AAA Cards Game 11 - ENJOY

Well wow! Such a terrific response to last week's watercolour PLAY game.  Thanks to everyone who shared a card, so many talented crafters out there.

This week the game is ENJOY and is sponsored by Blue Moon Scrapbooking and the prize is a $20:00 voucher. Be sure to check out all the fantastic goodies they have for sale and they have free p&p in the US if you spend $50:00.

 

So here's this week's game - a window box layout. We are looking for a window box pattern which could be 4 squares or 4 matching  embellishments or 4 holes or ..........

 

And not being ready to give up on the watercolours just yet here is my card:

I made my window boxes using a square acrylic block.  I inked a fine line just round the edges of the block with distress ink - stocked at Blue Moon Scrapbooking - and then spritzed it with water and stamped it onto watercolour card. It makes this sort of ombre effect with the colour fading towards the centre - very subtle and pretty.

Once I'd stamped the four windows I left them to dry - not my best thing the having to wait a while! The wait accomplished I stamped my image straight on top of the windows using a Memento ink pad - also available at Blue Moon Scrapbooking.  I then used a watercolour brush to stretch the green out at the bottom where the stamp was not quite wide enough.

I finished the card off by colouring the poppies and stamping the butterflies and sentiment.  And of  course a Wink of Stella to sparkle up the butterflies. I'm thinking this would make a good sympathy card because of the poppies and sentiment.

Supplies:

Stamps: Inkylicious, Poppy Lea; Clearly Besotted, Remember

Inks: Ranger distress ink, faded jeans; Memento, bamboo leaves, tuxedo black

EmbellishmentS: Wink of Stella, clear

So that's my take on the ENJOY inspiration.  Hope it may have sparked an idea with you and I'll look forward to visiting your blogs again this week to see your fabulous creations.

Thanks for looking today!

Jane 

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Saturday Scribbles - Less is More

So today I get to have a guest design spot at Less is More.  This is such a thrill for me as their design team is just amazing and I'm always so inspired by their cards, techniques and style.

It's one layer this week and the theme is 'Adapt a fingerprint'.  Mmm! One layer is tricky, but doodling with a fingerprint as a starting point - well I did panic slightly! But all I can say is I was wrong.  I enjoyed playing with this idea so much I ended up making a couple of cards and I'm not sure which Chrissie will use so I'll share both.

This is my first, which I have to say is my favourite of the two.  This whole idea of using a fingerprint takes me back to my teaching days or maybe even further back to playschool when fingers were used for everything!

I started out by using a mask and distress ink to create a background and then did my finger painting - oops mean printing - to create a flower. I used an American Crafts precision pen to draw the stem and leaves and doodled the flower centre, leaf middle and lines and spots around the petals.

Then I got to thinking that the brief said 'adapt a fingerprint' and maybe five fingerprints wasn't okay.  I remembered when I ran the local beaver group and we made Easter chicks and bunnies from fingerprints and so my mind wandered to other creatures that could be created using just one print. My imagination was stirred but of course had to be limited to what I could draw - not a great deal of choice after all! And this is what I came up with:

I started the card exactly as the first with an inked background, then used a Martha Stewart punch to create a flower stencil for my ladybird to sit on. I did try to draw a stem and leaf, but it defeated me, so I used an ancient stamp from my stash. 

I printed my finger ladybird and drew in the spots, head, legs and feelers. Another cute card done!

Supplies:
Card 1:
Mask: Memory box, texture mesh
Ink: Ranger distress, brushed cordurou; Memento, lady bug, tuxedo black
Stamp: Clearly Besotted, sentiment from Pretty Petals
Pen: American Crafts, precison black
Card 2:
Mask, Ink & Pen - as above
Punch: Martha Stewart
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, flower centre from Pretty Petals Plus & sentiment from Geometric Style; See-D's garden of friendship leaf

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today. Hope you'll have found some inspiration here! 

Maybe you'll come back again tomorrow for the new game at AAA Cards.

Jane
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Friday Focus

A simple little card to share today.  The layout is from CAS Colours & Sketches and the colours from ColourQ.

      

So this card is back to my usual style - clean and stamped and organised.  I started by stamping the diagonal stripes and die cutting the tags, then stamped the sentiment before adhering the banners.

Next I die cut the three squares and stamped the two spotty apples and all the leaves.  I stamped the heart apple on a separate piece of card and cut it out by hand before mounting onto a foam square. A quick whisk of Wink of Stella over the heart apple and my card was done - very straightforward and easy to stamp and assemble.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, An Apple A Day, Diagonal Stripes
Inks: SU, Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay; Memento, Lady Bug; Kaleidacolor, mustard from Creole Spice
Dies: Clearly Besotted, Tag Along; Spellbinders, classic squares large
Embellishments: Wink of Stella, clear

Thanks to everyone who has entered the AAA Cards watercolour challenge this week - the response has been fantastic and we're going to have a difficult time deciding a winner.  Be sure to check back here on Sunday for our next game which is a bit of a layout and I've got the watercolours out again for my sample.

Thanks for looking today, hope you've found it enjoyable.

Jane
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Thursday Ten on the Tenth

Fun in the sun is the inspiration at Time Out Challenges.  So I went  for something very out of character for me and produced this card.

Not my usual sort of thing at all!  But I'm hoping you'll think it's fun!

I started out using the sunray stencil in shades of yellow and orange - pretty much the sort of thing I usually do - and blinged it up with Wink of Stella.

Then I remembered a set of stamps that were a freebie gift from a magazine - so long ago can't remember which one - and they seemed to fit the 'fun' element of the challenge.  Loving the sentiment and who hasn't asked this question at some point?

And the image is such a hoot too!  So I couldn't resist and got colouring and cutting and had fun putting this card together.

 

Supplies:

Stamps: Acid Drops & Whatnots, magazine freebie

Inks: SU, daffodil delight, pumpkin pie

Colours: SU, Stampin'write, daffodil delight, pumpkin pie, tangerine tango, real res; Flexmarker, blush

Stencil: Memory box, texture shine

Die: Clearly Besotted, Tag-along

Embellishments: doodlebug mini pearls, Spring assortment; Wink of Stella, clear

And now for my ten on the tenth.  My theme for July is 'where I live' and I've collected together some photos to showcase the best parts of my village.

1. The car park next to the village green with the village pub in the background.  Rumoured that Dick Turpin, the notorious C18 highwayman, stayed here.

2. The Almshouses, situated across the green from the previous photo.

3. A traditional UK telephone box, also near the green.

4. The church, built in 1300's in the decorated style of the period.  It's adorned inside and out with many statues, gargoyles, beasts, royal faces, angels and animals leaping from the world and imagination of the 14th century stone carvers.

5. A distant view of the church taken from one of the public footpaths that wander across and around  farmers' fields.

6. A game of cricket taking place on the playing field - very British & traditional!

7.  Our famous eight sailed windmill - the only surviving eight sailed windmill in the country - and it's in working order.  I have to own up to this & the next couple of photos dating from last Summer - the sails are currently being replaced and the windmill is looking a bit naked at the moment.

8. A view of the windmill from another footpath across another farmer's field.

9. The railway station showing the signal box and level crossing gates, one of the few remaining manned crossings still in operation - but who knows for how much longer!

10. And a bit of a naughty photo taken looking along the train tracks towards the windmill and station.  The lines are perfectly safe, not electric, and not at all busy, probably one train every two hours. But I still felt I was doing something I shouldn't, had my husband with me as look out and felt better once I was off the tracks. Guess I'm just not much of a risk taker!

Well that's me finished for today.  Thanks so much for looking and for all the lovely comments you've been leaving recently.

Jane
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Wednesday Words

Back to cards today and this one is for Less is More.  It's a colour challenge this week and earth tones are required. 

As always the first challenge of each month is a colour challenge and this time we have chosen

Earth Tones.

 

So out came my long forsaken Memento neutrals and my favourite bicycle from Clearly Besotted was stamped and diecut.

 

I then used another Clearly Besotted stamp to make the three tone border.  I punched a scalloped edge on a piece of white card and tied some twine to the top before adhering it to the border strip.

I stamped a few little lines to suggest movement near the back wheel - this was from Uniko Studio's explosion set - and then mounted the bicycle onto pads to add dimension.

I stamped the sentiment on top of the lightest border strip. Then the last thing I did was to add a little sparkle to the butterflies and skid marks with my favourite Wink of Stella.

 

 

I'm rather liking  these earthtones and finding them very soothing - maybe their resemblance to chocolate may have something to do with it!

Supplies:

Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Good times + matching die; Uniko Studio, explosion

Inks: Memento, toffee crunch, peanut brittle, potters clay, rich cocoa

Punch: Xcut scallop edger

Embellishments: twine, Wink of Stella, clear.

Thanks for looking today, hope you enjoyed your visit.

Jane

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Tuesday Talk

Today it's all about scrapbooking!  I discovered  a 'new to me' challenge at Scrap 365's magazine blog. I've always enjoyed reading the magazine but somehow missed the blog and challenge. Well that's now about to be rectified.

So here's the sketch:

 

And here's my page:

I started by placing my photo and then cutting a journalling tag from Elle's Studio so that it could stretch across behind the photo. This tag set the colours for the accents on my page - so lovely to use a bit of pink for a change! I die cut the sentiment from another journalling tag as I so loved its message and it seemed so relevant to this page.

I placed all the diecut & real buttons and banners, then adhered everything down.  Next I added the title and stamped the date.  To finish off I covered the photo and splashed some ink splatters around the edges. 

Supplies:

Paper: AC kraft cardstock

Tags: Elle's Studio, The Sweet Life  & You & Me

Banners: Teresa Collins, family stories

Alphas: Bella Blvd, Sophisticates

Dies: Lil'inker, stitched mats rectangles; Xcut, spiro circles; Marianne, buttons LR0188

Stamp: AC, date roller

Ink: Memento, tuxedo black; Mister Huey's Color Mists, dark calico

I'm also sharing the last two of my project life pages from this same visit.  The page above will sit on the right of the second of the project life pages  in my 2014 album - I'm quite happy to have a mix of styles and page types within my album and feel it just reflects the different aspects of my life.

Remember that moment before movement I wrote about on my main page? Well you can see the explosion of energy building up and taking place in the photos on this second project life page!

Supplies:

Loads of bits and pieces from my stash including a disney themed journalling cards page, also Elle's Studio journalling cards, lily bee design stickers & Teresa Collins family stories stickers

Thanks for looking today, your time is much appreciated.

Jane

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AAA Cards Game 10

So the week of the crazy MacGyver challenge and our blog hop bonus has come to an end.  Are you a winner? Hop on over to AAA Cards to find out. And leave some love for Victoria while you're there - she worked so hard prepping last week's game, such a talent!

Thank you to everyone who left such lovely comments about my three watercolour cards and  answered my question about which was my favourite and why.  I'm pleased to announce that the winner of my comment game is Lucy Schmidt and this is what she said:

I've changed my mind 4 or 5 times, so maybe you have, too. ;-) I'll guess that your favorite is the 1st one with the navy background. I'm picking that one only because the dark cardstock matches your image and sentiment so well and is perfectly CAS. I'm sure you'll be using all of them. They're lovely. 

Please email Victoria with your details and she'll post out your prize.

On to a new week and a new challenge. This week we'd like to see you play with watercolours.  If you need some help to get started maybe my tutorial from last week might help. Find it here.

 

I made a watercolour background for my card by wetting some watercolour card and stamping shapes randomly.  I then spread the colour further and blended the colours together using a water brush. 

The next step is essential but the hardest for me - go away and leave the ink to dry! Of course if you want your image to be smudgy this is not a requirement, but I planned to stamp cleanly so I had to wait a while.

Eventually I returned and stamped the outline flower and then stamped again with the blocked flower, but slightly to one side. I hand drew the stems using a matching coloured pen.

I finished my card off with a die cut banner onto which I stamped the sentiment with two sprinkles to highlight it.

 

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio, Flower Power #5 & Classic Alphabet

Inks: SU, melon mambo, daffodil delight, rich razzleberry + matching stampin'write pens

Die: Clearly Besotted, Tag Along

Embellishments: doodlebug sprinkles, bumblebee assortment

Thanks for looking today, have fun playing with watercolours! 

Jane

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