Thursday Thoughts

Hello everyone. Today I'm sharing a card I made for the current Inkspirational Challenge. Bit of a tricky theme for me, but I think I've got it covered.

Here's my card:

I stamped the little rural scene and then added distress oxide inks on top.  A few flicks of water made the sky splotchy and created a pathway up to the bench. The panel was then mounted onto some funky foam to make it stand proud from the base card.

I added a die cut line to the side of the base card and a trio of enamel dots peeking out from under the image panel - loving these new to me matte finish sprinkle dots from doodlebug.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU, Happy Home; Uniko, SimplyS aid II 
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; Ranger distress oxides, faded jeans, cracked pistachio
Die: MFT Die-namics, Basic Stitch Lines
Embellishments: Doodlebug, matte sprinkles birthday boy asst.

Thanks so much for spending some time looking at my blog, great to have your company.  And keep crafting!

Wednesday Words

I'm playing along with the CASE Challenge at Time Out today.

Here's my card:

I've tried to pick up on the circular element at the side of the card, the colours from the bird and the split up quote from the original card by Cornelia - here.

I adore this stamp set from Visible Image - the freedom and movement in the leaping lady is just so appealing!

Supplies:
Stamps: Visible Image, Take Chances & Tomorrow Doesn't Exist
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; Ranger ditress, lucky clover, mustard seed
Stencil: TCW, mini chickenwire reversed

Thanks so much for looking today, I hope you liked what you saw and will come back again soon.  And keep crafting!

Uniko July Revisit Blog Hop

I'm here today to let you all know that Uniko is revisiting a previously released stamp set with a blog hop and prize for one lucky commentator.

This month Bev has chosen Marvellous Mehndi - an absolutely beautiful and incredibly easy stamp set to work with!

I'm starting well within my comfort zone colourwise and have stamped, coloured and chopped up the large mehndi stamp from the set.

The background is just fabulous and much as I'd like to say I created it myself I have to own up and say it's from a really beautiful paper pad. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Marvellous Mehndi
 
Ink: Memento, tuxedo black
Pens: Promarkers, amethyst, purple, cardinal red
Paper: First Edition Paper, Wild Flower

My next card is something much more challenging for me and uses heat embossing and blended distress oxide inks. The all over  pattern is also not my typical way to craft. So a bit of an all round experiment!

And I have to say those distress oxides are just as easy to blend as I've read they are, but not really believed.  The colours are so pretty too!

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Marvellous Mehndi & a sentiment from a retired Uniko set
Inks: ranger distress oxide, worn lipstick, faded jeans, cracked pistachio; Veresamark, clear
Embossing: Ranger superfine, white

I'm finishing up today with a card that is far more typical of my style  - one layer, purply pinks and CAS.

And I've used a couple of the smaller stamps from the set as well as that beautiful big one.  A trio of stamps to surround the sentiment and my trademark curved corner.

 
Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Marvellous Mehndi & All Occasion Sentiment #3
Inks: SU, berry burst, fresh fig

Well that's all from me today. I hope I've convinced you that this stamp set needs to be in your stash. 

Want to win it? All you need to do is leave a comment as you hop round the DT blogs and who knows it could be you! And it's still worth taking part if you already own this stamp set as Bev will give an e certificate to the same value if your comment is chosen. 

Here's the blog hop list:

Bev

Deborah

Jane - that's me

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

Sarah P

Good luck and happy hopping!

Mega thanks for visiting today, your time is much appreciated.  And keep crafting!

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!