Hello there peeps!
And welcome to more new followers - it was a nice start to my Monday to find some more of you have joined me! ;)
I hope you all had a good weekend?! Mine went from having no plans to being jam-packed full!! I had a wee bit of a headache on Saturday (it was ENORMOUS!), so suffice to say that the impromptu night out on Friday was enjoyable ;) Sunday was then filled with laughter and the company of good friends...friends who were responsible for my fragility the previous day I might add! I also saw my friends' little boy who is just the most gorgeous 3 year old you have ever seen, and he's so polite...I am going to convince him to live with me one day! Too cute!
Anyway, back to business!
I have recently had an influx of commissions - when I say influx, it's not on the scale of Carol's Valentine-A-Thon, but a lot for me considering I only get requests from my Mum usually! So, I am having to be a bit proactive rather than leave cards to the last minute like I normally do!! I think I must have an issue as I only seem to be able to produce under pressure when there's no time for procrastination!?
Today's card is a Mother's Day card...here in the UK it falls on 30th March so I thought I'd get a head start by using the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch. It's quite a detailed one for the CTS team this time around and I have to admit to not straying from it in the slightest! That's a rarity for me as you well know...I don't like playing by the rules ;)
This is for my friends' Mum and I know that she likes purple...guess what I went with?!...
It's not often I go for landscape card...I much prefer a portrait orientation, I'm not sure why?! Maybe it's because I'm short!! ;)
That's a pretty literal interpretation, eh?!! I heat embossed the pots/vases in WOW! Grape embossing powder and cut them out with my trusty scissors...they could do with a sharpen actually... Then I stamped the snowdrops in black and attacked them with a few watercolour pencils! I do realise that snowdrops are meant to be white, but they looked a bit bland so I coloured them in! I think it's called artistic license?! The sentiment is hand written, as I can see is glaringly obvious now that I'm looking at it in the photograph...maybe should've let myself wake up a bit more before I attempted the writing - might change that later if it's imperfections continue to bug me!
This is another card that I'm not quite sure about...hmmm...maybe another grower?!
I'm also hoping that this counts as a floral for The Card Concept's challenge...you got it, the theme is floral! There are lickle flowers on the pots/vases and obviously the dyed snowdrops are flowers too! I'm not sure what style this is...I would hazard a guess that it would come under Clean and Layered as there's a crap-load of foam adhesive hiding under there!! I do not know what I'd do without foam adhesive...I'd never be able to make another card again I don't think!!? ;)
How pretty is that picture?! I'll definitely be back for another stab at this one!
ETA: Thank you Ardyth for pointing out that my card is very similar to the Muse inspiration this week too! It's even purple! I'll be popping this in over there too ;)
Thank you for stopping by guys, I hope this week treats you all well ;)
Supplies
Card: Paper Mill Direct - White, Grape, Lilac
Stamps: Clear Impressions - Wild & Free, Cherry Blossom
Ink: Ranger - Perfect Medium; Windsor & Newton - Violet
Other: WOW! - Grape e/p; rhinestones; watercolour pencils
Hey!
How is everyone today? I don't know about you, but I think this week has absolutely FLOWN by! I mean, it's Thursday already! How on earth did that happen?!
I made a card last night, when I was supposed to be cooking dinner, for the Muse challenge and also for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.
This is an example of what I was talking about the other day...a card that you think is going to be awesome (or at least has the potential to be) and then when you've actually finished making it, well, not so much... This could be a grower and I don't think it's as bad as I think it is (if you know what I mean?!) but more that it didn't end up exactly the way I planned...I dunno...?
Anyway, here it is...
A bit of a fail here on the mirror card photography - apologies people! I STILL only have one light source...I am working on it! For such a 'simple' card, I can tell you that this bad boy has taken the best part of two hours. Yep, you read that right...two hours! Now you're all thinking that I am a little bit simple myself...I hear ya! So do I! Ha ha! That little star, that TINY little star is what caused the bulk of the aggravation. I can't even tell you why, but it took me an age to get it to the size I wanted and the perfect shape. It really didn't need to be so difficult, especially as I did exactly the same thing the last time as I did the first time and all the other times in between to draw the star shape?! Pleeease, how does that make any sense?! I am now on first name terms with my protractor and there are lots of pieces of paper currently residing on my desk that have a variety of sizes of stars drawn on them!
Throughout the whole ordeal, I had a song going round in my head...it was the song 'Ex-Factor' by Lauryn Hill and the opening lyrics are... "It could all be so simple, but you'd rather make it hard"!!! See?! Sorry about that little tangent there! (Showing my age now with my music taste!)
Here's the little sausage in all his glory...finally!!
What you can't really see in the photograph either is that the black panel with the star and sentiment on is popped up from the gold and black base. I thought that the 'daisy' style die cut looked kinda like little stars too, hence he got a place on this card ;)
Here is the Muse card from Marion Vagg that my card was based on...
I did try to stamp my sentiment vertically, as I have done many times before, but I just CANNOT do it! I can't...I actually start sweating! I love how Marion's card has the vertical sentiment, but I just can't do it myself - d'oh!
The little menace of a star means this is another entry for CAS-ual Fridays - whoop whoop! Yes I know, another CAS-ual Fridays entry...the inspiration really, well, inspired me this time round and who am I to ignore it! ;)
Thank you to all those who have taken the time to read this whole post...I probably should've placed a warning at the top of it! I really hold no grudges against anyone who just scrolled to the pictures, I don't blame you in the slightest! Just thank you all for stopping by ;)
Supplies
Card: Paper Mill Direct - Black; Create & Craft - Gold Mirror Card
Stamps: Verve - Glad Tidings
Ink: Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other: Spellbinders - Classic Decorative Inserts Three; WOW! - Metallic Rich Gold e/p; gold thread
Morning!
I am here today with my interpretation of the GORGEOUS card over at Muse, by the lovely Karen! Her card is so beautiful...it's really feminine without a drop of pink in sight! ;)
First up, here's my card...
This card just kinda came into being! Now, I realise that sounds a little bit silly, but it's true. I knew I wanted to CASE the blue/purple panel from Karen's card, but I didn't want it to look like an exact replica which would've been an easy trap to fall into because where do you go from a card that great?! :) I had a piece of vellum floating around on my desk and I was having a bit of a tidy (situation normal! My desk should be super clean the amount of time I spend clearing it!) Anyway, I was looking at the vellum and wondering whether you'd be able to see colours through it if I blended a background? Luckily it worked and here we are! I am trying to get a wriggle on with my Christmas cards so that was the obvious direction for this card. I embossed the snowflakes in silver, white and silver pearl to emulate the colours Karen used for her Dandelions.
I also used some NBUS on this card! Yesterday I received a parcel, a very small parcel I might add, in the post. Where I live there are two art shops, that is all. They're not very big shops, more like little family run places and I love them, but they don't stock a great deal and so sometimes I have to resort to online shopping. Ok, so it's not that much of a chore (!) but I do prefer to keep the small high streets shops in business - it's my little contribution to social, local and economical sustainability :) Anyway, I had to order some double sided tape from an online shop and I noticed this cute little stamp set out of the corner of my eye. (ok, I was looking!) It's Bo Bunny's Sentiment Stamps and it's perfect! It has a sentiment for every occasion in one little set! It just jumped into my basket and ended up in my parcel! He he! :) I even waited for my delivery to arrive before I finished this card because I wanted to use this Christmas sentiment! So this NBUS is seriously new!! :)
Without further ado, here is Karen's lovely Muse card...
...see, told you it was purdy!! :)
Thank you for stopping by guys ;)
Supplies
Card: Paper Mill Direct - White; Vellum
Stamps: Wild Rose Studios - Snowflakes; Bo Bunny - Sentiment Stamps
Ink: Versamark - Champagne Dazzle
Other: WOW! - Ebony, Silver Super Fine, Bright White Opaque, Silver Pearl e/p; rhinestones
Hey!
Today I'm here with a card I have made for my Mum to give to a colleague of hers who is retiring in a few weeks. Hopefully she'll like this one first time round, unlike the last one she had me make - twice! Love her ;) (Good job I do! Of course :))
I used this weeks Muse card by Marion Vagg as my inspiration and this is what I came up with...
I think this is probably the busiest card I've made in a long while! I was inspired by the tag and the flower of Marion's card and it just sort of grew from there. I wanted to make a patterned background like Marion did so the emboss resist came out :) The background was embossed using WOW's Clear Hologram embossing powder which gives it a lovely purple/blue sparkle in real life...I don't know if you can see it in the picture below?
Here is Marion's card...
I hope that Mum likes this card, and her friend of course...but let's be honest, we all want our Mum's to be proud above all ;)
Thank you for stopping by! ;)
Supplies
Card: Paper Mill Direct - White, Daffodil
Stamps: Papermania - Cornfield, Pot Pourri; Glitz - Coutur Distressed Flower;
Ink: Distress Ink - Broken China, Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade; VersaColor - Green; Windsor &
Newton Writing Ink - Black
Other: WOW! - Clear Hologram e/p; Crafty Ribbons - Pumpkin seam binding; luggage tag
Hello there!
I'm here today with a belated post for 'my' Grandson's birthday. His birthday was on Tuesday and I had the card ready and made on time, don't worry, just not posted on here! He turned four this week and I hope very much that he had a fabulous day! We haven't seen him for three years now :( and we miss him lots...hopefully we will see him again soon :)
I used Marion's card over at Muse for inspiration for my card...
I used Marion's layout combination of a few bold horizontal stripes with the main image popping up perpendicular to the stripes. As beautiful as Marion's card is, I had to make it a little more suitable for a small boy!!
This card came together fairly quickly which was a bonus! I hope little Marshall liked it ;)
Thanks for stopping by ;)
Supplies
Card: Paper Mill Direct - White, Bright Red, Daffodil, Ocean Blue
Stamps: Papermania - Celebration
Ink: Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other: Crafty Ribbons - assorted ribbons; WOW! - Ebony e/p; jewellery wire; white pencil
Hello guys and girls!
Tomorrow is my cousin's son's birthday and I made him a card based on this week's Muse challenge. This week the Muse guest designer is Lynn Mangan. If you don't know Lynn already (which I'm pretty sure everyone does!) then you need to get yourself over to her blog - she's just amazing!
Being as I had to come up with a card for a boy, I was so pleased when I saw Lynn's muse card...it was perfect!!
Here it is...
..and here's my card...
As you can see, I kept it pretty much true to Lynn's original, I just swapped out the flowers for balloons - I don't think a 9 year old boy would appreciate the flowers somehow!!? ;) I love the 'Polaroid' frame look!
I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with for this challenge, it's very much open to interpretation and I bet there'll be some really out-of-the-box corkers for this one :)
I hope Charlie has a fantastic day :)
Thank you for stopping by guys ;)
Supplies
Card: Paper Mill Direct - White, Navy, Bright Red, Sky Blue, Daffodil, Citrus Orange, Apple Green
Stamps: Stamping All Day - Art Deco Birthday
Ink: Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other: WOW! - Opaque Pastel Blue e/p; jewellery wire; white pencil
Hey guys!
How are you all diddling? I have been without internet access since before the weekend and I am glad to be back online! It's amazing how much you can miss it isn't it?! I don't know what we ever did before it was widely available to all, I really don't! (I did manage to sneak in a few minutes to vote over at Muse though, he he!)
We spent a lovely weekend with the in-laws, it was so nice to see them ;) I am lucky, I have possibly the best in-laws ever! I hope you all enjoyed your weekends too :)
Ok, back to the job in hand - cards! This card is a mix of the colours from Dynamic Duos this week and the fabulous inspiration card over at Muse. Both of which are just sublime. How I was inspired by Muse is possibly slightly more tenuous this week than last, but it's there, I promise!
I love Marion's work - it is always amazing! As this card is along the same sort of lines as Therese's card, I didn't just want to end up making something which was similar to my last entry so I decided to go with the technique Marion used. I used to do it a lot, but it's been a while since I've used white embossing and then Distress Inks to create a background...so that's what I did!
Although blue and orange are complimentary colours (and, now I think about it, my Dad's favourites) I never think to use them together!? I think they look really bright and summery! I decided to stick with the flower theme of Marion's card. I'm pleased with how this turned out ;)
Well, this card is pretty self explanatory so you don't need me waffling on any more!
Thanks for dropping by ;)
Supplies
Card: Paper Mill Direct - White, Black
Stamps: Verve - Sunny Days; Stamping All Day - Art Deco Happy Birthday
Ink: Ranger - Perfect Medium, Distress Ink - Broken China, Spiced Marmalade
Other: WOW! Opaque Bright White Super Fine and Ebony e/p; rhinestones
Hi guys!
I have FINALLY pulled my finger out and joined in with the new(ish) Muse challenge! I always love a new challenge, and this one is a little bit different - the participants choose the winners! I mean, how did no one think of that before?! You are judge by a panel of your peers - perfect!
Anyways, on to the inspiration. This is the fabulous card by this weeks' muse Therese;
I have followed Therese's blog for a while now and she just creates show stopper after show stopper! It's quite unfair really! ;) Actually, all of the muses on the panel are designer crushes of mine - this is partly why I haven't been brave enough to have a go myself until today!
Before I get to the card, I would like to thank Therese for inspiring me to get back to 'my roots'. When I was young (around 9/10 I think?!) I lived next door to a fabulous woman who was the most outstanding artist I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Since I can remember, I have always had a pencil in my hand and if I wasn't drawing then I was learning a new Calligraphy alphabet/technique...you get the picture... One day, I was in my neighbours house and I was looking at all her artwork that she had on the walls and I realised that she had done every single painting and incorporated calligraphy into many of them. Half jokingly, I asked her if she'd mind teaching me how to paint in watercolours, to which she said yes! So, from then on, every Saturday afternoon from 2:30 until 5:00 I would go over to her house and we would paint! Even when we both moved we still kept up the tradition until I left to go to University when I was nearly 19 :) In fact, those sessions were my 'in' to card making! I used to paint small watercolour scenes and use them for Christmas cards and special birthdays. As life got busier, I didn't have the time to sit for hours painting, so I started making the kind of cards I make now :) I do miss our afternoons and I really miss painting too.
Anyway, slight tangent and random history lesson there, but seeing Therese's card made me think that I needed to grab my watercolour pencils (cheating - I know!!) and 'paint' these roses! So that's what I did...and I LOVED every minute of it!!!! It turned out much better than I was expecting it to if I'm honest! I've never had much faith in watercolour pencils, I'm a bit of a traditionalist I suppose, but they worked really well :) Needless to say, I'm looking for more things to paint now! I may even be tempted back in drawing too - we'll see ;)
Right, enough rambling, here's my card! That's what we're all here for after all!
So there you go, my little bit of nostalgia in a card :) I really enjoyed it, so for once, it doesn't matter if no one else likes it! Ha ha! You all know what I mean ;)
Thank you for stopping by ;)
Supplies
Card: Paper Mill Direct - White, Grape
Stamps: Kanban - Roses; Waltzingmouse - Big Day Essentials
Ink: SU! - Black; Ranger - Perfect Medium
Other: Daler Rowney watercolour pencils; WOW! - Ebony e/p
