Spring Bunny and Eggs

 Good morning. Another fortnight has passed by and as we hurtle towards April it's time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

This time our theme is pretty broad, it's -

EQUINOX CHANGES

Equinox means equal day and night and happens around the 21st of March and October. It's often the beginning of Spring or Autumn, depending on which hemisphere you are in of course. 

Lots of things come to mind at the moment, here we have lambs in the fields and rabbits digging up the garden and vainly the track at the back of the house to make a burrow. The birds are nesting and the daffs are in full flower as well. New life is around where ever you look! Easter is not far off either, another symbol of new life, hence the links to chicks and bunnies, not to mention the biblical links. Anyway here's my interpretation of the theme.

I used Spring Bunny with Eggs from LOTV, colouring with Copics and fussy cutting out the bunny and Easter eggs. The frame is an oval die cut from a panel of textured white card slightly smaller than A6, to which I added some punched grass for the eggs to nestle in. A scrap of NitWits paper was glued to my base card and the frame added on fun foam. The bunny was popped up on pads except where his ears left the frame. The sentiment on a separate white strip, is from Crafters Companion. This will probably wend it's way to my youngest Grandson who loves rainbows!

So where will the theme take you? For more inspiration why not check out the rest of the DT here.

Joining in over at:-

Anything Spring

Color Hues #37

Good afternoon folks. 

It's time for a brand new colour combo at Color Hues. This time Nancy has chosen a lovely soft mix that had me reaching for my baby stamps!

I've had this Sweet Baby set from Uniko (retired) for two or three years but never inked it up, so decided I would use the cute onesie image as my focal point.

Yellow screamed ducklings, so I added one from the set to a white onesie and coloured it with Copics. I then decided to stamp a couple more onto spotty DP in pale teal and yellow, fussy cut and arranged them on a panel of white card with the pale teal BABY stamped below. I used Altenew's Dew Drops at first followed by a layer of Copic marker over the top to darken it. I always forget that their inks dry much lighter than they look to begin with! The welcome, stamped in grey, was squeezed in between.

My finished panel was then mounted on matching yellow card and added to an A6 base card which I'd earlier run through my Big Shot with a Polka Dot embossing folder, to keep the dotty reference going. Not sure I made the right decision there but it does mean I can enter it over at JUGS!

So where will the new colours take you?

We'd love to see you in our gallery and if you need more inspiration the rest of the girls and our GD have come up with some great ideas, check them out here.

Joining in over at:-

Winter Scene

We've nearly hit the middle of the month, so it's time for a new challenge at Perfectly CAS.

Here's my card based on this month's cue card.

This is my 1st Christmas make of the year, despite all my best intensions! I love a Christmas bauble card and have made loads over the years, it's amazing what you can squeeze into a small space, for this scene, I used some NEBUS dies, as well as some old and trusted ones to make the little scene.

The houses and snowdrift dies are from a Whimsy Stamps set that Santa gave me for Christmas and hadn't had the opportunity to use yet, along with my go to Evergreen tree landscape die from Marianne Creatables that I've had for yonks. The bauble itself is made from a really ancient bauble hanger die and a simple die cut circle.

To begin, I inked my circle with a mix of DI blues and added some white gel pen snow or perhaps they are stars! I then added my snowdrifts and trees, edging them lightly with Chipped Sapphire DI. The house lights are simply a piece of golden yellow DP glued behind the open windows and a little Black Soot DI around the roofline allows them to stand out from the snowdrifts, any overhang was carefully trimmed away.

The snowdrift on the front of the scene was twinkled up with a mix of white and crystal Stickles.

Everything was then added to my white A6 base card and the sentiment from a retired Uniko set was stamped in black. I chose this stamp as I was able to curve it to the edge of the bauble, the thinner the stamp the easier it is. I even had to forgo my MISTI and stamped it freehand, very scary!

So where will you go with the cue. We'd love to see your takes but please make it CAS!

There are more CAS die cut ideas from the rest of the DT here.

15/3 - Edited to join in over at:-

Anything Christmas

(Thanks for the head's up Darlene)

For a Leeds Rhino's fan

Good morning. I'm back with a card for the latest challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

This time we would love to see your masculine -

SLIMLINE CARDS

Here's my take using the MFT set Birth-Yay.

I've made it for an ex colleague's birthday who's a Leeds Rhino's fan, hence the colour choices of the balloons and the rhino!

After stamping the tower of friends, I coloured with Copics and fussy cut. I stamped another balloon from the set as well as a few more from a different set and coloured with Copics and fussy cut.

The background was made up from a scrap of NitWits DP for the sky and 3 pieces of white card cut with a couple of Heffy Doodle grass dies, which I inked with a gradient of greens, glued to a die cut stitched, slimline, white panel, then to a slimline card base.

The tower of friends was added to my background on pads and the extra balloons were glued flat.

The sentiment, from the same Birth-Yay set,  was stamped with black on a white strip and added to the card.

So where will you go? For more slimline inspiration, check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

MFT Slimline Challenge - Birthday 

I Take My Hat Off!

Welcome all. Just taking a bit of time to join in with a few challenges out there at the moment.

After being busy with the Uniko release and DT obligations, I thought I would take the opportunity to join in some challenges that I haven't done for awhile. 

Yesterday was absolutely miserable here,  after walking Max in the afternoon my coat was awash, although he appreciated the lovely smells that were made more interesting with the rain, that he could sniff out on his journey up the lane! Anyway, after drying out in front of the range, I went into my craft room to play. 

I love it when I can combine ideas, especially when they are suggested by challenges.

So when I saw the 1/9th and favourite animal at AAA, I thought I would join in, then LIM is one word, one layer, OK I could work with that. The final piece of the jigsaw was CASology's HAT cue card.

So this is what I came up with.

Choosing a favourite animal was the hardest part, we have a dog, keep sheep and used to have a cat and even a budgie when I was small, but in the end after a trawl though my stamps I chose hamster!

I used to have a hamster called Gilbert, when I was about 11 or 12. I remember getting him from the pet shop near the market and keeping him in his cage under the TV in the lounge. I called him Gilbert after the winger in my fave footy team, Sheffield Utd, who scored a goal the day we brought him home. He was a little escapologist and I remember one day he got out when my Mum's friend Doris was visiting. She was wearing a white mohair coat that she'd put over the back of the sofa. We only realised he was out of his cage when Doris was leaving, Gilbert rolled out of his new nest as she lifted her coat to put it on, leaving a damp smelly patch and a couple of holes in the lining!! Good job she was Mum's best friend.

Anyway down to the make. I measured off my rectangle with fine pencil lines and stamped Gilbert (Anita Jeram), added the top hat freehand and drew a little scene for him to stand in.

Using Copics, I coloured the little scene, rubbing out the pencil guidelines before stamping my sentiment from Uniko. I chose Congratulations as he looks like he is raising his hat in celebration and it would suit many different occasions.

Anyway best get a wriggle on and get this done, enough reminiscing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Joining in over at:-

Birthday Fishes Gill Friend

Good evening folks.

The beginning of another month, so time for a new challenge at HLS CAS.

Here's my take on this month's cue card.

I had one or two different ideas in my head but decided in the end to get this Gill Friend set from MFT out of it's wrapper and ink it up for the first time.

On a scrap of white card, I stamped the fish and coloured with Copics, then fussy cut them out.

On a white circle from the bits box, I inked an under water background, using a mix of Salty Ocean, Twisted Citron and Chipped Sapphire DIs. Once well dry, I stamped the sea vegetation, first with Versamark and heat embossed in white, then with Chipped Sapphire DOx, rubbing away the excess ink from the embossed areas. On a scrap strip of white card I stamped the sentiment and added the inked circle and sentiment strip on pads to a white linen effect note card, positioning the three little fish on the circle and gluing flat.

Where will the cue card take you? We'd love to see you in our gallery but PLEASE don't forget to keep it CAS!

There's more watery inspiration over on the HLS blog from the rest of the team.

3/3/22 edited to join in at:-

Thanks for the reminder Darnell!

Color Hues #36

Good afternoon. 

A new month sees the start of a new challenge at Color Hues.

However, because of the unfolding situation in Ukraine, Nancy has had the wonderful idea that we offer you the chance to flood the internet with a show of solidarity and a mass of blue and yellow themed cards. The original idea was first voiced on the Share Handmade Kindness FB group on Saturday by a card maker by the name of Linda Eterno.

Nancy then contacted the CH team as well as the ladies over at Seize the Birthday to ask if we would join in. So for this challenge we are doing something slightly different. 

Here is my card, hoping to bring a little sunshine to this troubled world.

When Nancy first voiced the idea of a blue and yellow theme, the flag colours of Ukraine, I thought of a card I saw last year and combined with this card by fellow CH and Uniko team member Hannelie being fresh in my mind, I came up with this take.

I made my pocket freehand from a really ancient piece of denim DP, it says 2002 on the back, scoring to create the pocket and as the DP was quite thin, I strengthened it with a panel of white card, which I slipped inside. A few freehand dashes with a blue fine liner create the faux stitching.

I had a couple of these yellow daisy style flowers left over in my bits box from last summer, so just stamped a few more using Uniko's Doodle Flowers and BB Doodle Flowers, colouring with Copics and fussy cutting them out. The tag sentiment is also Uniko, stamped with Unicorn White and Faded Jeans DOx over yellow card. Although the white and DOx are opaque it still lets some of the yellow show through the blue, casting a greenish hue, but I didn't know how else to do it.

On an A6 off white note card, I embossed the stitched detail and then added my pocket.

So now, back to what I came up with using the original colour combo!

To start this card, I took a panel of MM card added some water followed by a mix of Brusho Emerald Green and water across the top half. Whilst still wet, I added some of the dry crystals and left it to work it's magic! To be honest I was expecting more of a mix of colours as is usually the case with Brusho powder, but as it was only a background I went with it.

When dry, I die cut the Tim Holtz wreath and then added back one cut from gold mirror card. A few punched and shaped flowers from the same gold card were added, followed by an Altenew sentiment stamped and heat embossed with mirror gold EP.

The completed panel was trimmed and added to an A6 cream base card.

So you, lovely crafters, now have a choice. You can make a card to show love and support for the Ukrainian people or you can make a card using Lindsey's colours of Green and Gold, OR BOTH!

We are going to have TWO overall winners for this challenge, one for each colour pairing but please, if you do decide to make two cards, would you post them in separate posts, so that way no entry gets missed by mistake.

For more inspiration, please check out the rest of the team and our GD Jules here.

STAMPlorations, Theme and Photo Prompt

Good morning.

STAMPloration challenges are back after our February break, starting with the new challenge at Theme and Photo prompt. Here's my card based on the new cue card.

When I saw this picture I thought fondly of my teaching days when I taught art through the whole of the Junior age range, I thoroughly enjoyed imparting my love of art to the children and hope they were equally enthused. 

Each year group looked at a different areas of art, linking in to what other things were going on with their studies. We looked at a huge variety of art and artists over the four years including, Year 3 Art Deco and Clarice Cliff pottery designs, Year 4, Native Art of Africa and America, Year 6, Pop Art and in Year 5 we did a term looking at the works of Piet Mondrian. One of the tasks was based on Mondrian's paintings using primary colours and black grids and this was the inspiration for my card. 

A few years ago Cornelia, one of STAMPlorations Alumni made this card and as I was looking through my stamps for shape stamps, I remembered it and thought I would CASE it.

Using the rectangular frame stamp from Frames and Flowers, I stamped an overlapping grid in black ink on a white A6 panel of card. Where the frames overlapped I coloured some of the sections with Copic markers in black and primary colours. I used Y15, R24, B28 and C10, a better match than pure black.

On a square of black card, cut using the small square die from A2 panel Nesting dies, I stamped the sentiment from Life in Full Color in Versamark and then embossed with white EP, deciding to double mount the sentiment by adding a slightly larger white the black panel underneath before adding to my finished, coloured panel. There were lots of other sentiments from the set which would have worked just as well.

So where will the cue card take you? We'd love to see your takes in the gallery this month.

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