Don't let life ruffle your feathers

Good evening peeps.
Hope you are all well and keeping cheerful in these troubling times.
As a crafter, I tend to retreat to my room and immerse myself in making to take my mind off all the negative news.
I know it might be considered trivial compared with what is going on out there in the world at the mo, but it gets me through the day!
How about you? Why not escape to your craft room and join us for this month's challenge at HLS CAS. Here's my card.

Sorry about the photo but the sun was too bright and casting shadows in my usual spot!

This month our theme is -



I combined a coupe of challenges for my inspiration, AAA Cards and Time Out.
This is a quick one layer card made by stenciling and stamping.
I first stenciled a few feathers using a free stencil with Wilted Violet DI, then added some texture to the foreground feather by stamping the matching feather with Versamark and clear gloss EP.
The photo doesn't really show it but in reality there is quite a bit of texture there.
A simple sentiment from the set was added to complete.
So how will you interpret the challenge, there's more inspiration by the rest of the DT here.

Joining in over at:-

   

STAMPlorations' April theme and photo prompt challenge

A new month is here and it's time for a new challenge over at STAMPlorations' Theme and Photo challenge.
Here's my card for your inspiration.

I had thought of going literal but I don't have the Citrus set, so I went through my stash and decided that the Bloomdala Bliss dies might work.
Rifling through my scraps box, I selected a few pieces of coloured, textured card. They are mainly leftovers from other projects, some are inked and stamped some just inked, it didn't matter really just that they needed to be citrusy!
From a panel of kraft card I die cut four large dies and then using  the daisy dies from Trendy Spring Blooms, I cut the rest. I cut them all again from white card and glued the large die cuts to pieces of cooured card, trimming them down to size before adding them to the kraft panel, which I had darkened by inking with some Vintage Photo DI. If you pop the sections through from the back you can secure them temporarily with tape before gluing the finished panel onto a white A6 card base.

The daisies looked a little plain in comparison to the mandelas, so I added some white gel pen detail.

The sentiment from Art Expressions seemed apt and I die cut the panel using the small square from the Basic A2 nesting panel die set, before adding a slightly larger piece of the same scrap card and glued it onto my finished design.

Inspired by the theme or photo? Please just keep in mind these simple rules:

• Link up any type of project(s) based on the theme, the photo, or both.
• You must use stamps in your project(s) -- rubber, clear, or digi from any company. Non-STAMPlorations stamps are OK.
• Link up to 6 entries and link up to as many other challenges as you want.
• You must display the challenge graphic in your post (if linking from your blog) and link back to the challenge post (not just the main blog) in order to be eligible to win (and receive the corresponding prize).
• Link up by April 30, 11:55 p.m. Pacific time

Prizes:

• The winner will receive a $15 gift certificate.
• The runner up will receive a $10 gift certificate
• Three (3) randomly drawn crafters will each receive a $5 gift certificate.

A new challenge at Cardz4Guyz

Are you in need of a little light relief in these dark and depressing days?

well over at Cardz4Guyz we have a brand new challenge to show you that making cards for the  men in your life isn't as difficult as you may have thought.

This time our theme is :-

USE A STENCIL

Here's my card for your inspiration.

I used a STAMPlorations stencil called Art Spatters, to create the background for my Copic coloured and fussy cut boots.

The boot is from Woodware's Rock Dude set and to make the pair I used the mirror stamp technique and some masking before colouring with Copic markers. After fussy cutting, I marked the placement of the boots with a few pencil marks before inking through the stencil with some Faded Jeans DI.

Carefully rubbing out the pencil marks, I added the sentiment strip and then popped up the boots up on pads.

For more masculine stencil inspiration, check out the rest of the DT here.

Joining in over at:-

    

Birthday                                   Male Birthday

Something for the youngsters

Birthday

Pure Florals Cosmos, Uniko BA Inspiration

It's time for some more inspiration over at Uniko. 

Today I'm popping by to share this card made for my BA inspiration spot.

I was inspired to make it after seeing the latest challenge at CAS Mix-Up.

Many years ago I tried painting in acrylics but didn't get on with them and the tubes lay abandoned in their box, unused and unloved. However, after deciding I would have a go, I ferreted them out from the back of the cupboard all ready to try and create a background as per the video. Sad to say that they had mostly dried out, only Crimson Alizerin one that was usable.

I did come across some DoCrafts acrylics I bought to paint an Advent calendar for my Grandson a few years ago but the colours were too dark, except for the white. Not willing to give up, I eventually came up with this card.

Having a limited palette made me think hard about how to get a colourful but cohesive background.

The blue is straight out of the bottle, the teal is a conifer green mixed with white and the lime is white added to Altenew's Bamboo ink!

The stripes were made by placing small dots of colour at the top of the panel, then dragging an old credit card down in a smooth motion. There must have been less of the lime paint to create the patchy effect but I didn't really mind, I think it adds to the arty effect.

When dry, the sentiment and flowers from Pure Florals Cosmos were stamped in black and heat embossed with clear EP. Love the fresh look of these colours.

A second card using these fab stamps can be found on the Uniko blog.

I'm joining in over at:-

Stamping, Acrylic background and heat embossing

Uniko challenge

Good morning.
I hope you are all well and not struggling too much with everything going on at the moment.
If you are struggling to occupy your spare moments, perhaps you might like to join us for Uniko's latest challenge.
Here is my card based on the theme.

As usual I needed to get some inspiration for my design, so used a couple of challenges out there. I used the colour theme at Less is More and the layout from Freshly Made Sketches.
The gifts were made by stamping Background Blocks Scattered Polka Dots and Background Blocks Pinstripe I on scrap card. The pink dotty one was embossed with white EP and inked with Picked Raspberry DI, The tall red one was inked with Altenew's Ruby Red, then stamped with Pinstripe Blocks and embossed with clear gloss EP. Finally the smallest was stamped with Picked Raspberry DI and heat embossed with clear gloss EP.

The little bows were die cut from grey using a Memory Box die as well as some thin strips of the same grey card. A larger strip of the grey card was attached to the base card before adding the sentiment strip, made from Pure Forals Peony.
The completed 'gifts were added and a few tiny sequins added to complete.
I think the design is quite versatile, leave the sequins off and change the colours and it would make a great masculine card or use Christmas stamps and change the sentiment for a quick Christmas card.

Check out the rest of the team at the Uniko blog for more inspiration.
Before I forget please also check out the work of our guest designer, the fab MacMable.
All Ts and Cs can be found on the Uniko blog.

Joining in over at:-

 
  

STAMPlorations Challenges - a reminder

Just popping by to remind you that there is still time to join us over at STAMPlorations for the current challenge.

Here is my card inspired by the photo below.

I've tried this stencil technique before and thought it would work with the above photo. At first I was going to use the lolly theme again but the die cut lolly that matches the Sweet Cravings set is a little too small so I went with a heart and romantic theme suggested by the colours. I love the way the colour changes but the pattern continues over the whole panel.

I took a panel of white card and a similar sized one of masking paper. From the masking paper I cut a heart shape then laid the mask over the card panel. Removing the out mask but leaving the inner heart in place, I then placed the Old Rose Print stencil over the whole creating a hinge with some masking tape and inked through with a light grey ink to match the background of the photo.  Replacing the outer mask, after lifting up the stencil, I removed the central heart and laid the stencil back over. This time I added some red ink in various shades before removing the stencil and inking over the whole with a pale pink ink.
Finally the mask was removed completely and the sentiment s added. The congrats was cut three times and glued together before adding, the sentiment strip stamped in black with part of the Smile set was added with pads. A few sequins complete the design.

For more inspiration and all the Ts and Cs about the challenges check out the blog here.

Joining in over at:-

    

Altenew's Garden Picks Again!

Good evening peeps.

We are almost halfway through March already, can you believe it?

Anyway that means that we have a brand new challenge over at Perfectly CAS.

Here's my inspiration using those gorgeous Altenew Garden Picks dies.

Our theme if you couldn't guess is -

The Garden Picks dies were still fresh in the memory after making this card for HLS CAS.
Other than the splatter and the sentiment the whole of this design is made with die cuts. This time I used Copic markers to colour using the colours suggested by Altenew's latest challenge. The colour range used was from the BV and V section for the blooms and BG for the foliage.
The splatter was done with some watered down Broken China DI and the stamped sentiment was also from Altenew, Adore You stamp set.
A simple design and easy to make once the blooms were put together.
For more CAS inspired die cut inspiration check out the rest of the team here, then why not join us.

Joining in over at:-