It's so much more friendly with two!

Morning all.

It's time for a new challenge over at Uniko. Here's my card based on this month's picture

The pic stumped me at first but then I thought about using punch art to create some cheeky ladybirds, perfect for a child's card. There's lots of them around on my veggies at the moment!
I started them by die cutting an oval of red card and cutting it in half, then used the scattered polka dots stencil and a black Copic pen to create the dots on the red. The faces were made with a heart punch and a black circle. The heart was trimmed down to match the black circle and then inked around the edges with Tattered Rose DI. Using a red Copic I drew in a nose and then added the mouth and eyes with a black fineliner.. A twist of wire made the antennae, secured with tape, before the head was stuck to the body with foam pads.
The background was made by inking through the Nature's Treasures stencil with Twisted Citron DI, before adding the ladybugs and the sentiment from Birthday Sentiments.
Check out the rest of the team here for more inspiration, then why not join in?

I'm joining in over at:-

Men's Fashion

Morning all.
How are you coping with the heat wave here in the UK? Moi, not too good but at least I can hideaway in my craft room without felling too guilty! We had a good downpour last night so the tubs are filled and there is a definite fresher feel but the temps are said to be climbing again by the weekend, urgh. Still Wimbledon got through 2 weeks with only one shower and a roof closure and that was 'cos of the lateness of the match starting! Can't say I've seen such a dry fortnight in a long time.
Any how down to business. We've a new challenge for you over at Cardz4Guyz. This time our theme is :-

MEN'S FASHION

Here is my inspiration for you using Docrafts Dapper Gent stamp set.

I used the colours from Less is More, but did you know there were so many different olive greens!

I used quite a few for this, DP, Copics, DI and Memento!

I started by rummaging through my DP stock, found some check for the jacket but struck out on the check for the shirt so had to create my own using Tombow tangerine pen and a light olive Copic on white card. The tie was some yellow ribbon coloured with a dark olive Copic. I just happened to have a couple of tiny olive green buttons in the stash and the whole jacket was stamped on the DP with Olive Grove Memento before fussy cutting and edges inked with Crushed Olive DI. I even stamped the sentiment banner using the same Memento Olive Grove and created my mount by colouring the edges of a white panel with the olive Copic.

OK, that's about it from me but pop over to the Cardz4Guyz site for more fashion ideas!

Joining in over at:-

Happy Birthday

Cubist Bouquet

Just finished watching the Wimbledon Men's Final, not a classic as it looked for awhile like a one horse race but Kevin Anderson put up a fight and almost took it to a fourth set before Novak Djokovic won the third set tie break. There have been some fantastic 5 setters in the run up to the final so it was great that it wasn't a total damp squib!

If it wasn't for Wimbledon and the heat I would have been out gardening as I try to wrest borders from the grasp of the old meadow. I'm in constant battle with the buttercups and twitch that threatens my newly dug borders but the hot weather has at least kept the slugs at bay!

The OH and I have been indulging in a few NGS Yellow Book visits to get inspiration over the last couple of months. It was good to see what other local gardens were like, not all were regimented and weed free so it gave me the push I needed to keep going and also indulge in a bit of retail therapy! As we were expecting rain on Thursday, I was out early on in the morning to plant my purchases as it was no good earlier as the ground was so dry and dire warnings of hose pipe bans! The golf course across the road would seem to have been tankering in water for the greens! Fortunately we had about an inch of very welcome rain  and there was more forecast for the Friday but that didn't materialise, hopefully the blue on the weather map for tomorrow is going to be more reliable as we sorely need it.

Any way, earlier today I shared this card using  a pixel style colouring technique. I wasn't sure if the effect worked so tried again using MFT's Framework background stamped in Memento London Fog on MM paper.

This time I used the flowers from Altenew's Adore You set, as the flowers were less detailed than the roses and a more graphic way of colouring the pixels. The layout is based on this card and I did mean to use the same colour as before but picked up a different blue Zig so had to stick with it! This time I coloured each triangle with solid colour and the end result is somewhat Cubist in it's feel. The flowers were coloured using shades of grey just like the earlier try.

Joining in over at:-

     

In My Garden

    

Pixelated Roses

As a member of DTs, I'm often checking out posts and sometimes I'm really impressed, even impressed enough to have a go at a technique myself. One such occasion happened a couple of weeks ago as I was skimming through the entries for STAMPlorations 5th birthday challenge. One card stood out for me in the gallery and I had to go check it out, even though it wasn't my turn to comment. It was this super card here.

I loved the way the image was coloured using a grid, just like when you zoom in on a printed image from a magazine or newspaper, it's called pixelating. I don't own a  grid stamp but I did have a ruler and pencil so gridded up my own on a panel of card then stamped my roses over the top.

The flowers are from Altenew's Amazing You set, coloured using my Zig pens. At first I wasn't sure if it had worked but I left it alone for a couple of days and when I came back to it I was happier but perhaps felt that the grid was a little too large. The sentiment is a SSS die cut courtesy of my bloggy friend Sarah, of Sazzle Dazzle and a strip stamped and embossed in white on black from Altenew's Wishing You.

I've since found an MFT background stamp and had another try, but that's for sharing later later!

So off I go to join in!

    



Flowers All Over

ATSM's 6th Birthday

Hi and welcome. I'm sharing a card for the start of the latest challenge at ATSM.

Today, ATSM is celebrating it's 6th birthday and 300th challenge! Wow I can't quite believe it, I wasn't in at the beginning but have been for four of them! Congrats Kylie on 6 successful and inspirational years.
It seems to be the season of anniversaries, STAMPlorations was 5 last month and The Paper Players are also celebrating 400 challenges!
As both ATSM and PP show balloons in their challenge photos it just had to be, balloons just shout celebrations as far as I'm concerned.
For mine, I used a mixture of stamped and stencil images. The stamp was from this week's sponsor Kylie's HLS's Simply Said set and the Balloon Bash stencil from Uniko.
On a panel of white card I stamped a couple of the balloons in grey ink, then using a pencil drew around the shapes in the stencil, moving the stencil around the panel as I went. Using Copics I coloured the balloons then added some strings freehand and some small black stars from a Woodware Christmas Sentiments set. My celebrate from STAMPlorations was stamped on a black strip and embossed with white EP.
Simples. It will be another birthday card for my Grandson's stash, the cute images are getting too passe for an 8 year old and his friends!
For more inspiration check out the rest of the team here and why not join in the celebrations!
Joining in over at:-

Little Blue Boy

Morning all.

Hope the heat here in the UK isn't getting to you too much. 

Now I know why we don't go away on holiday to sunny climes, too much sun and heat stops you from doing things. I've never been able to go away and just sit on a beach or by the pool, I have to be doing things and at the moment that isn't happening!

Anyway at least I can retreat to my craft room to play. The latest challenge over at Cardz4Guyz starts today with this theme.

BLUE and BROWN

Here is my inspiration.

A blue boy on a brown base card! 

I decided to go all monochromatic with the image and just introduce the brown for my mount. I could of course have done the exact opposite, blue mount and brown image or indeed a mix of the two!

My LOTV little boy blue was coloured with Copics, Simples.

For more inspiration check out the rest of the Guyz DT here, then why not join in, we'd love it if you did.

I'm joining in over at:-

   

This is my 1000th post!

Good evening folks.

As I was typing this post I realised that this would be my 1000th post, I just couldn't believe it, where has all the time gone?

Anyway the reason for the 1000th post is the new challenge at HLS CAS, so here is my inspiration for this months theme,

For this masculine card, I stamped the lion's head from HLS Born to be Wild stamp set in Memento Potter's Clay, then quickly embossed it with a WOW Semi dull EP on a dark cream textured base card. From some more of the same card, I die cut a frame using Spellbinders Petite Scalloped ovals and plain ovals sets. Cutting another from beige fun foam and I glued it under the cream one to lift it off the base. 

Using the same ink and EP I stamped the Happy Birthday below the lion's head and on a scrap stamped the top half of another sentiment from the set, which I then cut out using a banner die.

So that's that.

Please check out the rest of the team here and then why not join in

Joining in over at:-

The Lion King