'B' FOR BIRD

The challenge over at Watercooler Wednesday this week is anything to do with the letter 'B'.  Well that gives us a wealth of ideas but my first one was the beautiful bird from Picture Perfect.  He has been in his box for a while so I thought it was time I gave him some wings again.

 I used Always Artichoke for the card base and stamped some of the leaves from this set as a background with Versamark.

The paper is from the gorgeous Serene Scenery 6x6 Designer Series Paper pack.  Oh my this paper is so lovely if you haven't tried it yet I would urge you to.  It really is paper you just want to look at but I now make myself use it!

The touch of our new Burlap ribbon seems to blend in with the mood of this card.  The bird was initially stamped in Smoky Slate, then Early Epresso then Pear Pizazz and cut out and I added dimensionals to give him some movement.  A touch of Wink of Stella to make him sparkle.

I'm singing along to 10CC whilst writing this - one of my favourite bands in the 1970's yep I'm that old lol! and it's so good to hear them again!

 
 

THANKFUL THOUGHTS

Well what can I say about my card today - I think I was having a bit of a lightbulb gone out moment.

My plan was to join in with the Inkspirational challenge - they had given us a photo inspiration as shown below.  With me so far?





There was some great inspiration from the Design Team - mainly with buildings.  I don't have any building type stamps but I thought I would do something quirky like use word stamps upside down
 ...... like this.....

 Something a bit different don't you think?  Not really conventional to have the words going up!  The Thank You sentiment is from Thankful Thoughts - the flowers stamped are from Jar of Love and Birthday Blooms and the flower in the middle is from the Botanical Framelits.  I've used just three colours here - Very Vanilla on Early Espresso card stock.  Early Espresso Ink, Peekaboo Peach and Pear Pizazz.

However - my lightbulb moment came when I decided to watermark my card and suddenly the card turned round and looked like this: Conventional.Doh!

 

 
 

BIRTHDAY BLOOMS

Do you feel sometimes when a new catalogue comes out that old favourites get left behind?  That's how I felt about Birthday Blooms so I thought I would re-visit the set for Pootles Colour Challenge  004 this week.  You'll find the challenge here.  Sam had challenged us to use the following colours - So Saffron, Sweet Sugarplum and Soft Sky.  Luckily three colours I have in my set, although my So Saffron is over 10 years old but still going strong!

This was quite a tricky challenge for me - but hey that's why they are challenges!  These are not colours I would normally work with but I love how soft they are and what a delicate card they create.  The background was stamped with two of the stamps from Playful Backgrounds in So Saffron and Soft Sky.  The cardstock is So Saffron.  The flower from Birthday Blooms was stamped in Sweet Sugarplum and I used an SU Blender Pen to colour it in.  The Hello sentiment is from the Jar of Love set. I edged the Whisper White with a touch of Soft Sky just to soften the harsh white edges.

As usual all products can be purchased via my store - click on the catalogue and don't forget about our Bonus Days during the month of July.

 HAPPY CRAFTING

 

SHOOTING STAR

I've had an on/off relationship with this stamp set lol!  As I don't have the framelits to go with it I've probably not been using it to its full potential.  I've loved the bees and the hive that come with it but today I thought I'd give the star some love!

A plain and simple card for a couple of challenges.

Simply Less is More are looking for something tactile and simple so I've simply done some white embossing here.  The Celebration stamp is from one of the Project Life sets - Remember This.   These sets have great sentiments in them and I'm sure they sometimes get overlooked in the catalogue but I love them.

 The start and the other sentiment is from Shooting Star.  The cardstock is Pacific Point.

Case This Sketch have given us this sketch to work with.  Click on the sketch to go to the challenge.

 
 


 I think my card fits this challenge. 

Happy Crafting

 

 

SIMPLY SKETCHED SATURDAY CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone and welcome to another Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge.   We’re so excited to be sharing this hop with you. The products used are all available in the current Annual, or seasonal, Stampin’ Up!® Catalogues*. Simply use the buttons at the bottom of the post to keep hopping!

Our Sketch this week was chosen by Louise Thomas of Whiteflagdesigns.  What a tricky sketch this one turned out to be for me.




 Here's my take on the sketch.  I used one of the New Colours Flirty Flamingo for my card base. 

The flowers are from the Botanical Builder Framelits. I used some Designer Series Paper in Mint Macaron for the leaves.  The Hello Friend is from the Jar of Love set.

 You know when you do something and then you think oho - that's not right - that's what happened with my card and the framelit from Botanical Builder.  I used the edging one but realised I had done it the wrong way.  However, - I re-cut it on some white card stock - added that to the edge of the inside of the card and Voila - it was as if I'd planned it that way and I actually love how its turned out.  Its like a mini jigsaw puzzle!

You can see the edging strip better on the inside of the card!

 I used the Botanical Blooms stamp set with some Versamark on the outside of the card and on the inside.  The sentiment is from Birthday Blooms.

Do pop along and see the next great card at Jillian's blog or pop back to Sally's  if you're going the wrong way!

HAPPY CRAFTING


 
 

GLOBAL DESIGN PROJECT - COLOUR CHALLENGE

I'm so pleased my sweet Jar of  Love card was given an Honorary Mention over at Watercooler Wednesday this week. I'm displaying my badge with great pride!
Their new challenge this week is a colour challenge - I will have to put my thinking head on and see what I can come up with later.

Over at  Global Design Project they also have a colour challenge - their colours were Melon Mambo, Smokey Slate and Basic Black.  Click on their logo to be taken to the challenge.




I used a couple of different stamp sets for this one - the grey flourish from Painter's Palette.  The Melon Mambo was used for the flourishes from Playful Backgrounds and the leaf in the middle stamped in Basic Black is from the Jar of Love set.

The butterfly was punched out with one of our Butterfly Punches in Designer Series Paper in Melon Mambo.  The sentiment came from Picture Perfect.  It was all stamped on Whisper White and apart from the butterfly is all one layer. 

I love this colour combination - and am going to be playing with it a lot more in future.


 

 

SUMMER'S HERE

Yay - for the last two day's Summer has arrived in the UK and we are now sweltering under 30 degree heat.  The UK homes don't work well with this heat -we don't have air con and my house is definitely a winter house.  But hey - lovely to see the sun and I'm lucky enough to be able to take advantage of it.  So today I shall be crafting in the garden.

But before I go I have a few challenges to catch up with.  The first is Sam Hammond's Colour Challenge which this week was Melon Mambo, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, and Crushed Curry.  You'll find her challenge HERE.  As its sunny outside and there are quite a few butterflies flying around my veggies I thought I would use the Papillon Potpourri set.  The beautiful rose from  Picture Perfect has also been used as the background stamp using Versamark.  

The sentiment is from the Shooting Star set.  I've popped one of the butterflies up on dimensionals after punching it out with the butterfly pun ch and added a few rhinestones for some sparkle.

I used Melon Mambo, Whisper White and Crushed Curry.

I've used the polymer stamps here and would love to know how to stop them staining when using the Melon Mambo or Watermelon Wonder.  I did try stamping with Versamark first and it helped a bit.  Any advice gratefully received.


I'm also putting this card in for the Less is More Challenge which is asking for repitition though I think I've put too much on the card and not enough "white" space.  Their Challenge is HERE

I had to have another play with the Repetition theme - I just love it.  Here I've used the Playful Backgrounds set and the Papillon Potpourri again punched out with the butterfly punch on Designer Series Paper Rich Razzleberry.  The stripes have been stamped in Rich Razzleberry Ombre Stamping Pad. The sentiment is from Shooting Star.

I'm also putting this one in for the Addicted to CAS challenge - their theme is Stripes.

 Thanks for stopping by and do leave a comment.

Happy Crafting 

 

PICTURE PERFECT JAR OF LOVE

Playing with a different set of stamps today - Picture Perfect.  I just adore roses - they are my favourite flowers - not the bland unscented ones you get in shops but the ones I grow in my garden that may not be perfect, the leaves may be a bit green here and there but the scent is something else.  They are the flowers of my childhood as they were my dear mum's favourite flowers and I always have a rose in a bud vase next to her picture as she is no longer with me.

 Roses are so lovely from small buds......

 .... to when they are just starting to emerge.....

 ...up to full bloom!

So for the challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches I chose Picture Perfect.  Their sketch was quite simple and leaves a lot to the imagination. Click on the image to be taken to their site.







I used Rich Razzleberry for the cardstock and the Rich Razzleberry Ombre stamp pad for the actual rose.  The rose is three step stamping - takes a little while to get used to it but its such a pretty rose its well worth the ink on your fingers!  

The same goes for the leaves which are also three step stamping.  The sentiment is from the same set.  The background wash of colour behind the rose is Blushing Bride put on with an Aqua painter.

I did sprinkle a touch of Wink of Stella over the rose just for a bit of sparkle.


The challenge over at Global Design Project is to CASE the following card. Click on the image to be taken to the challenge.

  

I've used the new Jar of Love set.  Not sure if you're the same as me but as soon as I get a new set I seem to not know when to stop putting it all one card.  This is a bit what happened here.  I'd seen a lovely similar card on Pinterest which I used for my inspiration.

  
I've used the butterflies as my inspiration for the CASE'd card.  I used to do a lot of paper tearing a few years ago and you don't see a lot of it around at the moment so I thought I would bring it back.



 
 

JAR OF LOVE - WATERCOOLER WEDNESDAY CHALLENGE

I'm having a bit of a play with my new stamp set Jar of Love. There are lots of great ideas on Pinterest using this set and as I also have the framelits I can see I'm going to be busy.

Today though just a simple one for the Watercooler Wednesday challenge.  Click on the image to be taken to their challenge.

 



I've used Flirty Flamingo as the background colour and a touch of it on the butterfly.  The Jar was stamped in Smoky Slate and the flowers and sentiment in Pear Pizzazz.  The water and the butterfly were stamped in Pool Party.

Still playing with my set - I saw a card on FB which inspired the one I've done here.  The card I saw had the goldfish upside down with the sentiment Well This Stinks!  I wanted to make mine a bit more positive and it would be a great card for someone off on a gap year!

Thanks for stopping by - do leave a comment.

JAR OF LOVE - CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Apologies needed I think -I'm doing Christmas in July. I know, I know...but I just love doing Christmas cards and I'd seen something similar to this for these jars on Pinterest and fancied having a go with my new stamps.

The jar was simply stamped with black ink and the snowflakes stamped in Smoky Slate.  The leaves are from the Botanical Builder Framelits and the red twine is retired sadly.  I'm afraid I've used a few retired stamp sets on here - the snowflakes are from Stampin Up years ago.  The Merry Christmas is from another old set Season of Joy.

 I haven't purchased any Christmas stamps from the new catalogue yet as I'm waiting for the winter/holiday catalogue which should be out soon.  So in the meantime I'm playing with some old favourites.

Some Dazzling Diamonds added to the inside of the jar makes it sparkle - I'm going for the whole snow globe effect!

I'm going to put this into Inkspirational Challenge again who are looking for something red.  You'll find the challenge here.  I think I'm allowed to put in more than one entry.


I'm a member of our local networking group Ladies Who Latte and this evening at my home in Hampshire I am hosting our first ever Shopping Extravaganza.  A group of us ladies are going to be displaying our businesses and hoping we get lots of people popping by.  The weather isn't brilliant but we are just hoping the rain keeps off.

Happy Crafting

 

NEW GOODIES

We all love new things and us Demonstrators get just as excited when the Stampin' Up! box arrives with new goodies.  We have named the driver Mr Brown as it comes in the UPS van and we all get excited when Mr Brown arrives!

I didn't waste much time in playing with my new goodies when they arrived - I had wanted to join in with the Less Is More challenge which was Time but I didn't have anything that was suitable.  Aha, until my shipment arrived. 

One of the stamp sets I had ordered was a Project Life set - called Date It!  Not what you may immediately think of for a time card but it had the perfect words, Summer and Time in it, along with 80 other stamps - yes that's 80!!!!  82 stamps in total - I wonder if I will ever get to use all of them!  All these stamps for £23.00 - I know amazing - click on the image below if you want more information.




Anyway I digress.  The other new products I had ordered was a pack of the Serene Scenery  6 x 6 papers - I've seen some lovely cards made with these.  So I jumped in and yes, I actually cut up a piece of the paper.  Die hard paper lovers will know it normally takes months before we cut up our papers but I 've done it straight away.  I used the easel from Painter's Palette and cut out the inner bit to add one of the dandelion seed heads from this paper.  The background paper is the reverse side.  The words were stamped and cut out with our Tag punch and the butterfly cut out from the same paper with the butterfly punch.

Voila!  However, on re-reading the rules for the challenge I suddenly realised this card was no good as it wasn't one layer!  Sad face.

 So..... I used the same words from the Project Life stamp set, but in my little box of goodies I had yet another new set I wanted to play with - this time it was the Jar of Love set.  I never thought the first stamps I would use from this set would be the flowers but they looked so pretty and just what I wanted for my summer card. 

Stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock in Pear Pizzazz with just a touch of Blushing Bride from a marker pen on the butterfly.  This one is one layer and can be added to the challenge.  You will find the challenge here

 

Phew thanks for reading all this and if you got to the bottom give yourself a pat on the back.

Happy Crafting 

 

LOVE AND AFFECTION DAY 3 - A TOUCH OF RED

Day 3 of my One Stamp Set for a week challenge.  The Challenge over at Inkspirational is a colour challenge with a touch of Red.  Click on the image below to be taken to their site.






Still using Love and Affection Stamp Set, Whisper White Card Stock, Pear Pizzazz Cardstock and Pear Pizzazz and Real Red Ink.

 A touch of some Enamel Shapes just finish off the cards.  The Flowerpanels have been added on dimensionals to give....well... some dimension lol!