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

Insider Online Card Class and Penny Black Fest

I'm back in the classroom with Insider Online Card Class, it's all about looking after your innards.  I mean inners.  I must admit, as soon as I've finished the front of a card, that's it, I move on to the next card and neglect the insides, so this class was meant for me!  Day one has been full of inspiration, as I'm sure the next days will be.

So still with the Distress Ink theme of the last few days, this time I inked the stamp directly with the pads, starting with the yellow, then spritzed lightly and stamped onto the card panel.  Then I re-spritzed and stamped off onto scrap paper, then re-spritzed again and stamped the image onto the inside of the card so that there's just a hint there.  The idea is to stamp a sentiment over it, but I can't decide which sentiment at the moment, so it's back in the To Do pile.

* * * * *

Now Penny Black have been having a Colourful Christmas Colour Combo challenge (you don't have to use Christmas stamps), but the first card doesn't meet any of the colour combos.  So out came more Distress Inks and more Penny Black stamps:

This one is for the Day 3 challenge.  I wasn't too sure about the colours last night, but in the broad light of day I can live with it.

* * * * *

I haven't been playing with Distress Inks ALL the time.  This one uses Penny Black's Madison papers and the colour combo from Day 4:

* * * * *

And finally, this one.  The image panel is supposed to be crooked, should have taken the photo from the other side.  Or placed the panel at more of an angle.  This one is for Day 5:

Autumn MkII

And in the wink of an eye, I'm back with another Distress Inked autumn card.  Well, I couldn't waste all that lovely Distress Ink on the craft mat, now could I?

This time I managed not to drown the main leaf/branch stamp with water, so the images are slightly more defined.  I extended the branch with a stem stamp and added a few berries.  This card is going into the same challenges as the last card:

Paper Smooches SPARKS Picture Perfect challenge:

CASology Autumn:

CAS-ual Fridays Fall Colours and a Leaf:

And Moxie Fab World Handmade Cards Week:Colour Media challenge:

Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler, Reflections, Bold Blooms

Autumn Mk1

I've been playing with Distress Inks and water again.  This time I used Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Fired Brick.  I squished the inkpads onto my craft sheet then spritzed fairly heavily with water, and inked up the stamps.  The wet ink pooled into the recesses on the main branch stamp and splodged onto the card, but I really like it, I think it adds to the "arty" feel of the images.  And anyway, if you didn't know the stamp, well you wouldn't know the difference would you?  (But you will know the difference on the next post, because I used less water.)

I made a border around the base card by splodging Distress Inks around the edges and mounted the stamped panel onto the card.

The card was inspired by these challenges:

Paper Smooches SPARKS Picture Perfect challenge:

CASology, where the cue card is Autumn (and thanks to Ardyth's DT card for inspiring me to use falling leaves for the Paper Smooches challenge):

CAS-ual Fridays challenge which is Fall Colours and a Leaf:

And last but not least, Moxie Fab World Handmade Cards Week:Colour Media challenge:

Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler, Reflections

Wish Big

I'm playing along for the first time with Curtain Call, and the current challenge is Sunflower Surprise.

The surprise about my card is that there is no yellow in sight, and that's because I've used the colour palette from Dynamic Duos:

I've passed on the dessert option of wet embossing because I had an ice lolly when we went to the beach today.

The image is Tatty Button TB6 Tatty's Sunflower coloured with watercolour pencil, the sentiment is from Amy R Stamps It's Your Birthday, and the thought bubble dies are from X-Cut Speech Bubbles.

Butterfly Mk1

I'm playing along with The Paper Players, using their sketch which, unusually for me, I've stuck to pretty closely.  Apart from the obvious mutation of scalloped circle to butterfly:

I've used the colours from this week's ColourQ challenge:

The navy on my card is pearlised and I've cranked up the definition while editing the photo so it's making it look a bit speckled.  It's a disappointingly dull day here (I'm sure they promised us 21 degrees and sunny).  But on a brighter note, my craft room is coming along nicely and should be ready for action by the weekend :))

ETA: I've just realised that the Inkadinkado stamp is available at Simon Says Stamp so I can link up to their Wednesday challenge, as part of their STAMPtember extravaganza to use something that's available from the store.

Inkadinkado 97626 Patterned Bugs
Hero Arts CL139 Birthday Messages
Cuttlebug polka dots embossing folder
Martha Stewart doily border punch

Patchwork Birthday

Here's a quick card (well ok a quick post, the card wasn't all that quick to make!) for two challenges:

Clearly Besotted stamp your own background

And Pinspired:

Pretty easy to see where I got my inspiration from. I marked a piece of card into 1.5 inch squares and masked off while I stamped those tiny filler stamps that you tend to ignore.  They're all from the Clearly Besotted Framed Sentiments set, as is the sentiment!

Happy Birthday Bev!

This is a long, multi-challenge post, so stick with me.  Firstly, let's deal with the celebrations - happy birthday to Bev of Happy Dance!  Sneaky emails have been circulating blogland, organising a birthday bash for Bev, and never one to refuse an invitation, I've made her this card.  Have a good one, Bev!

I used the colours from this week's Dynamic Duos challenge:

and the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

********

I've been doing the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101 online course in readiness for Creative Chemistry 102 which is coming out soon.  So while I had distress inks out everywhere, I used the same sketch and the same technique to make more cards for more challenges.

This card is for Less is More, where this week's challenge is to make a one layer card with the theme Get Well Soon.

The code word at Addicted to CAS is also Get Well:

And I'm also entering it into this week's One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Cheryl, to create a one layer card where the sentiment is the main focus of the card.

I also made another birthday card and a sympathy card:

and I was going to enter the whole set into the new challenge at A Blog Named Hero, to make a set of 3 or more matching or coordinating cards.  But the new rules require use of Hero Arts stamps (naturally), and I'd forgotten that and didn't use any.  But here's the group photo for you anyway.

I recently bought the Memory Box Winterberry Sprig die and this was its first outing.  But when I opened the packet, the die inside was Hayden Twigs.  Bit of a surprise there, especially as Hayden Twigs is almost double the price of Winterberry Sprig!

Oh Baby!

Me again!  Click here for today's earlier post.  So I wanted to play along with this week's Muse, where Therese has provided this gorgeous inspiration:

I don't have any suitable house shapes or dies, but Ardyth's DT card got me thinking along baby lines, and after rummaging through some of my long-forgotten dies I saw this foot die, so I cut a couple of feet out of kraft and smeared white pigment ink over them to soften the colour slightly.

And at CAS on Sunday, the new theme is Oh Baby!

Retro For You

I'm back again with another card which uses the colours from this week's ColourQ challenge:

This time I'm combining it with the Designer Drafts challenge at Paper Smooches SPARKS:

And also with Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, where the theme is heat or dry embossing:

I didn't intend for the panel to be that shape but I'd tested the flower design on an odd piece of card waste, and I thought the shape suited the style of the flower, so I kept it in the final design.

Stamps: Paper Smooches Reflections, Bold Blooms, Simply Said
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug
Ribbon: stash