Flowers, Stripes and Lace

Strips of black laid on white card stock really contrasts beautifully with this pretty rose (Old Country Roses WMS).  

I was lucky enough to have  in my stash a strip of lace which matched the Tattered Rose DI perfectly.

I finished off with a very simple "Thinking of You" Sentiment,  making this card perfect for any occasion!

Twofer Lions

I wasn't sure I would make the deadline for Twofer Challenge #15, you know one of those days when NOTHING goes the way you expect!  What with underestimating the size of this old die cut, over-inking and smudging, but the final straw was when I mislaid my last pair of glasses.  One day you're tripping over them (I try to keep lots of spare pairs lying around) and then you're down to your last pair and then whoosh - they're gone too!  I decided to drive up to the local Action store and buy a few cheap pairs!  As I was driving the sun came out from behind a cloud and I emptied out the contents of my handbag onto the passenger seat to find my sunglasses - what should also fall out but a pair of glasses (my prescription ones too)!  I know I had looked there but those sneaky things gremlins must have put them in there when I had my back turned!

Anyway I finished the cards (sort of). Here's the first.  I had to replace his face after I smudged it badly (which is why it's a different colour, shhh don't tell anyone) and I'm not 100% happy with the speech bubble but at least it's finished.  I used snippets of suede card stock I've been hoarding on their manes.  

Here's the second.  I was happier with this one (I didn't smudge him and preferred the lighter blue background).  The sign was a bit of a challenge - the die I wanted to use was way too big!  So I ended up doing some selective die cutting.   

Doesn't he just look like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth?   Don't be fooled!  Did you notice how he scratched out the "DO NOT" on that sign?  I haven't finished the inside of this card yet, but it will be something similar to this one I made a few years ago. 

 Previously I used an oval die for the mouth and a grass die for the teeth, but I have a much bigger selection of dies these days so we'll see!  Last time I made this card everyone had a good chuckle (well those who understood English anyway).  I hope it will go down well at an Art and craft festival at which I'm exhibiting next month. 

I'm also entering my cards in the following challenges

CASology Week 340 - cue card is Africa
Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies April Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave some feedback.  I can't tell you how much I enjoy reading your lovely words!

Kate

Spin the Bottle

I recently saw on Pinterest where someone had made a Heineken bottle using the MFT Soda Bottles die set and I thought I'd try making some cards with some Luxembourgish beer labels.  I also thought it would be fun to make the bottle spin.  The Kraft card stock I used was quite thin so it took 6 stacked die cuts to get this right.  The bottom die cut had a small hole for the brad prongs to go through.  I used a small punch to make holes in the next three layers large enough to clear the brad head so that the top layer sat atop the brad head and used some Gathered Twigs Distress Ink to add some depth to the finished bottle.  I cut my computer generated label with the appropriate labels die from the Soda Bottles set and coated it with Glossy Accents.  I then mounted my beer bottle brad on a checked "tablecloth" cut with Crealies Stitched Squares and Scalloped Squares.

Using the MFT Bottlecaps Die set, I cut some corked bottle caps and spelt out PROST using the MFT Bottlecap Letters set.  The brick wall was embossed using an embossing folder I picked up at Action.

Closeup of cork bottle, bottle caps and brick wall

There are a couple of challenges I'm entering my card in

Cardz4Guys Challenge 217 - Fun and Games

Inkspirational Challenge  184 - Pop It Up

Happy Little Stampers April Anything Goes with Dies

and Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #350

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave some feedback.  Your kind words will make my day!

Kate 

Purple Smile

I made up some card fronts in gold and cream a few weeks ago and I thought I'd use one to make up another card featuring this lovely Impression Obsession Smile sentiment.  I used a different flower from the WMS Simple Sprig set and the colour purple this time.  Unfortunately my punching was not spot on and several of the flowers were punched off centre, so I decided to add some large purple gems to the centres to hide my mistakes - which worked out well because the current challenge at Time Out is to use at 2 or more embellishments. 

I'm also entering the current Allsorts challenge - Sentiment in Focus;

Pixies Snippets Challenge #349

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge : No Designer Paper;

 the Paper Players Challenge ;

Always for Fun Challenge 105 to use Flowers;

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #336 Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers April Anything Goes with Dies Challenge;

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your kind words will make my day!!!

Kate

Wedding Tree

My oriental plum tree just outside my kitchen door has started blossoming this last week and this always makes me want to break out my Memorybox Twiggy Tree die and add some pink flowers.  But this week one of my friends asked if I could make a wedding card for her and she had something particular in mind - a tree with hearts instead of leaves and two hearts falling down and coming together.   And so this card was conceived!  

Firstly I knew I wanted my tree to be flush with the background so I inlaid the tree.  Sticking on all those hearts wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I adhered Easy Connect Craft Tape (Craft Emotions) onto pink cardstock and used two dies from the Elizabeth Crafts Love Life Tag set.  These dies have loads of little hearts in various sizes.  I then just picked them up using craft tweezers and lay them on the tree.   Here's a closeup of the tree so you can see the shimmer on the two main hearts - glossy accents and ultra fine glitter.  You can also see the detail of the stitched square die (Crea-Nest-Lies XXL 22) when used with the Easy Connect Craft Tape which embosses as well as making stickers of your die cuts.

I'm entering this card into Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #214 

Also the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which has an Anything Goes theme this week

I'd also like to enter this card in Addicted to Stamps Challenge 334  

and also the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your kind words will make my day!!!

Kate

Jungle Friends

I love this Jungle Friends die set from My Favourite Things - it's so much fun experimenting with different patterned papers (something I have rather a lot of)!

On this card I also cut a Verve Pennant Trim from patterned paper to add to the festivities. 

I'm entering this card in this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge 'cos I think it's pretty cute and that's the prompt word for this week.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  I do love to hear from you,

Kate

Hot Air and Showers

I am super excited to be participating in the Twofer Challenge at last.  The premise of the Twofer Challenge is to use the same die to create two cards for different occasions.  The theme for Challenge #14 is Balloons.  As you can see I have followed Darnell's lead and gone with the hot air variety.  Which gave me the opportunity to finally break open this NBUS die set from Elizabeth Crafts.  The above card uses the die set as it was intended, while the card below uses the set in a non conventional way.  

It was super super easy to create the umbrella.  All I had to do was cut the large balloon body and then place that scalloped flounce die upside down at the point I wanted my umbrella scallops to be.  

Once I had the balloon cut, I applied a couple of coats of purple embossing powder and UTEE and sprinkled some pale gold Tempera powder into the molten goo.  The raindrops and sentiment are from an old stamp set my good friend Jaine Drake designed ages ago and are unfortunately no longer available.  The umbrella hook was from a WPlus9 set but I had to extend the handle slightly so it was in proportion with the canopy.  The weather has been very grim here for well over a week now - so much rain and the wind has been howling.  We've already lost some roof tiles and I am definitely feeling under the weather!  Despite the lack of natural light, I did manage to capture some of the lovely gold on camera though!  

The theme for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Whatever the Weather

 As the recipe for Challenge #391 at Less is More is Take 3 and my first card includes 3 clouds and 3 circles I am entering it there.

Lots of snippets were used in the first card so I am playing in Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #348

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your kind words will make my day!!!

Kate

Purple Wedding Card

I was so happy with how my this tartan die worked out in it's first outing I wanted to use it again.  A young friend of mine is getting married soon so I wanted to make a card for her big day.  At the same time I thought I would make some wedding cards for sale at a market coming up in May or at least make some of the elements for that purpose while I had the dies and card stock out.  So I started with the fairly simple and elegant colour scheme of Cream and Gold.  As I was putting the card together, I thought I would make it a bit more personal so I went with introducing her favourite colour - purple.  That was a lot easier than trying to figure out how I could add a unicorn to a wedding card, which is another thing she really likes!

Once I had layered up a couple of these heart die cuts (WMS My Heart) for depth and stability and I coated the heart with Versamark and a couple of coats of UTEE.  Once I had a good deep coating of UTEE I added the Pale Gold Tempera powder and purple embossing powder.  I love the molten glass effect you get, how the gold and purple sink down into the UTEE.

I then did something similar with the sentiment (Crealies Text Die) except I started with purple embossing powder and then added the UTEE and then the gold powder.  I also added a little darker purple embossing powder which is why you can see dark flecks if you look closely. 

It wasn't easy keeping those small cavities in the sentiment from clogging up.  What I find works is while using the heat gun, I anchor the die cut onto my non-stick craft mat, using a pair of craft tweezers and I keep moving the die cut around so that the cavities don't fill up, it runs off onto the craft mat instead if that makes sense.  There can be a bit of a mess on the back of the die cut, but I have found that having double sided tape on the back means that I can just peel all this off.  It may require additional adhesive to use it on my project, but it's nice and clean (and above all flat) after peeling off that backing.

A few purple pearls really highlight the soft purple embossing as well as that lovely tartan backdrop.

Because I used the colour purple, I am entering it into the Fabulous February Challenge at Shopping Our Stash.  

Challenge #153  at CAS on Friday has an Embossing Challenge this week

No matter how I try, I can never exactly replicate these embossed die cuts - they're always unique.  So I'm entering this card in the Current Time Out Challenge 

I'd also like to enter this card in this month's Anything Goes with Dies Challenge at Happy Little Stampers 

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your kind words will make my day!!!

Kate

Kitchen with a View

I made this card in November but haven't been able to post it because my sister only received it (along with her Christmas presents) a week ago, despite being posted in early December.

She has the most amazing water view from her new kitchen/living room so I knew I wanted to create a little sea view through the window.  I also wanted to use this new die and stamp set which I just had to buy several months before but still hadn't used.   

It was a little rushed being sent just before Christmas and having several health and personal issues at the time.  I was going to add a coffee pot and mugs but it felt a bit crowded with that large Home die,  so I went with the age old adage - if in doubt leave it out!

There are a few challenges into which I would like to enter this card.

Make My Monday has a Something New Challenge currently.

Simon Says Stamp has a Create a Scene Challenge this week.

Inkspirational Challenges has a Use Your Stash Challenge at the moment.  Nothing says table cloth like gingham, and I "found" this 2x12 paper Wild Asparagus card stock pack from My Mind's Eye which I bought many years ago in my stash.  It is difficult sometimes, but doesn't it feel good to use up stash instead of hoarding it!  

Addicted to Stamps has an Anything Goes Challenge this week

Stamps and Dies :

WMS Picnic Patterns (Wallpaper); Clearly Besotted Window Dressing Dies; Clearly Besotted Waves Edge Die; Sugarpea Designs Sugarcut Home; Sugarpea Designs  Sweet Sentiments Home; Frantic Stamper Vilage Sky.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your kind words will make my day!!!

Kate

Tartan and Mackintosh Roses

I have a few birthdays coming up shortly.  I made this one for my mum.  She will be 86 next month and she's had a pretty tough time lately.  Hopefully this will put a smile on her face.

I've been wanting to use my Simple Sprig Roses for ages now - I don't think they've had an outing in 5 years!  I even found a small circular punch for the smaller rose about 4 years ago and it's been languishing as well.  

This card was inspired by the current code word for Addicted to CAS  

I was racking my brain over what constituted a grid (I even googled it) and then went through my stamps and dies to see what I had that would work with this theme.  This tartan die was a very recent acquisition and it certainly met all the criteria of a grid!  And I could think of nothing better to team with a tartan backdrop than these roses in the style of Scotland's famous designer Rennie Mackintosh.

I struggle with CAS.  I'm always attracted to the CAS challenges and I find them a wonderful source for inspiration, but I'm never sure if my cards are CAS enough.

I'm entering this card in a couple of challenges.  The Addicted to Stamps Challenge has the following photo inspiration and my eye was instantly drawn to the chair back which reminded me of a grid no doubt because I had that Code Word already in my head.

The As You See It Challenge has the following prompt, and as this stamp set is aptly name Simple Sprig I thought it would qualify - I've been meaning to enter their challenges for ages!!!

Finally Simon Says Wednesday Challenge has an Anything Goes Challenge this week - yippee!

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  Your kind words will make my day!!!

Kate