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!