HLS Craft Retreat Make

Welcome to my latest HLS - Anything Goes with Dies Challenge post.

As you may remember I was away the weekend before last at the inaugural HLS retreat here in the UK. Don't know how Kylie managed to organize from over in Australia but she did and went off without a hitch! We had great fun and lots of goodies to play with. Here is one I made using two Brusho panels made on the first day and one of my welcome gifts from Sizzix, Flower Cards Thinlets.

I made quite a few cards from the backgrounds I made and many jokes were made about how many month's worth of projects I had in the bag, more later perhaps.

Two of the dies are  a perfect size for ACTs and as Kylie was a little behind in production of her's she borrowed one of them! This blue panel was made by smooshing a piece of w/c paper in a mix of water,turquoise and purple Brusho and a little bit of Inka Gold Platinum wax. The yellow centers I must admit were punched from a scrap left by one of the other ladies, waste not want not!

The sentiment is from the Doodled Flower set by HLS.

Here we all are in our HLS T shirts and pinnies having an inky time, Kylie keeping us all on task!

Here are lots of our inky projects. Both sets of photos are courtesy of the wonderful Darnell who has been keeping everyone up to date with her peregrinations across the UK, meeting many of her bloggy followers, accompanied by the infamous Hammy who manage to photobomb at least one of these photos!

Anyway, back to the business at hand.

For more inspiration please check out the rest of the DT here and join in!

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I certainly dipped my background into my Brusho mix before smooshing!

STAMPlorations August Challenge

Afternoon peeps and welcome to a post to announcethe start of a new monthly challenge over at STAMPlorations.

Here is a little inspiration to get you wondering what the theme and sketch will be!

This month these are our sketch and theme.

           

My card is based on the sketch but also matches the theme as well in a small way as I used a fine line marker to outline the single rose from ARTplorations Old Rose Prints.

I started with a piece of watercolour paper and inked through my  ARTplorations Dots all Over stencil with Versamark, then embossed with white WOW EP. Still in inky mode, t.in the petals.When dry I applied a fussy cut rose mask and added a circle mask made by cutting a circle from a Post It. I then added some white ink to the space from a pigment pad, then outlined the rose with my fine line marker.

The sentiment happy from Sentiment Builders Happy was stamped and embossed in black and the birthday from the Celebrate set in just plain black ink. An embossed line around the edge of the panel and a few sparkly bits were added to complete.

OK, please check out our fab GDs Kathy Schweinfurth and CG, the rest of the DT for more inspiration and all Ts and Cs here.

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August Art

Stencils and Masks

I thought, then I forgot!

Morning everyone.

It's a fortnight since the last challenge at Cardz4Galz so it must be time for a new one!

This time out theme is 

MONOCHROME

Here is my card for your inspiration on that theme.

As I've mentioned before, I was away at the weekend with a load of lovely and very talented crafty ladies, some I knew personally, some I knew through DTs and some I'd not met before.

We had a great time in the craft room and over drinks and meals!

The first session was using Brushos to make backgrounds, lots of inky goodness there! We were then let loose to make what we wanted from the results. I had brought a selection of dies to use, as had some of the others and there was a lot of cutting and swapping going on. My MB Gardenia die caused a lot of oos and ahhs and resulted in lots of fab cards. The die cut in this card was made from my first piece of Brusho background, using purpley blues. Chrissie from Less is More, lent me her double border stitched square die which I used to cut the aperture. It was laying on a very crowded desk when I noticed laying over the gardenia die cut, lightbulb moment! At that stage I left it at that but when I came home I saw the MUSE challenge card by fellow attendee, Anita, and thought I would make a shaker card. This is Anita's fab card that inspired me.

I took the shaker element, purpley colour, stitched border and theme to make mine.

I used some bugle beads that matched the colours of the die cut and stamped a greeting in a pale lilac to keep up the monochrome feel.

For more inspiration check out the rest of the DT here.

Before I go here are a few photos from the retreat.

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Laughter is the best calorie burner

Hi and welcome to my post to announce the start of the latest challenge at ATSM. This week it is our photo inspiration and here is my card.

Here is our gorgeous photo.



Love those colours and the watercolour wash over the white embossed words.
I think Kylie may have chosen this because the theme of her recent crafty retreat was using Brushos.
So while playing with them whilst in Swindon with the rest of the ladies, I made this using a LOTV phrase stamp stamped and embossed with clear EP, thanks Kathy, on watercolour paper, then sprinkled with Brusho and spritzed with water and left to dry and the magic to happen.
When dry I cut a panel with a stitched rectangle die and a few punched butterflies from the waste finished it off. Simples.
This week we are sponsored by -

DRS Designs - a family owned company since 1950 - boasts hundreds of original rubber stamp designs. All images are available fully mounted, completely unmounted or mounted on cling cushion and are proudly hand crafted in the USA. 

Our rubber stamp collection includes a wide assortment of images including sentiments for all occasions, easy background designs and fun technique stamps such as our stained glass and plaid designs.

The DRS Designs website features a huge card sample gallery, online demos and tips, a secure shopping area and more. Be sure to visit our daily blog with posts from our fantastic design team for inspiration and ideas.

Prize: $10.00 gift certificate

So that's about it from me. For more fab inspiration please check out the rest of the DT here.

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I used Brusho and embossing as well as a few punched butterflies!

Good Luck

Mornin all.

I've had a busy weekend so I apologise if I've not been visiting you as would normally do. 

I've been away with a group of fabulous crafters in Swindon!

Yes, I said Swindon, a HLS retreat organised by the wonderful Kylie, Addicted to Stamps and More from the other side of the world!

It was wonderful to be in the company of great crafters at a fantastic venue but three days away on top of birthday celebrations has left me chasing my tail so to speak.

Anyway here is my card for the latest challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

TRANSPORT

The plane is from a Stamp Club set from STAMPlorations and the square was left over from a make at the retreat, thanks Chrissie. The clouds are also thanks to a demo by the wonderful Inky fingered Carol!

I wanted to add some colour to my plane so used the red of the Paper Players latest challenge and design is loosely based on a popular UK travel firm!

This was a very quick card to make for the reasons above but I'm still very happy with the outcome.

For more masculine transport ideas, pop over to the Cardz4Guyz site. 

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                                    Masculine/red/diecut