Wild Flowers

I made another card yesterday, using a set I recently purchased from Concord & 9th - It's called Wild Flowers. It is so versatile and lots of fun to create with.

I made some masks before I began and then randomly stamped the flowers. I decided to pull out my Copic markers, which were gathering dust and I chose the colour scheme from Designer Seeds.
The sentiment is from another Concord & 9th set.I added some clear Wink of Stellar to the highlights of the daisies - I think I need to buy shares in this company!

I'm entering this in the Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge - Anything Goes.

Penny Black Love!

Hi there! I know for most people Monday is a back to work day, but I'm lucky enough to be able to stay at home and with the rest of the household out, I find myself relaxing and feeling creative! This is my guilty secret!!!

So today I was very excited to ink up my new Penny Black stamp (Unfolding), which took nearly a month to get here! I seriously am in love with this stamp!

I began by applying the distress markers to the stamp, spritzing just a little and then stamping.  I prefer to use normal card stock (this one is a natural white with a bit of fleck) over watercolour paper for this type of stamp and because it isn't very watercolour you have to be careful not to use too much water. I was using my MISTI stamping tool, so I was able to add some shading in areas and I used Zig CCRB markers for some of these highlights. I went over the highlights with my clear Wink of Stellar - a girl needs a bit of shimmer!

I don't have any Sympathy cards in stock, and hope I don't need any, but decided this was a lovely peaceful image.
The sentiment is from Altenew and was embossed with a metallic powder.

I added the stitching,  just a few neutral sequins and then matted on dark silver cardstock.

I shall enter this in the Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Anything Goes Challenge and the CAS Mix it Up Challenge - Embossing.

Tag You're It!

I'm back to share a little tag I made yesterday, inspired by the Tag You're it Challenge.

I've used a Papertrey Ink die for the tag, Memory Box die for the butterfly and an Altenew stamp for the the sentiment.

I loved making this - it's really fun mixing and matching so many elements to create a small tag!

I'm entering this in the following challenges:-
Tag You're It!
Simon Monday Challenge - Felt That.
Simon Wednesday Challenge - Fun with Felt.

Felt That!

Just popping in with a quick post.

Yesterday when I made a Stag's Head card using felt, I had the negative piece of felt left and I had a sudden inspiration to make a tag with this piece.

I've used Die-namics,  Memory Box and American Craft dies  and Papertrey Ink felt to make this tag.
I put some stiff card inside the felt to make it a bit thicker.
Let me just say, I am not a sewer - I only ever made rough dress ups for my daughter and sew on my cards occasionally, so I was very relieved that I didn't have any hiccups whilst sewing the border of the tag. If I was a confident sewer I would have sewn a border around the stag , but never mind.

I'm entering this in the Simon Monday Challenge 'Felt That'.

Originally, I was going to use the leftover paper diecut of the stag on this tag, but then I decided to use more felt, so now I have even more pieces to use up, so expect to see more stags!

Fun with Felt

Hey there and Happy Friday! Both the Simon Says Challenges have FELT as their theme this week, so I thought I'd get some of my yummy Papertrey Ink Felt out of storage and have some fun.

So many possiblilities, but in the end I decided on using a diecut and opted for one of my favourites - I think it is an American Crafts die.

My photo is a bit bright as it's sunny today and not good light inside, so I'll add more photos later.

I love this MME designer paper and the charcoal felt together - so classy. The sentiment is from Altenew, stamped with London fog ink. I may give this to my niece who recently got engaged - what do you think?

So I'm entering the Simon Monday 'Felt That' Challenge and the Simon Wednesday 'Fun with Felt' Challenge.

ETA: Im also entering the Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge - theme is Inlaid Die Cuts and the HLS Die Cutting Challenge - Anything Goes.

Embroidery Hoop Love!

I have another couple of cards to share. I ordered this set from Neat and Tangled quite a few months ago because I was smitten! I can't believe I haven't used it until now - there are just so many possibilities!

I decided to just stamp all the images for this first card and I coloured it with Zig CCRB markers .
Then for the second card I stamped the image with Memento Desert Sand ink and diecut the hoop with some sticky back wood veneer - I decided to keep the card monochromatic for a different look.

I can't wait to create lots more with this gorgeous stamp set Hand Stitched and the hoop die.
I'm entering these cards in the Little Tangles Anything goes Challenge.

Inspired by my Garden

Today it is overcast and there's a bit of a nip in the air, so maybe we have left the Indiam Summer behind us and we can light our open fire at night and curl up with a good book. Yep, I quite like Winter!

I have another floral card today - this time it's an Iris, inspired by our garden.

The Iris die is another Penny Black beauty. I diecut the flower, coloured it with Zig CCRB markers and when it was dry I swiped a versamark pad over it and clear embossed. I did this 3 times to get a thick layer.
I then stamped a Prima mini background stamp with versamark ink and embossed it with Pearl Embossing Powder.
Then I used some distress ink to colour over the stamped image - it's very difficult to make out in the photo, but it is a lovely subtle background for the flower. Next I stamped the sentiment from WPlus9 with distress ink and embossed with the pearl powder to get a soft colour.
To finish I added the twine bow and pearl coloured with copic marker.

I am entering this in the CAS Mix it Up Challenge - the theme is Heat Embossing.
I'm also entering the Simon Wednesday Challenge - Flowers and the Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge  - Anything Goes with stamping.

Casing Melissa Take 2

Yesterday I made a card for the Happy Little Stamper's Case the Designer's challenge because I was inspired by Melissa's card.  I was not 100 percent happy with my card and said I'd have another go - so here it is...

Sorry, I forgot to worn you you might need sunglasses!
I used the same Rose and Butterfly dies from Penny Black and coloured the die cut with Zig CCRB markers on canvas card stock. The sentiment is from Wplus9 (isn't it a beautiful font? ).


Here is the card I cased...

I'm also entering the Simon Wednesday Challenge - Flowers

Thanks for looking!

Casing Melissa

Hey there! 2 posts in one day and another card to be shared at a later date - I'm on a roll!!

This is a quick one because I should be making dinner.

I saw the beautiful card that Melissa of Honeybee Lane made as the CASE card for Happy Little Stampers Case the Designer Challenge and I just had to make a card myself!

Here is my card...

I used the stunning Penny Black Rose die that I just 'had to have' last year and haven't used until now!!!
The butterfly die is also from Penny Black and the background die is from Memory Box. I'm annoyed that I didn't place the rose further to the right, so I might make another card and rectify this.
The sentiment and banner die are from Concord & 9th.

Oh and here is Melissa's gorgeous card that I cased...

Thanks for the inspiration Melissa - I love the pink on black combo!

More Reflections

It's another amazing sunshiney day here in Melbourne - hard to believe that winter is only a couple of weeks away!  It feels more like spring than Autumn, so I was inspired to make this card reflecting how I feel.

Speaking of Reflections, you still have time to make a card for the Mixed Media card Challenge. This month's theme is REFLECTION and the optional element is WATER.

I used the beautiful STAMPlorations Lotus Love set (designed by Deepti Malik) and Winged Things (designed by Shirley Bampton)to create this card.
The mediums I have used are  Distress markers, Distress ink, Wink of Stellar, Silver Paint Pen, dimensional paint and embossing powder. 

You have until 25 May to join in the fun, so why don't you check out the other inspiration cards here and link up your card here.

ETA: Entering the STAMPlorations Anything Goes Challenge, the Simon Monday Challenge Emboss it and the Simon Wednesday Challenge: Flowers

Happy Mothers' Day to all of you who celebrate on this day!

I'm just sharing another card for the Mixed Media Card Challenge. The theme this month is REFLECTION and the optional element is WATER and this time I chose a more obvious translation of the theme.

The stamp of Venice is from Darkroom Door and makes me think of my travels. After much trial and error, I found the best paper to use for this type of stamp is the Tim Holtz stamping paper. I stamped the image with Ranger Archival ink and then used distress markers and Zig CCRB markers. When it was dry I added a bit of Distress crackle medium and also some Wink of Stellar to make the reflection shimmer. So this card looks veryCAS for a Mixed Media, but I have used a few different mediums to achieve the effect.

You still have plenty of time to join in the challenge, so pop on over to the Mixed Media Card Challenge blog to see what the rest of the DT have created to inspire you and then enter your card here.

Mixed Media Card Challenge #23 REFLECTION

Well can you believe it - it's the 1st of May already! 2016 is whizzing by!

Of course, a new month brings with it, the beginning of a new Mixed Media Card Challenge and this month we have a very interesting theme - 'REFLECTION', with the optional element being 'WATER'.

There are so many ways this theme could be interpreted and I've played around with a few of those ideas, but for my first card I chose to include the word in my card.  

I've had big changes in my life over the last couple of years, losing both my Parents and my 2 children coming to the end of their secondary schooling and i have spent a lot of time reflecting in order to move forward. So here is my card....

You should head on over to the Mixed Media Card Challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team have created. I hope you decide to join in the fun and link up your cards here.

ETA: I'm adding this to the Simon Monday Challenge (Show us Your METAL) - I've used metallic foil and metal brad.