DOUBLE D - TWINE - A NEW CHALLENGE

I found another new challenge blog on my travels through the internet! Double D challenge and their challenge is to use Twine on your project - they have also given a mood board for inspiration - I chose to go with the greens for my card.

I've used Grey cardstock for the base and the layers - It looks purple here but isn't in real life.  I've used the Seasonal Layers Thinlets from Stampin Up for the leaves and the Colourful Seasons Stamp Set for the sentiment and the leaf stamp on the image.  The embossing folder is also old SU.

I've used a button - I haven't used a button on my cards for years and used to love adding them - it was quite therapeutic rummaging through my button jar so I think I may get them out again more often.

I'm not sure if it shows up but I've actually filled the space where I cut the solid leaf out of the green cardstock with the more delicate leaf thinlet backed on to a solid grey leaf.  So three leaves in total. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks for stopping by on your travels - do leave me a comment so I can come and visit you.




 

JAR OF LOVE

I thought I'd have a play with one of my old sets from Stampin' Up today - Jar of Love hasn't seen much love from me lately lol!  My colours were inspired by the challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches  who gave us these three colours to work with - 





I don't have Calypso Coral but I do have an old SU Cameo Coral which is very similar - as most of the colours are.

I tried to keep in with the rules for the CAS and only used very little embellishments such as a few dimensionals on the flowers and on the label.  I did use one other colour also, Soft Sky for the jar and the water.  I stamped off the main colours inks too on some of the flowers just to give them a different hue.  There is a touch of Wink of Stella on the flowers and in the water.

I am also putting this in for Watercooler Wednesday's Challenge this week which is Marsha's Feminine Challenge.



 

LOST MOJO

Well I must admit my creative mojo packed its bags and left me this morning - here I was all set to do some crafting and I couldn't settle to do anything or find any inspiration.  I popped on to the Facebook Group I run Joy of Sets and put in an SOS for some help.  My good friend Andrea Parr suggested I go through my scraps and see what I could come up with.

At the same time I had gone on to Jackie Aitken's blog and found a challenge blog she is part of called Just Add Ink - which had this challenge:


 

I don't have any foils and I don't really have many stencils other than the Tim Holtz ones I've been using to death lately,  But there in my stash of bits I came across a cut out of a leaf from one of the SU Botanical Builder framelits from last year.  I had just found my stencil!  I used Melon Mambo to ink it onto the Powder Pink cardstock.

I stamped the cockerel from the Wood Words set together with the sentiment Hello Friend and added it to a stamped piece of Wood Textures DSP.  The other sentiment is from a very old SU set - called Riveting.

It just goes to show - never throw anything away!

 

PRETTY KITTY INSPIRATION

The Challenge over at TGIF Challenges this week is to take inspiration from one of the Design Team - what a great idea for a challenge.  My eye was drawn to this lovely basket of flowers by Ashley Van Camp.

I decided to go with the lovely little image of the cat in its flower pot from Stampin Up's Pretty Kitty set.  I kept the colours similar using Powder Pink Cardstock  but added a touch more greens and a bold Melon Mambo for the sentiment.  The ribbon is old SU.

I am also putting this into the Crafty Animals Challenge which is Anything Goes - as long as it has an animal on it I think I'm right in saying.

I am a sucker for cats - known by my family as a slightly mad Cat Lady I have recently taken on the job as a Volunteer Cat Fosterer for Andover Cat's Protection.  That basically means that I have two cat pens in my garden and cats that find themselves out of their homes for one reason or another come to me to look after them until a new home can be found.  So far it has taken about two weeks for new homes to be found but sadly I have an older cat with me that may be around for a while.  Her name is Scrumpy and she is 10 year old and slightly grumpy so she needs an understanding home. 





I'm thinking of producing a lot of cat cards using this set to raise funds for the cats.


 

WATERCOLOR WINGS

The Challenge over at CAS Colours and sketches is a sketch this week 

Quite a simple layout which you would expect from a CAS challenge but with a wealth of possibilities - my problem with the CAS cards is knowing when to stop.  I know it says lots of space and few embellishments but I thought my card needed just a tiny bit of bling!

I've been doing a few purple cards this week as its Epilepsy Awareness week in the UK and my gorgeous daughter suffers with this hateful condition.  Maybe this was on my mind when I reached out for the purple yet again.

I've used some SU DSP from Delightful Daisy - I'm slowly running out of my DSP and using it all sparingly.  I used the Butterfly framelits to cut out the butterfly out of the DSP and a little butterfly punch I had for the small one.  I'm not sure it shows up on the small one but it also has a layer of vellum on top.  I love the sentiment in this set so have used it here, cutting it out with the stitched framelits - I think this card will be winging its way to my daughter for a "Just Because" card.


Thanks for stopping by my blog - I appreciate you being here and love to read your comments.

 

ONE LAYER

I do find one layers very challenging but its nice to stretch yourself sometimes and know when to stop also.   The challenge over at Less is More is exactly that - one layer but also using a stencil.

I've been playing a lot with my new Tim Holtz Dot Fade stencil so I've used it again here - stamping it in SU''s Daffodil Delight.  I then used SU's Bookcase Builder to make a matching pair of shelves featuring bottles and a plant in yellow to tie in with the challenge over at Time Out Challenges.  I've used Crushed Curry and Pear Pizzazz for the remaining colours and just kept it to those two colours.  I wanted the dots in the background to look a little like an old stone wall in an old farmhouse.

I had to then walk away so I didn't add anything else - especially a layer!!

 

MYTHICAL

What a lovely challenge over at Inkspirational Challenge this week - definitely a chance to use some of my Cherry Pie Art Stamps which formed the background for this card and also this unicorn stamp.  I have had this stamp for over ten years and never inked it!  It just goes to show keep things for long enough and they become useful!!!




The Unicorn stamp came from a company years ago called Scottish Borders Stamping - I don't even think they are still going.

 

WEDNESDAYS WOES

A strange title for my blog post today but this card I'm showing took me ages!  I just couldn't seem to get it to do what I wanted it to - I knew I definitely wanted to use the image of the girl which is an old Cherry Pie Art Stamp and I was inspired by the gorgeous colours on Addicted to Stamps Challenge blog.  Eventually I produced something I was half way happy with so I'm going to put it into two challenges.

Addicted to Stamps gave us these inspiring images to work with.




As well as the Cherry Pie stamp I've also used one from Stampin Up's Beautiful You set for the sentiment.

The image of the girl was versamarked in SU Pacific Point ink and then clear embossed so she has a shine to her.  The background on the card stock uses Tim Holtz Dot Stencil.

I'm also adding this into the Retro Rubber's challenge this week which is Anything Goes.


 

Watercolour Wings - Just For You!

Sunday Stamps has an inspiring colour palette for their challenge this week with a proviso of using at least three of the colours shown.  




My three colours are Stampin Up's Daffodil Delight for the yellow, Perfect Plum and Bordering Blue which is an old SU colour.  I used the Tim Holtz Splatter's stencil for the background and the dot stamp and the butterfly are from Watercolour Wings.  The butterfly has been given some shimmer with some rhinestones.

 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - DESIGN TEAM MEMBER

Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge - SK286

I'm delighted to tell you that I've been accepted on to the Design Team for the Hand Stamped Sentiments' Challenge blog.  It's such an honour as I've loved playing along with their inspirational challenges.
  My first challenge to join in with is this sketch challenge SK286.  Click here to play along.

I've used the Bookcase Builder for my card - I think this set is seriously under-used.  It has such great images for all sorts of occasions - I've done mine as a masculine card and kept the colours quite masculine.  Early Espresso, Crushed Curry and a touch of Island Indigo.  The DSP is Wood Textures.  I've used all Stampin' Up products here.

Do pop along to Hand Stamped Sentiments and check out the other inspirational designs from the Design Team.  Make sure you share your projects with us!





 

CHERRY PIE ART STAMPS

The Challenge over at As You See It is a colour challenge and it is a wonderful serene palette as shown below and titled Serenity!





I opted to use one of my Cherry Pie Art Stamps from the Abundance set which I haven't used in a long time. I think she looks rather serence don't you?  I've kept to the palette of pink, green and grey as per the challenge, although annoyingly my Powder Pink which isn't that old is completely dry already.  So I switched to an old SU ink which I have had over ten years which is still going strong - Regal Rose.  The ribbon and the cardstock though is still Powder Pink.

I've added an old sentiment from SU which was from a set called Small Script for the love at the bottom of the card.  The background uses Tim Holtz Dot Fade stencil again which I inked in Grey.  It's nice to get old stamps out and give them a new lease of life.

 

Masculine Cards

Masculine Cards - - they often give us trouble.  I love the set Feather Together from Stampin Up which also has a sentiment which is suitable for masculine cards.  I've used it here in this example of a CAS card which I'm putting forward for Addicted to CAS.  Their challenge is Birds - well feathers are definitely associated with birds!

I'm also adding this to Watercooler Wednesday's challenge which this week is Masculine - it's been a long time since I've been able to join in with the challenges and its so nice to get back crafting again.

I've just kept to two colours on this card - the background dots were made with Tim Holtz stencil Dot Fade.  The colours I used are an old SU one More Mustard - one of my favourite colours.  I joined this with Island Indigo - I kept lots of white space for the CAS challenge.

Now all I need is a man to give this to lol!







 

Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge #285

It's been a while since I've entered a challenge - now that I have more time on my hands after having given up the day job I can start joining in again. This one over at Hand Stamped Sentiments caught my eye because of the beautiful imagery they used.

I've used the lovely Floral Statements set from Stampin Up here with a slightly different folded card.  The daisy is from Daisy Delight and the sentiment is from Feather Together.  I quite fancied using lots of different pinks and repeating the wording for a change.

 

Stampin Up A Nice Cuppa

I set a quick challenge yesterday on my Joy of Sets Facebook page - for everyone to grab their first stamp set nearest to them and make a card.  Mine happened to be the retired Stampin Up set A Nice Cuppa.  I used some of the DSP from Stampin Up and the background is a stencil from Tim Holtz - I thought it looked like tea stains.

 

JOY OF SETS COLOUR CHALLENGE

This month's challenge over at Joy of Sets Facebook group which I run is a colour challenge.  The colour choices are Stampin Up's Crushed Curry, Tranquil Tide and Night of Navy.  Quite masculine colours really but I wanted to try and produce a non-masculine looking card.

I've used a combination of stamps for this one - the wording is from a retired Project Life set by Stampin Up called Remember This - the easel is from Painter's Palette, the image of the woman is a Cherry Pie Art Stamp and the background is made with Tim Holtz stencils.

We have had a snow day in the UK because of the storms bringing us a lot of snow which meant I couldn't get out of my village to get to my part time job - hence I've been able to get inky fingers again which has been a long time coming.  It's been so nice to have a day of crafting - and I've caught up with some scrapbooking pages and some projects.

I'm adding this to the Time Out Challenge which is looking for something bold - I think these colours count as bold colours.





 

Happy New Year

Oh my goodness - I'm still just about in January to wish you a Happy New Year - where did the time go?  I can tell you where - I started work in the real world at the end of November - after 27 years of being at home and with home based businesses I had to put myself out there and earn a proper wage.

Sadly - I am not in a crafting capacity and where I work I am not allowed to have inky fingers so you can imagine the trouble this has caused me for crafting!  I am also working five days a week and am so tired of an evening I have had no motivation to craft.  Now that I'm no longer with Stampin Up and with a crafting business to run I have had to re-evaluate my crafting and re-discover the love of it for crafting's sake and not for any other purpose.  Quite tricky really - especially where cards are concerned?  What do I do with them all once I've made them?

Well - for one thing I am still running the Joy of Sets group on Facebook and we have a RAK group - a RAK in case you don't know is a Random Act of Kindness - so we send out the cards to people we don't know - what we do know is that these people are fellow crafters, they 'get' the whole craft card thing - realise how much time, effort and love goes into making the cards.  Finding you are the recipient of such a card in the mail and that it has winged its way to you from  either within the UK, Europe or as far flung as the USA, New Zealand or Australia is such a fabulous feeling.  Let me share with you just such a card I received today from Judith McPherson in New Zealand - This looks like a new Stampin Up set to me but I'm not sure.  

What I have managed to do today is a Postcard for a postcard swap I am doing with Stamper's Forum FB group - this is also something I haven't done in a while.

I was very lucky before Christmas to win some Tim Holtz goodies from a blog I visit.  I've used two of the stencils sets I won to make this postcard - the rest is all Tim Holtz old stamps I had in my stash and the inks are all Stampin Up.  

Thanks for stopping by - I hope to be back on track again posting a lot more often.


         

JOY OF SETS CHRISTMAS BLOG HOP

I am the owner of the very popular Joy of Sets Facebook group - it started out as a group purely for Stampin Up sets both current and retired.  It has now grown into a group which celebrates all makes of stamp sets and is a great resource for ideas thanks to all the very generous members who share their creations.  If you are on Facebook and want to join in with us click on the link above or on the image.

This is our first Blog Hop and we thought what better idea than to use Christmas to get us all in the Festive Spirit.

In the spirit of the Joy of Sets I have used a retired Stampin Up Set and a Non Stampin up Image that often gets used by me and I think a lot of others around this time of the year. 

My SU set is Winter Post - I have had this set many years and have made lots of Christmas cards from it.  I do like Reindeer on cards too which helps but I love the nostalgic feel to this stamp set.  Here I've used it with Rubber Stampede's popular Santa Collage stamp.  Such a fabulous image of Santa - here simply inked and coloured in and a touch of sparkle on the snowflakes. 

Do pop along the hop and see what other goodies the FaceBook members have for your Christmas inspiration.  

I'd like to wish you and yours a very Blessed Yule and a Merry Christmas.