Caseing Ksenija

Good evening and welcome to a post sharing a card made for this week's challenge over at ATSM.
This week it is our theme of -

MAKE YOUR MARK

On this card I made my mark using stamping, ink blending and painting.

I took inspiration from the colours at Altenew and the pretty card of Ksenija at Time Out.
On a panel of off white card I stamped three branches from the Altenew Beautiful Day set in Rich Cocoa Memento ink. Using a water brush I pulled the ink from the stamped leaves into the centers, adding extra where needed. The small blooms were coloured with Copics and a sentiment was added, also in Rich Cocoa. My base card was inked with Fossilized Amber DI then over stamped with the tiny leaf stamp that matches the branch in the same DI. The small panel was then added lifting it up on pads.
For more mark making inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

I'd like to join in over at -

Birthday Smooches

Good morning folks.

Another grey day here and a few more ahead if the forecast is to be believed. Still at least the white fluffy stuff is keeping well away.

Today sees the start of a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz. This week we would like to cards that have the theme of -

SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH C

Cars, cricket, crocodile, cats, cute, were among the words that came to mind but I settled eventually for C for Cow!

This fun character is from the Chubby Chums set from Paper Smooches as is the sMOOches sentiment. I decided he looked a little lost out in the field on his own so added a Wplus9 heart shaped balloon to go with the sentiment.

The background was simply a panel of MM paper with some Zigs scribbled over it and then spritzed with water and a little sprinkling of Brusho before it dried completely, allowing the crystals to give added texture. The layout is from the sketch at CAS(e) this sketch, the background panel overlayed with one of green with a grass effect edge. The stamped balloon looked a little flat so I added a layer of Glossy Accents. Simples.

For more fab inspiration check out the rest of the team here and join in, we would love to see you in the gallery.

I'm joining in over at -

 

                                      Balloons

       

                                      Cute Critters                                             Hearts

Shoot, it's a Goal!

Morning folks.

There have been lots of grey days recently, but today is a bright crisp winter morning.

Anyway as the outside hasn't been beckoning I used the time for some extended crafty time to make this card for the new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz -

SHAPED CARDS

I used my Sizzix Thinlets hexagon dies to create the base card and white frame and a LOTV image 'Football Crazy', the hexagonal shapes echo the panels on the football. The base card was covered with another hexagon of NitWits DP, the frame was popped up on pads and a circle of matching card added flat in the center.

Using the colour of the DP as a start, I used Copics to colour the footballer before fussy cutting him and the ball out. The footballer was popped up on pads in the center circle and the ball flat on the frame. He looked to be floating so I grounded him by adding some grass with a few strokes of my Zig pens. When I finished and started to write this post I realized that my layout was not as I had remembered the Sketch Saturday sketch but if you rotate it 90" the layout looks more like it! Hope that's OK.

Anyway for more shape inspiration please check out the rest of the team here.

I'd like to join in over at -

A New Home

Good morning.

Whilst eating my brekkie and browsing this morning, I came across the brand new challenge over at Less is More. 

Their theme this week is NEW BEGINNINGS and I immediately remembered a card I made just before Christmas. It was for the son of a friend who had just moved into a new flat with his girlfriend, so I went for a Christmas/New Home theme much influenced by a tag I saw a while ago here.

With all the Christmas whoha I forgot all about it but it seems the right time now to share.

I cut a strip of white card with my MB Countryside Landscape die and cut away the houses, which I then coloured with red Copic marker. The evergreen bough was done more or less the same way using a Lea'bilities die and green Copic marker. I die cut a panel of white linen card with my STAMPlorations wonky double stitch die and assembled the scene, adding a stamped sentiment and hanging threads with a fine liner. The finished panel was then added to the white linen effect base card.

I'm joining in over at -


New Beginnings

A new DT for me

Good morning.

The end of the wek is here and hopefully an enjoyable weekend stretches before you all.

I don't usually post at this time on a Friday but I can now share a little secret with you. When Fantasy Stampers suspended their challenge blog, Jan asked if I would be part of the Alphabet Challenge DT, so here I am.

This week it is 

W - for a Winter Walk

I must admit to liking a walk in the crisp winter fields, the sun sparkling on the frozen ground and perhaps the odd bit of snow on the trees. There's not been many days like that recently to take Max out in, it's been very damp and miserable. To add to the muddy fields, engineers from Rail Track are constructing an access point from which to repair the line and the only way down is along our lane! Although they have assured us that they will reinstate it, the muddy morass that it is at the moment does not help in keeping car, dog or feet free from yuck! 

Anyway here is my card.

To begin, I took a panel of white card and stamped some snowflakes and embossed them in white, then scribbled some of my icy blue Zigs over the embossing before spritzing with water to create the frosty sky. On a separate die cut panel I cut a scene with a Memory Box die, coloured the scene with more Zigs and a little bit of Stickles on the snow and roof tops. The sentiment, a mixture of MFT and Uniko, was stamped in Grey Flannel. The snowflake background was glued flat to the base and the scene was popped up on foam pads.

For more winter walk inspiration why not pop over to the main blog and then join in.

I'm joining in over at -

        

                                                           Winter Blues

Thanks for the reminder Cornelia!

Bend it Like Beckham!

Good morning folks.

We have a brand new challenge for you over at Cardz4Galz.

We would like to see your take on the theme -

MOVIE MADNESS

I haven't really got a favourite movie so it was after trawling though my stash that I came across this LOTV stamp of the little tomboy Annabelle playing with her football that inspired this card. 

Anyway, the movie that came to mind was

 'Bend it like Beckham'

It's the story of an Asian girl who goes against her parents and culture in order to play football.

This LOTV image reminds me of myself when I was a little un! My Dad used to play semi pro soccer in the late 40's and early 50's, even getting a trial for Arsenal after playing for the RAF during his national service. However my arrival put paid to his footballing days but he always had a gang of followers on the beach in the summer! Having no sons, I was the one that got to play with the boys on the beach and loved it. Back in the day girls didn't play football so I had to content myself with hockey.

I often wish that I could have taken soccer further, the nearest was playing in a team made up of friends that took part in a tournament whilst at college, it's so much easier for girls these days.

I used the layout at Sketch Saturday for this card, colouring the image with Copics. For the hair I used blonde colouring (E50, Y21, Y26, YR24 and YR27) as I was a little blondie back in the day, rather than the star of the film. I do find myself using this colour for hair a lot, my grandson also has a lovely head of blond hair!

OK, for more inspiration, check out the rest of the team and why not join us?

I'd like to join in with :-

Favourite Hair Colour and Why.

Rainbow hello

Good evening.
We've had a long break but finally we're back with a brand new challenge over at ATSM.
This week it is our

PHOTO INSPIRATION

Here is my card based on the photo

Love this pretty rainbow daisy like image.



I did think of going down the floral route but instead decided to try something that I saw quite a while ago on Jennifer McGuire's blog, using a lattice stamp and Distress pens.

My wonderful son bought me a full set of Zig markers for Christmas, so it was the perfect opportunity to try them out and see what all the colours were.
I stamped and heat embossed in white the Hero Arts lattice stamp on some mixed media paper and then went ahead colouring each cell in roughly rainbow order.
Once completed, I stamped a greeting on some black card, embossed in white EP and mounted the strip on a scrap of white before laying it over the coloured panel. A few beads of Glossy Accents completed it.
I found the colouring in quite therapeutic and lost myself in the activity, so tea was somewhat delayed. I did discover the stamp was slightly off square but I was able to trim the panel down to square it up, more or less!

For more rainbow inspiration, please check out the rest of the team here.

I'd like to join in over at -

   



Anything Goes

Bullseye

Good morning folks. I hope the weather near you is better than here, it's dank and grey and really quite depressing. Give me a bright crisp winter's morning any day!
This week at Cardz4Guyz we have a technique challenge for you this week.

TRIPLE MAT TECHNIQUE

Here is a link if you would like more info on the technique.
This is my card which uses a twist on this, called bullseye. You can find out more here.
It is sort of a reverse triple mat as the layers go in not come out, the inside of the finished card is as interesting as the front.

Here are some close ups of the layout.

I chose this technique because I didn't have any stamps that were masculine enough for the challenge!
This uses the SU set Wetlands and was coloured using my brand new Zig watercolour brush pens.
I wouldn't have attempted this before I bought my Misti as you can move the different layers around while keeping the stamp in the same place.
Go on have a go,we'd love to see what you make with this technique.
There's more inspiration over at the Cardz4Guyz page so have a look.

I'd like to join in over at -

Wings on Things

Monster birthday wishes

Good morning and welcome to post that announces the start of a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz.

This week marks our 3rd birthday so what would be a more appropriate challenge than simply -

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Here is my card for today's celebrations.

Whilst seeking inspiration for my card I came across a similar card made from embossed card and punched shapes here and thought him rather sweet. I do love to make these cute monster cards for a change. I used the colours from Can you Case it? and the Ombre challenge over at Less is More as further inspiration.

To start I took two A5 panels of white card, actually 2 halves of a card that I'd messed up and inked up the reverse side in an ombre style with Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean DI and on some scrap I inked up with Picked Raspberry DI. From further scrap bits and bobs, I cut some circles with assorted dies and punches. The only new bit of this was the base card, waste not want not! My stash of cut offs does not appear to be getting smaller but I can't bear to through a usable piece away.

I decided I preferred the darker area for the area around the mouth, so trimmed one of the blue panels with a large circle die and then the pink one, I cut the nose from the center as it was unseen. 

Using more DIs, I inked up the eyes in Hickory Smoke and Tumbled Glass and added white gel pen as hi lights to the nose and black pupils. Once the eyes were assembled and glued down I added some Glossy Accents around the mouth and cut a couple of buck teeth from more scrap. The sentiment from STAMPlorations was stamped in black and the finished 'monster' glued to my base card.

 Please join us for our 3rd birthday bash, we'd love it if you did.

I'd like to join in over at -

     

OMBRE

Joyous Christmas

Evening all.

Well the Christmas holidays are over for another year, even my Grandson is back to school tomorrow. Hope you all had a fab time and got lots of crafty goodies under your tree!

I did discover a distinct shortage of Christmas cards at the last minute, so this year I am trying to get at least one done a month, so here is January's made for the new challenge over at HLS Anything Goes with dies.

I've used a MB bauble die and a few Personnel Impressions snowflake stamps. 

To start, I cut a panel in white linen effect card and planned out where to place my dies. I wanted to inlay two of them and lay one on the top. 

After cutting I cut the centers again out of plain card (actually it was a slight textured piece in reverse and I didn't realise until I had inked them up!) and using my Misti stamped three snowflakes and then heat embossed them with white EP, inking over them with Salty Ocean and Blueprint Sketch DI to give some dimension.

I then cut 3 more of the baubles in silver mirror card and the berries from some silver linen card scraps. I now had all the pieces ready to replace in the base panel.

Turning the cut panel over, I stuck double sided tape across the narrow openings to keep them in place then replaced 2 silver die cuts in the openings. When I was happy they were flush with the surface I added more tape to the rear. The small berries were then replaced in the correct position.

The top bauble I found a little trickier as the tape had to be positioned so that it was invisible from the front. When done I placed it over the inlaid dies and added a sentiment in Grey Flannel. The whole panel was then trimmed and stuck to a white base card.

There's much more inspiration over on the HLS blog, so why not pop over there and check out the rest of the team.

I'd like to join in over at -

        

     

Cardz4Galz

Good morning and welcome to a post to share the start of a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Galz.

Our first challenge of the new year is -

ATC's

ATC's are not something that I have really got into but one of the attendee's at last summer's HLS retreat suggested that we exchange them. I had some free time so I had a go and this is one of the sets I made.

I went with a theme of travelling to meet friends and relaxing, just what I anticipated doing.

Using my favourite colours which happen to be the colours over at Colour Throwdown this week and a selection of stamps and die's, as well as embossing and stenciling, I went about making the ATCs.

Starting with 2 panels of card I inked one with Picked Raspberry DI and one with Twisted Citron. I over stamped in the Picked Raspberry on the pink piece with an assortment of butterflies, splashed it with some water and lifted off some of the colour, then cut out 4 pieces roughly ATC size. The green panel I stamped in a darker blue green DI and did the same trick with the water and cut them out the same. On the leftover scraps I stamped some butterflies from Kaisercraft along with some text, embossing some and leaving some plain. 

On the pieces I wanted to be on top I die cut a pattern using a Tim Holtz set and added the text, pattern, butterflies and some extra embossing around some of the edges. After fussy cutting the large butterflies I added them over the stamped images so that the fine parts such as antennae showed up.

I glued the top to a contrasting bottom and then trimmed to size and added a back panel with all my details on.

As I was in the groove, I made another set, this one was in a more pastel hue, using some DP as the background along with die cuts and stamps.

I was quite pleased with the results, seeing as I had never done anything like these before and it was rather more mixed media than my usual style.

Go on have a go and see what you can come up with, then link up your projects, we'd love to see what you come up with.

I'd like to join in over at -

Anything Goes with Dies

Get Better at Warp Speed

Morning all.

I know lots of people went back to work today here after the Christmas holidays, my daughter included but us retirees need a calendar to keep up with the days of the week. Over the last week, my husband has been convinced it was a Friday on a Wednesday and a Monday when it was Saturday! I agreed that I was floundering as my normal benchmarks of DT obligations were on holiday too!

Anyway we are back to normal more or less apart from the large tree in the lounge which will come down either later today or tomorrow as it will take a good while to remove all the decorations it took an afternoon to put on!

Over in blogland its time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

This week we have chosen the theme of -

UP, UP and AWAY

Lots to get your teeth into there, balloons, kites, planes and anything else you can come up with.

I went with a rocket for my card.

A friend of mine has gone into hospital today for a hernia op so I sent this to cheer him on to a speedy recovery. Not a great way to start the new year but necessary! I hope it has got there but what with all the holidays, post is somewhat delayed, so sorry if it doesn't get to you before this post.

I liked the idea of the sentiment from this Space themed set from Paper Smooches and instead of the stamped exhaust, I added a vellum one over my galaxy background. This is the first time that the set has been inked up since I bought it  and I can see me using it quite often in the future.

After making the panel I realised that it was smaller than the base card bit rather than cut it down I added a strip of linen effect gold card, I rather like the overall effect.

OK, that's about it from me for today.

Why not have a try, challenge yourself to make a masculine card, we'd love to see what ideas you have. If you need more inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

I'm joining in over at -

Something New

Anything Goes

Stemmpelsonne - Anything Goes