ONE LAYER CARD

One layer cards can be tricky - but necessary sometimes especially as the postage costs in the UK have risen if you have a card with a 'bump' on it!  I found a new challenge to me today which is asking for one layer card - Cards In Envy with the Envy meaning envelope.

They do allow for a mat layer but I've kept my card one layer.  I've used some stamps from a set I got from Clear Impressions called Rural Springtime.  There are some lovely stamps on it and I chose to use three from the set.

I first used some Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Bundled Sage and Tattered Rose to make the background. I used Tim's new, to me, Stamping Platform to add my stamps.  I found the platform great for this type of stamping where I was positioning a few stamps to make sure they ink correctly and in the right place.

I used some of SU Melon Mambo for the sentiment and a touch of Wink of Stella on the trees just to make them sparkle and give the card a bit of interest.

HEY......

A masculine style card from me today using SU Colourful Seasons stamp set and thinlets and the sentiments from SU Jar of Love.

The card is layered onto Early Espresso cardstock and I've used some of the Wood Textures DSP.  The leaf has been cut out and embossed with the beautiful  SU Copper Embossing powder and some of the matching Copper Metallic Thread.  The small leaf was cut out of the same cardstock - Soft Suede and I sponged the edges and just added the little Hey.

The ribbon is Classic Weave Crumb Cake and I've used a piece of hardware from a very old set Hodgepodge which I found in my cupboard.  The beauty of no longer being an SU demo is that I can still use and show old stuff!  

Does anyone else have this in the cupboard - I posed the question on my Joy of Sets Facebook group and the amount of people who said they had it and had never used it!!! It must be nearly 10 years old.

I'm adding my card to the following challenges this week - 

Global Design Project #GDP138- their challenge was a sketch which I've followed



Watercooler Wednesday#WWC170 - their challenge is Penny's Masculine challenge.




 

TIC TAC TOE AND TAGS

Over at my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets - we run monthly swaps and this month's swap is Tags.  My previous post shows the Tag my partner is going to receive but she is also getting the card I've made for the Tic Tac Toe challenge following the top line.





I've used purple for my background cardstock - I hope it's considered bright enough for the bright colours - it's not a colour I often use.  The DSP is from SU's Delightful Daisy collection which is a lovely collection of spring flowers and the stamp set is SU Lotus Blossom.

The interactive part of this card shows itself when you pull on the ribbon at the bottom of the card and a tag pops out.  The stamp is the lotus from the Lotus Blossom set.

My other card today for a couple of challenges also uses a type of tag on it.  The Colour Throwdown has given us these colours to work with 




and Case this Sketch has given us this 



so I've combined the two in my next card.


I've kept it simple with some SU Vanilla Cardstock and SU inks Lemon Lime Twist and Pool Party colourwashed direct onto the cardstock.  Sadly my Pool Party ink is quite dry already - I have had some issues with last year's inks.

I used SU Lotus Blossom and just added some neutral colours to ink the flower - artistic licence here cause I know lotus blossoms aren't usually shades of brown - my three colours were SU Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Early Espresso with the greens for the stems.  A touch of Pool Party shimmer ribbon around the bottom and some non SU pearls which really go well finish off the tag. The sentiment in lemon lime twist is from SU Feather Together with just the first word 'and' uninked!

PARIS BOUND

I have a bit of a soft spot for Paris - on my first wedding anniversary back in 1986 (!) my darling hubby took me there as a complete surprise. The weather was kind, we sat on the left bank opposite Notre Dame drinking red wine and eating a baguette and fromage. We saw the sights, sailed the Bateau Mouche, visited Folie Bergere, gazed at the Mona Lisa and had a thoroughly lovely weekend. Three years ago our daughter sent us back there for our Christmas present - January was not quite so kind weather wise but Paris still had its charms.

Why am I telling you all this?  It's because the challenge over at Try It On Tuesday is Destinations.  

Rummaging in my craft cupboard I found an old faithful set by Tim Holtz which hasn't been used in a while - it's main image is the Eiffel Tower. I used a piece of Very Vanilla card stock and decided to do a tag rather than a card.  I used some of my new Tim Holtz distress inks for the background, Tattered Rose, Bundled Sage and Antique Linen.  I used SU Fresh Fig for the tower stamp.  I also used an old SU stamp from Project Life Remember This which says Adventure Bound.  The little tag has the perfume bottle from an old SU Set A Little Love .

 

ONE STAMP TWO WAYS

I get a real buzz out of joining in with the Twofer Challenge blog - they ask you to use the same stamp but in two different ways.  Now we all do this lots of times otherwise all our cards and stamps would be the same.  What they also challenge you to do though is think outside of the box with your second card using your stamp.  In other words, an Unconventional way of using your stamp.




Butterflies are really the only insects I don't mind stamping and, to be honest, I'm not sure if they are actually insects anyway.

I've gone for an old Stampin Up stamp here which is in the Touch of Nature set - the butterfly in this set is so pretty with lots of little details.  So here are my cards and I've attempted to go for the Unconventional route.

My first card uses the Emboss Resist technique - the colours I've used here are SU Tempting Turquoise, Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and a touch of Tangerine Tango.  I've also used some silver embossing powder to stamp the smaller butterfly from the Kinda Eclectic set.  This was then layered onto a piece of Bermuda Bay cardstock and the sentiment is from the A Touch of Nature set.

I'm adding this one into the Make My Monday#71 challenge which is Hint of Summer to come.  I'm also adding it to the Try Stampin on Tuesday Colour Resist challenge they have running - that is what inspired me to try this technique.

My second card is a Centre Step Card.  I've used Lemon Lime Twist as my base - the cupid stamp is an old one I had in my stash and I'm not sure where its from.  I'm not sure where the background paper is from - it was something I found in my cupboard but the colours really lend themselves to Lemon Lime Twist and Berry Burst from SU.  I've used the butterfly here as the wings for the little cupid.  I cut it out and inked it with Berry Burst and Lemon Lime Twist using a blender pen.  There are some Silver Dots from Papermania down the body of the butterfly.  The little flower is from an old SU Set called A Little Love and it has been finished off with a tiny pink pearl.  I really love the colours on this little card and the way it turned out.

Thank you for stopping by my blog.

 

JUST FOR YOU

Apologies first of all for the quality of my photos.  My iphone 5 ended up in water - for all of 3 seconds but enough to do damage it seems.  I'm now using an old phone for my photos and it's nowhere near as good. :( 

The gorgeous colour challenge over at Just Add Ink this week had me itching to have a go.  I loved the look of those soft colours and then that bold Melon Mambo added to it.  Don't they look gorgeous together?

I started off with a circle mask which I cut out of some old card with the largest circle Stitched Framelit. I then sponged in this circle with Pear Pizazz and stamped one of the stamps from Kinda Eclectic over it in the Wild Wasabi.

The flower stamp from Stampin Up's Lotus Blossom is a three stamp set.  The first stamp has been inked in Powder Pink.  My Powder Pink ink isn't very old and is very faint - I wasn't a great fan of the new ink styles last year so I'm hoping they've improved them this year.  I then continued the three stamp stamping with the second stamp inked in stamped off Melon Mambo and then the final stamp in the full strength Melon Mambo.  The stems are inked in both green colours.  

I added some Powder Pink ribbon and a little hear detail I had in my button jar and added some buttons to the bottom.  I'm all about bringing the buttons back into my crafting at the moment #bringbackbuttons.  The Sentiment is from Watercolour Wings inked in Melon Mambo.  The card was then layered onto Wild Wasabi and Powder Pink cardstock.

I'm also adding this into the Allsorts Challenge blog which I found today - their challenge is In The Pink.


While I was playing with this circle mask I chose to do another card for the Inkspirational Challenge this week which is purple and gold.




I inked up the circle with some Perfect Plum and a touch of Elegant Eggplant around the edges for a bit more definition.  Then I covered that ink with the embossing buddy and stamped the flower in Versamark and embossed in Gold Embossing Powder.  This stamp is from an old SU set called A Touch of Nature.  I used Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant to stamp the three way butterfly from Watercolor Wings and used the Bold Butterfly framelit to cut it out.  The sentiment is from Colourful Seasons.

The little gold ribbon at the bottom uses an embellishment from an old set called Hodgepodge Hardware - does anyone else still have and use this?  I found it at the bottom of my cupboard and thought it could do with an outing!

CAS WINNER

I was thrilled to be chosen as one of the winners over at CAS Colours and Sketches for my Butterfly Inlaid card - I do find CAS quite tricky as I love to pile stuff on my cards a la Tim Holtz but its nice to be challenged so its a great boost to have one of my cards chosen as a winner.

I'm entering again this week and my card is super simple.   I used one of the Stitched Framelits to make a mask for my squares - and inked them up in So Safron and a touch of Crushed Curry by Stampin Up.  I've used the butterfly from Kinda Eclectic - yes my favourite Go-To stamp set at the moment and kept it in the same ink colour of Crushed Curry. The sentiment is from Lotus Blossom and a touch of Dazzling Diamonds on the full butterfly in the middle finishes off this simple but effective card.  I've layered it onto some Crushed Curry cardstock.

I'm also adding this one in to Addicted to Stamps #291 whose theme is Anything Goes 
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment - I love to hear from you.

    

ANYONE FOR TEA?

The challenge over at The Paper Players #PP392 this week is a theme challenge of a tea party 

I've used an old retired set from Stampin' Up for my card which also includes the thinlets - the set is called A Nice Cuppa and its a fabulous little set.  I've kept my card to three SU Colours, Pool Party, Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry.  I've used some of the framelits from Colourful Seasons and Jar of Love for the cut out flowers.  Some DSP and the beautiful Rich Razzleberry ribbon adds a softness to the card.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges


Double D challenge this week which is May Flowers.

 Time Out Challenge - what better way to celebrate friendship and flowers than with a cup of tea! 

Try It On Tuesday - which ask for Stencils or Die Cuts 

Retro Rubber Challenge - which has asked for flowers

SCRAPBOOKING PAGE - ROMAN HOLIDAY

One of my birthday presents this week from darling hubby was a new printer for my photos - a little Canon Selphy that had been recommended by some scrapbooking friends as I've been itching to get scrapbooking again.  I much prefer to have special photos on the page and in an album than left on a computer or a mobile phone.

Mooching around the internet I found some scrapbooking challenges which I decided would be great motivation to get me scrapping again.  The important thing for my pages is that they tell a story so I do like to put journalling on there so we know what the page is for rather than just add a photo and some decoration.

Let's Get Sketchy was one of the challenges I found and I sort of followed their sketch for my layout.  All of my supplies are so old its hard to list what I used.  The stencils are Tim Holtz and the rubber stamp of the Colosseum is an old Cherry Pie Art Stamp.  This page is celebrating my son's 21st Birthday when the family went to Rome - one of our favourite places and as my son is an Archaeologist an obvious place for us to go to celebrate his 21st birthday.

Another Challenge blog I found was Challenge Yourself #53 - where they want to see you in the picture - they have given a picture also as inspiration - 



Now my link to this is quite tenuous but bear with me - one of our favourite films is Gladiator - the part where he is returning home and walking through the wheat to get to his home is very poignant and this image reminded me of that image.  As my page is all to do with Rome I'm guessing you can see where I'm going with this! 

Card Mania CM#104 is looking for Anything But A Card so I'm adding my page.



 

INSPIRED BY....JAR OF LOVE

The challenge over at Colour Inkspiration #C133 on Facebook is the following gorgeous image



with the added proviso of some Stampin Up Colours of Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke and Sahara Sand.  Most of those I have apart from Marina Mist which I think is one of the retiring ones.

The Challenge over at Make My Monday #70 is Embossing,

wet or dry.

I chose to use Stampin Up's Jar of Love for my card.  I first embossed the little bugs in old SU embossing powder called Maize and the Hello was stamped in Night of Navy and then clear embossed.  I then used a mixture of the colours to ink up the jar which has been cut out with the matching framelit.  The background was colour washed in Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand and Night of Navy.  There is a little bit of wire wrapped around the top of the jar and the little metallic embellishment is a very old SU one.  Nice to be using brads again - I'm on a mission - #bringbradsback.




 

WASHI TAPE

I have some Washi Tape in my stash, but I very rarely use it.  The challenge over at Case This Sketch #CTS167 this week prompted me to try and use some on my card.

I don't often do black cards either but a friend died this week and this could well have been on my mind when making this card. I've used some retired Stampin Up Washi Tape and a flower from the Botanical Framelits with some of the lovely shiny black ribbon.  The sentiment is from SU Watercolor Wings.

I'm not sure whether this is too start as a sympathy card - it may need softening just a little.

 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - SC289

Our challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments SC289 this week is a sketch.






I chose to turn the sketch around for my card - I've used retired Stampin' Up's Lotus Blossom - I think this set missed me first time round but I've had lots of fun out of using it lately.  The colours I used for the flower are Crumb Cake, More Mustard, and Early Espresso.  The butterflies are from the same set and punched out with retired SU's butterfly punches.  

I've used SU Stitched Framelits and some of the DSP from the gorgeous Coffee Break.  The background dots for the flower comes from Painter's Palette and has also been stamped on the Early Espresso cardstock in Versamark.  The sentiment is from A Touch of Nature - I think this one retired in 2006.  I've carried on with the stitching theme with a white gel pen around the edges and finished it off with some Glitter Enamel Dots.

Do have a look at the rest of the Design Team offerings and we hope to see you play along with us.


 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG CANDY JOY OF SETS GIVEAWAY

Happy 5th May - Cinco de Mayo - my Birthday.  No, I couldn't possibly say how many years?  

To thank all my lovely members of my Facebook Group - the Joy of Sets - all 3,012 of them I'm doing a little Birthday Blog Candy giveaway.  To be in with a chance of winning the Candy you just have to be a member of my Facebook Group and then come on here and answer the question and leave a comment.  The draw will be done at random on 12th May which gives us a week.

If you would like to join the group and join in with the Blog Candy just click on the image above and request to join.

To be in with a chance of winning two sets of stickers, a brand new SU Ribbon in Real Red, and a Papermania Chipboard Album saying LOVE, please leave a comment below saying which, of all the Albums we have showing on Joy of Sets, is your favourite. 

Good luck and thanks for stopping by! 


THE WINNER OF THE BLOG CANDY CHOSEN BY RANDOM IS SARAH CULLEN.

 

SUNSHINE AND BUTTERFLIES

I've been playing with two favourite Stampin Up sets today for the one card for two challenges - the sets are Kinda Eclectic and Watercolor Wings.  The challenge over at TGIF this week is a colour challenge - two of my favourite colours.  I never expected to like Lemon Lime Twist when it came out but it soon became a firm favourite.  Sad to hear its going but, as I'm no longer an SU Demonstrator I can continue to use it and show it - as long as my supplies last though.  Eek!




The second challenge is Addicted to CAS #135 and their theme is Gold.  Thinking about it though I'm not sure my card is CAS enough for their challenge.  CAS cards to confuse me a bit as some of the examples I see are not what I think are CAS so I'll add it anyway and I'm sure they'll let me know if it's too busy.

I used some SU Gold embossing powder to emboss that beautiful sun stamp from Kinda Eclectic.  The leaves were inked in Lemon Lime Twist.  The butterflies were made with Lemon Lime Twist and Berry Burst and Lemon Lime Twist cardstock was used as the base.