STAMPIN UP ONLY CHALLENGE - #SUOC224 - MASCULINE THEME

A great theme over at Stampin Up Only challenge this week - Masculine themed cards. We all seem to struggle with these and - to be honest - it's probably only in our heads because I'm sure the men don't really care! 

My card today uses Winter Woods - just to show this set is not just for Christmas.  I took my inspiration from a video I had seen Jane Allmark do with those lovely birch branches. I love Silver Birches - they are very special trees and I have three beauties in my garden.  I added them to some of the Wood Textures DSP.  Before adding the cardstock though I used the paper to cut out the shape for the sentiment.  I never like to waste paper and often use backing pieces to cut out or punch out shapes before using it to layer.  The leaves were done cut out of Wild Wasabi using the Colourful Seasons framelits.  The twine is retired and the sentiment is from the retired Watercolor Wings set and fits the retired banner framelit perfectly.  

 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT410

Here's our sketch this week at TSOT #410 with the option of using Pastels.

I went with the pastel option and started off with some Powder Pink card stock from SU.  I used Mint Macaron and a stencil to create the swirls in the background.  I then used a piece of DSP from Garden Impressions.  The stamp is from Painted Season inked in Mint Macaron.  I used some Circle framelits and added a butterfly in vellum with some tiny added pearls.  The sentiment is from a retired set called Cottage Greetings.  A touch of the retired Bronze thread behind the circle just finishes off the card.

 

SWEET STAMPIN - INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FAMILIES

May 15th was the International Day of Families and to celebrate Sweet Stampin have chosen this theme as their challenge this week.  I am so excited to be awaiting the birth of my first grandchild - something we didn't think may happen as my darling daughter has had a few issues.  But baby is due in July.  I've been playing with the Stampin Up set First Steps with this event in mind.  The pink may  just give it away lol!

I used the retired hearts embossing folder and some retired SU Designer Series Paper for the background heart.  Stitched framelits were used for all the hearts.



 

SUOC223 - SPRING

Our challenge over at Stampin Up Only challenge this week is Spring - with an option of Mother's Day - though for us here in the UK Mother's Day was in March. I lost my mum 9 years ago this month so doubly Mother's Day is not a card for me at the moment.  My card however does have a spring like feel to it and I've used my mum's favourite flowers - roses.

I've used the very lovely Petal Promenade DSP together with one of the pieces of the Delightfully Detailed laser cut paper.  Both of these were gifted to me by my friend Andrea Parr and this is the first time I've used them.

I used the pale pink backing of one of the papers and added the lovely trellis piece on top.  This was backed onto some of that lovely pink rose paper and I used some of the cut offs to punch out the butterflies - I've used my retired Butterfly Punches in both large and small for the butterflies.  The sentiment is from a retired set Cottage Greetings and I've inked it in Fresh Fig.

I look forward to seeing all your lovely spring like creations - I know my mum would have loved this card.


 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #408

Here's our sketch for you this week over at Try Stampin on Tuesday #408

I've used the lovely papers from Stampin Up Petal Promenade.  I added a pearlised doily and some non SU ribbon.  The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted - I've just realised that's the only stamping I've done on this card! 

 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - SC#314

This is our sketch for your challenge this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments

I tried something a little different with my card and instead of a panel or paper or DSP I used the stamp from retired stamp set Amazing You. 

I used four colours - Powder Pink, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi and Pear Pizazz to ink the word Celebrate with the help of the Tim Holtz stamping platform.  I then used Melon Mambo to ink the flowers and fussy cut them out.  The leaves are cut from the thinlets from Colourful Seasons in Wild Wasabi.  

I coloured the flowers in slightly with Tri-Blend Spectrum Noir pen in Pale Pink Blend and added some non SU tiny pink pearls on the flowers and on the edge of the card.  The ribbon is from SU.  I mounted it all onto some Powder Pink cardstock.

 

JOY OF SETS TIC TAC TOE - MAY - #JOSTTT005

Wow - can you believe we are into another month already - May is my favourite month as it just so happens to be my birthday month!  And to celebrate I'm delighted that we are sponsored this month over at Joy of Sets Tic Tac Toe by Concord and 9th who have very generously given us a $50 gift certificate for one lucky winner. I hope you will all join in.

Our Grid this month has been chosen by Susan Simpson and these were her choices:

 A lovely spring set of themes to choose and I went with a lovely little stamp set from Clearly Besotted called You're So Tweet II.  I started off my card using a Scenic Clouds stencil from Inkylicious - I used some Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink in Salty Ocean.  It's my first time using this stencil and I really liked how it came out.  I used the leaves from a bird stamp set I have - sorry I can't remember the name of it. 

 I then stamped the little birds in SU Basic Gray and cut them out.  I used Tri-Blend Spectrum Noir markers in Citrus to colour them in - one of my daughter's favourite songs when she was little was Yellow Bird - only it was sung in Welsh and was called Aderyn Melyn and this was in my head using these birds so they had to be yellow.  I hand drew the little musical notes and added some jewels bought from The Range.   The sentiment is also from the same set.

I look forward to seeing what you all do with this lovely grid - and good luck with the Competition.

SWEET STAMPIN - MAY THE 4TH.......

Those of us of a certain age know the words that follow May the 4th...... even if you are not a Star Wars Fan! It's actually the day before my birthday too!  So our challenge over at Sweet Stampin is any space themed card.  I love this challenge group I'm part of because Wendy always challenges us and I like to try and rise to the challenge and think outside the box.

I started my card using some Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks - I used the following colours:  Salty Ocean, Fossilised Amber, Picked Raspberry, and Peacock Feathers.  Using a sponge I simply added the colours to some water colour paper.  Once they were all added in no particular order I added some water and let them all merge.  I used my heatgun to just fix the colours.  I then added some Tim Holtz Weathered Wood and Black ink all over those colours. It gives a sort of Galaxy Night sky effect.  When it was all dry I added some Liquid pearls and let them dry.

The Moon stamp from Cherry Pie Art Stamps has been embossed in Silver embossing powder.  The La Luna and Light stamps are also from Cherry Pie.  The sentiment at the bottom is from an old SU stamp set In This World.

I then layered this onto some silver paper to continue the shine.

I hope you will join in with the challenge and challenge yourselves to join in with the theme.  I look forward to seeing what you come up with.




 

SPARKLES CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE - HOLLY

Another new month another new Christmas Challenge over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge blog - this month we are featuring Holly. 

I used an old SU embossing folder for my holly on my card. I do love holly at Christmas and always bring sprigs of it into the house to Deck the Halls.  Here I added this very old Santa Stamp - he's just such an old favourite and the rubber is getting very old - I hope he will continue to keep stamping.  I added a stamp from Cherry Pie Art Stamps for the old print writing and added a Believe stamp.  Lots of sparkle and glitter on the stars near Santa's beard gives the card a bit of shine.