Remember this

Do you love a bargain, I do. My besty Di, told me that The Works had a great set of stacking and single dies in store and did I want her to get me some. Well as she was over not long after, we buzzed over to a branch and I couldn't resist, the prices were so cheap. Anyway while I was out the other day having a coffee with the OH, I spied a branch across the road so went in for a browse and came out with a few more including a fab oval scroll die I used in my inspiration card for the latest challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge blog where the theme is -

O is for OVALS

Here's my interpretation.

I die cut the frame from silver mirri card and again from a panel of fun foam. Leaving the fun foam die cut in the panel I cut it from, this stops it from loosing its shape, I glued the silver one on top. When dry, I removed both pieces from the fun foam panel. Must admit that the really tiny scrolls didn't fair well as I removed it, so I snipped the fun foam away from these! Setting aside, I then went looking for some flower stamps. I chose these fab blooms from Altenew's Remember This, stamping and embossing in white EP before fussy cutting. Then using the colours from Altenew's September challenge photo, I watercoloured the blooms with my Zigs and a water brush. When dry I arranged them around the frame. I decided that the plain base looked a little too plain so I splashed some of the Fushia Pink, Persian Green and a mixture of the two, makes a lovely purple, over a panel of the same card as the base before attaching the frame and flowers. The sentiment, also Altenew, was stamped on black and embossed in white and slipped under the blooms.

OK, that's it from me, please check out the rest of the DT here and why not join in.

Joining in over at:-

    

     

Wonderful news

Morning all.

We've a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Galz. This time our theme is -

DRAGONFLIES

We have some fabulous dragonflies that buzz around our meadow in high summer, they are quite wonderful but somewhat scarey when they flit over your head when you're not expecting it!

Anyway these dragonflies are not scarey!

I used the STAMPlorations 'Winged Things' set and the matching dies and used some autumnal tones of DI to create a background, then stamped assorted images in the same colours over the top. I was influenced by this card by the wonderful Bonnie, loved how she used a die to create a frame by embossing instead of cutting it out. The die cut dragonfly was cut from white and the matching solid die from vellum, trimming away the long body before attaching it under the white outline die cut.

The sentiment, free from a mag completes.

Check out the rest of the team here for more fab inspiration.

Joining in over at:-

   

                                                   Things with wings

May you never outgrow bubbles

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

This week it is our free for all challenge -

ANYTHING GOES

This is great for participants but I never know what to go with as there are so many ideas floating around in my head! Anyway here is what I finally made as my inspiration for you.

I bought these cheeky StampingBella chicks a few weeks ago, I just couldn't resist, well could you?

They were put away for use later and then when I saw the sketch over at LIM, I knew I had to use them! The circles in the sketch made me think of the bubbles.

Must admit I took a bit of a liberty with their sketch in this layout, hope that's OK, the basis is the same just flipped! I investigated how to colour the bubbles, using my Copics and although I didn't have the same colours, the overall effect is very effective I believe. 

After colouring the chicks, I fussy cut them and placed them on a pain white base card, adding a few extra bubbles in between. I then popped the chicks up on pads, leaving the extras uncoloured. The sentiment was stamped onto a die cut banner and slipped under the popped up chicks. 

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

Joining in over at :-

  

Hope it's not too much of a liberty with the sketch

# 92 - Paint The Flying Spirit Of The Birds Rather than its Feathers

From our home to yours

Hi and hope you are all as well as can be expected!

My son got a new sofa the other day and as we were due to visit along with our small dog Max I thought I better get a throw so that the dog didn't mess up the new pale grey sofa!

Anyway after picking one up in Dunelm, I just HAD to pop into The Range to see what they had.

After surfing the craft aisles I spied a Trim Craft street scene coverplate die which just happened to find it's way into my shopping basket! It was the perfect thing for this week's challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

ARCHITECTURE

I always wanted to be an architect and was always drawing floor plans and elevations of my ideal house when I was a young teenager. Sad to say I didn't go down that route, "Girls aren't architects", according to the school's careers officer. I should had stuck to my guns but by the time I had the confidence to stand up for myself, I had dropped the relevant O level subjects. I did finally get to design my ideal house though, but I had to make the most of an existing barn!

Any how, here is my card for your inspiration.

I didn't use the whole of the cover plate die, just the large foreground buildings, trimmed to fit a 5 x 7 base card and give me a border. I stuck it onto a piece of festive, red Argyll NitWits DP inked over with Candied Apple DI for a better colour. My printer doesn't print as well as it once did, the colours are washed out, not sure why. I decided to use red instead of blue just to ring the changes more than anything else!

I left some of the die cut bits in situ for texture without the colour. The sentiment is from a couple of Uniko sets, stamped in red and then embossed with clear EP. The finished panel was popped up on a fun foam panel on a white base card.

OK. that's it, simple, the die did all the work. Check out the rest of the girls here for more inspiration.

I'm joining in over at:-

    

                 Use a die cut                  #35 Anything Goes Christmas

Christmas Typografia

Hi and welcome to a post to announce the launch of a brand new set of stamps from STAMPlorations. We are having a little blog hop to celebrate with the chance to win some fab STAMP goodies.

Here is my first card for you showing one of the new release.

A simple chalk board treatment for this one, white embossed sentiment on a black die cut panel, with the addition of a few festive die cuts including the leaf from Trendy Spring Blooms and jute string.

My second set took inspiration from a pair of cards I saw here. I saw them ages ago but when I saw the new stamps from Shery it was the perfect opportunity to try the technique out.

These are a little more complicated than the first card and was really only possible because of my MISTI. To start I stamped the sentiment on a panel of white card cut using my middle die from the crazy double running stitch rectangle set, in green Memento and then embossed with clear EP. Without removing the stamp from my MISTI, I repeated this with a green panel and gold embossing.

To get the die cut baubles in the same place, I fastened the two panels together with a little low tack tape and cut the shapes with a small balloon die. This might not work if the card is too thick though.

The white panel was popped up on pads after adding some gold thread and the green and gold baubles slipped into the openings, carefully matching the text. The green panel was stuck flat on the white base after gold thread had been tied and stuck to create hangers. The white baubles were popped up on pads.

These were my second try and I have to say it was easier the second time around but I do like the red and white colours of my first attempt more.

The white bauble in the first are actually another panel stamped and embossed in red and clear EP, then tucked under the red panel. Again only possible because I still had my original stamp on my MISTI!

There are lots of other fab stamps in this TYPOGRAFIA set as you can see here.

So for more inspiration hop along to the STAMPlorations page and have a look, commenting as you go for a chance to win, One commenter will win their choice of 3 Typografia Christmas stamps. The winner will be randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMP blog and participating designers blogs, commenting closes on Monday, September 25th.

Don't forget if you fancy indulging yourself and buy some of these fab new stamps you can get 20% of by using this code.

Joining in over at:-

Use leaves on your Christmas/Holiday project 

  Get ready for Christmas   

 

                              Anything Christmas                           

T is for Trio (of baubles)