Muse Christmas

Morning all.

It's been a pretty hectic few days chez Beech. We hosted our Grandson's 7th birthday complete with  Marvel superhero bouncy castle and assorted friends and family. Luckily the weather was kind after a shaky start. The rain cleared by 10:30am and the first guests arrived just after 11. My Grandson's face was a picture when he saw what was in the garden, he missed the guy coming to erect it completely!

Anyway I managed to make a card for this weeks new challenge at Cardz4Guyz where our theme this week is -

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Here is my inspiration card.

There are two ways to go with masculine Christmas cards, funny or traditional, I think. So I went trad with this fab Uniko poinsettia. The name always reminds me of an old school friend who called then pointsetters, visions of bright red gun dogs!

The main inspiration was the gorgeous card over at Muse by Jessica Frost-Ballass. I stamped the large flower head onto a plain white card base then embossed with Gold EP and then again on some scrap so that I could decoupage the center and pop it up on pads. The flower was then masked and some foliage added and embossed to match. I used my Zig pens to colour and used the faux metal technique on a die cut celebrate from STAMPlorations. A small greeting strip stamped in black from the same set as the poinsettia completes. 

For more inspiration just pop over to the main blog.

Joining in over at:-

     

        Anything Goes                               Anything with Flowers

CASeing Jennifer McGuire

Good evening.

Welcome to a post to announce the start of a brand new challenge over at HLS Anything Goes with Dies.

As always, as it states in the title any project that uses dies is eligible, so for my card I decided to try a technique I saw on You Tube by Jennifer McGuire. I'm not sure where she gets all her ideas from but they are always fun!

Sorry the photo looks a little bleached out but the sun was so strong when I needed to take a pic!

Instead of cutting with the dies this technique uses them to emboss!

I wont go into explanations here because Jennifer does it so much better here.

I have to say that she makes it look so easy but this was my third attempt. The first cut through the background paper, I used W/C paper that had been coloured with Brusho and the second was a little messy, too vigorous with the Versamark inking!

The background card is a shimmery textured pale blue and the embossed areas were done in white.

The large dies are from Sweet Dixie and the smallest embossed one is from IO, the tiniest ones are punched from white card and vellum with a Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment from Uniko was stamped in the same white EP as the snowflakes and to finish I used some Inka Gold platinum wax mixed in water to paint over a few bits of the snowflakes which sadly don't show up on this photo as the sun has bleached out the contrast.

Please check out the rest of the team here and why not join in, we'd love it if you did.

I'd like to join in over at -




N for new, O for old
Old dies and card and a new technique and greeting stamp


No option for me

Happy Anniversary

Good afternoon folks.

I've managed to tear myself away from the TV and the Wimbledon coverage, lounger on patio and TV turned so I can see and hear from my seat through the open French windows, to make a card to announce the latest challenge over at STAMPlorations.

As you can see I also made use of the fabulous weather to take an alfresco photo.
I used the brand new sketch

but you could go with the theme and then there's always a mixture of the two!

I was inspired by the challenge over at Less is More where they want you to use the colours of your flag. Mine is red and white, the Cross of St George for England, so red roses and white background for me.
I started by cutting 3 of the rose die from the Trendy Spring Blooms Die in bright red card but not allowing the little bits to fall out before attaching double sided tape to the back to secure. Then using a darker slightly shimmery red card, I cut 3 more but pushed all the bits out! I then glued the darker outline over the more solid red one. The roses were then arranged on a white card base on which I had stamped the bar stamp from the Mixed Media Grunge set in red and the sentiment using HAPPY from the Balloons and Banners set and a mag freebie. A couple of white outline leaves completed the design.

Check out the rest of the team here and why not join in? All the usual Ts and Cs are there as well.

Joining in over at -

   
                                                       Flowers
                                                

Alphabet

Morning all.

The sun is out today and it's threatening to be another scorcher.

My hubby has been out on the tractor helping a friend bring in the haym love that smell, even in winter when I pass the hay bay on a sunny day that gorgeous aroma takes me back to sunny summer days.

I even managed to take a photo of my card for the new Alphabet Challenge Blog theme outside, the shadows were too strong from my usual spot on the window sill! 

This time it is

I for INSECTS

So butterflies, dragon and damselflies, bees, wasps etc. I went with dragonflies with mine. I even saw one the other day buzzing the top of my wild flower area, a sign that summer is really here.

I used a w/c resist technique, stamping these daint ones from STAMPlorations and embossing with white EP then sprinkling on some turquoise and purple Brusho. A spritz with water and sit back and let the magic begin. Once dry, I trimmed the panel of MM paper down to size and added a frame that was left over from an other project on pads. The sentiment was stamped in black on a scrap and attached under the edge.
I usually make lots of teacher thanks cards for my daughter to give to the TA's at work at this time of year but I'm not sure if she will need them this time as she has been off sick with hip problems related to her pregnancy. Still its there if she needs it.
Please check out the rest of the team here and why not join us.

I'm joining in over at -

   

Never hide your wings

Good morning and welcoe to a post to announce the brand new challenge over at Cardz4Galz.

This time our theme is

BUTTERFLIES

Here is my inspiration card.

I made this for my daughter's birthday, she loves butterflies and blue with a touch of silver.
When she opened her card and showed it to my Grandson he said it was very pretty and Nannee was clever. Bless the little man, who is shortly to be celebrating his 7th birthday.
To start I made a panel on some M pare with Brusho which I sprinkled and then spritzed with water.
When dry I cut the solid butterflies from this and added white filigree ones over the top and arranged them on a die cut panel of white card. One of the solid butterflies, I cut from matching white card and placed it front and center so I could stamp the STAMPlorations sentiments over it. The butterfly bodies were cut from silver mirror card and trimmed down to suit my design. Inside is a simple happy birthday message. The finished panel was monted on silver and a plain white base card.
For more flutterby inspiration check out the rest of the team here and why not join in.

Joining in over at -

     
                                                        Layers

White on White Christmas

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

Here's my inspiration for you, can you guess the theme this week?

This week we are looking for projects that are -

Here are few quick pointers to the rules of CAS if you were wondering.

- one main focal point
- lots of open (no pattern) space
- minimal layers
- minimal embellishments

For my card I went with a Christmas theme inspired by the sketch at CAS(E) the Sketch and Addicted to CAS.

Quite simple to produce once I'd planned where to cut my top panel and got my die the right way around!

To start I took a panel of white card and cut my curves to roughly match the sketch then using another plate die, I cut the snowflakes and placed them under the two parts of the cut panel. The greeting was die cut in white then black to give a slight shadow line. The top panel was then popped up on pads.

For for fab CAS inspiration check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at -

     

Cardz4Guyz

Good morning all.
We've got a brand new challenge for you over at Cardz4Guyz. This time our theme is -

BY THE SEA

Just what we needed a fortnight ago when the temperatures here were rocketing. They are much more tolerable today and with Wimbledon into it's second day hopefully it will stay dry.

For my inspiration I went for a bit of a mixed media scene.

I used a few different stamps and diecuts for this. To start I die cut a seagull from my card panel with an IO die removed it and then masked off the top half of my card with a Post it and stamped my SU Woodgrain stamp across the middle of the panel using Salty Ocean DI. Without removing the mask I inked in the sea with a mixture of the Salty Ocean and some Evergreen Bough DI, the woodgrain leaves a subtle texture which suggests ripples on the sea. I'd seen the idea here a while ago and thought it worked really well. I added some white gell pen and a few of the SU Wetlands wading birds in 2nd generation Memento Tuxedo Black. The sand was created by stamping a texture stamp from STAMplorations in Memento Toffee Crunch and Desert Sand before the foliage was stamped using the same Wetlands set as well as a grass stamp that came free with a mag in a mixture of Memento Bamboo Leaves and Pistachio.
Replacing the mask but this time covering the bottom half of the card, I inked in the sky with Tumbled Glass DI. The greeting also a freebie was stamped and embossed in black and the die cut frame added. Two more seagulls were cut and edged with Weathered Wood DI and some detail simply added with an ordinary pencil. The inlaid gull was put back in the space after edging with the same Weathered Wood, the smallest to create depth was added inside the frame and the largest looking as though it was flying out of the frame. I then mounted the completed panel onto a white base card.
For more beside the sea inspiration, check out the rest of the team here.

I'd like to join in over at :-


Just the sketch this time, on it's head!