THE MALE ROOM CHALLENGE - NOVEMBER 2022 - POP UP ELEMENT

Welcome to another challenge at The Male Room - this month we want to see your pop up elements.  This is something I haven't done in a while and had a lot of fun with.  I decided to ink up one of Tim Holtz' birds as I haven't used them in a whilte.

I started off by making the background with my gel press and a stencil.  I used some acrylic inks in various shades of blue, green, yellow and purple. I layered it onto some SU green cardstock and cut out an oval shape in the middle with a stitched framelit.  I used the cut out cardstock as the base for the bird, adding a smaller shape to stamp the sentiment and add the bird.  The bird was coloured with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers and Scattered Straw.  I added some googly eyes just to give him more character.

I've shown the inside of the card to give you an idea of the mechanism to make the pop up.

ONCE UPON A TIME

Welcome back to another inspirational book cover for our challenge this month at Once Upon a Time.  This is another book that is new to me but isn't that cover just gorgeous.  I remembered somewhere in my stash I had a dream catcher stamp and I found it - made by Kaisercraft called Hide and Seek.

I took inspiratino from those lovely reds in the picture to create my background using a gel press and some Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks in Candied Apple, Wild Honey and Spun Sugar.  I added a stamp by SU which is the sun cloudburst on the left hand side of the card using some white ink.

I used white embossing powder to stamp the dream catcher and coloured it with Uncharted Mariner Distress Oxide Ink.  The flowers and butterfly are from a Simon Says Stamp set called Thoughtful Flowers.  The sentiment is from the same Kaisercraft set.

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS

We are in Christmas mode, possibly, at Hand Stamped Sentiments this week with this fabulous sketch.  Of course you don't have to do Christmas but I'm all about the season at the moment.  It is my favourite time to craft.  Normally I would have Christmas music playing also but as hubby is now retired and at home all day I think he would go mad if he started hearing Christmas music in November!!

I've been playing with my gel press lately too and using some lovely acrylic paints I have from Myartscape.  I love their choice of colours.  I had these lovely reds which I wanted to use for the background. First I layered my background piece of card with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen then used a Tim Holtz Stencil to add the trees in Bundled Sage.  I added the strips of background paper.  

My Santa is from an old Tim Holtz set and he was coloured in with Tim Holtz Distress Ink and SU Stampin Blends in Light Gray for his beard.  The little stockings are a die I have in my stash so I added some Dazzling Diamonds to them for extra sparkle.  The Believe is a Hot of the Press die and I cut it out of white sparkly paper similar to the middle stocking.  

I added some new Tim Holtz Ideaology droplets to finish off the card.

I'm adding this into the following:

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas and for the H - Ho Ho Ho? lol

Send a smile4kids - Christmas for kids 

Creative Artiste - AG 

Krafty Chicks - Use a Stamp

Tic Tac Toe - Santa, Sparkle, Die Cut 

HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS - WATERCOLOURING - NOVEMBER 2022

Welcome back to another Watercolour Challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  I've chosen some simple blues and yellows for my card today - a bit of a change from all the autumn colours I've been using lately and before I get on to my Christmas colours - eek sorry I said the word Christmas but we are now in November! 

I started off by doing a simple colour wash with a large paint brush and some Tim Holtz Distress Oxides in Fossilised Amber and Salty Ocean.  I love the way these two colours go together.  The beauty of the Distress Oxides too is that they keep their colour and don't merge to make green.  Always a help! I used a piece of scrap paper to blank off where I would put my sentiment and kept it simple with Birthday Wishes.  The stamps I have used here are by Tracy Evans - the flower is from Friendship Florals and the background stamps and the little hares are from Miniatures.  I just adore those hares!  

I used the same colours to colour the flowers and stamped them first and then re-stamped and cut them out and layered them to give more interest to the card.

COLOR MY HEART #520

Welcome back to another Color Dare challenge with our popular Tic Tac Toe colour chart.  I chosen to do the right hand vertical column of Scarlet, Pine, Toffee.  It must be my camera as the colours don't look this pale in real life. 

I started with 3d leaf embossing folder and then smooshed the toffee ink over it.  The image is from Stampin Up from an old set called Country Home which I loved for the milk churn and the jug in this set.  It comes with the two bunches of foliage and I added one to the churn and inked another one and cut it out for the bottom of the piece.  The churn was coloured in with SU Stampin Blends in Light Granite Grey - the perfect colour I thought for the milk churn. 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #IC400

Welcome back to another challenge here at Hand Stamped Sentiments and we are continuing the theme of Autumn/Fall and its gorgeous colours, textures and hopefully inspiration.  It really does seem to be such a great season for us crafters and it is my favourite time of year.

I started off my card by using some Tim Holtz Distress inks over a leaf stencil from my stash. I blended three colours of Fossilized Amber, Crackling Campfire and Aged Mahogany to get the colours I was happy with.  My tree is from a Visible Image stamp set called Tree of Life and I used the same inks for the leaves.

I cut out the Hello die sentiment three times and layered it - the Autumn is from Tracy Evans set Seasons and I used the word Oct (October) as a background stamp inked in Versafine Acorn ink.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments - Fall/Autumn plus Sentiment 

Tic Tac Toe - Die Cut - Layers, Autumn Colours

Creative Inspirations - Autumn

Cardz 4 Guyz - Autumn Colours

FREE

I'm playing along with the challenge at Inkspirational which this week is a key word Imagine.  Rummaging among my stamps I remembered I had this Visible Image set called Free Your Imagination which I haven't used in a while.  I love the book in it.  I had seen somewhere where someone had added words to the book pages so I grabbed an old book I use for mixed media and stamped the book on to it then cut out the pages and added them.

The background was one I had made in my stash from some ink blending a few days ago with some Tim Holtz inks.  I always keep whatever I make - you just never know when it will come in handy.  I added the feather and the ink to make it look as though the writing had come from the feather.

I think I got a bit carried away with the extra birds from another Visible Image set though.

I'm also adding this into the following

Daring Cardmakers - big on background 

The Sisterhood of Crafters - one for the boys 

Retro Rubber - these stamps are from a few years ago 

COLOR MY HEART #518

Welcome back to another colour challenge at Color Dare.  Such soft colours but I still thought of an autumn nature card.  I started off by using a tree stencil from my stash using a neutral colour of Antique Linen.  The toadstools are from Visible Image stamps called Totally Toadstools. The Nature sentiment is from Tracy Evans set and the remainder is from the Visible Image set.  I added a butterfly which I embossed with copper embossing powder and an embellishment from my stash. 

THE MALE ROOM CHALLENGE - CAS - #167

Welcome back to another challenge at The Male Room challenge.  I always find CAS cards very difficult as I’m definitely a collage type of crafter.  But this image from Visible Image is just perfect for creating a CAS card.  I kept it simple with the colours too - using one of their stencils and inking it in Tim Holtz Fossilized Amber and adding extra colour behind the car and on the head lights.  The sentiment is from the same set.

I'm adding this into the following:

Allsorts  - AG 

Just us Girls - CAS

Inkspirational - Use Stencil 

Seize the Birthday - CAS 

Krafty Chicks - use a stamp

Addicted to Stamps - Any Occasion

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #CC399

Welcome back to another colour challenge here at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  For my background I started with a leaf stencil from Visible Image and used Pumpkin Pie and a touch of Pool Party for the leaves.  I then used an SU embossing folder - one of my favourites - Painted Texture 3D. It gives the paper such a great texture.  I added some Starry Sky ink to the edges and also added some splatters with the same ink.  

The tag and leaves are from an old favourite SU Set called Faith In Nature.  I added the pear to the tag and coloured it in.  I smooshed some of the blue inks with water on some paper and then stamped the leaves and cut them out and added them behind the tag.  A touch of twine and some sequins from my stash completed the card.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

The Outlawz Challenge - Rhyme - colours 

Dare 2B Artzy - Favourite Colours - autumn colours are my favourite 

We Love Stamping - Autumn 

Lets Create - Autumn 

Addicted to CAS - Autumn - not sure if this is CAS enough though 

Alphabet Challenge - N is for Nature 

HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS - OCTOBER WATERCOLOUR CHALLENGE

Welcome back to another month's Watercolour Challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  As usual our theme is Anything Goes as long as it's watercoloured.

I used some Tim Holtz Watercolour card stock for my card as I knew I wanted to add a lot of water to my background.  I smooshed the cardstock first with some Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks and then used the brick stencil from Visible Image.

I stamped over this with Versafine Clair Ink in Nocturne using a Tracy Evans stamp and left the flower plain.  I added another of Tracy's stamps in the butterfly and fussy cut this out and coloured it in with the same colour Distress Oxides.  The sentiments are also from Tracy Evans. 

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

SSS - World Card Making Day 

SSS - Wednesday - AG 

Krafty Chicks - AG 

The Outlawz Challenge - inspired by the line - The month is Amber, Gold and Brown 

Sunday Stamps - Colour Challenge - brown, orange, black 

Dare 2B Artzy - Favourite Colours - these are my favourite colours as Autumn is my favourite season

Stamping Sensations - All Things Autumn 

We love 2 Create - AG Mixed Media 

The Paper Players - Changing Seasons 

Allsorts - Gardeners Delight - Butterflies are a delight and I would love to see hares in my garden!

Inkspirational - Stencils

ONCE UPON A TIME - CHALLENGE #3

Welcome back to another challenge at Once Upon a Time.  This is a book I'm not familiar with as Sesame Street didn't figure large in my children's childhood.  I think I may have gone a bit whacky with this one lol!  I started off by using some Kraft paper and adding some embossing paste through a stencil. I coloured the paste first with some Tim Holtz ink to get the red colour.  

The die cut lamp is one I've had in my stash and never used - I knew it would come in handy one day.  I actually have one of these style lamps in my garden as an old family heirloom.  I added the Hello as this is used in the image.

I added a Tim  Holtz die cut as the flowers on the left hand side.  Now to the stamp!  Isn't it just weird? lol!  It's a stamp from Woodware Collection called Mr Vintage and here it is in full.  I just cut out a circle part of it with the eye in it for the monster look.

CRAFTING ON A WET DAY

It's one of those wet windy days here in Wales - we are getting the left overs from Hurricane Ian but obviously nowhere near as bad.  I don't do hurricanes really - having lived in Houston when Katrina hit New Orleans which then turned into Rita for us in Houston I had my fill of weather that could kill.  I always feel for those who have to suffer intense weather.

So for us its just a bit of wind and rain but definitely a day indoors crafting by the log fire!  I've joined in with two challenges today - my first is for TGIF challenges which I found an incredibly hard challenge.  No sentiment!  Who would have thought that was so difficult to do - I really had to stop myself from putting anything on this card. 

I was inspired by one of Tracy Evan's videos - I love crafting along with her even when I end up going my own way and my card is always a very loose interpretation of what she does but it gets me thinking.  Here I've used two of her stamp sets - the background panel in the blues was made with Tim Holtz Distress Oxides in Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers. It was masked off and smooshed on with an acrylic block.  I then stamped the gorgeous pine cone and extra leaves from one of Tracys sets. I repeated the pine cone leaves on the background kraft card stock and edged it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  The Robin is from another one of her sets and I coloured him in with Distress Ink and cut him out.  I added some white splatters and some Spectrum Noir Sparkle and then had to leave it alone lol!

My other card was for the challenge over at Create a Smile where we were given a sketch.  I used a few stamp sets for this one - a mushroom one for the background panel from Tracy Evans, the hare and the large toadstool from Lavinia and the sentiments from Tracy Evans.  The background was embossed with a folder from my stash and edged with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink.

COLOR MY HEART - #516

I love this combination of colours for this week's challenge at Color My Heart. I decided to make a bookmark for my project.  I started with the blue as my main background colour and stamped one of Tracy Evan's stamps called Poppy Seedheads.  I added some extra pinks by colouring in some of the stamp.  It's all the same pink but either darker or lighter as is the blue.  I added some extra background stamping and some washi tape.  The sentiment is also washi tape.  I added some ribbon and a button in the same colour theme.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks - AG 

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday - AG 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - #398

It's time for another sketch challenge here at Hand Stamped Sentiments. 

I turned the image around for my card.  I started by using a stencil for my background which has leaves on it using Tim Holtz Pumice Stone Distress Oxide Ink.  I used Fossilized amber for the circle and the tag and added some stamping from some Tracy Evan's stamps.  The butterfly is a new stamp I've got also from Tracy Evans. I wanted quite a vibrant butterfly colour so I used Lime Otter watercolour brush pens.  

The sentiment is a die and I cut it out a few times and layered it and added it to a tag with a touch of washi tape at the bottom. 

COLOR MY HEART DARE #514

What gorgeous rich colours in our inspiration photo this week at Color My Heart.  I hope they inspire you.  

I started my card off with some Tim Holtz Unchartered Mariner Distress Oxide Ink - adding some ink to my Tim Holtz mat and then adding water and swooshing the card stock to get pools of blue ink.  The leaf is a stencil from Lavinia Stamps and I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Crushed  Olive, Spiced Marmalade, Gathered Twigs.  

The sentiment is from Tracy Evans.  The leaf dies are some from my stash - they could be old Stampin Up.  I added some thread just to finish off the card and some background stamping from an old script stamp.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

Just us Girls - colour challenge 

Alphabet Challenge - L is for Leaves 

Creative Artiste - Mixed Media AG 

Simply Create Too - Colour Challenge 

Create a Smile - Autumn mood board 

Creative Moments - Autumn