say at the weekend that Monty was smelling a bit doggy so he offered to help me bath him!! Being clever I said we'd do it in the garden with the hose so his mummy's bathroom carpet wouldn't get wet.

AM I MAD??? a crazy retriever, a hosepipe, and a 3 1/2 year old boy!!   All I can say is that a whole bottle of shampoo was used, everybody needed a change of clothes, the dry lawn was having a lovely soaking, and it was lucky it was a warm sunny day!!.......but the laughs we had were priceless.

What a joy and pleasure children are, especially when you can hand them back at the end of the day!!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you can call again soon

Vintage Growing Green

YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!       

I was drawn as a Verve Stamps voucher winner in the Mojo Monday 200th Challenge giveaway !!

I cant believe it as I'm never lucky enough to win anything, but when I've sorted it out I'll let you know what I've chosen to spend it on.

Now then, something else you wont believe?, I actually got a card made at Jacqueline's today.!!!

It's for her Make My Monday Challenge and its still Vintage but today had to include lace and pearls.

Again my colour scheme has been dictated by the downloaded image of the Vintage advert which is a peachy cream colour. Take a look and then I'll tell you how it evolved!

I started with a 5" cream card from my stash and sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip.Next there is a Matt of brown card from my stash and Apricot Appeal, topped with Very Vanilla that has been sponged with CChip and stamped with the leaf from Growing Green ( I'm sorry it sneaked in without me thinking about it!!) in blotted Crushed Curry. I sponged some lace with CChip and wrapped it around the VVanilla, and the advert was stuck slightly off center. As I don't have any pearls, I borrowed 3 pink ones that Jacqueline had, but the pink was all wrong.

So I've tried an experiment and coloured the pearls with a brown peel off pen, and amazingly they turned brown but still kept the pearly luster. I know that brown pearls are very rare , but then so is my making a Vintage card!!!  See what you think of the pearls.

When I got home I realised that the darkness of the pearls unbalanced the card, so I stamped the GGreen leaf on brown pearly card and cut it out sticking it in the opposite corner. It still didn't look quite right so I stamped the leaf in CCurry on some cream card and cut a butterfly SB shapeabilities in the BS, sponged it in  CCurry and CChip and stuck it on the leaf.

I have then walked away and photographed it as I could feel myself tweaking and playing with it all night long. I'm not happy with it but at least I've had a go at a style way out of my comfort zone.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and hope you can call again soon

Less is More Growing Green

Today the Less is More Challenge is Button or Ribbon (or plurals thereof).

I dipped into my ribbons bag and found my delicious thick velvety purple and lilac ribbon which came off a beauty set several Christmas's ago, and that was my starting point. Out came the Growing Green set and 'Hey Presto!' this card came into its own.

The opposite corners of the 6" square card were rounded, and the leaf sprig stamped on it in Certainly Celery. The small flower was stamped twice on spare WWhite card in Orchid Opulence, and blended with an aqua painter ( I've been calling this tool a water pen, but there you are..you learn something new every day!) and the centers dotted with Crushed Curry. The pointed flower was stamped twice in Rich Razzleberry and again blended before being layered on top of each other. These were then stuck over the leaf sprigs and the bow added, before some extra stems were drawn in CCelery coming from under the bow.

Recipe: Stamps - Growing Green

             Inks - Orchid Opulence,Rich Razzleberry, Certainly Celery,Crushed Curry

             Card - Whisper White

             Stash - Ribbon

 

I hope you like this simple little card as much as I do.

Thanks for dropping by, and I love it if you do come by again soon

Clean and Simple Growing Green

I'm sorry but I just had to use my new  Growing Green stamps again for this challenge over at Clean and Simple.

I started with a White card from my stash and put a Lavender Lace mat on it.I stamped the Growing Green leaf in Certainly Celery to make the flag tails and its top and blended the colour with a water pen. I then used a MS punch to make the scallops in some Green Galore card and layered it with a strip of Whisper White. I stamped the rose in Orchid Opulence on some WWhite and put it through the BS with a scallop circle nestabilities and did the same with with  Lavender Lace card, and layered them on top of the CCelery. I added the Woodware sentiment in Black Archival.

Take a look ( the colours remind me of Wimbeldon?)

I've  just realised the challenge ends today so I hope I,m not too late.

Anyway, guess what??...........It's a Grand Prix weekend so I know where I want to be.

If you are just starting the long summer break with the kids off school,I hope the weather stays good for you, if not, enjoy your weekend doing whatever you do.

Call back soon if you can, Thanks for stopping by today

Vintage Make My Monday

This is my second post of the day ( I did say that I'd been busy!!), so thanks for dropping by again.

I needed to make a Vintage shabby chic card including torn or crumpled items for Make My Monday Challenge 7. The vintage thing is not my style at all so I've found it quite hard to know where to even start with this one.
First I downloaded the photo and old letter from the Craft Stamper Magazine website onto Whisper White card.I cut the letter out and screwed it up into a ball, and after unwrapping it I sponged the edges  and creases with Tea Dye Tim Holtz distressing ink.This was stuck loosely onto a torn piece of Pretty in Pink card that had also been sponged on the egdes, and then that stuck onto a cream card from my stash also with sponged edges.Sandwiched in between the letter and pink card there is a strip of lace aged with TH ink ( unstitched from an old petticoat that had been hiding at the back of one of my drawers for ever!!). I tore the edges of the photo and sponged them again before sticking it down with 3D pads to give some more dimension. My trusty BS was then used to cut the 2 PiPink vines from Marianne Creatables dies, and they were placed at rightangles in the bottom right corner. The meeting point of the vines was covered by the GGreen rose which I stamped in RRed onto PiPink card 4 times and then cut out.I spread the ink from the egdes with a water pen to soften the lines. I screwed the roses up after cutting 2 flowers down to just the center petals,and stuck them inside the complete flowers to give it a more old Dogrose kind of feel. To finish the card the Woodware sentiment was stamped in Chocolate Chip to link the darker colours in the photo.

I was quite pleased with the outcome, and I hope you like too.

If you have the time, please leave me your comments as I love to get them and see what you think of my work. Hope to see you here again soon

Mojo Monday is Growing Green

Hello fellow crafters,

I'm sorry that I've been so busy lately, but here I am keen as ever to blog again.

My new long awaited SU set Growing Green has arrived and I picked it up yesterday at my friend Jacqueline's, and I just had to start using it, after of course we'd had a good old natter over coffee. I decided to enter my card into the Mojo Monday Challenge so followed their sketch.

I started with a cream card from my stash and randomly stamped the GGreen rose in Real Red over it. I then stamped the leaf spray one above the other and sponged over it in Certainly Celery, and then cut away the right hand edge to make the vertical ribbon. I cut 2 SB nestabilities labels with the BS, one in Wild Wasabi, and one in Whisper White which was then stamped with the GGreen leaf in CCelery and coloured with a water pen to spread the ink. I then cut a circle in Real Red and one in WWhite ( I drew around 2 glasses for the round shapes as I don't have these nesties yet!) and stamped the rose in RRed on the white and again spread the ink with a water pen.A red ribbon and bow from my stash was placed across the card before the layered shapes were stuck on top of it. It was all finished with a RRed sentiment from Woodware.  Phew, there is steam coming from my laptop's keyboard now!! Ooooops.

 Anyway, take a look at the finished article and see what you think

Please drop by again soon if you get a chance to as I've got another,very different, card to show you.