Retro Mother's Day

I needed to make another Mother's Day card and I loved the sketch at Retro Sketches this week so used that to make one.  http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/retrosketches-107.html

I die cut a peony from striped paper letting it hang over the edge.  I cut it again from red spotted paper and pieced the petals into the outline and then removed the outline to leave white space.  Finished with a sentiment from the Crafts Meow.

Ombre Die Cuts

Today I wanted to play along with Avery Elle's current challenge which is ombre/gradient which seemed like the perfect opportunity to test out their new inks which I have to say I really like!

I took a fairly simplistic approach and used 3 tonal inks - celery, lemongrass and mimosa and as they are lovely juicy pigment inks I used the direct to paper technique starting from the lightest and working down to the darkest ink

Then to create something interesting with the ombre paper I made I took the hello word die and die cut it.  I cut the same word again twice in white and layered them up behind the ombre for dimension.  To add a little interest I die cut it once more from black card but this one I offset just slightly to add to the dimensional quality.  One of the sentiments from the companion stamp set was all that was required to finish it off.

It's nearly Mother's Day....

I've suddenly realised that next Sunday is Mother's Day here in the UK and that I'd better get a wriggle on with my card making for it so today my make is the first of my cards - this one will be for my Godmother.   I was inspired by the colours at ColorQ this week http://colourq.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/colourq-challenge-233.html

I started with the gorgeous new Spring Wreath Die from Wplus9 but I wanted the flowers I put on it to be more of a statement that the little blooms that come with the die so I added flowers using Papersmooches Flowers Dies.   To give some texture and a rich feel to the card I die cut all my elements from felt.  The sentiment in the centre is also from Wplus9 - the little Mother's Day Bouquet set which I stamped using the awesome new inks from Avery Elle - this one is Fog - a warm mid-grey.   After stamping the sentiment, I ran the panel through a woodgrain folder for more texture before adding the wreath and flowers and accenting them all with a tiny pearl centre.

The challenge at Papersmooches this week is Anything Goes so I'm linking up to their challenge too http://papersmoochessparks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/march-16-22-anything-goes-wk3-challenge.html

Waltzingmouse Gift Cards

It's time for another challenge at Waltzingmouse Fanatics today and this fortnight we're playing with a lovely collection of soft blues and yellow - perfect for spring. I needed to make a gift card for my Mother's birthday for next month and I thought this would be the perfect challenge for it and this is what I came up with.

I used the lovely lace image from French Country, stamped in teal and then coloured in with copics - I love colouring patterns like this.  I then stamped a couple of sentiments - one from Gift Card It and one from Frame It to form a border above and below on the soft grey-pearl card base.

Then on the inside, I made the actual gift card itself using the Gift Card It Die set with some yellow DP and soft blue inks stamping more parts of the Gift Card It stamp set.  We get Mum a magazine subscription each year so this is the perfect way to give her something tangible to open on the day itself.

Hope that's inspired you to play along - numbers were low last challenge and we'd really like to get them up a bit again......

http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Weight Watchers....

It was my best friend's birthday last Friday and one of the things that brought us together over 22 years ago now (eek!) was going to Weight Watchers together so when I saw this Art Impressions stamp last year I knew I had to have it and it's been waiting for it's first inking for this birthday in particular!

I used my favourite colouring technique of the moment which is watercolour painting with distress markers and then did a little die cutting and layering of some DP and glitter papers.

I'm going to enter it to the current Art Impressions Challenge http://artimpressionsstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/challenge-131-take-peek-mini-front-back.html  and the Seize the Birthday challenge (minus the toppings) http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/birthday-stitches.html

Cats

I've been playing with cat stamps this weekend over at Make the Day Special as we got the new sets from Newton Nook that have been MIA for a few weeks at Heathrow....

Firstly I decided to sit Newton on a spritz background using my new mask and new spritzing tool so he would fit this week's Less is More challenge. 

I stamped Newton and his presents onto various scraps of card and pieced him together and then popped him over the masking (which I have to say really makes your arm ache getting a good coverage with copics)  I finished with a sentiment from the same set - Newton's Birthday Bash.

Then I decided I wanted to play with both sets of stamps so I dug out Newton's Antics too and used stamping and masking direct onto kraft to create a little scene of a cat's perfect day which, for my cat at least, involves playing, eating and LOTS of sleeping!

I used polychromos pencils and this time gave Newton some tiger stripes in greys.  I've tried to colour him like my cat, but she's a calico and has too many colours to get it right!  I brightened it up with a few pops of pink - the two bits of card as the same but the photo is awful and they look like totally different shades!

Love You Always

Super quick post today while I'm waiting for the bath to run as we're off to our favourite Turkish restaurant tonight to celebrate my best mates birthday but I wanted to squeeze in my take on the Waltzingmouse PJ Party Bedtime Sketch.

I kept it really simple - I took inspiration from the DP I selected which has a nice texture which led me to the wood grain heart from "My Heart".  I stamped the leaf border over it following the sketch using wet cement shadow ink and added a strip of red spotty paper from the same pad (prima bohemian bamboo) to finish the sketch shape.  Then I overstamped the heart using pale tomato shadow ink and added the sentiment to match from the same set.   I think it has a masculine feel - romantic but not too mushy - so will go to my hubby.

You've still got a couple of days to play along with this cute sketch http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/march-pajama-party.html

Musing on Roots

I was really drawn to this week's MUSE card http://musecardclub.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/muse-challenge-58.html as I love the new wooden paper I got recently and wanted to play with it some more.  I also wanted to play withe CASology's cue word of "roots" http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/week-86-roots.html so I decided to do a play on wood and use a tree...

The tree is a memory box die cut from the wood, coloured with copics and then glued back into place to give a one layer finish.  I added a teeny bit of shimmer to some leaves with a wink of stella brush pen and then stamped a PTI sentiment over the top.  To add a little balance I added a couple of strips of DP (Lawn Fawn into the woods) to the right.

Veg and Flowers

It's Waltzingmouse Pajama Party night/day again and this month I actually managed 2 of the 3 challenges - I'll be back to try the bedtime sketch when I see it too.  http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/

Firstly I had a go at "what would your mother make", now at first this stumped me as my mother is not really crafty - she can sew but only really did it practically (turning up trousers etc) and I don't have any stamps to match that!  Then I had a brain wave as the one thing she does love is gardening so I thought she would make little seed packets to share around the bounty from her garden so I made this.

I cut the packet on my cameo and then stamped in black and did a little pencil colouring to the cauliflower - quick and simple.

For the next challenge I got to play with my new funky flower die cuts for the die cut challenge.

I had some gorgeous cherry wood veneer paper I had yet to play with so I decided to do a one layer die cut floral arrangement.  Starting with the front flower first and working backwards I cut out all the pieces and then stamped them adding a little distress ink colour in neutral tones for that marquetry wood panelled feeling before piecing the jigsaw back together.  I added the sentiment over the top once I'd finished.

Are you all in your pjs and ready to party?  Can't wait to see what else everyone came up with.

Blingy Watercolour

It's may day again at Make the Day Special Stamp Store - wow the weekends sure seem to come around quick these days!

I was inspired by a couple of challenges - Virginia's new Watercolour challenge and Lawnscaping's bling so I combined the two.  I used the "smush the distress ink pad into the craft mat" technique for my watercolouring once I'd embossed my blossoms and sentiment onto the watercolour card stock.  Super quick and easy technique.  I cut some faux buttoms from the remnants after die cutting the lable and finished with my bling in the form of gems, sequins and glitter.

http://lawnscaping.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/lawnscaping-challenge-77-bling-it.html

http://virginiasviewchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/virginias-view-challenge-1.html

Stripes and Flowers

It's time for a new challenge at Waltzingmouse Fanatics and this time you don't have to make a card for a fella so hopefully you'll be less scared to play along!   We have a really simple sketch for you to play with so pop on over and check it out http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

For my card I wanted to play with my new stash (well naturally lol!) so I decided to make my stripes from stamps from Gift Card It as the pretty stamps can be used for anything not just gift cards!

I started with the large frame and stamped just one long edge onto green card with a darker green ink just letting the curve fall off the edge.  I used the two leaf springs on the same green with the same ink and make a pattern for the bottom stripe.  For the centre stripe I opted for some yellow DP - I do love the effect of stamping over a soft pattern and this tiny yellow and white dots was perfect for this.  I stamped the floral bunch all over and then coloured with a couple of copics.  I stamped a sentiment from the same set in the same green ink on the white base card.

I finished with another new product - the lovely funky florals dies and die cut a couple of the flowers and leaves from green and yellow felt and stuck them together over the centre of the top border adding a blingy gem to finish.

We hope you're inspired to join us this week - can't wait to see what you do with the sketch http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Focal Colours

I really don't seem to have too much time for crafting at the minute and I'm really not finding time to visit other blogs - sorry - hopefully I'll get into a better rhythm soon.  Today I'm sharing a make from Make the Day Special using Water Blooms - a really pretty and useful floral set.  I was inspired by the colours at this week's Less is More of green and yellow and wanted to play around with just one image but make the focal image stand out by stamping it in a contrasting colour.

I took the large bloom from the stamp set and stamped it with a pale green ink onto green cardstock in a repeat pattern to form a simple background.  Then to create my focal point image I used the same stamp but stamped in pale yellow ink onto yellow card stock.  To add some interest and definition, I used a darker yellow copic to add a little shading to this image and added glitter to the dots.    I used the same darker shade of yellow to create a mat to make it stand out from the background.  Some yellow gems finished the flower centres and I added a sentiment from Healthy Vibes by Papersmooches as I needed a get well card for a friend who just got out of hospital.