Two challenges with one card is always a huge bonus for me. At As You See It: Challenge #298 – New Stuff, and at Just Add Ink it was a mood board in colours that I love. Combining the two was fun.

My new stuff incorporates several items, one is the border die used on the glitter piece, two is the shape of the PP behind the birds, and three is the birds themselves. Its a new stamp set and only one bird had been inked until now. They came from Your Next Stamp as did the shaped die, and the border die is from Heffy Doodle. I had the PP in my stash and thought it would look good behind the birds. The little birds were stamped, heat embossed and coloured with watercolour pencils. I die cut them with Hero Arts infinity circles and added the scalloped circles underneath, cut with a Sissix set. Sentiment is from the same set as the birds and I heat embossed in white onto the purple paper. The little birds were initially stamped with Versamark and then clear embossed but they didn’t stand out enough so I went over them with a fine line pen. I’m surprised that I didn’t mess them up. The purple paper is a very rich colour but looks more black in the photo. Embellishments are from my stash.

I kind of like the end result, but it isn’t quite what I had in my head when I started. Thanks for popping in to look, it is appreciated.

THING 1: Trouble Maker

says, “National Mother Goose Day is an annual celebration held on May Day, May 1st. All of us have grown up listening to fairy tales and nursery rhymes as children.  Let’s take a trip down Memory Lane and recite or sing some of those nursery rhymes from childhood. 

I chose Once I Caught a Fish Alive for my rhyme. And as the stamped images have a couple of hearts in them, the card also fits the extra twist so it will go into the Heart’s Quest Challenge Blog #29 as well.

A while back I was playing with tissue paper backgrounds and I used this one as an ocean themed card because the background kind of reminded me of the sea. I crinkled the tissue paper, smoothed it a small amount and glued it to some light weight CS. When it was dry I added inks in greens and blue and when that was dry I used my finger to add a hint of gold on some of the raised wrinkles. The stamp set is from Newtons Nook for the sea life images but the shell and sea star are from other sets and were fussy cut. The leafy die cut is from Sissix, cut twice, once in green and once in a matt gold. The circles are all from HeroArts Infinity dies. Images are coloured with various Inktense pencils and a couple of Ohuhu pens. The tiny dots are all fall outs and I used them as embellishments. Mounted the panel onto a teal card front.

I have to say I had fun making this card and the end result pleases me. Hubby likes it too. Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate that you do.

Our challenge at Cardz4galz is for a Mother’s Day card and I hope this inspires you to join us with your own creations. Generally I don’t make Mother’s Day cards these days, as my mom passed away a long time ago and so did my hubby’s mom, so I don’t have a reason to make them. But I do have a friend who asked me to make her mom a card so this is what I did for her.

The folder is an unbranded 3D one I’ve just acquired. It makes a lovely impression. I was playing around a bit with inks in the folder and initially didn’t get the ink onto the correct part of the folder so this piece came out with a slightly grungy background. I liked it although it wasn’t what I had planned, but I needed more colour so I used the same inks, but this time brushed the colour where I wanted it on the raised impression. The pink wasn’t quite pink enough so I went over it again with a darker ink and liked the result much more. I also wanted some shine so I dusted the entire panel with Perfect Pearl powder and spritzed a little mist to set it. After edging the panel with a black border I wound some thread around it and then glued it to the card front. The sentiment is from a very old CTMH label set and using Versamark I stamped the circle and the center. Then I heat embossed with Recollections Copper. Used a Hero Arts infinity die to cut the circle and added it as you see in the photo.

Because I was messing around with the folder I have several others ready to go for other cards. Thanks for taking a look and I always value your comments. Have a great day wherever you are.

How nice for me that I got one card to work for three challenges. Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge #17 – Flowers, https://colorhuesthecolorchallenge.blogspot.com/, Anything Goes Embossing with a Twist of BABY (twist not taken).

The image is a digital one from a set that I believe I won, but could have been a purchase and I’ve had them for a while. I thought it was perfect for both the colour challenge and the caffeinated one and the addition of the Holly embossing panel makes it work for CYHTP. The little bird is from a new set by Your Next Stamp and the sentiment is from an MFT set, also mainly bird images.

Once I had sized the image on my computer I printed it onto thin CS and then fussy cut it. I spent some time using water colour pencils to colour in the florals and the bird, also fussy cut. The images are popped up on foam tape and I added a couple of musical notes to the sentiment. I debated adding some embellishments and decided not to for now. I can always add them later if I change my mind.

My literal thinking makes it a challenge for me to relate coffee to Christmas, but I think this one works nicely although I decided on a winter greeting rather than a Christmas one.

We currently have warm temperatures and sunshine so I am outside as much as possible making the most of it. I spent a couple of hours earlier adding undercoat to some large ceramic pots that I dislike the colour of. I’ve decided to make them black so the undercoat is the first step. Got 2 coats on as one was dry by the time I had done the other. We had thought to buy new ones slightly larger than these, but when we looked at costs decided it was ridiculous to spend that much. I had the bright idea (maybe) of painting the existing ones. We shall see if this works, but so far so good.

Have fun everyone and thanks for stopping by.

On one of our theatre trips to Vancouver we had dinner at our friends home before heading back to the ferry. She had napkins that featured these chickens and I thought they could be used on a card. I brought home a new napkin and did the usual separation of layers before adding it to some card stock using ModgePodge. When it was dry I fussy cut each chick and set them aside to be used as embellishments or, as is the case here, as the focal point for a card. Each chick had spots on the wings already and I enhanced them with Nuvo Crystal drops.

The card base was already done with the sentiment as I was unhappy with a card I had done sometime ago and decided to deconstruct it. The sentiment was already embossed in rose gold and one of the chickens has rose gold dots to match. The die is from Kokorosa and I cut the stripes in one piece and added them to the white layer. Actually this layer has a wash of blue over it to make it less stark. Once the chicks were on the layer it was added to the card front and I added a few Pops of Color dots near the beak of each chicken.

I am entering it into the Inkspirational Dots and Stripes challenge. This is the first card I’ve made since Monday, as one my friends was visiting from the mainland and I spent the last few days with her. Thanks for stopping by and have fun till next time.

A while back I made a series of pet sympathy cards for a friend who isn’t a fan of what is currently available in the shops. Although I did them as a favour with no expectation of anything in return, she decided to buy me some supplies. All except one were unbranded dies and stamps and this little book die is one of them.

I thought a shelf of books would be fun for a spines can be bright colours so are good for a colour challenge such as this one. I cut several so I could stack them for some dimension and I coloured them with a paintbrush and inks. The shelf they sit on is an MFT die from a recent kit. I lengthened it by gluing 2 side by side. I used a polka dot embossing folder on a scrap piece of CS and added a strip of green to it. Then I added it to the card front and added the focal image on top. The sentiment strip is from a pad by Tim Holtz – Idea-ology. I thought it was perfect for a book card and personally, most of what I know comes from reading and basic curiosity. A few embellishments finished the card nicely.

I know unbranded dies aren’t really the way to go as so many are outright copies of local artists, but when they are given as a gift one doesn’t comment and of course now I have them I am using them.

To make this card, I pulled out an old MFT stamp set called Sushi Date and chose these few stamps from the set. This was intended to be a one layer card, but I made a small mistake in stamping so used the lantern die to cover it up. Everything else was stamped and coloured using inks and pencils. I stamped everything through a circle template and added some brushed background the same way.

Its a very simple card and the only embellishment I added was the tiny bow holding the lantern. I’m quite happy with the end result and it works nicely for the JUG’s current challenge. As well, I have a male friend who is married to a Japanese and loves Japanese food, so I think this will be his birthday card which is coming up soon.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week everyone.

Cocktails are the theme for the challenge this session and I chose a Penny Black stamp set called Love and Happiness for the focal image on this card. Who doesn’t like a glass of champagne or a mimosa? And these little bears just make it sweeter. The sentiment stamp comes from a Joy Clair set and the PP is from StampinUp.

I stamped the image onto some watercolour CS so I could colour it with my watercolour pencils. When it was dry I fussy cut it, including the negative spaces between the rungs of the ladder. I decided on a mini slimline base so the card measures 6″ by 3 1/2″. After adding the image to the card base I added some Trinity Stamps bubbles and some crystal glaze to the glasses.

This card can be a wedding card, a birthday or an anniversary so it is quite versatile to have in my stash. Thanks for stopping by and your comments are always appreciated.

The stamp set I’ve used here is from StampinUp and is one I’ve had for a short time. I think I purchased it during the pandemic. Although I have used it, I don’t use it often so it was time to pull it out. I have some precut and pre embossed panels so I decided to use one for the background and I jazzed it up a little with a gold sparkle pen from Spectrum Noir. I used a scrap piece for the look of a sky and dry embossed it with some rays from a Taylored Expression’s folder. The kite was stamped and coloured then fussy cut and I did the same with the tail. Added a bit of glitter with Sakura pens and popped it up as you see. I also fussy cut the sentiment and softened the printing with a silver pen before adding Nuvo Crystal drops and also to the kite. Even with all the embossing it still manages to be CAS and I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for taking a peek and any comments are really appreciated.

Although I have a few gnome stamps none are specific to Christmas so I improvised. The gnome with the green hat originally held a garden spade which I cut off and replaced with the tree. The other gnome is more generic so I left him as is. I used an MFT stitched circle die to create the apertures and backed it with some gold plaid PP. This was added using foam tape so the front panel is slightly lifted. Gnomes were stamped cut and coloured before popping into the circles. Stamp sets are from MFT, SSS, Woodware and Gina K. I fussy cut the tree and the gifts and all are coloured with Inktense pencils and a Sakura glitter pen. I also used some snowflake stamps from the Gina K set to stamp faint snowflakes on the white panel. The plaid is slightly stronger in the background than I realized initially so I decided not to add any embellishments to this card.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope the weather in your corner of the world is beginning to be pleasant.