Flowers, Frames and Stars

It's my day over on my Store's blog today and we have big news to share as we have becoemm the first UK stockist of Lil Inkers stamps and dies http://makethedayspecialcards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/big-news.html

I'm celebrating their arrival by using them for this weeks die cut challenge at Less is More http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/week-173-we-have-recipe.html

I used the gorgeous Frames and Flowers Die to make 2 cards - you get 3 frames from the one die with the signature stitching we all love Lil Inker's for :-D   This is a super set as you also get some flower and leaf dies so I die cut some leaves from patterned paper and one of the flowers from felt and used those to decorate the frame.  I used a little washi for decoration and then used one of the great sentiments from Shiny Happy Sentiments to finish it off - simple but effective.

I'm going to enter this one into this weeks' CASology challenge too as the cue word is FLOWER.  http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/week-96-flower.html

You can go masculine with the centre of the frame - I used another sentiment from Shiny Happy Sentiments and embossed it in silver.  I then used another set of dies - the really lovely Stitched Stars but I decided to go for the negative space as you get the lovely stitching around that too so it makes an AMAZING background.  I arranged them on my silver mirri matt and die cut them a couple of times until I filled the whole matt and then simply popped the sentiment panel on top.

Hope you're all enjoying the bank holiday weekend :-D

My Hero

See I promised you less flowers and less watercolour today - well there are no flowers but there is still a tiny but of watercolouring going on....

It's my day on the Make the Day Special Store Blog and I'm using one of our newly arrived stamps from SugarPea Deisngs.  There are lots of great new characters to choose from, but as my husband works in a Comic shop then I had to go for this little dude first (complete with accurate colouring on his Flash t-shirt or I would never hear the end of it......)

Isn't he fun!   He was coloured with copics and cut out so I could mount him over the panel of buildings which is a sheet of DP from "man made" by Trimcraft that I cut a skyline from.  A little blue washed sky and an embossed sentiment for him to stand on like a girder finish this simple card.  The sentiment made up from the words in the set - there are lots of separate words and phrases so there are endless possibilities with this one!

Right time to leave the craft room and make the most of the sunshine.

 

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

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

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