Bunny Christmas

I get so little time to craft for fun at the minute but I was really taken by this sketch when I saw it at Retro Sketches tonight that I forced myself to make a quick card before the deadline closes in a few hours.  http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/retrosketches-142.html

Made with a SSS die, LF Snowday stamps and papers and some washi tape.

Retro Christmas

I LOVE this week's sketch at retro skethes http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/retrosketches-36.html  and couldn't wait to play with it.  It really screamed vintage Christmas to me so this is what I did with it:

I used papers from Lost and Found Christmas by My Minds Eye and die cut them with a large nestie (I used the same large nestie for both strips but cut strips to fit to create a different look on the stripped piece).  I then stamped a Waltzingmouse frame onto kraft cardstock and diecut it with the matching label die and stamped a sentiment from Hero Arts Very Merry Christmas into the centre.  Finished with holly cut on my silhouette cameo, some ribbon and a matching button with a twine bow.  I covered the gems I used for berries with fired brick distress stickles to keep with the vintage look as the gems were a little too "red".  The dotted border was done with my tim holtz ruler with its very handy pin holes!

I think I'll make a few of these to give to my family this year.

Retro Party Girls

It's my cousin's daughter's 20th Birthday today and she's a girl who likes to party so it was time for the Uptown Girls to come out to play again :-D  I love this range of stamps from Stamping Bella and have pretty much the whole set but these were the first ones I bought and I do turn to them so often for girly cards.   I used this week's sketch at retro sketches as the basis for my design http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/retrosketches-25.html

Victoria and Juliette are coloured with copics and then their outfits are paper-pieced and sparkled with glitter.  I debossed some gold mirri with my damask folder and then picked a selected of black and gold papers to give it a rich feel.  (all the papers are from GCD studios paris nights or papermania capsule collection)  I finished with a cocktail glass button mounted on a black sentiment from craftwork cards over some black velvet ribbon.

The glass didn't show up too well on the main shot so I took a close up - they're really cute embellishments.

I'm also going to enter this into this week's stamptacular Sunday challenge which is "Let's hear it for the girls" - can't you just hear them singing the Cyndie Lauper 80's classic "girls just wanna have fun...." ? http://stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/this-weeks-challenge-is-going-to-be-so.html 

Strawberry dreams

With friends and hubby's birthdays and taking family to hospital this week I've been MIA from blogland but I managed to make a quick card tonight for a couple of challenges.  I started with the sketch from Retro Sketches and the Cue word from CASology which this week is Fruit.

I pulled out my new mini stamp set from Waltzingmouse with it's great big juicy strawberry.  I stamped the berry onto a tag with lady bug and rhubarb stalk ink and stamped the leaves onto scrap card with pistachio and cottage ivy and fussy cut them out before sticking onto the tag.  I dotted the seeds on the strawberry with a glue pen and sprinkled with glamour dust.  I stamped a sentiment from the same set onto some red card and cut it with a label die.  I used a ribbed kraft base card and finished with some gingham ribbon and a red floral button.

Here are the links to the challenges I'm entering with this card:

http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/week-3-fruit.html

http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/retrosketches-21.html 

http://www.craftysentiments.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/food-challenge.html

HB2U!

My husband wanted me to make him a card for a work mate this week and as said person is a technology geek, I knew I wanted to use my new Papersmooches set but I wasn't sure what to do with it.  Then I saw this sketch at Retro Sketches and inspiration struck.  http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/retrosketches-19.html

I love the little details you get with this set - particularly the little bird for twitter.  I decided to go with a blue colour theme so will also enter this into Addicted to Stamps this week http://addictedtostamps-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ats-addicted-to-blue-challenge-1.html  I stamped the Ipad image and added the sentiment (using Elzbells alphabet stamps) and the twitter icon and emoticon and cut it out so mount onto my denim tag.  I criss-crossed the chevron paper with some space invaders ribbon and mounted the controller icon over the middle.  My husband was really pleased with it and thought it was perfect for his mate.

It would also be a perfect entry for our ongoing month-long challenge over at St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge which this month is all about teenagers - we have a great prize from The Ribbon Girl so do play along  http://stlukescharitycardschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/teenage-kicks.html

Retro Donkey

It's my blogging buddy and fellow St Luke's DT member Jenny's birthday today - hope you're having a lovely day Jenny despite the awful and very un-midsummer's-day-like weather!  Obviously a birthday needs a birthday card but for some reason I really struggled to make a card for Jenny which is odd as we share the same taste in lots of stamp designers.  However several attempts went in the recycling pile and I was about to give up and send something I'd already made until I happened upon this week's sketch at retro sketches and thought - donkey!  (yes, I know, I'm weird!)

It's quite a complicated sketch, but all those oblongs really called out to me and this is what I came up with which I hope Jenny will like :-)

I started with the fabulous donkey from There She Goes (currently out of stock - sorry!) stamped on kraft, coloured with pencils and fussy cut.  I also knew I wanted to use my new emoticon washi tape (hiding in the middle) and some cork for texture so decided on a blue and yellow colour theme.  All the papers are from my scrap box so I'll be popping into the snippets playground this week.  The sentiments are from the donkey set and the round one from craftwork cards (ready printed) and the die cut stars are MFT.  Finished with some buttons and gems, an eyelet from my much underused crop-a-dile and a bit of gingham ribbon.

I'm entering the following challenges with it:

http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/retrosketches-16.html  follow the sketch

http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/cupcake-197-something-in-eyelet.html   use an eyelet

http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/pixies-crafty-snippets-challenge-25.html  use up those bits of paper from your snippet stash

It would also pass muster for our current "furry" challenge over at St Lukes http://stlukescharitycardschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/our-little-furry-friends.html  - well hair is a kind of fur right????

(Hopefully mr postie has delivered this now and I'm not showing spoilers!)  Happy Birthday Jenny!