Union Flag

Morning all.

It's Tuesday again, so it must be time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

This time we have a colour theme, just in time for those of you in the US celebrating the 4th July.

RED, WHITE and BLUE

When I first read the theme, the union flag popped into my head, not being American, and then I remembered the old Mini, Ria in Butterflies had, that had the flag on the roof! I wonder how my mind works sometimes but once I had that image there it was difficult to jog it loose! So here is my slightly off piste take on the challenge.

I used the MFT die set Joy Ride as it reminds me of a mini and sketched in a Union flag onto the roof section, colouring with Copics. I have called it the Union flag as I seem to think that the flag that flies over buildings is the Union Flag not the Union Jack, that is what it is called when flown on ships.

Anyway, I assembled the rest of my red Mini die cut pieces, added a clear plastic window and then thought about incorporating it into a card.

I looked at using DP but in the end I sketched in the horizon and a road onto a piece of paper and created a landscape for my car to sit in. The clouds were created using an MFT cloud stencil and Salty Ocean DI and the green was a mixture of Twisted Citron in the distance and Mown Lawn DI in the foreground. A dark grey Copic marker and white gel pen complete the road. I know he's driving down the middle of the road but I'm sure you will excuse the liberty! My finished panel was trimmed, then glued to an A6 side folding note card.

For more masculine inspired creation in red, white and blue, pop over to the Cardz4Guyz blog and check the rest of the team out.

I'm joining in over at:-

     

Happy 40th Nich

Morning peeps and Happy Birthday to my wonderful daughter.
Sadly her 40th birthday bash is on hold and she's having to work today, teaching in a special school, but I'm sure her two fab sons and supportive OH will make it as fun a day as possible.

Anyway, I wanted to make her a card to cheer her up as well as saying Happy Birthday, so here is her card using her fave colours.

I couldn't use flowers for this as she's not a great fan but she loves a butterfly and sparkle! Therefore I used Uniko's English Country Garden stamps and matching dies to create this floating frame card.

All the details on the make can be found on my Brand Ambassador post over at Uniko.


Joining in over at:-


Just the photo

May you never outgrow bubbles

Good morning peeps.
Its Tuesday and I know that because its time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. Must admit that days are blurring and the OH even asked me what day it was on Sunday! If it wasn't for my calendar of DT posts, I would be well and truly lost!
This time our theme is:-

SHAKER CARD

I did struggle at first with ideas for a masculine shaker but eventually I came up with this.

I used a MFT peekaboo die set to cut the apertures and cloud edge before adding the cheeky bubble chicks from Stamping Bella. The pic at Inkspirations also lead me down the yellow chick route!

The shaker elements were made by layering the while cloud panel with an acetate one and two fun foam ones. I did use just one layer of foam at first but it was a little too shallow for the bugle beads to move around. I used these beads as they reminded me of tiny bubbles and they have been in my stash since my daughter started dancing over thirty years ago! They are probably older than that because they were given to me by an aunt who used them for my cousins ballroom dresses! Also, they are a little less feminine than sequins. The background cloud DP is a scrap of NitWits from the bits box.

There are lots more masculine card ideas from the rest of the DT here, so why not join in?

The idea of using these cheeky chaps also came from Darnell's Twofer challenge where bubbles/ circles are the theme. So whilst the chicks were on my desk, I decided to turn them into penguins and make a Christmas card. I've made them into robins on baubles before here and here, but thought footy playing penguins would be fun too, so bubbles became soccer balls this time.

I'm not sure what the style of card is called but it allows the card to stand quite solidly without it being too complicated to construct. The idea of chicks being penguins was introduced by the fab Faye on one of her Copic colouring classes and I've not really explored this avenue before! The background was made by inking the folded base with a cloud stencil and Salty Ocean DI. The snow drifts were cut with a die and then covered with a glaze of clear Wink of Stella and then added. Sadly the shine doesn't show up in the pic! 

After colouring with Copics, the penguins and 'bubbles' were fussy cut and added to the card. The background looked a little too un Christmasy, so I added some tiny punched snowflakes and some freehand movement lines below a couple of the balls with a fine liner. The stamped sentiment is from Uniko.

Here are both of the cards together.

That's all from me for the moment, see you all later!

I'm joining in over at :-

Let's hear it for the boys

STAMPlorations challenge reminder

Welcome to a post to remind you that there is still time to enter the challenges over at STAMPlorations. Here is my card based on the current challenge at Theme and Photo.

The photo reminded me of a New Year's Eve Party and the ticker tape and balloons that sometime get let off at midnight!

For this card I used the two smallest elements from a couple of the confetti stamps in the Balloons and Banners set as well as the round balloon stamp.

To get the no line effect on the balloons, I stamped each colour before colouring with Copic markers and a lot of masking! The strings were drawn freehand with a black fine liner pen.

Some of the confetti was embossed with opaque EP, some with clear over inked stamping and some free hand with a Versamark pen as well as Zig marker and then quickly embossed before the ink dried! Hopefully the smaller marks give the design some depth.

The celebrate sentiment was die cut from both black and white card, mounting the white slightly to one side of the black to give a shadow effect.

That's about from me but please check out the rest of the teams here, where you'll also find all the links to the galleries and the Ts and Cs.

Shery has also just opened her new STAMPlorations digital and outlet store. Why not click and find out what's happening over there?

     


I'm joining in over at:-




Make it colourful


Embossing wet or dry

A card for the Christmas stash

Evening all.
Its time for a brand new challenge over at Perfectly CAS. Here's my card based on this month's theme.

I chose to go down the Christmas route as I have yet to really start on this years stash and thought this the perfect opportunity.
Here is a close up of the stamped panel which shows all the sparkly EP I used over the stamping

The main image is a Penny Black cling, I bought to use last Christmas and never used as I didn't really know how to incorporate the image.

Firstly I stamped the image a couple of times with Altenew's Dew Drops ink and then quickly added some holographic EP before it dried. The EP has a lovely sparkle but also allows the colour to show through. It also doesn't get everywhere like glitter does!

To frame the scene, I added a die cut frame and slipped a die cut deer in the bottom right hand corner.

Before adding the frame to the background, I stamped the greeting from Uniko in the next shade of turquoise ink, Aqualiscious. The frame was popped up with fun foam and then the trimmed down background added before attaching to my base card.

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

Joining in over at:-


Scene or not
I always like to add something to my background stamps to create a little scene.  It adds depth to the design even if it is CAS!

     

Girls just want to have a cocktail

Evening all.

I hope I find you well, especially in these strange times. Social distancing rules are being slowly eased here in the UK but we're still a long way to being back to pre Covid-19 normality. We should be celebrating our daughter's 40th in a couple of weeks but that is all on hold, parties are something that happened quite awhile ago. That is unless you can have one with the rest of your lockdown household!

My OH had the bright idea of dressing up at least once a week to have a virtual date, just like we were going out but staying put, if that makes sense. All I seem to wear these days are jeans and a T or a shirt if I go to the supermarket, so I suppose he has a point.

Anyway we can all enjoy the thought of going out or even a party but we can still party in the virtual world with the latest challenge at HLS CAS, here is my card for your inspiration. A OLC with just a little bit of paper piecing.

These two gals from Stamping Bella just shrieked party and the sentiment from Uniko was perfect.

After stamping and colouring with Copic markers, using the colours from Cupcake Inspiration, I decided the pink dress was too red so found a scrap of pink DP with cream dots and did a bit of shading with Copics and fussy cut it before adding over the original colouring. 

I think I like this more than the original anyway! As I've used spotty paper perhaps I can join in over at Less is More too.

However, if you want more party themed CAS ideas, check out the rest of the team here and then why not join us in our virtual party themed challenge.

Joining in over at:-

   
                                                     Oops, sorry forgot about the paper piecing!

Goal!

Good morning folks.

Hope I find you well in these strange times.

Today marks the start of a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

This time our challenge is :-

FATHER'S DAY

I suppose there will be many fathers and sons who will not be together this year so why not make a card and send it.

Here is mine which may make it's way to my daughter for the Grandkids to give to their dad!

I used the football trio from LOTV and a red colour scheme as my SiL is a huge Liverpool fan.

I found a panel of red Bazzil in my stash, yes I'm still trying to be good and use the odds n ends I have and trimmed it to A6, On some more scrap white card, I stamped the images and then cut some circles of white to mount them on after I had coloured with Copics and fussy cut.

I love these trio sets but often struggle with how to use them. LOTV have a wonderful ideas board on Pinterest and there are lots of ideas on Google image, so I had a look about and found a couple of layouts I liked, not with this set but the auto trio I used last month. I tried to save the link but it only took me to a larger pic of the card so I hope that the designer will accept my apologies for not linking back.

The happy die cut is from Wplus9 cut a couple of times from scrap white and once from black before mounting it on foam pads. The stamped and embossed sentiment, from Uniko, was added on a black strip below.

For more Father's Day inspiration, please check the rest of the DT here and then join in.

We Still Do!

Morning all, a new month so a new challenge over at STAMPlorations Theme and Photo challenge.
Here's my card based on the prompt.

I went with the theme of stamps and confetti.
I first thought wedding but as they are not happening here at the mo due to Covid -19, I went with an anniversary theme using the Better Together set.

Still trying to use up my stash of white card, I took an A6 topfold card made from textured linen cardstock and from the rest cut a couple of rectangles, first with the smallest of the A2 Basic stacked rectangles and then one cut freestyle slightly larger.
On the wrong side, smoother side, of the smaller panel I stamped the wine glasses and embossed them with WOW Platinum EP and then the sentiment to match. I rather like the sentiment, not too mushy.
With the slightly smaller panel, I inked the edges with Versamark and heat embossed with  the same EP, then mounted the stamped panel on top.
Rather than cut another panel, I decided to use the smallest of the Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting dies to emboss the base card. The mounted stamped panel was then placed in the center and VOILA!

Simple but quite effective I think, but how will you interpret the theme and photo, we'd love to see you in the gallery.
For all Ts and Cs and to check out the rest of the inspiration from the team follow the link to the STAMPlorations blog.