Holly Sprig

So yesterday I made this card for Cheryl's One Layer Wednesday Challenge.  As I started to write my post I re-read Cheryl's challenge - it was for a one layer Christmas TAG.  Oops!  But all is not lost, because this week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Heather, is Just Add Water.  I'd coloured the image stamp with markers then spritzed it with water, so I get to join One Layer Wednesday after all.

CAS-ual Fridays and Curtain Call are having a joint CAS-ual Christmas bash, so I'm joining the party there:

Nonni's other Christmas challenge on her blog Korttikarkuri is Stamp A Happy Christmas.

And finally, the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More is 

MAKE YOUR MARK!

Pink Yellow and Grey

The challenge at Little Tangles is to use the colours pink, yellow and grey:

And I used the beautiful inspiration card at Muse by this week's guest designer, Karen:

This week's One Layer Wednesday is hosted by Karen - no, not that Karen, this Karen - and it's a free for all:
Free for All- you choose any theme for your one layer card

And at Simon Says Wednesday challenge, it's Anything Goes:

At Addicted to Stamps and More, the theme is Addicted to CAS.

And finally, I'm playing along for the first time with Seize the Birthday (without the toppings), Anything Goes.

This is the first card I've made in my new craft room! I'm surprised I managed to achieve it because I'm spending most of the time arranging things, then re-arranging them, moving things in, moving things out (they've got to earn their place in that room cos it's so tiny), and mostly looking for things in their new environment (I knew exactly where they were before!).  I'm going shopping for more storage boxes tomorrow :))

I'll post some pics soon on how to craft in a tiny room without banging your knees, or nutting the cupboard, once I've mastered the art.

Stamps: Neat & Tangled Fresh Blooms, Everyday Circles

Card Makeover

I like playing along with One Layer Wednesday, one of the first blog challenges I ever entered.  This week Karen's got a makeover challenge:

MAKEOVERS - remake one of your cards

Come and join us, there's only a few of us this week and it's a bit lonely.  I chose to do a makeover on this card,

turning it from a multi-layer card to a one-layer card, using a stamp for the flower image instead of the die-cut, and incorporating the sketch from this week's Less is More:

Bit of a radical makeover, but I think it still retains the general character of the first card.

I masked an area on the card, including the strip for the sentiment, and loosely washed Peacock Feathers and Shaded Lilac distress inks over with my Chinese water brush.  Leaving the mask in place, I stamped the flower (JOFY JM13) in Versafine Onyx Black, then removed the mask and stamped the sentiment (Paper Smooches).  I used Tombow markers to colour the flowerhead, leaves and stems, so I'm entering it into Addicted to Stamps and More:

MAKE YOUR MARK

And I'm also entering it into The Wonder of Watercolour challenge at Moxie Fab World.

Housework Makes You Ugly, Darling

Here I am, taking a bit of time out from the housework.  I saw this picture on Pinspired, which reminded me it was time for a facepack.  I've run out of green gunge, so I used my more expensive gold gunge, but I'm wearing my green dressing gown in honour of the icing.

This week's cue word at CASology is GIGGLE.  Works for me :)

Here's the full card.  Image by Me and My Big Ideas, sentiment by Inky Antics.  Facepack by L'Oréal Liquid Pearls Platinum.  Colouring by Tombow markers.

Simon Says Anything Goes this week:

And the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More is

MAKE YOUR MARK

New Home In The City

Whistling in before the doors close on CAS(E) This Sketch with a new home card for city dwellers.

And while there's still time, Simon Says Travel/Cityscapes:

And Addicted to Stamps and More:

ANYTHING GOES!!

Create anything you like.

We are sponsored again this week by

Cityscape by Art Impressions
Sentiment by Woodware

Even More Chloe Stems

Don't worry, this is the last of the chloe stem cards for a good while.  This is the first card I made with the chloe stem die cuts, using the technique described in this post.  With the three resulting coloured die-cuts I made another card here.

Since both of the cards were made using the Paper Players colour scheme, it would be a shame not to enter this one into the challenge to keep its partner card company.

I'm also entering it into Addicted to Stamps and More Anything Goes.

I'm leading a workshop tonight for our stamping group (usually about 25 people) doing mini canvases, a bookmark or gift tag, and a card, all as a set.  I'll share it next week.

Another Chloe Stem

The challenge at CASology this week is WORD.  My favourite word at home is the last word because it's always mine.

But for this challenge I used a whole field of words.  Just before posting, I was checking through new posts in my blog reader and I saw the Wonder of Watercolour challenge at Moxie Fab World.  Perfect timing.

For the background panel I dragged Peeled Paint and Tumbled Glass distress inks across a piece of watercolour paper, then with a very wet Chinese water brush, spread them over the paper.  Once it had dried, I stamped the script with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

I'm also entering it into Addicted to Stamps and More Anything Goes.

The chloe stem is a by-product from making this mini canvas (70mm x 70mm).  I've been playing with mini canvases in preparation for a workshop tomorrow (which look nothing like this one).  For this one, I attached the die-cut to the canvas with temporary glue then dusted Peeled Paint and Tumbled Glass across the whole thing.  When I peeled off the die-cut it left this lovely silhouette and I had my coloured die-cut to use on my card.  The splodges you can see are where the aerosol fixative decided to blob instead of spray.

To finish, I just added some ribbon around the edge of the canvas.

Up, Up and Away

Last week on a rare sunny day, two hot-air balloons flew over our village at the same time. I love watching them fly over - not sure if I'd want to be in one though.

The inspiration for this card comes from these challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More - we get quite a lot of balloons flying over in the summer, especially if the weather is good!

CAS(E) This Sketch #23 - the sentiment tags are supposed to represent ballast bags.  Just use your imagination for the diagonal stripe - the implication is there.  A sort of Join The Dots from tags to cloud.

CASology:

And Play Date Cafe colours:

Images are from Hero Arts CL646 Happy Birthday.  Hot-air balloon was also stamped onto patterned paper and pieced.  Both images were masked and the card was sponged with Tumbled Glass distress ink.  Sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps Say It Loud, stamped in Memento Paris Dusk.

Chirrup!

The cue word at CASology this week is UP.

I've used the colours from this week's challenge at ColourQ.  It's given me an opportunity to use my Hint of Sludge Pesto ink again, as it bears more than a passing resemblance to Soft Suede.

The challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More is Addicted to CAS (anything goes as long as it's CAS).

So here's my little birdie feeling sorry for itself.

My dog is also feeling sorry for herself.  She dislocated a toe while chasing a stick before Easter and she's been strapped up and splinted ever since.  Fortunately she's not interested in chewing the strapping so she doesn't have to wear the cone of shame any more.

Here she is trying to look intelligent (pre-accident).

Must Pay More Attention

Ok.  I'm not big into pink.  I'm not big into hearts.  And I'm obviously not big into paying attention.  The challenge at Addicted to CAS is hearts.  Tick.

The challenge at ColourQ is pinks and brown.  Tick.

And here's the sketch at Addicted to Stamps and More:

Except that as I was making the card I was referring to the thumbnail on my blog reader rather than the full post, and this is what I saw:

I just thought it was an ultra-CAS sketch...

The guidance is: "You may flip or rotate the sketch and even replace the shapes. Please create with the sketch in mind." 

Out of sight, out of mind.  Bit of a shock when I came to do the post.

The heart was in my stash from a while ago. I'd made several out of a sheet of grungepaper covered in Fired Brick distress ink, then embossed through the Cuttlebug, then the raised area smeared with Versamark and heat embossed with clear powder, then cut out the heart shape freehand.

Sentiment from Paper Smooches.

Let Love Soar

The inspiration for this card came from the Runway Inspired Challenge:

I love the sheer floatiness of the dress and thought it would be good to create some spotted vellum butterflies.  And I was quite taken with the panelled wall in the background so I scored a panel to add to the base card.  Which means I can link it to Addicted to CAS, whose code word is:

And their big sister, Addicted to Stamps and More, is having a CAS party this week.

And at Hero Arts, this month's challenge is try something new.  Well I don't think I've ever die-cut vellum before.

Hero Arts F4136 Assorted Dot Border, sentiment from CL646 Happy Birthday.  Butterfly die-cuts from Clearly Besotted.

Yellow Rose

This is the same rose stamp that I used in this post.

When I first got it (in my post-Christmas bargain trolley-dash) I coloured directly onto the stamp with markers, because it's a solid image.  I tried several colour combos, the first of which was two shades of pale yellow.  But they didn't stand out enough, so I moved on to peaches, pinks and reds.  But I didn't want to throw away the yellow version until I'd had a think about it.  So I thunk, and decided that I would draw a fine outline around it to highlight the areas.  But that didn't look too good, so I kept on with the pen, over-scribbling the original lines I'd drawn.  I quite like how it's ended up.

As a reminder, here's what it looks like (in the various colour combos, and complete with spritzed droplets) when using the direct to stamp technique.

So I shall be looking at all of my solid image stamps in a different light now.  Try it.

Anyway, I'm entering the yellow version into a new (for me) challenge, Addicted to Stamps and More (with a name like that, I should have been in from Day One).  The theme is NATURE.

Stamps are Penny Black 2815K The Look of Love, sentiment is from 30-105 Gratitude.
The fineliner I used was a Staedtler Pigment Liner 0.05.