Spreading a little love....

I've been waiting in vain for some decent light to take a shot of this card I made on Saturday for the latest LIM challenge which is to use neutral colours, but it looks like Sheffield is never going to emerge from under the grey skies so this is the best I can do.  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/week-257-colour.html

I used a super cute stamp from Stamping Bella's new "stuffies" range - this is one is ellie loves phant and I just think it is totally adorable and it is such fun to colour.  To keep with the theme of the challenge I used nothing but cool and warm greys and am really pleased with how the colouring came out.   I framed it using a MFT die and added a sentiment from Mama Elephant as it filled the frame better than the "I love you" that comes with the stamp.   I added a few grey die cut hearts to link the two together - they are by Paper Smooches.

Right - back to work - I have lots to do on getting our new store site up and running this week!

Thanks for visiting
Tara

Hoppy Cake Bunny

It's LIM day again and it's One Layer Week and this month they want a one layer card featuring an animal which gave me the perfect opportunity to ink up one of my new stamps that arrived last week from my mate Elaine's store Quixotic Paperie which is where I get all my Stamping Bella goodies.   She is having a massive Spring Sale this weekend so perfect opportunity to do a little shopping!

This image is from the Hoppy Poppy Collection which is soooo cute!  I simply stamped and then coloured with polychromos pencils which blend with no bleeding on one layer cards.   Should have got my stampamajig out for the sentiment though - never mind I like quirky angles!

Right off to work on some Easter projects for my store blog tomorrow.

Catch you later.

Not quite Robbie....

It's my husband's bosses birthday tomorrow so I've made a card for him to give him.  He works in a small independent comic/book/sci-fi shop called Sheffield Space Centre which has been going for about 30 years now and has lots of loyal, if a little geeky, supporters and with only 4 staff they're all pretty close so do send each other cards and presents.  The man in question is a big fan of Robbie the Robot  from The Forbidden Planet which I don't have an image for, but I thought this little robot from Christy Croll's Stamping Bella range was the close enough....

He's stamped onto blending card and coloured with just cool and toner grey copics (with a little yellow for the cake) and I've highlighted his "studs" with silver.  I used what I like to call the "heinz" nestie lables as I think they lend themselves to masculine images - I got the DP yesterday, but stupidly threw the packaging away when I opened it and don't know who its by - sorry.  The ticket is a whimsey rubber stamp (cut by hand as I haven't gotten around to getting the die yet but it's an easy shape to cut freehand) and the sentiment is from elyzbels.  I finished with some silver rivets in the corners which are actually craft candy dots, but cut smaller with my cropadile.

He fits a couple of challenges:

At Cards for Men - it's nice and easy this week - anything goes as long as it's masculine - http://cardsformen.blogspot.com/2011/08/challenge-17-anything-goes.html

Cute card thursday want something clean and simple and I think he's a cute robot, and my design is pretty CAS - http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/2011/08/challenge-177-clean-simple.html 

Hope you like him as much as I do ;-)
Craftilicious x

More cake.....

Today I am playing along with the CR84FN Challenge which this week is to use yellow, pink and bright pink, which is not a colour combo I would normally be drawn to, but, quite by accident, I used pink and yellow together on my cake for the blog waltz at the weekend and I was pleased with the outcome.   So here I am again, with another cake, and more pink and yellow!

I'm also making this a second entry into this week's CAS-ual Friday's challenge - which is all about sweets and treats.  I'd ordered this stamp last Thursday before the challenge went live - must have been psychic so am so glad it arrived in time for me to play with it!  I hope this still classes as clean and simple enough for the challenge.

The stamp is a from the little peeps range by Stamping Bella and I've coloured it with copics.  Mounted simply onto pink, with a piece of seam binding ribbon sandwiched in between the layers.  The yellow die cut is a marrianne designs and I joined them together with a yellow cherry blossom.  The great sentiment is from the eat cake set by Waltzingmouse which I just can't seem to put away at the minute I love this set so much so sorry if you're bored of seeing it already!!!

Have a great day :-)

Craftilicious x

LIM meets CASual Fridays

I'm back with a second entry for this week's LIM sketch challenge which this time I am combining with a second entry into CASual Friday's getting edgy challenge too.

 

To be honest, this card has been a nightmare!  For starters, I decided to VOLUNTARILY use the dreaded acetate, and was promptly reminded why I hate the damn stuff!  I tried to cut out a martini glass from it using a quick cuts die but it wouldn't cut it fully no matter how many times I ran it through my big kick so I had to go over all the lines with a craft knife.  I then decided to put the glasses into stamped circles, which in retrospect I should have left off, and then I drew around a cardboard template of the martini glass with a very fine black pen, only I FORGOT I wanted the second glass tilted over to show the results of too many martinis - so SCRAP that one, start again.  I hadn't decided I didn't like the circles at this stage so repeated them - doh!  The next stumbling block was getting the acetate glasses to stick - they kept peeling up.  I finally got them stuck so just added extra waterfall stickles spilling out of the toppled glass.  I wanted to add the strip onto matching blue card edged with stars - the ones you see when you fall on the floor from martinis - and this is where the next problem came - I'd got black ink on my fingers and got dirty marks on the corner :-(   I couldn't bear to make the glasses again so I coloured over the marks with a white pen - doesn't show on the photo but it's not fab IRL.

Never mind, sometimes cards just don't work out and I'm giving myself brownie points for at least trying to use blinking acetate again............

Maybe see you again after lunch with a simpler acetate free idea!

Thanks for stopping by again

Craftilicious x

Paper Pieced Golfer

Just a quick post with a card I made for a colleague to give to a male friend who is mad on golf.   You can't beat "Golfafella" from Stamping Bella for a golf card.  I paper-pieced his trousers, shirt, hat and golf bag and added some shading with copics.    Some golf papers and ribbon finish the look.

  

It fits the paperpiecing challenge at  http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.com/2011/02/fussy-and-fancy-challenge-embossing.html  and the project for a male over at http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.com/2011/03/challenge-89-card-project-for-male.html

Thanks for looking :-)

 Craftilicious x

A few card commissions

These are the cards I've made for people to send to friends and relatives recently

A new baby girl - ultra-cute Elzybells special delivery stamp - great to go either pink or blue with.

A tripple Bella card for a special 40th birthday showing how the birthday girl would spend the weekend with cake, cocktails and pressies from her mates.

Another Bella image - this time Eloise Greengrass from the chichiboulie fairy range - I love the way these colour up - lots of opportunities to get the sakura pen and glamour dust out too!

This is a sugar nellie stamp "Guitar Hero" - I used Smooch pearlised accent ink in moonlight colour to paint the guitar which added a touch of realism.

Finally another Bella (I'm becoming a bit of a Bella addict - there are just so many lovely stamps to choose from that there is always one to match the occassion you need an image for!)  This is Golfafella from the Fellabella range.  Rather than going straight to copics - I paper-pieced his jumper to give it a pringle feel and shaded over the top with pencils.  I did the same with the golf back to add a leather look.

Addy tude loves her 'tinis

I made this card for my friends birthday a couple of weeks ago but have got behind on this whole blogging mallarky...... This is a tiddly inks stamp from Stamping Bella and I just love Addy Tude - this is the first of many purchases from this range I'm sure. It's coloured with copics and the glasses are glazed with glossy accents and the fur trim is sparkling with ranger rock candy spangles.

To go with her present (a saute pan) I made her a little something more personal, a jewellery set made with the gorgeous Elzybels floral stamps and shrink plastic. I've never had much sucess with shrink plastic in the past, but these worked beautifully.

I just love the dandilion clock in this set, so started with that, and used a brayer and rainbow big and juicy ink pad to get the soft graduated colour effect. Here's the before and after effect on the earrings.

This is the before shrinking shot for the bracelet, a mix of three of the oblong stamps from the set, with holes larger than required, pre-punched with my trusty crop-a-dile. The colours look really soft on frosted shrink plastic but they darken when shrunk as you can see in the second image of the finished bracelet. I used a thin coat of glossy accents on the inked side of the plastic once shrunk to ensure it didn't smudge when worn.

If you like these gorgeous floral stamps - and who wouldn't right? Then stop by Elzybells store over the Easter Weekend (2nd - 5th April) for some great Easter discounts http://elzybells.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/03/easter-special-offers-limited-time.html