Hello and welcome!

It’s Svenja’s turn to challenge us over at Daring Cardmakers this week and she’d like us to focus on welcomes - a new baby, new colleague, new neighbour etc.

I’ve gone clean and simple with a scrapling (I’m determined to make a dent on the pile of scrapling-sized trimmings I have!). We live right on the edge of an area that still has red squirrels even though the greys are making inroads into the territory. We’re encouraged to report sightings of greys and one of our neighbours is a squirrel warden!

All of which made this stamp a perfect choice for a card to say “hello, welcome to the neighbourhood”! I’m sure he’s a red squirrel as he has those lovely little tufty bits on his ears and the greys don’t have those! Sadly I don’t have a die to cut the word welcome so I settled for stamping it on the inside.

Stamps:
Squirrel by Carabelle Studio

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Copic markers
Black fineliner 
Phrases 2 dies by Spellbinder
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Summertime

Miri is setting the challenge for us this week at Daring Cardmakers - she’d like us to take advantage of the summer weather and get outdoors. Picnics, sunbathing, tennis, waterskiing, a stroll along the prom with an ice cream... what would you choose to do?

I’ve opted for a spot of beach combing with some stamped shells and die cut netting. A piece from my scraps pile provides a splashy blue background and a smattering of sequins finishes it off.

Stamps:
Antique Engravings and Say It All by Hero Arts (I suspect both sets are retired)
Seaside by Crafty Secrets (no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Unidentified inky piece from scraps pile!

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Copic markers
Netting die cut (Marianne Design Craftables)
Sequins
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

A sporting chance

Kathy has set this week's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. She's like us to be inspired by the summer of sport happnening and make a card with a sporting theme.

I'm possibly the least sports-oriented person ever. DH's grandsons, however, play football, cricket, ice hockey etc and I have a nephew and friend's son who do martial arts so kids card it was...

The football was simple clip art, I shaded it with Copic markers, cut out with a circle die and popped up slightly with gel glue. Other than that it's just a bit of inking on the green panel and a heat embossed sentiment.

Supplies:
Clip art football
Sentiment from Essential Messages (Hero Arts)
Green cardstock
Bristol board
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Peeled Paint) 
Versamark by Tsukineo
Detail white emobssing powder
Copic markers
White gel pen
Black fineliner

Thanks for stopping by!

July elemental

Enfys has chosen the inspiration for the first challenge of July over at Daring Cardmakers which is our usual "elemental" dare. Just choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture as the basis of your project.

I chose the colour scheme, the black and white stripes of one of the vases and the eggs.

A hand-drawn wonky square coloured with Copic markers and bordered with a fineliner combined with a stamped image and some glitter card shapes.

This started off as a much more clean and simple design but I mis-stamped some chicken footprints under the sentiment and ended up using the "embesllishment opportunity" to add stars rather than start again! I'm not quite sure about the result but maybe it will grow on me!

Stamps:
Farm Chicks (Craft Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board 
Glitter paper (local £1 shop)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Fiskars squeeze punches (stars)
Copic markers
Black fineliner 
Pinflair glue gel
Corner Chomper 

Here's the inspiration picture - check out what the other DT girls were inspired by. We'd love to see your take on it, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tying the knot

It’s that time of year and Ruth is getting into the wedding mood on Daring Cardmakers this week - our challenge is to make a card with a wedding or anniversary theme.

I needed a card for a friend’s civil partnership - the couple in question has been together over 20 years! At the start of their time together they wouldn’t have been allowed to marry so at least we can say hurray for progress in that department.

With two grooms I didn’t want anything too flowery and since one is Irish and “tying the knot” is something we say to mean getting married I thought maybe a Celtic knot would do the trick. I embossed black cardstock, cut out the central knot from the bigger design and gilded with some silver Rub n Buff wax.

Some Brusho splatters and a simple stamped sentiment are the only other things going on here. I think it’s suitably understated (they were keen to keep the whole thing low key)!

Stamps:
Say It All by Hero Arts

Paper:
Bamboo Mixed Media by Hannemuhl
Smooth black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Brusho crystals (Turquoise)
M-bossabilities folder by Spellbinder (Celtic Knot)
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Silver Leaf)

Thanks for stopping by!

Wonderful world

Kathy has set the challenge for us at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like us to be inspired by the words of the song What a Wonderful World - pop over to the blog to see all the lyrics!

I've done a super-quick scrapling this week with inspiration from the blue sky and green trees mentioned in the song. I inked the trunk in brown and the foliage in green before stamping then added some Distress inks as watercolours - it really was a super-quick process since you can randomly dab in a couple of shades of green and get a lovely tree canopy in full summer leaf!

I die cut the word from the card front as well as a couple of extras from scrap card for an integrated look.

Stamps:
Lovely as a Tree (Stampin' Up)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Ivy, Coffee Bean)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain)

Other:
Hello die (Waltingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Zig Clean Colour marker (light blue)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

ABW!

It's my turn to set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week and I'd like to see ABW - anything but white! I've fallen into the habit of using white as my card base so I thought I should challenge myself at least.

Of course, being a last minute minnie it had to be a father's day card. I was in the mood for texture so I decided to emboss rather than stamp this week.

I swiped charcoal grey ink onto the folder before embossing some mid grey cardstock and then rubbed silver ink and two shades of Perfect Pearls over the large shell.

The embossing is deep enough that it's really easy to reseat the piece in exactly the same place on the folder so I swiped the inkpad around the large shell area again and put it back through the Big Shot to redefine the inking after adding the pearl effect.

The die cut word has the same Perfect Pearls and silver ink treatment and the rest of the sentiment is stamped onto the torn vellum strip to finish it off.

Stamps:
Happy Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)

Ink:
Delicata by Tsukineko (Silver Shimmer)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Charcoal)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Paper:
Stormy Medium (an ancient Prism papers one!)
Vellum

Other:
M-bossabilities folder by Spellbinder (Shell Beauty)
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Blue Patina and Blue Raspberry)

Here's a close up that shows the depth and detail of the embossing a bit more clearly.

We'd love to have you join us with your ABW creations - just have a look at the lovelies the rest of the team came up with if you're looking for ideas to get you started!

Totally tropical

It's Shabneez's turn to set the challenge this week at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like to see us go tropical - bright colours, clashing patterns, tropical motifs - just right for summer!

It's a quick one layer creation from me using hot colours and a silhouette style hibiscus image in two sizes with a glittery die cut and stamped sentiment and a few tiny gems to finish it off. I think I might have been happier with a darker colour for the “happy” - maybe I’ll try it out and see but I’d run out of time for Friday deadline!

I’ve held out against Distress Oxides until now but I caved and bought a few this week. The orange here is a first play with one of them, I like the way it layered over the pink (which is regular Distress).

Stamps:
Emerging Hibiscus and Emerging Dragonfly (both Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Hero Arts Essential Messages

Paper:
Bristol Board
Green glitter card

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Picked Raspberry)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Carved Pumpkin)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Happy Stamp & Cut by Hero Arts
Corner Chomper
Nail art gems

Thanks for stopping by!

Paper roses, paaa-per roses....

Sorry, since seeing Dawn’s challenge for Daring Cardmakers this week I’ve been singing the Osmonds in my head! The challenge is not limited to roses though, Dawn would like to see hand made paper flowers of any kind on our projects - you could use dies, punches, freehand shapes, roll them, sculpt them... just make a paper flower, however it takes your fancy!

I opted for a crepe paper number made with circles - alarmingly the first one I made was back in 2010 using this video tutorial. I ran a pale pink Copic marker round the petal edges for extra definition and then used various bits that were lying around on my desk (background, bird, clock) to make a sort of collage feel card. I didn’t include a sentiment so it’s an all-purpose card.

Stamps:
Bird from Spring Bird and foliage from Bird Paradise (Bloom Art Stamps)
Clock from Time To Stamp (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bamboo mixed media paper by Hannemuhl
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Olive Grove)
Tim Holtx Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Juniper reinker)

Other:
Black fine line marker
Pinflair glue gel

For the flower:
Heavyweight crepe paper 
Spellbinder circle dies (large and small used here - the two smallest dies from the large set and the "in between" one from the small set)
Copic marker
Elmers glue 
Glamour Dust Crystal glitter 
Velvet brad 

Thanks for stopping by, we’d love to see your flower creations if you have time to join us!

Waving goodbye

Svenja has set the challenge for us this week at Daring Cardmakers - she'd like us to take time to say goodbye (retirement, leaving a job, sympathy, flying the nest, bon voyage etc).

This is actually a card I made during my time on the Splitcoast Stampers Dirty Dozen but this week has gone a bit pear shaped in terms of making anything and I thought the idea of saying farewell as someone sets off on a trip fit the theme so I decided to share this one.

The background is a piece that had been in my scraps pile forever. I thought it made a nice vibrant backdrop for the boots - a bit like a weird landscape and stormy clouds!

I stamped the image on the panel and then again on a scrap of white card, cut it out and popped it up just slightly with some gel glue.

Stamps:
Combat Boots by Deep Red Stamps
Sentiment from Journey set by Crafty Secrets (no longer with us)

Paper:
Hot press watercolour
Smooth white

Ink:
Graphite Black Brilliance by Tsukineko
Tim Holtz Distress reinkers by Ranger (Spiced Marmalade, Dusty Concord)

Other:
Fine line black marker
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!