Happy Little Stampers - ATC July Challenge

Time for another ATC Challenge at Happy Little Stampers. And the theme for this month is animals.

Creating ATCs has been so much fun, I'd quite forgotten how satisfying it is to work on a small project. But working out ways to photograph them has been the challenge for me! So I'm trying a little easel this month.

I started with a coloured cardstock and used a stencil to create the sunrays. I then stamped, coloured and hand cut the animals which were raised on pads and popped on top of a strip of card to ground them.

I finished off with some punched butterflies and some sequins and inked around the edges of the ATC to create a bit of a frame.

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Best Friends; Uniko, Nature's Treasures I
Inks: Memento, rich cocoa, lady bug; Ranger distress, spiced marmalade
Stencil: Memeory Box, texture shine
Punch: Martha Stewart, butterflies
Embellishments: sequins 7 beads from my stash
Pens: Promarkers, vanilla, mustard, ginger, spice, ivory, satin, sandstone, caramel, umber

Only one ATC this month, but if you'd like to swap with me just leave a comment letting me know. In the unlikely event that more than one person would like to swap I'll do a random draw.

You can see the animal ATCs created by the rest of the HLS DT here. Do go take a look at their fabulous creativeness.

Thanks for looking today, so pleased you dropped by.  And keep crafting!

AAA Cards Challenge #94 - Collaboration with LIM

How exciting is this! AAA Cards and Less is More have teamed up and are holding a joint challenge for the next fortnight. Time to get your CAS hats on and play along.

I've chosen the new SU colour lemon lime twist for my cardbase - love its citrussy feel.

Having a bit of a thing for off the side images at the moment and am loving how the mehndi stamp looks.

Also loving all that empty 'white' - in this case green - space!

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Marvellous Mehndi & All Occasion Sentiments #1
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black

HLS are the sponsors for this challenge and there will be a prize of an HLS $20 gift certificate for the winner of this combined AAA Cards and LIM Challenge. You will need to link up your card at both challenges to be in with a chance of winning.

And of course the bonus of this combination challenge is that you get two DTs worth of inspiration to help kickstart your creativity. Check them all out HERE and HERE.

I'm popping this card into the current Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge where the theme is Clean and Simple.

Thanks for looking today, I really love that you came and visited my blog.  And keep crafting!

Friday Focus

Today I'm in scrapbboking mode and playing along with Stuck Sketches?! first July Challenge.

And I'm really excited to let you all know that I've been asked to Guest Design with them for their August 1st Challenge. How brilliant is that!!! Check out how that came about HERE.

Anyhow enough of bigging myself up, here's the new sketch:

I kept looking at the sketch but couldn't make up my mind whether the frame round the sketch was part of the layout or not and looking at the DT samples there seemed to be a mix of opinions. But I decided to go with a frame and cut down the plain green and matted it on top of the diagonal paper.

I almost used this bright diagonal paper as my background but it was so in your face and distracting and I like it much better as a border.

This page will sit in my album next to this one here which has the same background paper. I don't always match facing pages, but sometimes it just feel right to and as both pages have photos taken out in the garden It seemed appropriate.

I'd been wanting to put out a tray of oats for him to explore for some time, but waited for an outside day - too much mess for indoors! So we buried the dinosaurs and looked for treasure and had a fun time. And the best bit of this play was watching my husband vacuum the lawn to pick up all the bits - no photo of that though, shame!

I made a cluster for each side of the page from three pieces of scrap paper bits and added a dinosaur and two matt sprinkle dots to each.

The title was created from die cut letters and I added a trio of stars around to further draw the eye in.

Supplies:
Papers: Doodlebug, Dragon Tails + scraps from my stash
Die: Lawn Fawn, Louie's ABCs
Embellishments: Doodlebug, Dragon Tails - stickers, die cuts and sprinkle dots

Thanks for looking today, it's been fun having you visit my blog.  And keep crafting!

Happy Little Stampers - July Christmas Challenge

Today I'm here to share my DT card for the new Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge. The twist for this month is so easy - DIE CUTS.

 

I used this really beautiful corner die against a background of distress oxide inkyness. Love the dainty and delicate snowflakes, but I do find this die a bit tricky to get a clean cut, had to use my eBosser rather than my trusty Cuttlebug.

I then matted the whole thing onto some matching patterned paper that just happened to jump into my shopping basket when I'm not really allowed to buy any more paper - think I might have justified buying it though as I am using it!

The Christmas was also die cut from the same patterned paper. Yay for me two uses in one card!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Uniko, Simply Said
Inks: Ranger istress oxide, wilted violet, cracked pistachio
Dies: Poppystamps, Crystal Snowflake corner frame; Clearly Besotted, Christmas
Ppaer: First Edition, Wild Flower

Remember you don't have to make use of the twist to link up a Christmas card to the HLS Challenge, but I'm guessing lots of you will. Looking forward to seeing what you create.

Thanks for your time today, I really appreciate your visit to my blog.  And keep crafting!

Tuesday Talk

Just popping in to share a card I've made for the current LIM Challenge where they cards using the colours of your country's flag.

Here's my card:

A little bit of masking on the Uniko balloon stamp and I achieved the white stripe I was after. Apart from that this was a mega easy card to create.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Balloon Bash & All Occasion Sentiments #6
   
Inks: Memento, danube blue, lady bug

Thanks so much for your company today, come and visit again soon. And keep crafting!

Uniko DT Inspiration

Just a quickie to let you know I'm up on the Uniko blog today with a trio of cards using Flower Power Stamps.

Here's a little peek at what you can see there.

As you can see I've been at those new SU colours again! Do pop over to Uniko and check out the full reveal.

Thanks for looking. And keep crafting!

Saturday Slot

And another month begins, guess we can say the year is half over now. Or to put a positive twist on it - there's another half of the year to go!

Today I'm sharing a card I made for Addicted to CAS. Their theme is WHITE ON WHITE - how delicious and appealing does that sound!

So with no stamping possible it was time to search out some dies and an embossing folder. Here's my card:

Mmm not that easy to photograph, check out the one below where eveything looks clearer.

Supplies:
Dies: MFT Die-namics, Stitched Basic Edges & Celebrate; Clearly Besotted, On The Line
Embossing: Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots

Thanks for your time today, it's been fabulous having you visit.  And keep crafting!