Simple Sketch

The LIM ladies have a really simple sketch for us to play with this week so I used it to make a card for my dog mad friend's birthday coming up this weekend.

I took a very simple approach - stamped the image (Stampin Up Hostess Set) and then watercoloured it with distress markers and a thin paintbrush.   I love this method of colouring at the moment - just scribble on an acrylic block, spritz and paint.  I added a thin green line to frame it before mounting it on a kraft base card.  The sentiment is stamped on a die cut (sorry no idea of the brand) but it has curly ends and was too long so I cropped it to fit the Wplus9 sentiment.

Sketchy Christmas

Wow these weeks are whizzing by aren't they - can hardly believe its time for another challenge at Waltzingmouse Fanatics but we have a really cute sketch this fortnight so hope you'll join us if you have their products to play with.

I decided to take the sketch down the Christmas route and play with my yummy new papers and washi tape from My Minds Eye so picked a stamp to match the reindeer theme that runs through them.

I used two stamp sets - 2011 Holiday Ornaments (and the co-ordinating spellbinders die) and Say It Loud Winter Holiday.   I stamped the reindeer and dotted pattern onto the die cut kraft bauble in red and topped with the little topper stamp in black.  The paper I've used is double-sided so this card is made from one sheet and I stamped the sentiment directly onto the red striped one and added a little washi tape underneath to match the sketch before mounting the ornaments.

Christmas Cat

The LIM theme was great for me this week, as I'd already got a card I finished last week but haven't had time to blog yet that fits the theme of animals perfectly!

I just watercoloured Newton lightly with distress pens and added some glossy accents and glitter to make the lights glimmer.  A little gold card and candy striped paper makes a quick and simple card that can be replicated with all the images in the Holiday Mischief set.

Autumn Leaves

The challenge at Less is More this week is a one-layer card with foliage http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/one-layer-time-again.html

I went for Leafy Greens but chose to just use the large maple leaf and went autumnal with  pumpkin pie and raspberry jam inks from Hero Arts.   I just stamped each leaf on top of each other in the brown shade and then over-stamped with the red trying to get the ink to be a bit blotchy so the leaves look like they do in autumn when they fall off the trees.  I added a big bold sentiment from Mama Elephant's Splendid set once dry and dotted around some glitter and pearl dots to finish.


 

Pink Poinsettias

It's challenge day at Waltzingmouse Fanatics and this fortnight we'd like you to get your markers out and colour an image on your project http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/challenge-24-make-your-mark.html

I decided to make a start on Christmas as I've been wanting to replicate the pink poinsettias I found in a garden centre last year and fell in love with but which lasted about 3 days as they always do in my house!

I stamped the poinsettia from Big Bloom Poinsettia in charcoal grey (Hero Arts) and then coloured it in with distress markers using a little water to blend.

The sentiment is from Say It Loud Winter Holiday and I finished with a bright pink mat  and a little shimmer on the green centre to make it all pop.

We do hope you'll join us this challenge.

Mojito Roses

I managed to join in this week's Less is More challenge which is based on this lovely shot of a mojito in a trendy jar  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/week-183-colour-challenge.html

I used the gorgeous Painted Flowers from Altenew using 3 colours, yellow, green and grey.  Stamped the sentiment from Winnie & Walter also in Hero Arts Charcoal Grey and then picked out the bright blue with some dash lines and dots of stickles.   As the birthday word in the set is smaller, I decided to add focus to it with a yellow "shadow" highlight.

Summer Relaxation

I've made a card today that is very much suited to the spell of hot weather we're having....

This is based on the colours from our new challenge today at Waltzingmouse Fanatics and the image and the weather just lead me to this card and I wish I was on a beach right now rather than in my hot back bedroom!   http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/challenge-23-colours.html

This challenge gave me a chance to try out the new inks that we have in store at Make the Day Special Stamp Store - we got the full range of Hero Arts Shadow Inks in, which have been very hard to get hold of in the UK, and I have to say I love them.  I used Tide Pool, Soft Sand and Orange Soda for the background and added the beach hut and umbrella with Wet Cement.  The images and sentiment are all from My Island by Waltzingmouse stamps.

It's a 5 Saturday month which means my other favourite challenge - Less is More - is on an Anything Goes week, so I will be added this card to that challenge too.

Hope those of you who have Waltzingmouse Stamps will join us this fortnight as our numbers are very low just now so the challenge may have to close.....

Singing in the Rain

This week's challenge at LIM is to be inspired by the song "Singing in the Rain" - a much easier challenge than last week's finger print one!   Although I have to say thanks as I got so many lovely comments on my card last week and I hated it - just goes to show that we are our own worst critics!   This is what I did this week:

I'm sorry but I have no idea where I got the image - it's an old red-rubber stamp in my "misc" file so probably something I picked up at a fair at some point (but at least I knew I had it as it was the first stamp I thought of when I saw this challenge!)    I stamped it onto a mini card and then used watercolour paints to colour it and to add the downpour of rain around them.   I didn't have exactly the sentiment I wanted so I decided to just hand write my own.   I have to say I'm much happier with this one than last weeks' effort!

Er - well - less said the better......

You could be fooled into thinking that todlers have taken over my blog today, but no, I am afraid this is all my own work - I can't actually believe I'm sharing it but here goes my entry to this week's Less is More challenge of "adapt a fingerprint on a one layer card"...........

Now some people in the gallery have done some amazing cards (can't believe Gay and Birgit used fingers!!!) - mine, well as the title says less said the better, but at least I had a go!   I made finger prints with distress inks in a very vaguely peakcock shape and then added the eyes and feathery bits with sakura gel pens.  Sentiment is Kraftin Kimmie.

Right - time to run away..............

Can we have something easier next week PLEASE?????

Horsey

One of my friends at work is very horsey - in fact she just qualified for HOYS (the Horse of the Year Show) last week, so when I see a cute horse stamp I HAVE to have it ready for her birthday card.  It's her birthday today so I'm safe to share the card now.  I've done the horse in the same colours as the one she qualified on.....

The horsey girl stamp is from MFT and the horseshoe die is a Joanna Sheen one.  Just coloured with copics and then finished with a SU sentiment and some (wobbly) dash lines!

I'm sure her 14th month old daughter will love it too as her favourite word, not surprisingly, is horsey!!!

CASE Histories

We're having a fun challenge this month at my store - we're calling it CASE History and want you to find a project from your first year of blogging and CASE it to see how far your style has come.  I started blogging in 2009 but if you look back, you'll see that there were no craft projects that year - I started off a food blogger but I knew I wanted to blog about crafts too so called my blog Craftilicious - crafty and delicious combined!   So I chose a project from 2010 - a wedding card I made in a box style and you can find the original post here.

I made this box card with the floral frame adhered to a fold in the middle so it had 3 layers and a 3D feel and it was this technique I decided to CASE and update on my new version and this is what came out of it!

 

I used a nestie to cut a couple of frames and then went full on die cut mode to create the sea scene.  The sailboat is adhered to the dotted paper on the base card, the rainbow and small cloud are stuck to the first frame and the larger cloud on the second frame.  This shot shows the dimension to full effect.

So you may think that the new card bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original - well it doesn't - but it was inspired by the 3D design of the original so it still counts as a CASE study - hope that encourages you to have a go and play along.

As my card is entirely made with die cuts - I am also going to enter it into Virginia's View challenge this month.

Smoochy ribbons

I made a little card today which fits a couple of challenge this weekend - firstly Paper Smooches Sparks which is Anything Goes and Less is More which is Recycling.

I was inspired to make this card by the song "tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree" which came on the radio yesterday.  The yellow ribbon was salvaged from a box of chocolates so is my recycled item for the LIM theme this week.  The tree is from Paper Smooches Summer Groves and I coloured it with copics in a very basic pointillism style and fussy it cut it before tying my ribbon and foam mounting it.  The sentiment is also from Paper Smooches from the ever so useful Sentiment Sampler set.   I stood the little blue bird on the O so he's looking out for the person on the bus in the song.....

Anything Waltzingmouse Goes!

Our new challenge at Waltzingmouse is anything goes this fortnight http://waltzingmousefanaticschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/challenge-21-theme.html

Our friends are moving house today so I used the cottage home set to make them a new home card.  I just used the stamps to make a decoupaged card and coloured the layers with copics (you can't really see it clearly from this front on shot but the centre of the house stands off from the rear and the plants stand further forward still)  I added some embossed stones and a little ribbon for colour to finish.

Hope you'll find time to join us for this challenge - if you love Waltzingmouse stamps like Deborah and I do, please share your love with us.

Back on the watercolour...

The theme at LIM this week is watercolouring - well I don't need much of an excuse to play with that technique again!

I decided to have another go at the watercolour technique Dawn from Wplus9 showed on their blog a few weeks ago - stamping with 2nd generation distress ink and then using a brush and water to soften the stamping for a watercoloured look.  So naturally I went to my favourite Fresh Cut Florals set but needed something to put them in.   I used Joanna Sheen's trug, but instead of die cutting it, I used the die to emboss the shape into the watercolour card stock.  I then stamped the flowers and leaves using Dawn's technique, and then used the distress inks with the brush to colour in the trug - the embossed lines "hold" the ink so it's easy to paint ;-)   A little more ink underneath to ground it and a sentiment from the set and a thin blue mat to pull out the berries and its finished.

I have wedding invites to finish today so I'd best get cracking!

Balloon paper

I needed a birthday card and wanted to use my new AE balloon dies again so I decided to take their current challenge as my inspiration and stamped my own designer paper with the little ones  http://aeiheartuchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/aeiu-challenge-9diy-designer-paper.html

I tried a bold background first but didn't like it so I decided to go subtle instead and just used a single ink soft stone from Hero Arts and the 3 small balloon stamps to make my DP.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I make a card I added a blue and silver balloon using the matching dies and a blue and silver happy (Wplus9) and then I overstamped BIRTHDAY to finish.

Just in time to join the challenge I think.....

 

Off the edge

Going off the edge is the challenge at Less is More this week and I got the perfect new set of stamps and dies in my store this weekend to make a card with that theme!

I used the large die to cut the top of the big balloon off the top of the card base and then simply stamped the rest overlapping each other.  Added the strings from the set and finished with a wink of stella for shimmer.

It's been an exciting week in the store - we've had 7 big boxes of new stock arrive, so if you want something to distract you from the football, then we have the following:

• Lawn Fawn - latest release and restocks including the polka paper pad
• Papersmooches - latest release and restocks
• Neat and Tangled - SEQUINS (yeah!) and the latest release of stamps (the hope stamps is backordered)
• Newton's Nook - the last couple of releases PLUS all the Christmas stamps that have been oos for ages!
• Avery Elle - new release, restocks and storage panels!
• Wplus9 - ALL the floral sets are back in stock as is hand letter hello!
• and last but no means least - Lil Inkers - restocks where they had any left plus some more stuff I didn't get first time around.  They didn't have huge stocks but I will be ordering again soon.

Thanks for visiting

Tara
 

Nouveau Tiles

I really loved the new floral stamps at Clearly Besotted as soon as I saw them http://www.clearlybesottedstamps.com/products/nouveau-flowers and I knew I could do so much with them.  This is my second make for my SIL who's birthday is today and I was inspired to create a tile like the ones you see in fireplaces you can't afford!

I used one image and stamped it 4 times then selectively inked just the bud ad added that where the leaves joined.   The sentiment is made up from a WPlus9 set and a Mama Elephant set.

As their new challenge is Anything Goes then I'll link it up it http://www.stampingsharing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/clearly-besotted-challenge-12-anything.html

Bedroom Flowers

This week's colour challenge at Less is More is an interesting one - its to use the colours in your bedroom  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/week-175-colour-challenge.html

Now those who know me well are probably expecting a card in shades of teal, but my bedroom is actually green with hints of chocolate brown!

Thanks to Stephanie's super speedy delivery the gorgeous new stamps I ordered yesterday were the perfect choice to play with for a chocolate lime creation.  I used her new gorgeous Nouveau Flower stamps and used Lemon Grass Ink from Avery Elle and Pearlescent Chocolate from Tsukineko.   Paired with a strip of washi tape as a side panel - the main design is popped up for added dimension but that does't show in the photo.

I've batoned down the hatches today in anticipation of the storms coming this afternoon while I nurse my poorly cat who thanks to a local tom cat who needs neutering has a nasty abscess which could lead to her having her tail amputated :(

New Home

Some friends of ours just moved into a new home so naturally I had to make a card.    So I took my bitty bungalows and went about highlighting their big posh house on a hill with this little scene.......

I had lots of fun making this card adding the layers and making their house all bright and colourful up on it's green hill whilst the rest of the houses in the valley are all dull and grey.  The perfect cheerful New Home card.   I coloured all the elements from Bitty Bungalows with copics and used a little glossy accents for the windows and the mail box and then fussy cut everything out.  The papers are Lawn Fawn Let's Polka

Luckily this week's Paper Smooches Sparks challenge is Anything Goes so I'm linking it up there as it fits ;-)  http://papersmoochessparks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/june-1-7-anything-goes-wk1-challenge.html

Kick Ass!

I'm feeling pretty Kick Ass myself today - I made 3 cards yesterday!  Can't remember the last time I found this much time to craft and had the mojo to go with the time to play!

I joined in with Muse Challenge http://musecardclub.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/muse-challenge-69.html I love the inspiration of the fanned paint backgound but I thought the dotted stamp in So 80s would be great to overlap for a similar effect so that's the way I took it.

I just used my favourite ink colours - limes and teals and stamped the dots three times.  I added a few stars from the same set in the same colours instead of the black dots and then used a couple of sentiments from the set in bold black.  I finished with some sequins in matching colours.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out - I might even make a set of them in different colours and send them to friends to remind them they kick ass too.  

It's good to be reminded how fabulous you are sometimes - and there is no better way than to listen to this poem read by the author who sadly passed this week.  RIP Maya Angelou https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeFfhH83_RE   and remember we are all PHENOMENAL women!