Annabelle Stamps Blog Hop & giveaway

     

Hi, there's a blog hop happening at Annabelle Stamps. There's also a chance to win these 2 gorgeous stamp sets. There's a little bit of time left, so join in .

Thanks for visiting :)

Fiery Flower

Hi, I sat down this afternoon determined to use one of my flower
stamps that hadn't been inked yet. This daisy patch flower stamp set by Heartfelt Creations jumped out at me.
I stamped three flowers in ruby ink, fussy cut them and coloured them with  Inktense pencils. Then I shaped them and layered them together. 

I wanted to enter the challenge at Inkspirational where there is this gorgeous photo for inspiration.

I love the bold colours. There's a link to the artist and the fairytale The Firebird that the illustration is from. I used the bird's colours for my flower.

I also wanted to try a new to me challenge called The Card Concept. There are a variety of design styles all clearly explained with lots of examples from the fab design team.

 I tend to make clean and simple cards, although sometimes I think they don't quite fit due to background embossing or a few matting layers. I discovered another category on this site called Clean & Layered. So I think this card fits that category. The theme this time is to add texture. I've used an embossing folder.

Materials used: Heartfelt Creations stamp; Colorbox ink & clear embossing powder; Inktense pencils; diamond stickles; Memory Box Elegant Scroll die; Divine Swirls embossing folder; flower bling in the centre of the flower from stash.

Thanks for visiting :)

Owl Anniversary

Hi, I've made another owl card. Hubby suggested the design with the single hearts cut from my ribbon this time. (I think he was humming the song Love is in the Air!!) Decided to use bling instead of the googly eyes on this one too!

I'm going to link up to Simon Says Monday challenge where the theme is to create something starting with the letter A. I've gone with Anniversary.

I cut my branch from a snippet of brown card so I'm visiting the playground at Pixie's Crafty Workshop

Materials used: Stampin Up owl stamp and Cloudy Days embossing folder; Distress inks; Prismacolor pencils; Memory Box Woodland branch die; hearts are cut from ribbon; bling and sentiment sticker from stash.

Thanks for visiting :)

Owl Love Hearts

Hi, I had a few of these stamped owl images left from a craft session at my sister's place. I attached some jiggle eyes to see what they looked like. One of my sons has spent a good while playing with them to make the eyes stay in silly positions. He's 22!

I'm going to enter the challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Blog, where the theme is Have a Laugh!

At Cuttlebug Mania the theme is All You Need is Love. You also need to use any die or embossing folder and a manual machine like a Big Shot or Cuttlebug. I diecut Memory Box woodland branch and the background is Stampin Up Cloudy Days embossing folder. The herats are a ribbon that I bought a few years ago. Finally cut a section off to use!

At Crafting With Dragonflies the theme is anything goes as long as it's a card.

Materials used: Stampin Up owl stamp & Cloudy Days embossing folder: Memory Box Woodland Branch die;  Versacolor ink & clear embossing powder; Prismacolor pencils; distress ink; jiggle eyes, heart ribbon and sentiment sticker from stash.

Thanks for visiting :)

Butterfly Flourishes

Hi, It's been too hot to do much craft lately!

 I'm lucky to have a small dedicated craft room, just need to find a fan that won't blow my bits and pieces everywhere!

I made this card for a neighbour's new baby girl. I wanted to use non traditional colours, and yes, I do happen to like purple...a lot! The design is a revamp of a card I did early last year. I cut and repositioned the scroll a little differently and didn't cut the edge of the second butterfly off.

I'm going to enter a few challenges.

At Less is More the theme is New Baby.

At Addicted to CAS the code word is New.

At Addicted to Stamps & More the theme is Clean & Simple.

At CASology the cue card is Contrast.

I've contrasted a dark & light shade of purple and have kept 1 butterfly low, while the other is mounted on foam tape.

I used snippets of watercolor paper and silver paper for the butterflies, so I'm off to the playground at Pixie's Crafty Workshop.

Materials used:

Memory Box butterflies, elegant scrollwork & heart delight dies; Twinkling H20's; sentiment sticker & bling from stash.

Thanks for visiting :)

Birthday Butterflies

Hi, I've been playing some more with my inktense pencils.

I used Sienna gold for the butterfly wings and used a water brush to blend the colour out. I used tan for the wing accents.
 When I did my colour chart I had written down tea as the colour, but it definitely says tan! I visited the optometrist yesterday and I have new glasses coming! It's amazing how much my vision has deteriorated in the 2 years since my last visit.

I was inspired  by the challenge at  Inkspirational to use brown and yellow. Not a combination I've used much before.

At Seize the Birthday the theme is colouring using any medium you like.

In addition to the inktense pencils I used  distress inks to colour my base card.

At Cuttlebug Mania, the theme is distressed.

At Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, the theme is to emboss it. I used Versafine ink & clear embossing powder on the butterflies and the sentiment and I dry embossed the base with  Petal Pleasures folder.

At Simon Says Monday challenge, the theme is anything goes.

Supplies:

Stamps:. Hero Arts Antique engravings; Annabelle stamps sentiment.

Inks & Colouring: Versafine, clear embossing powder; distress ink, inktense pencils.

Embossing folder: Couture Creations Petal Pleasures and my Cuttlebug.

Thanks for visiting :)

Dotty Pinwheel

Hi. I've been trying to use up some of my ageing stash on each of my cards.

I bought this dotty paper a few years ago and thought it was perfect for the challenge at

Scrapbook Boutique. The paper was dark brown on the reverse which I thought was too dark, so I cut a pink pinwheel and folded it in with the dotty one to lighten it up. A double pinwheel!

Here's the inspiration pic for the challenge.

The waffles remind me of the pinwheel blades!

I used heaps of snippets cutting out the letters so I'm popping into the playground again at Pixie's Crafty Workshop.

At Addicted to CAS the code word is die cuts.

Materials used: Stampin Up pinwheel die; Memory Box Parker alphabet dies; Tiny Bubbles embossing folder; brad & sentiment sticker from stash.

Thanks for visiting :)

Poppies with Love

Hi, I've used this poppy die from Memory Box a few times, but mainly for sympathy cards.

This time I separated the flowers and put the bud on the other side to create a bouquet.

I cut the flower tops from snippets of watercolor paper and coloured them with Inktense pencils. I'm still getting used to using them so my blending and shading needs a bit more work. I'm going to visit the playground at Pixie's Crafty Workshop, I hear there's going to be some fireworks, I hope I'm not too late!

I'm also entering  Addicted to CAS the code word is die cuts.

Materials used: Tulip border embossing folder; Memory Box Prim Poppies and Primo Label dies; Inktense pencils; ribbon & sentiment sticker from stash.

Thanks for visiting :)

Yellow daisies

Hi, I've been playing with my Inktense pencils. The colours are very vibrant but to me look fairly ordinary until you wet them. Then the change is amazing.

I stamped this Lucy's daisy in Versafine and clear embossed. I used a couple of yellows to give some shading and put stickles in the centre for some bling. The greenery is the leaf from my Susan's Garden daisy die.

I'm entering the challenge at Allsorts, where the theme is to use ribbon but no bows. I used some yellow ribbon I've had in my stash for ages to create a border.

I'm putting a 2nd entry into  Addicted to Stamps & More where the theme is to Make Your Mark using pens, pencils etc.

Thanks for visiting :)

Happy Birthday Mo!

Hi, It's my sister Maureen's birthday ! YAY!

I visited her earlier this week and gave her this card so it's ok to post it now.

We had a lovely catch up.

I stamped the background ages ago - white ink, clear embossed. (Thanks again for the loan of the stamp Amanda). I distressed it with a few greens and a blue. I've used my all time favourite butterfly stamp from Hero Arts Antique Engravings set.

The flowers were punched from some dp that Mo gave me years ago. Her resolution this year is to use up some of her stash on every project. I think I'll try and get through some of mine too!

I'm going to link up to some challenges.

At Addicted to Stamps & More the theme is to Make Your Mark. I coloured my butterfly with my Prismacolor pencils and blended them with odourless mineral spirits and a blending stump. I love this technique, the colour just melts as you blend it.

At Cuttlebug Mania the theme is distressed. You also need to use a manual die cutting/ embossing machine. I used my cuttlebug to cut the Memory Box Madeira Corner dies. I distressed them with pine needles and forest moss distress ink to get them to match my base card.

At Make It Monday the theme is anything goes and to share creativity.

Materials used: Stampin Up Weathered bg stamp; Hero Arts Antique Engravings butterfly stamp; Versafine & Versa color ink & clear embossing powder; Distress inks; Prismacolor pencils; Memory Box Madeira Corner die; Carl flower punch; stickles; sentiment sticker & bling from stash.

Thanks for visiting :)

Baby Boy Bunting

Hi, I was lucky enough to get some new dies to play with for christmas. 

This Memory Box baby clothes die is a set of three tiny jump suits. I added one to each end to create my bunting.

I  punched my stars from snippets left over from the die cuts, so I'm visiting the snippets playground at Pixie's Crafty Workshop. The ribbon came from the shoulders of a tshirt. Each side is just long enough to tie 2 small bows. 

At Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, the theme is Something New.

Materials used: Memory Box baby clothes and Parker alphabet dies; Swiss dots embossing folder; Fiskars star  punch; ribbon.

Thanks for visiting :)