I almost missed this challenge due to being busy with some home stuff. As well, I don’t have any cute bee stamps and the one stamp I do have is MIA, so I made my own. They say get creative so I did. The sentiment is computer generated and is probably something I’ve seen somewhere but cannot credit to anyone at the moment. I did have the honeycomb die which I cut in black to add over the yellow card front. I built the bees by using an ornament stencil, which I traced for the body, fussy cutting and colouring it with Spectrum Noir markers, some vellum for the wings, a small circle stamp for the head and some thread for the antenna and arms. I hand drew the nose and mouth and added googly eyes. My bees are weird but somehow fun and perfection on a handmade card isn’t totally necessary, although it has taken me a long time to realize that.

The heat continues and my laundry dried outside in 2 hours so now it is folding time. Supper first and then finish the chores is the order of my evening. All the news is showing is wildfires everywhere and I’m trying not to think about it because it makes me nervous. Thanks for stopping by and please stay safe everyone.

Having seen an oval shaped layered card, I wanted to try one for myself. Recently I purchased these oval infinity dies from Hero Arts (love infinity dies) so I pulled out the largest one and cut 4. Then I chose two other sizes and cut one of each. I wanted to put the ovals together without having a weird edge at the top of the card so I made a hinge inside them and then to cover up the hinge I added the other 2 over the top making it look tidy inside. The next size oval was added using foam tape and the final one was glued after I had finished the stamping etc. I don’t know who made the rubber stamp and it is one I’ve had for quite a while. I stamped the image twice using my Misti and then again on another piece of scrap CS. This was coloured using Inktense pencils and water. I coloured two additional flowers on the scrap piece and fussy cut them so I could pop them on top of the original image. The sentiment is from a Joy Clair set and I rounded the ends before adhering. A few Trinity Stamp embellishments to finish it and I was happy.

The card will be entered into the Seize the birthday challenge. Thanks for stopping by it is appreciated.

The recipe challenge at As You See It required 6 items and I think I’ve managed to incorporate them all. I have 3 different patterned papers, all in shades of yellow, several die cuts, a vellum circle, the sentiment and enamel dots. It also fits the summer challenge at Four Seasons, partly due to the colour in the upper left corner along with a slightly tropical look reflected in the sunglasses. I began by die cutting several layers of the words and sunglasses and glued the layers together for more depth and stability. Setting these aside I searched for another patterned piece that wouldn’t detract from the MFT die cuts and found a piece in my stash that has faint sunrays on it. Unfortunately even the vellum hides that pattern more than I wanted but it is there. I used a tiny stamp from a Stampendous set to get the palm tree reflection and went over that with Nuvo Crystal drops. The thank you is from Hampton Arts and the enamel dots are Gum Drops from YNS. I also added a few extra dots in gold using Nuvo Crystal drops, but I think they are a mistake. Too late to change it now but a lesson learned.

All in all I’m pleased with the result and happy it works for two challenges. We are back in a heat wave this week and it is already very hot outside. The house painters are finding the paint dries as soon as applied even working in the shade. We had a good boating trip and met up with close friends who wined and dined us a few times. There was a day of heavy much needed rain but it cleared up and was nice without being too hot. Right now even on the water it would be too hot.

Thanks for taking a look it is appreciated.

This is my first post as a new design team member at Make My Monday and the challenge is for 3 of anything. As you can see I chose these little birds. The stamp set is from Your Next Stamp, sadly an online store that has since closed, and I stamped, coloured then fussy cut each one. The bird legs were too difficult to cut so I stamped the birds onto the background and popped up the fussy cut bodies on top. Sentiment is part of the same set. They were coloured with metallic watercolours. The background was done using part of a flower stencil. I just kept moving the leaves around adding the ink as I did so. Ink used was Peeled Paint Distress Oxide and a dab of Dried Marigold here and there. I went over the piece with some Perfect Pearl powder to get some shimmer. Once I cut it down to the right size I used a black pen around the edges and added it to the yellow card front. Using a scrap piece of black behind the sentiment so only 2 edges show I added it at the bottom and then placed the YNS Gumdrops as you see.

A very uncomplicated card, but it is quite pretty in real life. As often happens the photograph doesn’t do it justice and for once the camera has caught all the shimmer which washes out some of the colour behind.

Thanks for stopping by and we look forward to seeing your entries in the gallery.

I am entering this into the following challenges.

Our challenge theme at Cardz 4 Galz is A Summer Day, which for many of you is an extremely hot one this year. What better way to spend a summer day than to be on a beach with water close by?

For my card I used a new stamp set found on Amazon made by a company called Mvchifay Clear stamps and it had matching dies with it. I added stamps from other sets, Kitchen Sink stamps for the water, clouds from an MFT set, and a StampinUp set for my sunshine. For my sandy beach I used some real sandpaper, an idea I got from a stamping buddy recently. I stamped the water and added a few scrap pieces near the sand to give some curves to the edges. The images were coloured with pencils and Sakura glaze pens. I also added Nuvo Crystal drops to the ball and life rings. As well I stacked several die cuts together to get more dimension.

I quite like the result which is not always the case, as you know. Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to seeing your cards in the gallery.

This slimline card uses an Elizabeth Craft die which I sponged with the challenge colours. Inspiration came from something seen on Pinterest which gave me an idea. I created the words on my computer and printed them onto Vellum which I then cut to fit the signs. To add them I used Distress Collage medium. The background was created using a metallic pigment ink from Scrapbook.com and a tiny candle stamp from an incentive set by GKD. I added some clear heat embossing over the candles, and sponged the edge of the layer to give it some colour. The base card was also sponged around the edges so that it would match those used on the sign. I popped up the sign with foam and adhered it as you see. With a few embellishments added the card was complete.

A simple card but I kind of like it. Thanks for popping in to take a look. I appreciate it.

I’ve not entered into this challenge very often, actually probably only once or twice, but after seeing Barbara Campbell’s DT entry I was really intrigued with the idea. I thought about it for a few days – I read so much it is hard to pick a book – but found an old book on my shelf that I loved and decided to use it as inspiration.

The story is set in India and except for the elephant and moon stamps, I had nothing else that would work for a background similar to what was in my head. After searching the Internet I found a free photo image by Tiago Rosado on Unsplash. My hubby was kind enough to play with it so that it looked more like an evening image and to resize it so I could use it. Original is very brightly coloured and I wanted everything to be muted. The archway is very similar to the one on my book cover and I added a few additional highlights using a pencil. Truthfully, I’m not sure if using a photo is within the realm of challenge rules, but I decided to go with it anyway.

The elephant is from a Hero Arts kit, the moon is from an older set by Altenew cut with a Hero Arts infinity circle die and I used Squeezed Lemonade and Lost Shadow inks for the moon and mainly pencils for the elephant. Originally I tried to stamp the moon directly onto the photo image after I had masked off the arch, but I couldn’t get a good impression over the printed image. I decided to make a separate layer of the moon and fussy cut around the arch so I could push it partially behind as you see here. This worked better than I expected. I used some foam tape behind the elephant for a bit of dimension and I’m quite happy with how it has turned out. I’m uncertain about a sentiment so will decide on that when I use the card.

I think I’ve managed to capture the essence of the book with this card and hope you agree. Thanks for stopping by.

For quite a while now I have been wanting to try a lattice style card, but other things got in the way. Finally today I sat down to make one and this is what I came up with. As You See It wants a summertime style card and what we like most about summer and I thought travel was a good choice. We don’t camp although we do go boating and we love to travel when we can. Then JUG’s is asking us to CASE a designer and I chose Lisa E’s Trellis card but did mine as a cross over style lattice.

The camper, sun and cloud are Doodle Pops Stickers that came in a mystery box sometime ago. The bird is a left over from a Sizzix die cut that I sponged gently with left over inks and the circle die cuts are also left overs from other projects. I chose not add a sentiment for now but when I do it will be behind the circles.

This wasn’t a difficult card once I understood how it went together, but it does require a little bit of fiddling to get things right. I’m quite happy with the end result and may do a few more like this when I have the time. I really need to clean my craft room as it is pretty messy and I’m not finding things easily. That is a sure sign I need to tidy up.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone is staying safe considering the temperatures in some places.

For a while now I have been wishing to try another Natasha Foote technique she calls ribbon weaving. In actual fact there is no weaving involved as one is laying down satin ribbon over an adhesive backed piece of CS. I chose the ribbons you see here and an embossing folder called Brocade from Craft Concepts. When the ribbons were done I ran it through with the folder after I had trimmed down the panel to get clean edges. I added the thin white frame cut with Hero Arts Infinity dies to give it a more finished look and then glued it all to the card front. The word die is a new to me die from MFT and I used the same CS colour to tie things together nicely. A few small embellishments and it was complete. I will say that gluing the sentiment and embellishments over ribbon is more challenging and I had to try twice to get the words to stick properly. I quite like how it turned out and as I have quite a bit of satin type ribbon that I don’t use much I may use it now for a few more in a similar style.

Thanks for stopping by, it is always appreciated.

At Cardz 4 Galz the current challenge is something with a P and I chose poppies. The stamps are from an incentive set by GKD and I stamped the poppies onto some watercolour paper using Versamark. I stamped the sentiment on a white scrap piece and heat embossed both in silver. The die set is from Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 6 and I used the largest one to die cut the panel and a smaller one for the sentiment. To get the border around the image piece I traced around the outside of the die, fussy cut and then inked the edges with Black soot. I water coloured the flowers using Barn door ink and added the background with Twisted Citron. I also sprayed a bit of Lindy’s Starburst on top for some spatter. As I began to assemble the pieces I realized that the card front needed a bit of something so using the same stamp and some Hickory Smoke I randomly stamped around the card not worrying about getting defined lines. I found a small ladybug button in my stash and cut off the back part so I could glue it flat but I see on the photo that it doesn’t show nicely. In reality it looks pretty. I am out of red embellishments but managed to find a few so they were added as well.

I’m quite pleased with the end result and it will go to someone who truly inspires me eventually. Thanks for spending time with me it is appreciated.