Just because cards

 

Not feeling very motivated this week, too many other things on my mind I suppose.  While mooching about "tidying"  I came across my box full of pan pastels which I haven't used for a while, don't know why as they make fabulous coloured backgrounds in the twinkling of an eye. I've no idea what colours I used as I just pick and mix at random.  The stamps are all from Indigo Blu Victorian Garden set which was a birthday present back in April. I did some second generation stamping to give a bit of depth but it was too faint to show up on here.

I bought these Hobby Art stamps during a trip to Skipton and Embsey with our daughter. Another pan pastel background, all the stamps are Hobby Arts except the top one which is Inkylicious.  It's bit pale but I was so concerned with colouring the bird that it didn't end up looking like a canary that I maybe erred a little on the cautious.

I'd like to enter this card into Moving along with the times  - Things that Fly
and Cardz4galz - Pretty pastels

Colour your world

This month at Stamping Sensations we are sponsored by Swedish House Crafts  with a great prize of £25 voucher for the winner and tw0 runner up prizes of £10 .The challenge is one that's always a favourite :- Anything Goes.  Do remember we are a Stamping Challenge and we must see stamping as the focal point of your entry, If we  do not comment it is because you have not followed the rules of the challenge.  For my DT card this month I have coloured a piece of card with distress oxide inks and then stamped the birds on a wire stamp from Inkylicious and bleached out parts of the birds to make them fit my wording, added the dab of colour to add the word Colour.

Paris Post card

The challenge this time at Try It On Tuesday is Post Cards.  For my postcard I used a 4"x 6" piece of glossy card and covered it with distress oxide inks in Wilted Violet and Cracked Pistachio, heat dried it and then dipped it into various colours of oxides spritzed on my blending mat,drying in between each lot of colours, get a bit carried away and can go on for ever adding more layers of colour .  I stamped the Woodware Paris Collage in Wilted violet onto it,not the most successful stamping, so stamped it again on tissue and adhered the tissue to the lower half which had not stamped well.  Stamped the collage again on a piece of Brusho paper and fussy cut the butterfly,watch etc. Added a die cut Eiffel tower and a stamped postage stamp.  Lots of messing about but enjoyed making it and reasonably happy with the result.  Hope you will join us in our challenge.

Peace On Earth

Time for a new challenge at Sparkles Christmas 

and Debs has chosen "Use A Festive Sentiment as A Focal Point "  For my card I have used a die I bought last year and I think I only used it once and Stampin Up snow embossing folder. The blue background is made with one of my homemade ink sprays with a bit of gold splattering which doesn't show up too well on here.Stamped and embossed in white the Christmas verse. Hope you will join us in our challenge and get some more Christmas cards in your stash, only five months to go !

Sunny Pair

A "just because" card. I've had this Penny Black stamp for quite a while but not really used it much, don't know why as this Sunny Pair are very bright and cheerful. A very simple card, just stamped onto a stitched square, coloured with zig pens, the background paper was free with a magazine and a bit of ribbon from my stash. Didn't add a sentiment as I don't know what I will use this card for.

I'd like to enter it into Penny Black Friends Saturday Challenge - Flowers and

City Crafters Challenge -something beginning with S   - Sunflowers

Believe In The Magic

Another month almost over and it's time for Rudolph Day challenge once again. For my card I have used two Crafty Individuals stamps, wording and snowflakes from a freebie stamp set.  Background paper made with home made ink sprays made from some cheap metallic paints I got from The Works ages ago. I'd also like to enter my card into The Holly and The Ivy Christmas Challenge which is always Anything Goes

Let It Shine

The new challenge at Try It On Tuesday starting today is "Let It Shine "  . For my piece I decided to go with bright sunny colours and colourful flowers.  Created the background with distress inks and added the stencilled sun rays with the darker of the two colours, think it was spiced marmalade. Stamped the Woodware long,tall flowers across the lower part of the card and painted the with distress inks. Added my little painted butterfly and the computer generated words. Hope to see you on our challenge this time.

Sea Scape

I wached Jean from Crafty Individuals on Hochanda last week and she made some background papers for Christmas cards with acrylic paints, as I have most of the stamps she used on the show I thought I'd give it a go, however mine were decidedly not Christmas by the time I'd finished !  I then thought I'd seen a challenge for something to do with sea so ended up using some of the papers for making this card.The background is a cover a card stamp by Impression Obsessions,the porthole was free with a magazine and the galleon is Stampin up.Few torn bits of the painted paper for the waves and a die cut anchor.Looked for the challenge I'd seen and it had finished, about right for me ! However I would like to enter my card into Make My Monday challenge which is Holidays/travel, hope it fits their criteria ?

Butterfly

I had been die cutting some Sizzix/ Stamping up butterflies for something else I was working on and had several pieces of white card with the outline of the butterfly cut out, also had cut more of the lacy butterfly than I needed (just in case, as you do ) rather than waste the negative pieces I thought I would see what it looked like with a piece of coloured card behind,looked a bit bare so added the white lacy one over the top and loved it, so went ahead and found some pretty satin card to use.

Used my tonic square dies to cut the white "waste" into a neat square and also to cut the blue/teal ? square. Made some antenna out of little strips of card and cut a body out in the coloured card too.

I stamped "just because "in the top corner and then decided to add "its your birthday "in the lower corner,wished I hadn't as it didn't stamp too well, thank you "Misty" for restamping it for me even if it is still a bit blotchy LOL

I would like to enter my card into Cardz4Galz challenge - butterflies

Happy Little Stampers - anything goes with dies

and

Crafting with dragonflies - punches/dies

Keeper

Saw that Fashionable Stamping challenge that has just started is Gone Fishing, first thought was to make a masculine card but then ,looking at the DT samples , one of them had used an Artistic Outpost stamp and it reminded I have the Keeper set of stamps that I have never used. Stamped the girl onto an oxide ink background, added a bit more vegetation and a couple of fish, added to another inky background piece made using the same colours and with a bit if meshy stuff ( I really don't know what this stuff is, there was a big roll of it in an old first aid box but its great for adding to cards !)

Fashionable Stamping - Gone Fishing

Thats Crafty Challenge - Anything goes

Fashionista

The challenge at Try It On Tuesday this time is to make a tag, either stand alone or as part of a project. I had got out of the habit of making tags so faffed around for a while thinking what I could use.  .I stamped and white embossed the background wording and then coloured the tag with oxide inks.  I tore a piece from a serviette to create the Paris background.Stamped,embossed and coloured the runway girl ,added a piece of lace and a black bow and mounted the tag on to a piece of black card, was rather happy at how it turned out .  

Its all about flowers

This month at Stamping Sensations the challenge is Anything With Flowers so lots of scope  to burst into bloom !  We are sponsored this month by Crafty Individuals who are offering a fantastic prize of £35 to spend in their shop

Although I have to admit I have a drawer full of CI Stamps I was surprised to find I had very few flower ones but for my top card I used one of my favourites, such a pretty stamp. I stamped in Versafine over a piece of Oxide ink paper left over from another card,used a bit of bleach to lift the colour from some of the flowers and added a bit of colour.  For my second card I got a bit carried away with the background,distress inks,stencilling,stamping etc.The two flower pieces were stamped and embossed in black  and coloured with markers.

Thanks for looking and I hope to see you joining in with our challenge this month.

Christmas Ornament

Time for a new challenge at Sparkles Christmas and Mary has asked to see an ornament  either on a project or an actual ornament.  The Design team have some very different ideas to inspire you.  A few (or maybe quite a lot!) of years ago medallion stamps were all the rage and I made loads of cards with them.  This was always my favourite one and I found the ready made medallion in a box along with a few others in different colours. They were quite time consuming to make, five layers on this one,apart from the gold layer they are all  painted with Pearl Ex.  The background is an embossing folder ,no name on it but think it is creative expressions then mounted on a piece of blue pearlised card.  Hope you will join us in our challenge this month and add another Christmas card to your stash (less than six month to go you know ! )

On The Beach

Well it's been far from beach weather here today, rained continually now for two days and tonight was really windy too, rain beating on the windows, had to put the central heating back on, not flaming June for sure.  I made my little tag for Tag Tuesdays challenge of Seaside.  Sloshed (technical term!) on some Paperartsy acrylic paints quite thickly, adding bits of white for the breakers,added some Taupe frantage for the shingle. Don't know why they give the frantage colour names as everyone I have used just comes out gold despite shaking it up.  I don't know the name of the stamp of the children as it belongs to a friend and I had stamped a few up ages ago,coloured them with watercolour pencils and stamped the Inkilicious birds in the sky.

Tag Tuesday  -    The Beach

Snowy cottage in the woods

Just been playing with a, new to me, stamp from Crafty Individuals. Tried stamping it in various colours,this one is versafine smokey gray, just a few little touches of colour and lots of glitter,piece of star embossed blue card and a surround of silver glitter card, if I make more of these would probably add a sentiment.

This one actually looks a lot better in real life, stamped with encore blue ink, embossing folder inked with the same colour.  I like the top one better but the actual image stamped in blue is lovely, just needs a less busy background I think.

I'd like to enter the first card into Mo's June Rudolph challenge