Rats or Mice

Good morning peeps.

It's time for a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz.

For this challenge we would love to see you make a masculine card with:-

SOMETHING NEW in your STASH

I don't know about you but the only retail therapy I've been doing these last 12 months has either been the weekly shop from the supermarket or on line. I would much rather browse a box or shelf of goodies but needs must in these strange times. A couple of weeks ago, I treated myself to a few bits from Seven Hills, there's far too much choice on their site! Anyway, I was intrigued by all the Anita Jeram stamps from Colorado Crafts that I've spotted on blogs. I looked at a few but many were out of stock but decided to splurge on the Birthday Wishes set featuring a cute bunny, hamster and these rats!

I say rats but they could be mice, I'm not sure! As they looked more suited to a masculine card than the cute rabbit I went with them, using a couple of challenges as inspiration.

Anita Jeram's illustrations are watercoloured, so I decided to go down that route and stamped the images onto some MM paper and coloured them with my Zig watercolour markers. When dry, I fussy cut them out and put them to one side. I always try to match my DP to the colouring for a more cohesive look, so took the colours from this strip of striped NitWits paper. The happy was cut using a Wplus9 die from white card and I used a blue Copic marker to colour, matching the stripe in the DP as near as possible. I found the middle of an aperture die cut on my table and added some embossed stripes with an EF as a background.

Using the sketch at Just Add Ink, I added the strip of DP to a cream base and the 'rats' above the happy. On a scrap of card I stamped the birthday with Espresso Truffle ink, cut down to size and added. 

Voila!

Please check out the rest of the DT for some fab inspiration.

Joining in over at:-

Z is for Zoology

 

Go Boldly

Just like London buses, three posts in quick succession in a day, well it is the beginning of the month so its a brand new challenge over at HLS CAS!

Here is my inspiration based on this month's theme.

It took awhile to decide where to go with this challenge, you could go down the route of fires, indoors or out or maybe candles, but I went with the flames coming from this Paper Smooches rocket ship.

Once I had the idea the design came pretty quickly.

I stamped a couple of flames and the rocket from the Space Cadet set, coloured them with Copics, then fussy cut them. The sentiment and a few stars were stamped in black on the white background, the rocket added with some foam pads and the overlapping flames from the rocket were glued flat on to an A6 base card. Simples, it could be a birthday card or just a card for encouragement.

For more flame/fire CAS inspiration please check the DT here.

It might be Good Friday and the days are lengthening, but the weather has decided that winter isn't over yet, so I must make sure that my tender pepper and tomato plants are tucked up warmly for the night in the greenhouse. I hope temps don't drop too low overnight, it would be a shame if those plants got frosted! Hope the lambs are tucked up with their mum's too, most of them have shed their temporary raincoats so will have no other protection.

Mail Chick, GD at CAS on Friday

Welcome back to a post to share a card made for the brand new challenge at CAS on Friday.

Last month I won their 'Spring' challenge with this card, so was asked to GD for their latest challenge :-

HAPPY MAIL

For my take I used this cute Stamping Bella, Mail Chick.

A very simple card, a little bit of NitWits DP behind the chick and a frame made using an MFT Stitched Scalloped Circle frame die on some linen effect card. My chick was coloured with Copic markers and then fussy cut. I love these chicks from Stamping Bella and have one or two in my stash now, he can be used for lots of different occasions I think. The sentiment is from the same set, stamped with Altenew Obsidian completes.

For more 'Happy Mail' inspiration check out the Cas on Friday DT.

Joining in over :-

I'm going with feathers!

Uniko Challenge reminder

Good morning and welcome to my post to remind you that there is still time to enter the latest challenge over at Uniko. Here is my inspiration for you.

In my first card here I went with the daffodils in the photo as my first signs of spring and are definitely something to lift the spirits but this time I brought out my Spring Botanicals - Tulip. Tulips emerge a little later than the daffs and I have to grow mine in pots because of the soil conditions but in the proper place they look fabulous en masse, in all colours and shades, I can also see them better as they are near the patio doors!

I went with the en masse theme rather than the specimen bloom for my card, masking and stamping with Versamark before heat embossing with white EP on mixed Media paper. I then watercoloured the blooms with a selection of DIs including Twisted Citron for the leaves and stems and Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and Carved Pumpkin for the flower heads. The background is a wash of Salty Ocean. I added a little bit of shadow to the leaves and stems with Mowed Lawn. 

When dry I used an MFT pierced rectangle die to cut my panel. The sentiment from the same set was stamped on a white strip in black and the finished panel added on pads to a faux linen base card.

For more Signs of Spring/ Easter inspiration check out the rest of the team and our GD Stephanie here.

I'm joining in over at:-

Color Hues #15

As I said earlier today, it might be April 1st but there is no pranking on this blog! Anyway tradition says that all April Fool's day pranks have to be done by noon or the joke is on the prankster!

The new challenge at Color Hues is launched and it was my turn to choose the colours, so I went all spring like and chose pink and green. Here is my card using those colours and shades there of!

The colours shouted flowers but which sets to use?!

In the end I decided to use my one and only Concord and 9th set, Blooms fill in. I'm never sure which is the right way up for this large stamp but I think that means it can be used both ways!

I used two sets of Altenew inks for this, Rose Petal and Tropical Forest. It makes life so much easier, when looking for matching shades of a colour as they've done the hard work! I chose the greens 1st because they are my favourites and second because they are crisp and fresh, perfect for a springtime card. The pinks chose themselves too, ranging from soft baby pink all the way to hot fushia pink!

Once I had stamped and filled in my panel, I couldn't decide how to complete the card so after a bit of googling, I went with a diagonal cut and partial die cut spray. The partial die cut posy was enhanced by the addition of die cut foliage in white and the darkest of greens, more detailed infill stamping and a stamped, die cut bloom. 

To complete, I added a thin line of the darkest green below the cut edge and a matching white strip to stamp my sentiment on. The finished panel was trimmed down to fit and added over an A6 white linen base card.

So for some fab DT inspiration check out the Color Hues site and why not join in.