Tank You

Good evening. 

It's time for a brand new challenge at HLS CAS and here's what I came up with using this month's cue card.

I came up with a tank of tropical fish, using MFT's Gill Friends again. Just like London buses, not used for month's then twice in a month!!

I stamped a few of the different smaller images along with some of the sea weed ones, coloured with Copics and fussy cut them out.

The aquarium was made from a die cut panel of white card which I inked with a mix of Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio DI and spritzed it with a fine mist of water, mopping up the water to remove a subtle amount of ink. This effect gives a mottled effect that appealed. My tank base was a strip of pale cream card which I coloured with Copics and attached to the base of the tank rectangle before adding my fussy cut foliage. 

The small fish were then glued in place and the completed panel added to an A6 drab green card base.

White space doesn't need to be white, just empty!

Using Versamark and white EP, I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment.

So where will the cue card take you? We'd love to see you in the gallery this month BUT please keep your entries CAS!

There's more fab tropical inspiration from the rest of the DT here if you need it.

Uniko BA Inspiration meets Color Hues #38

Good afternoon. As it's the 1st of the month there's a new challenge over at Color Hues. This time around we have a lovely spring like combination and here is my inspiration card.

I used a no line effect with Copic colouring for this card, framing my sentiment with a thin frame so that the central tulip is still visible.

All details about the colouring can be found on the Uniko blog, where I've also shared these watercolour interpretations using the same stamp set.

So how will this colour combination inspire you?

As usual we'd love to see your takes in the gallery but if you need a little more inspiration check out the rest of the team and our GDs here.

Joining in over at:-

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)