Hey There

Continuing with Ardyth's birthday party, this week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by the Birthday Girl herself, is to case one of her cards or make a birthday card, as long as it's one layer.

Ardyth does precise.  I don't do precise.  As you can see.  The most precise I got was to keep the repeat colour pattern on the flowers.  I chose flowers deliberately - I did think about using dots, but there's no hiding behind dots, is there?  And I know embellies should be kept to a minimum, but I couldn't resist.

I used the colour scheme from ColourQ:

I cased Michelle's beautiful inspiration card for Muse:

And also took my inspiration from Paper Smooches SPARKS Picture Perfect challenge:

In case you're wondering - the continuous circle (or oblong in my case) of colour.

Stamps: Paper Smooches Bold Blooms, Sentiment Sampler

Oh, The Lies!

Ever lied about eating chocolate?  Me too.  Ever lied about eating other people's chocolate? Mmmm, me too.

I've had this two-part sentiment stamp for a few years and it's remained uninked until today.  Just the thing for this guilty-looking mouse.

The challenge at Less is More is HUMOUR, the challenge at CASology is FURRY:

And the challenge at Simon Says is ANYTHING GOES:

I stamped the mouse onto spare card and cut him out, and rounded his fat little belly and popped it up with a foam dot.  Added a strip of designer paper for him to sit down on after gorging on all that chocolate.

Sentiment: Inkwell Stamps

Image: Annticipations F9445

Happy Birthday, Ardyth

Today is Ardyth's birthday, and Darnell has been busy behind the scenes organising a secret birthday bash.

How to describe Ardyth?  Generous, funny, encouraging, amazingly talented (there is no end to her wizardry with primary colour and shape), precise, OCD (her words, not mine ;D).  You can spot an Ardyth card a mile off, with its clean, graphic lines, bold colours and bold fonts.  Then occasionally she throws in something unexpected and you wonder if you're on the right blog.

Darnell suggested we case one of Ardyth's card as a tribute for her birthday, so I chose one of her "alternative" cards, which is still very Ardyth:

I used a Magenta stamp (Canadian, very apt), and a similar colour scheme, and of course some of those trademark stickles.

Come and join the birthday bash by linking a card up to Darnell's post.

You can also get a second shot at casing one of Ardyth's cards as she's hosting this week's One Layer Wednesday, the theme of which is to case one of her cards or make one based on her many and varied interests (listed in the post).  Double whammy!

Happy Birthday, Ardyth!  I hope you have a fabulous day:)

Con-Fusion

Well this card took on a life of its own!  The idea was to do some kind of watercolour effect for the Fusion challenge, based on Lesley's photo inspiration:

I made several aborted attempts, using Paper Smooches Bold Blooms and distress inks onto watercolour paper.  Bin.  Tried again and spritzed with water.  Bin.  One final attempt, leaving out the greens for the leaves.  Drenched it in spritz and let the colours run down.  Almost hit the bin, then I thought I'd stamp some line images over the top to see what it looked like.  Nothing like what was in my head at the start, but it's growing on me.  I added a strip of decorative tape across the bottom - which may or may not be Prima.

I love watercolour images, particularly flowers, and I still want to be a watercolourist when I grow up.  I have much to learn, grasshopper!

The large flower stamp is from Funstamps and the two smaller ones are Studio G.

Muse Flowers

Using my new JOFY stamps again to sneak in on the Muse challenge before it closes.  Here's Marion's inspiration card:

We've been away for a few days but I'm hoping to catch up with you all over the next day or two.

Stamps used: JOFY12, JOFY Mini 13, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black, coloured with Tombows, highlighted with Sakura Gelly Roll white pen.

Plant a Little Sunshine

And again.  Click here for today's first post, and here for my second post.

This is my third card for the Penny Black For Family challenge:

Sorry to bombard you, but it's closing in a few hours, and I've been having a Penny Black Fest today.  As I've been stamping onto designer paper, I thought I'd also enter this one into the CAS-ual Fridays challenge to stamp onto designer paper:

Penny Black Stamps: 40-236 Garden Assistant, 30-109 Nature's Wishes
Penny Black designer paper: Madison

That's it.  No more from me today, so you can enjoy the rest of your day in peace :)

Buzzin' By

Me again (click here for today's first post), with another card for the Penny Black For Family challenge,

but this time using the colour scheme from Dynamic Duos:

Penny Black stamps: 40-234 Fluffy Passenger, 30-109 Nature's Wishes

Penny Black designer papers: Madison

Party Animal

This dog's dressed to party its way through a few challenges!  First up, Less is More, where the challenge is to create a card with a cat or dog on it.

Next to the party is the colour scheme for the ensemble, provided by The Play Date Cafe:

Maroon ... Poppy ... Soft Jade

Atmosphere is provided by CAS(E) This Sketch:

The heart's in the right place (!), but a tad smaller, and the bubbles have turned into splatters.

And now she's ready to rock up to Penny Black's challenge about family.  Anyone who owns a dog will know just how big a part of the family they are.

Stamps by Penny Black: 4334J Tutu and Cupcake, 30-105 Gratitude

Flower Power

This week's challenge at Simon Says is Flower Power:

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to stamp on designer paper:

The sentiment words are from various Paper Smooches sentiments, stamped onto designer paper, edged with fineliner then cut out.  I've used the same DP as a mat onto the card base.

And I've used the colour scheme from ColourQ.  The two larger flowers are coloured red around the edges, the others are coloured coral which is slightly pinker than Calypso Coral, and my celery certainly isn't, but those nice people at ColourQ are very forgiving if you don't have the exact colours.

Flowers/leaves - JOFY12
Sentiments - Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Baby Card

I love Therese's inspiration card for the Muse challenge.  It's not specifically a baby card, but that's what  it reminded me of, and that's what I wanted to make.  I swapped the stripes to the central panel, and paper-pieced three babygros and placed them so that they look like they're hanging on the pink line.

And that's it.  One card, one challenge - unusual for me :)  But it makes for a quick post!

Image Stampendous XXH001
Word - Heidi Swapp
DP Wild Rose Studio Polka Dots, Papercraft Essentials Sweet Wishes

Bloomin' Border

This week's One Layer Wednesday is hosted by Heather, who has challenged us to create a card with a border as the image.

I've used an image from my new Penny Black winnings.  I stamped the image repeatedly across the bottom of the card so that the curved base didn't show, then coloured with Tombows, deliberately leaving random white space in the flowers.  Then I drew in some grass, and edged all the flowers with a beige Tombow to soften the scene.  I thought I'd stamp the sentiment in matching pink, rather than black.

The cue word at CASology this week is:

And the challenge at Simon Says is Flower Power, with a $50 voucher on offer:

Stamps by Penny Black: Nature's Wishes 30-109, birthday wish 3669F.

Rain or Shine

Rain or shine just about sums up today's weather - we've been alternating between the two.  This card is for the Paper Players:

A last fling on CAS-ual Fridays Tic-Tac-Toe before it closes (I went for the middle row - Square Card, Bling and Text):

And CAS(E) This Sketch before that also closes:

Here's the full view of the card:

It's battering down (with the help of Star Dust Stickles) but they're cuddled up close under the brolly.  Stamps are from Unity Stamp Co IB-21 stamped in Memento Paris Dusk and the image is paper-pieced.

Flowers With Love

I made this little set of cards for the Moxie Fab World 350 Cards & Gifts Week: The Card Set Challenge.

And also for the current Penny Black challenge For Family:

I made a box for the cards from yellow card that has a scumble pattern on it, so I just stamped the image and text in black, which I think is a nice contrast to all the colours on the cards.

Dynamic Duos are celebrating their one year anniversary, so we get to choose which colour combo we want this week.  The cards are multi coloured but the box qualifies for the colours from challenge #3.  Is that pushing the envelope?  Or the box?

Here's a close-up of said box:

All stamps by Penny Black, stamped with Versafine Onyx Black, or coloured direct to stamp with Tombow markers.

3x3 Gift Card

The new challenge at Less is More is a one layer card using a coloured card blank:

This week it's everyone's favourite.. One Layer Cards and this week we would like you to use a

Coloured Card Blank

Yes that's right, none of your boring, white, ivory, black or kraft card blanks we want to see you add some colour. 

This week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Cheryl, is to use a 3x3 inch square card.  That's tiny!  But it's a great size for a gift card.

I've used the colour scheme from this week's ColourQ:

The image stamp is a magazine freebie from Pink Petticoat, stamped in Versamark, white embossed and coloured with Tombows.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts CL646 Happy Birthday.

Movie Star

Mini canvas day today instead of a card.  (It's also a fridge magnet.)  I've used the colour scheme from Less is More's colour wheel:

It's actually yellow-green and violet-red, although in the photo it's tending more towards yellow and violet, but whatever, it's opposite.

The challenge at The Paper Players this week is Mother's Day, which has already been and gone in the UK.  However, I got my very own Mother's Day last Sunday - my boys, who live in Australia, got the date wrong so I got my gifts last weekend instead of this weekend. 

Awww :)

As it's a fridge magnet, I'm entering it into the gift challenge at Moxie Fab World to celebrate the latest issue of 350 Cards & Gifts.

I stamped the complete image (Paper Artsy Mini 37 Move Star) onto tissue paper with Versafine Onyx Black ink, and stamped the words at the top so that they would align on the edges of the mini canvas.  I also stamped the words either side of the image.  I painted the canvas with a watered down solution of PVA, then stuck the tissue paper down onto the canvas.

Once dry, I coloured the image with Tombow markers and added some glitter, so I'm entering it into A Blog Named Hero's challenge, All That Glitters:

I added some strips of Woodware self-adhesive magnetic sheet to the back of the canvas, and Hey Presto, a fridge magnet!