Mini bouquet ...

Sunday evening ... so soon!

A quick post with a not so quick card ... for some reason this took me ages to make ... I knew what I wanted to do I just seemed unable to do it!

I used:
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Bouquet
Versafine Onyx Black ink
Inktense Blocks to water colour the flowers
Lil'inker Stitched Tag die
Brads
Paper string

I'm entering this challenge:

I need to say a big thank you to the AAA Cards design team ... they selected one of my cards to feature in their top four! How exciting is that ... this is the card they liked:

Enjoy!

Born to Roam ...

Since the start of 2017 I have been trying my hand at different styles of creating ... basically I admire the mixed media artists that I see in the blogging world and I would love to master the technique.  I figured that I need to just try it ... by practising hopefully I get better at it.  I intend sharing my efforts as a record of my (hopeful!) progress.  This is the second tag I've shared - you can see my first one here.

This tag is very different and is more "grungy" ...

I used:
Design Paper - cut up for the travel themed words
STAMPlorations - Born To Run Stamp set
Distress Inks - Vintage Photo and Black Soot
Tim Holtz Chevron stencil
Reeves Modelling Paste

I'm going to enter the tag into the monthly mixed media challenge at STAMPlorations

Enjoy!

Yellow for Spring ...

As Spring is just around the corner it seemed appropriate to create a card with Spring colours.

I began by creating some washi tape using tissue paper, distress inks, stamps and double sided tape.  I stamped an heat embossed the daffodil before water colouring using distress inks.  I trimmed the image and using fun foam adhered it on top of the washi tape before stamping the sentiment.  I used the sketch from this week's challenge at "Less is More" as my inspiration (details below).

I used:

Distress Inks - Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin and Twisted Citron
STAMPlorations - Mixed Media Elements, Mixed Media Grunge,  Boxed Blooms and Bold Sentiments, The Birds and the Blooms.
WOW White Embossing Powder

I'm entering the following challenges:

Enjoy!

Blue giraffe ...

It is amazing how quickly the weeks seem to pass ... especially, it seems, when you are on a design team!!  So here I am hopefully to inspire you to join in with the new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  This week we have a photograph to inspire you:

Take inspiration from any aspect - the colours, the chevrons, new baby, the clouds, the mobile - the choice is all yours.  I went with the new baby theme and the colours.

I stamped the giraffe with grey ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I water coloured the giraffe using distress ink.  I added some narrow washi tape to the edges to reflect the chevron in the photo.  I used a stitched rectangle die to cut out the giraffe before adhering it to a panel using fun foam to add some dimension.

I used:

Hunkdory, For the Love of Stamps - Another Year Taller

Versafine Smokey Gray Ink

Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass

WOW Clear Embossing Powder

Lawn Fawn - Lawn Cuts Stitched Rectangles

Enjoy!

Pretty blue ...

A quick post this evening to share a card. There are times when I just need to switch off and being creative gives me that time ... an opportunity to distract my thoughts ...

This is the first outing for my new stamp set from Happy Little Stampers ... I was the January winner over at "Less is More" sponsored by the lovely Kylie at Happy Little Stampers. This flower is one of the stamps (Especially for You) that I was "forced" to buy!!

I'm entering the following challenges:

"Less is More" #316


Happy Little Stampers February CAS Challenge


Enjoy!

Return of the Gerbera ...

Good afternoon! The days are getting longer but my holiday is fast disappearing ... it's back to work on Monday ... so I need to get as much done as possible over the weekend.  

I'm trying to create some mixed media pieces but I am struggling - I have four tags in the making at the moment but I don't know what to do next.  So if you get stuck what do you do? Me?  I return to my comfort zone ... I created a CAS card for this week's challenge at "Less is More".  I blame my choice of stamp on Bev at UNIKO - she is celebrating UNIKO's 5th birthday this week and has been showcasing some of her favourite makes, Of course the Gerbera stamp set featured and if you regularly visitor to my blog you will know how much I love this set.

I heat embossed the gerbera before water colouring with distress inks.  I used the matching die to create a mask so that I could stamp the dictionary definitions around the image.  I adhered some orange card to the card base before popping the image up using fun foam. The theme at "Less is More" is the alphabet - I hope it is OK that my alphabet is all jumbled up into works!!

I used:
UNIKO - Pure Florals: Gerbera
Kaisercraft - Dictionary meanings
Distress Inks - Carved pumpkin, Mustard Seed and Twisted Citron
WOW Bright White embossing powder.

I'm entering the following challenge and link up:

Time to get back to my mixed media attempts.

Enjoy!

Black and White ... her's!

Back again with another card for the challenge at "Less is More" ... as the theme is opposites it seemed appropriate to create one for him and one for her!!

Nothing inspiring ... one piece of card, one stamp, black ink, clear embossing powder ... sounds just like the recipe for my earlier card!

I used:
UNIKO Originally Organic Clear Stamp set
Versafine onyx black ink
WOW Clear embossing powder

The challenge details:

Enjoy!

Black and White ... his!

It is half term for school's this week so I have a week off work.  I spent the first four days visiting my parents in Lincolnshire and the rest of the week is "me time"!!  I plan to do chores in the mornings and create in the afternoons ... so far so good.  This is one of the cards I've made this afternoon.

The inspiration for the card is this week's challenge at "Less is More" :

My card is literally one piece of card, one stamp set and one ink pad ... and takes the literal approach to the theme ... black and white.

Enjoy!

Love TAGplorations Blog Hop ...

To celebrate Valentine's Day STAMPlorations are holding a week long celebration ... a Love TAGplorations blog hop. Today is Day 4 and I hope that my tag will inspire you to join in with the hop - you might even win a prize!

This is my tag ... very different to my usual CAS style.

First I stamped and white heat embossed a piece of card before spritzing with water and sprinkling with brushos ... this was the difficult bit for me as I didn't have any control over where the colour went!! I used my heat tool to dry the panel as I wanted to create some hard lines in the colour. Once the panel was dry I spread texture paste through a stencil but only in limited areas - I wanted the hearts to wrap around the die cut heart. The corrugated heart was left over from another project and was just what I needed to help create a cluster of elements to create a focal point. I machine stitched the corrugated heart onto the tag before die cutting the clustered heart die and 'love' sentiment lots of times!! I also adhered three small hearts from the clustered heart die that I had cut from another piece of brusho-ed card. Added some twine and ribbon and considered it complete.

I used:

STAMPlorations: Mixed Media Elements Stamp set

ARTplorations: Row of Hearts Stencil

CUTplorations: Clustered Heart Die and Love die

Brushos

Versamark Ink

WOW White Embossing Powder

Why not hop along with the STAMPlorations team - you will be made very welcome!

Enjoy!

Christmas in February ,,,

It is time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and this week we are looking for cards for Holiday ... that's why it is Christmas in February on my blog!!  I figured if I start this early I might at least have enough cards made by December!  So why not join in the challenge and make a start on your Christmas cards!!  You can, of course, choose to make a card for a different holiday ... Easter, Thanksgiving ... the choice is yours!  

I created my card using my (current) favourite technique of stamping and heat embossing.

The only problem with heat embossing is that the shimmer is very difficult to capture in a photograph but I can assure you that the images do sparkle in real life.

I used:

STAMPlorations - Christmas Bell Medley
Versamark Ink
WOW Silver Embossing Powder
Lawn Cuts Stitched Rectangles
Dienamics Stitched Squares

 I hope my card inspires you to join in ... 

Enjoy!

Corrugated heart ...

Day two of the weekend and I've managed to find more time for crafting ... another card!

A very different colour palette for me - no sign of the rainbow!  It does look better in real life not quite as drab as it appears in the photograph!

I used:
STAMPlorations - Row of Hearts Stencil
                              Bloom Sketches Stamp set
Reeves Modelling Paste
XCut Heart Nesting Die
Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
Corrugated cardboard
Sewing Machine.

I'm entering the following challenges:

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge - as well as cardboard and stamping I have used machine stitching and stencilling with texture paste.



AAA Cards #83 



STAMPlorations



Enjoy!

Smooshing Butterflies ...

It's been quite a productive day for me ... helped by the fact that it has been sunny and dry! I've washed and cleaned but most importantly I've spent the afternoon getting inky!!

I began by creating a card for this week's challenge at "Less is More" - they are celebrating their 6th Birthday!  To celebrate they have redesigned their blog ... it looks amazing ... but the challenge remains the same - clean and simple all the way!  It is colour challenge week -use three colours adjacent to each other on the colour wheel.  This is my contribution to the celebrations - from yellow green to green to blue green

I attempted a new (to me) technique of controlled smooshing of ink using a piece of acetate - the theory is that you can control where the ink goes and how much colour.  I'm not sure that the result reflects control but it is quite interesting although it is not quite as 'clean' as usual.

I used:
STAMPlorations: Trendy Butterflies
Distress Inks - Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Lucky Clover
WOW Bright White Embossing Powder
Versamark Ink.

I'm going to enter these challenges:





Before finishing I need to say a great big thank you to the "Less is More" team for choosing me as their January winner!! - it was exciting news at the end of a hard week and a great way to start the weekend.

Enjoy!