TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT432

Here's our sketch this week from TSOT with the optional theme of pattern mixing.  I decided to go a bit outside the box and make my own patterns with some stencils.  I used Blackberry Bliss for my colours and used two stencils from The Crafters Workshop for the baking papers.  I also added some DSP from SU and embossed my card stock with the dots embossing folder from SU.  The little word Bliss (which goes with the colours lol) is from a retired SU Set Bliss.  I then used the Floral Essences set to colour in the flower and inked it up with an aqua brush in Blackberry Bliss.  The leaves were stamped in Always Artichoke.  A touch of bling in the middle of the flower gives the card a bit of sparkle.

                 

STAMPIN UP ONLY - FAVOURITE HOLIDAY STAMPS - #SUOC235

 Our challenge this week at Stampin Up Only Challenge is choose your favourite set from the SU Holiday catalogues.  At first I thought I couldn't join in as I don't have anything from the current set.  I'm no longer a demo and don't always have the opportunity to purchase all the new stuff.  But luckily Cindy said it could be from any Holiday Catalogue and so I grabbed my favourite set Merry Little Labels. 

I used the Eat Drink and Be Merry stamp from this set and decided to make a little tea bag holder which could hang on the tree.  Gosh you can see I'm in Christmas mode already!!  This was inspired by a crafting friend of mine Chris Margrie who doesn't have a blog but is part of my Facebook Group.  In the summer we had a craft get together of some of our members and this was her gift to us.

I started with a piece of Pear Pizazz card stock and added some of the Pressed Petals DSP with the music sheet.  I love music paper at Christmas. I even took it to my piano to play it to see what it was! The tea bag holder folds up in a triangle and you can pop a tea bag inside.  I cut out the sentiment with a stitched framelit and added some sparkly red paper behind.  I added a few rhinestones and coloured in the holly and added some gorgeous SU satin ribbon as a holder.

I'm also sharing a box I made a few years ago with the same set - there is a You Tube video from when I used to do videos just in case you fancy having a go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6IU2VAcnpk&t=29s

 

LET'S SCRAP THE CATS

Another entry from me for the Cat's Blog Hop run by Her Peaceful Gardens - this time I'm sharing a scrapbook page I did recently of two of my cats - Pepper at the back and Jet at the front -sitting on our hot tub!  This was taken before our third cat, Amber, joined the brood.  This is about as close as these two get.  

My papers are a variety from Kaisercraft.

ANOTHER CAT CARD

I'm entering another cat card into the Cat Blog Hop at Her Peaceful Garden - I didn't realise we could enter more than once on different days.  I've been overwhelmed by the number of comments I have received - sadly with the advent of social media I have found that blogs don't get a lot of comments but I have been pleasantly surprised and it's lovely to read them and leave comments back.

My card today uses an old favourite site of mine Cherry Pie Art Stamps which hasn't seen any ink in a good few years.

I stamped the set first in Hero Arts Intense Black and then stamped the cat words inside the bigger cat. I then added some Tim Holtz Distress Inks in varous colours and a touch of white pen for the whiskers. I added Tri Spectrum Noir glitter pen in clear on all the black ink which gives the little black cat its own sparkle. I added some gold pen around the outside and layered onto black cardstock. The background paper is from Stampin Up and I added some paw prints all the way round.

I'm also adding this into the Lavinia World Challenge 



 

ARDENT CAT LOVER

There I said it - I'm an ardent cat lover - I've had cats since I was 7 years old so that makes it nearly 50 years!!! Although I have dogs also I would never be without a cat.  At the moment I have three - two are rescues and one we've had from a kitten.  They are now 12, 9 and 8 - the 9 year old I've only had a year and she was one of the rescue cats that came into my pens when I was a volunteer for our local Cat's Protection.  Their names are Pepper, grey and white and the oldest, Jet black - and Amber the rescue is a female ginger - very rare.

So I was delighted to find a cat blog hop this week!  Her Peaceful Garden looks as though she has run a cat blog hop for the past five years - what fun.  

I decided to use a Clearly Besotted set called Fluffy Furball for my entry.  I coloured the cats in the colours of my three cats.

I went a bit mad with the background colours using Tim Holtz distress inks.I masked off all the cats and the little extra such as the wool, the fish and the mouse whilst I did the background. I used a Tim Holtz stencil called splatters to add the splatters with white ink.  The cats were coloured in with Derwent Metallic pencils and some Stampin Up Watercolour pencils. I added Glossy Accents to the eyes and some Liquid Pearls in Pewter.  The sentiment comes fro Stampin Up's Pretty Kitty.

Amber

 Jet

Pepper

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Animal Friends Challenge #79
My time to craft - Halloween or cats
Lost Coast Portal - Pets
Dare 2B Artzy - Cute Pets
SUYP
2 Crafty Critter Crazies





 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #SC326

We have a fabulous sketch Challenge for you at Hand Stamped Sentiments  this week -

I started my card off with making a background with some Tim Holtz Distress Inks to give a mottled effect and I then cut this out with a stitched oval framelit.  The snowflakes are from Stampin Up Colourful Seasons framelits which have some coloured rhinestones in the middle.  The background border was embossed with an SU snowflake embossing folder.  The sentiment is from my stash and has been heat embossed in white embossing powder.

 

ANOTHER TREE CARD

I've been playing with some more trees for the challenge over at As You See It which is Trees.


This one still uses the Winter Woods I used the other day but I've paired it with another old SU set Merry Patterns.  I stamped the reindeer first on some watercolour paper and coloured it in with various Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I then masked it off and using Ranger Adirondack ink in Cloudy Blue I stamped the birch trees behind.  I added a touch of Basic Grey and some Wink of Stella to give them a bit of shine.  I then made a frame for the deer and added the same birch trees in Versamark on green cardstock.  I used a SU banner punch for the sentiment and edged it with Wink of Stella.  The twine is from my stash.  

 

JOY OF SETS BLOG HOP - OCTOBER SAME STAMP SET THREE WAYS

We have another Blog Hop for you this month from the Joy of Sets Facebook Group which I run. My thanks to Andrea Parr for organising us again, especially as she is so busy at the moment with her Charity Event for Ben's Beanies. Today we are showcasing one stamp set three different ways.  I chose to use Stampin Up's Winter Woods - I love this set as it can be used for far more than Christmas . 
My first card could be for any occasion.  I made a mask and inked it with More Mustard,  Old Olive and a touch of Tangerine Tango.  I then stamped the Birch Trees from the set in Early Espresso.   A simple banner for the sentiment and a heart finishes off this simple card.

My second card uses Crumb Cake as a base and the birch trees from the same set stamped as a background.  I made my own DSP with the other stamps in the set and stamped the tree onto Crumb Cake with Early Espresso and cut it out.  I added some glitter to make it shine.  I then added some washi tape to the back and some Old Olive twine.  The sentiment was cut out with the label punch.

My third offering also uses the birch trees from this set which have been watercoloured.  I started off with some Water Colour paper and added a cloud stencil in Tim Holtz Stormy Sky.  I used Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and Barn door for the grass.  I added some extra colour with a sponge dauber on the actual trees, adding a  touch of Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany.  I layered it onto some Always Artichoke card stock and then some Crumb Cake.and added some brown twine from my stash. I cut the sentiment from the main sentiment to give another option for sentiments.  

To continue on the blog hop - click on the next below to be taken to Kaylin's Blog.

If you are working backwards click on the previous to be taken to Annette's Blog.

If you would like to be part of our next Blog Hop or to join our Facebook Group click on the image below - we have lots going on as well as a monthly blog hop.

I'm also adding some of these trees into the As You See It Challenge as their theme is Lovely as a Tree

 

SWEET STAMPIN - FEATURE A CREATURE HALLOWEEN

Our challenge at Sweet Stampin is feature a creature for Hallowe'en.  I wanted to use the crazy Bird stamps from Tim Holtz - I started off by creating my background with some distress inks, and layered them with various stencils including a cloud stencil.  The Bird was coloured in with some water colour pencils.  The little Hallowe'en stamps are from an old SU set called Bitty Boos.  It always comes in handy at this time of year and is the only Halloween stamp set I have!  

 

ONE CORNER CAS CARD

The challenge over at AAA Cards #151  this week is One Corner Cas Card 





I decided to make another Christmas card - you can never have too many!  I wanted to use the Holiday Style set from Sunny Studio and forced myself to not use that gorgeous bell!  I stamped the branch with some Ranger Adirondack Earth Tones in Oregano and added some Chocolate Chip from SU with a marker pen to the branch stem.  I also added a touch of Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters with a sponge dauber among the leaves.  I used Stampin Up Real Red and Cherry Cobbler to make the ornament and the same colours for the bow.  I added some Dazzling Diamonds to make it shine.  The sentiment which comes with the set was simply inked in Cherry Cobbler.

The Challenge at A Bit More Time to Craft is Anything Goes 

 

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

The challenge over at Global Design Project this week is Happily Ever After - a nice change from Autumn and Christmas!




This is my first attempt at one of these cards where you layer the letters.  I chose to use the Floral Essences Stamp Set from Stampin Up as I love that sentiment which is just perfect for a wedding.  I used Blackberry Bliss to stamp off and then stamp my flowers masking them off each time.  I added some Rich Razzleberry to the centre.  I stamped the flowers again separately and then cut the word out of the stamped flowers and then matched them over their corresponding flowers.  

 

CLEARLY BESOTTED - THANKS A MELON

My card today uses these cute mice from Clearly Besotted called Feeling Fruity.  I decided to pair them with the challenge over at Fab Friday which is a colour challenge - and here come the groans - I used a pun on words with the colours too - did you spot it?



I masked off the little mice and stamped the ones with the melon three times - I coloured them in with Melon Mambo ink and a blender pen with a touch of Basic Grey for their faces.  The little orange one is holding a piece of Pumpkin Pie - honest!  I used a stitched framelit to cut it out and mount it on black and then on Pumpkin Pie card stock. I added a few sequins and stamped the sentiment in Melon Mambo.

Yay- my little mice won

 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT 430

We have a Throwback Challenge over at Try Stampin on Tuesday this week which was actually #3 - this one also has the added challenge of Fall Fun.

I went with the Autumn theme and chose two papers for my background - the top one is from Kaisercraft and their Enchanted paper pad.  The bottom one is from SU.  I repeated the same colours to create my background but used Tim Holtz Distress Inks - the colours I used were Fossilized Amber, Barn Door, Chipped Sapphire.  I then stamped the image in Memento Black Ink.  The flowers are from Background Bits by SU.  I added some washi tape to the back and then added some ribbon and some coloured rhinestones.

 

STAMPIN UP ONLY CHALLENGE - SUOC234 - COLOURING

A great challenge for you at Stampin Up Only #SUOC234 challenge this week - colouring!  I think I'm still in autumn mode and chose the lovely basked from a retired set Blossoming Basket.  

Looking through my sets I actually didn't have an awful lot I could colour with and then this one caught my eye.  I used SU Always Artichoke card stock for my base and then some Crumb Cake which has been embossed with the Basket Weave embossing folder.  I stamped the basket on to some Very Vanilla and coloured it using SU water colour pencilss.  I added the little tag with some string on dimensionals and used a tag framelit to cut it out.  I added the ribbon at the top and some Wink of Stella on the flowers.

 

SATURDAY CRAFTING

It's a wet old Saturday here in the UK and a chance to catch up on some crafting for some challenge blogs other than the ones I'm on the Design Teams for. 

My first card is for the Inkspirational Challenge 197 which has given us the following inspiration for our card.



I wanted to use some new Visible Image stamps I've got called Imagine Dream Inspire which are such great inspirational word stamps.  I started off my card by inking with some Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers.  I then used a stamp from SU's Jar of Love - the little fish, and inked him in Stormy Sky.  I then used a dot stamp from SU's Painter's Palette and inked it in an old SU ink called Spectrum stampin pad which has a combination of 5 inks colours.  I don't know why they haven't brought out more of these - they are great for combining colours.  I then stamped the Imagine word in Hero Arts Intense Black ink and layered it onto some shiny SU paper.

My second card is for another two challenges :


Less Is More - 



Allsorts - Spots 

I've again used the Visible Image stamp set but a different word stamp - I used the same dots and inks to create the background and simply stamped the word stamp over and then cut it out with a stitched framelit.  This is seriously CAS for me but I think it's quite striking!