TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY #TSOT526

Use Gingham/plaid

A great sketch for you this week at Try Stampin on Tuesday and a chance to have a play with those gingham or plaid papers you may have in your stash.  I had to dig deep to find this old SU DSP. 

On Saturday we celebrated my daughter's wedding and today we are moving house with a big move from England back home to Wales.  This post was made previously as my stash has been packed up for a while and internet is now off.

Here I've teamed up some old SU paper with a lovely flower and leaf combination from Wendy Vecchi which comes with the matching dies together with the butterfly.  The sentiment is from an Anita Jeram stamp set.

SWEET STAMPIN - CHRISTMAS IN SEPTEMBER

Our challenge for you today at Sweet Stampin is Christmas in September.  Today is actually my darling daughter's Wedding Day so, as you can imagine, this project was done a few weeks ago as I will be rather busy today!  It was also my 36th Wedding Anniversary a few days ago and in a few days time we will be moving home from England to Wales so a lot going on this month.  I still managed to sneak in some craft time though.

I've used the gorgeous stamp set from Anita Jeram for my card - these stamps called Snow Happy are so whimsical and very gentle.  I kept it simple with some simple watercolouring so as not to detract from the image.  There is some Stickles on the snowball and the deer and rabbit's tail to add a bit more interest.

I wonder if we will get snow here in the UK this year - I have more chance of seeing it in Wales than in England so fingers crossed, but not in September lol! 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - #IC373

We have such a gorgeous inspiration board for you this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  I just adore all these colours and Autumn is my favourite time of the year. 

 I used a set from my stash called Mug Hugs from Sunny Studio for the mugs.  I started off by masking off the background card and adding a leaf stencil in SU Cinnamon Cider ink.  I stamped the mugs and cut them out and added them to the top using marker pens to colour them in.  I added the sentiment from the same set in the middle.  There are some glossy accents on the heart on the one mug.

Today is my 36th Wedding Anniversary - in 4 days time my daughter gets married and three days after that I have a big house move from England back home to Wales.  This move has been nearly 9 months in the making with three sales falling at the last hurdle so I'm really hopeful this one makes it as I've been living out of boxes for 6 months and have limited craft stuff.  It will be like Christmas when I eventually get to open all my boxes.

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT524

Optional Theme - patterned paper/dsp

Welcome to another week's sketch at Try Stampin on Tuesday.  I'm in the middle of moving home, plus my daughter's wedding in two weeks with the move the next day so time is short in my household at the moment and most of my crafting stuff has been in boxes for a long time.  So very quick posts from me over the next month or so til I get settled and internet gets switched on.

I've used some gorgeous papers from a pack from Pretty Papers called Rose Gold Memories.  The little bird is from a Clearly Besotted set with the cute sentiment which comes with the set.  I coloured him in with a touch of Distress Ink. I've added some strips of red washi tape between all the papers. 

JOURNAL PAGE

My new obsession over the past few months has been journalling.  Inspired by Shawn Petite to actually think I could play with paint I've found it very helpful over the last six months during the frustration of a house move that just hasn't happened.  It has been such a help during sleepless nights to come and put something down on paper and I found it much more satisfying than just making cards.

I recently purchased some of Shawn Petite's stencils and when they arrived they had a lovely little card with them with this quote on it - I wanted to turn it into an art journal page and came up with this during a sleepless night.

The background has been made with a Tim Holtz stencil - one of my favourites the mosaic - and some textured paste.  I used Distress Inks for the background and various stencils and stamps from my stash.  

The heart stamp is one of my favourites from Visibile Image called Follow your Heart and I love using it not just for the obvious valentine's cards.    The heart beat, top right, and the little heart, bottom left, are also part of the same set. The heart in the middle was stamped onto tissue paper and added with some Matte Medium.  I cut out the words from Shawn's card and added them to the piece.  

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Path of Positivity - Quiet Time - my quiet time helps my creativity

More Mixed Media - AG 

Simon Says Stamp - Monday -Stamp it 

Use Your Stuff - AG 

Sir Stamp a Lot - favourite stamp

We love 2 create - AG mixed media

CHRISTMAS IN SEPTEMBER!!!

It's never too early to make a start on Christmas cards.  My card today has been inspired by two challenges - Global Design Project sketch#gdp308  and As You See It challenge #258 Up In The Air.

I took the inspiration for my colours from the snowflake washi tape I had in my stash.  I used Versafine Clair in Warm Breeze and Stampin Up Cherry Cobbler for my snowflakes.  The snowflakes stamps are from Winter Flowers and Foliage from Creative Expressions.

I masked off the area as per the sketch for the GDP and used a sentiment from Anita Jeram Snow Happy set.  I layered it onto some SU card stock and added some SU Dazzling Diamonds for some of the snowflakes.

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS CC#372

A lovely colour combination to inspire you this week from Hand Stamped Sentiments.  Cinnamon Cider is one of my favourite colours at the moment.  It is so versatile and can be a dark or light shade depending on how you use it and a great one for Autumn cards.

I used it here as the background on Kraft cardstock and it came out quite dark.  I used the Stampin Up Drybrush stamp - I love that stamp for backgrounds.  My main image is from Saleabration called Feels Like Home and I've used the other colours in the combination to colour only parts of the stamp.

A touch of pearls and some satin SU ribbon under the sentiment finishes off the card. 

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

Our challenge this month at 613 Avenue Create is Anything Goes but with the added twist of School Days for those who fancy the twist.  I chose to stick with the Anything Goes theme as I have nothing in my stash for back to school. It's a long time now since my two were in school and it's so long ago I don't even know when schools are in or out.  In the UK our kids don't go back until September anyway.

For my card I started with a background I had created which was sitting in my stash.  I used a stencil for the leaves and some distress inks and water to give a mottled effect.

The fairy stamp is from Lavinia Stamps and she is called Seren, which means star in Welsh.  I used VersaFine Clair ink in Acorn for all the stamping to give the monochrome effect - adding a touch of bright yellow marker pen for the lantern.  The Believe washi tape is from Aall&Create.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Use your stuff - AG 

Inspiration Station - using the lantern to see your way down the road 

The Fairy and the Unicorn - AG as long as it's magical

Lavinia Stamps - Use Leaves - Leaf background stencil 

SPARKLES CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE - ALL ABOUT STOCKINGS

We are all about the Christmas Stockings here at Sparkles this month.

I remembered I had this lovely embossing folder with stockings on it so wanted to use that for my card and keep it a CAS (Clean and Simple) Card.  I had a little stocking die in my stash and used it to hang the stockings from some red and white twine.  The little sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and is just perfect for this card.