Lemon Cupcake, Anyone?

Today's theme at Seize The Birthday is monochrome yellow (did you guess?).  I've used Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw and Antique Linen for the cupcake.  The background panel was in my stash and I thought it would make a nice tablecloth for the cupcake.  I added a few Distress Inked diamonds for balance.

Come and play along.  If you're not a fan of yellow, you can still join in, as long as it's a birthday theme.

I'm playing along with Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Put Your Party Hat On

I'm playing along with a couple of challenges today.  First up is this fabulous inspiration photo from Time Out.  It's pretty obvious how it inspired me:

And second is another fab photo inspiration, this time from Just Us Girls:

The party hat is from Tim Holtz and the remainder of the sentiment is from STAMPlorations Sentiment Builders: Celebrate.

Parisian Birthday

Here's a snapshot of me on my last trip to Paris.  Come to think of it, last time I was in Paris I had curly hair like that (a looong time ago, in the days before GHDs).

I've used this juicy colour scheme from ColourQ:

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge, brought to you by the letter 'J'.  My J is journey.  Or junk - see below.

I'm also playing along at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge  - Around The House.  Rachel is challenging us to use items around the house to create texture.  I used an old iTunes gift card to create the black lines.  Originally I just made vertical lines, but it made it look like it was raining, so I added horizontal lines, which give it more texture.

Happy Birthday, Geri!

Here's a very CAS card for CAS-loving birthday girl, Geri of Manitoba Stamper!  Geri and I "met" over a scribbly Christmas tree stamp :)

Party planner extraordinaire, Bev of Happy Dance, is throwing a little shindig for the party girl - she's trawled the internet for cocktails, canapés, cakes and several little 'extras' - pop over and have a peek.

Now, Geri's style is ultra-CAS graphic.  And mine isn't at the moment.  My head is mainly in artsy/mixed media/grunge these days, and it's taken me three attempts to make a suitably CAS card for Geri - I kept getting carried away!

I'm entering this into Simon Says Monday Challenge - a mid-summer's challenge, and Simon Says Work It Wednesday - Anything Goes.

Have a wonderful birthday, Geri!

Medallion Birthday

This gorgeous embossing folder and medallion stamp set came free with a magazine the other week, so I had a play with it today.  I inked up the folder with Pick(l)ed Raspberry and Mustard Seed Distress Inks, spritzed and took a print, then stamped the medallion on gold card using Versafine Onyx Black.  The sentiment is from STAMPlorations.

I've used the colours from Colour Me...! - I love this combination.  I seem to have got over my allergy to pink ;)

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Summer.  These colours are just so summery!

An English Country Garden

We're having fabulous weather at the moment, the flowers (and weeds) are growing like crazy, and there are loads of butterflies around, so I thought I'd show you a picture of my garden.  No, not this picture, you'll have to scroll down for the real thing.

The stencilled/paste-embossed background was in my stash from a stencilling session waiting to be coloured, so I sponged Distress Inks over it and stamped some leaves, and it was all a bit vibrant (I was getting carried away with that sunshine) so I flicked some water over it, water-bleached some butterflies and sponged it with Antique Linen to calm it down a bit.  The big butterfly was sitting in my stash - I'd made it for a DT project and ended up not using it, so it was perfect for this card.

A few challenges have aligned perfectly for me.  At Simon Says Monday Challenge, it's Summer; at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, it's embossing; at Uniko Studios it's Anything Goes; and the curtain is coming down soon at Curtain Call Anything Goes.

Neither of us is a keen gardner, we'd rather look at it than do it.  Fortunately there are no weeds in this shot ;)

Time For Cake

Oh, it's always time for cake!!  I'm playing along with Fusion, inspired by both the photo and the sketch.

I used my home made gingko stamps to create a panel that vaguely resembles the peonies in the photo, and matched the colours for the cupcakes.

I'm also playing along with Curtain Call, Anything Goes.

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I'm over at STAMPlorations blog tonight with a spotlight feature on comic strip stamping.   Here's a little sneak peek.  Pop over and take a look :)

12 Tags of 2014, Tag You're It

Two tags for you today. The first one is my offering for the 12 Tags of 2014 for July.  The umbrella man was a spare from making this card.  I performed a little surgery on him by turning him into a barefoot paddler.  (I drew his bare feet and rolled up pant legs on the reverse and trimmed them.)

I made the wet sand from Walnut Stain Distress Stickles and sprinkled some copper embossing powder onto it and let it dry naturally.  I don't have a bubble embossing folder so I just used a stylus and a soft mat to draw bubbles in a piece of acetate.  I bought the stylus over 40 years ago to use on stencils for a Roneo Gestetner duplicating machine at work.  See, that's how long I've been using stencils!  And more remarkable is the fact that I kept the stylus, through relocating to Australia for six years and re-relocating back to the UK.  Never throw anything away, you never know when you might need it ;))

Anyway, back to the tag.  Here's Tim's:

Sand, tick.  Bubble layer, tick.  Watery background, tick.  Starts going pear-shaped after that!  I'm also entering this into Simon Says Monday - A mid-Summer Challenge

The next tag is for the new Tag, You're It challenge with guest designer Laura Bassen:

I used an embossing folder as a paint palette to take a print.  There was too much white space so I sponged over the white with the same colours.  Rather than a vellum leaf layer, I used a branch from my stash, left over from making this card.  The black ribbon was pre-stamped with the sentiment.

STAMPlorations Sketch #16

Hello there!  Time for a new sketch at STAMPlorations.  I've hardly tweaked it at all this time, just doubled up on the circles, because the first three small circles that I stamped were a bit far apart and didn't look like they belonged to each other.  By adding the extra images I was able to link the trio visually.  The background strip is made by stamping the two wide strips from Vignette: Grunge Floral Strips with spritzed Distress Inks, then reloading and re-stamping slightly offset.

I nearly left it at that, but I got the urge to splatter - ooh, it felt so good!  Then out came the credit card for some grungy lines to finish it off.

Our guest designer for this challenge is Sue V - hop on over the the STAMPlorations blog to see her fabulous creation, and those from the design team, then come on in and play!

I'm entering my card into The Paper Players Monochromatic Clean and Simple challenge:

Stamps used:
Sentiment Builders: Celebrate, Vignette: Grunge Floral Strips and Holiday Artsy

Spotty Dotty Birthday

I'm playing at Simon Says today.  The Monday challenge is About A Face, and the Wednesday challenge is Spots And Dots.

I stamped the girl image, masked it, then stamped the text in Versafine Smoky Grey, then sponged Distress Inks over the whole panel, and stencilled spots and dots over the top.  After I removed the mask I added the large text in Versafine Onyx Black.

The girl image is a stamp that I made, the background text is STAMPlorations Vignette: It's Your Day and the large text is Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold and You.  Check out Winnie & Walter's blog - the next release is on its way!

ETA:  I'm also adding this to Curtain Call - Anything Goes.

Block HB2U

A quick card and a quick post from me today.  I'm back playing along with ColourQ sooner than I expected, mainly because AAA Cards current challenge is closing soon, and I wanted to use their theme of window block pattern, where you can use any colours, not just those on their cue card.  But they did remind me of the colours in the ColourQ challenge.

So I've matched the colours from ColourQ, or as near as I could (Dried Marigold, Tumbled Glass, Shabby Shutters and Ripe Persimmon).  Then I just scribbled a border around the panel with a 0.5 pen.

The HB2U stamp is from STAMPlorations Vignette: Celebrate Artsy and the brushstroke stamp is from Holiday Artsy.

Three's A Fun Crowd

I was a lucky random winner on the Paper Artsy blog last week, and chose the Hot Picks 1207 because I could just see the images in a Warholesque way.  So here they are.  These girls look like they'll be having a fun road trip.  I used the colours from ColourQ (love those colours - may be back for another pop at them):

I was also inspired to make a kraft card inspired by Joanne Wardle's post at Paper Artsy.  Couldn't resist adding some white highlights, though.

Rosebud Bouquet

It's a new challenge at Seize The Birthday, and this time we'd like you to use twine and/or string.  I've used another stamp that I've made from a three-part set (I've also done a vase and a small bow to go with the bouquet).  The background is a leftover from my resist stamping for Craft Stamper, and the sentiment is from Marion Emberson Designs.

I'm entering this into Shopping Our Stash - Can't Put It Down (Or Away).  I could fill that challenge all on my own between what I can't put down (my stampmaker, although I've run out of supplies now, so it's having a rest), and what never gets put away (most things!) - and I bet I'm not the only one, hmmm?

I'm also playing along with Keep It Simple - Take A Bow.

So come and join us at Seize The Birthday - if you don't want to use string or twine, you can still play anything goes (as long as it's a birthday card).