Big Birthday Wishes

Hello. It’s raining here today, a little relief from the high temperatures last week – but I like whatever the UK weather tends to throw at us – barring the absolute extremes, of course.

I have couple of cards to share today using the same stamp set from Hello Bluebird, and for a few different challenges:

Both are one layer cards, stamped onto folded card-stock from Catherine Pooler I received many eons ago in one of her kits.

For the hippo card, I stamped the hippo in Gina K amalgam ink, then coloured with warm grey Copics, adding some white gel pen for details.

The grass was drawn on – to fit in with one of the challenge themes – and coloured with Copics. I must say – drawing grass is far harder than it might look. :)

The second card, the elephant, was coloured in the cool grey Copic markers, and this time I just drew in the top of the grass and coloured the rest with the same as the previous card, but adding bunches of grass with the darker green instead of drawing more black lines.

The hippo card will be entered into the following challenges:

Simply Less Is More CAS and doodles

Animal friends Challenge hippo or rhino

Watercooler Challengeoccasions

The elephant card will be entered into the following challenges:

Moving Along With The Times Elephants

Pink Gem Challenge anything goes

Seize The Birthdaybirthday anything goes with option rainbow colours (not taken)

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You’re The Cat’s Meow

Hello and welcome once again. I have a card to share today which turned out to be made largely from Mama Elephant products. This wasn’t planned at all – it was just the way my mind went when designing the card:

The theme started off from the current challenge at CASology – the prompt word being ‘BALL’. I put that into the Color My Life app and it came up with lots of balloons in my stash – and a few stamp sets which had cats/kittens with balls of wool.

Of those three, I chose the Mama Elephant stamp set ‘My Pet Kitties‘, stamped a couple of the images in Gina K Amalgam ink onto a scrap piece of Concord & 9th white card (from a previous make).

I coloured the kitties in Copics – the warm greys (and this card stock loves Copics – very easy) with a touch of peach to the ears, an aqua Copic for the wool balls – following the current colours at Color Throwdown – and then used the matching dies to cut them out.

I was going to go with a ‘normal’ card layout, but I have several of the slimline die sets so I went with that. I first looked on the Mama Elephant web site to get the dimensions for a slimline card, especially as I was using their dies to create one.

The base card is Neenah card, the Kraft layer is cut using Mama Elephant ‘Slim Card Basics‘, as is the white layer and the three windows.

Instead of ink blending the windows, I used another Mama Elephant die set – ‘Slim Window Dressing‘ – which had grass and cloud dies so I used an aqua and Kraft card for those two layers in each window.

The sentiment is from C.C. Designs ‘Cutie Cats‘ – one of the other stamp sets I was going to use – and then all put together with foam pads and glue as you see.

I added a couple of little butterflies – just because I could………

Even though this has a few layers to it, I still think it’s CAS enough for the CASology Challenge – but I am sure the DT there will let me know if it’s a problem – I still had fun thinking about a card for their current theme – it has taken me days and days…….

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology word prompt ‘BALL’

Color Throwdownpeach aqua, Kraft

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge midsummer blues – use blue, or the blues music, or sad

You Really Are The Sweetest…

Hello there. I have a ‘berry’ sweet card to share today – pun intended:

See what I mean?

I used the Clearly Besotted ‘Pick a Plushie‘ stamp set and – obviously- the strawberry. Once stamped with Gina K amalgam ink and coloured with Copics – I then had to fussy-cut them out……I know – not usually my thing, but these were quite easy.

I then used some white gel pen for details and turned to the sketch layout, using three die cut squares which were left over when I die-cut the Heffy Doodle ‘Stitched Slimline Trio die’ a few cards ago – I always keep these little squares or circles for future uses – but sometimes I forget I have them! These were still on my craft desk and just begging to be used.

The inner small squares were cut using a Stampin Up ‘Stitched Squares’ die set – a staple in my craft drawer and used frequently.

The sentiment is from the same Clearly Besotted stamp set and stamped directly onto the card base.

I am continuing to make cards for non-specific reasons and just sending them to friends as a little encouragement and contact.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Fusion Card Challengesketch and/or photo – photo inspiration of the berries

CAS Colours and Sketchessketch

Crafty Sentiments Designsanything goes

Arty Divas Challengeanything goes

Inkspirationalword prompt ‘Face‘ – my strawberries have faces :)

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Curvy Girl with Diamond

Hello once again. I have a card to share today as a new challenge has started at The Alphabet Challenge – this time we have the letter ‘J‘ and we want to see ‘Jewels or Jewelry’. Here is my card:

This curvy girl is from Stamping Bella, stamped with Gina K amalgam ink then coloured with Copics.

Once die cut, I turned to plan my layers and colours for the card, raiding my stash of coloured card to find some that would match the dress – I didn’t think of that before I coloured her – and cut the layers as you see.

I thought it needed a little more bling/jewels, so I used some blingy purple tear-drop thingies……….no clue where I got them from but the colour seemed to match to dress…….and also found some Nuvo drops that matched too, but I restrained myself with those and only added eight drops….. :)

There is a lot of shiny jewels and jewelry from the design Team, such a joy to see. I hope you can come and join us – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Aud Sentimentsanything goes with a sentiment

Crafty Calendar Challenge anything goes

QKR Stampedeanything goes

Dragonfly Dreams Challenge anything goes

QKR
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Life’s a beach…..

Hello there. I have a CAS card to share today which stretched my Copic colouring knowledge – research was undertaken! – to create a beach scene:

I used Make It colour blending card and stamped the Clearly Besotted scene onto the bottom of it in Gina K amalgam ink.

Once stamped, I then turned to the tinterweb and searched for ideas on colours and ‘how to‘ colour a beach scene and the sea. Most of the colours and methods came from watching Mindy Baxter do her magic – very inspiring. I added some more colours – and actually used a couple of different ‘blues’ for the sea as I didn’t want it too dark or even too light – but kudos to her for her easy to follow instructions.

Here is a picture of the colours I used:

I think I missed the dark brown Copics somehow!

I find taking a picture of the colours helps me to look back and see what I was happy with, and what combination of colours I may use again. I do write these down in a note book – very OCD at the moment – and write where I have used them on what card and what post so I can easily look back and see if I was happy with the colours or not.

The card was then die cut using some stitched rectangle frames, then adhered to a white card base. The Make It card isn’t thick enough to be used as a one layer card, so if I want to do one of those, I tend to colour on Neenah Classic Crest – but I find that doesn’t blend as well, so I have to choose my colours carefully – or colour using another medium.

I hope you are all well and managing to stay sane……!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA CardsCAS along the edge with option of ‘beach’

Lemon Shortbread anything goes

Crafty Sentiments Designs anything goes

Colour Crazy Challengeweek 30 – anything goes colouring

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Hope to Sea You Soon

Hi there. I have a card to share – quite a CAS card – made with a dear friend of mine in mind:

I have seen this particular friend just once since March – and so I am hoping we can get together again soon for a catch-up – and maybe one day we can hug again!

The stamp set I used is from Heffy Doodle – You Go, Gull – and I first stamped the tree stump in Stampin Up ‘Terracotta Tile‘ ink – then used a water-brush to pull the colour out a little.

I then stamped the birds in Gina K amalgam ink and coloured the grey areas with Copic cool greys, and used the same Stampin Up ink and a little water to colour the beak, legs, and wing detail.

The base card is three and a half inches by eight and a half inches, and the black layer and white window layer are cut using Heffy Doodle ‘Stitched Slimline Trio‘ die set. I love the scallops on the windows. And I have three scalloped squares to use on another card now…….

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, heat embossed in white – though I did have to go over the letters with a white gel pen as it didn’t quite emboss fully.

The hearts are cut from a piece of card I coloured with the same ‘Terracotta Tile‘ ink.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdownblack, white, terracotta

Water-Cooler Challengesanything goes

Freshly Made Sketchesslimline sketch

Krafty Chicks anything goes

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Tropical Summer Corners

Hello once again. A new challenge has just begun at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘I’ – and we want to see your ‘Island Fun’ – anything tropical.

Here is my card:

I used the ‘Summer Corners’ stamp set from Clearly Besotted, stamped with Gina K amalgam ink, then coloured with Copics.

The ended up being e a one layer card too – something I struggle with – but felt I just had to give it a go again.

I actually enjoyed colouring these images, enjoyed the colour selection process and just playing around with blending. The sentiment is from Heffy Doodle – and required some surgery……..!

I know – I don’t do this very often, and instead of masking and failing – which would ruin the hard colouring work I had already done – I cut the sentiment in half to place as you see………..I must have been very brave that day!

I hope you can come and join us with your Island and tropical makes – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments Challenge things with wings and a sentiment

Crafty Sentiments Designs anything goes

Digi Choosday anything goes

Color Crazy Challenge week 29 – anything goes with colouring

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challengeanything goes

Birthday and Hello

Hello there. I have a couple of cards to share which used just one stamp set between them, and then I die cut a couple of rectangles from the image:

The circular floral image is quite large, and I was going to use the whole image on one card, but decided to cut it up to make two CAS cards.

Here is the original stamp set picture, just so you can see what I started with:

Beautiful Inside and Out Clear Stamp Set
Funky Fossil Designs, A5 stamp set

I stamped the circular image in Gina K amalgam ink, then coloured with Copics, sticking to the colour scheme from one of the challenges.

Once coloured I then used a small stitched rectangle die from Susan Wilson to cut two pieces out, and attached them in different places in two different sized card bases.

The ‘Hello‘ die is from Simon Says Stamp and part of a recent kit of theirs, die cut in black 4 times and layered together.

The birthday sentiment is from another Simon Says Stamp set called ‘Bee Happy‘ – I was after a small birthday sentiment and this fitted perfectly.

I’m off to get the house ready for having visitors this evening – the first time since March. We are lucky to have a downstairs cloak room – so I have sanitised it, and shut the door so hubby and I won’t use that for the rest of the day. I’ve even ordered a take-away restaurant meal…….not quite ready for going out to a restaurant yet……Can you also imagine I’ve also got out separate cutlery, plates and glasses for them that haven’t seen the light of day since Christmas? Yep – that’s my OCD kicking in!

Anyhoo, I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenges occasions

Color Throwdownyellow, orange, green

Krafty Chicks occasions

Here is a place to startflowers/floral

AAA CardsCAS max white space and option of flowers

Christmas Spirits….

Hello once again. I hope you are keeping safe. I have a CAS card to share today:

I took a square base card and stamped some images from a newly purchased Clearly Besotted stamp set ‘ Drink and Be Merry’ in Gina K Amalgam ink, then very simply coloured with Copics.

The berries are one of the gold’s from my Gansai Tambi set – and those little berries are exactly that – little!

The sentiment is from the same stamp set – and there are loads of sentiments with this actually quite small set – you certainly get a lot for your money.

I have a confession to make – this is my second attempt! The first did go in the bin – I couldn’t save it……………I took ages creating a mask for the glasses on the original card, then used a circle stencil and Distress Oxide Speckled Egg as a background – it looked absolutely horrendous!

Really – I mean horrendous! It was only because the Speckled Egg is a greyish-blue, and covered some of the black lines up – my fussy-cutting isn’t the best in the world – so I drew over them in black pen – went squiggly without even touching a drop of alcohol……..I still thought I could save it – coloured the images, stamped the sentiment……nope! Binned.

The version you see here is much better and I feel a whole load happier. I keep trying new things – but sometimes going back to what you know is better. I’m not having a very patient day………………..warn hubby now!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown blue, green, peach, metallic gold

Aud Sentiments Christmas in July with a sentiment

Simply Less Is More CAS one layer Christmas

Christmas Blog ChallengeChristmas and a square card

christmasblog

Seas The Day

Hello there. A new challenge is beginning at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time the theme is ‘Sea Shells’. I decided to go down the digital image route as I don’t have sea shell stamps, and here is my card:

I used a digital image from Power Poppy called ‘Gifts From The Sea‘, printed onto Make It Colour Blending Card, and coloured with Copics.

As you can see, I went quite neutral with the colouring, and used a combination of colours I have used in previous Kit and Clowder colouring classes – and also some techniques I learnt from those classes along the way.

For this image, there was also an option for ‘no line’ printing – but I do like black lines around my objects – and it’s a little more forgiving with my colouring skills, too!

I hope you can come and join us, I’d love to see your interpretation of our ‘Sea Shell’ theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Hand Stamped Sentiments Inspiration Board

Crafty Sentiments Designs anything goes

Digi Choosdayanything goes

Inkspirational Challengepainting or colouring