Putting On The Ritz

 

Today I had intended to sort out two very big boxes of cards, decisions on whether to bin them, send them to charity shop, recycle them etc, I do wonder why on earth I make so many cards .

However I came across a couple of toppers which were originally made for a ICAD swap at least two years ago so I thought I'm make them into cards. This one 's background is made with spray inks, tissue paper, washi tape etc. Stamped clock and various cut outs from Graphic 45, background papers are also G45 . I'm really determined to use up some of my stuff but it seems an impossible task.

I'd like to enter this in a couple of challenges

 

Fussy and Fancy  - Fashion

and

Unicorn Challenge - Get your glad rags on

Simple !

 

Sometimes the simple things become the hardest !  Tonight I have been playing about "smooshing" with distress inks and brushos and as usual have ended up with a stack of inky papers. I  stamped my Inkylicious  Banksy girl and her balloon, then I couldn't decide on some wording, finally found the kite saying and thought I'd use that, stamped it just fine then disaster struck, I had not reckoned on the fact I had used glossy card and the versafine ink I'd used smudged when I put the card in the scanner, I managed to wipe the whole line off with a baby wipe and stamped it again with archival ink ,not perfect stamping as it slid a little on the glossy surface.

I want to enter my card on a couple of challenges

 

Simply Less Is More - Silhouettes

 

Happy Little Stampers - Smooshing

 

 

Spots or stripes ?

 

This is my design team card for this weeks Cardz4guyz challenge which calls for spots or stripes, either or both, hope you'll join us.

 

For my card this week I've used another picture from the Kevin Walsh out and about collection, I find these make very quick cards and the ones I've made before have gone down well with the recipients. The striped and spotted papers are from my scrap box ( which never seems to get any emptier) I'm also trying to use up these scallop edge cards bought on a whim and I'm not too fond of them.

 

 

Let it snow (or not !)

This card is made using another of my new stamps that fell in my basket at Embsey last week.  I had looked at the Crafters Companion set late last year but told myself I didn't need any more Christmas stamps, however as this set was practically being given away and I can't resist a nice snowman, home
it came.  This is my third Christmas card this year, hopefully if I can keep making a few it will avoid the horrible panic I had last year which quite honestly took a lot of pleasure out of making my Christmas cards, something I usually love.

I'd like to enter my card in Scrappy Mo's  January Rudolph Challenge

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 2 - Anything goes as long as its Christmas

Pixies Playground Snippets - Red  snowflake paper and die cut snowflakes from last years Christmas
 cards
also
Make My Monday - use your newest or favourite stamp  (newest for me)

Wine Not

Love this Woodware stamp that fell in my basket last Tuesday when I went to Embsay Crafts just to get some card blanks , after a horrible drive there in fog and rain and road closures everywhere, detour here, detour there ( we knew the A59 was closed but couldn't believe they had also closed off all the side roads too!) finally snuck through on one road where part of the road had collapsed and got back onto another route, only to find that Embsay were out of stock of the card blanks I wanted !! finally found one pack in amongst some other sizes, anyhow they did have quite a lot of stuff on sale and one or two ( or 7) new stamps found their way back with me, the one above being one of them.
I knew straight away I wanted to do the acrylic block technique with it and for once it worked out just how I have envisioned it. I'd like to enter this card in these challenges

Artistic Stampers  - Anything goes

Addicted to stamps  - make your mark - distress inks used for background and painting, embossed stamping.

silhouette

just another play with a brusho background and Visible Image butterfly, bit of stencilling and a Hobby Arts sentiment .  I'm undecided whether to get the new brusho colours, do I need them ?
can't decide !

I'd like to enter my card into

Try It On Tuesdays     - Silhouettes

Craft Stamper - take a stamp - anything goes

 

Blue Is The Colour

This week at cardz4guyz    Julie has chosen the theme Blue is the colour.  Hope you can join us in this, just remember your card has to be suitable for a guy of any age.

For my card I have used a stamp by Viva Décor for the train and some freebie stamps I've had quite a long time, I think they came with a Do Craft magazine. The sentiment is computer generated.

I'd like to enter my card in a couple of challenges

Addicted To Stamps  - masculine

Fantasy Stampers - Its all about the boy

Feeling Blue ?

Christmas card number two.   Lili Of The Valley paper scraps left over from last years cards and a freebie stamp from a magazine.  I had intended to play with brushos this afternoon , don't quite know how I came to be making this instead . So I'll enter it into these challenges

craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge - anything goes

Graph it Colour Challenge   - winter blues

Sparkles monthly challenge  - January Blues ( monochromatic)

Playing again

I'm trying out some techniques that I did a few years ago, my memory is not what it used to be and so I'm now writing each one down in a notebook as I try them.  Thank goodness for YouTube as a memory aid although I couldn't find this on there.  I think it was Jennifer McGuire who I first saw do this and she called it finger painting. Stamped and embossed flowers in white and then roughly coloured them in with distress inks applied with fingers. I do like the water coloured look it gives.
This is my first play with a new stamp I just got from Hobby Arts and I think it will be getting a lot of use. Putting it on these challenges

Flonzcraft Vintage Challenge -  anything goes with new stash

and

The Sisterhood of Crafters  - something old ( the die,the distress inks and the technique)
                                             - something new - (the stamp)


                                             

Play time

 

I was rattling along in fine form at the beginning of the month but then I started to run out of steam despite having untouched new stash.  Last night I thought I'd just mess about with a few stencils and this is the result, bit of a mish mash but I loved making it.  The inked background was in my folder of inky/painty papers and I'm not sure but I think it is brushos, then I just got carried away with embossing paste and stencils, the large flowers are Imagination craft stencil, Roman numerals and small flowers Indigo Blu. number stamps and wording are Kaisercraft.  I stamped too many red flowers and decided I had spoilt it but then I reapplied the stencil and used white over the top hence the pink flowers. Butterfly is Stampin Up stamps and die. I think I may make this into a book cover for one of my notebooks.  I'd like to enter it into these challenges

 

Simon Says Stamp  Monday Challenge - Stencil it

 

Butterfly Spot Challenges - I is for Ink  + butterfly

 

Try It On Tuesday - letters and numbers

 

City Crafters - Butterfly

Happy Birthday

 

 



Cardz4guyz is now two years old so to join in our challenge this week we hope you will make a Birthday Card for a Guy in your life.  I've gone bright and cheerful this week with some stripy paper from my 12 x 12 mountain of scrapbook papers ! no idea what make it is.  The image is from a Kevin Walsh paper pad , its great for making quick cards and my husband , who is not overly impressed by my stamped creations loves these !  I think it might be rather noisy down that country lane with trains, cars and tractors !

Oh Dear

Well today I decided I had to do something about the huge stack of magazines on the floor at the side of the sofa, anytime anyone went near there was a landslide all over the floor, have I sorted it out ? have I wallop !  There are now several piles all over the floor and I have spent most of the afternoon browsing through the magazines. Amongst the magazines are a lot of Making Card magazines that I get tempted into buying because they often have lovely papers in them, do I use them ? of course I don't !  Looking through the Christmas ones I rediscovered the cute sheep that were the main reason I bought the magazine in the first place so I did make a little card with one of them and a piece of paper from the same mag.  Its my first Christmas card on 2016 .

 

Alphabet challenge  - windows

Crimbo Crackers - anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas  Challenge - Anything goes.

 

Now I'm off to make the dinner and just shutting the door on the mess

 

 

CAS

complete change from my last inky cards, I've made a CAS card which is most unusual for me as I'm far too messy to keep all the white space clean .  For the panel I sponged Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio and Peacock feathers distress inks, I also sponged a spare piece of card for the sentiment. Used some of my old markers to colour the Inkylicious stamp and stamped it on the panel, stamped the sentiment with memento Lilac Posies.  The two punched butterflies also coloured with a marker pen, I thought I had picked up the pen I used for the flowers but obviously not,howver I felt they made a bit of a contrast.  finished by sponging the edges of a piece of cardstock to match the colours of the panel.  I'd like to enter this in these challenges

Time Out Challenges - Birthday with optional twist of sponging

Stamplorations - C.A.S

Brusho paints

Watched a video on Facebook of white embossing with brusho paints and decided to have a play. Mine are nowhere near as striking as the ones in the video but it was quite fun playing, getting messy again. After a couple of failures I did realise you need to use the darker colours to get a good effect and the ones on the video had much more defined areas of colour but its a fun technique and another chance to use my new stamps.

I'd like to enter these challenges

Rubys rainbow  - show us something new,  stamp and technique new to me

Simon Says Stamp    - something new - new stamp and the technique is new to me

Through the craftroom door - Anything goes
 

Anything but square

This week at Cardz4guyz  Sharon  has chosen the theme of anything but square, I'm out of my comfort zone with shaped cards but I remembered I had a set of Tonic dies that were included with a set of Hexagon dies I bought on Ebay and I have never used them , cut a base card ,an extra white one, black layer and then another white layer.  Background with ink dusters and distress inks. The Stamps are Inkylicious Serengeti 1, first time I've used them and of course there are Inkylicious birds too, great for filling in those spaces.  This might have looked better on here if I had taken a photo instead of scanning but I do have a problem uploading photos onto my contrary desktop computer.

Xanthine

It's as well there was an explanation of the word Xanthine on Butterflyspot Challenge or I would not have had a clue what it meant.  I've inked up my piece of card with Dandelion and Canteloupe Memento inks and there is some subtle stamping on there too but its so subtle it doesn't show on here !  Inked up the CTMH Papergarden stamp with Morocco and Bamboo shoot Memento inks, Memory box die cut layered butterfly coloured with the same yellow inks, the wording is Stampin Up.

I would like to enter my card in these challenges

Butterfly Spot Challenge       X is for Xanthine

Allsorts Challenge                 What's New  -papergarden Flower stamp

Fantasy Stampers                   Happy Birthday

Neutrals

I haven't entered a card on Simply Less Is More for ages but I had been playing about with a new stamp and had an idea it would make a very simple card stamped in one colour.  My hardest task was finding neutral colours and I have slipped a bit of blue in, the other colours are memento Grey Flannel and Toffee crunch, both stamped off first to tone them down, the flower is stamped with Toffee Crunch too. The layer is actually a very pale grey although it does look blue on here.

Simply Less Is More  - Neutrals

Anything goes

This week at Stamping Sensations the challenge is  Anything goes with a stamp and a die.
We are sponsored by  TONIC who have provided this lovely prize of Nuvo crystals and glitters, I'd lovre to win this but sadly the design team are not allowed to enter . 

For my card I have used Stampendous Peony Spray Stamp, Die Sire butterfly swirl embossing folder and Penny Black Sentiment stamp ( All lovely new stash , early Christmas gift from a good friend !)
There are some fabulous cards from the design team members so do go and have a look

New Year, new stash !

Happy New Year To Everyone !

Fresh start, fresh stash, new toys to play with, what's not to like.

I have been very spoilt and have lovely new stamps, embossing folders and dies , didn't know where to start !  My Sister always asks me for a wish list but she didn't this year so I was really wondering what she had sent me.  I just love these Watercolour wings stamps and dies from Stampin Up,  I had seen them in the catalogue and dismissed them but once I played with the layering stamps I am besotted with them, last night I just sat and stamped lots of colour variations using Memento and archival inks. Today when I got time to make a card I already had the colour combo's ready worked out.Fot this one I used New Sprout, Viridian and bamboo leaves.  The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday Choose Happiness set ( also a gift from my Sister) the butterfly embossing folder was a gift from a friend. I'm buzzing with ideas which is great as I've been struggling with my mojo of late, I need to go cook dinner but I just want to play ha ha ha ha !

Vintage Tag

 

 

This month at Sparkles Christmas the challenge has been chosen by Babs who has asked for a Vintage Tag.

 

We are sponsored this month by Crafty Sentiments Designs

 

 

 

For my tag I have used papers and images from Graphic 45 Christmas papers.