Hello. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the end of the alphabet, and for the letter ‘Z’, Caz has chosen ‘Zoology‘ (Study of Animals). Here is my card:
I actually struggled with this theme. I have lots of animal stamps and dies, but I didn’t know which direction to go in. In the end I went with a rainbow selection of animal from Clearly Besotted. A simple layout and design, with simple colouring.
I toyed with adding die-cut letters, but when I was sorting the layout, it didn’t look right – sometimes you got to go with your gut!
I hope you can come and join us with your ‘Zoology’ inspired creations. The design Team has some amazing creations – we all seemed to go a different way……. xx
Hello there. I am the host for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz , and I have chosen the theme of ‘Tea and/or coffee’. Here is my card:
As of next week in the UK, we can start to meet with people in our gardens – these current restrictions are easing slowly, but hopefully the weather will improve so we can as least sit and have a coffeee/tea and a natter…….
I decided to play with a Clearly Besotted stamp set – and my scan-n-cut before my blade became too blunt – and used a bunch of animals meeting up for coffee…………..coffee for me, anyway.
One coloured and die cut, I used a Mama Elephant slimline die for the light grey frame, and the fence, and stuck each animal down as you see.
The owl is holding two drinks as he is waiting for me, holding my drink, as I am taking the photo……in my world – anything is possible!
I hope you can come and join us with your girlie cards following our theme the design team have some amazing inspiration – I look forward to seeing you there. xx
Hello there. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge for the next couple of weeks. The theme is always anything goes Christmas/festive. Here is my card:
I bought this digital image from Whimsy Stamps quite a while ago, but as with most of the digital images I buy – I forget I have them. I was sorting out my files and folders – cos what else am I going to do to keep busy at the moment – and ‘found’ lots of images I had completely forgotten about…….there will be more of these in the future, I’m afraid. :)
Once printed , and coloured with Copics, I die-cut with MFT wonky rectangles for a little more interest, and then used some patterned card-stock – I forget where from, and found a sentiment stamp from a previous Simon Says Stamp card kit which matched perfectly the colours and the gingham effect.
So this Christmas Scruffy cat turned out to be quite dramatic in the end.
I hope you can come and join us and increase your Christmas stash – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx
Hello. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and this time Misti has chosen the theme of ‘Spring Rain‘. So – we want to see your girlie cards with umbrellas, rain boots etc. Here is my card:
I used a digital image from Jan’s Digi Stamps, ‘April Showers’, printed then coloured with Copics. As the rain drops on the umbrellas got lost whilst I was colouring – I really did try to go round them but they were too small – I went back in with a white gel pen to make them stand out more.
I also played a little with the size and placement, also adding the sentiment which comes with the same digital set. That’s something I really love about these digital sets – as well as the images, you get a range of matching/suitable sentiments to use too. Jan also supplies some great video teaching on how to layer, and re-size etc – which I find I have to watch every time…………I just can’t remember from one time to the other.
I decided on a dark blue, then googled which colours work best – saw orange was a good suggestion – so here we are. A blue and orange card. The outer layer is white card-stock coloured with a blue Copic to match the image – something I am finding works really well when layering digital images like this. Both the image and blue layer die cut with a stitched rectangle.
I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. xx
Hello yet again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge for the next two weeks has started. The theme is always anything goes Christmas or festive. Here is my card:
The image is a digital stamp from Lee Holland – I’m afraid I bought quite a few of these dragons – Christmas and otherwise. I have yet to colour any of them apart from this cute couple. What a lovely image, isn’t it?
I printed it onto some Copic friendly card then coloured with a range of Copics. For the penguin body I did take inspiration from the image being coloured by someone else – I think on Facebook – trying to achieve a fluffy/furry kinda look, and I’m quite pleased how it turned out.
I didn’t find a sentiment which seemed to fit, so I left it without, but I’ll definitely add one to the inside.
I also couldn’t find matching card-stock in my huge collection for the layers underneath the image, so I just coloured each of the green and pink borders with one of the Copics I had used – that way it’s sure to match and co-ordinate.
I hop you can come and join us with your Christmas creations – there’s some amazing inspiration from the rest of the Design Team – I hope have time to check them out. xx
A new challenge has started at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached the letters E, F and G – and we want to see your Christmas creations with the following themes:
E for Elves, F for Fir Tree, and G for Garland.
Here are my makes:
E for Elves
F for Fir Tree
G for Garland
The MFT ‘Christmas sElfies’ was stamped, coloured with Copics, and the square die-cut with a stitched square from Sue Wilson. Patterned paper adhered to a card base, and the sentiment strip raised with 3D foam – trying to keep the squares and lines etc in alignment – I think I did a pretty good job at that.
The second card using the Hero Arts stamp – an old one I don’t think I’ve actually used yet – stamped using Altenew Obsidian black ink direct onto the card base. I did use my Misti, and it took about three stampings to get a solid image. I liked the effect so much I stamped it again using a couple of Concord & 9th inks too. The sentiment is from my stash – no idea where it came from – and I even added a plain white Tim Holtz deer – just because I could, really…….
The third card is using a stamp and die set from Uniko. The leaves of the garland are stamped directly onto the card base, with the holly leaves, pine cones, and berries also glued down. Not too much dimension. I struggled with an appropriate sentiment on this card, and in the end left it without one – I’ll probably stamp one inside when the time comes.
It appears these three Christmas themes inspired me to create for all three letters – I must have had a mojo lightning strike that day!
I hope you can come and join us – please remember the letters have themes that we have chosen, and we would appreciate your Christmas creations adhering to those themes. I hope to see you in the gallery. xx
I ended up creating a one layer card, using Simon Says Stamp ‘Sweet Truffles’ which just arrived here and is part of the February 2021 card kit. This kit usually gets to me middle of the month – and usually after I have paid – or opted out of – the next months kit.
I started by stamping the middle chocolate, then masked it and stamped the other two. I used a brown Gina K amalgam ink this time – not so harsh, and perfect for using the chocolatey colours, I think.
I used Copics to colour the images, and the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted, and also stamped in the same brown ink.
There some amazing inspiration from the Design, and all sorts of different takes on the theme – I hope you can come and join us with your creations – don’t forget to follow our theme and keep it CAS. I hope to see you there. xx
Hello – just nipping in to share a CAS card for a couple of challenges. I have been thinking about both of these for quite a few days – and whilst browsing through the CML app came across a couple of Clearly Besotted stamp sets I thought would work perfectly:
I wanted it to look like the dolphin wash diving into a pool of water, so as this needed just a tiny bit of masking, I stamped the dolphin first, masked the little nose off, then stamped the puddle.
The sentiment and little splashes were added, and all coloured with Copics to match the colour challenge.
A CAS card for someone who has recently had promotion, and a little encouragement for them.
Hello there. I hope you are doing well. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and the theme this time has been chosen by our esteemed leader – Caz – as ‘Mother’s Day (UK) or a card for a special lady‘. Here is my card:
Mother’s Day in the UK is 14th March this year, which is why I chose this theme. Mum’s birthday is also in March – but that card is already made.
Mum has always liked daffodils, they are her favourite flower – that yellow sunshine in the spring.
I used Altenew ‘Build-a-flower Daffodil’, Altenew inks, and layered them onto a wood grain effect piece of embossed card, once cut using the matching dies.
I went with the traditional daffodil colours – yellow with darker orange centres, and added a stamped and fussy-cut basket from Card-io stamps to ground them in. The sentiment is from a Catherine Pooler stamp set.
I hope you can join us with our chosen theme this time round – I look forward to seeing your creations. xx
Hello there. I have another slimline card to share today, using a selection of Clearly Besotted stamps, a stencil, and some masking:
This card took a little planning and a little measuring before I even began adding the images. I picked the size of my card base, then measured the size of the window stamp to try and place this evenly across the bottom, marking with a pencil the outline of each window. I then stamped each of the jungle animals, created a mask for each of them, then stamped each window.
Before colouring, just in case I messed this part up, then masked each window off, and used a brick stencil to create a little wall scene.
I tried to keep the colours quite simple – varying between the flowers, the animal, and the curtains, to try and create some cohesiveness – the flowers being the same colour but slightly darker than the curtains, adding a strip sentiment once all was done.
I’m missing company, missing nipping round to someone’s house for a coffee and natter – and having them nip round to mine. Hopefully, we can start to do those things again in a few weeks – it’s the simple things like this which get to me more than actually going out and about…..
