Believe you can ...

Wow! Another hot and steamy day in this part of England! ... where would we Brits be if we didn't have the weather to talk about.  School has finished for the summer so in between family responsibilities I hope to find time for lots of crafting! 

To start the ball rolling this is a card I've created for the current CAS challenge at STAMPlorations - the theme for July is "Anything Goes with the optional colour twist of Orange".  This is my contribution with the colour twist.

This is a simple card designed to encourage the recipient to believe in themselves ... a sentiment that I really should abide by but, as the saying goes, "it's do as I say not as I do!"

I used:

STAMPlorations Eclectic Forals and Typographia: Encoragement.
Distress Inks - Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold and Ripe Persimmon
WOW Gold Embossing Powder

I'm entering:

STAMPlorations July CAS Challenge


Also, the Never-Ending Anything Goes challenge


Enjoy!

Wedding Balloons ...

Today I'm in sunny Lincolnshire (at least I hope it is sunny!) for my nephew's wedding! I've scheduled this post so that I could share with you all the card that I created for the lovely couple.

The bridesmaids are going to have purple in their outfits so this is where I started with my design. I then changed my mind numerous times and tried lots of different ideas - balloons, white on white, floral, graphics and all the way back to balloons!  This is the card that made the cut and by the time you read this will be in the hands of the bride and groom!

I used the following:

Clearly Besotted Stamp set and matching dies - Make a Wish
Memento Ink - Grape Jelly
Card from my stash
Embroidery Thread.

Enjoy!

Edit: Sunday early evening.

I've popped back (after a hectic weekend and lots of driving) to enter my card into the following challenges:

Inkspirational - this week is a photograph for inspiration!



The Card Concept - I would describe my card as Clean and Layered and the criteria is for monochromatic purple!



TIME OUT Challenges - No. 5 'Time Flies, Love Lasts'

Turquoise, turquoise and turquoise ...

It will come as no surprise that I love the colour turquoise - it is such a fresh and clean colour. Today's card is another card using three colours but this time shades of the same colour.

This card is all about stamping and masking and very little else!  I've chosen the three shades to meet the challenge at "Less is More" - I just hope I have left enough white space to meet the criteria.  I've used the sketch from Sketch Saturday and will also pop it into the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything Goes.

The card

I used the following:

Clearly Besotted - Superstar stamp set and dies
Stampin Up Inks - Bermuda Bay and Coastal Cabana
Distress Ink - Peacock Feathers

Sketch Saturday this is the sketch:


Enjoy!

Happiness ...

Tonight I am childishly excited and honoured that one of my cards has been awarded a 'Top Three Winner' on the CAS - Colours and Sketches blog.  The theme for the challenge was a colour one and you needed to use black and two shades of grey - you can see my card that they thought was a winner here.  Thank you.

It's funny really that tonight I have been working on a grunge style card and it was a grunge style card that was a winner!  I like the idea of grunge but my style is more clean and simple and I find it difficult to get my head around this apparent conflict.  This week at  Addicted to CAS the theme is Grunge whilst bearing in mind the need to produce a clean and simple card - the embodiment of my conflict!

So here is the card I will be entering into the challenge:

The sentiment has been white embossed and then the background water coloured using distress inks

The sentiment has been set on dimensional adhesive

I used the following:

Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed
Versamark
Stampendous White Embossing Powder
Stampin Up Gorgeous Grunge stamp set
Kaisercraft Clear Stamp - Way of Life

Enjoy!

Shadow Stamping ...

Now I'm the first to admit that I do love a challenge ... but I think shadow stamping might be a challenge to far!!  

Since the start of 2014 I have been trying to enter the weekly card challenge at "Less is More" each week. This week the challenge is for a One Layer Card (which I love) with the added twist that it should involve Shadow Stamping - a technique that I haven't used before and may never use again.

I tried lots of different stamps, some I stamped twice without re-inking, some I stamped with a lighter shade and then a darker shade but each time it just didn't seem to work.  I had some success when stamping flowers on kraft card using white ink and a colour but as Jen (one of the Less is More Designers) had used this colour combination I really wanted to do something different.  I finally stamped the image twice without re-inking and then coloured the image with inktense pencils using water to blend and create a wash of colour for the shadow.

This is the result:

I added an embossed box to ground the image

I used the following:

Versafine Onyx Black Ink
Dovecraft Eastern Promise Stamp Set
Clearly Besotted Pretty Petals Plus Stamp Set
Derwent Inktense Pencils

Enjoy!