Every once in a while something sticks in your head and the only way to get it out is to create a card. Most of my friends and stamping buddies know that Halloween isn’t my thing and I don’t make many cards using this theme. That said the colour challenge at ColorHues wouldn’t leave me even though I submitted a card yesterday. So today I have created a second one making it a Halloween card which also fits with the Two Old Bats challenge.

Using a Lavinia Stamp and Wilted violet ink, I stamped the tree and then clear heat embossed it. After which I stamped the bat from the stamp set Wicked, by GKD in the same ink and heat embossed that. When it had cooled, I inked the panel using Spiced Marmalade making it heavier at the edges and lighter in the center. From the same set I stamped the cat and witches hat in black. Using a pen I grounded both tree and cat with some lines to denote a mound. I was about to add it to the card front, but felt something was missing so using an embossing pen and a ruler I went around the edge of the card and heat embossed with copper. Even though I prepared the card with an embossing pad, I still ended up with bits of powder stuck in places which really annoyed me. I hid the worst spot with the word Boo, and decided that a spooky themed card with a few stray speckles wouldn’t matter much.

Considering that I’m not into Halloween, I’m quite pleased with this one. Thanks for stopping by, it is appreciated.

The new challenge at Colorhues is to use Tangerine and Violet and this is what I came up with. I used on older incentive stamp set by GKD called Skeleton leaves and I stamped the leaves randomly as you see in the photo. I used Distress Oxide inks in Carved Pumpkin, Spiced Marmalade and Wilted Violet with a couple of leaves done in Rusty Hinge. I added a paper ribbon border and a gold ribbon across that before adding the sentiment. The die cut is a store bought one that I trimmed one edge off as it was a bit big. Then I added an Infinity Die circle with the sentiment stamps from the same set as the leaves.

This was a quick and easy card to produce. It is the Labor Day weekend here and I hope that everyone has a fun time with what they choose to do. Thanks for stopping by.

The little commission I was requested to do, is now complete and this is the second one I did. In this case the recipient loves anything floral so I made a tree with my die cuts. I made quite a few poinsettias and then added several other die cuts from a stamp and die set from MFT. The background is a folder by Couture Creations. I added a bit of shimmer to the background and bling to the flower centers.

We have much needed rain starting here, but it is arriving with a thunder storm and we are saying prayers that it doesn’t bring lightening with it. Lightening could bring on wildfires which we definitely don’t need.

The card works for both the challenge at Peace on Earth and the one at CYHTP although in the latter case the twist for the challenge isn’t taken. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and the time you spend with me.

Welcome to the current Make My Monday challenge which is Hobbies for the next two weeks. Many people love to play golf and with the help of a wonderful stamping buddy I used this image to portray the sport/hobby of golf. I am so fortunate with my stamping buddy group as 2 of the ladies responded to a call for help when I asked for Golf related images. I have nothing in my own stash of stamps and had received a request for a Christmas related golfing card. I asked and received a bunch of stamped images from various stamp sets that I could use as I pleased. This image is from a StampinUp set as are the words. I coloured and fussy cut the image and popped it up on the unbranded stitched edge banner after I had added some green sponging at the bottom. I cut a larger banner by hand, as none of the other dies would work, then used an EF brick look folder for some texture. Using a swiss dot EF on the debossed side I die cut a circle with Hero Arts Infinity dies and also a few small balls for below the bag. The background was created with both vellum and a green shimmer CS using a folder by Life Style crafts and this was added to the darker blue piece so a small border shows. I deliberately allowed some glue to show through the vellum as it reminded me of the sky. The rest was added on top and then all was adhered to the card front. This is a slightly larger card for which I shall create my own envelope. It is not quite a slimline but is close.

The other received images will be used moving forward and I’ve already begun the requested Christmas one. Thanks to my lovely buddies I didn’t have to purchase stamp sets that may only be used once or twice.

I hope to see you in the gallery and thanks for stopping by and for comments too.

A friend requested four cards for Christmas, but one needed to also be a birthday card. Serendipitously, I had just completed this one when the music challenge appeared, so obviously it is being entered here. I’ve made a couple of these pianos before, but I changed this one up a little bit. The music score was found online and it was already aged so all I needed to do was cut it to size. The piano keys were all cut using a ruler and scissors, then added to the card, which had already been hand cut into a piano shape. I added an extra flap underneath the piano shape so that there is space to write a message. The poinsettias were all die cut using two different sets that I’ve listed in various other posts and some of the foliage is from a punch. I added some gold cord underneath and placed the flowers over the top. A few embellishments for the flower centers and I called it finished. I have one more card to make for this friend and have a background almost finished, but I still have to do more before I can say it is done.

These piano cards pack a lot of visual impact and are worth doing even if somewhat time consuming. I shall make a small box for it as an envelope would squish the flowers too much. I’ll post the others at some point I’m sure.

Thanks for stopping in to take a look, it is appreciated.

Recently I’ve seen someone show how to use colour pencils on some colouring pages and I decided to give the technique a try. I used a new border stamp found in a dollar store by Forever in Time and proceeded to use Prisma colour pencils with the result as you see here. I am really pleased with how this turned out and as my preference is to use pencils I shall be doing more colouring this way for sure. For some added interest I scored a few lines down the sides of the image. I added the sentiment which is from an old StampinUp set, and I also used the smallest butterfly from this set which was fussy cut. I added some red sparkle to the butterfly and some glitter to one word in the sentiment. Some Pops of Color on the body and underneath the sentiment and the card was done.

An easy card kept simple and just in time for the challenge at Color Hues. Thanks for popping in to look.

Last night I was having trouble sleeping and gave up rather than toss and turn continually. Normally I take a book and read for a while but occasionally head into my craft room. The die set is from Kokorosa and with the challenge at As You See It being a beach theme I thought I would use it to make a card. I die cut several umbrellas and added more colour to them here and there. Added foam tape so I could get a bit of dimension. The towel and people are all part of the set, but the wave is from a different set. I had a square piece of kraft CS in my scraps so I built the scene on that. I added the sun in the corner by hand and used the cut edge of the wave die cut scrap to add a bit of sky. Added the people to the towels, with a couple in the water and then the umbrellas in a row. I touched up the wave with a white gel pen to look like froth and a bit of sparkle to denote wave action. Used a black pen around the edges of this scene and then added it to the gold layer for a border. From there to the white card.

Crafting in the middle of the night is not perhaps the wisest thing to do as I didn’t measure the white card front correctly and when folded the back is shorter than the front. I’ll fix it before sending but for the purposes of the photo it didn’t matter. As an expat Aussie, my hubby loves to sit on a beach in the sun, me not so much. I burn so easily and as a cancer survivor am not willing to risk sunburn if I can avoid it. As we live near the ocean a scene such as this one is found all along the coast. If we are boating I can stay out of direct sunlight most of the time, but sitting on a beach even in the shade, isn’t something I enjoy. Decided to hold off on a sentiment for now as I’m not sure yet how this card will be used.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your weekend is going great.

Our current challenge at cardz 4 galz is to use cute animals or insects and I chose these monkeys from a new StampinUp set that I won recently. The frame die is from MFT and uses some shimmery green CS from SSS. I popped this up with foam tape. The background is a piece of Vellum made to look like a sky, which was glued to card front first. Once the images were stamped I fussy cut everything, but the smaller items were a bit challenging to cut this way. I may look for the matching dies to this set. The monkeys were coloured with Inktense pencils, Sakura pens and Ohuhu pens. Then I assembled the card until I liked the placement using glue/foam tape to do so.

Although I really like the shimmer CS it is quite soft and the die made it a bit fragile. I disguised the broken bits as best as I could but must remember this when I use more of the CS. I think this turned out reasonably well, but it did take some time to create.

Thanks for stopping by, it is appreciated. I look forward to seeing your creations in the gallery.

In a way this card is a bit like the floating technique because the stripes all float over the aperture. To prevent them from bending all have been backed with foam tape and the whole panel is popped up. After studying the inspiration photo I decided on a nautical theme using stripes so I pulled out my scraps that were already kind of like stripes but cut them thinner. After deciding on the sequence of blues I added them as you see to the white card layer. then I turned it over, cut off the excess and added the foam tape. This layer was added to the navy card front. The sailboat is a new to me die – came with 2 boats – from Kokorosa and I cut several to give it some definition and strength when all glued together. I coloured this with pencils. and a Sakura pen. I found a thin strip of glitter paper that was in the same colour family and made it look like water (I hope) so the boat was grounded. The sentiment is from an old set by Inspired by Stamping and this card will go to a sailing friend for his birthday which is coming up soon.

This turned out better than I expected and I know our friend is going to like it. Thanks for stopping by, it is appreciated.

To make this card I used a free digital stamp found on the Internet. I resized the images then printed 4 of them onto some CS. I then used Spectrum Noir markers to give colour and fussy cut each one. The green die cut is from GKD, the sentiment is from Hampton Arts and the embellishments are YNR Gumdrops. The PP is from an old paper pad that is almost finished. Using alcohol markers is not my go to normally but they seemed best for this particular image. I decided that a square card worked best for this design and this one is 5X5″.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a wonderful day.