Saturday Scribbles

Hey! Welcome to a lovely fresh sunny morning and the beginning of the week-end. A few chores to do today and then I'm going to cut out some fabric squares for a new project. No I haven't finished the quilt, but I'm waiting for a parcel to arrive with the wadding and backing fabric, so I thought I'd make a start on a much smaller item - a bag. More about this in future posts.

Today's challenge entry is a scrapbook page for the Memory Nest. This is the last of the photos I intend to scrap (at the moment, things change) from the family's recent visit. I only used paper scraps for this page and built a messy stack behind the photo as a starting point. I then added the pointy circles and washi tape and repeated this in a smaller format at the top left. Next came the title - using the word again from the challenge - and the journalling.  Finally I splashed some inks, after covering the photo,  to help the flow of the page.

 

 

Supplies:

Paper: Lots of scrapsincluding AC chap & ep little boy

Inks: Mister Huey color mists

Alphas: AC thickers and others from my stash 

LSNED Day 6: I have a gratitude journal that was beginning to gather dust recently and I was thinking it's time I wrote in it again. Then I discovered in today's prompt that a page from my 2012 album has been featured on the handout - well how exciting to see that pop up! So no excuses not to write about being grateful now. Lesson learnt - remember to write in my gratitude journal.

Thanks for looking.

Jane

Friday Focus

Once again I managed to combine two challenges and I'm delighted with the colours and the layout.  This card will be going straight into the post once I've written inside it.  The colours are from Color Throwdown and just amazingly classic. I thought at first the sage was going to make an awful clash with the other two greens, but the chocolate brown seems to balance things out.

The layout from Freshly Made Sketches is a very familiar type for me and is very reminiscent of many cards I've made in the past, albeit they were much more cutesy and layered up.Once again I added an embossed line either side of the vertical strip. After some thought I decided twine with a button was more suitable than ribbon. Hope you like it!

 

 Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko Studio , Flower Power #1 & #3, All Occasion Sentiments #1
Ink: Memento, rich cocoa, pistachio
Paper: My Mind's Eye, Follow your heart
Twine & button from my stash

LSNED Day 5: I was thinking about how quickly time passes by and how my baby grandson is now a schoolboy - how did that happen so fast? Lesson: Be present and enjoy the moment.

Thanks for looking.

Jane

Thursday Thoughts

Two cards to share today - one I like and one I'm not so sure about.  I did consider starting again with the second card, but then I found this amazing quote - 'Talk back to your inner critic.' Robert J. McKain and that's exactly what I did and decided to go with it anyway.

Card one is for Sketch Saturday and uses my favourite of the moment Uniko Studio die.  I love the matt looking colours of these echo park papers and chose the sentiment so I could use the card when I needed to express sympathy to someone.

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko Studio, Flower Power #1 sentiment
Ink: Versa Magic, cloud white
Die: Uniko Studio, Graphic Flowers Time
Punch: Martha Stewart & Tonic Studio
Paper: ep, Times & Seasons

My second card will appear on the next post down.

Thanks for looking.

Jane 

Thursday Thoughts 2

So my second card is the one I struggled with. The challenge at Less is More asked you to use a rubber stamp - that was no problem, I have loads, but using watercolours was an additional ask.  Now that was tricky. I can't remember how long ago it's been since I've used watercolours, way before I discovered Promarkers and I wasn't even sure that I still had suitable pencils or ink pads.

I think I've said before I'm a bit of a hoarder, as long as I can hide things out of sight in a cupboard I'll keep them, it's clutter on view that gets me down and leads to a trip to the bin.  After some frantic searching I eventually unearthed a pack of watercolour pencils and my waterbrush - so I gave it a go.

I am so rusty at this technique that I stamped and coloured on a separate piece of card and then stuck it to my base card.  I wish now I'd had the courage to paint straight onto the card, that's what's making me unsure about this card. A lesson learnt anyway which is rather the point of these challenges for me.  So, having rambled at length, here it is.

There are some real beauties entered for this challenge and I highly recommend popping over to have a look. Click here for the link.

Supplies:

Stamps: Molly Blooms flowers; Uniko Studio, Flower Power #1 sentiment

Watercolour pencils

Gems

LSNED Day 4: I was thinking about my home and my latest purchase, two chairs from a yard sale at only £9:00 the pair and how long I'd been wanting this sort of chair and how lucky I was to be walking past just as they were being put out. Lesson learnt: Some things are meant to be.

Thanks for looking.

Jane

Wednesday Words

First off I have exciting news - I've been chosen as one of the runners up on two challenges. Over at ColourQ I'm one of the courtiers and at Freshly Made Sketches I'm LindaS's choice.  I'm super pleased, it's so wonderful to be picked. I don't think I'll ever get used to the thrill of seeing my creations pop up on other blogs.

Having written about how much I love my new Uniko Studio Congratulations sentiment stamp yesterday I just couldn't resist getting it out again. I liked the colour scheme from yesterday's card too, so I stuck with the dark blue and peacock blue and then added a pop of bright yellow and it looks really funky. I added an embossed line each side of the sentiment strip, something that is a bit of a favourite thing with me at the moment. I'm entering this card into the CAS(E) this Sketch challenge and am hoping it will appeal to them too.

  

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio, Background Builders Round in Circles, All Occasion Sentiments #1

Ink: Memento, bahama blue, Paris dusk

Punch: Martha Stewart

Die: Marianne, buttons

LSNED Day 3: I was thinking about one step at a time while making items for my album and realised I always organise myself like this anyway.  Lesson learnt: I like a sense of order.

Thanks for looking.

Jane

Tuesday Talk

Car MOT today. This means several hours to while away round the shops and a lunch out.  Can't be bad!

Today's card I've absolutely fallen in love with. I'm not sure if it's the colours or the die or the amazing font of the sentiment - probably the combination of all three.  I made it for the CAS - Colours and Sketches challenge and thought I wasn't going to like the layout at first.  Once again I've been stretched by a challenge and am so pleased that I finally got round to blogging and entering. I've tried and learnt about so many new things.

I cut the inner circles from white card using a Uniko Studio die and then stamped over them with one of the Background Builders flower strips to get the marina mist colur match. I'm so loving the loopy font and big size of the sentiment.  Here's hoping you like it too!

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko Studio, Background Builder Flower Power, All Occasions Sentiments #1
Inks: Adirondack, denim; Memento, teal zeal
Dies: Uniko Studio, Graphic Flowers Time; Spellbinders, lacey circles
Embellishments: buttons from my stash

LSNED Day 2

I was thinking about my lack of energy when dieting and decided enough is enough so: Lesson learnt - it's ok to eat cake.

Thanks for looking.

Jane

Sunday Slot

A distinct twinge of Autumn coolness in the air this morning, but hey the sun is shining and it promises to be a lovely day.

Today I'm sending wedding wishes over to Beverly at Uniko Studio.  I'm sure the weather is wonderful where she is and I'm sure she's enjoying the run up to her wedding this coming week.  Just need to get my old wedding shop hat on for a moment and tell her to be careful not to get strap marks from the sun in places that might show on the day.

So it seemed only logical to make my entry to Uniko Studio's current challenge a wedding card. Not knowing Beverly's colour theme I chose the simplicity of black, grey and silver. I combined two greetings to make a message and then stamped it twice to get the black and grey. I debated long and hard about using the deckle edge for the white card and couldn't make up my mind whether I preferred it to a straight edge or not, but finally a decision had to be made and I went with the deckle.  Hope you like it!

Supplies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio Flower Power #3

Ink: Memento, tuxedo black

Punch: Martha Stewart

Card: silver mirri

Embellishments: pearls  

Thanks for looking.

Jane  

PS

I want to acknowledge my luck in winning the Lavinia August challenge, but as it's a random selection win I don't feel I should create a separate blog post about it - after all it was just luck and not my creativity.  However I certainly hope everyone liked my entry and I feel very blessed to have won such a superb prize. Many many thanks to whoever was watching over me on the draw day!