sketch

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 Challenge – sketch and/or photo – photo inspiration of the berries

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

Arty Divas Challenge – anything goes

Inkspirational – word prompt ‘Face‘ – my strawberries have faces 🙂

Beautiful Heart Birthday

Hello. I have a card to share inspired by several challenges.

I used Altenew ‘Beautiful Heart‘ stamp and matching die set. I stamped the outline in a grey ink, and both layers of the flower, but only the outline and detail layer of the leaves – not the main base layer. I wanted there to be quite a bit of white on this card, to ensure the colours stood out.

The sentiment is also from Altenew and stamped directly onto the base card.

I ‘found’ this stamp set again whilst putting my stash into Color My Life organisation app – I am ‘finding’ quite a bit of stuff to use again. Not necessarily that I had forgotten they were there – but seeing them again and going through them again makes me use my older stash – not a bad thing. But – it doesn’t mean I don’t buy new stuff………………..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge – Occasions

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Seize The Birthday – anything goes birthday (option summer not taken)

Color Throwdown – blue, purple, light blue, green

Peaceful Scene

Hi there. I have a CAS card to share today. Here is the card:

I used an image from a Funky Fossil stamp set called ‘Adventure’ , and a little masking of the stamp.

I first masked the bottom half of the stamp – the water – then inked the trees – and remembered to remove the masking tape (!!) before stamping. Then I masked the top half of the stamp, inked the top half – again removing the masking paper – then stamped the bottom half.

I had to ink the stamp a couple of times – I think my ink pads are getting a little dry………….but they are old. I may have to see of they have been retired or see if they still sell the re-inkers.

I stamped the bird, then die cut the image using a square off-set to make a triangle.

I don’t have many washi tapes, but after using my one and only washi tape as a DT card and struggling a few months ago – I ordered some more. This washi is quite wide, so I cut three strips down the length…..my goodness that stuff is sticky! I ended up with bits all over the place initially….

Then I stuck three pieces down along the edge of the card, overlapping a little. The washi has images of the world, an old fashioned map, which I thought suited the stamp set and image quite well.

I then turned to the sentiment – I know, it seems it’s always the last for me to stamp…..but if I use my Misti it seems to work each time. Thank goodness. Just imagine if I messed the sentiment stamping and the card had to be binned – or at least have an extra banner placed over the mess……

Anyhoo – it stamped correctly!

There are few adventure sentiments in this set, about exploring, but with the current global situation – I went for one which meant you didn’t really have to leave home – maybe?

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

CAS Colours and Sketches – pool party, crumb cake, pear pizzazz (Substitutes used)

Creative Knockouts Challenge – use washi tape

Sending Sunshine and Smiles…

Hi there. I have a card to share to day using some of the new release stamp sets from Clearly Besotted:

I stamped the floral scene twice along the bottom of a piece of Make It Colour Blending Card, and stamped the cute little plushie with the flower onto another piece.

I coloured the images using Copics – very simple, very little shading, then added some gold gel dots to some of the flowers – I tried to catch that in the bottom photo – and some darker dots on the other flowers.

The plushie image die–cut with two nesting circle dies as you see, and the sentiment from the same plushie stamp set attached.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Aqua, Teal/Turquoise, grey, metallic gold

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

Fusion Card Challenge – sketch +/- photo inspiration

Krafty Chicks – use a stamp

Fab’n’Funky Challenge – cute critters

Have a Great Day….

Hello everyone. I have a CAS die-cutting card today:

Even though it looks CAS – it took me a little while to get the triangle right. Funny how what seems like the simplest things take the most time, isn’t it?

On a white card base, I layered a piece of glossy black card – very, very difficult to get that to come through on the photos – but it is a matt kind of glossy – not too shiny………

The white triangles are die cut from an old, old, old Spellbinders set – it says 2013 on the back of the packet!

Getting the angles of these two triangles on the card was the hardest part – fiddling and moving, then cutting away part of the top triangle….

The sentiment is from a piece of card with lots of sentiments on from Craft Box UK.

I’m off to do some layering stamping for another challenge – if I can line ’em up properly, that is…………

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CCEE Stampers – penguins or black and white card

CAS(E) This Sketch – sketch

Krafty Chicks Challenge – anything goes

Love Your Inner Monster

Hello once again. I have a CAS card to share today, which includes some fancy masking – for me it was fancy, anyway:

I mentioned previously finding the Tracy Hey Designs web site and the super-dooper cute stamp sets she has. This was another of my purchases, and fits right in with a few challenges I have been trying to create for.

I cut the base layer with some stitched rectangle dies, then stamped my dragon image with Gina K Amalgam ink. I stamped the image again on some masking paper, and set to fussy-cutting……..I don’t like fussy cutting, but when I knew I wanted to do some masking – you have to do what is required, don’t you?

So – this image – triangle spine thingies, star horn thingies………………not the most straight-forward I have cut out….but I must admit it was worth it….

Once masked – before I coloured just in case I messed it up – I found a circle stencil, and inked Distress Oxide through the stencil – And I just love when you reveal…….looks messy until you peel everything back, doesn’t it?

As I was happy with the masking and blending, I took some Copics and coloured as per the colours for one of the challenges – just a couple of the greens, and one yellow – simple. Then I took my colour-less blender and dotted it around the dragon – to try to give an impression of scaly skin. Do you think it worked?

So – the sentiment – on the same stamp set! I know – how fabulous is this sentiment? Love it – and there are more on that set I can’t wait to get working with.

Why a dragon I hear you ask……well, I was born in the year of the Dragon – so that could be 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000 – or even 2012 – but I’m not telling!!!!

In fact – when I post to my Instagram – I’ll have a cheeky little quiz and pressie for a few people…..maybe you want to go and check it out…….

Apparently, the dragon is the only imaginary animal in the Chinese zodiac too……..and something about being hot-headed…..hmmm…..maybe!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology – Zodiac

CAS Colours and Sketches – Call Me Clover, Pineapple Punch, Blueberry Bushel (Hopefully the Copic colours are a good enough match)

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Perfectly CAS – CAS masking – one third or less

Blue Roses

I have a card to share today, as I found this stamp set again when I was cataloging my stash on the newly released Android version of Color My Life. I have been waiting for this app to become available on Android since I saw Justine Hovey’s video about it. You can see her video here.

Here is my card:

I stamped the roses from Altenew’s ‘Classic Beauty’, then masked them off to stamp the leaves, using Altenew inks.

I then used a stitched die from ‘Card Making Magic’, but as the rectangle was a little too large, I then used one edge of one of the dies to cut the rectangle down – so the rectangle itself was outside of the die cut area.

The dots embossing folder from Tattered Lace was used on some light brown card, so the background could be neutral, and also some Centura Pearl white/silver card stock – to add a little shine to the background.

The sentiment is from my ‘go-to’ birthday sentiment set from MFT.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Seize The Birthday – Birthday with option spring fling

Sweet Stampin’ – Bloomin’ Wonderful

The Card Concept – photo inspiration

AAA Birthday – Birthday with dots and/or stripes

Ladybird Birthday

Hello there. I have been playing with a Stampin Up stamp and die set which I just I would have fun with:

I actually stamped all the ladybird images out at once, and played with my Copics. The little bugs around the outside are also a part of this set, as is the flower.

Once coloured and die cut with the matching dies, I used a sketch layout from a challenge listed below and that’s kinda it.

All done. Quick and clean and simple…………well – I stamped the little bugs the wrong way up at the bottom edge – so I had to have the sentiment on a strip to cover it! Maybe I shouldn’t have owned up to that one…………

I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Birthday – birthday and flowers

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Watercooler Challenges – occasions

Clean and Simple on Sunday – CAS birthday

Krafty Chicks – occasions

Creative Moments Challenge – anything goes

Please grab our badge to display on your blog.

Alphabet Challenge – Vegetables

Hello there. I am pleased to be hosting the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge – and I chose the theme of ‘Vegetables’. I know, I know – quirky huh?

The Design Team has come up with some amazing inspiration – I do hope you can come and join us – I’d love to see your take on this theme.

Here is my card:

I used a stamp set from Heffy Doodle, stamped with Gina K amalgam ink, and coloured with Copics – which I haven’t done for a while.

Then I turned to the layout, and utilised a sketch challenge. To adhere to the sketch, I decided to use the ‘Welcome Wreath’ from W Plus 9 to create the six circles. First layer with a dark green ink, then thought the wreath needed more, so added a browny ink layer, and finally a lighter green layer.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, and I copic coloured the orange strips underneath the white strip, just to make it stand out more, and cut it to a jaunty angle – just like the carrots..

I hope you pop along to see what the Design Team have created – there are lovely inspiration cards over there – some quirky, some funny, and some just plain sweet. Here’s hoping to see your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – all loved up

The Paper Players – sketch

Watercooler Challenges – occasions (Valentine)

Time Out Challenges – affectionate

Fusion Regal Beauty

Hello once again. I have a card to share today which I made over the weekend – a craftathon weekend for me:

The colours and layout are based on the current challenge at the Fusion Card Challenge:

The colours in the photo were greys and a touch of brown, so I used those colours to stamp the flowers from Altenew ‘Regal Beauty‘ and a combination of their grey and browns inks.

I used the sketch layout to arrange the flower and leaves to mimic the semi-circle, using a lot of the leaves and only one flower, once I had cut them out using the matching die set.

The sentiment is from Thirsty Brush and Co, heat embossed on white onto a grey piece of card, and the ends of the sentiment piece cut using the Heffy Doodle ‘More Strips of Ease‘ die set to create the banner look. I always seem to go wonky when I cut those banners free-hand, so this die set and those small triangles are just great for this.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Fusion Card Challenge – sketch and photo

Trimmies Craft Challenge – atg

Arty Divas Challenge – atg

A Perfect Time To Craft – atg

Dies R Us Challenge – birthday including dies