Wednesday 26 March 2014

Birthday cheer!...

Ok, last one for today, I promise!!

This card still uses the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch, however it's a different theme...


I was lucky enough to win over at STAMPlorations last month which meant I got to choose TWO stamp sets!!  Can anyone say 'excited'?!!!  Anyway, I couldn't choose just two, so I ended up buying another one while I was there...when in Rome and all that ;)  This card is made solely using STAMPlorations stamps - I love them!!  

How beautiful are those Art Deco cubes?!  I'm a bit of a sucker for flourishes, swirls and details and even more of a sucker for symmetry - how could I resist these bad boys?!  

Everything on this card is heat embossed.  It was a bit tricky to get all of the rainbow colours onto the sentiment before the ink dried too much, but I had already planned which colour was going where before I stamped so I had a head start :)

I'm pleased with how this turned out and I'm hoping that it counts for The Card Concept challenge that is currently ongoing to create a birthday card.  I haven't used the image as an inspiration, but this is undeniably a birthday card!  It's also CAS, in my opinion so if it doesn't count then at least I know I was most of the way there!



Sorry about the rambling, but I am at the end of my posting spree now you'll be pleased to know :)  Hopefully I'll be back soon, and a little bit more spread out, with some more creations ;)

Thank you for sticking with me! ;)










Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black
Stamps: STAMPlorations - Art Deco Border Builders, Chevron & Arrows
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:    WOW! - Ebony, Apple Red, Mandarin Orange, Flourescent Yellow, Flourescent Green, Pastel
                     Blue, Grape, Pastel Purple e/p

Mothers part II...

Hello, back again!

Here is my Mother's Day card for my DOH's Mother, maybe one day my Mother In Law...I'm working on it ladies and gentlemen!  ;)


As you can see, it's very similar to the card I made for my Mother, however I went with brighter rainbow colours and a white background this time - I like this one too!  ;)  I wasn't sure all the colours were going to work, but they work well enough for me, I just hope MIL likes it :)

Here's the sketch again from CAS(E) This Sketch...


Such a stunner!  

Thanks for stopping by  ;)











Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black
Stamps:  Verve - One Person
Ink:         Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:     WOW! - Super Fine Silver e/p; coloured threads

Mothers!!...

Hello people!

How are we all?!  I can only apologise for my prolonged absence...I have been rushed off of my feet!!!  What with the new job and then DOH's 50th birthday and all of the other things life throws at you when you'd really rather be doing something else, I feel like my feet haven't touched!!  Anyway, that's enough moaning!

I am here today with THREE cards!  They will, unfortunately for you guys, be posted on three separate posts as I have made them all using the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch and would like to enter all three ;)  Sorry guys, I know it's not really blog etiquette to not post anything for ages and then THREE posts on one night, but that's just how I roll!!  ;)

Ok, so the first card I have to share is a card I have made for my Mother to celebrate Mother's Day this coming Sunday...


My Mummy is a big fan of monochrome, which is probably where I get my love for it from...so hopefully she's going to like this :)  As I've mentioned before, she's also the one who got me into all this stitching malarky with her beautiful pictures she used to create...the one that sticks in my mind most is a swan that she did, it was stunning.  So, this is a little homage to my Mum on Mum's day ;)

I am also going to take this opportunity to apologise for any typo's that may occur in my posts this evening and for the shortness of my posts as I currently have matchsticks holding my eyes open and still have dinner to do!  I am so sleepy that I have just knocked red wine over an insert I had just written for my friend's birthday card (that is coming on another post this evening!) so now I have to write it out again...honestly, if brains were dynamite...!  ;)

So, here's the gorgeous sketch that has inspired me three times over - I just can't get enough of it!!


GORGEOUS!!  I now need a stamp like that in my life, it's official!  ;)

Thank you for coming back to visit me after my unacceptably long absence, I just hope you stick with me through the rest of my posts!

Love to you all,










Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - Black, White
Stamps:  Verve - One Person
Ink:        VersaColor - Silver
Other:    WOW! - Super Fine Silver e/p; silver thread

Wednesday 12 March 2014

WOW! Wood...

Hey there!

I'm here today with my take on this months challenge over at WOW! Embossing Powder where the theme is 'Wood'.  I was a bit stumped (pardon the pun!) to begin with but then that light bulb moment came and I was off!

Lolly sticks of course!!  I used a few strips of scrap card to join the sticks together - it was either that or glue each edge.  Having done this previously, I wasn't about to do it again!!  (I'll share that project later in this post)  As you can see, I then stamped and embossed this Dandelion with rogue 'fluffy' bits in WOW! Primary Ebony Super Fine powder.  I don't know the name given to the bits on a Dandelion - on a flower they'd be petals...maybe I'll have to look that up?!  Well, I've just looked it up and the best explanation I can offer is that they would just be called seeds.  I suppose the fluffy part is a parachute for the seeds?!  It's not really relevant to this post, so I'll try and get back on track!!

I made this into a sympathy card, not because I needed one luckily, but because I had the sentiment issue again!  It was the only one that suited the card...and it's always good to have one in your card stash I think, just in case you become to bleary eyed after an event to make a card...that may just be me...

I based this layout on the CAS(E) This Sketch sketch from last week, but never got around to posting it...c'est la vie!





Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're all having a good week ;)











Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Buff
Stamps: Clear Impressions - Wild & Free; Bo Bunny - Sentiments
Ink:        VersaColor - Black; Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:    WOW! - Ebony e/p; twine; pearls

Sunday 9 March 2014

Happy belated birthday...

Hello everybody!

In all this excitement of last week, I didn't get the chance to even look at my poor desk, let alone sit at it and get any cards made.  This unfortunately meant that my Mum's other half is missing a birthday card - I know, that's a serious fail :(  I have, however, made one for him now and will be sending it ASAP.  His birthday was on Friday, I'm hoping he receives his card no later than Tuesday...we'll see...

I have made this card using the challenge at The Card Concept which is a colour challenge.  The colours are Lime, Espresso and White.


I'll be honest, it hasn't turned out exactly as I thought it would.  The colours look DREADFUL on this monitor too...I'm hoping it's just mine, but if it looks bad on yours too then I can only apologise!  I tried to edit it to make the colours look truer, but I think that's going to have to go in the epic fail bin!  The green is a bright lime IRL and the brown is a lovely deep chocolate.  I embossed the sentiment in WOW!'s - Bark embossing powder which was a surprisingly good match for the brown cardstock - I was very impressed!  ;)

Erm...I don;t know what style category this would fall into...maybe Clean and Graphic because of the circles...?  I'm going to leave that one out there - let me know what you think!?

Doesn't this look yummy!?  It really invokes my gluten envy!!!...



So there you are ;)  It's lovely to 'see' you all and I have some other posts for this week so hopefully it won't be too long until I'm back again!  ;)

Thanks for stopping by ;)











Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Chocolate, Lime
Stamps: Clear Impressions - Cherry Blossom
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other:    WOW! - Primary Bark e/p; Spellbinders - Circle Dies

Saturday 8 March 2014

Travels...

Hello, hello!

How are we all?!  I'm sorry I've been away so long, but I have a fairly reasonable excuse... :)  I started a new job on Monday and isn't it always the way that everything else gets super busy at the same time?!  My DOH had a lot of admin bits that he needed doing this week too (it's not that I'd left them until now, it's that they cropped up this week just because I was busier than usual!) so in actual fact I've been going to work for a rest!!  I still have a pile of washing to do too...I need a fairy!  ;)

I'm just scraping in for the deadline for this one!  I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the winners at Catered Crop for last month's birthday card challenge with this card.  That means I get to join the fabulous DT as a Guest Designer for this months' challenge!  Whoop whoop!  The challenge this time is 'Safe Travels'.  

I'm not going to lie, when I saw this theme I thought 'this is definitely going to be a challenge!' because I don't have anything in my stash that's particularly travel-related.  But that's when things get interesting, right?!  So I had a little brainstorm and started thinking of things that are related to travel, which I like because you end up coming up with something that's less obvious than the theme.  My first thoughts were of maps and forms of transport, that sort of thing...but then I thought more about the emotional side of travel.  To travel means to leave the place you are in and head off somewhere new - which is exciting and can be sad all at the same time!  There's also a sense of freedom associated with taking yourself out of your familiar surroundings and knowing that you can go anywhere you want...I think that's fantastic!!  So, I went along these lines...  Then things got a bit profound - I think it's been one of those weeks!  I was thinking about how all of us are on a great big journey every day - the journey of life.  As Darnell tells us at the end of every one of her amazing posts - Life Is Too Short.  It's certainly too short to be doing something you hate - we should enjoy everything, no matter how small and change the things we don't like - simple right?!!

So, I know I got a bit off track with the whole travel thing, but those are the thoughts it invoked in me, so there!!

Anyway, enough babbling...the card...


I chose the Distress Ink colours - Broken China and Crushed Olive - because they remind me of when you look at an image of the globe - green for land and blue for ocean.  Again, maybe another tenuous link, but it's a link all the same!  I really like this sentiment - I think it's just perfect :)

I'm also entering this card for the current CAS-ual Fridays challenge which is '2 Shades of Grey' - I'm so glad they didn't go with 50!  ;)  They've updated the rules over there so you should definitely check it out if you haven't already :)





Thank you so much for coming back to see me after my absence!  ;)










Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Grey, Sky Grey
Stamps: Clear Impressions - Cherry Blossom
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium; Distress Ink - Broken China, Crushed Olive
Other:    WOW! - Ebony e/p; pearls