Trendy Metals

I have a couple of cards to share today.

Firstly, I managed to have a go at the WPlus9 birthday challenge which is all about trend watching. http://www.stampawaywithme.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/birthday-celebration-week-3-trend-watch.html

I think I may have thrown one too many trends onto one card lol!  I went with metallics, grunge, misting, diagonals and sequins!  I stamped and embossed the fish from Fish More in gold and die cut them with the matching dies and adhered them to a diagonal blue strip with sentiments embossed on the diagonal too.  I added some grungy splatters using a distress stain and them misted over that with some metallic blue spritz before running the dried piece through an embossing folder and adding some dotty gold washi tape and 3 sequin "bubbles"

My second card is my take on this week's LIM theme of "metal" and is my make for my Store's blog today.

I started with the super-cute owl from Papersmooches Hooties set - you get 3 in different sizes and there are dies to match so there's always an owl to fit your branch!   I die cut him from kraft, coloured him with polychromos pencils and blended with paper stumps and then redrew the lines in a shiny black pen for a comic book look.

For my branch I die cut a branch using a Clearly Besotted die as sadly PS didn't do dies to match the branches only the owl from some thin copper sheet and embossed it with a woodgrain folder.  The leaves are die cut from green metal sheet using leaves from WPlus9's Fresh Cut Florals (currently oos but more are en-route) and then the detail hand embossed with a ball tool.

I created a background for the branch with a die cut circle of striped blue vellum and added my traditional dotted line finish around it before adhering the metal with glossy accents.

Now, if there is one thing I think every crafter needs it's sentiment stamps and that's why I couldn't wait to get my hands on this new Happy Birthday set from Papersmooches - it's jam packed full of lots of lovely, interesting and unusual sentiments perfect for birthday cards for young and old, male and female.  I finished my card with one from the set which had the right shape and size to add balance to my CAS design.

Waltzingmouse Guys

It's time for another challenge over at Waltzingmouse Fanatics and this time we just want to see a card for a guy.   I love making masculine cards but couldn't choose a set so I decided to combine our challenge with another to help me make my choice and I used the sketch at Seize the Sketch which led me to My Kind of Guy.

If you're a regular visitor here you're probably not surprised to see kraft - I just think it works so well with masculine cards.  I started with the central panel and stamped the rectangular frame in a darker brown and punched each dot with a pokey tool so I could stitch the border with twine.  Before stitching I masked off the edges of the frame and stamped half the panel with the woodgrain border from Way out West in grey to match the sketch.  I added sentiments from My Kind of Guy in brown and black and popped the little bowler hat (LOVE that hat!) over the G on guy and then used a fine pen to highlight the words in the middle.

Once I stitched the border (and made my fingers sore with the stupidly thick twine I chose!) I die cut a circle in black and embossed it with a woodgrain folder (SU) to match the panel.  I added a stitched border (hand drawn) to the card base and then mounted everything with foam squares.  I finished with the mustache from My Kind of Guy stamped in black and fussy cut.

Hope you like it - we can't wait to see your guy cards over on the challenge blog  http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Make a Wish

I've been meaning to join in with the challenge at Clearly Besotted since it was posted a couple of weeks ago but have only just found time to play tonight and I only managed 4 of the 6 colours....

I used the adorable new Dandelion Dreams stamp set and stamped the flower heads first in light blue and then offset stamped them again in dark blue to get a 3D effect.  I drew the stems by hand (what do you mean you could tell lol!) using a memento pen in pear tart and then stamped the sentiment across in red.  To finish I used one of the seed stamps and stamped a few wafting around in pale blue.  I like the flowers but the stems are off - perhaps I need to add some leaves?

http://www.stampingsharing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/clearly-besotted-challenge-8-colour.html

Bold Botanicals

It's my day over on my shop's blog today and as we've received a lovely box full of the new release from Papersmooches this week, then that's what I've been playing with and my card today was inspired by the challenge at CASology where the cue word is bold.  So I took some of the blooms from Botanicals 1 and used them boldly!

I stamped and embossed 3 of the blooms into a little cluster in bold black and then used 3 bright distress inks to blend the background.   Simply matted onto black to emphasise the bold colour contrast and then with a banner sentiment featuring the gorgeous new scripty sayings embossed in white.

There are almost endless possibilities using the two bontical sets and they are really dramatic in black!

As the challenge on the Papersmooches Sparks challenge this week is "anything goes" then I'm going to join in the challenge with this card too  http://papersmoochessparks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/february-16-22-anything-goes-wk3.html

Old Salt

I have made a card today for a couple of challenges - this weeks' theme at LIM is Masculine so I've taken that and used the current colours from our Waltzingmouse challenge to come up with this:

I embossed the boat and sentiment from Ocean Bound in vanilla white onto a stitched edge journalling card and then stamped the hills from Way Out West in dark blue before blending the sky in purple (around a masked moon) and the sea in blue distress inks.  I used a pearl spritz to give the moonlight some shimmer in the sky and on the sea.   I used the rope from Tying the Knot to add a little decoration to the base card before adhering the panel.

You've still got until Thursday to join in with our colour at Waltzingmouse Fanatics...........

See you tomorrow for my Make the Day Special Stamp Store post.

New member of the family....

I've finally managed to get a little time to play with my lovely new stamps from Clearly Besotted to make a very special card for our new Great-niece.

I strung my little row of onsies onto silver and white twine by punching holes in the necks - super quick and easy with the stamps and matching dies.  I die cut the stork from copic colouring card and coloured him in and then cut down the center of his beak so I could slot his precious cargo in.

The sentiments are a mixture from the CB sets (cut apart a bit to say what I wanted) and then for the names and date I used the VERY useful alphabet set from Lawn Fawn called Milo's ABCs which is brilliant as it has multiples of all the letters so it makes customising greetings quick and simple.  I stamped and embossed them in pink on the grey card stock as grey and pink is one of my favourite colour combos.

Bold Blooming Heart

It's one layer week at Less is More and it's anything goes so I decided to get smoochy for Valentine's Day with some Papersmooches blooms in a heart mask http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/one-layer-week-158.html.

I also decided to double up on challenges and enter this project to this week's CASology challenge where the cue word is "AND" with the romantic sentiment I opted for  http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/week-81-and.html

It's also my project on my shop's blog this week  http://makethedayspecialcards.blogspot.co.uk/   as we have a large delivery of new Papersmooches goodies that will be in store in a couple of days ;-)

I die cut a heart mask from a sheet of scrap paper and stuck it over my card base and then stamped an arrangement of flowers and leaves from Papersmooches Bold Blooms through the mask onto the card (if you try this technique with large stamps like the leaf I used, a good tip is to not use an acrylic block - just put the stamp on the card and hold it in place with one hand but press it with the other - I find this gets you closer to the edge of the mask)

I stamped the sentiments from WPlus9's Valentine's Wishes over the top in Versafine black to make it stand out and then I traced around the die with a black glitter pen to tie it all together.

Je t'aime

We have a new challenge over at Waltzingmouse fanatics for you today featuring some deep rich colours.

I combined the colours with the sketch from retro sketches - even though I missed the deadline for it - as I really like it.

I used Paris Nouveau and French Country and selected copics in the shades of blues and purples and coloured strips of card to match the flower motifs I coloured and cut out.  I stamped the Eiffle Tower and fussy cut it out and attached it to a stitched journal die cut panel.

Hope you have fun with our colours this time around.

Coming Up Roses

Morning all and Happy Sunday.   Sunday's are my day on the Make the Day Special Stamp Store blog and today I have a card to share that I made for my Aunt whose birthday was this weekend and I went all out with some of my favourite sets from WPlus9.

I started with the lovely new Coming Up Roses set and stamped the multi-bloom spring directly on the base card in green adding the triple rose stamps in red with deep red for the top layer.  Next came a floral fest of stamping a die cutting using all the different blooms in the set in red, pink and yellow.  I love playing florist with these sets and I simply arranged the die cut and stamped blooms in place with pin flair gel for dimension around the vase which was stamped in blue with grey edges.

I used the Aunt stamp from Embroidered Bouquet Additions and embossed it in white on grey card and cut a little banner for over the vase.  The best wishes sentiment is from Fresh Cut Wreaths - I like to use sentiments on the front I can carry on into the middle so I added "on your birthday" inside.

I finished the card with a little DP (from my scrap box so no idea what its from sorry!) and my favourite twine - I love the thickness of all the Lawn Fawn twine but this triple set has my two "go to" colours of teal and grey so I use it a lot.  A simple line of it with a knot adds interest to the design without getting too fussy.

As this is very CAS which is very much my signature style I am going to enter it into this week's Birthday Week Comfort Zone Challenge at Wplus9's blog http://stampawaywithme.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/birthday-celebration-week-1-comfort-zone.html

Rainbows

I'm super excited this morning as my favourite challenge blog turns 3 - can you believe we've been making CAS cards for 3 years?  When I think back to my first one layer card - oh my - how things have changed!   What is even more exciting for me is that I'm guesting on the challenge this week - eek - I told you today was exciting!!  The theme this week is rainbows and here's may take on it  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/

Isn't he just the smiliest leprechaun?   He's from Papersmooches "A Magical Spring" (yes I'm wishing away the rest of winter - had enough now!) which has some really useful images as well as fun sentiments.   I stamped him onto some watercolour card so I could colour him with my distress markers (are you fed up of me saying how much I love them - sorry I'll get bored of them soon I promise!) and I fussy cut him, the crock pot and coins.  I used another piece of watercolour paper to freehand my rainbow with the markers and then I stuck the images in place over the top.  The sentiment is from the same set.

The third exciting thing is that my new store is also this month's sponsor at Less is More so if you play along throughout February you could win a little spending spree in the Store ;-)