A little bit of steampunk

Well its ages since I've done anything Steampunk as it seems to have lost its popularity in the crafting world, when I saw that the challenge at Fantasy Stampers is Steampunk I thought I'd have another play.  I dug around and found a folder with papers and oddments in and I knew I had these Hampton Art stamps that a friend gave me and I hadn't used. The large butterfly is a Tim Holtz die and emboss and the wooden clock is something else I had given. This is a 6x6 piece and will go into my steampunk book I made a couple of years ago.

Mini

This week at Cardz4guyz the challenge theme is for something beginning with M. For my card I have used an old stamp of a mini car and various papers from an American Crafts paper pad. The wording is from visible image.  Hope you will join us this week

Autumn Leaves

 

I was very happy to be asked to do a guest designer spot at Try It On Tuesday challenge which is Autumn Leaves.  My background is coloured with distress inks and mounted onto another piece of card which was coloured with Brushos. Stamped the Crafty Individuals tree twice and added a few smudges of orange DI to try to represent the last of the leaves, then added more colours under the trees for the fallen leaves. The three stamped and cut out leaves are done with my favourite leaf stamp that was a freebie from Crafty Individuals years ago.Finished with a bit of frayed mesh and a wooden button with a twine bow ( and of course the inkylicious birds which seem to get themselves onto so many of my cards! )

Rudolph Christmas Card

This was going to be a quick simple card for The Rudolph Challenge but this is my third attempt and I don't think I'll be making any more.  Everything on this card is from freebies other than the ribbon and the snowflake die cut, the stamp and embossing folder from Papercraft Inspirations and the papers from Simply Homemade. I'm also entering this into Pixies Snippets as the ribbon is a snippet left from last years Christmas card making.

Kraft and Blue

This week at Cardz4guyz the challenge is to use Blue and Kraft.  I don't know where this image came from, I found it in a folder full of bits and pieces, I think someone may have given it to me as its not my usual style although I do think he's quite a cute little fellow !  I had a job to find some Kraft card as the only pieces I had were too small, finally found a sheet of 12x12 which is patterned on one side so this is the reverse. The other papers are from my scrapbox,Craftwork cards sentiment and candies.
Hope to see you joining in this week.

Words

I never used to miss Fashionable Stamping Challenges but seem to have missed a few of the most recent ones. Their challenge this time is Words and I do love my wording stamps, hard part was which one to use. I haven't used this Inkylicious stamp for ages so thought I would give it an airing (or inking ) Simple Ink duster background with distress inks and a little bit of sequin waste stencilling . The tall twigs stamp is a Paper Artsy recently rediscovered and the plants as the bottom are a Indigo Blu freebie. I'd also like to enter it into Make My Monday Challenge which is nature.

P is for ?

 

I decided I would make a card for Alphabet Challenge which has got round to the letter P  and the the theme of Peacocks, Pelicans or other birds, what did I do ? got out a Polar Bear stamp LOL !  After I finally got my brain in gear I found this old Kanban stamp , I think I had bought the set for the other stamps on the sheet.  I  made an Inky background with Creative Chemistry inks, a bit of splattering and some stamped leaves from the same set. The peacock is stamped with Cobalt archival ink and coloured with mermaid lagoon distress ink. I then stencilled some sparkle medium through a swirly stencil, coloured another piece of cardstock with the mermaid ink as I couldn't find any toning card and dyed a piece of seam binding . I'm not a big fan of peacocks (is that a pun ?) as we had one who took up residence for a while in our small close, they make a terrible mess and an even worse noise!

Two For Twofers !

Well I've been a real miserable so and so the last couple of days, no particular reason just mooching about with no inclination to do anything. Having spent the best part of this afternoon shredding years and years worth of bank statements etc didn't help !  Anyhow tonight I thought I'd mess about with distress inks and and use my Cityscape stamps which I had to have and then didn't know what to do with them which is not unusual for me LOL . Gave me another chance to use the Runway girls too, think the two sets of stamps are made for each other.  Anyhow I thought I could enter these into TWOFERS challenge which is a fairly new challenge and I like the idea of making pairs of things.

Embossing

 

 

This week at Cardz4guyz the challenge is embossing. For my card I have used both dry embossing with a cuttlebug embossing folder and silver card and heat embossing using a B Line stamp and silver embossing powder. The card was easy enough but getting a decent picture was a different story! this is the best of a bad lot. Hope you will join us this week.

 

Whooo's looking at you

This is so strange, me who doesn't do pink and girly has made two pink and girly cards in a row.  I was looking through boxes of stamps seeking some inspiration when I saw a set of Hobby Art owl stamps which have only been used once to make a graduation card.  I stamped the owl and partially paper pieced it as I had already stamped the branch and leaves, not much colouring needed except for her lovely blue eyeshadow and her very glittery eyelashes which unfortunately don't show up very well on here. The sentiment is a freebie from Creative Stamping as is the little feather stamp. I'd like to enter my card in these challenges

My Time To Craft  - Owls
Crafty Creations - Out on a limb

 

Shabby

 

I love shabby chic cards but somehow mine always seem to be more shabby than chic ! I've used one of my very favourite Penny Black stamps, Botanical Notes, papers from my scrap box, bits of lace, a shabby seam binding bow, several buttons and the lattice die.  I would like to enter it into a few challenges.

 

• Creative Inspirations - Vintage

 

Fab,n,funky - Shabby Chic

 

Flonzcraft vintage stamping - tic tac toe - I've chosen the middle row, vintage tones,flowers and lace

 

Allsorts - Buttons

 

 

Falling leaves

Been having a bit of a play with some Inklylicious stamps this afternoon. I don't think I've ever made anything with the tall trees stamp before, came across it while I was looking for leaf stamps and I also found a set of leaf stamps I had completely forgotten I had , I've used a couple of the leaves for the ones in the corner ,added the pretty button and a bit of twine. The tiny fallen leaves stamp is from a set of tapestry stamps which are something else I've not used, have a few sets but could never get to grips with them. I'd like to enter it in these challenges

Fantasy Stampers -  Autumn leaves

That's Crafty - Lovely leaves

Addicted to stamps - anything goes

Three

This week at Cardz4guyz  the challenge is to have three of something on your card.
For my card I have used a topper from Making cards magazine, I'm not one for using toppers but I loved the scenic ones in the September issue, the backing papers are also from the magazine, I have no idea where the little anchor stamp is from, had it for ever ! Hope to see your entries this week.

Sew Special

 

 

This week at Stamping Sensations the challenge is  Sew Special , right up my street as I love all things relating to sewing/haberdashery and I do have rather a lot of stamps on this theme. I have managed to restrain myself the only three stamps on here , Justrite Background stamp,Grandma's Attic, the lady sewing is a Red Lead Stamp called dressmakers Trimmings and the Sew Special is from a set of free stamps .The DP is from my scrap box and I just added a few buttons and ribbon and lace.

There is a very generous prize of a £35 voucher from Stamp Addicts

 

and a second prize of Two Tickets To The November Hobbycraft show at the NEC

 

 

 

 

 

Playing with inks again

Not having much inspiration these days and when I can't think of anything to do I usually end up playing with inks and sprays, trouble is I never know when to stop and end up with lots of inky papers that I never get round to using.  Every bit of colour on this card is from Oakhouse Studios Ink
 called French Lavender, used it in a mini misterfor the main piece, painted the two background pieces with it and then painted the flowers with it too. The ribbon is a piece of seam binding dipped in the ink, I do have very purple fingers too ! Oops just noticed I have used another colour, the green is another Oak House Studio ink. The Stamp is Penny Black Botanical Notes.

I'd like to enter it in these challenges

My Time To Craft  - Flowers

Fantasy Stampers -  the colour purple  ( hope this is classed as purple ? )

Crafty Cardmakers - No patterned paper

Oh Christmas Tree

 

Time for another challenge at Sparkles Christmas Challenge and the theme this time is Oh Christmas Tree.  I've used a tree from Stampin Up Lovely as a tree set and added red stickles as baubles .Background is Oh Christmas tree music which was a download from the internet a couple of years ago and the holly die is from Penny Black with yet more stickles added.

 

There is a lovely prize from Bugaboo Stamps of seven digi stamps for the lucky winner. Hope you'll
join us.
                                                     and from Di's Digi A $10 voucher

 

                                                           

Colour !

Well the challenge at Cardz4guyz this week is  Lets Colour. When I,m making cards for men I do tend to reach for the earth tones but today I've gone for a riot of colour, love these crazy bird stamps and I've just got the accessories set so I've had a happy time stamping, cutting and colouring, love the hat and the spotty tie, I like the fact that there are accessories for men and women, can't wait to try the ladies fancy hat and the bouquet of flowers.  I had to smile at the phenomenon of the colouring for adults books that are everywhere now, us stampers have known for years how relaxing it is to sit and colour in! My background is made with Colour Chemistry sprays, French writing stamp and gorgeous grunge stamps.  Hope to see your entries to our challenge this week.