STAMPlorations fun!...

Hi guys!

I am super excited to be a Guest Designer over at STAMPlorations this month!  Woohoo!  I won the Stamps and Stitches challenge over there in February, which was prize enough for me, but not only that, I am now the proud owner of some great STAMPlorations stamps AND I got the opportunity to join the super talented Design Team for the challenge this month - did someone say 'humbled'?  Oh yeh, that was me!  So a great big thank you to Shery and the DT for having me :)

Ok, so the challenge this month is;

So, the challenge is to use stamps and your favourite technique!  I think this is a pretty sweet deal and I got off quite lightly here!  ;)

For those of you who know me, you'll know my go to techniques are heat embossing, stitching and distress/emboss resist.  I have used all three on my card, along with some AWESOME stamps from my winings ;)

For this card I used STAMPlorations Vignette: Retro Mod Shapes and Vignette: Chevron & Arrows.  These sets are so versatile I can't wait to get the time to put to paper all the ideas I have floating around my head :)  I especially love the Retro Mod Shapes set as they remind me of a doodle I have done for as long as I can remember.  Whenever watching the TV or at a loose end, I have always doodled interlinking squares/rectangles of varying sizes and then coloured in the alternating squares.  That may be a little difficult to picture so if I think about it I'll post one on here one day and you'll see the full extent of my OCD/crazy!  Until then, the interlinking squares on this card should give you some idea of what my doodles look like.

I stitched the two curved lines through the squares to break up the rigidity of all those straight lines and add a sort of flow to the whole thing.  A bit of ink blending and heat embossing and I was done!  Actually, this card did take some time to make, despite first impressions - I made that square panel twice as I was happy with the first one.  Having said that, I've just seen it lying on my desk and it's not as bad today as it was when I made it so maybe it'll crop up on another card in some capacity - who knows :)

As you may notice, this card was based on last week's CAS(E) This Sketch sketch...I couldn't help myself - I loved it!  It's too late to enter it, but that's ok ;)

So there you have it, my contribution to a super talented bunch of designers - I hope I didn't let the team down!  

I hope you all pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog and get yourself involved...it's too much fun to miss and the inspiration from the team is worth the visit if nothing else :)

Thanks again to Shery for letting me be a part of this, I really appreciate it :)

Thanks for stopping by guys ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White
Stamps: STAMPlorations Vignette: Retro Mod Shapes, Vignette: Chevron & Arrows
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium; Distress Ink - Broken China
Other:    WOW! - Ebony, Opaque Pastel Purple, Earthtone Grape, Opaque Bright White Super Fine e/p;
                    coloured thread

...oops, I'm a bit late for the party!...

Hi guys!

How are you all?  I know it seems like I haven't been around for a while, but I have.  I have been trying to find time to make cards, which hasn't been too much of a problem except for Mr Mojo having gone on the missing list again; the trouble has been finding the time once my cards have been made to photograph and upload them!  This is in no small part due to the fact that my mojo has taken a nose dive and therefore the time normally allotted to making, photographing, editing and posting is now being taken up by procrastinating, procrastinating, making, procrastinating some more and then finishing a card.  This leaves no time for the getting my cards from my desk onto the world wide interweb to share with you lovely people!  I think in some cases this has been a blessing however!!  :)

One such case was this card I made for Retro Sketches 100th sketch.  It was a cool sketch and I wanted to participate in the celebration of reaching 100 challenges, that's no mean feat!  My card was completed well within the deadline but, alas, it did not make it into my camera and onto my computer in time :(  I thought I'd share it anyway though because Darnell tells me off if I don't!!  :)

and here's the sketch...

I'm not sure how I feel about this card yet...sometimes I think it looks lovely and bright and sometimes I'm sure there's something wrong with it?!  There were some seriously awesome entries for this challenge so it's not like I was a contender, I just wanted to join in :)  I did a bit of Distress Ink blending over the white embossed leaves - I love a bit of emboss resist :)  Again, there's a bit of calligraphy here, I can feel myself getting back into it and not being so lazy with it!!  I have another calligraphy based card coming tomorrow, so watch this space!!  ;)

Thanks for stopping by to see my card that didn't quite make it!  Love you all  :)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black
Stamps: Flourishes - Berry Sweet
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium; Distress Ink - Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Broken 
                  China, Crushed Olive, Victorian Velvet, Dusty Concord; Papermania - Yellow
Other:     WOW! - Bright White Opaque e/p; twine, rhinestones

Dynamic musings...

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

Viva La Verve Week 3...

[This is my second post of the day - can you believe it?!!!  :)  Scroll down to see my other VLV post] 

Well hello there!

I hope everyone is well and looking forward to a good weekend :)

I have, for the first time in I can't remember how long, have completed my Viva La Verve card on the Friday it was released!!!  I really enjoyed this sketch, it just sort of came together which makes a change lately  :)

Here is Charmaine's fabulous sketch;

...and here is my take;

...and a little close up of the flowers - check out the sparkly centres!  

I decided to go with the emboss resist for the background as I haven't done it for AGES!!!!

Thanks for stopping by ;)

Supplies

Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Lilac, Pale Turquoise, Sky Grey, Grape, Ivory Linen

Stamps: Verve - Bloom & Grow; SU! - Bliss

Ink:        VersaColor - Violet, Sky Grey; Ranger Perfect Medium; Distress Ink - Broken China, Dusty

             Concord

Other:    Verve Cut Above - Elegant Leaves; Tim Holtz - Tatetred Florals Die; WOW! Silver Pearl and 

             Clear Matt Dull e/p; Papermania Clear e/p; Pearls; Split Pins; Glitter Glue  

Sunshine!

Hello all :)

It's all a bit back to front, I know, but I am finally posting my card for Week 1 of Viva La Verve!

I have to admit, this sketch did daunt me a little bit.  It's not a layout I would usually use as there are so many layers!  It did hurt a little bit to keep piling on the layers, but I did it!

Here's the sketch;

And here's my card;

I wanted to go with pastels for this card, which is also a little out of my comfort zone.  My mojo went for a wander when I sat down to make this card, I hope it doesn't show too much?! 

I made this card when we were having the particularly horrible weather and I was indeed, wishing for sunny days!  It would seem my wish came true as we have had some absolutely glorious weather the lsat few days, however, typically as I'm typing this, it's overcast again!  Hopefully the cloud will clear and the sun will come back out for the Olympic opening ceremony this afternoon/evening - I can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by, as always.  Enjoy the ceremony this evening, apparently we're all in for a real treat :)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Lilac, Ivory Linen, Coral Pink, Grey, Sky Blue, Lime, Primrose
               Yellow
Stamps:  Verve - Sunny Days, Bloom and Grow; Waltzingmoue - Flourishes - Scallop and Dots;
               SU! - French Script
Ink:         TH Distress Ink - Milled Lavender, Wild Honey; VersaColor - Evergreen, Black, Old Rose,
               White
Other:     WOW! embossing powder - Opaque Bright White; Crafty Ribbons - Saddle Stitch ribbon in
               pastel pink and yellow; Spellbinders - Labels 18; embroidery thread; pearls

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #16 - Embossing

Hello there everybody!

I hope everyone's enjoying their Friday?!  It's nearly the weekend - woo! 
Friday means a new challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays and this week it's embossing;

I love embossing!  I think I use it on pretty much every card I make in one way or another!  After getting all excited I then couldn't think what to make at all - typical!  After sitting for a little while and having a flick through my calendar to see what events were coming up, I remembered that one of my best friends has just set her wedding date!  How exciting!  Whether she'll want me to do/help with wedding stationery, I have no idea, but I thought I'd play around with some ideas for invitations  :)

I used both types of embossing on this card - dry and heat embossing.  The challenge is to emboss - I embossed!  I stamped the image in white VersaColor ink and then embossed with white embossing powder.  I then used my blending tool to blend Broken China Distress Ink over the image in and emboss resist - I always love how that turns out, don't know if you've noticed?!!  :)
The bottom piece I embossed with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots embossing folder.  Another one of my little addictions is foam adhesive - dimension's important in CAS design I think  :)

Anyway, after making this one I was looking at my other Distress Inks and wondering what this would look like in different colours - here's what happened next....

Victorian Velvet...

Wild Honey...

Crushed Olive...

So yeh, I got a little carried away!  I think they make a sweet little set though!  :)

Thanks for dropping by and I hope to see ya again soon :)

Supplies:
Card:      White 220gsm
Stamps:  Snag 'em Stamps - To Love & Cherish; Studio G Clear Stamps - VC0012 Series 32
Ink:         Distress Inks - Broken China, Victorian Velvet, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive; VersaColor -
                      White, Cyan; ColorBox Cat's Eyes - Marigold
Others:   Rhinestones; Cuttlebug ef - Swiss Dots