Lots of Layers at Deep Ocean Challenge

Hello!

I'm having a little break from all the CAS today, with a layered, shabby card for 

Deep Ocean Challenge's new theme of 'Lots of Layers'

For this card I used some lovely Lemoncraft Papers as a backdrop for this lovely Butterfly, made from the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set from MFT Stamps.

I did some ink blending on Strathmore Bristol Smooth Cardstock and then made some small splashes of water and blotted. Once fully dry I stamped on the markings in Versamark Ink and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I cut out the butterfly with the coordinating die and then I creased it down the centre to give it some added dimension, placing 3 self adhesive pearls down the body, and then set it aside.

I made a 5.5 x 5.5 inch card base from ivory cardstock, and then cut a piece of 'Just love me' patterned paper a little smaller.  I cut a second piece that was smaller again by about half and inch or so and inked and distressed both pieces.

I cut some of the pink paper out with an old LDRS die Lovely View, grabbed some embellishments and started putting my card together. 

I've listed all the items I used from The Ribbon Girl below, along with links to the items in store.

Lemoncraft Just Love Me 6 x 6 pack

Cheesecloth

Siam Pink Seam Binding

Ivory Magnolia Flower

Sweetheart Blossom Pink

Rose Leaves Green

3 - 6 mm Ivory S/A Pearls

Lucy's Princess Sparkly Shaker Selection

That's all from me today, but I'll be back tomorrow with some more MFT inspiration.

Thanks for dropping by!

Flowers Everywhere

Hello!

My week is still hectic, so no time for a Technique Tuesday this week, but I did get a card made ahead to share for our new theme over at Deep Ocean Challenge.

This time it's 

'Flowers Everywhere'.

Now it comes as no surprise to most that I love adding flowers to my vintage or shabby chic cards, even if I haven't used them too much recently with all the CAS cards I've been making, so my DT make for this challenge was a breeze. With Mother's Day looming here in the UK I thought I would make another Mother's Day card.

Rather than colour up a flowery stamp I let the flowers in this beautiful paper and my paper flowers take centre stage.

I've added links below where available.

Galeria As if in a Dream Retro Paper Pad

Cheesecloth

Chipboard Frame

Cherry Blossom

Beaded Stamen Pink/White

12 mm Faux Silk Pale Pink Ribbon

Rose Leaves

Thank you so much for visiting, I do hope you can join in with our challenge and don't forget to leave the rest of the team some love!

Technique Tuesday #12 Stenciled Background

Hello!

I'm coming in with my Technique Tuesday a little later today as it's also my card for
Deep Ocean Challenge's new theme of 

Dots and/or Stripes. 

As you can see I went for Dots, although since I cut through the card horizontally and added a coloured background, it does also have a single Stripe too.

To make my card I fir cut a piece of smooth white cardstock, 5.5 x 8.5 inches and folded it in half to make a horizontal top folding card.

Thank I took a piece of the same cardstock and cut that a quarter of an inch smaller on the length and width and taped that to my craft mat with some post it tape.

I used the Circle Dots Stencil from Simon Says Stamp and taped that down over my cardstock, and then stenciled through with my Clarity Brushes and some blue and turqouise tones from my Distress inks.

I stamped a sentiment from the You Matter Stamp Set from Simon Says Stamp, with Versamark ink on some green lustre cardstock, and then heat embossed with white detail embossing powder. I cut the green cardstock to size and adhered it to my cardbase and then adhered my 2 pieces of stenciled cardstock overlapping this with some foam tape, taking care to keep my sentiment visible.

I cut the word You, with the Simon Says Stamps You wafer thin die, 3 times in white cardstock and then once in the green lustre, and stacked and glued them together. I placed this carefully on my card and adhered with some Multi Medium Matte.

Finally I added some sequins from Lucy to finish.

Smooth White Cardstock
Spring Green Lustre Cardstock
SSS You Matter Stamp Set
SSS You Wafer Die
SSS Falling for You Circle Dots Stencil
Distress Inks in Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio and Peacock Feathers
Selection of sequins from Lucy's Shop

I do hope you can join in with our fun challenge this week, check out the blog for the prize on offer and don't forget to stop and admire my lovely teamie's gorgeous makes!

Thanks for dropping by

Hearts Everywhere

Hello!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm so happy because I have the whole week off work and I'm looking forward to some fun and crafty times.

No Technique Tuesday from me today (although I have used some techniques in this card), as it's the Whimsy February Release AND my birthday this week, but we do have a new challenge over at Deep Ocean Challenge and our theme this time is 

Hearts Everywhere.

I made this sweet little card and it has 3 different kinds of hearts on it. First there are the hearts on my base card, these are done with a stencil and my Clarity Brushes, I think the colours used were a combo of Worn Lipstick and Candied Apple, but I didn't write them down so I can't be sure.

I cut the panel to size and adhered it to some lovely Dazzle Gold Lustre Print Chroma card from Papermill Direct, (this looks quite dark in the picture, but is actually quite a bit more gold when the light hits it),  but before I did I cut the love from the centre with the Scripted Love Word die from Whimsy Stamps, love, love love this die.

I cut a further 3 love die-cuts from white cardstock and layered and adhered them together, finishing with the Gold Lustre one on top.

I did a little ombre ink blending on some watercolour cardstock and cut out a heart with an old Spellbinders nestie. I sprinkled some little droplets of water on top and left for a couple of minutes, before blotting off with a paper towel to lift some of the colour. Then I sprayed with some gold glimmer mist and left to dry.

Once fully dry I glued my heart onto my base and adhered the love across the heart. I cut a few hearts from some of the Gold Lustre card with one of the dies in the Card Builder - Hearts of Love die set and cut them again in white cardstock, sticking the 2 layers together for a little dimension and then adding some randomly to my card. 

I finished off with a beautiful butterfly embellishment from Kay Fatula.

Items used.
All cardstock from Papermill Direct
Spellbinders Heart Nestie

Ageteria Heart Stencil
Whimsy Scripted Love Word Die
Whimsy Stamps Card Builder Hearts of Love Die
Butterfly from Karla's Kreative Korner

I hope you can join in with our challenge, you can win a fab prize from our sponsor, and don't forget to check the DTs lush makes.

See you soon, thanks for dropping by!

Deep Ocean Challenge - Something New

Hello and happy Tuesday. No Technique Tuesday from me today as I have rather a full week going on, with the new release from Whimsy stamps and a couple of challenges going live.  But I have a lovely one lined up for next week and something for you almost every day on my blog this week, so you won't be missing out too much.

So the first challenge of the New Year over at Deep Ocean is 

Anything New

Now I could have used some of my new stash but the timing was a little awkward, however I thought, 'What's newer than a new born baby?' and so I made this sweet and simple little baby card in soft aquas and mints that make it suitable for either a girl or a boy.

Oh and I did use my new Clarity stencil brushes to do the ink blending too!

After blending my inks I cut it out with a postage stamp die and then stamped a sentiment from Whimsy Stamps Scripty Occasions Set , adding a few little stars in the corners from the Big Ballons Celebrations Set, and mounted the base layer on a top folding 5.75 x 4.25 inch card base. Then I cut and embossed the Baby Clothes die from Memory Box. I inked the the apertures when the die cut was still in the die to accentuate the little stars and heart.
You can buy these dies and stamps in the UK from Dies to Die for
.
Finally to finish off I  added a few sequins. in aqua and white.

I do hope you can join in with the challenge, we are being sponsored by the lovely and generous ladies over at The Ribbon Girl 
and you can win this lovely prize!


That's all for now but I'll be back tomorrow with some goodness from Whimsy Stamps' January release!

Bye for now

Deep Ocean Challenge - Fave Project of 2016

Hello!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break, I'm back to work now for 3 days before having another little break for the New Year.

So today I'm here with the final challenge for 2016 from Deep Ocean and this is an easy one because you do not have to make a new project. However if you are like me, it may take you a REALLY long time to choose one thing from everything you made in 2016.

I think it would be impossible to pick one single favourite for me, but as we can only pick one I've settled on this make with Sweetie from Whimsy Stamps Wee Stamps Collection.

This is one of my favourite stamps and I really like the card I made with her, I must get around to using her again soon.

I do hope you will join in with us for our last challenge of the year, and don't forget to ogle the rest of the teams' fantastic makes while you're there.

Saturated Canary Breeze in Blue

Hello there!

It's time for a new challenge theme over at Deep Ocean Challenge, and it's super easy this time as it's 'Anything Goes'

So I'm going to make a confession here, and I'm wondering if any others of you also do this.

Sometimes I stamp or print up a bunch of images with the intention of colouring them all up ahead of time ready to go on cards as and when needed. All well and good and fabulously organised you may think..........well think again, because what actually happens is I start colouring them and part colour them and then I get busy and work on other stuff that I need to do 'right now' and of course my poor partly coloured images languish, neglected and unused. So I'm trying to work my way through these before I stamp or print anymore.

Today is the turn of Breeze and I have to say that of all the stamps and digis I own, this is probably the one I've coloured the most, except maybe for Tiddly Inks 'You and Me'.

I thought I'd reprise a design I used for her before, but using a different Pion Collection in a different colourway, I've changed up a few other details as well such as card shape etc, but in essence it's the same basic design.

This is how it turned out

I used the following items on my card.

Saturated Canary - Breeze Rubber Stamp
Pion Design Paper - Paris Flea Market
Cheesecloth
Ivory Gathered Tulle Trim
Blue Vintage Seam Binding
Pearl and Diamante Embellishment
Ivory Magnolia Flower
Blue 30 mm Wild Roses
Dusky Blue 20 mm Open Roses
Dusky Blue 10 mm Open Roses
Blue Sweetheart Blossom
Antique Blue 2 Tone Cherry Blossom
Cherry Blossom White
Hip Rose Bud Cream

this was the original card.

I have to say straight up that I prefer the original card, ....everything actually from the colouring, to the warmer colours, the papers etc, and honestly I had a lot more time to spend on the original card and that definitely shows. But at least I've used up one of those abandoned images!

I do hope you can join in with our challenge and don't forget to check out the rest of the team's gorgeous makes here.

See you soon!

Little Christmas Angel

It's definitely a week for Christmas cards, I'm still working my way through them, so you'll probably see a lot of Christmas themed cards from me over the next few weeks.

This one is my DT card for the new challenge over at Deep Ocean and this time we have a Bingo grid for you to follow. I've shared the grid at the end of this post. You have rather a lot of choice here, you can do one line, straight or diagnol, or a full house and just to give you even more choice, you can choose to do a line of colours rather then using the elements.

I used a diagonal line of elements encompassing lace, flowers and pearl, I did also squeeze in die-cuts a sentiment and a charm so I did 2 straight lines also.

I used some lovely Christmas papers from Lemoncraft and coloured up a digi stamp from Saturated Canary that I've had for a while and not found the time to colour up before. I think she's called Little Angel. I've coloured her in distress inks and listed the colours below:

Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Worn Lipstick, Pine Needles, Walnut Stain, Pumice Stone, Festive Berries, Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Gathered Twigs

The sentiment is from a set from Mama Elephant.

Our lovely sponsors are Live and Love Crafts and The Ribbon Girl and you could win the following prizes

I've used the following products from The Ribbon Girl on my card:

Cheesecloth

Ophelia Embroidered Tulle Lace

25 mm Red/Cream Rustic Gingham Ribbon

Ivory White Magnolia Flowers

Ivory 30 mm Wild Roses

14 mm Flat Back Pearls

11 mm Ivory Flat Back Pearls

8 mm Ivory Flat Back Pearls

I've popped the grid blow for you so you can see the choices on offer and hope that you can join in with our challenge.

If you haven't done so already, don't forget to enter my 500 follower giveaway here!

Happy crafting!

Lee Holland - Mouse and Butterfly

Morning all! Our new challenge has gone live over at Deep Ocean Challenge and this time we want to see
'Things with Wings'

I've used a stamp from Whimsy's Lee Holland Collection from the July release called
Mouse and Butterfly,
(which like all of Lee's work is just adorable), and coloured it with my distress ink markers. I coloured this up a while ago now so I'm afraid I can't remember the colours exactly. I've also used one of Kay Fatula's beautiful butterflies from The Kreative Korner, so lots of wings on my card.

I've used some lovely papers and embellishments from The Ribbon Girl and I've listed those below. I inked the chipboard to tone in with my colour scheme.

Purple Rain 12 x 12 Papers

Spring Green Sugar Sprinkles Sheer Ribbon

Lily Flowers Small White

Scrapiniec Chipboard Innocence Rounded Corner

I did use some Wink of Stella on the butterfly but as usual it has gone incognito in the photgraph!

That's all from me today but don't forget to check out the rest of the team's gorgeous creations and  I do hope you can join in with our challenge, you could win a lovely prize from our sponsor

See you soon!

Vintage Blue - Inspiration Photo for Deep Ocean Challenge

Ooops I'm running a bit late with this as my scheduled post decided to misbehave!  Anyway, it's time for a change of theme over at Deep Ocean Challenge, and this time we have a bit of Photo Inspiration to share with you, please scroll to the bottom of this post to check out the inspiration for yourself.

I haven't made any non image cards for a bit and I thought this was the perfect opportunity, I used some lovely papers in vintage blues from Pion Design and added some some pretty embellishments in blue and ivory.

I inked all my layers in Walnut Stain, distressed them and added plenty of gesso, applied with an almost dry brush.
I slipped a square of light blue tulle between 2 of my layers. I coloured my little cameo frame blue and then brushed it liberally with a couple of coats of crackle paint, allowing the blue to show through.

To finish I added embellishments from The Ribbon Girl, links below.

Pion Design Paper

Resin Cameo Frame

Pale Blue Tulle

12 mm Ivory Faux Silk Ribbon

Dusky Blue Button Twine

Rose Leaves

Ivory White Magnolia Flower

30 mm Ivory Wild Roses

Scrapiniec Chipboard Rounded Corners

This is the inspiration I followed



I do hope you can join in, and don't forget to check out my lovely teamies' work over on the blog.

Until next time!

Wee Stamps Heidi - Christmas in July

It's no use, I can't put it off any longer, I need to start making the dreaded Christmas cards. Otherwise I'll be pulling out my hair come December....and I have a lot of hair...it could take quite some time and then I'd not get any cards made!

So it's probably fortunate that the latest theme over at Deep Ocean Challenge is
'Christmas in July'

I decided though that I still couldn't face full on traditional Christmas, so I opted for a little Winter Christmas scene with a twist. 

This is Heidi, isn't she scrummy?  She's one of the Wee Stamps collection by the wonderful Sylvia Zet as you probably guessed. She's an older stamp but still available.

If you read Whimsy Stamp's magazine then you may have seen this card already as it was featured there, funnily enough also as a Christmas in July project!

I've coloured her with my Distress Markers but this time I tried something a little different. If you are  a long time follower you will have  seen me do a B & W colouring with just a pop of colour accent from time to time, but sometimes B & W just doesn't go so well with your paper colour choice. This was the case with this card, I knew I wanted to use these gorgeous papers from Galeria Paperiu, and the blue was perfect for the accent colour, but B & W just didn't seem to look right with the neutral papers. Then I had a light bulb moment....what if instead of B & W I did Sepia? So I gave it a try and what I ended up with looked so beautifully vintage that I totally went with that look for my card.

Techniques used on my card:

Monochrome Distress Ink Colouring

Layering Die Cuts

Fussy Cutting

Distressing

Products used

Galeria Papieru - Snow Queen 12 x 12 papers
Cheesecloth
Ivory White Magnolia Flower
30 mm Ivory Wild Roses
Apple Blossom Mixed Pastels
Ivory Sugar Sprinkle Ribbon
5 mm FB Clear Gems


I do hope you can join in with us.

That's all from me today, but I'll be back tomorrow with my first make for the July release from Whimsy Stamps.

Happy Crafting!

Saturated Canary - Tilly

Evening! I'm dashing in with a quick post for Deep Ocean Challenge, we have a new theme for you to enter and it's

Colours of Summer

 I've had this Saturated Canary digi in my files for a while now (along with MANY others) and I thought it was about time she got coloured up and onto a project.

As usual I turned to my Distress Ink markers to colour her up, I really must crack out my Copics again soon, these days they are quite neglected and only seem to do gem colouring duty etc, and I won't mention the full set of Primacolor pencils that the OH bought me for my birthday and I've barely played with because of course I need the time to sit down practise using them!

I used this very pretty paper - Vintage Time from Craft and You, love the colours in this and I thought they were lovely summery colours to fit the theme.

I've used the following items from The Ribbon Girl

Craft & You Vintage Time 6 x 6 Pad
Pale Aqua Silk Ribbon
Shabby Pink Ruffled Ribbon
Clementine Ivory Tulle Lace
Aqua Wild Roses
Pale Pink 20 mm Open Roses
White Sweetheart Blossom
Beaded Stamen White
Baby Pink Tulips

5 mm Clear S/A Gems
2 mm Clear S/A Gems

I'm selling this card in my Etsy shop, you can get there by clicking the icon below.

I do hope you can join in with our challenge, there's a lovely prize to be won from our sponsor

of

Lacy Bird

Hi everyone! I'm just back from my holidays, but whizzing in with a card to share with you.

It's time for a new challenge over at Deep Ocean and it's

Our Furry/Feathered Friends

I made a vintage/shabby style card with a chipboard bird. I had a play around with some mixed media for this, and I'm loving how it turned out, hope you do too.

Products from The Ribbon Girl

Maja Design Enjoying Outdoors Papers
(I actually used some scraps of 12 x 12 papers from my stash, but the colours etc are the same in the 6 x 6 pad)
Purple Grape Sheer Ribbon
Ivory White Magnolia Flower
20 mm Lilac Open Roses
5 mm Crystal Gems

All other items from my stash

This card is for sale in my Etsy shop, just click on the icon below to take you there



That's all from me today but once I have all my holiday washing sorted I'll have more inspiration to share with you.

Saturated Canary - Turtle Love

Hello lovely crafters! It's time once more for a new challenge over at Deep Ocean Challenge and this time our theme is

Shabby Chic

Oooooh don't I love this one! :)

I've been making quite a few in this theme recently, but I thought I would share this pretty girl from Saturated Canary called Turtle Love.

Krista will be closing her shop in August, so if you want to own them, you need to snap up these digis soon.

I coloured her with my distress ink markers and used a slightly older Pion collection called 

A Day in May

which it is isn't it? 

Lots of layers, cheesecloth and gesso here.

Products used from The Ribbon Girl

Ophelia Lace

Cheesecloth

15 mm Brown/Cream Rustic Gingham Ribbon

16 mm Khaki Grosgrain Ribbon

20 mm Pale Pink Open Roses

20 mm Ivory Open Roses

Pink Sweetheart Blossom

Ivory Pretty Blooms

6 mm Pearl Ivory Trim

11 mm Ivory F/B Pearls

8 mm Ivory F/B Pearls

This card is for sale in my Etsy shop, just click on the icon below to go there



I'm entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft #20
Animal Friends Challenge #38
Classic Design Team Open Challenge #02

That's all from me, but don't forget to check out the rest of the team's shabbylicious makes.

Until next time!

Pion Scent of Lavender

Hello lovely crafters. It's the start of a new challenge over at Deep Ocean Challenge and the theme is

Flowers Everywhere

Not a hard one for me as you probably guessed, I do love a flower or 2 or 10 on my cards lol

Recently I was asked by a work colleague to make a card for her friend who is turning 60.
Making cards for people you don't know can be difficult, particularly with a stamped image. So I decided to make a shabby chic number using Pion Design's new Scent of Lavender Collection and lots of scrummy flowers.

I distressed my layers, inked them with Milled Lavender DI and sewed the top layer with pale pink top stitch thread.

Some dies, double cut to look like chipboard, and plenty of cheesecloth gave the effect I was looking for. I popped a loose bow of seam binding behind my flower arrangement. I gave my layers, die cuts and flowers a light brushing of gesso.

I painted this Tim Holtz hardware with a little gesso, before sprinkling with some aged ivory frantage and heating. Love this effect! I finished with a die cut butterfly in the corner and a few flat backed gems.

I used the following Ribbon Girl products

Pion Lavender Bouquet 6 x 6

Pion Lavender Love 6 x 6
Cheesecloth

Mauve Rose Lavender Vintage Seam Binding
Ivory White Magnolia Flower
Daisy Pale Pink (inked with distress inks)
Apple Blossom Mixed Pastels (inked with distress inks)
20 mm Ivory Open Rose
Cream Hip Rose Buds
5 mm Flat Back Gems

I hope you like my make for today and that you can join in with our challenge
you could win this lovely prize



from our sponsor



I'll see you all next time!