The challenge at As You See It is: Challenge #354 – Dining Al Fresco. These days I’m not into sitting on beaches or on the ground in parks so I chose to keep my design as a more refined way to be outside. It is also our 45th anniversary tomorrow, which we both find hard to believe. I may give this card to my hubby which will make him laugh. Why? Well we usually forget our anniversary on the actual day and it has become a joke between us.

As it happened, I had this frame already cut on my desk because my original thought was to make a tablecloth and add things to it and I had the paper ready. After pulling it out various stamp sets I couldn’t find anything I liked that worked with what I had in my mind so instead I die cut the paper into this frame. Didn’t have time yesterday to do more but today I found this image and decided it would work. The stamp set used is from GKD and I stamped in black and then heat embossed clear. I added the birds by hand after sponging a bit of ink to give the look of sky. The sentiment is from a small YNS set and I cut it with an Infinity Oval from Hero Arts. Went around the edge with a marker and added the tiny heart. The corner hearts are the fallouts that I coloured solid red added a touch of glitter and Nuvo drops for dimension.

I’m actually pleased that I went in this direction rather than with what my original idea, as it has worked quite well and the card is more CAS. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time.

Dawn has chosen the theme Scenic, for our latest challenge here at cardz4galz. You can create your own scene or use a topper/paper image as you wish.

As I’m playing with my latest items that came as a birthday gift from my hubby, I decided to use one of the die sets in the kit. This is from Spellbinders called Deckside Dreams. It is a cool set. I used mainly oddments of scrap CS for my ship. The background is done with a StampinUp folder, the wave seafoam is from Kokorosa, the fish is a Gummiapan die, sentiment from Spellbinders and the sun is from an unnamed stamp set that I fussy cut. The little seagull uses a hack from Jennifer McGuire that she demonstrated, and it worked so well.

To be honest the fish was added to cover up a small smudge on the ships hull. I had some issues with gluing the stripes and must have gotten some glue there accidentally. Years go I would have freaked to have something like this, today, its a shrug my shoulders event, and what can I do to hide the booboo?

I’m rather pleased with my little scene and love the dimension this die set creates. It was fun to make this one. I look forward to seeing your ideas in the gallery over the next 2 weeks. Have fun.

Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate you and also your time.

Every once in a while a challenge comes up that I already have something done that will work. The current one at Double D is one of those. Their challenge is Bee Happy Challenge and I had been playing with decoupage a while back and had this little image all ready to go. Even the oval was cut as it was left from another project. All I had to do was put things together in a pleasing arrangement.

I used a scrap piece of CTMYH CS that was slightly damaged for my background as it reminded a little of the honeycomb. I used a stamp from an unbranded set to add the sentiment and stamped it onto a piece of CS that I had used to mop up leftover ink. Also used one of the tiny bees in its corner. The 2 bees on the gold piece are transfer stickers and I added the 3 hearts, I think by StampinUP, for interest. Dies used are Hero Arts infinity ovals and a mixed edge rectangle by Essentials. The decoupage is from a kit from Crafters Companion.

Considering how busy I seem to be this week, getting this card done and posted is a nice bonus for me. Thanks for stopping by, you and your time are greatly appreciated.

Our challenge recipe #197 at Double Trouble is to use the spotlight technique. Image following shows the recipe.

The stamp I used is an old unmounted rubber stamp from an unknown source. The square scalloped edge die is from LawnFawn and the small circle is a Sizzix set. Sentiment is from a dollar store Forever in time set. I coloured the image using watercolour pencils using 3 colours, Pink, green and yellow. The tiny gems are from Spellbinders. I used foam tape behind the focal image to lift it from the rest. I think this is a simple but effective card.

We hope you have fun joining in with your own creations and look forward to seeing them in our gallery.

Thanks for spending time with me today. I appreciate both your time and any comments you may leave.

A little thinking was required before I figured out an idea for a design at the current As You See It challenge. Fortunately, during a brief shopping expedition today, I saw a metal sculpture that gave me the idea for this card, and I quite like how it turned out. Picture below. Just Add Ink, has a Christmas in July challenge on so I shall add this to both these challenges.

First I used a couple of EF designs, one with stars and the other Poinsettia and ran scraps of black, gold and white CS through using them. Then I took some circle dies and cut them into three larger circles with scalloped edges and several smaller ones.

Supplies used: Hero Arts infinity circles, Sizzix scalloped circle die, Scrapbook.com glitter paper, Trinity Stamps bauble shaped gems, GKD sentiment heat embossed in Gold. Folders are from StampinUP and Taylored Expressions.

When I stamped my sentiment, I hand cut it and used a black Copic pen around the edges so it would stand out a little.

Thanks for stopping by, you, your time and any comments you may leave are appreciated.

The challenge at https://cardz4galz.blogspot.com/ as chosen by Sue, is to make a fun fold and I chose to do an uneven gate fold. The little envelopes had originally been done for a colour challenge but I changed my mind and did something entirely different. Having them in my bits and pieces box ready to go I decided to use them here, particularly as I need a new home card. The background was something I created a while ago using various mica sprays so I cut it to fit the two folded panels. I also added some leftover strips down the side panel. The stamp set used is by Kitchen Sink and I’ve had it forever. I think I won it through the Mod Squad. I fussy cut two of the sentiment pieces but used my Fiskars blade on the rectangular one. Sentiments were clear heat embossed before cutting. The modern oval is from Spellbinders and I used a scrap piece of CS and a piece of vellum added on top. I cut the frame to go around it and added the envelopes as you see. A few tiny gems on each one finished the card nicely.

For a change, I quite like the end result immediately, which doesn’t happen often. Thanks for joining me today, you and your time are appreciated. Have fun making your own fun fold and we look forward to seeing them in our gallery.

So here I am with my first post for my new gig at Double Trouble. The requirement is for stitches, however you like to create them, along with 2 or more stamped images and 3 or more layers. An additional twist is to use a ‘punny’ sentiment.

I chose to use the sketch from TSOT #675 starting on August 5th. This card will not be entered in the TSOT challenge, because it would be backlinking.

I kind of liked the sketch background element in the inspiration picture and had a go at creating one similar to it. I made a mask and used it to ink the 4 sections of the panel. Distress Oxides used are Mermaid Lagoon and Twisted Citron and considering I don’t do this type of inking often, it worked out quite well. I had this Kokorosa stamp and die set on my desk and decided to try 3 images from the set. I used Versamark ink and a coppery coloured powder from Recollections to heat emboss and then I coloured them with watercolour pencils. To give a bit more strength to the die cuts I cut several more for each image and glued them together. I hadn’t quite decided on which stitched style I would use and considered doing it by hand, but in looking through my dies I found this pierced star set from Spellbinders and cut 3 stars. Once I had decided on placement they were glued down and the chicken images set on top. The pun sentiment, or as close as I can get to one, comes from the same stamp set, but the rectangle piece was cut using a die from StampinUP. After I glued this in place I used some Scrapbook.com Pops of colour underneath the words. The entire panel was then added to the GKD card front.

I’m quite pleased with how this one turned out and I like the way the background looks. I may do something like this again.

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you have fun making your own version of the recipe.

Seize the Birthday #309-Food and or Drink and I chose drink for my theme. After watching this technique on Pinterest by viewing the video a few times, I initially made my mask from card stock. A hot mess, although one piece I can use eventually. In the end, and what I should have done first, I made a mask using some packing plastic and a rectangle die from Hero Arts. I used double sided tape that could be easily removed and attached the mask in the center of my white piece. Using Tombow markers I scribbled colour all around the edges of the plastic and using a baby wipe gently swiped it so the colour ended up looking like this. Mine does not look as good as the one I saw, but I with practice the next one will no doubt be better. This piece is my 3rd attempt. After removing the mask I hand drew the frame squiggly lines.

Using a Joy Clair stamp set I stamped the glass, added olives, lemon slice with some colour to them and the liquid in glass. Stamped the sentiment from same set and die cut using a Sizzix set of scallop dies.

Hubby liked this one, the jury is still out in my own head. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you and your time.

A Card for the Kiddo’s Challenge at Double D. This card ended up being quite different than what I had in my head mainly because I messed up some stamping. Rather than begin completely from scratch, I decided to fussy cut Pooh, repair the errors and use him on his own. To fix his arms and legs I stamped a second image, coloured the parts I needed and fussy cut. These were added to cover up the mistake and while I was at it I made one arm and leg pop up for a more realistic look. The stamp is an old wooden block someone recently gave to me and on the side it says Rubber Stampede. Based on its age, a defunct company now, I would imagine. To colour images I used pencils, a small amount of Distress Oxide Frayed Burlap and some glitter Sakura pens.

From a Forever in Time dollar store set I took a couple of bees and stamped them and I also used the honeycomb stamp. I edged the layer with a black Copic marker. I also used a couple of Ephemera pieces from Simple Stories to complete the card.

I don’t have any children in my life these days, so I may give this to a friend who has grandkids so it can be used. Thanks for stopping by to take a look. I appreciate it more than words can say.