TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - TSOT500

Optional Theme - Pets 

We have another great sketch for you this week at TSOT with the optional theme of Pets.  Having 5 pets, 3 cats and two dogs I had to go with the optional theme.

I started the background with some brick paper and used some Tim Holtz Distress Ink to go over the colour.  I added a panel behind the cat of Texture Paste and a brick stencil - I coloured the paste with some Distress Ink re-inker in Walnut Stain before adding it to the stencil to give a darker brown.  

The cat stamp is one of Tim Holtz' Crazy Cats stamps and coloured in with Distress Inks and an aqua painter brush.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

SUYP - AG 

Atlantic Hearts Sketch - 

Inspiration Station Challlenge - cats 

Here's A Place To Start - shape - rectangles of the bricks 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #CC360

A colour challenge for you this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments - as always remember if you don't have the particular SU colours you can substitute them for similar inks. 

I've chosen an older stamp for my card - I'm  soon to be moving house - actually moving country from England to Wales!  A lot of my stamping stuff is already packed and I only have a few things left out.  This was one of the sets still in my drawer - I love it for it's collage look - I wish SU would bring back some more collage style stamps - they are my favourites.  This one is called Postage Due.

I stamped the image first in Black Archival Ink by Ranger then added the three colours above with a blender brush.  I used the same colours for the little stamps which are also part of the set.  I have a very old pair of Fiskars Paper Edgers which have the postage cut which helps when cutting out stamps.

I tore the background and edged it with the inks and added it to a piece of green DSP which I inked with a word stamp.

I added some So Saffron ribbon which I found in my stash.  The sentiment is one from Kaisercraft stamps. 

I LOVE.....

I love many things but the challenge over at Chocolate Baroque is asking us to choose something and craft it!    Well I adore this new Chocolate Baroque stamp I have called Mushroom House.  I've teamed it with some Distress Inks which I also love and that touch of gold around the outside is Liquitex Acrylic Ink in Iridescent Bright Gold which is another new find which I love.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Crafty Catz - Make it Magical 

FabnFunky - Not Square

Double Trouble - Magical 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT498

We have a throwback sketch challenge (challenge no #48 from the year 2012!) for you this week at Try Stampin On Tuesday   It's interesting to look back on nearly 10 years and see how styles may or may not have changed.  

My card today uses some stamps I hardly use from Kaisercraft - the set is called Gypsy Rose and I bought them as they co-ordinate with their scrapbooking paper of the same name which I have used a lot of in my scrapping.  But the stamps deserve their own day in teh sun as they are great for backgrounds and I love the sentiment that comes with them.

I used a very old Stampin Up ink pad called Spectrum for the half circle - it's a shame they don't do these pads anymore as they were great for multi colouring as they have 5 ink colours in them and you can push them together to create the varied colours you see in the main stamp.

I added some of the line stamps in matching SU colours and added a touch of lace ribbon from my stash.  

I look forward to seeing what you all do with this sketch.

ANITA JERAM STAMPS

Ooh I'm loving these new stamps from Anita Jeram and Colorado Craft Company.  So relaxing to use them with watercolours and make some scenes.  I only have one set at the moment which is Birthday Wishing but I have more on their way.

I added the little bunny to a very old Cherry Pie Art Stamp I have which gives the woodland scene and thought they would match up perfectly.  

I used Tim Holtz distress inks to colour in the scene using Royal and Langnickel paint brushes.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

International Art and Soul - Add a Bunny

Colour Crazy Craft  - Add some colouring 

Dare 2bArtzy - AG

Creative Knockouts - Birthday 

Allsorts Challenge - use a stamp

QKR Stampede - AG 

Creative Crafters - AG

COLORADO CRAFT COMPANY - ANITA JERAM STAMPS

I just love these stamps - I don't normally do cute but I do remember her book as one I used to read to my children when they were little.  I first saw these stamps being used by Sandy Allnock and thought I'd never get them here in the UK - I was delighted when I found them on Seven Hills Crafts website and had to treat myself.

They are lovely stamps for doing gentle watercolouring with - and I've been having a play with them all weekend.  

Today I've used the mice for the challenge over at TGIF using their sketch as inspiration.

I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks for the colouring and a stencil for the leaf background on the cardstock.  I've kept it simple so as not to detract from the lovely little stamps.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Crafty Catz - AG - optional three favourite colours - mine are green, brown and red 

Just Add Ink - shades of green

Creative Knockouts - Birthday Wishes 

Cute Card Thursday - Celebrate

Fusion - Green 

Seize The Birthday - three shades of green - I've used Distress Ink Rustic Wilderness, Crushed Olive and Mowed Lawn

Inspired By - Green 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - A bit of Green 

Crafty Gals - Green 

SWEET STAMPIN - SPRING MOODBOARD

We have a lovely Spring Moodboard for you this time at Sweet Stampin.

I have this lovely stamp set from Simon Says Stamp called Choose Joy and I knew I just wanted to use those lovely wellington boots filled with flowers.  The stamp set has a stamp which creates the plaid grid - such a great idea and a lot of fun to use.  I used Stampin Up cardstock in Soft Sky and used the same ink to add the delicate plaid background. 

I used Spellbinders Cutting Dies for my image.  I coloured the boots and flowers with Distress Inks.  The sentiment is from the same set.  I added a few Nuovo Drops to finish off the card.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - use a stamped image 

Dragonfly Dreams - include a flower

Daring Cardmakers - plant a flower

Colour Crazy Challenge - AG 

Try it on Tuesday - Flowers 

STAY CURIOUS

I've been having a play with one of my Visible Image stamps this week called Curious Cats.  I love most animals but especially cats and have three cats - a black one, a grey and white one and a ginger female which is very rare - she decided to make an appearance on my card today as the colours I chose seem to be her colours.  I used to be a fosterer for our local cat's protection and my ginger girl came in to the pens as a stray and she was so lovely I had to keep her for myself! 

I started out with stamping the image of the cat's face with some Ranger Archival Ink in black.  I used some Distress Inks and an aqua water pen to add the stripes - I used Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Ground Espresso and Fossilised Amber for her eyes.  I also added some Glossy Accents to the eyes to give them sparkle.  

I double stamped the sentiment in both black and Spiced Marmalade.

I layered it onto orange and black cardstock.  

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Inspired By - Cats

Cupcake Inspirations - Cats

Chocolate Baroque - I Love.... cats

Dare 2BArtzy - AG

Allsorts Challenge - Use Yellow

Addicted to CAS - animal - I'm not sure if this is CAS enough

Just Us Girls - Animal

I'm delighted to have been chosen in the top 3 of Cupcake Inspirations 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - #SC359

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

I used an old set from Penny Black stamps called Enjoy for my card.  I started off by inking and stencilling on my background using Distress Inks and a Vicki Boutin stencil.  The background flowers and sentiment were stamped with Ranger Archival Ink.  

The background for the embossed birds was made with Distress Inks in Ripe Persimmon and Speckled Egg. I attached a small piece of linen thread and some washi tape from my stash.

613 AVENUE CREATE - Anything Goes w/Optional Twist: CREATE A SLIDER CARD

Our twist this month at 613 Avenue Create is to create a slider card.  It's been a while since I made one of these so I was up for the challenge.

I started off with a piece of Stampin Up cardstock in this gorgeous purple colour and using an SU mask I inked it in Distress Ink Wilted Violet.  I cut out a hole with a stitched framelit in the front.  The butterfly is a Tim Holtz die and I used some old SU DSP to cut it out from.

The flowers and jug are from a Simon Says Stamp set called Take Heart.  I used SU blender pen in light grey for the jug and Distress Inks in Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive, Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac for the flowers and leaves. 

The stamp set also has this lovely hummingbird and I wanted it to appear as though he is flying in to the flowers when you open the card.  It was coloured in with Distress Inks in Wilted Violet and Peacock Feathers with some Spectrum Noir glitter pen to make him shine.  The sentiments are from the same stamp set.  I continued the stencilling on the inside of the card.

I'm adding this into the following challenges also:

The Creative Crafters - AG 

QKR Stampede - AG

Crafty Animals - Bird

Lil Red Wagon - Fun Feathered Friends

The Library Challenge - Birds 

The Paper Players -Spring moodboard 

The Flower Challenge - shades of purple 

Tuesday Taggers - Say It With Flowers 

'L' IS FOR LIFE

What a great challenge over at Just Add Ink - Just Add 'L'.  Looking through my stamp sets I found just the set I wanted to use - a Visible Image set I'd recently bought called Just Be Happy.  I knew it would be a great one for my new journal I'm working on this year - so my L for this challenge is Life.

I started out by cutting my cardstock to 5" x 5" - I added some Distress Oxide Ink in Old Paper and then using a Visible Image stencil called Atomic Flower I went over it in Distress Oxide Frayed Burlap.  

The tree and the leaves and the Touch Life sentiment is from another Visible Image stamp set called Tree of Life. I stamped the tree in Ranger Black Archival and the leaves in Ranger Archival Library Green. I coloured them in with Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn and Crushed Olive and added some Tri Spectrum glitter pen to give them a shine.  I used the same archival green for the sentiment and coloured it in with Distress.  I edged the card with Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers.  I layered the card onto some black card stock. 

I'm also adding this into  Addicted To Stamps - Stencils/Die Cuts - I used a stencil 

UNDER THE SEA

I'm playing along with Retro Rubber challenge this week and they have a Tic Tac Toe grid to play with.  I chose the middle row of pattern paper, the ocean, and texture.

I started off my tag by using some cardboard paper from a box and distressed the edges.  I added a few coats of white Gesso and then added some inks from Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Weathered Wood, Speckled Egg and Liquitex Acrylic Ink in Turquoise Deep.  I added some white acrylic paint to the edges.  

Once it was dry I added some Tim Holtz Crackle Texture paste using a circle stencil.  I stamped on the images from an old set of stamps by Kaisercraft called Mermaid Tails.  Sadly there is no mermaid image in the set which would have been nice.  I stamped some of the stamps onto some Kaisercraft patterened paper called Beach Shack and added some of the matching stickers at the bottom.  

he words are cut out of an old dictionary.  I coloured some ribbon with Distress Ink in matching colours.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges

CRAFT - AG 

Krafty Chicks - Stamping

The Sisterhood of Crafters - AG 

Through the Craftroom Door - AG 

Shopping our Stash - where will you go?  To the beach for me!  I've been missing the sea

More Mixed Media - AG

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY #TSOT496

Theme - Bold and Bright 

Here is our challenge for you from Try Stampin on Tuesday this week.

1st March in Wales is St David's Day which is a day we celebrate our Patron Saint St David.  With this in mind I choose to make a St David's Day card for our sketch.  

I used a heart embossing folder for the background and inked the left hand side with Distress Ink in Peeled Paint.  I added some red ribbon on the diagonal to separate the two parts.  The Welsh Dragon stamp is a very old one, along with the fleur de lis from an old company called Scottish Border Stampers which I don't think are around any more.  I coloured him in with an aqua painter. The part with Wales is taken from a stamp of Wales from the same company - I cut out the part showing just the Wales.

 

BIRD TAG

Sharing a tag today with a bird theme.  I've used some Tim Holtz distress inks, botanical collage paper and bird die.  The words were cut out of an old dictionary that I use for my mixed media projects.  

This was recently gifted to one of the members of my Facebook group The Joy of Sets who wants to start making mixed media tags.  She loved it which is always nice to hear.

I'm adding this into the following challenges

The Library Challenge - Garden Birdwatchers Bible book

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

My Time to Craft - Tag It 

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Anything Goes 

I'm delighted to say my card was chosen in the top 3 at My Time to Craft 

SPARKLES CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE - CLEAN AND SIMPLE (CAS)

Welcome to another month's Christmas challenge here at Sparkles and we have a CAS challenge for you this month. CAS normally means lots of clean and white space and it is something I struggle with.

For my card this month I chose to use the delightful little set from Clearly Besotted called Merry Mouse.

I used an SU blender pen in Light Grey for the little mice and Distress Inks for the remaining colours.  The sentiment has been embossed with silver embossing powder and I added a small piece of silver washi tape to the bottom.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - AG 

International Art and Soul - Natural world at Christmas - no robins

Kraftin Kimmie - Something Yummy 

Addicted to CAS - Animal 

FabnFunky - Christmas 

Delighted to say my card was chosen as a top 3 for International Art and Soul