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)

For a Leeds Rhino's fan

Good morning. I'm back with a card for the latest challenge at Cardz4Guyz.

This time we would love to see your masculine -

SLIMLINE CARDS

Here's my take using the MFT set Birth-Yay.

I've made it for an ex colleague's birthday who's a Leeds Rhino's fan, hence the colour choices of the balloons and the rhino!

After stamping the tower of friends, I coloured with Copics and fussy cut. I stamped another balloon from the set as well as a few more from a different set and coloured with Copics and fussy cut.

The background was made up from a scrap of NitWits DP for the sky and 3 pieces of white card cut with a couple of Heffy Doodle grass dies, which I inked with a gradient of greens, glued to a die cut stitched, slimline, white panel, then to a slimline card base.

The tower of friends was added to my background on pads and the extra balloons were glued flat.

The sentiment, from the same Birth-Yay set,  was stamped with black on a white strip and added to the card.

So where will you go? For more slimline inspiration, check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-

MFT Slimline Challenge - Birthday 

I Take My Hat Off!

Welcome all. Just taking a bit of time to join in with a few challenges out there at the moment.

After being busy with the Uniko release and DT obligations, I thought I would take the opportunity to join in some challenges that I haven't done for awhile. 

Yesterday was absolutely miserable here,  after walking Max in the afternoon my coat was awash, although he appreciated the lovely smells that were made more interesting with the rain, that he could sniff out on his journey up the lane! Anyway, after drying out in front of the range, I went into my craft room to play. 

I love it when I can combine ideas, especially when they are suggested by challenges.

So when I saw the 1/9th and favourite animal at AAA, I thought I would join in, then LIM is one word, one layer, OK I could work with that. The final piece of the jigsaw was CASology's HAT cue card.

So this is what I came up with.

Choosing a favourite animal was the hardest part, we have a dog, keep sheep and used to have a cat and even a budgie when I was small, but in the end after a trawl though my stamps I chose hamster!

I used to have a hamster called Gilbert, when I was about 11 or 12. I remember getting him from the pet shop near the market and keeping him in his cage under the TV in the lounge. I called him Gilbert after the winger in my fave footy team, Sheffield Utd, who scored a goal the day we brought him home. He was a little escapologist and I remember one day he got out when my Mum's friend Doris was visiting. She was wearing a white mohair coat that she'd put over the back of the sofa. We only realised he was out of his cage when Doris was leaving, Gilbert rolled out of his new nest as she lifted her coat to put it on, leaving a damp smelly patch and a couple of holes in the lining!! Good job she was Mum's best friend.

Anyway down to the make. I measured off my rectangle with fine pencil lines and stamped Gilbert (Anita Jeram), added the top hat freehand and drew a little scene for him to stand in.

Using Copics, I coloured the little scene, rubbing out the pencil guidelines before stamping my sentiment from Uniko. I chose Congratulations as he looks like he is raising his hat in celebration and it would suit many different occasions.

Anyway best get a wriggle on and get this done, enough reminiscing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Joining in over at:-