LIM Dasies

It's another Saturday which means another new challenge over at Less is More and this week it's Lucky Dip and we have a photo to inspire us.  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/week-61-lucky-dip.html

I decided to use both the inmage and the colours as my inspiration, as, as luck had it, the postman arrived with a parcel of new stamps for me today - I've been lusting after this new Hero Arts Lotus Leaves set so decided to treat myself once I started to feel better last week.

I just used momento inks and stamped the flower directly onto the card with pear tart, cut a spare strip of card mounted onto pink and then stamped the same flower using pear tart, angel pink and rose bud mixing the inks directly on the stamp.   The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse stamped in London Fog.

Do come back and check out my blog later as it's our first anniversary over at St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge tomorrow and we've got a mega prize bundle on offer and a nice easy challenge to go with it  ;-)

Paper bauble

I was really thrilled that my polar bear card was selected as joint top honour in last weeks's 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge.  This week's challenge is to use decorative papers  http://52cct.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/embellishment-challenge-3.html

I opted for something quite simple as my crafting time is still limited by not feeling well.  I cut 5 ornament shapes from my DP using a nestie, scored each down the middle and folded in half, sticking each to the other to create a 3D ornament.  I mounted that onto a green pearl base that was also cut with a fancy nestie and I embossed a christmas script stamp onto it in gold.

LIM Take 3 Challenges

This week's Less is More challenge is to pick 3 of their past challenges and combine them.  I decided to start with Challenge 1 as my basis as I didn't find the blog until week 2 so missed the first one!

My chosen weeks were:

Week 1 Pink Black and White
Week 12  Off centre
Week 14 Embossing (although this was one layer week and I haven't made a one layer card so it may not count)
Week 16 Butterflies
Week 43 Bit of Bling

This is the result:

I cut 4 butterflies with my embosslit die but I "un-embossed" the top layer so I could emboss it more on both wings.  I stitched the 4 layers together and added some pink gems to the middle.  I inked a Hero Arts swirly grass in black and added the butterfly to it grass.  I cut two of the tiny butterflies and inked the embossed areas in pink, added a couple of clear gems and finished with a sentiment from the same Hero Arts set in pink.

Thanks for all your comments last week - I seem to be over the worst of the effects from the  tablets and am no longer a dizzy-dummy :-)

CASual Contrasts

This week's challenge at CASual Fridays is to contrast bold black with soft pastels  http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/cfc45-and-dt-call.html

I decided to make a little card for my husband who has been great during my recent health scare - I really wouldn't cope without him and think this sums him up perfectly.

I made a paperpieced row of pastel crayons using my new There She Goes stamp set and created my sentiment on the computer.

Christmas Animals

I was really sorry to have missed last week's 52 Christmas Card Challenge with not feeling very well, so as I felt a bit better last night I managed to make a card for this week's animal theme and also a second using last weeks red green and blue colour theme.

For this week's challenge I used this super cute father and son polar bear image from Birdie Brown (digi) which hardly needs any colouring and stood them on a simple "sentiment shelf" the bottom edge of which is a nestie lable.  I finished by edging it in a white pencil border.

I used the same blue base card and another digi from the same artist to make another simple card using red and green in my colouring to match last weeks theme (I can still say I haven't missed a week now, even if I am a week late!)  I just love this snowman cupcake image.

Easter Bunny

I'm a little late with my mid-month reminder for our Spring Into Spring Challenge over at St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge.  As it's going to be Easter soon I decided to make a little Easter bunny card in bright spring colours.

You still have 9 days to enter our challenge and could win the latest issue of PaperCrafts Magazine and a wonderful set of Waltzingmouse stamps (£20 in value) so do play along if you can.  We're heading for record entries this month so do help us get there.

LIM Masking

This week's challenge at LIM is masking  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/week-59-theme.html

I'm still feeling really dizzy and have been off work all week and am signed off for another while we try to get my high blood pressure under control.  The dizzyness is caused by the meds and HOPEFULLY will lessen as I get used to them but they doubled the dose on Friday and I feel like I'm back to square one!  Back again on Tuesday so we'll see what they say then....   Am getting pretty cheesed off as I haven't managed more than about an hour in my craft room in the last 8 days and can only manage 10 minutes here and there online before I feel dizzy again, so I'm sorry I've not been reciprocating your visits this week.

I was determined to try this weeks challenge and managed a quick card this morning before the meds kicked in.

I used my new Paris themed stamps from Waltzingmouse, stamped the Eiffel tower in black, masked it and stamped the border strip twice in green (I think it's a design from the metro).  Added a simple sentiment and a couple of floral gems to finish.

Thanks for visiting and sorry if I don't get back round again this week.  I'm really missing visiting my blogging buddies :-(

Fabby green peacock

I took just one floral image stamp from the newly released French Country set but as soon as I saw it it screamed peacock to me so here's my entry for this months Blog Party and as it also fits this weeks sketch I'll enter it in this weeks challenge too.

The photo isn't great so unfortunately the metalic shimmer on top of the colouring isn't showing up at all.  To make my peacock I stamped the foral image 5 times, coloured with copics added shimmer with sakura glaze pens and cut each out to form the fan tail.  For the body I stamped the same image but carefully inked only the edge and not the floral centre twice.  I cut out the whole central teardrop of one for the body and used just the narrow point of the other with a rounded edge for the head and added three tiny strips for fan on his head and finished with a little peacock coloured glitter.  Teamed with a green background and sheer green ribbon to just about scrape into this month's theme (sorry Clare didn't have anything Celtic!) and used one of my favourite sentiments from the Frame It set.

Do accept my apologies if I don't manage to reciprocate all your visits today but I am suffering with very high blood pressure and the meds I'm on are making me so dizzy all the time that I'm really not managing to be online for more than a few minutes here and there.  I'll try to get around to see all the green loveliness whenever I feel OK.  Thanks for visiting - I do love the 17th.....

Cowboy script

I'm not having a good day today - I've been having headaches which it turns out are due to high blood pressure so I was put on meds yesterday which are making me throw up and swell up too - oh joy!  I was looking forward to a quiet day of crafting but feel to dizzy to sit up properly.  I did manage this weeks's Less is More challenge before the tablets kicked in as it was a nice easy one layer card....

The challenge was to feature script on your card other than your sentiment, so I went straight to my favourite Waltzingmouse sets which are all about cowboys.  I embossed the background border and the cowboy in black to form a silhouette and then used the background text border twice just with versamark ink to create a watermark effect which I think shows up brilliantly on kraft.  I embossed one of the senitments above to finish it off and add balance.

A Special Sweet 16 Request

I've made a card tonight to send to the daughter of one of the bloggers I follow - Laurie Schmidlin of Just Give Me Stamps.   Her daughter Alison is having a tough time with the return of some neurological issues follow her brain tumour removal of 3 years ago and she is turning 16 later this month so Laurie has asked if we can send her a card for her birthday  http://justgivemestamps.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/03/nothing-is-impossible-and-a-request.html    Well, that's a request I can't ignore - and if you've got a little time to spare this week perhaps you'd like to send her one too - wouldn't it be lovely to have hundreds of cards to cheer you up on your birthday - especially lovely handmade ones!   Laurie has set up a PO Box address and you can find the details here http://justgivemestamps.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/03/overwhelmed.html

I used one of the brilliant new Kraftin Kimmie superwomen stamps - I thought it was appropriate to remind Alison how great she is and strong she's been.  Coloured with copics and I added glossy accents to her leggings and gloves to give them a more leather like look and added lots of glitter to the bodice as every superhero needs some glitter and gloss!  Some die cut stars (MFT) and a sixteen sticker. 

I'm entering it into this week's stamptacular sunday challenge which is "text me" and just needs to have some text on the front.

Christmas Sketch

I'm just making this weeks 52CCT Challenge by the skin of my teeth - my normal weekly crafting schedule has gone way off track!  This week was a sketch, so I managed to do a SUPER-QUICK card just tonight which fits it.

3 simple rows of snowmen cut from a sheet of DP from My Minds Eye 'Be Merry' and a complimentary sentiment in a matching colour.  Not earth shatteringly original but I like it and think it works - I may make another but think I'll try the sentiment in red to match the scarves.

A Special One Year Old

Just a very quick share as this week we have a special first birthday in the family, and a special birthday needs a special card.

I coloured a birthday tilda that had an empty hand to hold all the birthday balloons which were cut with a whimsey die and I added black cotton behind each.  I stud her on some matching ribbon and stamped a sentiment with an old Hero Arts alphabet stamp.  The sentiment on the balloon is also whimsey and the 1 is a die cut, coloured and glittered.

Neutrally Less is More

I just don't seem to have had the time to get into my craft room this weekend so I'm very late with my entry to this week's LIM challenge, which is a colour challenge being the first week of the month and this time the challenge is to use neutral colours.

I do love neutrals, and in particular kraft cardstock and I particularly like browns (although I don't know why as a 70s kid I grew up in a totally brown house and hated it!!) so chose the two as my colour combo.  I started with a snippet of kraft - actually the back of a previous card I'd ruined, so this will be my entry to Pixie's Sunday Snippets challenge too - the only requirement is to make a card from snippets and not to cut into a fresh sheet so do join in the fun (oh but mind the pogo sticks in the playground!)  I stamped my Waltzingmouse woodgrain stamp in jumbo java ink onto the snippet and mounted it onto some dark brown card (also an offcut from a 12x12 sheet).

The main element is a new die (poppystamps small tilda) which I cut twice - the first at its full size I cut from a sheet of double sided glue, stuck down over the woodgrain stamped image and then covered with my favourite glitter ever - the dark brown sugar coating which I just LOVE.  I then cut another from the remaining kraft card snippet but this time I cut off the outer loops.  I stuck it on top of the glittered one but slightly offset it.  I stamped the sentiment and die cut it with my smallest round nestie and stuck it in the middle.

Will get over and have a look at what everyone else has been doing in this challenge now.

CASual Baby

It's Friday night so time to play with the CASual Friday Girls and this week the challenge is a CAS baby card, they must have known that my new Magnolia stamps had arrived today - the new release is all about familiy and they're super cute  :-)  http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2012/03/cfc42.html   I decided to play with the little boy first as I wasn't in the mood for pink.

I also thought I take the opportunity to join the paper players again this week as they want a card to feature something old and something new, well my stamp is new, so I selected some old papers to go with it.  The alphabet DP is what remains of the very first 12 x 12 sheet I bought many moons ago and the blue strip is from an old DCVW sticky backed matt stack.  http://paperplaychallenges.blogspot.com/2012/03/12-week-9-something-old-something-new.html

I coloured the baby Edwin on kraft again with my faber castell pencils and carefully cut him out to mount him on the card.  The senitment which I think is really lovely, is from a Fiskars set all about babies.

As there is a lot of kraft going on, I'm also going to enter my card into the follow challenges which all want kraft card to be featured:

 http://thespottedchick.blogspot.com/2012/03/thats-krafty-thursday-59.html

http://abc-challenge.blogspot.com/2012/03/k-for-kraft.html

Catch you later.

Sherriff of Kraftingham!

If you follow my blog then you'll probably have figured by now that I LOVE to colour on kraft card - it just gives such a different look to colouring on white, particularly when using pencils and blending solution.  So when I see 3 challenges that all want kraft projects, well frankly, it would be rude not to join in!  I also got a new stamp in the mail today (new to me anyhow) and I just knew that Edwin as Robin Hood would be particularly perfick on kraft. 

As it's for a fella, I also thought I'd play along with the new challenge at Cards for men which is a lovely sketch. http://cardsformen.blogspot.com/2012/02/challenge-5-sketch.html

I had to go green, as Robin wouldn't hide in the canopy too well in any other colour, so I selected some appropriately leafy DP, some forest green mats and some yummy printed kraft paper to keep it all tonal.  Coloured with faber-castell pencils with a little blending and finished with 3 craft candy dots to match the sketch and he's all ready to take on the sheriff :-)

If you fancy pulling out your kraft stash then hop on over and join the challenges below:

 http://thespottedchick.blogspot.com/2012/03/thats-krafty-thursday-59.html

http://abc-challenge.blogspot.com/2012/03/k-for-kraft.html

http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2012/02/challenge-171-colour-on-kraft.html

Spring into Spring for St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge

It's the first of the month so time for our new challenge over at St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge and this month we're looking for you to get in the mood for spring with flowers, animals, colours or anything that makes you think of spring!

We have a brilliant prize package this month - a gorgeous set of floral stamps donated by Waltzingmouse stamps and the latest issue of PaperCrafts magazine.

For my card I opted for flowers in spring greens and yellows using my favourite new medium of the moment - felt!  I love making felt flowers both with floral dies or just using old fashioned quilling techniques with a pair of sharp scissors which is what I've done here for my tiny yellow pom-poms flowers.

I started with a white base card, added a strip of white with some embossed line detail and I added a pansy border in yellow swiss dots on either side.  For the feature panel I came over all Morticia from the Adams Family and cut the flower heads of my stamp and die set (Sizzix/Hero Arts combo) and just used the stalks stamped in 3 shades of green ink and coloured with copics.  I arranged them top to tail to add interest and make them fill the panel and then added my felt flowers to the ones that were the right way up.  The flowers are simply made from a 3 cm strip of felt, folded in half lengthways and stuck with strong thin tape.  You then simply cut from the untaped end to where the line of tape starts at regular intervals to create your petals and then simply roll using a quilling tool (or toothpick) and seal the edge with more tape.  The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse's Frame It set.

You've got a whole month to play along with the challenge so do pop over to the blog to check out the challenge even if you only want to play for fun, there is NO obligation to donate your cards if you don't want to.

I'm also entering my card into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - Signs of Spring
Aud Sentiments - Happy Birthday