Anything goes...

Hello my lovelies!

I don't know if it's the same for you, but all of my friends seem to have birthdays in September/October/November - myself included - which means I should be ready for it each year, but invariably I'm not!  So I've been busy making birthday cards galore!!  This, at a time when I should be making a large dent in the Christmas card making list - oh well!

Here is one of the cards I've made recently;

It's a super simple card, but I quite like it!  A bit of emboss resist and a rainbow, loads of white space and a slightly sparkly sentiment - job done!

I have a leftover strip of the honeycomb rainbow - I'll have to put that to good use on something else soon :)

I did make this card for two challenges - one being STAMPlorations - Anything Goes, and the other was CAS(E)This Sketch #98, but as per usual, I missed the deadline!  The card was made, I just did not get the time for the photographs, posting etc...!  I enjoyed making it though, which is the whole reason we do this, right?!

This is just a short post today, maybe I'll get a chance to play along AND post some cards for challenges that are still live!!

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend guys, thanks as always for taking the time to stop by ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct- White Super Smooth
Stamps:  WOW! - Sexi-Hexi; STAMPlorations - Celebrate
Ink:         VersaMark; Papermania - Red, Yellow; Distress Ink - Wild Honey, Broken China, Dusty
                     Concord; VersaColor - Green, Old Rose
Other:     WOW! - Black Glint Embossing Glitter, Bright White Opaque Super Fine Embossing Powder 

Alternative Christmas colours...

Hello boys and girls!

The bonus of having some time off is that I'm not rushing around quite as much as usual - still plenty to do though!  But, it means I have had time to blog the cards that I have made.  Do you find that you manage to scrape together enough time to make a card, but the time to take the photographs, edit them, upload them and attempt to write something witty in a post is just a feat to far?!  That's where I'm at!

Enough yabbering - the card!

I made this card for the STAMPlorations bi-weekly sketch #21 - they're now on sketch #22...maybe I'll catch up at some point?!!  The card does, however, still qualify for the STAMPlorations monthly challenge - I had an inkling that I would miss the sketch deadline so I made sure it was OK for both challenges!!  ;)  The monthly challenge is Stamps & Embossing' - it was like it was made for me!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE embossing!  ;)

Here's the card...

I wish I had noticed before...but I seem to have taken this photograph at a funny angle which makes the grey panel look awfully askew - I promise you it isn't!  I wouldn't be able to sleep if it was even slightly out, trust me on that one - I am Queen OCD when it comes to stuff like that!

Anyway, glossing over that - here's my card.  I am loving the combination of pink, silver, sparkle and grey for a Christmas card...I never thought I'd say that.  I think this may be a theme for this year...?  Don't quote me on it though!  The snowflakes are stamped in a combination of WOW! Metallic Silver Super Fine and WOW! Sparkling Snow which is a white embossing powder with a really fine and beautiful glitter in - it's subtle and gorgeous!  I was proud that I was able to use my STAMPlorations 'Celebrate' stamp for something other than a birthday card...let's face it, Christmas is a time for celebration!

There is a smidgen of dry embossing too - I don't know how well you can see it in the photograph but I used my scoreboard to emboss some lines along the bottom of the grey panel.  I only very recently acquired my scoreboard, I will have to take some time to explore the line embossing possibilities!  Wow, I sound really exciting don't I!!?  Ha ha!  :)

Thanks for stopping by, I'm hoping to get a few more posts underway over the next week ;)

I have also just remembered that this card would also qualify for STAMPloration's 'Anything Goes' challenge - whoop whoop!  In it goes :)

Supplies

Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White Super Smooth, Dark Grey, Raspberry Pink

Stamps: STAMPlorations - Celebrate; DoCrafts - Bellissima Christmas

Ink:        Versamark

Other:    WOW! - Metallic Silver Super Fine, Sparkling Snow, Fluorescent Tickled Pink e/p

STAMPlorations bonanza!

Hello, hello!

I was going to start, as usual lately, with an apology for my absence - but that's getting tired, I know!  I have come to terms with the fact that I will make cards and post them as and when I can for the foreseeable future :)

I am here today with a card I made for both of the challenges currently going on over at the STAMPlorations blog.  This is for the monthly challenge which is to use Stamps and Glitter, and the bi-weekly challenge which is a sketch challenge.

I'm also entering this card into the challenge at Addicted to CAS where the code word is 'Celebrate'.

Here's my card...

I wasn't exactly sure where this card was going until I got started - it turned out better than I expected for a change!!  :)  I used my new STAMPlorations stamps that arrived on Friday - I love happy mail!!  This set is Sentiment Builders - Celebrate - it's too versatile, I love it!

I used WOW!'s Sparkling Snow embossing glitter for the sentiment and Glitz It Sparkles on the exclamation marks in the border.  I haven't really been able to capture the glitter in my photographs, but I gave it a go!

My mojo has waned somewhat over the last few months - but I am hoping that it will make a come back soon, and with a vengeance - I am definitely ready to be more creative than I have been of late!  :) 

Here are the STAMPlorations challenges...

And the Addicted to CAS challenge...

Thanks so much for stopping by, I really appreciate it, especially as I am being super rubbish at visiting you all in return :(  Both of my jobs have been crazy busy lately so I'm glad I got a chance to sit at my desk and do something relaxing rather than working!

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Dark Grey
Stamps: STAMPlorations - Sentiment Builders: Celebrate; Stamping All Day - Distressing Stamp: Stain 
Ink:        Distress Ink - Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade; VersaColor - Sky Grey, White; SU! - Classic
                     Black; Papermania - Yellow
Other:    WOW! Sparkling Snow embossing glitter; Glitz It - Sparkles; sequins

Bubble border...

Hello, hello!

It's Monday - the weekend seems like a lifetime away already and we're well and truly into the week already...I hope it was ok for you!?  

I'm here today with a card I made over the weekend.  This card is for STAMPlorations June challenge - Stamps and Borders.  Yes, only I could enter a card for a MONTH long challenge in the last 11 HOURS and 31 MINUTES!!  

I really enjoyed making this card!  Here it is...

I know I might be pushing it a little bit with the term 'border', but the circles do only go down one edge so I think it counts!  I like how bright and fun this card turned out :)

Right...I'd better get over to STAMPlorations to get this bad boy entered before I miss the deadline with all my chattering!  

Thanks so much for stopping by...I promise I will find some time soon to visit you all!!  ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White
Stamps: STAMPlorations - Retro Mod Shapes; Paper Smooches - Chit Chat
Ink:        Papermania - Red, Yellow; Distress Ink - Spiced Marmalade; VersaColor - Cyan, Green, Voilet,
                  Lavender; SU! - Classic Black
Other:    Watercolour pencils

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

Starburst!...

Hello!

No, I'm not talking about the tasty sweets...my card is a rainbow starburst!!  

I'll be honest, I'm not sure about this card yet.  When I started I thought it was going to look 'awesome'...of course I did, why would I bother making it otherwise?!  Well, I'm not sure awesome is the right word for it now, more 'hmmm, maybe?!'  I'll leave it up to you to make up your own minds...

This card was inspired by the sketch challenge at STAMPlorations.  I was a little bit liberal with the sketch, I turned it on its side and extended the starburst all the way round rather than the controlled rays of the sketch...I hope it still counts!!

So, here's the card...

I got this lotus flower stamp (set!) yesterday (sshhhh, don't tell him!!  I don't think he can hear me from here?!  He he!) and I couldn't wait to use it!!  Isn't it pretty?!!  I'm sure there are much better applications for it than this, but it's a start!  ;)

It took a little while to work out where I wanted my 'rays' to go and I made little template using tracing paper to make sure the lines fell between the lotus petals.  Once I'd cut them all out though it didn't take long to stick them all down and then heat emboss the lotus flower on top.  A few rhinestones later (thank you to my lovely sister for the sparkly Christmas present - my family know me too well!) and I was done!

Here's the sketch...

As you can see, I also omitted the sentiment part too...it wasn't going to fit anywhere without ruining it so I left it out  :)  Thank you to Cornelia for pointing me in the direction of STAMPlorations - I hadn't come across this fabulous blog before!  Another one to add to the list...I'm never going to keep up with all the challenges I want to partake in!!!  ;)


ETA:  Thank you to Carol for pointing out that my little card would also be eligible for A Blog Named Hero's Roy G. Biv challenge - woohoo!  (I did have a look at the Just Us Girls challenge, however that was to choose three colours and a neutral - I have used a few more than that!!)

Thank you, as always guys, for stopping by my little blog...I hope you know I appreciate it ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Bright Red, Citrus Orange, Daffodil Yellow, Spring Green, 
                       Ocean Blue, Grape, Lilac
Stamps: Clear Impressions - Cherry Blossom
Ink:        VersaColor - Black
Other:    WOW! - Ebony e/p; rhinestones

Baubles!...

Hi guys!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!!  I hope you all have some wonderful plans for this evening - whether that be spending time with those you love or sitting with a glass of wine and a box of chocolates at your desk getting your craft on!!  ;)

It's nearly the weekend - whoop!  My brother and his partner are coming to visit for belated birthday celebrations - it was my brother's birthday yesterday.  Yep, he was nearly a little baby cupid, but instead was born on Friday 13th - you can't win 'em all!  ;)

Today I made a card for the Festive Friday challenge and CAS(E) This Sketch.  I thought it only fitting as the sketch had a Christmas theme to go with it :)  I missed the first Festive Friday challenge of the year, but I am aiming to participate in the rest of them...I could do without the December card rush and it'll keep the spirit of Christmas alive all year long :)  The inspiration image for this fortnight is GORGEOUS!!

Ok, less blathering, more pictures...

I got my needle and thread (and patience!) out again for this one.  I used the Spellbinders Labels 24 dies to get the nice round shape to these baubles by cutting the 'corners' off and sticking two of them together to make this shape.  Not a very good explanation that is it, but I can't think of another way to describe it!?  

Do you see what I'm getting at?!

Those little red rhinestones were a Christmas present from my sister and it's the first time I've used them - they're gorgeous!  Super sparkly, which is what Christmas is all about as!  ;)

Here's the CAS(E) This Sketch sketch...

...and the Festive Friday inspiration...

I really enjoyed making this card as for the first time for a while, it actually went right!!  And it went right first time too which makes a nice change...I love it when a plan comes together!  Hopefully this shall continue :)

ETA:  I have also been made aware of this fabulous challenge over at STAMPlorations - Stamps and Stitches so I am going to enter this card over there too - thanks for the heads up!!  ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Bright Red
Stamps: Penny Black - Crystalline
Ink:        VersaColor - Silver
Other:    WOW! - Silver Super Fine e/p; thread, rhinestones