Keep on rolling ...

This is going to be a quick post - three posts in one day is a little bit obsessive but I'm busy tomorrow and wanted to share this card with you.

I used:

Stampin Up - Lucky Limeade ink
Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers
Memento Ink - Grape Jelly
Hot of the Press Small Stamps - Bike 

I'm going to enter this into the following challenges:

"Less Is More" - Round and Round
Addicted to CAS - Wheels
Inkspiration - CASE Inkspiration

Enjoy!

Penny Farthing ...

A second post for today and a second card!

Keeping with the "Less is More" theme of Round and Round but adding in the challenge from Addicted to CAS with the theme of Wheels.

A simple card - a little stamping with minimum layers.

I used:

Stampin Up - Feeling Sentimental stamp set
Stampin Up Bravo Burgundy Ink
Clearly Besotted - sentiment from Make A Wish stamp set.

Enjoy!

Round and Round ...

My week ended on a real high note for me - thanks to the lovely crafters at Addicted to Stamps and More.  I've been awarded Honourable Addict for my card "A Trio of Threes ..." which you can take a look at here.  I am thrilled to have been selected - it brings a big smile to end my week on.  Thank you.

I was also lucky enough to win some crafting candy from Chrissie at Simply One of a Kind.  If you've never visited Simply One of  a Kind then you must, Chrissie's cards are inspiring.

Today I have taken up the challenge (as always) from "Less is More" where it is a Lucky Dip with the theme of "Round and Round".  I'm still trying to increase my stock of male cards, or at least gender neutral, so I added that into the mix.  This is what I came up with.

The circles are die cut and inlaid into the top layer

I used the following:

Sizzix Circle dies
Little Claire Designs - Claire's Sentiments
Versafine Onyx Black

Enjoy!

Three flowers ...

It's almost the weekend!  British Summer Time starts on Sunday - hopefully the weather will warm up too! Longer days are only fun when it's warm.  

I never seem to have the time to post during the week but I couldn't resist it tonight.  I had another idea for using elements from my masterboard (shown in my post here).  This time I have die cut flowers with a flower - it's the fussy cut approach usually used in textile crafts.  I've used the sketch from the new challenge at CAS - Colours and Sketches  - a challenge that is new to me.

As there are three flowers I might just enter it into the "Less is More" challenge as well.

Enjoy!

A trio of threes ...

Monday, Monday and the day started fresh and crisp with beautiful sunshine and blue sky unfortunately we are now back to dull and overcast.

This post is all about the third card I've made involving three elements - this time it's three rectangles!  It is the second card that I have made from my masterboard and I'm delighted that I created the board.  I already have ideas for creating another one - all I need is to find the time!

Here is the card

I'm going to enter it into these challenges:

"Less Is More" - Three

Inkpirational - Using the inspirational picture of multi coloured sheep

Addicted to Stamps -  Make Your Mark

Enjoy!

Three cogs...

I've been on a bit of a roll today with my crafting - here is card number two!

This is very different from the earlier card not quite as clean!  I've been trying to create a vintage style card but with a clean and simple look - this is what I ended up with:

Coincidentally there are three cogs on the card so I'm going to enter it in this week's challenge at "Less is More".  Also I thought I would have a go at the challenge at The Male Room Challenge Blog where the current theme is Vintage.

Enjoy!

Three hearts ...

I've taken the master board I created (see my earlier post here) and cut it up!!  It had always been my intention to use the board for cards but I didn't realise how difficult it would be to make the first cut.  It feels like a very destructive process to create something and then cut it up! 

I took my lead from this week's challenge at "Less is More" - it's a recipe this week.  They want to see THREE of something on the card plus they'd like all participants to visit and comment on THREE other participants.

So here is my first part of the challenge, my three hearts:

It's a simple layout with one heart flat, one on single dimensional foam squares and the final one on double foam squares.  I inked the edges of the cut hearts to make them pop.

I have another card which hopefully I will photograph and post later.  Off now to upload my entry to "Less is More" and then to visit the other participants.

Enjoy!

Master Board, JOFY inspired .....

Wow, I had an exciting start to the weekend - one of my cards was chosen as a "top pick" on the Inkspirational Challenges Blogspot.  I was so excited, thank you for the honour! You can see the card they liked here.

I love the stamp set that I used for the card, JOFY 09 from PaperArtsy, and I wanted to use it again but couldn't think how until I visited the PaperArtsy blog.  I just loved the masterboard that Jo Firth Young had produced - it was an idea I had not come across before but I just had to have a go.  I thought it would provide a useful start to provide inspiration for some cards. What I hadn't appreciated was exactly how long it was going to take to complete or how hard it is to stamp with a random layout.   Most of the images were stamped using black ink and then coloured with Inktense pencils.

I realise now that I don't have enough JOFY stamps and will just have to add some more sets to my wish list.  I am going to enter it in the PaperArtsy weekly challenge.

I'll be back to show you a couple of cards I've made using it.

Enjoy!

Up, Up and Away ...

Great start to the week - I've managed to put together a card based on one of the tutorials from Day 7 of the online course One Layer Cards 3!  I'm absolutely delighted not something I say very often about my cards but I am really pleased with this one.

It uses dies, vellum and markers.  A relatively simple technique with great results - the biggest problem was choosing which colours to use!  The vellum I used is quite heavy I would like to try the technique with lighter vellum as I think the colours might pop more.

Here is my completed card:

The colour is a bit streaky but I think it works for this image.

I used the following:

Vellum
Card from my stash
Spectrum Noir markers - DR1, BT5, LV2 and TB5
Clearly Besotted 'Make a Wish' stamps and dies

I think I will enter the card in the Clearly Besotted Challenge where the theme is Flight! 

Enjoy!

Masking Take 2 ....

I decided to leave the water colouring and the iron-off embossing to create another card using another technique that involves ironing!!  

This time I masked off a rectangle on my card front, then scrunched up a piece of waxed paper and ironed it onto the card in the maxed area.  If you try this technique remember to place a piece of paper between the iron and the wax paper or you make a big mess on your iron - don't ask me how I found out!  Then using distress inks I coloured the area - the wax acts as a resist, a bit like the embossing does in the other technique.  I then ironed it again to remove most of the wax residue so that I could stamp on top.  Here it is:

You can see the textured effect you get with this technique

I'd like to see if the wax provides enough of a resist to use water colours with  but I'm going to save that excitement for another day.

I seem to be obsessed with entering challenges at the moment.  It will therefore not be a surprise to know that I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Less is More - Masking or Stencilling

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes

For this card I used:

Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks

Clearly Besotted Dandelion Dreams Stamp Set

Waxed Paper

Card Stock

Enjoy!

Iron-Off Embossing......

It's another beautiful Spring day - blue sky and sunshine!  I should be out gardening but the call of my crafting was far greater and I needed to get my homework done for the One Layer Card 3 online course that I'm currently doing at Online Card Classes.  

So here goes!  This card is using the iron-off embossing technique.  I love the effect of the water colouring.  I have established that to make it work better for me I need to .... practise more!  My first attempt was with textured water colour paper and I could get the embossing powder off the card with the iron so I need some flat card.  My second attempt was better but the embossing powder I have is not very fine and I think the stamp I used needed finer powder to work.  Anyhow I have put the card together and I guess someone will enjoy receiving it!!

The edges aren't as crisp as I would like.

I used the following:

Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks
Clearly Besotted Dandelion Dreams Stamp set.

Enjoy!

Masks and stencils ...

It has been a beautiful day - the sun has been shining and the blossom is just starting to bloom on my Cherry Blossom tree.  It's enough to make you smile and realise that Spring has arrived and the days are getting longer providing more light to craft by!

I've struggled again today with my card making. I had planned to try out one of the new techniques that I've been learning through the online course but everything I tried just didn't work for me.  I'm a little hampered by the lack of resources I have and my imagination deserted me in exchange for a migraine!  I decided to leave the homework to one side.  I'll try again tomorrow!

This evening my migraine has passed so I had a go at creating a card for this week's challenge over at "Less is More" - the challenge asks for Masking or Stencilling.  Eventually I came up with this card - it involves both masking and stencilling, hopefully this will not disqualify my entry!

I'm not sure that the card ranks as the most inspiring card I've ever made but it was the best of today's bad bunch!!  Migraines really interfere with inspiration - actually they interfere with most things.

I masked off a circle and laid down a layer of Peacock Feathers Distress Ink (my favourite) then placed the stencil over the top and laid down a layer of Salty Ocean Distress Ink to colour the negative space.  Added a couple of brads to the centre of the flowers, a layered sentiment and that was that.  The card lacks something ......

Enjoy!

Clearly Balloons ...

Today's card is again inspired by the "One Layer Cards 3" course that I mentioned in my post on Wednesday.  I seem to be working backwards though as this card is based on the technique of "Faux Layered Die Cuts" which was the Day One technique (we're now on Day Five!!).  Hopefully the weekend will help me catch up with my homework!

This card is created with products from one of my favourite places - Clearly Besotted I just love all of the stamp sets.  They also have a challenge running at the moment with the theme of "In Flight" - so I'm going to enter my red delight!

This looks like a single layer until you look very closely and realise that the balloons have first been die cut out of the card base, the red balloons have been cut from red card and then placed in the holes.

I used the following:

Clearly Besotted - Make A Wish stamp set and dies

Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black

Stampin Up - Riding Hood Red ink.

Enjoy!

In search of my mojo....

I've been struggling to design cards that are new and different.  It seems to take ages to come up with an idea and when it comes to creating male cards I have even more problems.  I decided this week that I would 'bite the bullet' and join an online class to see if I could find inspiration - so I have joined One Layer Card 3 organised by onlinecardclasses.  It is a mixture of video tutorials and PDFs - so far so good - today is day 3 and this card is inspired by the masking and stamping technique.  I have also taken on board the colour challenge over at The Male Room Challenge Blog where you need to produce a male card using Blue, Green and Brown and will enter the challenge with this:

I used the following:

Stampin Up inks - Not Quite Navy, Pistachio Pudding and Baked Brown Sugar
Distress Ink - Pine Needles
Inkadinkado Clear Stamps - Steam Punk
Docrafts Papermania Chronology Stamps

Enjoy!

Such fun ...

What a weekend!! A trip home to Lincoln to visit family then to Nottingham on Saturday evening to see Miranda Hart Live at the Capital FM Arena!  It was a brilliant show - two hours of solid laughter!

Back to reality this morning with work as usual.

I have managed to put together a card this evening for this week's challenge at "Less is More" - the challenge is for a One Layer Card with the subject of Spring Flowers. 

The stitching is actually lime green

I used the following:

JOFY 09 stamps by PaperArtsy
Not Quite Navy ink from Stampin Up
Sentiment from Dandelion Dreams stamp set from Clearly Besotted
Derwent Artists Pencils

Enjoy!

Simply green and purple ...

This evening I've managed to complete another card in Green and Purple for the challenge over at Inkspirational.  This one is very different to last night's entry that you can see here.  It took me far longer to complete - I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide how to colour the image!

Here it is:

I used:

Jofy 09 stamps by PaperArtsy
Ranger Archival Black Ink
Derwent Inktense Pencils

Enjoy!

Simply Purple and Green ....

I made this card with no real purpose in mind except for a total obsession with single layer cards.  I then remembered that the challenge at Inkspirational is to use Green, Purple and white (any combination of these).

Its a super quick card, just a little stamping. 

This is a combination of Uniko Studio "Round in Circles" and Stampin Up "Off the Grid"

Enjoy!

Distressed Circles ...

This evening I have found time to create a card for the challenge over at Uniko Studio the challenge is for Distressed or Vintage using a specific colour palette.  I do not own many Uniko stamps (yet!) but I really wanted to have a go.  My first problem came when I tried to match my inks with those shown on the challenge - computers seem to distort colours.  I think that I'm going to create a swatch of my inks onto card and up load a photograph and use this to compare with challenge colours!!  Hopefully it will be useful - I'll let you know how I get on.

Less of the waffle... here is my card:

I used the following:

Uniko Studios Stamps - Background Builders: Round In Circles
Stampin Up Inks Baked Brown Sugar and Crisp Cantaloupe

Enjoy!

All is not what it seems ...

Spring has arrived!! At least for today - we've had blue skies and sunshine all day, it's a great change from grey skies and rain!

I began my day with a payday trip to The Stamp Attic - it is a brilliant shop full of lots of essentials and lots of things that you didn't know you needed!  I left with a full bag and an empty purse.  

After lunch it was down to the serious business of creating cards. This card took three attempts - such a simple idea turned into an absolute nightmare!  Firstly I couldn't get the embossing how I wanted it, then I stamped the yellow and somehow managed to get a spot of ink exactly where I didn't want it!  Finally I couldn't decide what sentiment to use, as you will see I decided to go without a sentiment.  I think the design fits with the Clean and Simple principle (at least it does when there are no random ink smudges!).

I've been blog hopping all week - looking for inspiration and admiring all the great cards.  In hopping around I've spotted some more card challenges and have decided to spread my wings.  So I will be entering this card into the following challenges:

"Less is More" this week is a colour theme - Green and Yellow
The Card Concept where the theme is Floral
Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is Clean and Simple

Enjoy!