When I saw this challenge yesterday, I started to think about what I might do to participate. There were several ideas in my head, but none of them truly grabbed me. Then this morning I saw our stamp buddy, Angie’s post, and a light bulb went off in my head. So here is my take on both the challenge and her card.

I started with some watercolour CS which I embossed using a SSS folder. Taking one of those (old) distress wheels, I distressed the edges and added some pink to the edges, heavier along those, and lightly to the raised sections. Then I cut a black piece and distressed that too. Glued them together and while they were drying I looked through my dies to find a flower I thought would look nice and chose a Memory Box die called layered daisies. I had a small inked background piece left from a while back and it was mostly pinks so I die cut the flower using this. As it was a thin paper it needed a bit of support so I cut it again from black CS and layered as you see. The stem of the flower is made from Mizuhiki cord (from Japan) and the leaves are die cut from DSP using a very old die that I have no information on. The word is from a Hampton Art sentiment set and I stamped it twice. Glued the 2 pieces together and then cut around the letters. Because it is only an outline I had the bright idea of filling it with small pearls from my stash. Added a few more pearls, glued it to the card front and called it finished.

My hubby really liked it and I have to say I’m quite pleased with it myself. Thanks for taking a peek, it is appreciated that you share your time with me.

Anything Goes with a Fun Fold for Creative Creases #51

I saw a version of this kind of pop up on Pinterest and I thought that I had to try one for myself. The post calls the design a Bijou Pop & Flip Card and you can find the tutorial HERE.

Funnily enough, my local coffee shop had the words I’ve included on the inside on a small plaque and I got permission to use them. I found the saying amusing and in a way this is another reason the card was made. I did this on the computer and printed it onto CS.

Basically I followed the tutorial so I won’t go into the ‘how to’ here. Suffice to say that I adapted a couple of things because I used a smaller circle so the inside pieces needed to be a bit smaller. I learned that using a scalloped edge is probably not the best idea as they stick a bit when opening it. Next time I will use a straight edge circle or oval. There will be a next time as I like the result a lot and it is a cute way to make a card. My stamps are from a new set called Coffee Characters and came with dies, purchased from Your Next Stamp here in Canada. (Thank you Lisa K. for the link). I stamped, coloured with various pencils and Sakura Glaze pens, then die cut the image. The paper is from StampinUp and I really like these marbled papers a lot. The other small change I made was adding a frame around the edge of the die cut as I didn’t like the impression the die had made during the cutting process.

This is my first entry into the Creative Creases challenge and it is fun to participate in a new to me challenge. Thanks for stopping by.

For this card I used a Catherine Pooler set called Koi Pond. It is still fairly new to me and I thought it would be good for a colouring session. I stamped the fish first then masked it off so I could add some colour around it and I also stamped the ripples at the same time. Ink colours used are Distress Oxides Cracked Pistachio and Twisted Citron. I liked this sentiment and used it as you see and added the bubbles as well. I added Nuvo Crystal drops to the bubbles and while they were drying I carefully coloured in my fish. I used Inktense pencils to do this and I added a tiny bit of sparkle along the fin and tail rib lines as well as to the fin along his back. I forgot that this stamp set has a tiny dragonfly stamp so have made a mental note to myself to remember it for another specific challenge I often enter.

Our predicted snow didn’t arrive until late this afternoon, so we’ll see how much arrives when we get up tomorrow morning. I’m happy with how this card turned out and it was fun to do. Your visits to my blog make me happy and I wish you all a Happy Sunday. Hopefully you are staying warm and don’t have to deal with a ton of snow.

The new challenge for February at http://cardz4galz.blogspot.com/ is to use red, white and pink. I decided to use butterflies and a technique found here by Natasha Foot that she calls double masking. I used an old stamp from CTMH and a sentiment stamp from an incentive set by GKD. Although I chose a butterfly stamp, mine is quite different from the one that Natasha used and I coloured mine initially with Prisma pencils and blended with an alcohol blender. I used two tones of red and two of pink and to jazz it all up I added some shimmery watercolour in Garnet and Chiffon Pink by ColorArte to sections of the wings on the upper and lower images and white perfect pearls on the middle one. The shimmer is quite apparent in reality, but isn’t great on the photo and on the bottom image the red looks a bit orange, but is definitely red. I added a few pink embellishments from my stash. I also used a foam pad to give some dimension to the layer.

We hope you will join us and participate in the challenge. Many thanks for stopping by.

This stamp set is from Joy Clair and I’ve only used it a few times. I thought it was time to pull it out and use it again. The penguin is from the Cats Pajamas and the sentiment is computer generated. PP is from StampinUp and I used a Heffy Doodle heart border die along one edge.

Once I had stamped the image in black, I stamped it again in Versamark so I could heat emboss in clear. Then I used Distress Oxides and basically water coloured each cup until I was happy with it. I cut the panel down and then die cut the border before adhering it to the PP and then to the card front. As I didn’t have an appropriate sentiment stamp I made my own and added the penguin as decoration. I used Sakura glaze pens to colour the penguin. I don’t make many slimline cards in general but this stamp is perfect for that style of card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day everyone.

A while back I saw a picture that really intrigued me, so I saved it in case I could make something similar. This morning I came across the picture and realized that if I could create it, it may work for two challenges and this is my version.

After cutting the CS to a 5″ by 5″ piece, I made a mask for the larger circle. Before adding the mask I went over the panel lightly in Spun Sugar giving the whole thing a hint of pink. Then I added the mask and inked with Shaded Lilace and Shabby shutters. Before removing the mask I stamped the village house using a new stamp set from MFT called Seasons Greetings. I also stamped the sentiment from the same set. Then using 2 different handmade stencils (made by friends) I stamped 3 more circles using the same inks and each time adding an image before moving the mask. Those stamps come from older GKD sets. Then taking the graduated polka dot stencil added more circles in various places and different sizes. I wanted it to have some shine so I took some Perfect Pearl powder and went over the entire piece. I added foam tape to the back and adhered it to a 5 and one quarter inch card base.

I have surprised myself with how this card turned out as I was truly experimenting and playing with ideas as I went along. I like that this is so different from anything I’ve ever done in the past and getting it to work for 2 challenges is a bonus. I hope you like it and thanks for taking a look.

The box card I posted yesterday that was made for my sister, was in a way inspired by this one. I started this Z-fold with a friend’s birthday in mind and as he owns and loves horses I used the old rubber stamp of the horse. I added him to the frame background which was stamped using an old GKD set and I water coloured the sky and ground. DSP is from StampinUp, the fence and gate are MFT. I swiped an ink pad over these to give the wood look. The other stamps are from Lavinia and GKD respectively.

When I began the card I knew I wanted a Z-fold, but it took me 2 tries because I had already stamped the focal image and background and it didn’t seem to fit how I imagined it. I ended up cutting off the back portion of the card and adding a new section so I wouldn’t waste too much card stock. Then when I finally had it right with the Z-fold part also added, I realized the centre section looked empty, I decided to make that section into a box. After several attempts I was about ready to give up when I found a tutorial that looked like it would work without me having to take the card apart. As you can see it worked, but in the attempt I realized that I had better make another box card to try to fix the ‘how to’ into my memory. Hence my sisters card was born.

At the time of creating this, which took me over a week, I hadn’t intended it for a challenge and I hadn’t posted it either. This morning I thought maybe I would post it and in checking a few challenge blogs realized it would work for the Make my Monday challenge. And I’ve added it to the Creative Creases challenge as per Debbie’s suggestion. Thanks for stopping by and I hope your day is going well.

I had all these circles on my desk from playing around on a different project. I never throw them away as I know I will use them for something at some point. Then I saw the AAA challenge and hey presto, I’ve used some of them for the challenge.

My circles are cut using Infinity Dies from Hero Arts and I had several frames sitting around in both white and gold. The blue dots were fall outs from a card I did the other day and the scripty love heart is an unbranded die that I quite like. I cut 2 used one as you see with the word and one I just cut the heart for the solid circle. The frames were glued flat except for the gold one which I carefully added foam tape on the back so it would pop up slightly. The solid gold circle sits almost popped up because it is resting on the frame.

When I first began the card, I wasn’t sure where I was going with it, but when playing with the shapes it all sort of flowed together and I’m pleased with the end result. It is CAS and has an elegant feel to it too.

We have family day holiday tomorrow and I am hoping the weather is nice so people can get out and about easily. Thanks for taking a peek.

I like lime green and Cyan together as a colour scheme and decided to try a box card for a change. The stamp set + dies are from A.I. mainly, although the little bird is from MFT and the numbers are from a Recollections stamp set and an alphabet die. DSP is from StampinUp and the single balloon is from Spellbinders.

At first I couldn’t remember how to do the box so I followed a tutorial found on Pinterest. As it happened one of the finished cards shown, featured a sheep stamp set by another company, and my card was born. I had been looking for ideas on how to use my new set and the example really helped me with mine. This stamp set from A.I. really amuses me.

As I was working I was thinking about who I should give the resulting card to and I remembered it is my sister’s 70th birthday this year. I figured I would have some fun rubbing in the fact she is 70 as she always has a go at me for being older and this is how the numbers came about. I added some sparkle to the heart, the numbers at the front and on the balloons. Her birthday isn’t for a while but having this ready nice and early is a good thing. It folds flat so I can store it for a while.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Sometimes a challenge sticks in my head and results in a 2nd entry. This weeks challenge at AAA is one of those times. In searching for a particular stamp, for another card, I came across an old set from CTMH that I’ve not used in a long time. I decided that one of these stamps would work for my 2nd card and I also used one of the sentiment stamps from the set too.

I stamped it with Versamark then heat embossed in gold. I cut some small sticky strips and laid them out so I could add paint in the openings and for this I used a Distress Oxide in Broken China. I also added a bit of colour to the center of the paisley image. When I removed the sticky strips I wasn’t totally pleased with how it looked so I took a ruler and a Sakura Gelly roll pen and added a line of sparkle down each stripe. I liked this much more but I can’t make up my mind whether I should have stamped the image with the tail end up rather than down as it is here. Too late now but one of you may have an opinion.

It is close to supper time for me. I made a spaghettis sauce the other day and hubby said he wanted homemade pasta. This has been an ongoing small bone of contention between us. Since we were in Tuscany, where we had a cooking session as part of our stay in a local villa, he has wanted homemade pasta. I told him there was no way I’m doing it at home, too time consuming, too messy and I can’t be bothered. Nevertheless he purchased all the equipment (not really needed by the way) and has bugged me to make pasta. I’ve resisted each time and even considered getting rid of the equipment. He announced this morning that he wants homemade pasta and he would make it himself. I said good luck and went off to my yoga class. He has basically spent most of the morning working on it and most of the afternoon rolling it out and cutting it, so we get homemade pasta. I didn’t do the work although from the state of the kitchen there will be some floor cleaning to do. I’ll let you know if I liked it in my next post. LOL.

Thanks for stopping by.