To the moon and back

Morning all.

It's been a busy week here, what with all these cards to make, babysitting Grandson and having Nannee cuddles with our brand new Grandson. He's a gorgeous little thing but won't sleep! Know that feeling well, but that was a long time ago when little Seb's Ma was a baby and the only thing on at stupid o'clock was Radio Eireann! At least these days there is always something on the TV or radio in the wee small hours. Doesn't make it any easier though.

Anyway this is the last of this week's cards, this time for the new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge blog. We are up to the letter -

Q is for QUOTE

I have a few quote stamps but while sifting through them, I saw this NEBUS one from STAMPlorations.

I started by making a galaxy background using various DIs, water and chunky white EP. The moon is a circle of card stamped with an ink splat stamp with Weathered Wood DI and some soft ink blending.

My sentiment was stamped in black then embossed with clear EP. The trimmed down sky panel was attached to a white base card and the moon popped up over it on pads, simples.

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

I'm joining in over at:-

Altenew Stamps

Morning all.
It's time for a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Galz. This time around we would like to see projects featuring -

YOUR FAVOURITE FLOWER

Such a feminine theme, don't you think? Here is my card using Altenew's Amazing You stamp set.

I only get to use roses on cards as my OH doesn't like them. In fact at our last house, the first thing he did was dig them all out of the garden. I know they were past their best but he wouldn't let me buy some new ones to replace them. I think it's the thorns that get him as he even dislikes the wild briars in the hedgerows, especially when he is hedge trimming!

To start, I stamped and embossed in clear EP a selection of blooms and leaves on W/C paper. Using a mixture of Worn Lipstick and Tea Dye DI, I washed in some colour to the petals and a couple of my Zig pens for the leaves, which I then fussy cut when they were dry.

In a panel of white linen effect card, I cut an aperture using a Spellbinder die, then placing it on a matching white base card, I traced a faint outline of it onto the base card. This allowed me to remove the top panel and stamp my sentiment from Altenew's Wishing You set in black.

The roses and leaves were then arranged around the aperture and glued in place. After rubbing out the pencil line, I place the finished panel over the base card using pads to lift it slightly. A few spots of Glossy Accents and  Sprinkled Sugar were added and clear Wink of Stella added to the blooms completed the design.

For more flower inspiration check out the rest of the team here and why not join in.

Joining in over at:-





AG with Flowers

CASEing Me!

Hi and welcome to a post to announce the start of a brand new challenge over at ATSM.
Here is my card for your inspiration.

Some of you may recognise this as a CASE of this card here. It's also on my side bar as one of my most popular posts! I'm not sure why it rates so highly but it was over 3 years since I made the original and I thought it was time to revisit it.

As it is the photo inspiration week at ATSM, my starting point as the word SMILE in this phrase.

You could of course use a phrase as your focus or perhaps a watercolour wash or even the pink and black colour scheme, the interpretation is all yours.

I kept with the colours of autumn of the original, but went for a more pumpkin coloured background such as in the Time Out photo.
I started by cutting a mask from Post it paper then positioned it on the front of a base card. Using a small Versamark pad and a pen, I inked up the card through the stencil. Carefully removing the mask, I embossed the detail with gold EP. When completely dry, I used another homemade stencil mask to create the 3 circles of colour. The sentiment from STAMPlorations was then stamped in brown and embossed with clear matt EP. Apologies for the awful photo but the weather was so bad and dark even at midday when I took the photo, at least the gold embossing showed up in the flash!
So more more inspiring interpretations of the photo, check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-



I was inspired by the orange pumpkins and twigs contrasting with the white background

Poppies?

Morning all. After a very busy weekend of babysitting one Grandchild and travelling north to see our brand new baby Grandson and have some Nannee cuddles, it's back to the old routine. 

With all the anticipation and excitement, October has whizzed by and November isn't far behind! 

The trees will soon be bare except some of the trees around the local war memorial which are bedecked with knitted poppies! It also reminds of that shortly it will be Remembrance Sunday and the poppies for sale that appear in the run up. So over at Cardz4Guyz our theme this time is-

REMEMBRANCE / SYMPATHY

Here is my card for your inspiration.

I love poppies and am always grabbing handfuls of their fine seed to spread them around the tracks and field edges to spread their dancing red flowers. Did you know that they are flowers of disturbed and waste ground, hence they were chosen as the symbol of Remembrance after WW1, springing up in the fields after the awful carnage? Anyway I have a couple of stamps plus some my friend DI lent me but for this I fancied doing a softer faux watercolour technique. I chose a couple of the solid stamps from Altenew's Whimsical Flowers, which I picked up at Port Sunlight a couple of weeks ago, they look quite poppy like I think. 

To start I spritzed ares of my card panel with water then inked up the stamps with Memento ink and stamped. The water allowed the ink to feather at the edges. However by the time the third one was stamped the water had dried up too much so it wasn't as effective. The outline stamps from the set were partially inked with a black w/c marker and over stamped and the centers of each flower with a center stamp and head embossed with black EP. I sketched in the stems and then added a bud and leaf freehand adding some water then w/c. My sentiment is from STAMPlorations.

The finished panel was then trimmed down and popped over a strip of paper from the bits box and the base card with pads.

Please check out the rest of the team here and join us for the next two weeks.

Joining in over at:-


Make a card with flowers on it


Close to nature

Merry Monday Ornaments

Evening folks.

I'm having a stay at home Wednesday. Normally I meet up with a friend and after a meal we go to a craft class but as she had a funeral to go to early this afternoon and we are on standby for looking after our Grandson, our daughter is almost 40 weeks pregnant, I have been crafting at home.

I noticed that the current Merry Monday challenge is Ornaments and as I was sorting through my un posted cards I saw this and thought I would enter it.

This OLC was made by masking off the baubles with die cuts from Post its and a little extra for the hanger, then stamping a pine branch stamp with Pine Needles, Chipped Sapphire DI and good old fashioned water to give the soft effect of a Christmas tree bough. Once the ornaments were painted with more DI and well dry, they were masked with the leftover outers of the post its and embossed with various stamps and gold EP. I added a few more branches to go over the coloured baubles. Sentiment from STAMPlorations was embossed with gold EP.

Joining in over at:-

   

AG Christmas