Cosmic

One of the reasons I bought the Cosmic Stars set from Mama Elephant was because I thought it would make a really cute calendar.  I have some desk calendars holders so I used one of those and I intend to make a few more -  they're a lot quicker and easier than you might think and make really inexpensive gifts for Christmas so I made one as my project today for the Make the Day Special blog (their shop is currently the only place in the UK where you can get Mama Elephant stamps)

I'll not fill the blog with 12 pictures - you'll get the gist from the couple here:

The actual calendar part is a free printable I found on the internet (here) and I just saved them as pictures and added them to a table in a word document where I sized each "cell" to the size of my desk calendar and then printed them on copic colouring card.

Then it's just a case of stamping each star sign to the left, adding the name from the starry nights companion set underneath and colouring in the images - you could easily knock out half a dozen in an evening I reckon.

I also had a cute idea using the same images to make a card for the current Less is More challenge "to use DP in a CAS way" which I combined with the new sketch at retro sketches.

I just used one scrap of DP with tiny hearts on (Knee Highs stack) and overlayed it with a strip of vellum and embossed a sentiment from Mama Elephant's Smitten set over the join using a little wacky tac to secure it.  I coloured the character with copics and used a craft knife to cut around it so you could see through the bow and arrow.

Joining a New Gang

I told you it was going to be a weekend of new and exciting things on this little ole blog of mine and today is the second new thing - I am thrilled to be joining a new gang - the wonderful and talented group that is the Make the Day Special Design Team :-)   From now on I will their new Sunday Girl.

Today I'm giving you a little look at some of the great sets from Mama Elephant which are available to pre-order now.  Make the Day Special is the only UK stockist of Mama Elephant so if you want their sets without the customs costs then you know where to go!  You need to be quick though as pre-orders close tomorrow.

For this little cutie I used 3 sets - Cosmic Stars, the companion set Starry Nights and Good Times.  Now if you're not into Astrology, you might initially think that the Cosmic Stars set isn't for you, but the images are sooo cute and don't necessarily need to have an astrological bent.  By teaming it with the sentiment from Good Times the Gemini twins just become a pair of besties ;-)   I used the little banner from Starry Nights to create a subtle background behind the twins which I coloured with copics and mounted onto a circle of teal card to make it stand out.  Very quick and simple little card but perfect to give to a friend.

So pop on over to the store now and get your order in before its too late.......

More Film Inspiration

I said I'd try and come up with something a bit less obvious for this week's LIM film inspiration challenge and Gillian's Monster's Inc card (No 5 in the gallery) lead me down the Pixar path - we LOVE all the pixar movies in our house but our favourite has to be "UP" and my first card is quite a literal translation for a scene from the film.

I used a house stamp from Maya Road and then masked a balloon from Mama Elephant repeatedly and "tied" them all to the roof, just like Carl does in the film, only I just had to use a pen ;-)   The house is brightly coloured just like in the film.  I thought the sentiment also from Mama Elephant Good Times was perfect as it really summed up the theme of the movie.

This one might not be quite so obvious - it's a little bull from Mama Elephant's Cosmic Stars set and IRL I've coloured him red but it looks brown in the photo.  The idea of the red was to make him angry which should give you a clue to the film.............     Raging Bull of course!

My final card is also my entry to CASology this week where the trigger word is "Travel"  http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/week-39-travel.html

I was inspired by Blue Thunder - a film from the 80's which centres around a helicopter.  I went with a blue base (made more sense than having a blue helicopter on a different coloured sky!) and cut a mat with a circular cut out to create a circular slider card and added a helicopter (Clearly Besotted's Going Places).  I stuck 2 x 5 pence pieces behind the helicopter separated with a round foam pad so that the helicopter to can fly in circles around the card.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set.  I coloured the helicopter with copics and fussy cut.  Very CAS but cute and fun (unlike the film that inspired it!)

I think that's all my film inspiration exhausted now.

What's your sign?

As soon as I saw the really cute star sign stamp set from Mama Elephant I knew I had to have it so despite the astronomical import duty I ordered directly from the USA and I've finally got around to playing with it for their recent sketch challenge  http://www.mamaelephantblog.com/2013/04/me-sketch-challenge-03-41-414.html

I drew a feint pencil circle on the corner of my white card stock to replicate the doily in the sketch and then aligned 3 chronological signs along it (Taurus, Gemini, Cancer) and coloured them with copics.  I added some strips of card and DP and stamped the sentiment on the same DP rounding the edge with scissors.  I finished with 3 sequin stars in gold and silver.