Cardz4Galz

Morning all and welcome.

It's time for a new challenge over at Cardz4Galz.

This time our theme is 

SPRINGTIME

For my card I took inspiration from the latest challenge over at MUSE but instead of poppies I went with Daffs, they are more springlike!

I've already covered most of the springtime image staples in earlier blogposts, so for this  I went with more of a narcissus stamp from STAMPlorations. stamped and masked to make a bunch and then added some freehand stems and leaves before colouring them with Copics.

Instead the rectangular panel in Jenni's card, I went with a circular one with a green instead of a black mount.

The circle was cut using a MFT stitched circle and mounted on a larger one inked with Twisted Citron DI. The sentiment is from Woodware.

For more fab inspiration check out the rest of the DT and then why not join in. :)

I'm joining in over at -

Make your Mark @ ATSM

Hi and welcome to a post to announce the start of a new challenge over at ATSM.

This we we are asking you to

MAKE YOUR MARK

Here is my card for your inspiration.

For my layout I sort of used the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch and the challenges over at Less is More and Inkspirational were there in the back of my brain for the colours and paper!

I didn't have any sympathy cards in my stash so I thought I would make one, as you never really want to make them when you need one. 

For the embossed top panel I used an old ef, laying it flat on the base card, then cut a strip of black card. I cut away a circle from this strip and another from some black polka dot paper, stamping some tiny yellow flowers on a circle of white card then adding some free hand greenery. I decided to pop up the polka dot circle to give a little more dimension and make a frame, so cut away the middle another circle die to leave a frame and then finished up with a white embossed sentiment on the black strip.

This week we are sponsored by 

who are offering 3 digis to our winner.

QKR Stampede and Eureka Stamps was purchased by Stamp On It in 2013 and moved to its new home in Michigan! We (Stamp On It) had its humble beginnings over 25 years ago and is now a mobile (on-the-road) family owned and operated business. We travel coast to coast and attend as a vendor over 25 retail stamping and scrapping shows each year.

For all the Ts and Cs and more fab inspiration, please check out the rest of the DT here.

I'd like to join in over at -

        

Polka Dots

Cardz4Guyz

Good morning.

Hope you had a fun filled Easter weekend and that the weather didn't spoil it too much.

As it's Tuesday it must mean it's time for another challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

This week Helen has chosen the theme of -

SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH A

OK, what can you come up with? I thought of Angling, Animals, Automobiles, Anniversary, Agriculture, Apparel, Art, antique and my choice ALIEN!

I used a digi stamp which I printed then coloured and fussy cut. The backing papers are from NitWits 'Spaced Out' collection and the sentiment computer generated. My laptop went down the other day so I took the down time to have a big clear up and sorted and threw out all my bits that I'd put to one side for later use. I recognised some as from nearly 10 years ago when I used to craft in our caravan while Al worked away on the barn, so they were unceremoniously ditched and found the back of the range! I don't know about you but I have loads of DPs that I have saved from mags over the years. I don't use half as much as I used to. It's too good to ditch but what can I do with it?

Anyway, enough of me rambling back to business, please check out the rest of the DT for more fab inspiration and why not join in?

I'd like to join in over at -

     

                                          Masculine

Dahlias

Good morning all.

Hope you all had a fab holiday weekend despite the awful winds in the south of England. Yesterday after torrential rain it was a glorious sunny day, if a little windy. The lambs looked a little dreched but  they soon warmed up and were gambling around the fields. 

As it's Tuesday, it's time for a new challenge over at Cards und More.

This fortnight our theme is -

USE KRAFT CARD IN YOUR PROJECT

Here is my inspiration card.

This week we are sponsored by

So for this project I had the use of one of their digis - Dahlia. After printing out I used Copics to colour then fussy cut each element and arranged them on a MFT pierced rectangle then popped the panel up on a kraft base card. The 'happy' was die cut from  wplus9 die and the birthday is from my fave set at STAMPlorations. Balloons and Banners.

For more inspiration on how to incorporate kraft into your project check out the rest of the DTs project and then why not join us this fortnight.

Here is a snap of the lambs in the field yesterday.

I'd like to join in over at -

NATURE

No toppings for me this time

Daffodils

Good morning. 

The weather forecast is pretty lousy here for this Easter weekend so you've no excuses for not nipping into your crafty space and then joining in with the latest challenge over at Fantasy Stampers!

This time out theme is -

IN THE SPRINGTIME

To my mind spring is essentially the time for lambs, bulbs, especially daffodils, and blossom. Having just made a card with blossom here is one with daffodils!

For this I used the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and STAMPlorations Boxed Blooms, daffodil. 

As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I had the stamps to do it justice. I chose the daffodil over the others in the set because they just shout spring! I stamped and clear embossed, then coloured them using a water colour wash of DIs in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Mown Lawn and Salty Ocean.

When dry I cut them out with a MFT pierced square die. I used some linen effect card cutting the top panel to leave a gap then attached a strip of NitWits paper from the bits box, think it was left over from my last Fantasy Stampers DT card! The top panel was popped up on pads and the daffs glued flat onto it. The sentiment tag was cut from the cut away card and stamped with a HLS greeting.

   

Ok, that's about if from me. For more inspiration please check out the rest of the DT's fab projects and join us.

If you do join in please remember -

We can only award a Top 3 to projects with traditional 'rubber' or polymer stamping as the main focal point. Digital or die cut images as the main focus do not qualify for the top 3.

It's such a shame when we have to disqualify fantastic projects for not following the rules.

Please don't be put off, just get out those trusty stamps!

Id like to join in over at -

     

      

What's outside your window?

Morning all.

Just popping by to share a card I made for a couple of challenges.

The main spark to this were the challenges at Less is More and The Paper Players.

LIM would like to see what is outside your window and PP is a photo of gorgeous spring cherry blossom.

This got me thinking of what should be in our front yard. We moved into a partly converted barn a few years ago and there are still plenty of unfinished jobs around, especially outside. The old farm yard is a great improvement on what it once was but my cherry trees are yet to make an appearance!

So just to show we have made progress, if a little slowly, here are a couple of then and now photos.

This shows the farm as it was when we first saw it and didn't for one moment think we could afford to buy one of the barns. Anyway as luck would have it, we were offered the opportunity to buy one of the shells and there began a wonderful adventure. Our barn is behind the derelict cowshed on the right. You can't see much of it, except a little bit of brickwork in the middle just to the right of the gate post.

So after a lot of dismantling of sheds this is what we were left with!

Bricked up stable doors, years of cow muck and concrete stanchions. The doorway you can see is now a glazed door into the kitchen diner.

As this was a conversion we even had to submit plans to the council about what plants we wanted and just out of shot behind the original brick wall divide I wanted some cherry trees.

This is the result so far. It is taken from the new window which is the left hand bricked up opening in the above photo. I want the trees just behind the mound of chippings in the corner.

Long gone is the cow muck but our neighbours have turned the other side of the partition wall into Steptoe's yard and the coping stones are loose on the top of the wall. They are in the process of renovating the old farmhouse but are taking an awful long time about it! So I am still waiting for the yard to be finished. There are cobbles from the original yard surface waiting to be reused and a wagon load of granite chips to surface the rest of the yard. The neighbours haven't done much to their half and we end up in a muddy mess when it rains but we are getting there, slow and steady!

So, that was my inspiration. For the cherry blossom I used a Crafters Companion die, cut in white then coloured with Copics. The window is a combination of MFT dies and popped up on pads. The stamped greeting is from a HLS set 'Doodled Flowers', thanks Kylie!

OK, enough, now I would like to join in over at -

      

Edited 26/3 Thanks for the reminder Sarah!

Graffiti Wall

Good morning all and welcome to my post to announce an other new challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

This week the theme choice was mine and I went for -

TEENAGE KICKS

So we would like to see your projects for the teenage male in your life. Not sure why I picked this as I no longer have any teenagers in the family but obviously many of you do!

Having chosen the theme I was at first stumped but then remembered buying a set of graffiti stamps by Woodware and thought them just the thing.

So here is my card for a teenager.

I stamped the words onto a piece of white card then masked them plus a border and inked over a brick stencil with some DIs, Fired Brick, Tea Dye and Antique Linen. I liked the effect but thought it needed something else so I used the mirror stamping technique to create a pair of boots from a single on another set, Rock Dude. The stamped images were then coloured in rainbow colours with Copics and a bit of freehand doodling and the boots fussy cut out and applied. I don't like grunge so went with a bright cheerful palette! I kept the birthday greeting for the inside of the card!

For more inspiration please check out the rest of the DT and why not join us this week. :)

I'd like to join in over at -

 

Anything Goes

   

Rainbow colours don't need to be pretty!

Caseing Cornelia

Good evening folks.

Spring sunshine appears to have disappeared and been replaced by grey skies and chilly breezes. So much for the supposed meteorological beginning of spring!

My bloggy friend Cornelia (Stempel Spass) has her first post as DT @ MUSE at Christmas Visions this week. She made a stunningly beautiful, inked card to inspire us, so it would be churlish not to take part, especially as I won their guess the new DT member draw!

So here is my card

inspired by this wonderful creation.

Mine is more English winter evening than Arabian nights as I don't have anything like the fun die cut she used. I built up my scene using three layers of MB Country Landscape in three shades of black. I once heard a friend in the textile dye trade remark that there were nearly 400 shades of black, when I complained about black being difficult to match up! Anyway the different tones here give a little bit of depth to my scene. 

I left the sun out of my interpretation and added a warm glow to the windows in the houses. The star was drawn freehand over my inked panel with a white gel pen as were the tiny stars and the star light on the side of the trees and roofs. My inked panel,Chipped Sapphire, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves DI, is the base card and the top panel was stamped with the same greeting and finally popped up on pads over the top.

I'm joining in over at-

   

Stamps and Texture, a reminder

Good afternoon peeps.

Just stopping by to let you know there is still time to enter the March challenge over at STAMPlorations. 

Here is my mid month inspiration project for you.

You can choose our theme

or you could use this sketch to get your creative juices flowing.

For my card I went with the theme this time, texture.

Embossing always gives texture to a project be it dry or heat, for this I wanted quite a subtle effect so I went with a heat embossed wood grain panel at the top of my card so it did not overwhelm my bunch of fussy cut flowers. Layering the flowers like this also adds texture to my card, as does the baker's twine around the top panel.

For the flowers and leaves I used Frames and Flowers stamped with Memento Rose Bud, Pear Tart and Dandelion, 1st and 2nd generation stamping. The sentiment is from Balloons and Banners.

So that's my project, please check out the main blog for all those Ts and Cs and details of all the other DT's projects as well as this month's fab GDs Swapna and Tanvi

I'd like to join in over at -

Shades of Pink/yellow/green

          

  Favourite style of embossing                               Nature                    

I love both styles of embossing                                                           

so it was difficult to choose one over the other,                                                       

horses for courses!                                                     

This time heat embossing gave me more subtlety.                                                      

Hand Picked

Morning, morning, morning.

Another sunny spring day is forecast in these parts, and I've made a really sweet spring card for the DT at Cardz4Galz.

This week we would like to see your projects that feature something -

CUTE and CUDDLY

Here is my card.

I used the Hand Picked stamp from LOTV, not sure if it's still available but I think this is its first outing since I bought it last year or was it the year before!

The layout is courtesy of Sketch Saturday, just rotated it 90' and some leftover pieces of NitWits DP from the scrap box. I stamped the image first before laying on the Sizzix Rounded Tag die and marking where it came so I could cut a line then feed the bunny through it, so it stayed outside the cutting line. I used Copics to colour, then fussy cut the bunny.

So for further inspiration please check out the rest of the fab DT and then why not join us.

I'd like to join in over at -

Doodle

Good afternoon folks.

What a cracking afternoon it has been too. The sky is blue, the sun is out, lambs are jumping. Spring is definitely in the air.

Over the last couple of days Al has been making some raised beds for me. I tried to make a veg plot in what was the inside of the old cow shed a few years ago, the roof having long since gone. The walls were good enough but the ground was too compacted to drain properly and my spuds rotted in the ground. Anyway, we later had a leak in the underground heat pipes so the plumber dug another set of trenches for a new pipe run, which had to go out into the field just where my plot was, so gardening was on hold until he could prove the problem was solved. Anyway, touch wood it seems to be working and we even got a builder to render the old brick walls and we painted them last autumn in the meantime.

The weather this winter has been soooo wet, that we haven't been able to get on the ground until now. Now the oak sleepers to 3 of the beds are in situ and are just waiting for Al to make some brackets to secure them together, more will follow when we get some more sleepers ordered.

So down to the real reason for this post -

I started making this for the latest Muse challenge from my ATSM teamie Anita -

anyway, I also decided to involve the challenges at CASology and Less is More.

Lots of masking allowed me to make my take one layer and instead of a stamp I doodled a pattern across the masked off area, after inking the panel with Picked Raspberry DI. Then after removing the masks I stamped a freebie sentiment. Simples, well almost! I always used to doodle when I was at school and college so I quite enjoyed doing this!

So I'm joining in over at -

One Layer - Sentiment

     

Good Friends

Good evening and welcome to a post to announce the start of the latest challenge over at ATSM.

Here is my card for your inspiration.

I used this week's photo, taking the tulips and large phrase sentiment as my focus.

I wanted to use the MFT chevron cover plate as it has sat in my box since Christmas, so that was my background sorted, then I stamped and embossed some tulip heads and used DI in Mustard Seed to colour them in a w/c style. The stems and leaves are some die cuts which I also coloured  using washes of Mown Lawn DI. The large sentiment is from KaiserKraft and stamped on a Spellbinders ribbon tag die cut attached with lime baker's twine. Quite simple really.

This week the wonderful Kylie at Happy Little Stampers is sponsoring us.

Prize is a $15 gift certificate

Happy Little Stampers was created in 2015 by Kylie (owner of ATSM and ATCAS). Kylie wanted to bring out a line of stamps that were useful for every day crafters. From cute to whimsical images, from everyday to funky sentiments there is something for everyone!

For more fab inspiration please go to the main ATSM blog and check out the rest of the DT.

I'd like to join in over at -

Die cuts and fussy cutting and embossing this time.

Spring is in the Air