Rustling feathers

It's time for another Waltzingmouse Fanatics challenge and this time around we have another sketch for you - pop on over to the challenge to see it http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.com/2014/01/challenge-10-sketch.html

My take on it is very loose but I think you still get the idea of the shape of it.

I created a simple one layer card by stamping 3 feathers from Fine Feathers in shades of green into the shape on the sketch.  The sentiment is from Funky Feathers and simply stamped in a darker shade of greeny-blue.

I do hope you'll join us - we'd love to see how you interpret the sketch.

I'm also linking it up to STAMPlorations challenge which is all about feathers http://craftilicious-yorkshire.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/rustling-feathers.html

Stormy Seas

Are you ready for a new challenge?  Well we have a great colour challenge for you today over at Waltzingmouse Fanatics and here's what I did with it.

I paired our colours with the sketch from the current Seize the Sketch challenge to inspire my design and the colours led me naturally to a masculine card.

I started with a piece of of chevron striped paper in blue and grey from my favourite masculine pack - swagger from fancy pants and stamped the lovely splatter pattern from splat that over the top - I think we often forget than we can still stamp on decorative paper!   I added a little distress ink to the right edge to give it a moody feel to match the picture on our colour theme.

Next came the focal strip - another piece from swagger with a couple of feathers from funky feathers stamped on the right hand side in aspen mist from versa magic.  I embossed the sentiment from the same set in smoky slate powder from stampin up.  For the focal feather I stamped the same feather using aspen mist and aegean blue but rather than stamping it onto paper I stamped it into cloud clay - an ultra-lightweight airdry clay that can be cut with scissors (or even run through a die cut machine) - so once it was dry I trimmed the excess with scissors and stuck it down with glossy accents.

Masculine cards can be fun too you know ;-)   Hope you all hop on over to the challenge and give it a go - all you need is one Waltzingmouse product and there are freebies in their shop if you don't own any stamps ;-)   http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Putting on the Ritz

I've been playing with my new Waltzingmouse stash this morning, which I shouldn't have been doing really as I've got cupcakes to bake, but when I saw the sketch at LIM this morning I couldn't wait to play  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/week-139-sketch-10.html

I used the Black and White plus a splash theme from ColourQ to create this simple card just using stamps from the new Putting on Ritz set plus a feather from Fine Feathers.   I stamped the round frame and head in black and die cut the circle.  I used neon pink as my "splash" a cut a feather out by hand adding a tiny gem to the headband too.  The sentiment is also from the same set - I hope I'm forgiven for moving it more centrally - I TRIED to do it off centre but my need for symmetry won through in the end.

Whilst I'd got the stamps out I made another card - this time using the colours for our current challenge at Waltzingmouse Fanatics - we're really low on players this time - just 2 entrants so far - so I thought I'd show that you can use just 3 of the colours (for me the two browns and one of the reds) in case the 6 colours were too intimidating.

I used a background from Art Deco backgrounds and stamped it in chocolate pearl onto kraft.  I then made the square frame and my favourite sentiment from Putting on the Ritz the focus of the card on another kraft panel.  Quick and simple but quite dramatic.

Right - time to make cakes......

Corn Colours

It's colour week at Less is More this week and when I saw the colour choices I was less than thrilled as they didn't really inspire me - sorry Chris and Jen!  In truth, it's not the colours per-se, it's just I find these colour challenges really difficult with any colours out of my comfort zone of blues and greens!   However I am involved with a soon to be launched challenge (a secret for now but watch this space for details soon!) that will involve regular choices like these so I forced my self to be creative with it and do you know what - I made what I think is my best card in ages!

The tree shape in the photo lead me to dig out my Waltzingmouse fine feathers again - I do love feathers!  This time I opted for ombre embossing on vellum and fussy cutting which I think makes for a striking effect.  Simply mounted on a double grey panel with some mustard twine and a grey button.  The sentiment is from the funky feathers set and I made a simple banner with it on kraft card and tucked it just behind the feather.  A little corner rounding to finish - et voila!   As Ms Waltzingmouse herself would say - hope it tickles!

Waltzingmouse Inaugural PJ Party!

Are you in your PJ's and ready to party?  I'm not a PJ girl but I do like a Pajama party - especially if we get ice-cream for a midnight feast ;-)  http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/wms-pajama-party.html

I played with a couple of the "get ahead" challenges last week - Firstly "Tickle Me Silly" - to make a card with one of the new feather sets.  I went with Fine Feathers and tried a layered vellum technique I learnt in the online card class I just took.  I stamped two large feathers in wet cement shadow ink onto white cardstock and then added a layer of vellum.  I stamped the smaller feathers from the set but the inks I chose were too pale so I embossed them - one with "cricket" and one with teal opaque and teal glitter powders.  I added a matching sentiment with pewter powder and hid the glue line where I attached the vellum with some strands of Waltzingmouse twine.

I hadn't had enough of feathers though, so decided to use Funky Feathers to enter the "In the Background" challenge.  I stamped two rows of the solid feather using the new pistachio ink from SU to create a chevron pattern.  I stamped over the bottom row with the matching open feather stamp with versafine deep lagoon and repeated it on top row with versafine olive.  I stamped a couple of elements from Country Labels 14 onto a corresponding green scrap and die cut before adding a deep teal border.

Right the party must have started now - time to see who's in their PJs!

More Feathers

I'm so glad that feathers are still a big trend at the minute as I really love them, especially in stamped form, which is why I just bought another two sets of feathery stamps from Waltzingmouse.  I haven't had much time to play with them yet so remedied that last night with this week's sketch from http://casethissketch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/case-this-sketch-35.html

I kept it quite simple and made a one layer get well card using the largest feather from the Fine Feathers set along with one of the matching sentiments in what I think is my favourite font ever!  I simply inked it up in pale blue and then feathered in some teal ink using the momento brush pen.   I used the fine nib to then colour the centre of the stamped image.  I stamped the greeting over the top in smokey grey and then carefully added some drops of blue and green from my spray inks (I find dropping safer than spritzing!)