Free to Dance

This week's cue word at CASology has been giving me a bit of trouble but at the 11th hour I finally hit upon an idea thanks to a new delivery of stamping bella stamps this week.  The cue word this week is "FREE" http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/week-50-free.html and this is my interpretation:

I used the adorable "twirl" from stamping bella's new artist (whose name escapes me sorry) and coloured him with copics.  Don't you just love that big squidgy bottom?   I really felt like he had the freedom to dance without caring how he looks which is why I thought he fit the cue word perfectly.  I printed a sentiment (Hang 10 font) onto white card and then cut a slice out of it to pop some chevron washi tape onto the base card before popping the white up on foam dots and mounting Kieron (that's what I'm calling him anyhow) onto blue card and popping him across the gap.

Right - just time to get him linked up before I have to get the salmon in the oven for dinner.

Itsy bitsy teeny weeny green striped bikini

Not quite the way the song goes I know but my stamp was striped not polka dots so I had to alter them!  I knew straight away though that the "sand" challenge at this weeks Less is More would be a great opportunity to use my newest Uptown Girl appropriately called "Sandy in her Sombrero" http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/lucky-dip-and-guest-designer-week-126.html 

 

I stamped and coloured her with copics but then paper pieced her bag and bikini from lime green dotted paper, colouring the stripes with copics over the top of the pattern.  I added glossy accents to her sun glasses and cocktail.  My sand is simply made by putting versamark ink direct to the card and covering with mustard opaque powder from Zing.  Finished with the matching sentiment that comes with Sandy.

I'm a bit late playing today as I've been waiting to get my sofa replaced (it creaked every time you sat on one side of it) and then I've been busy working on my first DT project for House of Cards - it's a new challenge where each month we set a theme but have a different challenge each week to make a card based on that month's theme but in a specific card making style - fun huh?  I'm on the Clean and Simple team and our first challenge starts in just over a week, but you can join in from Monday with the Fun and Cute team and if you check out the blog today we have a couple opening giveaways up for grabs.  http://houseofcardschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

A 'touch' of gold

It's blog hop day today at PTI and the theme is a touch of gold - I may well have gone a bit OTT on the "touch" as I embossed in gold and then decided to colour in with gold stickles! 
http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2013/06/june-2013-blog-hop-challenge.html

I covered 2/3 of my base card with a soft eau-de-nile green DP (has a subtle pattern that isn't showing up on the photo) and then stamped and embossed the double border stamp from quilled elegance in gold.  I rotated the stamp half way across to get the full width of my card letting the image fall off the edge on the right.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment from the same set to match.  

I probably should have stopped there - it was elegant, with just a hint of gold.  But no, not me, it seems I can't do "subtle" and gold together.   I decided to colour in the quills using gold stickles and my all time favourite stickles colour "patina" to match into the eau-de-nile.   Hope I didn't overdo the touch of gold too much - I have to say it is far prettier and less in your face in real life as the light has made it look super sparkly in the photo here.

Happy Birthday Jen!

Today is Jen's birthday and therefore this week's Less is More challenge is to make a birthday card she would like http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/week-125-happy-birthday.html

What to put on my card was easy - it had to feature butterflies - and that made me think of the sketch this week at CASe this sketch which had 3 little elements that would suit 3 little butterflies  http://casethissketch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/case-this-sketch-33.html  I also LOVED this week's colours in the Play Date Cafe so decided to throw those into the mix too  http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/one-zesty-color-combo.html and this is the resulting card - hope you like it Jen and are having a fabulous time in Istanbul.

I started with the small butterfly die from clearly besotted and die cut 9 from a pale orange card.  I inked each with spiced marmalade distress ink to warm up the colour to match the colour scheme.  On 3 of the butterflies I stamped one of the butterflies from CB's butterfly additions in potters clay ink.   I folded those 3 in half, plus 3 of the others and then layered them up to give me 3 dimensional butterflies using lawn fawns lawn trimmings between the layers to make antennae.  I mounted them onto a lime green panel embossed with my new SU folder and mounted that onto some teal washi tape torn to give a rough edge.  The sentiment is from CB's Spring Blooms stamped in teal zeal.

As I mostly used Clearly Besotted products on this card, I'll also make this a last minute entry to their first challenge - which is anything goes - and you still have just over a day to play along if you fancy http://www.stampingsharing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/clearly-besotted-challenge-1-anything.html

Snippets and itty bitty pieces

Happy "summer" solstice evening - hope everyone is making the most of the long day even if its not that summery in the UK....   I had a long day at work and then came home to find a faulty door lock which I couldn't open from the outside so once I finally managed to get inside was in desperate need of a little play time!

The daring card makers had a really intriguing challenge today called the itty-bitty jar - you know, that little box/jar/drawer on your craft desk where you put all those teeny-tiny pieces that "might just come in handy" one day.  Well the dare this week is to use at least 5 items from that jar to make a card.  http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/itty-bitty-jar.html  That also reminded me that I haven't played in Di's snippet challenge for ages so I decided it was time to show my face in the playground and to make a card only with snippets and things from my itty bitty drawer and this is how it turned out.

I decided to triple challenge myself by having a go at the "freestyle collage" technique which is quite a stretch for me, so I spent a lot of time after finding my "bits" taking them on and off the card to try to get a pleasing arrangement.  This card has taken 2 hours to make but I am very pleased with it now its done. 

The DP and two shades of pink card stock were from my snippets drawer and I used an old martha steward loop punch on the darker shade and rounded the corners of the DP.  The butterfly, brown heart strip and label die were all from my "die cuts drawer" and were all leftovers - I tend to use up scraps as I'm die cutting and save them there.  I inked up the butterfly with 3 shades of distress inks and spritz with gold pearl water.  The large gold heart is cloud clay pushed into a heart mold and then embossed in gold.  The smaller hearts are die cuts - the pink ones are washi tape covered card.  All the hearts are from the super-itty-bitty box which sits on my desk for the really tiny bits that would get lost in my itty bitty drawers.   I finished with some butterflies stamped over the DP and an anniversary sentiment both from PTI Round and Round Anniversary set.

Dogs like cake too!

 
I needed a card for a friend's birthday this week so decided to use the sketch at seize the birthday as my jumping off point http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/seize-birthday-19-sketch-by-jen-nelson.html and as I do like a bit of bling, I opted to use this week's paper players CAS with bling challenge for further inspiration http://thepaperplayers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/challenge-150-anne-maries-cas-challenge.html

I used an older stamp cos I love him and think it will appeal to my friend too - he's from whimsey (I think) and I coloured with warm grey copics, added teal to his party hat and some glitter to the frosting then fussy cut him out with a thin white border.  I used some teal DP to form the basis of the sketch, and then used my star border die from memory box die cut from purple to mount the dog into.  I finished with a matching banner and some teal bling.

Woof, woof, yum, yum!

Waltzing in the sunshine?

So, it's waltz day over at Waltzingmouse Makes and this month's theme is summertime fun  http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/june-blog-partylets-have-little.html and I think Claire must have decided on this theme a while ago as there certainly hasn't been much sign of summer on this side of the pond so far this year!

Like many people who've linked up already, I naturally turned to My Island as my set to play with when thinking of sunshine and summer and I decided to use it to make a first anniversary card for my friends who got married in the Caribbean last summer.  I stamped the sunrise with 3 colours of ink onto a scrap of yellow card and then added some silhouettes from the set in black.  Once I cut it out, I selected some blue DP for the background and stamped the palm trees onto it so I could line them up with the yellow scrap so the trees were spilling out of their frame.   I distressed the edge of the blue paper with my ranger tool and then added versamark ink and yellow embossing powder to add to the beachy feel.   I finished with an anniversary sentiment from the Frame It set.

Let's hope that a gallery full of summer images persuades the sun to make an appearance this week.....

Fathers

A day late I know as it was Father's Day yesterday but I couldn't share my cards until now as I'd submitted them to the recent call from Paper Crafts magazine - these two were rejected so I'm free to share them now but I do have one that will be appearing in their special masculine issue in November so watch this space :-)

I made these cards for a friend to give to her kids for their daddy - one teeny-tiny girl (just 3 months old) got the pink hand print and the slightly bigger girl (8) got the hero card.

For this one I cut the hand print on my cameo, and used the negative to ensure the fingers were fixed in the right place, before stamping one of the fabulous sentiments from Waltzingmouse stamps "Man of the Hour" set - which I had to buy even though I don't have my Dad to make cards for anymore as I just loved all the fabulous sentiments.

For the second card I think I was influenced by my hubbies comics and superman in particular with the red and yellow.  I die cut yellow stars using a MFT die and placed them behind a red and black mounted panel onto which I stamped another one of the great sentiments.  I filled the "HERO" bit in with yellow liquid pearls.  A black dotted line around the edge brings it all together.

I'd like to enter the following challenges with these cards:

http://micassucas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/challenge-20-jongenskaart-mannenkaart.html

http://creativecraftchallenges2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/challenge-12-we-love-you-dad.html

Yellow & Hexagons

I've made a couple of cards this morning for this week's hexagon theme at Less is More http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/week-124-theme.html but the first one is also my "yellow" entry for this week's CASology challenge http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/week-48-yellow.html

I used the cute bee set from There She Goes and stamped one of the honey comb stamps in peanut brittle onto yellow card stock and cut it out to create a corner.  I stamped the big bee from the set direct to the card and coloured with copics.  Simply finished with one of the sentiments from the set.

For my second card I wanted to do some dry embossing - I love this spellbinders folder it's double-sided and does chevrons on the other side.  I opted to play with greens and oranges, so I decided to add more hexagons over the top of the embossed design using a MFT die using a dark green for the frame and orange dotted paper for the inside.  I finished with a die cut umbrella from clearly besotted and a sentiment from their April Showers set.

Friendly sheep

I've had a stressful week and not much sleep, so needed a little crafting to wind down before bedtime tonight so I decided to play along with this week's challenge at There She Goes Stamps which is based on this inspiration photo http://tsgclearstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/tsg211-inspiration.html

As soon as I saw the photo, I knew I had a sheet of DP that was the exact same pattern as the wall paper in the house so I immediately wanted to use some of that and I liked the bright pink with it so naturally I decided to add a pink sheep.......

I used a 3cm strip of the DP (fancy pants - park bench collection) down the side of the card and then added a layer of white card over the top which overhangs the DP slightly and is popped up on dimensional foam.  I stamped the sentiment onto this panel.  I stamped 3 sheep onto copic colouring card and coloured 2 grey and white and one pink and fussy cut them out.  To finish the card I simply created a sheep tower by sticking them just to the white raised panel.

Wouldn't the countryside be pretty if we had pink sheep?  Just putting that out there...........

Blooming Marvellous!

I've not had much time for crafting this week as we spent a day in Leicester yesterday stalking my favourite comedian Daniel Kitson as Leicester was the closest we could get tickets for this current tour despite the fact that he is actually coming to Sheffield....

So now I've had a bit of time to play, I really wanted to play along in Stephanie's first ever challenge for her stamps - Clearly Besotted - which if you visit here regularly, you know I love - and the first challenge is anything goes http://stampingsharing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/clearly-besotted-challenge-1-anything.html  but anything was too wide a remit for my creativity this week, so I decided to have a look at some other challenges and see if any fit with my CB stamps and I found a few so have combined 3 more challenges into my card tonight.

I started with the big blooms on Therese's card at the MUSE challenge http://musecardclub.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/muse-challenge-21.html  and switched up the colours using this week's Colour Throwdown http://colorthrowdown.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/color-throwdown-246.html and finally switching it up to a more CAS design to fit the theme of CAS Flowers at Make it Monday  http://mimchallegeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/cas-flowers.html

I used the two solid blooms from "You Are" and cut them with the matching die and then did the same for 2 leaves in both sizes.  I added dotted centres to both on dimensional foam.  The sentiment is from "Make a Wish"   I finished off the design with a frame cut from DP with a pair of nesties stuck together with washi tape.  CAS and quick but hopefully you can still see where I took my inspiration from.

New Blog on the Block

Today is the day I can finally reveal the secret I've been keeping for a couple of months - I am going to be joining the Clean and Simple Team over at the brand new challenge site House of Cards.

This is a genius of an idea for a new challenge site created by Mynnette and Ruth where each month we will have either a sketch, a colour or inspiration photo for you to play along with for the whole month but each week we ask you to interpret it in a different style:

Week 1 - Fun and Cute
Week 2 - Clean and Simple
Week 3 - Classic and Elegant
Week 4 - Shabby & Vintage
Week 5 - Anything goes

You can either just play in the week that suits your style or choose to stretch yourself play each week in a different style.   Our first challenge goes live on Monday 1st July and then I'll be popping up on the blog on the 8th July along with my CAS teamies to inspire you with our clean and simple interpretation of this months theme.

I hope you'll check out the blog http://houseofcardschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/  and sign up to follow us so you can check out fun challenges.  Each challenge goes live on a Monday and you have until Sunday each week to play.  I can't wait to see what you make of our challenges!

Baby Banners

I needed a congratulations on your new bump card and this weeks' challenge at CASual Fridays to incorporate flags and banners sparked my inspiration for it http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/cfc104.html

I used this cute little pregnant lady from Magnolia and coloured and paper pieced her before fussy cutting her out.  I then stamped the gorgeous little heart banner from WPlus9 in pink and black onto DP from Basic Grey Kneehighs.   It was finished with a Kirsty Wiseman sentiment stamped in pink onto some white card embossed with a PTI texture plate.

Speedy?

It's one layer week again at Less is More (is it just me or does one layer week seem to come round really quickly these days?!?!?) and this time the added theme is the need for speed  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/one-layer-week-123.html

I could have gone the fast route with a car or plane, but despite having masses of cards and therefore no excuse to be late, I do still miss the odd birthday so having a belated card in my stash is always handy.  So I decided to make that my take on the need for the speed and turn it on it's head with something really slow that ought to have gone quicker.......

I used one of the new digi's from Pollycrafts called Garden Friends and printed it into the bottom corner of copic card along with a sentiment using Word.  Then I just coloured the animals with copics and folded the card - very quick but rather cute.

Wheels

The cue word at CASology this week is WHEELS and when I looked at my stamps I actually have a lot of stamps with wheels on, but most of them are already in the gallery for this week's challenge http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/week-47-wheels.html

So I decided to take a different approach and I started to think about other types of wheels - spinning, steering, roulette, and then a colour wheel popped into my head and this is how I turned the wheel into a card in a sort of wheel of fortune styleee.

I cut a colour wheel with a spinner on my cameo and coloured the segments with copics in rainbow colours and fixed the spinner with a white brad so it can actually turn.  I decided to use a sentiment from a cake set from CC Designs and embossed it in white on the black background and then stamped the word cake into every section of the colour wheel to ensure that whoever spins it is indeed assured of sweet things on their birthday!  I used an old elzybells alphabet to stamp cake so I could get the letters to follow the curve of the wheel.

I did make another wheel card - for a cycling mad friend - but it's not really CAS so not an entry in the challenge but I'll share it here anyhow.  I used one stamp from a Hero Arts bicycle set and repeat stamped in grey for a background before embossing the same again in black on a strip of DP.

Have a "wheely" great weekend everyone ;-)

CAS Camera

The challenge this week at There She Goes Stamps is to make a CAS card and as I love their stamps and CAS is my style, I had to join in  http://tsgclearstamps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/tsg210-cas.html

I decided to use this weeks' sketch from CAS(E) this sketch http://casethissketch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/cts-31.html  and the colours from Play Date Cafe http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/gorgeous-great-impressions.html   and this is what I came up with when I combined all 3 challenges into one CAS card.

I went with a favourite stamp set - Oh Snap - and my favourite of the camera images from it coupled with a film canister.  I coloured both with copics and did a bit of layering of the camera and lense to add dimension adding a little glitter and glossy accents cos CAS doesn't have to be bland.  To follow the sketch I used a little striped DP (fancy pants) and a strip of really fun film cell washi tape.  I finished with a sentiment from the same set in versafine deep lagoon.

Musing on bows....

 
I was instantly attracted to Laurie's card over on the MUSE Card Challenge this week - I adored the colours and layout and the lovely big bow http://musecardclub.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/muse-challenge-20.html  but I have a problem with bows - I really can't tie them even with the help of on of the 3, yes 3, "easy bow" tools I've bought (yes i was the kid in nursery with buckle shoes as I took ages to learn to tie them!!!).  I have some success with soft organza ribbons but the more solid types never come out right so I decided to case her lovely card but change up the ribbon treatment somewhat.

I used a strip of yellow DP and then added my ribbon over it folding over another small section of it where the bow should be.  Instead of score lines I cut two more very thin strips of the same yellow DP and secured them in place just slightly wider than the image I wanted to stamp.  The stamp is from My Minds Eye Collectible collection and is stamped in tide pool shadow ink, starting the middle for balance, and finished with a square gem in the centre of each image.  The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse's Big Day Additions set - it has a very swirly end to the y but that didn't fit on my card so I masked it off.  Finally popped the front panel up onto a teal bassil background before mounting onto a white base card.

I think the lack of the bow does give my version a more linear feel which isn't as soft and pretty as Lauries but as this is going to a couple for their anniversary tomorrow I'm going to pretend it's a nod towards the fella and not the girl for a change ;-)

Schwarz

I do like a black background on a card so joining in with the new KIS challenge which required just that was a no-brainer  http://kis-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/kis-15-schwarzer-hintergrund.html

I went for something simple but with strong colour to match the bold background (do excuse the awful photo - I think I need to give the card another wipe to remove excess embossing dust!)   I used a CTMH set which I won on ebay as I love the big bold sentiment - and embossed everything in either vanilla white (my new fave colour) or red.  The yellow was coloured with copics over the white and finished with yellow stickles as my yellow embossing powder wasn't opaque and didn't show up on the black.

Furry Kisses

I've been trying to come up with something "furry" for the CASology challenge all week that wasn't simply a furry animal but I couldn't get a unique angle on the challenge so wasn't going to play.  But today, I was inspired by my cat's fur so decided to try something out.  I am a cat lover obviously as I have one, and I have lots of cat stamps, but I always colour them grey as Lottie is a calico and that's too hard to do with copics!

So, when she was sitting by me on the sofa today, I took a close up of her fur, and then printed it a couple of times onto colouring card rather than photo paper so I could use it for paper piecing one of my cat stamps - which seemed an interesting idea, but I'm nos sure it was wholly successful in reality.

I used a couple of Simon Says Stamp exclusive sets designed by Kristina Werner (and based on her cat Mannie) and embossed and fussy cut them out before arranging on a pink starry hill.

Must link it up quick as the challenge closes in a couple of hours  http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/week-46-furry.html

Knock Knock

No, I'm not going to leave you with a bad joke from the 1970s - it just seemed appropriate to start with a knock as today's card was inspired by my front door.   Now my front door isn't the most inspirational thing you've ever seen, in fact photographing it has shown that it needs to be washed a painted rather badly.........

 
...but Chrissie and Jen over at Less is More wanted us to make a card based on the colour of our front doors  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/week-122-colour.html

My door is dark wood with a somewhat faded green trim so I decided to start with a wood veneer paper which was a good match for my door and die cut and embossed a circle from it.  I didn't have quite the right shade of green but this is closer to the colour I originally painted it!  I used it to cut a portion of a hill from a memory box die and stuck to the circle.  I then went for one of my favourite sentiment for when I don't know what purpose the card will have - this "wishing you" from PTI is very useful cos you can put anything on the inside once you know what you want it for!  I embossed it with vanilla white from WOW which I just love the colour of.  I then felt like it needed a little border so punched some hearts from the same two papers and overlapped them and finished with a little dotted line border around the circle.

After 5 hours with no power - I can finally get this linked up now too - I can't believe how programmed I am to electricity - a walk around the house in a power cut quickly shows you just how many things with a plug you rely on and how little you can get done with out it.  Thank goodness for the nice engineer who had to work on a Saturday to get us all back on the grid!