Autumnal card

Over on my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets someone used this old Stampin Up set and I loved it - so was lucky enough to find a copy on ebay and couldn't wait to use it.

I started off my card by using a leaf stencil from my stash and stencilling the vanilla card stock with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Crushed Olive.  I added a panel of the sentiment and repeat stamped it using stamp on stamp off to give it two colours.  I then gently stencilled over it again with the leaf stencil.  I stamped the pear with Versamark and used old SU Embossing Powder in Olive to give it a bit more texture.  I added some washi tape from my stash to the bottom.  I cut another tag for the sentiment and heat embossed that with Stampin Up Dark Brown.

I added some twine and some sparkle to complete the card.  My layout was inspired by the sketch at The Paper Players. 

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Retro Rubber - Tag You're It 

Simon Says Monday - make your own background 

TGIF - no white cardstock 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #CC396

Welcome to another colour challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments. I was delighted to have all these SU colours in my stash which doesn't often happen for me.

On my Facebook Group, the Joy of Sets, our current monthly challenge is to use our old wooden stamps.  One of my favourite sets is this one from Stampin Up from many years ago called Summer by the Sea.  I know SU have brought out similar images recently but I still think these early ones are by far the best.  I also added the butterfly from Touch of Nature and the sentiment from Build A Bouquet.

COLOR MY HEART COLOR DARE #510 - TIC TAC TOE

Welcome back to another Color Dare Challenge - this week we are offering you a Tic Tac Toe - these are my favourite challenges!   I chose to use the middle row on the vertical and the colours of sage, pine and shortbread - or at least the equivalent of those I could find in my inks.

I started off with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Very Vanilla and used a tim Holtz tree stencil for my background.  I stamped the tree from Visible Image Tree of Life and used Distress Ink in Rustic Wilderness for the leaves. I used Bundled Sage Distress Oxide for the halo around the tree.  The sentiment is also from Visible Image called Brighten The World.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Paperbabe stamps - AG 

Cardz4guyz - use a stencil

Black and White and a pop of Red!

My card today has been inspired by two challenges:  the sketch from Creative moments and the instructions from the Paper Players :

I used the lovely robin from Tracy Evans set called Robin and Nuthatch and just coloured in his red breast with a red watercolour brush from Lime Otter.  I used an oval die to cut him out.  The black and white paper is some very old DSP from Stampin Up - I knew it would come in handy one day!

I added a strip of red cardstock behind it.  The sentiment is a new one from Visible Image stamps and is just perfect for the card.  I used Versafine Clair in Nocturn for most of the sentiment and a red marker pen for the word Colour. I popped it up on dimensionals and added some tiny red pearls as per the sketch.

I'm also adding this into the following challenge:

Little Red Wagon - Embellishments 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #395 - A WINNING CARD!!!

Here's our sketch for you this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  I loved playing with this one.  I turned it round to suit my card.  I started off by using an Aallandcreate Stencil for my background stripes using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen and going over it to make it slightly darker for the stripes.

I've used some of Tracy Evan's stamps here again - the little watering can is from #437 and is called Watering Can lol!  I stamped it with Versafine Clair in Shady Lane and coloured it with Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet - one of my favourite pink colours.  The flower is from another of her sets called Worded Petals #567.  I cut this one out - fussy cutting is not my forte lol - and coloured it with the same ink.

I stamped the little Fig.1 onto an old lolly stick and added it with dimensionals and added a touch of black twine behind the flower.

I am excited to tell you that I actually entered this card into our local summer show where they had a Greetings Card section and it won first prize.  That's the first time I've ever entered a competition and I was really proud! As I live in Wales you can see that the certificate is bi-lingual in English and Welsh. 

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

We Love Stamping - In my Garden

Allsorts - AG own background

Just Us Girls - Use a stencil 

COLOR MY HEART COLOR DARE #508 - DESIGN TEAM MEMBER

I am delighted to have been accepted on to the Color My Heart Color Dare team for their Watercolour team.  These are the colours we are working with.

I used a stamp from Tracy Evans set called Wildflower - I just love this clock.  I used Versafine Clair ink in Shady Lane to stamp the image.  The colours I chose were Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Kitsch Flamingo and Aged Mahogany for the pinks.  I used Twisted Citron as my other green.

You have two weeks to play along with us and we'd love to see your creativity using our colours.

THE MALE ROOM CHALLENGE #165 - ATC's

We have a great challenge for you this month at The Male Room Challenge.  ATC's or Artist Trading Cards.  If you are not familiar with ATC's they are small works of art sized 2.5" x 3.5" .  There is no theme for our ATC's this month so anything goes. 

I've done mine on a theme of time as it was a swap we did in my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets.  My backgrounds were made with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and I used a very old clock stencil of Tim's.  I added some embossing paste with another Tim Holtz stencil.  

The clocks are from a set from Woodware Craft collection called Vintage Circles. The sentiment is from a Creative Expressions set called Circles of Time.  I added some background stamps from Tracy Evans for the various numbers and added a piece of iron wear as a hand on one of the clocks.  Some splatters of white gesso finished off these little ATC's.

I'm adding these into the following challenges:

Little Red Wagon - make it with Circles 

Retro Rubber - AG - I've had these stamps for about 2 years 

Through The Craft Room Door - AG 

Path of Positivity - AG 

Butterflies

Having a play today with the gel press, some Arteza inks and the Visible Image butterfly stencil.  I've made lots of background papers that I can use in future projects. 

This one also used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Victorian Velvet and Mustard Seed and I stamped some  of the butterflies from Creative Expressions Butterfly Splash with some Versafine inks. The sentiment is from Aallandcreate set #47. There is a touch of Spectrum Noir Sparkle on the inner butterflies.

I'm adding this into the following :

Allsorts - Butterflies/Bug

Daring Cardmakers - Stencil

ONCE UPON A TIME - NEW CHALLENGE BLOG DT MEMBER

I am delighted to say I'm on the Design Team for a brand new challenge blog starting this month - Once Upon a Time.  Each month we will bring you the cover of a well known and much loved Children's book.  Your creations can be ANY kind of craft from something baked to a scrapbook page to a beaded necklace.  Anything goes as long as it can be seen that you have used the book cover, the theme of the book or the layout/colours of the cover on your creation.

Our first book is Dear Zoo - this was a favourite of my own children 30 years ago and is now a firm favourite of my granddaughters!  Where did those years go?

My card was inspired by the book cover's colours and the zoo theme.  I used a stamp from Stamperia called Amazonia which has this gorgeous leopard.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks to colour in the image.  The cut outs representing the crate are from Spellbinders.  The sentiment is from Visible Image.

 

I hope you enjoy playing along with us at our new challenge. 

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Critter Crazy - AG with a critter 

Crafty Animals - AG must include animal 

A place to start - AG option book - monthly challenge 

Inspiration Station - Animal Kingdom 

SUYP - Cat 

Guinea Pigs

I'm having another play with Anita Jeram's stamp set Paint Town and wanted to use these lovely little guinea pigs.

My colours were inspired by Global Design Project which asked for the following colours.

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - #IC394

Welcome to another challenge here at Hand Stamped Sentiments and our mood board for the next two weeks.  I must admit this was a challenge for me as I don't have any caravan type stamps or even any dog stamps!!  So I took my inspiration from the bottom left photo.

I wanted to have another play with those lovely Anita Jeram stamps and that dark sky was just perfect for the Stargazing set. I stamped the images first.  The trees are from an old Tim Holtz Christmas set Holiday Joy stamped in Versafine Clair Shady Lane.  

I then carefully inked my sky with Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks in Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot and Fossilised Amber taking care to leave an area of white around the bears.  The bears were water coloured with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in a various palette of browns.  

I spritzed the distress oxide inks with water and where there were some white spots I added some Spectrum Noir sparkles.  I cut out the sentiment from the same set with some deckle scissors and popped it on dimensionals.

I'm adding this into the following challenge:

Happy Little Stampers - Watercolouring 

Simon Says Stamp - Wed - AG 

FIND INSPIRATION

This was certainly a challenge.  I came across this image at Inspiration Station and wanted to play along but was stumped for what to do.  Rummaging in my bits box I found a piece of water colour cardstock I had discarded as it had a streak of red down the side - but eureka -  the idea for my card was born.

I used the Basket Weave embossing folder from Stampin Up to represent the picnic basket and added an extra stripe of yellow Distress Ink in Fossilised Amber and another in Cracked Pistachio to match the picnic blanket. I added the ink direct to the paper and it coloured in the lovely little squares of the embossing.

I pulled out some Tim Holtz wildflower thinlets which I haven't used in such a long time.  In my same box of bits I found some green background I had made with a gel press and used it for my flowers.  The sentiment is from Tracy Evans' set The Great Outdoors.  I added a touch of twine around it and some washi tape in the same colour palette to the bottom. 

 

I'm also adding this into the following challenge:

Allsorts - Summer 

Color My Heart - choose 3 colours

Mice just want to have fun!

I'm playing along with The Paper Players today and following their sketch for my card.  I wanted to use the mice from the Anita Jeram set Paint Town. 

I started off with some watercolour paper from Tim Holtz to stamp my mouse.  I used SU Real Red for the paintbrush and Tim Holtz Distress inks for the rest.  The paper is some very old SU paper and I simply added the great sentiment from the set.  

A quick and simple card you would think but you should see all the ones that went wrong before I finally was pleased with this one lol!

THRINCHIES!

Thrinchies - what are they?  They are little works of art 3" x 3".  Throughout the month of July I've been joining in with Aallandcreate's Facebook celebration of Tracy Evan's stamp sets which has been challenging us to create thrinchies.  The challenge has been to create a thrinchie every day with different theme prompts.  

Tracy's stamps are quickly becoming my go-to sets as I love their collage style and how easy they are to mix and match.  So far I have done 26 out of the 31 thrinchies but I won't show them all here - just my favourites and the theme they were for.  They are quite addictive though and I'm going to be lost when July is over and they are all done.  I'll then have the challenge of making a little book to keep them all in.

All of them have been watercoloured with Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

Thrinchie no 12 - Botanical

Thrinchie no 16 - Bloom 

Thrinchie no 19 - Colours 

Thrinchie no 24 - Daisy 

Thrinchie no 26 - Clocks 

I'm adding these into the following challenges 

TGIF - Favourites 

Colour Crazy - AG

Creative Artiste - AG 

Happy Little Stampers - AG Watercoloured

Anita Jeram - Paint Town

I'm having another play with my new Anita Jeram set and was inspired by the colours in the As You See It Challenge. Although I don't have those SU colours I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Kitsch Flamingo and Saltwater Taffy.  

I love this little guinea pig and he seems to be the only one I've inked up so far so I need to play with some of the mice.  I've added him here with a great splat stamp from Creative Expressions set Circles of Time.  It was just what I wanted to showcase the colours.  I added a touch of sparkle with some coloured gems.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Through the Craft Room Door - AG 

Creative Fingers - AG 

Creative Moments - Cute 

Addicted to Stamps - Any Occasion